Chapter 502: Master Ziyang, Breakthrough Opportunity
Wei Tu didn’t think that just because they now had a master–disciple title, Ancestor Chilong’s status would somehow rise above his.
The pros and cons of taking on a grown disciple might be unclear to younger cultivators, but an old demon like Ancestor Chilong knew them all too well.
Back then, if not for the trip to the Great Void Realm, where Che Gongwei risked his life to save him and Su Bing’er, Wei Tu wouldn’t have truly acknowledged him as his second master, even if he had joined as a disciple with skills already in hand.
In other words, taking Ancestor Chilong as his master now was just giving the old demon an empty title for the future. In terms of interests, nothing would change between them—their relationship would still be driven by Wei Tu’s “threats” and “pressure.”
He knew this, and Ancestor Chilong should know it too.
So when he heard the request, Wei Tu didn’t hesitate. He followed cultivation world ceremony and formally took Ancestor Chilong as his master.
…
Seeing Wei Tu accept so readily, Ancestor Chilong wasn’t surprised. He had long seen that Wei Tu’s nature leaned more toward the demonic path than the righteous one.
It wasn’t about stubbornness. In the end, what he asked wasn’t some humiliation for Wei Tu, so accepting it was only natural.
"This is the jade slip with the Wuchang Seal recorded in it."
Without wasting words, Ancestor Chilong directly took out the last seal technique he had kept hidden.
After speaking, he withdrew back into the Dragon Glaze Pearl, a flicker of anticipation in his eyes. Through the restrictive barrier outside the pearl, he watched Wei Tu’s cultivation.
He felt deep hatred toward Wei Tu.
If not for Wei Tu’s interference, he would have already used the Blood Puppet Rebirth Technique to seize Sun Chixin’s body.
After that, Wei Tu had threatened him repeatedly, coaxing or forcing many treasured secret arts out of his mind.
But when Wei Tu’s Nascent Soul reached 3.3 inches, breaking the early Nascent Soul limit, that hatred began to shift… Ancestor Chilong started to hope Wei Tu could achieve what he himself had failed to do—break through to the Divine Transformation stage.
He knew that once Wei Tu reached Divine Transformation, he might finally be free.
Because only then would his existence pose no real threat to Wei Tu.
Compared to eliminating a hidden danger, someone like Wei Tu—a “false righteous” type—would care more about the guilt of killing a master.
Ancestor Chilong was betting on that slim chance.
There was another reason he taught Wei Tu the Wuchang Seal—he wanted Wei Tu, after reaching mid Nascent Soul, to go to the Myriad Yin Sect and kill Qi Chengchu.
For that reason alone, he had no choice but to help Wei Tu raise his strength as much as possible now.
Fortunately, something pleased him—Wei Tu hadn’t used this as leverage to demand the complete Nine Secrets of Vitality in exchange.
He had stuck to their earlier agreement.
"How long has it been, and he’s already started practicing the Wuchang Seal? His comprehension might be even greater than I thought."
Two months later, when Ancestor Chilong saw blue ripples appearing on Wei Tu’s body, he couldn’t help but feel a flicker of surprise.
The [Wuchang Seal] was the true core of the Nine Secrets of Vitality. This seal alone could rival over ninety percent of high-grade Nascent Soul secret arts.
Even in the Divine Transformation stage, it was a rare technique.
He had found this seal as a divine transformation relic on the corpse of a cultivator in the Zunwang Palace.
With it, the Nine Secrets passed down by the Myriad Yin Sect had transformed into his own unique art, allowing him to dominate the cultivation world of Da Cang.
Time passed slowly.
Half a year later, as the blue ripples spread further across Wei Tu’s body, the aura within him grew calmer and deeper, like an ancient, quiet pool.
"Blood Vitality Seal!"
On this day, Wei Tu opened his eyes and spoke softly. His magic power began boiling instantly, sending out waves of pressure that made the spiritual array in the chamber flicker unsteadily.
At the same time, a faint green-blue spiritual light appeared around him, twisting and flowing like a serpent.
This was “magic power imbued with spirit,” a sign of extremely strong magic power in immortal cultivators.
Normally, only mid Nascent Soul cultivators and above could produce such power.
Yet today, Wei Tu, still at the peak of early Nascent Soul, reached this level through the Blood Vitality Seal alone—showing how terrifyingly this burst technique could amplify strength.
But soon, with another hand seal, his raging magic power fell eerily calm, like dark clouds before a storm.
Though it held immense force, all that thunderous power was locked within his small frame, not leaking a bit.
"It’s the Wuchang Seal!" From his spot in the corner of the closed-door chamber, Ancestor Chilong saw it clearly.
He saw the ghostly blue chains appearing on Wei Tu’s body.
It was those ghostly blue chains that firmly locked down the magic power in Wei Tu’s body, imprisoning that restless force inch by inch, strand by strand.
"Four years to master the Wuchang Seal… this boy’s talent far surpasses mine," Ancestor Chilong thought, a hint of genuine satisfaction flashing in his eyes—the kind a master felt when seeing a disciple become accomplished.
"Now that he’s mastered the Wuchang Seal, once he breaks past the Nascent Soul limit, advancing to mid Nascent Soul shouldn’t be a problem."
With that, Ancestor Chilong shook his head, his remnant soul withdrawing back into the Dragon Glaze Pearl, returning to the sleep he had interrupted.
The injuries he had sustained last time, when he helped Wei Tu escape Lüqiu Jinyuan’s pursuit, had yet to heal.
If Wei Tu hadn’t called him awake twice, he wouldn’t have come out to meet him at all.
…
Although Wei Tu had already succeeded in cultivating the [Wuchang Seal], there was still quite a way to go before he could break through to mid Nascent Soul.
Four years ago, Ancestor Chilong had given him a method to push past the realm barrier—use the Blood Vitality Seal to convert his blood and vitality into magic power, thereby increasing his total magic power until the mid Nascent Soul stage came naturally.
But spiritual energy was not the same as blood and vitality.
Wei Tu had plenty of top-grade spirit stones, but the body-tempering spiritual medicines to replenish a body cultivator’s blood and vitality were sorely lacking.
"From my original estimate of fifty years to break through, there are twenty-seven years left. Twenty-seven years isn’t long… but it should be enough."
He released both the Blood Vitality Seal and Wuchang Seal, adjusted his breathing for a short while, and thought this over.
Unlike most Nascent Soul cultivators, he was extremely wealthy after killing several peers of the same realm.
Even though all his spirit crystals were now spent, he still had plenty of fourth-grade spiritual herbs and treasures.
These were enough to quickly give him the resources to break past the Nascent Soul limit and reach the mid stage.
"Besides… there’s still the Shangliang Cai Clan."
Wei Tu’s gaze turned toward the Chu Kingdom.
Killing Old Ghost Cai had only been a small episode on his path before, hardly worth paying attention to.
Now, it was different.
The foundation of the Shangliang Cai Clan, a Nascent Soul family, could become a major boost to his cultivation.
Their spiritual lands and mines could be exchanged for fourth-grade “demonic beast flesh and blood” stored by the Beastmaster Sect.
To a talisman master, demonic beast flesh and blood was worth almost nothing.
That was why, during his last trade with Hu Yantu, Wei Tu had only bought the Beastmaster Sect’s fourth-grade beast hides and spiritual blood, ignoring the much larger stockpile of beast flesh.
Of course, part of that was because he wanted to keep his body-cultivation hidden.
While fourth-grade demonic beast flesh could raise his body-cultivation level somewhat, its effect wasn’t enough to justify exposing that secret.
It was more about gradual accumulation than any qualitative leap.
But right now, that same beast flesh was highly valuable to him—no less than top-tier blood-and-vitality spiritual medicine.
With that in mind, Wei Tu didn’t waste time. He took out his “instant teleportation array” and quietly slipped away from the Ying Ding Tribe, heading toward the Chu Kingdom.
…
More than twenty years had passed.
Ever since Old Ghost Cai, the Nascent Soul patriarch of the Shangliang Cai Clan, mysteriously vanished, the clan had been steadily devoured by two other Nascent Soul powers—the Beastmaster Sect and the Guangyuan Yu Clan.
Other Nascent Soul forces had wanted to get a share, but coming in late meant that taking the core spoils would inevitably pit them against the Beastmaster Sect and the Guangyuan Yu Clan, both of equal strength. So they had no choice but to back off and watch from the sidelines.
The Cai Clan, however, hadn’t sat and waited to die. The direct descendants holding Peach Rot Mountain, their ancestral seat, activated the clan’s protective array and began using their old connections to guard what remained.
A Nascent Soul family’s roots were deep.
Old Ghost Cai might have been the only Nascent Soul cultivator in the Shangliang Cai Clan, but he was like a single bright blossom on a massive, ancient tree.
The bloom was striking, but losing it didn’t mean the tree couldn’t survive.
Some connections might seem unimportant when a great power is thriving, but in a crisis, they could become a lifeline.
The Shangliang Cai Clan, rooted in the Chu Kingdom for over ten thousand years, had just found such a lifeline at the brink of destruction.
"Master Ziyang!"
On the mountain peak of the Cai Clan’s ancestral land, clan leader Cai Jieshen stood with the elders, gazing respectfully toward a purple-robed old man crossing from the west.
Master Ziyang was the Nascent Soul patriarch of Clear Feather Sect in the Chu Kingdom. Back when he was in the Golden Core stage, the Cai Clan’s eleventh-generation patriarch had helped him.
Because of that, Clear Feather Sect and the Shangliang Cai Clan had been on friendly terms for over a thousand years, even forming marriage ties.
Now, with the Cai Clan on the verge of annihilation, Master Ziyang’s willingness to step forward showed his character.
But simply lending a hand wasn’t enough to earn this level of respect from the Cai Clan members—after all, the crisis they faced wasn’t something a single Nascent Soul patriarch could easily resolve.
A few months earlier, the Cai Clan had spent heavily to send a Nascent Soul cultivator they were friendly with to visit the Beastmaster Sect’s mountain gate, hoping to persuade them to stop.
Unfortunately, it was useless.
After just a few dozen moves, he was defeated by Hu Yantu. He didn’t dare risk his life, so after apologizing to the Cai Clan, he left in haste.
But… Master Ziyang was different.
Master Ziyang was a famous, long-established Nascent Soul cultivator in the Chu Kingdom. His cultivation had already reached perfection, and in a short time, he was expected to break through to mid Nascent Soul.
With such a high cultivation, even if Hu Yantu, that barbarian from Jing, had solid combat power, he would still have to give Master Ziyang some face and end this war.
"Why is the Shangliang Cai Clan being swallowed by the Beastmaster Sect and the Guangyuan Yu Clan?"
"Do you have any idea?"
Master Ziyang descended, lightly shaking the horsetail whisk in his hand, and looked at the Cai Clan leader with a calm tone.
"Replying to Master, our Cai Clan has no clue."
The clan leader stepped forward, shook his head, and sighed, his voice tinged with sorrow.
He had no idea why their clan’s patriarch had suddenly disappeared without warning.
But thinking about the change in Guangyuan Yu Clan’s attitude toward them, he could only suspect the worst—that it was likely Guangyuan Yu Clan and Beastmaster Sect had worked together to kill Old Ghost Cai.
Because of this, those two forces could act as if they already knew the future and seize the Cai Clan’s holdings before anyone else could react.
"In that case, I will go to the Beastmaster Sect myself and have a talk with Hu Yantu. He should be willing to give me face."
Master Ziyang let out a deep sigh, a trace of sympathy in his eyes as he comforted the clan leader before confidently making his promise.
Hearing this, the Cai Clan cultivators didn’t doubt him. In the Chu Kingdom, Master Ziyang’s name was enough to make all forces think twice before acting.
…
"Master Ziyang?"
Half a month later, when Wei Tu arrived in the Chu Kingdom, he heard this name from Hu Yantu himself.
This was the man famous for pulling the Cai Clan out of the fire.
"It’s because of Master Ziyang that my Beastmaster Sect had no choice but to back off and retreat a thousand li from Rotten Peach Mountain."
Hu Yantu explained why both the Beastmaster Sect and Guangyuan Yu Clan had suddenly halted their advance.
"Last time, Daoist Wei, you said that if anyone tried to take the Cai Clan’s spiritual holdings, you might lend a hand…"
There was expectation in Hu Yantu’s eyes.
With Wei Tu’s ability to kill Old Ghost Cai unscathed, he didn’t think Wei Tu was weaker than Master Ziyang.
In other words, if Wei Tu was willing to act, the Beastmaster Sect could regain the advantage and seize the Cai Clan’s holdings.
Wei Tu didn’t deny it—after all, he had indeed agreed to Hu Yantu and the Yu Clan patriarch before.
Otherwise, just the fact that he had killed Old Ghost Cai wouldn’t have been enough to convince them to give him 70% of the Cai Clan’s spiritual holdings while they kept only 30%.
"As for Master Ziyang, I can deal with him. But we need to wait for the right moment."
Wei Tu paused in thought before replying.
In a fight between equals, he was confident he could beat Master Ziyang.
But why should he?
Why insist on fighting as equals?
Wasn’t it better to use strength to crush the weak?
Before, when he was still gathering resources for early Nascent Soul, he had no choice but to take risks and fight cultivators of his own realm for big gains.
But soon, he would break through to mid Nascent Soul.
Now he had a choice.
"The right moment?" Hu Yantu had doubts, but he didn’t really question Wei Tu.
After all, Wei Tu had the record of killing Old Ghost Cai—someone beyond his right to doubt.
And then—
When he heard the real reason Wei Tu had come to see him, all doubt vanished.
"Daoist Wei, you… want fourth-grade demonic beast flesh? Could it be…?" Hu Yantu’s heart trembled, his face filled with disbelief.
Fourth-grade beast flesh was only useful to the Beastmaster Sect for cultivating beast transformation techniques.
For most, its only purpose was to strengthen blood and vitality—as a “body-cultivation medicine.”
In other words, Wei Tu might not just be a Daoist cultivator—he might also be a body cultivator.