Chapter 56: The Veil Lifts on the Five-Colored Stones

Cultivators’ lifespans were tied to their cultivation realms. According to ancient texts, breaking through to the Great Ascension Stage was the next step toward ascension to immortality, granting eternal life alongside heaven and earth.

Yet for cultivators, time was an exceedingly profound thing.

Centuries could pass in the blink of an eye, rendering all things insignificant. No matter how great the tribulations or how deeply they tugged at the heartstrings, they faded under the relentless wash of time.

Many, on their path of cultivation, walked while forgetting, until only the people and events of the present remained in memory.

Jiang Liuzhao was an outlier. She had a sharp memory, retaining her youthful years and the scenes that followed.

The centuries spent cultivating in the Taiqing Sect felt like a mere instant.

When she opened her eyes again, she had become the Long Rainbow Sword Venerable, renowned across the Nine Provinces and revered by countless souls.

Truth be told, titles and others’ attitudes meant little to Jiang Liuzhao. Her temperament had always been thus—peers, juniors, even elders instinctively restrained themselves in her presence.

Long years at the pinnacle, with cultivation unmatched under heaven, only amplified this.

Even those like the Taisu Medical Venerable harbored opinions about her but still offered a modicum of respect when facing her directly.

But now, in this modestly sized side chamber, Jiang Liuzhao faced that stunningly beautiful face and found herself the one bound.

A similar interrogation had occurred one hundred and eighty years prior.

Once, Jiang Liuzhao had believed Lu Mingyi was bewitched by the Five-Colored Stone.

This time, it was Lu Mingyi staring at Jiang Liuzhao, her voice icy as she demanded, “Has the Long Rainbow Sword Venerable also lost her mind to the Five-Colored Stone?”

Faced with Lu Mingyi’s accusation, Jiang Liuzhao felt a suffocating pressure, as if forcibly suspended in midair.

She responded instinctively, explaining everything. “I won’t offer false excuses for what happened. I know… I once harbored that thought, but I never intended to act on it! Today, whether it’s the Five-Colored Stone or coming to speak with you, I only hope you won’t be shackled by the past.”

As she finished, Jiang Liuzhao’s hands—still wrapped in white gauze on her lap—clenched slightly. Faint pain radiated from her fingertips and palms.

For the first time in ages, she tasted the flavor of apprehension.

And sure enough, upon hearing this, the sarcasm drained from Lu Mingyi’s cold expression only to come roaring back. “‘Not shackled by the past’? The Long Rainbow Sword Venerable speaks so lightly of it, but your words and actions never align. As for the past, you still say nothing; as for the present, who was it that appeared before me unbidden?”

She paused after that, watching Jiang Liuzhao’s restrained, conflicted expression, before delivering the next blow:

“Besides… isn’t this entire situation all your doing, Jiang Liuzhao?”

The conflict and restraint instantly turned to surprise.

It was as if old scenes replayed, with Lu Mingyi’s insight once again exceeding Jiang Liuzhao’s expectations.

But this time differed. In her previous life, Lu Mingyi’s expression had been one of wretched despair, desperately begging for an explanation and waiting endlessly. Now, she seized on Jiang Liuzhao’s subtle emotional fluctuations, seizing complete control.

She pressed step by step.

“Xiao Yuxie is profoundly knowledgeable—even forbidden arts are likely within her grasp. But who was it that told her about the connection between us?” Lu Mingyi tilted her head, as if scrutinizing Jiang Liuzhao’s expression. “Jiang Liuzhao, I remember it was you who explained it, wasn’t it?”

Jiang Liuzhao lowered her gaze, her long lashes trembling lightly. She dared not meet those eyes, clutching her hands tighter.

The deep wounds carved by Gu Li oozed fresh blood.

Lu Mingyi’s sharp eyes caught the faint tremor in Jiang Liuzhao’s hands, blood seeping through the pristine white gauze.

The Sword Venerable’s hands were trembling.

A surge of vicious satisfaction welled in her. “You didn’t trust me, thinking I’d be tempted by the Five-Colored Stone. And you wanted to kill me—though you ultimately didn’t act, my death still suited your intentions perfectly. So why did you tell Xiao Yuxie all this, making her sacrifice her Heart’s Blood to revive me?”

“You went to such lengths and costs, even sacrificing another disciple to bring me back—what do you want me to be, your trusty pawn for some scheme?”

With those words, a white glow emanated from the Storage Ring on Lu Mingyi’s finger. A pale blue stone, enveloped in spiritual energy, floated above her palm.

She brazenly produced the Ink Wave Stone, precisely to gauge Jiang Liuzhao’s reaction to the Five-Colored Stone and probe the truth of her past death.

Yet Jiang Liuzhao’s brows, usually frosted with aloofness, twitched faintly at the corners, her throat bobbing subtly.

Lu Mingyi noted that the woman had kept her eyes half-lidded since earlier, not even glancing at the Ink Wave Stone, her gaze inscrutable.

A flicker of cold anger rose in her. It seems no matter what, Jiang Liuzhao insists on maintaining that facade of icy detachment.

Just as Lu Mingyi prepared to speak again, Jiang Liuzhao’s slightly hoarse voice cut in. “Letting Yuxie know was my failing as her master. But it has all happened, so I could only strive to make amends. As for you…”

Jiang Liuzhao had learned of Lu Mingyi’s resurrection earlier than anyone, but knowing her temperament, she assumed Lu Mingyi wished only to sever ties with the past. Thus, she had no intention of meeting her.

Yet things hadn’t gone as planned. She found excuses—Split Soul projections, overseeing the Xiao Family Spirit Spring—to see Lu Mingyi several more times.

And as expected, Lu Mingyi’s repulsion was evident upon seeing her.

Jiang Liuzhao thought it reasonable if Lu Mingyi hated or despised her—as long as she lived this life freely and happily.

But the ever-masterful Long Rainbow Sword Venerable hadn’t foreseen Lu Mingyi’s entanglement with the Five-Colored Stone once more, nor that she would one day be so passive, her mind wholly led by another.

A faint mist of moisture gathered at the tips of Jiang Liuzhao’s long lashes. Still under Lu Mingyi’s dominance, she confessed her heart. “I know you won’t trust me an ounce now, but after your resurrection, I truly only wished for you to live freely and joyfully…”

She wanted to add that she hoped Lu Mingyi would let go of the Spirit-Devouring Gu and Five-Colored Stone matters.

But she knew all too well Lu Mingyi’s nature—with knowledge came obsession; how could she simply let it go?

True to her understanding, without voicing the latter part, even the first sentence tightened Lu Mingyi’s expression. “Jiang Liuzhao, how dare you say such things now!

“Make amends? So that’s what you all think! That the wounds you inflict on others can be brushed aside with a single ‘amends’?

“If you truly wanted to make amends, why haven’t you explained how I died even now? At this point, if you didn’t do it, was it the Five-Colored Stone itself?!”

As Lu Mingyi’s urgent question fell, she flung her hand up, sending the Ink Wave Stone hurtling straight at Jiang Liuzhao!

Jiang Liuzhao had no choice but to catch the incoming stone. The instant her fingers closed around this Five-Colored Stone, her expression faltered briefly, her eyes trembling for a moment before she suppressed it.

“If you want to destroy the Five-Colored Stone, take it and shatter it!” Lu Mingyi said with a laugh. “Last time, destroying it meant taking my life. And this Ink Wave Stone—you must have known long ago it’s tied to the Xiao Family? Do you know that taking it will render their Spiritual Spring utterly mundane, costing your prized first disciple most of her life’s work? Does Xiao Yuxie know you know?”

Jiang Liuzhao closed her eyes. Lu Mingyi noticed the veins pulsing faintly on her pale neck.

Clearly, Jiang Liuzhao was suppressing intense emotions.

“So you knew the consequences of taking the Ink Wave Stone but didn’t tell Xiao Yuxie.” Lu Mingyi lowered her gaze, scoffing.

Jiang Liuzhao gripped the Five-Colored Stone tightly, murmuring lowly, “The Demon Sect has sought the Five-Colored Stones for centuries. The Xiao Family once possessed the rare gift of beast-taming communion, aligning perfectly with the legendary Ink Wave Stone’s prowess in communication and scheming.”

Lu Mingyi’s expression shifted slightly. She hadn’t expected Jiang Liuzhao to suddenly reveal the Five-Colored Stone’s secrets, but her mind raced ahead, connecting it to the Demon Sect’s invasion of the Nine Provinces—targeting the Xiao Family first, likely with premeditation.

And the Ink Wave Stone’s affinity for communication and intrigue… what a twist of fate—or tragedy—that Xiao Yuxie, now Xiao Family head, excelled precisely in those.

She quelled her lingering unrest and pressed on. “But the Xiao Family relocated from Longnan to Tianfu. The Ink Wave Stone lies in Tianfu’s Peach Blossom Source. If they fled with it, how could successive heads—including Xiao Yuxie—remain ignorant of its existence?”

With Lu Mingyi’s emotions cooling, Jiang Liuzhao gained a moment to breathe and explained. “Families and sects alike guard their secret treasures, deploying them only at existential crises. In Longnan, the original Xiao clansmen knew this treasure’s power came with peril, so they never truly used it.

“Upon relocating to Tianfu, the head at that time buried it beneath the Osmanthus Tree… She heeded the ancestors’ warning against casual use, yet hoped it would safeguard the Xiao Family.”

“‘Five-Colored’ implies five in total. I’ve one, Ji Xuyun has one, this Ink Wave Stone makes three—what of the others?”

“The Five-Colored Stones correspond to the five elements: metal—Silver Radiance Stone; wood—Emerald Shadow Stone; water—Ink Wave Stone; fire—Crimson Flame Stone; earth—Dawn Stone. These five gems represent power, honor, communication, emotion, and the human heart.”

The Five-Colored Stones that had haunted Lu Mingyi across two lifetimes were finally unveiled in Jiang Liuzhao’s clear, serene voice.

Staring at the woman before her—clad in luxurious white robes, bathed in the pallid light from the window, lending her an air of cold desolation—Lu Mingyi said softly, “The human heart. So the one in me back then… was the Dawn Stone?”

Jiang Liuzhao fell silent, but in that moment, her silence was assent.

Regardless of realm or status, the Dawn Stone read their innermost thoughts, conveying them to its host—that was its divine ability.

Much like in the Peach Blossom Source’s depths earlier: Xiao Yuxie, not its true master but merely influenced, had spoken with such inciting power that any flicker of mental wavering would have prevented claiming the Ink Wave Stone.

Lu Mingyi thought, Jiang Liuzhao is still the same Jiang Liuzhao—knowing everything, as if the world bends to her designs.

Yet the truth she’d once desperately craved, now laid bare, brought no sense of release.

“In my previous life, I begged you bitterly, and you wouldn’t utter a whisper about the Five-Colored Stones. Now, after a few words from me, you spill it all?” Lu Mingyi gazed coldly at the woman. “What are you scheming this time?”

Jiang Liuzhao’s breathing steadied somewhat. Having endured so many of Lu Mingyi’s distrustful barbs, she had grown accustomed to the bitter taste.

Even risking exposure, she lifted her gaze to meet Lu Mingyi’s, sincerity in her eyes. “We’ve uncovered most of the Five-Colored Stones’ locations. Since the Spirit-Devouring Gu came from Ji Xuyun, it’s tied to them—and with the Ink Wave Stone in hand, a solution should emerge soon. So…”

Perhaps from speaking so much today, her voice grew hoarse. She paused, striving for genuineness as she gazed at Lu Mingyi. “So… you needn’t concern yourself with it anymore.”

She hadn’t said it outright, but the implication was clear: stay away from the Five-Colored Stones.

Lu Mingyi’s eyes darkened slightly. Is Jiang Liuzhao truly incapable of lying, or is this deliberate?

She wasn’t one for lies; when evading, she skirted the issue or avoided it outright.

Just as now—sidestepping Lu Mingyi’s death repeatedly, while “candidly” revealing the Five-Colored Stones—to dissuade her from pursuing them and the Spirit-Devouring Gu.

But the more she did so, the more it proved Lu Mingyi’s suspicious death was linked to that Dawn Stone.

Lu Mingyi gazed at Jiang Liuzhao’s deep ink-black eyes, which rarely revealed such a clear glimmer. She narrowed her eyes, and amid the faint tremble in Jiang Liuzhao’s gaze, she revealed a faint smile. That smile was beautiful—like the ones she used to show her master in the past:

“Jiang Liuzhao, what right do you have to say these things to me?

Do you think it’s your place to tell me what to do?”