Chapter Seventy-Nine: The Art of Human Husbandry

Once more, towering cliffs of cloud stood in endless formation, while wind and water merged in boundless mist.

In this world of water and sky that seemed unchanging through the ages, Chen Yushu raised his eyes slightly.

Across the expanse sat a woman of unrivaled beauty, her brows delicate as if painted by a fine brush, her features luminous and enchanting. She wore a splendid imperial-purple gown embroidered with the myriad birds paying homage to the phoenix, and looked over with a smile that was neither mocking nor warm, radiant as moonlight, ethereal as a celestial being, so much so that none dared meet her gaze.

“It’s nothing more than discerning the precise whereabouts of another descendant. A trivial matter,” Chen Yushu began.

“Zhuang Si, did your father never warn you to keep your distance from me? You’ve been coming rather often these days. I won’t stop you, but this is bound to make Sister Xu unhappy.”

He suddenly smiled, a mysterious curve at his lips. “Sister Xu has complained to me more than once, you know…”

“So, between me and Sister Xu, it seems Senior Brother prefers the gentle, tender type,” Zhuang Si replied with a radiant smile, tucking a few strands of her dark hair behind her ear and blinking her bright eyes with feigned sorrow. She sighed softly, “My heart is set on the bright moon, but alas, the moon shines only on the ditch. My painstaking affection is to be cast aside like a worn shoe?”

“Tender and gentle? Indeed. After so many tempests, who would willingly step into the waves again?” Chen Yushu sighed as well. “Sister Xu has always been good to me. In this vast Inborn Demon Sect, only she treats me with true sincerity. How could I not cherish someone so lovely?”

“She even brought you a Kun fish from the Western Sea!”

Suddenly, from the depths below, came a chilling, thunderous voice.

The serpent Ba She Yue You thrust his mountainous head from the deepest reaches of the misty waters. Stretching his enormous body, he gave a casual flick of his tail, making the sea explode in roaring sprays, as if the heavens and earth themselves were splitting apart.

“And yet you ate it?” Chen Yushu shook his head.

“It was delicious—tender, plump, and sweet! I licked my plate clean!” Yue You chuckled. “Yushu, keep smiling at that Sister Xu and have her bring a few more! If I could feast like this every day, all the beatings I’ve endured since following you would be worth it. This immortal’s life is far more comfortable than my days with the Dou Shu Sect—wouldn’t trade it even for a Domain Lord’s position!”

Chen Yushu merely raised his brows and ignored the brute, while Zhuang Si stifled a laugh.

“If you have nothing more, Sister Zhuang, you’d best take your leave.”

“Do you so dislike seeing me, Senior Brother?”

“Why ask what you already know, Zhuang Si?” Chen Yushu gazed at her in silence for a moment, then sighed. “You are the most favored and exceptional offspring of the Lord of the Five Manifest Mysteries. You know I cannot harm you, so why waste your efforts here? Don’t forget, it was I who passed you the ‘Art of Human Husbandry.’ If you hope to ensnare me, to plant a jade seed in my heart, that would be a truly foolish move, and I should look down on you for it.”

“Is that so?” Zhuang Si widened her eyes in mock surprise, resting her fair cheeks in her hands with an obvious touch of disappointment. “I thought you hadn’t noticed. What a pity—I wanted to plant a jade seed in your heart and turn you into my own puppet…”

“What a pity,” she repeated in a low murmur. “If I turned the famous Chen Yushu into my puppet, perhaps the rising fortune of the Demon Sect over the next ten thousand years would fall to me. Tell me, Senior Brother, what do you think?”

“Sister Zhuang, you’re quite the mischief-maker. Had I met you three hundred years ago, when I was still in the Dou Shu Sect…”

Chen Yushu’s tone remained gentle and calm, but there was now a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

“If you had met me earlier, what would you have done, Senior Brother?”

“Naturally, I would have erased your fundamental nature, stripped away your passions and desires, and, as I have done before, refined you into a thoughtless, will-less puppet for my use as I climbed the immortal path. A pity, truly…”

“I’ve only heard that you’ve refined quite a few puppets from the Twelve Great Houses; the Eight Sects and Six Clans as well, though I do not know their number. Were there many?”

“Not many, not many—less than a hundred.”

“The ‘Art of Human Husbandry’ is truly a masterpiece of Master Kongkong, wondrous indeed.” Zhuang Si covered her lips, laughing softly.

“Useful, isn’t it?” Chen Yushu raised his teacup. “When the Dao Lord brought me to the Inborn Demon Sect, I handed over the ‘Art of Human Husbandry’ immediately, as a sign of sincerity. You’ve had it for centuries now—how many puppets have you refined?”

“Not many, only a little over a thousand.”

At this, the two exchanged a smile, as if old friends of many years.

“But I heard, Senior Brother, that you only managed to escape from the Void Sovereign Heaven to Xudu Heaven thanks to Master Kongkong’s legacy. He was the seventh disciple under the Ancestor of Calamity Immortals. So if you inherited his legacy, doesn’t that make you his disciple as well? Did Master Kongkong leave you only the ‘Art of Human Husbandry’?”

“Isn’t that enough? Sister Zhuang, your greed is boundless.” Chen Yushu dismissed it. “If you wish to glimpse the lineages left by Master Kongkong and the Ancestor of Calamity Immortals, you shouldn’t come to me. Go to the Dou Shu Sect—they have preserved far more of Master Kongkong’s classics than I ever received. Asking me is like seeking the way from the blind.”

Zhuang Si glanced at him with a smile, her lips curving gently, but she let the matter drop.

“But you said you found another descendant—named Chen Heng?”

Their conversation meandered coolly for a while. Before she left, Zhuang Si suddenly asked, “If you have no further use for him, might you give him to me?”

“So you really won’t give up… Well, Chen Heng’s talents are mediocre and of only temporary benefit to me. When I am done, I suppose there’s no harm in passing him to you. It’s a small matter.”

After a brief pause, he nodded. “Very well, I grant your request.”

Zhuang Si smiled gracefully, offered her thanks, and waved her hand to open the barrier of the cave-heaven before taking her leave.

Moments after her departure, the deep voice of the serpent Ba She Yue You echoed once more from the depths below.

“Yushu, are you harboring murderous intent?”

Yue You’s rumbling voice held a note of concern. “Hold back, boy! This witch is the most favored offspring of the Lord of the Five Manifest Mysteries. We’re still under their roof—if you kill her, you’ll offend every sect in the Xuan Faction Demon Sects, and Xudu Heaven will truly be uninhabitable…”

“What nonsense!” Chen Yushu gave a wry smile. “The Lord of the Five Manifest Mysteries has shown me immense favor; how could I harm Sister Zhuang? That would be unfilial!”

The great serpent rolled his eyes silently on the surface of the sea.

Then, with a flash of demonic light, he transformed into a striking, otherworldly handsome man in gray.

“You—”

“Wait.” Yue You was about to speak, but Chen Yushu raised a hand to stop him. From his sleeve he drew out the “Ten Thousand Gods Banner of Sublime Authority.” With a gesture, a supreme deity—bearing a hundred heads and a thousand eyes, crowned with stars, clad in robes of fiery essence, and holding the Golden Mirror of the Firmament—leapt forth from the banner. The deity bowed three times to Chen Yushu, then opened a thousand eyes to peer into the void, vanishing in an instant.

“It’s done. The Dao Lords of the Inborn Demon Sect are all outside the world now, scheming over the matter in the Heaven of the Holy Law, leaving only a few Candle Dragon corpse-puppets to guard the gates. Those brutes won’t see through my concealment.”

When the deity had departed, Chen Yushu stowed the banner away.

“Now, my friend, speak.”

“Your father’s treasure is truly remarkable—a divine weapon, worthy of a God-King of the Void Sovereign Heaven! Lucky your mother sneaked it to you back then—it’s spared you endless trouble.” Yue You gazed at the banner with envy, then grew serious. “You’re not really planning to kill Zhuang Si, are you?”

“I’ve barely refined half of this banner—I’m nowhere near mastery. As for Zhuang Si…”

A chill flickered in Chen Yushu’s eyes. “That woman keeps coming, using the ‘Art of Human Husbandry’ in every word and deed to try to plant a jade seed in my heart. How absurd—has she forgotten I was the one who offered that art to the Inborn Demon Sect?”

Though his face wore its usual gentle smile, Yue You shuddered at the look in his eyes.

“Still, you can’t truly mean to kill her! Yushu, are you mad?!”

Yue You’s tone grew pleading. “Like I said, if you kill Zhuang Si, there’ll be nowhere for you in Xudu Heaven! Don’t forget, your father still watches hungrily from the Void Sovereign Heaven! Haven’t you always been patient? Just endure a little longer! You’re bound to become a Dao Lord eventually—once you’ve ascended, what could Zhuang Si possibly do to you?”

Chen Yushu’s rise had already bound the fate of the Six Demon Sects and even the Eight Daoist Sects could not destroy him outright. Yet if he brought trouble upon himself, no one could help.

If he did kill Zhuang Si, even if he fled Xudu Heaven and succeeded in merging with the Dao, the days ahead would be bitter. For his birth father, the Red-Essence, Pottery-Forging, God-King of Ten Thousand Blessings, dominated all the seas, lands, and skies of the Void Sovereign Heaven—a true titan among the gods! Even if Chen Yushu became a Dao Lord, he could never match him—only by advancing further, attaining true immortality, could he hope to contest him.

Yue You pleaded on, but Chen Yushu simply raised his head and gave him a measured look.

“What are you afraid of? Who said I mean to kill her?”

“You—”

“Though she wishes to turn me into her puppet, and covets Master Kongkong’s legacy, she is, after all, the child of the Lord of the Five Manifest Mysteries. Why should I kill her?” Chen Yushu smiled. “A lesson will suffice. Do I seem so bloodthirsty to you?”

Yue You stared at him as if he were mad, baring his teeth. “You’re not going to kill her? Then why make me say all this?”

“Then why produce the ‘Ten Thousand Gods Banner of Sublime Authority’ for concealment? Surely not just to hear me counsel you?”

“There is something important I must discuss,” Chen Yushu said, his expression uncharacteristically solemn. “Chen Heng—something is strange about that child.”

“Chen Heng?” Yue You was puzzled.

“I place upon each of my descendants a method to cultivate the Supreme Primordial True Essence, and four fighting talismans for protection. Just now, one of Chen Heng’s talismans was triggered, so I was able to pinpoint his exact location.”

“And?”

“But that Zhuang Si asked me for him—she acted casual, but she cannot fool my celestial calculations. There’s definitely something amiss.”

Chen Yushu tapped the table with his finger. “Although I don’t know what makes Chen Heng so special that Zhuang Si would ask for him, my possessions—if they are to be destroyed—will be destroyed by my own hand.”

He looked at Yue You. “Xudu Heaven is vast—if your spirit form flies south, it’ll take too long. Go to Linjiao Island first.”

“Linjiao Palace?”

“Among the twenty-four demon clans of the South Sea, Yuan Ju of the Monkey Clan was exiled to Linjiao Island after failing to seize the throne. Yuan Ju possesses a magic treasure called the ‘World-Leaping Shuttle,’ and your spirit form isn’t far from Linjiao Island.”

“Seek out Yuan Ju and ask for the ‘World-Leaping Shuttle.’ With it, you’ll reach the Floating Jade Lake in the Southern Domain in two or three days at most.”

Yue You was startled, but agreed.

“But will that monkey lend you the treasure? The demon clans of the South Sea are all fierce and proud, and thick as thieves. He may not do you the favor.”

“Those twenty-four clans owe me a great debt. Lending me a treasure is nothing—they couldn’t repay me even if they fought a war on my behalf.”

Chen Yushu sighed. “Though my celestial calculations cannot discern what is unique about Chen Heng, Zhuang Si’s patron is the Lord of the Five Manifest Mysteries… He and the Dao Lord of Grand Brilliance are the two greatest diviners in Xudu Heaven. Zhuang Si’s request may well be her father’s will.”

“Sounds like trouble,” Yue You shook his head. “What if something goes wrong and I can’t bring Chen Heng back?”

Chen Yushu’s expression was indifferent. “Then kill him. If he cannot be used, he is useless.”

Yue You shrugged to show he understood.

Thus, in the distant reaches of the sea, a massive serpent soaring through the clouds abruptly halted, dispersing the mist around him. His golden slit eyes flashed, and after a few breaths, he wheeled around, transforming into a streak of light that shot toward the northwestern seas.

After Yue You left, four or five hours passed before a surge of deep blue water rose, parting the sea to reveal a young man with a pale face, no beard, and a golden staff in hand.

He sniffed the air, touched the staff to the waves, and a look of joy appeared on his face.

“Master, I’ve found it!”

He bowed deeply. “Someone was here, and not long ago.”

The world was empty, nothing but endless waves—no one to be seen. Only when a faint thunderclap sounded from nowhere did the young man dare to straighten, trembling.

“When immortals fight, it’s the little folk who suffer! All I wanted was to fetch a bride, and now I’ve stumbled into this mess!” He wiped sweat from his brow, tapped the staff to part the waves, and hurriedly leapt in. “I can’t stay here—better hide out with my clan in the South Sea! The Dragon Palace’s bride price is too dear anyway—maybe I won’t marry after all!”

…

Southern Domain.

Floating Jade Lake.

A sea of people thronged amidst pavilions and painted halls, rising layer upon layer among the clouds, exquisite and intricate, with winding stairs and hidden balconies at every turn.

In one pavilion, Chen Heng stood shoulder to shoulder with Wei Lingjiang, gazing at a deep azure rift in the heavens.

“So that is the Cave of Insight?” he asked.