Chapter 235 — Conspiracy

A moment later Jin Pingyue let out a long breath and clapped her hands together. "What a mind, what an eye! Which generation of your Canglan Sect's founders chose this spirit node? Truly a peerless eye—the spiritual energy of the peaks all gathers here, and with three peaks converging to hold it in, none can leak away. But what is even more remarkable is this thousand-year mystic log: it looks blunt and edgeless, yet it thrusts precisely into the weakest point of the spirit node's energy vein, like striking a snake at its vital seven inches. With the dry, astringent qi of the mystic log, it has pinned down all the spiritual energy of the mountain. Extraordinary, extraordinary!"

Her applause and praise came from the heart. Cangyan Daoren looked at her, and his expression eased without his quite noticing. After a moment he said mildly, "The one who surveyed the mountain's configurations and discovered this node was Canglan Zi, the founding patriarch of our Canglan Sect. As for the elder who laid down the mystic log's restraint, there is no record—some say it was Patriarch Canglan Zi himself, others that it was actually Patriarch Qingye, who created the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation."

Jin Pingyue nodded. "To tell the truth, I never had much fondness for the Canglan Sect, high or low. But seeing this today, I feel your patriarchs must have numbered many souls of dazzling brilliance—I could never match them. It seems that beneath a great reputation there are indeed no empty names."

Cangyan Daoren gave a snort, a look of pride and arrogance coming over his face. "For several thousand years the Canglan Sect has stood—how could the small sects compare? And as for the successive patriarchs of our Qingyun, naturally they were even more..."

Halfway through, his voice suddenly faded; by the end, the sentence had grown hoarse and inaudible. Jin Pingyue had soundlessly leaped down from the thousand-year mystic log, and somehow she too felt a sudden pang of sorrow, and did not wish to look at Cangyan Daoren's face in that moment.

This man who so deeply took pride in Qingyun—was he the chief villain who had betrayed it?

Can a person truly be sorted and described by a simple phrase like "righteous" or "wicked"?

Silence fell within the earthen pit. Seen from behind, Cangyan Daoren's frame stood ramrod straight and still seemed tall, but his expression seemed hidden away in the silence and the shadow, so that one could no longer see it clearly.

After a long while, Cangyan Daoren said in a low, slow voice, "We have delayed too long. Let us begin."

Jin Pingyue nodded. "Tell me what must be done."

The mountain wind blew softly; the dense trees all around swayed with it. Night hung low, and from deep within the earthen pit came a ceaseless stir of sound that went on for a good while, then suddenly fell still. A moment later came a muffled thud—something had been flung out of the pit and landed heavily upon the path beside it.

Beneath the faint starlight, it was unmistakably that thousand-year mystic log!

After a while longer came the rustle of garments, and Jin Pingyue and Cangyan Daoren leaped up together. For all their cultivation, the two of them looked somewhat weary, a plain sign that to alter this spirit node's energy vein—or indeed the Heavenly Secret Lock itself—was no easy matter.

Once her breathing had steadied a little, Jin Pingyue frowned and asked Cangyan Daoren, "Since we are here to destroy this Heavenly Secret Lock, so that should trouble come in the future the Canglan Sect can no longer lend the seven peaks' spiritual energy to the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation—would it not suffice simply to pull up this thousand-year mystic log? Why go to the trouble of forcibly changing where the energy converges? Is that not a needless complication?"

Cangyan Daoren shook his head. "This Canglan Mountain is a blessed ground of the world, its spiritual energy exceedingly abundant—and that is precisely why Patriarch Canglan Zi valued this place. Pulling up the thousand-year mystic log would only let the energy leak away. But for one thing, the earth-vein energy here is abundant to begin with; for another, as you can see, three peaks gather close about it outside, making any leakage all the harder. Only by changing the place where the energy converges—though but slightly shifted—can we draw the point of convergence away from this heaven-made, almost watertight convergence of three peaks, and then borrow the mountain winds to scatter it slowly abroad. Should anyone in the future raise the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation again, though the spiritual energy of Dragon Ridge Peak would still be abundant, it would be dispersed across the whole mountain and could no longer be gathered—and he would be helpless."

Only then did Jin Pingyue understand, and she nodded in agreement. Then she asked, "Now that the Heavenly Secret Lock of Dragon Ridge Peak has been destroyed, what of the other six veins?"

Cangyan Daoren pondered a moment, then shook his head. "At most we can destroy the Heavenly Secret Locks of the remaining three veins—Luoxia Peak, Fenghui Peak, and Zhaoyang Peak. As for the three veins of Jietian Peak, Dazhu Peak, and Xiaozhu Peak, I fear there is nothing to be done."

Jin Pingyue's curiosity stirred. "And why is that?"

Cangyan Daoren said mildly, "Jietian Peak is the chief vein of Qingyun; its defenses are the strictest, to say nothing of that. But the spiritual energy there is no trifling matter. When the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation is unleashed, it has always drawn chiefly upon the energy of Jietian Peak, with the six veins' energy as support. As the saying goes, one tug at a single hair moves the whole body—at the slightest disturbance, I fear my senior brother Daoyan, whose cultivation reaches into the mysteries, would know of it at once. So it cannot be touched."

He paused, then went on: "The sites of the Heavenly Secret Locks on Luoxia Peak, Fenghui Peak, and Zhaoyang Peak I know, and I think there will be no great difficulty there. But as for the two veins of Dazhu Peak and Xiaozhu Peak, I do not know where their Heavenly Secret Locks are."

Jin Pingyue said in surprise, "And why is that?"

Cangyan Daoren was silent a moment. "Xiaozhu Peak has always admitted only female disciples, and its gates are strictly barred; its head, Shuiyue, is of a hard and violent temper as well, admitting no ordinary person onto the mountain—let alone for a matter as great as the Heavenly Secret Lock. As for Dazhu Peak, I have never gotten on well with that couple Tian Buhui and Su Wan. Tian Buhui is a proud sort too; his disciples are few and good for little, yet he keeps everything hidden away and lets no one know of it."

Jin Pingyue could not help finding this somewhat amusing, but then she frowned. "Then we will have destroyed only four of the Heavenly Secret Locks—will that be too few?"

Cangyan Daoren shook his head. "Not so. From what I know, so long as the spiritual energy of more than half of Qingyun's seven veins is disrupted, the Heavenly Secret Lock's restraint becomes wholly ineffective. For the energy of the chief peak, Jietian Peak, is simply too abundant—it carries even a will to kill and slaughter—and the formation can only be worked when the energy of the other six veins balances it against one another. Losing one or two veins' energy would be manageable, but should four veins' energy fail at once, I fear even whether the Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation can be unleashed at all would be in question."

Jin Pingyue looked Cangyan Daoren up and down, carefully, and then suddenly smiled. "Daoist, you are indeed farsighted. These matters have surely been in your mind not for a day or two!"