Chapter 118: The Union of Yin and Yang

The eyelids of the small fox in Jiang Pingchuan’s arms began to flutter. Seeing signs of the creature waking up, Jiang Pingchuan felt an inexplicable sensation stir within him.

The aura emanating from the small fox seemed to be responding to some kind of summons. Following this pull, Jiang Pingchuan wandered unconsciously until he reached a desolate wilderness.

The midday sun beat down upon the Changfeng Continent like a wheel of fire. A faint heat shimmered in waves across the wild expanse before him, and Jiang Pingchuan felt the heat of this place to be strangely intense. As he reached the edge of the wilderness, he slowly came to a halt.

Occasionally, the sound of insects drifted from the weeds. The gravel underfoot, rustling and shimmering with the glint of sunlight, made his eyes ache. The small fox in his arms stirred, its awakening becoming more evident.

Seeing the state of the small fox, Jiang Pingchuan felt a sense of unease. He lifted the creature out and placed it gently upon a patch of weeds. The moment he let go, a sudden darkness engulfed his mind, and his body felt as though it had been hollowed out, leaving him devoid of all strength.

Jiang Pingchuan braced his knees and slowly sat down in the weeds to regulate his breathing. Once he had settled into a meditative posture, the golden characters in his mind suddenly flickered. They arranged themselves into eight words: "From existence to void, from void to existence," before they trembled violently, shattered, and vanished from his consciousness.

A sharp pain pierced Jiang Pingchuan’s mind, and his body began to burn with an unbearable heat. He felt a transformation within; his ninth Dao crystal was black, dark as ink. The moment it took shape, it instantly devoured the previous eight Dao crystals.

Unable to withstand the true energy of the eight crystals, the black one began to swell. Jiang Pingchuan’s abdomen distended, his pupils shrank sharply and filled with blood, and blood began to seep from his pores.

The small fox, now fully awake, watched with bewildered eyes as Jiang Pingchuan’s face twisted in agony. It crouched on his chest, its deep blue eyes fixed upon him as he lay on the ground.

Though the pain was nearly unbearable, seeing the fox awake made Jiang Pingchuan force his hand up to stroke its fur. Suddenly, the fox frowned, bared its teeth at him with a low growl, turned, and leaped to the ground, vanishing rapidly into the wilderness.

Jiang Pingchuan watched with a despondent expression as the fox disappeared from sight. He felt the sun above him growing larger and its light increasingly blinding. He felt wretched, his body burning both inside and out.

His taut, rounded belly continued to expand, and the black Dao crystal within had now become an oval shape, losing its original sharp edges.

Jiang Pingchuan sensed disaster. The black Dao crystal was nearing its limit, yet the liquid true energy in his lower dantian continued to surge toward it.

"Boom... sizzle..."

With a muffled sound, Jiang Pingchuan’s bloated belly slowly deflated. The black Dao crystal within shattered into nothingness. A cloud of black mist erupted from his body and dissipated into the air. The smell was more putrid than the rotting corpses from the land of Wu Duo. Jiang Pingchuan hurriedly covered his nose, frowning.

He stood up and, feeling that aside from the bleeding pores he was otherwise unharmed, took a step forward—only to stumble and nearly fall.

His gait felt strange; his body felt weightless, yet when he touched the ground, his feet felt unnaturally heavy. It was a sensation he had never experienced before.

As he carefully sensed the changes within himself, he could not help but feel that this damned composite true energy had played a cruel joke on him. All the true energy in his body was gone.

This feeling was like returning to his childhood, when he possessed not a shred of aura within him. Now, it was the same. What terrified Jiang Pingchuan was that the cultivation techniques he had once mastered seemed to have changed; when he tried to recall them, only fragmented words and phrases remained.

He had no way to remember the full techniques. When he tried to summon the golden characters again, he found that those things of the past were like passing clouds, having no connection to him anymore.

Recalling the final eight characters that had appeared in his mind, Jiang Pingchuan felt this was a trial—much like the ordeals brought upon him by the manifestation of each Dao crystal in the past.

This trial was one of physical cultivation. Without true energy and without techniques, he had to rely solely on his own body to cultivate. Since it was a trial, Jiang Pingchuan believed that everything he had lost would eventually return.

The only regret was that the small fox had left without a sound. However, seeing that it was fine after waking up, he felt that its departure was perhaps the wisest choice. He did not know why it had awakened at that moment, but ultimately, waking up was far better than remaining in a coma.

Upon returning to Yang City, Jiang Pingchuan found Master Gong sitting alone on the corridor outside the City Lord's Hall, looking dejected, while Feng Wuliang and Fu Meiren stood inside with grim expressions.

Jiang Pingchuan sat down heavily beside Master Gong. He was exhausted from the walk back; having lost the protection of his true energy, he realized for the first time what it meant for ordinary people to walk step by step, truly feeling the earth beneath their feet.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Pingchuan nudged Master Gong with his shoulder. Master Gong looked at him with reddened eyes, his expression shifting. He hurriedly took out his prayer beads, his face full of remorse as he looked at them, now dim and lusterless. Jiang Pingchuan watched him with a faint smile, not understanding what was happening.

"Did that small fox wake up?" Master Gong asked in a low voice. Jiang Pingchuan nodded. Master Gong slapped his thigh and groaned.

"Do you have any idea that the fox has changed? It injected the aura of the Thousand-Seal Blade into your body. It is all my fault, my failure to distinguish between importance and urgency. What do we do now? What do we do?"

Master Gong whispered urgently into Jiang Pingchuan’s ear, not daring to speak too loudly. If word got out that Jiang Pingchuan had become an ordinary human, then with the Barbarian King’s bounty on his head, he would likely be dead within moments.

"Although I don't know why it changed, this is not a big deal. A life without twists and turns would be so boring," Jiang Pingchuan said dismissively. He patted Master Gong on the shoulder to tell him not to worry. Master Gong looked at him with deep concern. He did not know what Jiang Pingchuan had seen in his own mind; he only knew that Jiang Pingchuan was now locked in by the aura of the Thousand-Seal Blade.

"Killing Lan Dao could break the seal of the blade. He is the one who wields it; as long as we use his blood to sacrifice to the Thousand-Seal Blade, we can eliminate its aura," Master Gong said, his eyes flashing with ruthlessness. Jiang Pingchuan kept a straight face and shook his head gently. Master Gong sighed again.

"What happened to you just now?" Jiang Pingchuan asked, deciding not to dwell on his own issues since Master Gong was clearly distressed. He had his own way of dealing with his situation, but the Master Gong he saw earlier seemed to have undergone some significant upheaval.

"Did you know all along that I had a daughter?" Master Gong leaned against the wall and smiled bitterly, slowly putting on the dim green prayer beads.

"I only found out after arriving in Yin-Yang City. You didn't know?" Jiang Pingchuan also leaned against the wall, not looking at him. They didn't need to look at each other to talk; it was like two old friends discussing someone else's story.

"I never imagined Liren would have my child. It is all my fault; I left for decades. Liren is dead, and now I just linger on, barely living." Master Gong tapped the door three times. Shortly after, Feng Wuliang brought four jars of wine, set them before him, and left without a word. Master Gong offered one to Jiang Pingchuan, who waved it away.

Master Gong did not insist. Jiang Pingchuan was no longer what he once was; he was an ordinary man now, and he would get drunk. Master Gong opened a jar, took several deep gulps, and let out a long breath.

"What will you do now?" Jiang Pingchuan asked, looking at the weary face of Master Gong. The old man seemed to have aged, his eyes clear of their former turbidity, as if he had finally seen through everything.

"I will stay with you until you regain your strength, then return to take Luoying to Liren’s grave to live in seclusion, spending the rest of our days with them," Master Gong said, clutching the jar and taking another drink with a wistful tone. Jiang Pingchuan smiled faintly. This old man always put him first in his heart; Jiang Pingchuan silently vowed that no matter what, he would protect Master Gong and ensure he returned to be reunited with his daughter.

"Rest tonight; we leave tomorrow morning." Jiang Pingchuan patted Master Gong’s shoulder and walked into the hall. Master Gong hiccuped and nodded. When Jiang Pingchuan entered the hall, the first to frown was Jun Moyan.

But immediately, he smoothed his brow, for to him, the Jiang Pingchuan before him was no different from the one he had met before. In his view, Jiang Pingchuan was someone who liked to hide his true skill.

Just like now, he had evidently hidden his aura again. The others, after staring for a long time, also realized this. It was well-known that Jiang Pingchuan preferred to conceal his strength.

It seemed that was truly the case. In everyone’s eyes, Jiang Pingchuan was hiding his power to keep a low profile, not wanting to make a scene—after all, a man fears fame just as a pig fears becoming fat, and tall trees attract the wind.

That night, the City Lord’s mansion was hung with red lanterns. Despite the events of the day, Feng Wuliang and Fu Meiren held their second wedding as scheduled.

In a long crimson robe, Feng Wuliang held Fu Meiren’s delicate hand, completing their second marriage under the witness of Jiang Pingchuan and Jun Moyan. The entire mansion was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

In the backyard, Master Gong held Gong Luoying’s hand and leaped onto the roof, sitting there to watch the bright moon. He left his prayer beads with her, and Gong Luoying leaned against his chest, whispering something with a smile.

Seeing Jiang Pingchuan enter the backyard, Master Gong laughed and brought Gong Luoying to him. She blushed, looking at Jiang Pingchuan; when she had learned that half of his face had been disfigured, the little girl had even cried in secret.

Now, looking at him, she recalled the first time they had met and felt a shyness wash over her. Master Gong knew, and joked that Gong Luoying was truly his daughter, with a temper identical to his own.

"Luoying, tomorrow morning, Daddy is going to Storm City with the beggar. Wait for me to come back and take you and your mother away from here." Master Gong personally placed the green prayer beads on her. Gong Luoying nodded, her eyes red. As she left, Master Gong, with a mischievous grin, dragged Jiang Pingchuan toward Feng Wuliang’s room.

As they approached the door, the seductive, panting voice of Fu Meiren drifted out, begging Feng Wuliang to be harder and faster.

Feng Wuliang was groaning and grunting, working hard. Jiang Pingchuan glared at Master Gong and walked away, but Master Gong reached out and pounded on the door several times.

"Stop yelling! Keep it down, the whole city knows now! Are you that hungry?" Master Gong pressed against the door, leering.

"Master Gong, I’ll f*** your grandfather, you b******!" Feng Wuliang’s roar echoed from the room, accompanied by Fu Meiren’s plaintive cries. Master Gong burst into laughter.

"I’ll thank you on my grandfather’s behalf..."

After saying this, a sudden sadness washed over Master Gong’s face. The last time he had felt this way was decades ago. He smiled bitterly, shook his head, and headed toward Jiang Pingchuan’s room.

"That b******..."

"Ignore him, let's go again..."

"..."