Qilian Mountains.
After Joohyun obtained the spiritual artifact, she couldn't wait to take the plane back to the capital. Elder Wu, on the other hand, did not leave with her because he wanted to clean up the aftermath for the Profound Spirit Grand Competition.
In fact, the so-called clean-up was just a casual excuse. He didn't leave with Joohyun because he still had some questions that needed answers.
At this minute, he was standing at the top of the Qilian Mountain, in the stone chamber where the spiritual artifact was stored. He was staring at the lifelike murals on the walls in a daze.
Every movement of the Celestial Masters on the murals was unique to the Luoshan Sect in terms of exercising ghosts. There were also several that even he had never seen before. Elder Wu did not tell Joohyun the historical development of the Luoshan Sect in detail. His own understanding of the sect was also mostly derived from the simple notes left by previous sect masters in their sect journals.
From the journal written by the 6th generation sect master, Elder Wu learned that due to chaos brought about by war for years, resentment in the world remained constant. Many generals who died in the war transformed into zombies after death. In order to help the world and save the people, disciples of Luoshan Sect went down the mountain to exorcize ghosts. This resulted in a lot of casualties.
From the journal of the 10th generation sect master, Elder Wu learned that, because of the diminishing number of talents, the Luoshan Sect gradually lost its former glory. The vast Qilian Mountain range was emptied, so the subsequent sect masters withdrew from the mountain range and only occasionally returned to pay respect to their ancestors.
From the journal of the16th generation sect master, Elder Wu learned that because there were fewer and fewer heirs of the Luoshan Sect, the system of the school gradually became useless. Most of the descendants did things according to their own wishes, but there was only one thing that all Luoshan Sect disciples must not forget. That was to open the magical barrier every decade and use magic artifacts as a guide, so that the world's Metaphysics masters would gather in the Qilian Mountains.
For this odd tradition, Joohyun once asked Elder Wu why. He didn't give an answer, because even he himself didn't understand.
He couldn't figure out why all sect masters of the Luoshan Sect in previous generations were lazy. They had been sect masters for decades, but they usually summed up their lives in but a few words. Therefore, many traditions of the Luoshan Sect were known but their causes were unknown. Nonetheless, the tradition of holding the Profound Spirit Grand Competition every ten years was written in the journal of every sect master.
And now, Elder Wu stood inside this stone chamber in a trance and felt that perhaps this tradition that had kept the Luoshan Sect going for hundreds of years was for this stone chamber, and the Profound Fiend Purification Technique inside it.
Or maybe it was because of Lisa.
The six spiritual artifacts needed to purify his evil spirit were placed in the sect's premises, and even more coincidentally, the Profound Fiend Purification and Destruction Technique was also stored here at the same time.
There's Irene, too. Why does she have a special physique that's totally unaffected by his evil qi? And why does she also bear memories after her reincarnation?
How annoying!
Elder Wu frowned in annoyance. Since this morning, from the time he saw the Profound Fiend Purification and Destruction Technique brought to him by Joohyun, he suddenly had a sense of foreboding. A certain memory that he had deliberately forgotten also always popped up from time to time.
The Profound Fiend Purification and Destruction Technique; why did this kind of magic skill specially used to deal with drought demons pop up at this time? What exactly did this have to do with Lisa, Irene, and the Luoshan Sect?
Elder Wu mulled over it for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out. The more he thought about it, the more irritated he became, and the more he speculated, the worse his premonition became.
Elder Wu was quite annoyed with this premonition.
Even an ordinary person might encounter bad luck when feeling a foreboding, not to mention a Metaphysics disciple like Elder Wu.
Throughout his life, ominous premonitions occurred to him a total of three times.
The first time this premonition appeared was fifty years ago. His master, the previous sect master of Luoshan Sect, that dead old geezer he loved and hated really became a dead old geezer that year.
The second time this premonition appeared was twenty years ago, the year he withdrew from the Jianghu and lived in seclusion in Damu Village.
The third time was today.
Elder Wu scowled. This feeling of knowing something was going to happen, but not knowing exactly what it was, really sucked.
Elder Wu did not dwell on it for long and left the Qilian Mountains in the evening with the thought of confronting soldiers with generals and stem water with earth(taking appropriate measures as the situation called for). He just didn't expect that confronting soldiers and stem water would come too quickly.
Airport.
When Elder Wu was about to board the plane with his boarding pass, his QQ message notification on his phone suddenly rang frantically.
The dripping sound was incessant and distracting.
Elder Wu initially thought that it was someone from the Swimming Dragon Team urging him to go back, so he took out his mobile phone again. He wanted to tell them that he was already at the airport, so they should stop urging him. But when he saw what the constantly flashing notifications on QQ were, his expression instantly turned solemn.
Perfected Hua Xie: There is a change at Qingmang Mountain.
Grand Master Ci Hai: Qingmang Mountain?
Yan Chongming: Has the seal loosened?
Perfected Hua Xie: A few days ago, I suddenly felt restless and started a divination. My divination conveyed a disastrous omen. The direction points to the northwest, near Qingmang mountain.
Yan Chongming: Doesn't Shen Qingzhu live near Qingmang Mountain?
Shen Qingzhu: I am now in Qingmang Mountain but did not find any strange movement. Wait...
The group instantly quieted down for a minute.
Shen Qingzhu: Something seems to be moving inside the seal.
Perfected Hua Xie: What is it?
Yan Chongming: Is the drought demon going to wake up?
Grand Master Ci Hai: Amitabha.
Shen Qingzhu: It's not the drought demon, but if this thing keeps moving too much, the seal will be loosened. Wait until I get to Qingmang Mountain.
Perfected Hua Xie: Who can contact Wu Li? If something happens to the seal, we must find him.
The group went instantly quiet. Apparently, no one had Wu Li's contact information.
I am Big Account: I read everything. I'm flying over now.
After Elder Wu replied with this sentence, he threw his boarding pass back to the capital into the trash can next to him and bought a new ticket to Qingmang Mountain.
Capital.
Master Mao heard that Joohyun had returned from Qilian Mountain with the fourth spiritual artifact, so he rushed from the Metaphysics Headquarters and asked impatiently while entering the door, "Where is the fourth spiritual artifact?"
While asking Tian Fei to go upstairs to take down the fourth spiritual artifact, Lisa poured a glass of water for Master Mao and asked, "Master Mao, why did you rush here so late?"
"I was too excited." Master Mao was indeed excited, and his entire body was still in a state of excitement until now.
"Did something good happen?" Lisa asked.
"It's more than a good thing, a great good thing." Master Mao said excitedly, "The location where the fifth spiritual artifact was placed has been deciphered, and I know how to find the sixth one."
"Really?" Joohyun jumped up from the sofa in excitement. "The sixth spiritual artifact has also been found?"
"It's knowing how to find it." Master Mao corrected her with a smile.
"The whereabouts of all six spiritual artifacts are all here. Third Brother, your evil spirit will soon be solved." Joohyun didn't care about that. She knew that all six spiritual artifacts could be found anyway.
"Hmm." Lisa also didn't expect things to proceed so smoothly and was pleasantly surprised.
At this time, Tian Fei brought down the fourth spiritual artifact Joohyun had brought back from upstairs and carefully placed it on the table in the living room. Master Mao studied it for a while before confirming, "It's indeed the fourth spiritual artifact, and the aura on it is very similar to the aura of the previous three artifacts."
After Master Mao finished speaking, he looked at Joohyun and asked, "Has Perfected Lou seen it?"
"He has, and my grandfather said it's fine." Joohyun nodded.
"That makes me more relieved." Master Mao asked again, "Has he returned yet?"
"No." Joohyun shook her head and said, "Grandpa said he had to stay over there for a few more days, so he might have to come back a few days later."
"Then when he returns to the capital, can you ask him to come here? I need to discuss with him the specific method to purify Lisa's evil spirit after collecting the six spiritual artifacts," Master Mao said.
"No problem. When Grandpa comes back, I'll let him come over," Joohyun promised.
Seeing that Master Mao was already worrying about purifying his evil spirit after collecting the spiritual artifacts, Lisa couldn't help but ask, "Master Mao, where are the fifth and the sixth spiritual artifacts?"
Only then did Master Mao remember that he hadn't told Lisa and Joohyun about the whereabouts of the last two spiritual artifacts. He took a sip from the teacup and said with a smile, "The whereabouts of the fifth spiritual artifact has been analyzed. It's in Qingmang Mountain."
"Qingmang Mountain?" Lisa asked again, "What about the sixth spiritual artifact?" That so-called darkest and brightest place.
"We don't know where the sixth spiritual artifact was placed, but we discovered a way to find it." Master Mao said, "During this recent period, I have marked on the map where the six spiritual artifacts that have been found were dug."
Master Mao narrated, flipping out a map from his daoist robe and pouncing on the table to clarify things to the two people. "Look. The first spiritual artifact, the Bronze Sword, was found in Lingnan, and the location is here. The second one, the Bone Flute, was found here ten years ago. The third one is in Wufang Lake, which is here. The fourth one is in the Qilian Mountain Range, which is in this direction..."
"The Pentagram Convergence Array." Lisa surveyed the four coordinate points that Master Mao marked, and the five words Pentagram Convergence Array suddenly popped out of his mind.
"Exactly!" Master Mao raised his head excitedly.
"If it is a Pentagram Convergence Array, then as long as five of the spiritual artifacts are found, the sixth one will naturally generate a response." Joohyun also understood.
The Pentagram Convergence Array was a very simple formation, and this formation had almost no use other than to allow objects to sense each other. The Celestial Masters in the Metaphysics World usually use the array to store more important items and magic artifacts. This way, whenever a sect lost a magic artifact outside, they could rely on the senses of the other magic artifacts to find the location of the lost artifact and find it back.
But now that Metaphysics was in decline, no sect in the Metaphysics World needed to use the Pentagram Convergence Array to store magic artifacts. Therefore, few people used the formation. Fortunately, the formation was relatively simple. Moreover, there were even records about it in the books of formations left in the Metaphysical World.
"So now... we just need to get this magic artifact from Qingmang Mountain next. Once the five magic artifacts are gathered, we can then use the Pentagram Convergence Array to locate the sixth artifact," Master Mao said while using his finger to heavily point at Qingmang Mountain.
"Then what are we waiting for? I'll go to Qingmang Mountain now." The mere thought of Lisa's evil spirit being purified immediately excited Joohyun so much so that she wished she could fly to Qingmang Mountain to get the fifth magic artifact.
"There is no hurry." Master Mao laughed.
"How can you not be in a hurry? Of course, the sooner, the better for this kind of thing."
"Listen to Master Mao finish," Lisa smiled and said soothingly.
"I know you are in a rush, but Qingmang Mountain is a restricted area to Metaphysics," Master Mao explained.
"What do you mean it's a restricted area for Metaphysics?" Joohyun couldn't understand. Lisa on the side heard the word 'restricted area', his brows couldn't help frowning. He could guess 7-8% of it.
"In terms of laws and regulations, the state is relatively lax in its restraints on the Metaphysics community, but there is one rule that must be strictly observed." Master Mao explained, "That is... for areas restricted to Metaphysics, no Metaphysics techniques shall be used. Violators will be severely punished."
"But there definitely are zombies in the place where the spiritual artifacts are stored, so how can we not use the spells." Joohyun frowned.
"This is our disadvantage and also our advantage." Master Mao said, "If there are no zombies, we can just ask archaeologists to excavate the place directly, which is not a violation of the Metaphysics ban. But precisely because there are zombies, we can also take advantage of the presence of zombies in Qingmang Mountain and apply to the top to send a Celestial Master along to solve the problem."
"Er... then have you applied? How do you apply?" Joohyun asked anxiously.
"I've already applied, but the approval takes time," Master Mao smiled and returned.
Lisa was quietly listening at the side, but his expression was not as relaxed as the two others. He stared at Qingmang Mountain on the map for a long time before suddenly asking, "Why did Qingmang Mountain become a restricted area to Metaphysics?"
"..." Master Mao froze and said after a moment's thought, "Qingmang Mountain was classified as a restricted area to Metaphysics twenty years ago. The reason seems to be unspecified."
"No specific reason?" Lisa frowned unconsciously.
"This is normal. Many things in the Metaphysics World cannot be explained by common sense, so the reasons are usually not announced to the public," Master Mao said.
Lisa wasn't as optimistic as Master Mao. He pointed to the geographical location of Qingmang Mountain and said, "Look, Master Mao, Qingmang Mountain is in the area of Qin Dong. Due to natural geographical reasons, this place is always sandy. From ancient times to the present, it has been a barren land. Even in today's highly technologically advanced era, there are few inhabitants of this generation in Qingmang Mountain. Why would a place off the beaten path like this be classified as a restricted area for Metaphysics?"
"..." Now that Lisa asked, Master Mao also felt that things might not be as simple as he thought.
"Why are you overthinking it? Anyway, spiritual artifacts and zombies are there. If the state agrees, we will go openly. If not, we will go secretly." Joohyun declared simply and brutally. She did not delve deeper into it as the two of them.
Lisa sighed and said, "Let's wait for the results of the application first. I hope I'm overthinking it."
"Alright. I will also inquire again to see." Master Mao followed closely and nodded.
The author has something to say:
Young Wu realized that his master did not spare him even as a ghost and felt the despair of life.
Young Wu: How did you become a ghost messenger?
Sect Master: Yanwang said I'm a talent.
Young Wu: Talent? Do talents start from the lowest level, being ghost messengers?
Sect Master: ...
Young Wu: Did you offend someone from the Underworld before your death?
Sect Master: ...
Young Wu: You deserve it!
The annoyed Sect Master beat up Young Wu again.