Immortal of the Nine Realms

”Who do you intend to cure?” asked a voice.

A figure had appeared outside the hall, holding a wine flask.

The newcomer tilted his head back and gulped down a large amount, then smacked his lips and wiped the wine stains from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, looking at Fang Chen with a half-smile.

”Old Sword Immortal, rare to see you back. Did you come to see Master and the others?” Fang Chen smiled.

Li Jingnian first glanced around the scene inside the Void Immortal Sword Sect, then walked into the hall with a sigh. ”I’ve stayed here for many years, but now... I can’t help but find this place unfamiliar. I guess... I wasn’t really willing to stay here all these years. My mind has always yearned for the outside world. I never properly looked at the scenery here.”

Fang Chen said nothing and just watched Li Jingnian.

Ever since Li Jingnian turned into an Anomaly, a sudden visit from him always meant he had something important to share.

Fang Chen’s eyes flicker with curiosity. He wondered if Li Jingnian counted as a player now, and not merely another fierce chess piece on the board. Or had he attained his own form of enlightenment, extricating himself from the board entirely and becoming a spectator?

”I’ll cut to the chase,” said Li Jingnian. ”Several of the Anomalies I’ve come to know in recent years... have all disappeared.”

He sighed softly. ”After much thought, I believe someone intends to walk the path of the ’Immaculate Immortal.’ Unable to find immortal medicine, they’ve decided to use us poor Anomalies as the substitute.”

Fang Chen’s eyes flickered. Li Jingnian’s words were clearly a warning about the intention of the true immortal in the Minor Immortal Realm. And that was to capture the Anomalies here. The Immaculate Immortal... Fang Chen had heard of many immortal paths, but this was the first time he’d heard of the Immaculate Immortal. Using Anomalies as immortal medicine was no simple path at all.

Fang Chen asked, ”Old Sword Immortal, what exactly do you know? As far as I know, a true immortal from the Minor Immortal Realm plans to set a trap to lure out the Anomalies here, but those two... It hasn’t appeared for many years. Can you contact them?”

”They’re busy with other matters, leaving me alone to guard.” Li Jingnian smirked. ”No matter what traps they set, ultimately, they can only bait me. That’s why I came here to inform you, so their plan doesn’t succeed.”

Fang Chen replied calmly, ”That goes without saying. I already have a countermeasure that might be able to ruin their scheme.”

Li Jingnian looked at Fang Chen for a moment, then nodded. ”I trust you. Your methods are sometimes even more clever than ours. It truly catches people off guard.”

”Old Sword Immortal, can I ask you a question?”

”No.”

”What is an Anomaly?”

”I said no.”

Li Jingnian frowned slightly.

Seeing the faint shimmering light in Fang Chen’s pale gray pupils, he sighed and said, ”An anomaly, literally, means something outside of expectation—unaccounted for, uncontrollable. Do you understand?”

”Still a bit unclear.”

Li Jingnian said lightly, ”You’ve already gained some understanding of the immortal path’s later stages, haven’t you? Like now, someone intends to walk the path of the Immaculate Immortal. That is still within the realm of control.

”But we Anomalies... we don’t want to take that kind of road. Consuming immortal medicine to ascend, following all those tedious rules—it’s like shackles binding us.”

”The path of Anomalies is actually looked down upon in the Nine Mortal Realms. Because apart from living longer... well, actually, in our state, it’s unclear whether we are alive or dead. All that can be said is that our existence lingers longer than most. But our methods, most of the time, are far inferior to those who walk the orthodox immortal path. And there are countless restrictions.

”When we were on the Sword Burial Heavenly Steps before, didn’t I tell you a bit? You don’t need to ask more, since you don’t need to walk this Dao.”

Fang Chen smiled. ”Why not? Maybe one day I will walk the same path as you. After all, who doesn’t want immortality?”

”Bullshit. You’re already serving as Monarch Yan in the Underworld. That’s practically immortality. You really think I don’t know anything? Since those two left me to guard the sect, of course they told me a few things about you.”

Li Jingnian didn’t hide the jealousy in his eyes. ”If I’d had the chance to walk that Dao, do you think I would’ve hesitated? I only took this route because I had no other choice! Take what I just said seriously. If they start stirring up trouble here, once it reaches a certain point, I’ll be forced to step in. But by then, I’ll be walking right into their trap. Do you know how recently I even became an Anomaly? I’m not about to let someone use me as their immortal medicine.”

With that, Li Jingnian took another deep swig of wine, turned, and walked out of the hall, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Even with Fang Chen’s cultivation, he couldn’t sense how the man disappeared. It was even more mysterious than his own concealment methods.

Fang Chen’s expression turned contemplative. ”The old sword immortal clearly came today out of concern for that True Immortal from the Minor Immortal Realm. Looks like he already sensed the crisis approaching...”

If someone as unique as an Anomaly could sense danger, it meant the plot that the True Immortal from the Minor Immortal Realm had laid for them was no impulsive scheme.

It had been prepared thoroughly, and it was to the point where if Li Jingnian were to show himself, he’d have no chance of escaping the trap.

Fang Chen’s thoughts stirred. Immaculate Immortal... using Anomalies as a substitute for immortal medicine... and a few Anomalies have already been used...

He remembered the conversation he’d overheard between Yuanhua and Song Zhili at Thousand Dao Tower. Yuanhua had said that the figure from the Minor Immortal Realm was an Earth Immortal.

If the Immortal Dao was already set, yet now he was capturing Anomalies—did that mean he was trying to forcibly change his path with secret arts, walking the road of Immaculate Immortal Li Jinnian spoke of?

”A second-transformation Earth Immortal.... To decide on a path before the third transformation shows that the Minor Immortal Realm’s inheritance is quite complete. He must’ve had access to the right immortal medicines from the very beginning. With that kind of foundation, no one would change their path easily unless there were an extremely compelling reason. The difficulty of doing so is something few can comprehend.”

”Immaculate Immortal...” muttered Fang Chen.

***

Ancient Desolate Realm. Longdan Star.

Fang Chen stepped out from the Starry Teleportation Formation, where a man immediately approached and began sizing him up.

The man’s expression was indifferent, eyes filled with scrutiny. After examining him for a long while, he finally said flatly, ”Introduced by Chen Lingding?”

Fang Chen cupped his hands. ”Yes.”

”A Killing Spiritual Division cultivator?”

”Yes.”

”Heh...” A trace of cold mockery flashed in the man’s eyes. ”You’ve got guts. A Killing Spiritual Division cultivator dares to come here to meet my lord? Aren’t you afraid you’ll never leave this place again?”

Fang Chen smiled as he spoke. ”Well, this concerns the Heavenly Saint Sect and has ties to Wang Chongsong. Your master won’t keep me here. But if you keep delaying and mess things up, I imagine your master might leave you here for eternity, never to know peace.”

The man’s eyes flared with anger, but he quickly calmed himself down, only showing a grim scowl. With a cold snort, he gave a reluctant nod. ”Follow me, then.”

Fang Chen followed him through swirling immortal mist toward an elegant cave-dwelling. After passing through several layers of reporting and confirmation, he was finally brought before the one he had come to see—a cultivator of the Divine Spirit Sect, the third-transformation Loose Immortal Xu Changshi.