Chapter Forty-Three: The Yin-Yang Cover

“Ha, ha, ha. Younger brother, at least you have returned. You…,” Wang Ben stepped forward to wrap his arms around Zhang Xiao’s shoulders, then suddenly stopped and gave him a long, careful look. It was the same face, the same man, yet Zhang Xiao’s bearing had changed enormously. He was no longer as calm and restrained as before; there was a new flush of boldness and ease in him. For a moment Wang Ben could not make sense of it. Before him, Zhang Xiao was still at the late Golden Core stage, and yet Wang Ben felt an unprecedented transformation in him—like a complete change of skin and bone. He wanted to speak, but only stammered, “Younger brother, you—”
“Ha, old brother, we’ll catch up later,” Zhang Xiao said. “First, have those nine heroes sent back to recover.”
Only then did Wang Ben notice the nine veteran Qin soldiers floating behind Zhang Xiao, held aloft by spiritual energy. He swept them with his awareness and his expression tightened. All nine were his own men and among the better fighters in the army—how could they have been beaten into this condition?
He barked at a messenger, “Take them straight back to camp and treat their wounds with the best medicines.”
By Wang Ben’s command, the men hurried with spirit energy, carrying the nine toward Red-Blood Ridge, while Zhang Xiao and Wang Ben returned to the command pavilion.

“Brother, this jade casket contains a miraculous fruit. One swallow of it can expand one’s spiritual perception by three or four times. This jade bottle holds three jin of True Spirit Water. How to use it is up to you,” Zhang Xiao said, placing a bottle of True Spirit Water and a jade casket sealed with a fruit from the Soul-Soothing Tree before him.
It did not look like much, but these were rare treasures of heaven and earth. The Soul-Soothing fruit in particular was almost outrageous in effect. That made Wang Ben feel a touch embarrassed. He already knew that the so-called Primordial Cavern estate was never meant as a Primordial cultivator’s residence, but as a place to suppress some unknown fiend. Zhang Xiao had never said it outright, but Wang Ben could clearly imagine the danger. Now, seeing those two such precious things in Zhang Xiao’s hands, he was both glad and a little ashamed, and for a moment did not know whether he should accept them.
Zhang Xiao saw through him and laughed.
“Brother, don’t be stingy with me. I came back here after all that trouble—am I to sit here idle? At least bring out your treasured Fire-Burn Blade and let us drink heartily once.”

Hearing that, Wang Ben’s face flushed; he realized he had been putting on airs. He gathered the two objects from the table and laughed aloud. “Come on. Let’s go back to Red-Blood Ridge and have a proper night of drinking.”

That night on Red-Blood Ridge, Zhang Xiao and Wang Ben each held a jar of Fire-Burn Blade and drank in turn, one-to-one.
“Young brother, are you heading back to Luoyang now, or roaming a bit more? If you like, stay with me some time longer. Your title as Right General of the Imperial Guard is only a nominal title. Don’t care for it.”
At those words, Zhang Xiao’s heart eased a little. Although Emperor Qin Shi Huang had already begun his plans, the time to openly turn against the Nine Great Sects was still far off. Staying in Red-Blood Ridge might not be a bad thing, he thought. Yet after thinking it through, he still swallowed down the idea and shook his head.
“I like the air here—how it can boil like a cauldron at any moment. I like sitting here, drinking this Fire-Burn Blade. But this is not my stage, after all.”

Wang Ben smiled. “Very well. But from now on, let Red-Blood Ridge be your second home. When you are tired beyond the outside world, return and rest. Even the Nine Great Sects themselves would not dare to put a foot here.”
“Cheers!”
Zhang Xiao was deeply moved. As they talked on, he mentioned his plan to travel to Kunlun Mountain. Wang Ben’s face changed at once.
“Impossible. Never.”
Startled, Zhang Xiao frowned in confusion. Wang Ben gave a long sigh.
“I thought you would go straight back to Luoyang, so I meant not to trouble you with this. But now that you intend to go to Kunlun, I can’t stay silent.”

When he saw Wang Ben’s serious expression and voice, Zhang Xiao immediately understood it was about him. He set aside the jar and listened closely.
It all began with his appearance at the Longxing Auction House in Luoyang. The very next day, the news spread through all Nine Great Sects at once. Especially when it became known that he had survived Heaven’s judgment and still carried profound treasure, disciples in many sects began to watch his movements.
After he had left for travel, no one could find him for a long while, and matters had briefly quieted. But just as the commotion had finally faded, the Nine Great Sects suddenly issued a joint wanted order. The pretext was that Zhang Xiao had seized strange treasures and slain innocents in chaos.
Although the Hua Xia State intervened and the order was promptly revoked, everyone knew their will to kill him had not changed with the order’s withdrawal. It had merely moved from the open front into the shadows.
At this, Zhang Xiao frowned deeply. In truth, he could not stand up directly against all the Nine Great Sects. There was no need for him to go to Kunlun now. If his connection with Lan Fang were ever exposed, that would never end well.
So he set aside the Kunlun trip.

He stayed at Red-Blood Ridge for four months—not because he loved drinking, but because his split self had only just broken through the Monk Realm and needed to be stabilized, and his true self needed the split self’s aid to force a breakthrough.
So that was why he stayed so long. During those four months, apart from cultivation, he researched spatial magic. He found a method, yet he lacked one crucial ingredient. In Karosus’s notes, it said that for transposition across great distances one must endure terrifying spatial crushing. At that moment one needs a special artifact to guard oneself. Its peculiarity was that it had no conventional defensive power, yet could generate both positive and negative magnetic fields. Only within such paired fields could one disrupt the pressure inside spatial rifts.
Zhang Xiao frowned as he read the notes. There was no mention of how to forge such a special treasure, and he had no idea what materials were required.
“Master, what is a positive or negative magnetic field?” Zi Yan stepped out of the Xuantai Command Talisman with Karosus’s notebook in hand.

When he saw Zi Yan, Zhang Xiao immediately spread his spiritual sense around the pavilion to make sure no one was nearby, then he laughed in relief.
“Girl, how many times have I told you not to come out so easily? This is a frontier command site. For a woman to enter a military camp is a grave violation—if anyone sees you, it’s disaster.”
Though his relationship with Wang Ben was close, Wang Ben would still have to punish such a serious breach of discipline. Otherwise how could he keep order? In the camp it was iron law. Wang Ben could not truly punish her; still, Zhang Xiao did not want to put him in a dilemma.
Hearing him, Zi Yan smiled.
“With your spiritual sense that keen, who can even come near you silently? But Master, you still have not told me what a positive and negative magnetic field is.”

Zhang Xiao could only shake his head with a bitter smile. Though Zi Yan still called him “Master,” he had never treated her as a servant; he regarded her like a younger sister. When he was sure the camp was empty, he said:
“A positive and negative magnetic field—I don’t know exactly what it is, but it should be two opposing forces, like yin and yang. Wait.”

He suddenly stopped. Yin and yang—wasn’t that the same as positive and negative? He could not help cursing himself for being foolish. Positive and negative poles was a Western term. In our terms, it was simply yin and yang. Such a simple truth had put him in a deadlock. He was glad Zi Yan had asked, else he might have spun in circles in his own mind forever. Once he found the answer, every other problem began to clear.

After sending Zi Yan back into the Xuantian Command Talisman, Zhang Xiao drew two stones from his bone ring. One was black, one white—the black exuding a biting yin chill, the white spilling hot yang warmth.
These were the Great Yin and Great Yang stones, top-grade materials. Zhang Xiao had at first intended to forge a practical artifact from them, but now he had no choice.
He took out the notes once given by Daoist Kongling. They recorded methods for crafting many kinds of yin-yang artifacts. He selected and selected, then fixed on one called a Yin-Yang Canopy.
As a forged item, it was only a fifth-grade artifact, and the process was extremely complicated. Its defensive power, once complete, would be far lower than most other artifacts. Its only strength was continuous emission of yin-yang qi. If one’s cultivation were high enough, that emitted qi could carry destructive force enough to level realms. Of course, with truly overwhelming power one would not need this; one wave of the hand would suffice. So this could almost be called a battle implement among wrecks.
But Zhang Xiao did not share that opinion. Its defense was poor and its offense near worthless, yet the yin-yang qi it emitted was exactly what he needed.

He followed the instructions at once, spitting out a strand of elixir-flame to wrap the Great Yin stone and Great Yang stone separately, and began forging the Yin-Yang Canopy. A few patrol soldiers passed by and, seeing him working within, took posts around his pavilion to guard him.
For seven days it passed in the blink of an eye.
When he withdrew the elixir-flame and stamped the last divine seal, a talisman shaped like a pot lid fell into his hand. Its shape was as ugly as a kitchen lid, black and white interwoven like a Taiji diagram. Using such prime materials, he had forged only a sixth-grade artifact. Zhang Xiao did not know whether to laugh or to cry.
After packing the Yin-Yang Canopy away, Zhang Xiao strode out. Seeing patrol soldiers still waiting outside to protect him, his heart stirred and he almost hesitated to leave. But his true stage did not belong here. Realizing that, Zhang Xiao gave a rueful smile, sent the guards away, and walked with long strides toward Wang Ben’s commander pavilion.
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