The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 254

His body was completely out of his control. Li Xun never imagined he’d be so damn awake while feeling his existence being wiped away bit by bit.

The tingling had ripened into a pain like a thousand ants chewing straight through his heart. Ah, pain... an old friend. Just like when he was a boy, thrashing in fear and helplessness. And then, right there in the choking dark of despair, after swallowing every last drop of bitterness... came that thin, wicked thread of sweetness.

His thoughts had never been sharper, never more tangled. He’d fancied himself well acquainted with the moments before dying. Thought he’d tasted that particular poison enough times to know its notes. But now he understood just how wrong he’d been. Every death, it seemed, brewed its own damn vintage.”

A long, screeching wail tore through his skull. He felt his body shriveling fast. The Yin-Transforming Pool was ready to suck every drop of his blood essence, cleaning out each ember of the Yin Fire hidden within him.

What… do I do now?

His chest clenched like a fist. In that instant, the sealed space trembled as the Nine Nether Tide erupted again. The surging Nine Netherworld Earth Qi flooded the entire place in a single breath.

Spurred on by the Nine Nether Tide, the Yin-Transforming Pool flared with unprecedented intensity, pushing back against the raging Nine Netherworld Earth Qi.

Li Xun let out a shattered scream. It felt as if every bone in his body cracked at once. The sudden spike of agony ripped past anything a human could possibly endure, snapping the nerves in his mind like breaking threads.

Just before his consciousness slipped into eternal silence, a familiar voice rang out:

“When a cut must be made, make it. Hesitate, and you’ll only invite chaos!”

The sound stretched thin, like a taut wire, snapping sharply into the air before cutting off with a hard, metallic crack. And yet, somehow, it was a key. One soft click later, it pried open a long-forgotten chest buried deep in his memory.

Life and death were nothing more than a cup of water. One slip, one flick of fate, and it spilled away.

The moment between not yet living and not yet dead... that’s the Life-Death Limit. He understood it as a boy. So why the hell had he forgotten it as he grew?

From the chaos in his mind, a single thread of clarity emerged. And that thread, thin as a spider’s silk, pulled something priceless into the open. A passage of a familiar incantation.

“Strip away flesh, blood, skin, and bone... only then does the Great Dao reveal itself.”

Li Xun’s eyes flew open. The first thing he saw was a snow-white palm descending from above, aiming straight at the center of his brow.

His vision flooded with rolling blood-red. Somehow, from who-knows-where, strength surged up from his dantian, and teared out of his throat...

“Ghost Master! Fuck you and every last one of your ancestors!”

....

Meanwhile...

Yan Shuiyue sat on a stone bench, bored out of her mind. Through the drifting mist outside the pavilion, she watched the flowers glowing with a beauty so bright it bordered on eerie. With a flick of her fingers, she spun her newly acquired jade-ribbed fan in lazy circles. After doing this for the better part of a half hour, she finally let out a long, weary sigh.

A graceful woman walked toward the pavilion.

She wore plain clothes, nothing that screamed for attention. Her face was soft, pleasant, not the sort that made people stop, but the way she moved had a quiet, composed grace. Almost like she could be Madam Yan’s sister. And yet her hair, long and dark as it was, had streaks of gray, a cruel little betrayal against the youth in her face.

“Friend Shuiyue, you’ve been looking gloomier by the day. If this keeps up, once Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts comes out of seclusion, how am I supposed to explain it to him?”

Yan Shuiyue clocked the newcomer -- Yan Ru, Tenghua Valley’s current head and Hundred Ghosts' Senior Sister —and damned if she’d let herself look meek. Her nose crinkled, she straightened up, and snapped her fan open with all the swagger she could muster. “Mmm, I don’t care what you have to explain. That scoundrel is shameless to the bone. Tricked me into getting stuck here… If he stays in seclusion, fine. But if he dares come out, I swear, he’s going to regret it!”

“Oh my, Friend Shuiyue, you’re still angry?”

Yan Ru’s temperament wasn’t all that different from Lady Yan’s. Seven, eight points of similarity, you could say. Cunning, sharp behind a soft smile. Dealing with the impulsive “little girl” that Shuiyue was, she handled her with ease.

“If Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts heard you talk like that, he’d be heartbroken. Look outside the valley... our disciples have already clashed countless times with the Western Alliance people: the Bliss Sect, the Underworld Monarch Sect, the Heavenly Demon Sword Sect... and isn’t the root cause you, Friend Shuiyue?

“Your junior, if you want to call him that, risked a tongue‑lashing from the master just to hide you safely in the valley. All that fuss, all that care… you really shouldn’t pretend you don’t see it.”

Her words came slow, smooth, the kind of measured politeness that could drain the fire out of anyone. Even Yan Shuiyue, no matter how furious, felt most of it slip away. She rolled her eyes like a storm, snapping her fan open and shut a few times. When she finally thought to speak, the words wouldn’t come.

With her head screwed on straight, how could she not understand the intention behind Hundred Ghosts’ shameless maneuvering? And yet… a little twitch of unease ran down her spine. Villains didn’t go soft out of nowhere. They didn’t hand out kindness like candy. If her hunch that day was right… well, then Hyakki…

While her thoughts tangled themselves up, Yan Ru simply smiled, stepped into the pavilion, and poured her a cup of flower tea. It had already been a month since Hundred Ghosts entered seclusion, and ever since then Yan Ru, acting on his request, had been gently wearing Shuiyue down, keeping her “tied in place” so she would stay obediently within Tenghua Valley.

While topping up the tea, Yan Ru’s mind wandered to the recent state of affairs.

Things had been anything but calm, either inside or outside the valley. Outside, the Western Alliance cultivators stormed around, arrogant and provoking trouble everywhere. Inside, tensions were running high from all the recent frustrations, and those who knew the full story couldn’t help but look at Yan Shuiyue a little strangely.

Yan Ru saw everything, and she quietly passed every change along to Madam Yan at Ghost Gate Lake through a special channel.

But Madam Yan didn’t seem the least bit shaken. She kept repeating the same instruction: follow Hundred Ghosts’ lead in all matters. Between the lines, she even sounded rather pleased with what he had done.

From that, Yan Ru picked up on something… off.

She knew very well how Madam Yan had always felt about Hundred Ghosts. In her mind, everyone had their use. And the key word was use.

For this master and disciple, whose titles were never all that legitimate to begin with, the relationship was built far more on “use” than on loyalty.

To put it bluntly, they were using each other.

Madam Yan’s true confidants had always been her handful of close female disciples. And once she secured the leadership of the sect, centuries down the line, the next successor would come from that same circle.

But now… things seemed to be shifting.

With Hundred Ghosts’ dazzling performance in recent years, Madam Yan’s attitude toward him has clearly shifted. You wouldn’t notice it on an ordinary day, but the moment something important happens, Hundred Ghosts suddenly shows just how much he can sway her judgment... and honestly, that’s enough to make anyone uneasy.

In the pavilion, the two of them were each lost in their own thoughts, and the atmosphere naturally fell quiet. In the end, it was Yan Ru who snapped out of it first. She glanced at Yan Shuiyue, who was still spacing out, smiled faintly, and was just about to speak when the mist outside the pavilion suddenly stilled, and a low, buzzing noise broke the silence.

Yan Ru’s expression darkened as she looked into the distance. Through the dim, gray fog, she could see figures stirring throughout the valley. And the defensive formation had already been activated.

“Finally found this place?” Yan Ru took a deep breath and stood up. The gentle lines of her face seemed to harden all at once.

Yan Shuiyue assumed she was simply getting ready to face an enemy. She had no idea that this calculating woman was actually turning over a very different thought in her mind.

If it turns out to be something troublesome... maybe handing Yan Shuiyue over would be the smarter choice?

Yan Ru turned toward her, about to tell her to hide for a while, when a sudden swell of noise rose from afar. It sounded like many people shouting in unison, which then shifted into a rustling, messy hum. It didn’t sound much like fighting at all.

Soon, the activated formation gradually quieted down, and no more sound came from that direction.

The sudden change left Yan Ru stunned for a moment. Puzzled, she called out a quick instruction and hurried toward the source of the noise. But she had barely taken two steps out of the pavilion when a man emerged from the mist, slowly coming into focus.

“Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts?” Yan Ru muttered, surprise bleeding through despite herself. “Weren’t you supposed to be holed up at the back of the valley? How… how are you out here at the front…and what tare you carrying?”

“Oh, just some pest who sneaked into the valley trying to make trouble.” Li Xun’s face split into an easy, warm smile. He lifted his elbow just enough for Yan Ru and Yan Shuiyue to get a better look at the little “thing” he was holding.

Unsurprisingly, Yan Shuiyue let out a piercing scream.

“Oh, my bad.” Li Xun glanced over. The severed head was dripping blood like a leaky faucet. Pitiful, really. He shrugged and tossed him into the flower bushes, might as well be fertilizer. Then he turned back, smiling. “Senior Sister Yan Ru, this little girl must’ve been giving you a headache these days, huh?”

Yan Shuiyue shouted from inside the pavilion, “You brute! Executioner! Monster! Demon...”

She suddenly froze, noticing Li Xun and Yan Ru giving her the weirdest looks. That’s when it dawned on her… maybe she’d gone a little overboard.

Wait… where was she again?

Tenghua Valley.

And who were these people in front of her?

Evil cultivators from the Shadow-Devouring Soul Sect.

Those titles basically described them already. So why on earth had she blurted them out like it was some big revelation?

She wilted immediately.

Her emotions flipped so openly it was almost endearing. Li Xun and Yan Ru exchanged a knowing smile. “It’s fine,” Yan Ru said. “Friend Shuiyue has sharp insight. And that uncanny divination knack. With her around, this valley isn’t nearly as dull as it used to be...”

She smiled sweetly, acting calm and composed, though inwardly she was puzzled. Since when was Hundred Ghosts this bloody? He’d never pulled childish stunts like lugging around a severed head just for fun. What the hell was going on with him?

Li Xun stepped closer. Now that Yan Ru could clearly see his face, she froze for a moment, surprised all over again.

She wasn’t sure how to describe it. Li Xun’s skin looked unusually pale, yet his cheeks were flushed as if he were drunk. His eyes were bloodshot too, like he hadn’t slept in days. And yet, when their gazes met, his eyes were perfectly clear.

After a moment’s thought, she spoke up, more out of concern than anything else. “Junior Brother Hundred Ghosts, did something go wrong in your cultivation? You look…”

“Thank you for worrying, Senior Sister. There’s a small issue, but it’s nothing serious.”

Hearing Li Xun’s explanation, Yan Ru didn’t press further. She smiled, glanced back at Yan Shuiyue who was still daydreaming, leaned in slightly, and whispered, “So… that person was here to size us up?”

Since he put it that way, Yan Ru didn’t press further. She smiled, then glanced back at Yan Shuiyue, who had drifted off into another daze. Leaning in slightly, she whispered, “That person, was she here to test the waters?”

“Yes. But she's nobody. The fact that Heart-Consuming Concubine only sent someone that minor means that even if she suspects something here, she’s still being cautious. Doesn’t want to push things too far. Hah. Since she’s showing that much restraint, we should offer something in return.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Let Yan Shuiyue go,” Li Xun said casually, almost offhand. “We’ve already done everything that needed doing. Keeping her now is pointless, and if things get messy, it’ll only bring trouble down on us.” Though every word made sense, his tone made it impossible to feel good about it.

Yan Ru wasn’t surprised he’d make that call., but she found it strange how bluntly he said it.

Still, she didn’t say anything. She just nodded in agreement, then excused herself, saying she needed to go adjust the valley’s defenses, and took her leave from Li Xun and Yan Shuiyue.

She’d only taken a couple of steps when something suddenly came to mind. She turned back to Li Xun. “Oh, right, about half a month ago, that newly appointed guest elder, Madam Li, came looking for you. I did what you told me: I explained Friend Shuiyue’s identity and let a few details slip. But she didn’t look very happy. She left without saying much.

“My master said she later asked the sect for leave, claiming she was going traveling. By now, who knows where she’s gone.”

“Not happy?” Li Xun paused for a moment, then smiled. “I see. Senior Sister, go ahead and take care of your work. I’ll wrap things up here as soon as I can. No point letting trouble brew.”

Yan Ru gave him a long, measuring look, nodded slightly, and then walked away with a small smile.

Li Xun strolled into the little pavilion, smiling but saying nothing. Yan Shuiyue shot him a cool glance. “So, you’re finally ready to ask those two questions?”

Li Xun flashed a grin but still didn’t answer. He just dropped into a seat like he owned the place, picked up a cup of flower tea, and downed it in one go.

...

Happy New Year, fellow cultivators! Here’s to 2026 bringing you breakthrough after breakthrough.