Chapter 49 Part 1

The surging, torrential Dragon Vein anomaly, as if about to overturn rivers and seas, was smoothed away by a single, simple hand. After the dragon form dissipated, the phantom figure hidden within also vanished. Tao Junran hadn’t clearly seen the figure. He stared ahead in bewilderment, then suddenly snapped back to his senses. Furious, he roared, “What did Wang Yicheng, Zhang Suzhi, and the others plan to do?! Seize them!” The final words were gnashed through clenched teeth. His fury had clearly peaked, leaving no room for the delicate “balance” between the Noble Clans and the Dao Court.

The Xuanzhen Dao Court disciples had also suffered backlash from the Dragon Vein but were far less affected than the clan members. The three who’d actively attacked the Dragon Vein—Wang Yicheng, Zhang Suzhi, and Zhao Qiande—were the most severely injured. This made the Court’s task easier, allowing them to easily break through the wary clan disciples’ perimeter and point their Magical Artifacts at the three men, whose blood and Qi were in turmoil and whose spiritual energy was in complete disarray.

Zhang Suzhi straightened his back. As the eldest of the three, he managed to maintain the dignified air of a transcendent master. Smiling, he met Tao Junran’s gaze and asked, “What is the meaning of this, Daoist Tao?” Even as he spoke, he attempted to circulate his cultivation method, drawing on the spiritual energy tide stirred by the Dragon Vein’s rampage to restore himself. But the moment a wisp of Qi entered his body, it felt like knives carving through him. Before Tao Junran could answer, Zhang Suzhi couldn’t maintain his forced composure. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face ashen. That phantom in the Dragon Vein had merely pressed down gently, yet it had caused irreversible damage to his foundation.

Cold-faced, Tao Junran replied stiffly, “I believe you know precisely why I am doing this, Daoist.”

Zhang Suzhi looked up, his eyes shifting. He forced a chuckle. “The Dragon Vein raged. It was like a soaring dragon roaring to the heavens. If we hadn’t acted, with its world-burning momentum, not only would these hills have been leveled, but even the nearby city might have been impacted.”

“As for why the Dragon Vein raged, I believe the Dao Court owes us an explanation.” After the initial shock and terror, Wang Yicheng finally suppressed his profound panic and spoke to Tao Junran with cold venom.

Tao Junran’s eyes darkened. He hadn’t mistaken the trajectory of their swords. They had clearly intended to cleave off a portion of the Dragon Vein’s Quintessence. Of everyone present, these three suffered the worst backlash. Their intent was crystal clear. “Zhou Ling has confessed everything,” Tao Junran said, fixing his gaze on Wang Yicheng. He paused for a few breaths, then continued flatly, “As for the truth, you’ll know it once you accompany us back to the Dao Court.”

“Is that a threat?” Zhao Qiande asked, his voice hoarse. Though the vast Qi Flow had dispersed, the breathtaking pressure still lingered in his heart. He, too, had glimpsed that phantom figure and wanted to confer with Wang Yicheng, but Tao Junran’s pressing questions left no room for it. “The Court does not have the authority to place itself above the Clans.”

Tao Junran lifted an eyelid and said mildly, “I merely invite you all to discuss the matter of the Divine Land’s Dragon Vein. I mean no harm whatsoever.” Despite his words, a stack of Talismans emerged from his sleeve. His stance was clear: if the Clans refused, he would attack. Under normal circumstances, Tao Junran alone couldn’t match Zhang Suzhi and Zhao Qiande. But he could see clearly now—their Dao foundations had crumbled, their internal energies in chaos. They were at their weakest.

A tense silence filled the air. Finally, Zhang Suzhi spoke coldly: “We will go. But our clan’s younger members need not accompany us.” The Mountains and Seas would soon revive; this tide couldn’t be stopped. They’d sought to use the Dragon Vein to complete their Dao precisely to confront the Mountains and Seas in the future. Even if the Court learned the truth, what could they do to them?

Tao Junran glanced at the varied expressions of the clan disciples, a chill flashing in his eyes. He nodded. “Fine.”

On the return journey, Qi Ji opened her mouth. The blurry-faced phantom was impossible to shake from her mind. After much hesitation, she finally asked, “Alchemist, did the Dragon Vein give birth to a spirit?”

Tao Junran shook his head. “Unclear. Uncalculable.” Wang Yicheng seemed to recognize the figure, but he kept his mouth tightly shut, unwilling to speak.

Qi Ji made a sound of acknowledgment, a strange sense of regret and wistfulness stirring within her. But she quickly suppressed it and asked another question: “If everything is true, how will the Court deal with the Clans?”

Tao Junran frowned. “Hard to say.” In the past, the supernatural world was the domain of the Clans. They used clan ties, bloodlines, and surnames as links, forming a colossal power. Direct bloodline descendants held a transcendent position within the families. But a significant portion of a clan’s true strength came from those who had “changed their surnames” to join. After the Spiritual Energy Revival, more people awakened talents. Not everyone was willing to change their family name. They spontaneously formed civil societies, which became the embryo of the Dao Court. However, the crucial step for the Court came during the chaotic, devastating war a century ago, when the nation itself was at stake. Among the Four Great Families, only a handful were willing to leave their homes. Thus, as the Divine Land entered a new era, the government promoted the Court’s development, intending for it to replace the Clans’ authority. But this supernatural conflict was never going to be smooth. Of the Four Great Families, only the Jiang family, under Jiang Li’s swift, decisive measures, had disbanded and integrated into the Court.

“President Zhu…” Qi Ji’s brow furrowed. She spoke three words and then fell silent. The President of the Xuanzhen Dao Court—its highest authority—was no cultivator from the Mystic Sects, but a senior official appointed by the government. Eight years ago, the previous president had been promoted for his merits in suppressing the Ghost King. After he left, they assigned Zhu Shixian, a notoriously difficult person to deal with. Zhu Shixian’s modus operandi shifted with his mood, but his stance on the Clans hadn’t changed much: he steadfastly adhered to a policy of “peaceful coexistence.”

“It’s understandable, the fear of the Court spiraling out of control. But why assign an outsider?” Qi Ji grumbled quietly. After a pause, her expression turned strange. “Should we divine it?”

Tao Junran’s expression returned to its usual calm. He looked at Qi Ji and shook his head. “Cannot be divined. No need to divine.” He already had a plan in his heart. What did the outcome matter? Would it make him retreat? Lately, he often felt the skies were too dark. Perhaps it was the lack of old friends. Fu Changheng and Zhang Xuanji dead, Liang Maishan and Li Shenxiao abandoning the Court, Jiang Li’s whereabouts unknown… Of the old and young who had once walked the path together, he alone was left.

A clap of thunder fell. Mortals heard nothing, but those who’d stepped onto the Dao could sense the shift. None more so than Fu Juan, who bore a Dao Bone. Startled from sleep, a faint golden light flowed in her eyes. She could faintly see a rushing tide of Qi transforming into earth, water, wind, and fire—rising, sinking, as if recreating heaven and earth in a cycle of reincarnation. But the upheaval shattered in an instant. All returned to calm. Yet something in the world seemed to have changed.

“The Divine Land’s Dragon Vein raged… but it was suppressed so quickly. Who was it?”

–

“It’s her… How could it be her?” Wang Yicheng muttered in the car, his face ashen. He exchanged a glance with Zhao Qiande, then looked away. After Jiang Li left Shen City to investigate the Dragon Vein, they, too, left secretly. Upon discovering she was following the clues to Daoist Liu, they’d decided to eliminate her without hesitation. But the woman was incredibly powerful. Only by joining forces could they barely achieve a stalemate. Following the plan, they’d finally cornered Jiang Li at the former sealing ground of the Ghost King, intent on making her, like Zhang Xuanji before, a sacrifice to the Ghost King. But an unexpected anomaly occurred. Jiang Li had fallen into a tiny rift in the Dragon Vein. They’d assumed a mortal body falling in was certain death and thought no more of it—until tonight!

“It’s not her,” Zhang Suzhi said, glancing sideways at Wang Yicheng. The phantom in the Dragon Vein was no longer a mortal form. He would rather believe the Divine Land’s Dragon Vein had birthed a spirit. They had divined and calculated Jiang Li’s whereabouts, but she was utterly absent from the ten directions. Who, besides the dead, leaves absolutely no trace?

Zhao Qiande frowned. “What do you two think the Court will do?”

Wang Yicheng started to smile, but a dull ache in his chest reminded him that this injury was far worse than the last. He didn’t answer directly. Instead, he said coldly, “If only the True Spirits we enshrined could be commanded at will, how could this have happened?” The Clans, generation after generation, nurtured Yin Soldiers. A large portion of these Yin Soldiers came from the residual spirits of departed ancestors. After death, they hadn’t fully returned to the great furnace but had transformed into soldiers to continue protecting their descendants. Yet even these Yin Soldiers, who existed solely to shield later generations, could no longer be moved by their talisman tokens. The great changing times had affected them far too deeply.

Zhao Qiande asked, “What of your ancestral shrine?”

Wang Yicheng’s expression stiffened. With the Dragon Vein situation, he hadn’t paid close attention to the ancestral hall’s state. The words “with the protection of the ancestral True Spirits” were now impossible to utter. If the ancestral spirits truly protected the family, how could that demon fox have run rampant? Wang Yicheng didn’t answer. He deliberately shifted the topic. “With a great enemy looming, the Court won’t do anything to undermine our own Great Wall.” The Mountains and Seas—what an eerie yet magnificent existence it was. Without the Clans’ assistance, could the Court alone weather this trial?

Just as Wang Yicheng predicted, the Dao Court soon fell into internal strife over how to handle the Clans.

After Bo Qi voluntarily came to the Court to confess his “dream-devouring” role eight years ago, the traitor Zhou Ling also stopped resisting. He confessed their past plan without reservation, dragging all three Noble Clans into the affair. They had used the Dragon Vein to refine pills, all to strengthen themselves for the future battle against the Mountains and Seas Realm. What crime was there in that? As for colluding with a foreign Onmyoji or acting as Taowu’s pawn—they denied it absolutely. Xu Heng was clearly a descendant of the Qi native Xu Shi. He’d even wanted to bring his ancestor’s bones back to the homeland. How could he be considered a foreign force?

After days of arguments, it was Dao Court President Zhu Shixian, growing most impatient, who proposed a solution: a fine.