Chapter 36 The Aftermath of the Golden Light

The wind at Wuliu Ferry had stopped for quite a while. The mud on the riverbank was still reeking of medicine. The people from The Company were sealing the scattered bones and fragments of the stele one by one, moving so softly as if afraid of waking something up.

Zhang Guanchen sat on a fallen wooden post, clutching the drawing in his hand. His face was deathly pale, but his eyes were piercingly bright—so bright that Ninth Senior Brother wanted to slap him back into place.

"Stop looking at it."

Ninth Senior Brother reached out to take it.

Zhang Guanchen dodged backward.

"Ninth Senior Brother, this is my trophy."

"A trophy that made your legs go weak, to the point you could barely stand?"

Ninth Senior Brother's face darkened. He kept his hand suspended in mid-air. "I'm talking to you seriously, stop messing around with me."

Zhang Guanchen glanced at him twice, then finally handed over the drawing.

Ninth Senior Brother didn't examine it closely after taking it; he first wrapped it in a layer of Golden Light, then handed it to Xu Chengping.

"Seal it well. We'll show it to Master later."

Xu Chengping nodded immediately.

"Understood."

Zhang Guanchen curled his lip.

"Ninth Senior Brother, you're becoming more and more controlling."

Ninth Senior Brother sneered.

"If I were really in charge, the first thing I'd do is lock you in a room and not let you out."

Old Meng, who was working with the medicinal mud nearby, couldn't help but chuckle at this.

Xu Chengping couldn't laugh.

Shen Zhao had escaped.

They had rescued two people, the third was still unconscious, the secret passage in Han Qing's old house had been breached, and the blood array at Wuliu Ferry had been shattered by Zhang Guanchen's punch. It looked like they had won a round.

But everyone knew clearly in their hearts that this wasn't over.

This was the second layer of skin that the other side had voluntarily peeled back.

"Daoist Master Guanchen."

Xu Chengping walked over, his tone much more serious than when he had first arrived. "You said earlier that you saw something missing behind his gate. Could you elaborate on that?"

Zhang Guanchen looked up at him.

"No."

Xu Chengping was stunned.

Ninth Senior Brother, on the contrary, breathed a sigh of relief.

This kid finally knew that some things shouldn't be blabbed about.

Zhang Guanchen rubbed his aching brow.

"It's not that I'm hiding things, it's that I'm not even sure myself right now."

He looked at the cracked stele.

"Shen Zhao's White Gate is supported by three things: the Dao sense of Tianshi Mansion, the blood of the Lu family, and the old bones of the San Yi Sect. But even with these three things put together, it only opened the gate a crack."

Xu Chengping asked.

"Is there a fourth thing missing behind the gate?"

"It needs a person."

Zhang Guanchen said slowly: "Not a living person or a dead person, but himself."

The others fell silent.

Ninth Senior Brother frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"He treated bones, blood, Talismans, and the drawing all as things that could patch up his own body. But the most fatal part of this path of living in reverse isn't the shell; it's the person supporting that shell."

Zhang Guanchen raised his hand and tapped his own chest.

"If the person is gone, no matter how well you patch the shell, it's just a pile of walking bones."

Old Meng stopped what he was doing.

Xu Chengping's expression darkened.

"So he practiced it incorrectly."

"It's more than just a little off."

Zhang Guanchen pulled at the corner of his mouth. "And he might not even be unaware of it. He just can't stop; there's no turning back for him."

Ninth Senior Brother looked at him.

"Did you see that from his Spell earlier?"

Zhang Guanchen didn't answer. After a while, he nodded.

"I saw a little bit."

The Daozang Stele Forest in his mind was still buzzing.

On the remnant stele of the one living in reverse, the white marks were deeper than before. The Blood-colored Small Stele had several fine lines added to it after being illuminated by the thing without eyeballs on the drawing. The faint cyan-white light behind the shadow of the Thunder Spell stele was also brighter.

What made him ponder the most was the Golden Light Stele.

Just now, when Shen Zhao opened the White Gate, he had used a Heart-Calming Talisman to suppress the pulling sensation in his chest. The Golden Light wasn't dragged away by the gate; instead, in that instant, it condensed into an exceptionally thin shell.

Very thin.

But it was tighter than the Fire phase, and it saved more effort than using Qi to manifest forms.

That wasn't the third layer of the Golden Light Mantra.

Nor was it simply Golden Light carrying a Talisman.

It was more like withdrawing all the Golden Light that was being projected outwards back into his own body, condensing it into an invisible garment.

Zhang Guanchen looked down at his palms.

"Ninth Senior Brother."

"What?"

"You said before, after using Qi to manifest forms with Golden Light, how should one practice it further?"

Ninth Senior Brother was stunned by the question.

At this critical juncture, he was asking about cultivation. He really didn't know whether to scold this kid or praise him.

"First, achieve manifestation as soon as a thought arises, then achieve it without taxing your mind, and finally, make the manifested Golden Light as agile as your own hands and feet."

Ninth Senior Brother thought for a moment, then added: "Master hasn't spoken in detail about what comes after that. I've only touched the surface myself."

Zhang Guanchen nodded.

"Then what if it's reversed?"

"What do you mean reversed?"

"Don't pursue manifesting big hands or long whips, and don't pursue projecting it outwards. Instead, withdraw the Golden Light back into your own body."

Ninth Senior Brother's expression changed instantly.

"What are you trying to do?!"

Zhang Guanchen didn't answer immediately.

He raised his hand, and a layer of Golden Light emerged on his palm.

This layer of Golden Light was very faint, as faint as golden threads showing through the skin. It didn't turn into armor, nor did it manifest into a hand; it just flowed quietly along the lines of his palm.

Ninth Senior Brother didn't take it seriously at first.

The next second, his face changed.

That layer of Golden Light was too stable.

It was so stable that it didn't look like something forced out after just finishing a fight.

It clung to Zhang Guanchen's hand, with no sign of drifting outwards at all, as if it had grown there originally.

"When did you stumble upon this path?!"

Zhang Guanchen answered honestly.

"Just now, when I was almost dragged away by that White Gate."

Ninth Senior Brother almost lost his breath.

"You call this stumbling upon a path?!"

Zhang Guanchen looked at the Golden Light on his palm.

"When you're almost dead, a person has to make some progress."

Ninth Senior Brother gritted his teeth.

"Can you stop using your life to make progress in the future?!"

Zhang Guanchen smiled and didn't talk back.

Xu Chengping and Old Meng looked at each other; both had a hint of indescribable surprise in their eyes.

They didn't understand the specifics of how Mount Longhu's Golden Light was categorized.

But they could feel the Qi.

The layer of Golden Light on Zhang Guanchen's hand looked small, but it was incredibly pure inside. It was not something a nine-year-old child could have refined.

Ninth Senior Brother grabbed his wrist.

"Withdraw it."

"Let me look a bit more."

"Show it to Master when we get back to the mountain."

"Just a second."

"Not even half a second."

Zhang Guanchen sighed and had to withdraw the Golden Light.

But just as the Golden Light was withdrawn, the Golden Light Stele in the Daozang Stele Forest actually had a shallow indentation pressed into it.

Golden Light wasn't just for outward use.

It could also be hidden inward.

Manifesting outward is addition.

Returning to the body inward is subtraction.

The Great Dao is simple.

Zhang Guanchen's heart skipped a beat.

He seemed to have touched upon the true threshold beyond the Golden Light.

That night, at The Company's temporary station, Zhang Guanchen didn't sleep well.

Xu Chengping reported the events at Wuliu Ferry, and The Company dispatched people overnight. Old Meng guarded the sealed items, not closing his eyes all night.

Ninth Senior Brother guarded Zhang Guanchen.

He really stood guard without moving.

He moved a chair to the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, not even letting his eyelids droop.

Zhang Guanchen lay on the small bed, looking at the mountain-like figure at the door, and sighed.

"Ninth Senior Brother, you're putting a lot of pressure on me."

Ninth Senior Brother didn't even open his eyes.

"If you feel pressure, go to sleep."

"You're watching me like you're watching a prisoner."

"You're harder to watch than a prisoner."

"That's hurtful."

"Save it."

The room was quiet for a while.

Zhang Guanchen suddenly spoke again.

"Ninth Senior Brother."

"What now?"

"When we go back to the mountain this time, tell Master not to make me stand in a horse stance for three months, okay?"

Ninth Senior Brother finally opened his eyes.

"Scared now?"

Zhang Guanchen said very seriously.

"It's not fear, it's just that wasting three months feels like it's delaying important business."

Ninth Senior Brother sneered.

"The important business you're talking about is continuing to court death."

"That's not entirely true."

Zhang Guanchen turned over, his voice a little lower. "Shen Zhao won't stop. Next time, he will definitely aim for Sister Linglong."

Ninth Senior Brother didn't speak.

This was also his biggest worry.

Zhang Guanchen looked at the pitch-black night outside the window.

"I have to take another step forward before his next move."

Ninth Senior Brother looked at him for a long time, and finally only said one sentence.

"Then start by living and kicking."

Early the next morning, Celestial Master Zhang Zhiwei's reply arrived.

There were only a few lines in the letter.

Return to the mountain immediately once the people are rescued.

Leave the matter of Shen Zhao to the Lu family and The Company to investigate.

Zhang Guanchen is not allowed to run around on his own.

The last line was written quite heavily.

After returning to the mountain, everything seen at Wuliu Ferry and the changes in the Golden Light must be explained in detail, word for word.

Ninth Senior Brother finished reading and finally smiled.

"It's over, you can't run away this time."

Zhang Guanchen put the letter away.

"Ninth Senior Brother."

"Hmm?"

"Your smile is like a death warrant."

Ninth Senior Brother raised his hand and gave him a smack on the back of his head.

Zhang Guanchen didn't dodge.

It wasn't that he couldn't dodge.

It was that he deserved this hit.

On the car back to the mountain, Zhang Guanchen leaned against the car window, and the Stele Forest in his mind gradually quieted down.

Shen Zhao's White Gate hadn't disappeared.

That thing was like a nail, nailed between the remnant stele of the one living in reverse, the Blood-colored Small Stele, the talisman stele, and the shadow of the Thunder Spell stele.

But the shallow indentation on the Golden Light Stele that receded inward hadn't faded either.

Zhang Guanchen closed his eyes.

Beyond the Golden Light, it might really not be about being bigger.

But about being smaller.

Small enough to be a thought.

Small enough to be hidden within one's fate.

Small enough that others can't see it, but as soon as they touch it, their hands shatter first.

The car wheels rolled over the mountain road, and a shadow of Mount Longhu could already be seen in the distance.

Zhang Guanchen opened his eyes and suddenly smiled.

This trip down the mountain, although he was schemed against and invited into a trap.

But as for who was fishing whom, that was really hard to say.