Chapter 8: Put the Plan into Action Immediately!

The library on Hengxue Mountain was divided into two types: cultivation techniques and manuals, and miscellaneous books and histories.

The cultivation world also had history books, but they were written by mortals.

Mortals loved compiling histories, and historical texts clearly recorded the turmoil of the cultivation world. Therefore, if one wanted to glimpse the cultivation world’s past, one actually had to seek help from folk records and miscellaneous writings.

This library was as vast as a sea of smoke, gathering writings from all under heaven. Meng Baixu suspected that during all these years when Wen Tingshu never stepped out of his door, he had already read every book in the world.

Meng Baixu located the second shelf in the second row and easily found some storybooks—with illustrations.

He leaned against the bookshelf, sat on the floor, and spread the book open on his knees.

Mm!

The first page was already kissing!

Meng Baixu’s eyes widened roundly. He lifted the book toward the light, looking at the blurry ink lines where the four lips met.

It was drawn so unclearly. How was he supposed to self-study like this?

Meng Baixu imagined the vague lip shape as Shizun’s appearance, and only then did his heart suddenly become enlightened.

So it could be done like this.

As for how to have a child with Wen Tingshu, he only had a rough and general idea. He did not know how it worked in practice.

No wonder Shizun was always urging him to read more books. Storybooks were open and honest, unlike Shizun, who hid and concealed things.

Meng Baixu snapped his fingers, making the night pearls in the library shine at their brightest, illuminating the room like daylight.

There were five books in total. He threw away the ones about men and women, only reading the ones about male love. Fortunately, male-male relationships were common not only in the cultivation world, but also among mortals. There were many cut-sleeves among mortals too, and the descriptions of such matters were very detailed.

Meng Baixu could not help touching his own backside, feeling a little nervous.

It was fine, it was fine. Shizun would not let him suffer.

He carefully pondered every page he read. Mortals were still too weak. They often had to rely on tools. For example, with this position, using just a little spiritual power would be enough.

Some mortals spent their whole lives pursuing the writing of books and biographies. It did not matter what kind of book it was; they wanted to publish and compile everything into volumes.

The cultivation world respected teachers and honored the Dao, strictly forbidding rebellious storybooks. But the mortal world had no such taboos, whether meat or vegetarian. When Meng Baixu passed by, he had bought a large pile of forbidden books. It was just inconvenient to read them while living on Hengxue Mountain.

Once his matter succeeded, he would go to a teahouse and listen to storytelling.

Still unsatisfied, Meng Baixu closed the illustrated book and returned the books to their original positions.

He looked at the spotless pearwood shelves and fell into thought.

When did Wen Tingshu read these books?

Was it when he was twenty?

Or when he was two hundred?

Was his mood the same when he read them?

At two hundred, Wen Tingshu was already an old thing. He definitely could finish reading them without changing expression.

But what about when he was twenty?

Would he have been restless like Meng Baixu?

The moon was full on the fifteenth, bright, clear, and gentle.

Meng Baixu studied for two shichen. When he walked out of the library, all was silent, with only the sound of insects remaining.

The lamp in Shizun’s room had already gone dark.

Meng Baixu smacked his lips. Since Shizun was asleep, he might as well go down the mountain to buy something to eat, see if mortals had any newly released good books, buy them back to relieve Wen Tingshu’s boredom, and finally bring the Renxu secret realm up.

He had not known before that reading could relieve boredom. Today, he finally learned that it really could.

He summoned his divine sword and rode it upward. But when he rushed out of Hengxue Mountain, he encountered a burst of fierce wind, and Fengxing Sword was forced to turn back.

Meng Baixu was caught off guard and nearly stumbled off the sword.

What was going on?

Why had Wen Tingshu suddenly set up a special barrier for him?

Was he afraid Meng Baixu would secretly bring the forbidden books out and pass them around to his shidi?

Treating his disciple like a thief?

Meng Baixu muttered complaints as he got off the sword. He raised a hand and hugged the long sword, then spread his palm toward the bright moon and gently blew.

A flying kite trailing a long silver stream of light floated upward, passed through Wen Tingshu’s array, and flew outside, connecting to the Renxu secret realm below the mountain.

The sect leader had completed his studies.

All that was missing was an east wind.

Once the Renxu secret realm was blown to Hengxue Mountain, there would be a romantic encounter of wind, flowers, snow, and moon.

The next day, Meng Baixu still wanted to go to the dining hall for breakfast. He stood under the viburnum tree, lifted his chin, and told Shizun, “I’m going to learn how to make tofu pudding for you.”

Wen Tingshu said, “I’m not so old that my teeth have fallen out.”

What was that? Tofu pudding was not something only toothless people could eat. Why did Shizun sound a little sour?

“You don’t need to send me!”

Meng Baixu stepped down the heavenly stairs. When he stood on the first step, he turned back to look at Shizun, who was quietly standing under the tree and seeing him off. Suddenly, he felt that Shizun’s unwillingness to leave Hengxue Mountain was truly wonderful.

The timing and location could be prepared by this sect leader.

As for the most important human factor—

Shizun was always here.

Meng Baixu gave Shizun a huge smile. His eyes were full of the vitality of the morning sun, the silver hairpin in his hair shone brilliantly, and the white gauze at his feet fluttered.

Wen Tingshu stared at Meng Baixu’s robe hem and suddenly thought: since when had Meng Baixu always been wearing white?

Meng Baixu rustled down the mountain.

He had woken early because he needed to go to the back kitchen and find Liu Xishi, discussing matters while making tofu pudding. When he passed by the Golden Summit Square, he saw several shidi skilled in yin-yang and the five elements observing the celestial signs.

He moved closer and casually asked, “What’s there to look at?”

“Heaven and earth, wind and clouds, countless weather phenomena. Knowing the past allows one to comprehend tomorrow,” the young man wearing a banner hat answered. When he saw that it was Da-shixiong, he quickly bowed. “Good morning, Da-shixiong.”

“Morning.”

Meng Baixu clasped his hands behind his back and followed his shidi’s gaze toward the sea of clouds beneath their feet, where mist surged and rolled in brilliant colors.

This was the cloud-viewing platform with the best view in the Hengxue Sect, but Meng Baixu often could not get up, so he had never watched it before.

“May I ask, shidi, when will there be a strong east wind recently?”

Since Da-shixiong was testing his studies, the shidi did not dare be negligent. He calmed his heart and calculated, then said, “At three quarters past noon.”

So soon.

Meng Baixu was secretly startled.

Committing indecency in broad daylight—wasn’t this asking for Wen Tingshu’s life?

“How strong will it be?”

The shidi said, “Stronger than the fire burning Red Cliffs.”

Then this would be the wind.

Meng Baixu clasped his hands together.

Wen Tingshu’s old house should catch fire too.

In the back kitchen of the cultivation dining hall, Liu Xishi was grinding tofu pudding as he had done for ten years. Meng Baixu snatched his ladle, scooped a spoonful of beans from the soybean basin, and poured it into the millstone.

Liu Xishi said, “One spoon of beans, six spoons of water.”

Meng Baixu set up a barrier around the two of them. Others could only see them working together to grind tofu pudding, but they could not hear their conversation.

“I have a detailed plan. It requires sacrificing one undercover agent.”

Liu Xishi was shocked. “There are other undercover agents?”

Meng Baixu looked at him. “You.”

Being stared at tightly by the great demon, Liu Xishi said with difficulty, “When?”

Meng Baixu said, “Three quarters past noon.”

Liu Xishi asked, “What does this subordinate need to do?”

Meng Baixu said, “You only need to reveal the things you have done. You brought the Renxu secret realm into Hengxue Mountain. You endured humiliation and hardship, sending the most terrible secret realm to Hengxue Mountain to take revenge on Wen Tingshu. I discovered the secret realm and entered first to investigate, only to be trapped inside. In order to save me, Shizun will definitely enter as well.”

Liu Xishi understood. The sect leader also wanted him to take this chance to escape.

“Then what about you, Sect Leader? Where do we meet? Should we summon the protectors to escort you back to Guiye City?”

Meng Baixu said, “No need. I’m not leaving yet.”

“Ah? Are you still going to nurture the fetus on Hengxue Mountain?”

Liu Xishi earnestly advised him, “Sect Leader, please think twice. This cursed place cannot nurture a little demon.”

Whether gray or black, everything would be taught into white here.

Meng Baixu looked at him speechlessly. “If the plan succeeds, this sect leader naturally cannot stay even a moment longer.”

Liu Xishi asked, “Then…”

Meng Baixu said, “Let me ask you: which book has ever written that one time is enough to successfully become pregnant? I at least have to confirm it before leaving.”

Liu Xishi said, “This subordinate did not consider thoroughly.”

Meng Baixu smiled and took out a bottle of medicine from his qiankun pouch, pouring all of it into the raw soy milk.

This was the Fuguang Sect’s secret formula. Only those who drank this medicine could see the entrance to the secret realm.

First, he would create chaos. At that time, everyone would see the secret realm they regarded as a festering sore openly floating above the pure land of Hengxue Sect.

Liu Xishi poured the raw soy milk into the pot to boil, then added brine.

Pieces of white curd condensed. The twenty-year-old signature tofu pudding was still ruined by Meng Baixu.

Liu Xishi looked around at the scenery.

As the dignified vice sect leader of the Fuguang Sect, he had idled away so many years on Hengxue Mountain. It was time to return to the proper path.

Although Zhongli Yun was hateful, he truly had a way of managing the Hengxue Sect. Over the years, Liu Xishi had also learned quite a lot from him.

The little sect leader had already grown up and was full of ambition. The members of the Fuguang Sect could no longer be lax.

In the past, Meng Fuguang liked to shoulder everything alone, sheltering the entire sect by himself. They had not understood the need to prepare for danger in times of peace. When calamity came, their formation fell into chaos. Just the matter of their whereabouts being exposed, leading to the Hengxue Sect tracking them and clearing secret realms one by one—despite repeated instructions, they still could not match the Hengxue Sect’s strict organization and cooperation.

Meng Baixu took a bowl from the finished tofu pudding and knocked half an aphrodisiac pill into it.

Liu Xishi’s eyelid twitched slightly. “This subordinate will quietly await good news from Sect Leader.”

***

“Today’s tofu pudding is free!”

“Large portions, eat your fill! Scoop it yourself!”

“Does Chef Liu have some happy event today?”

“Apparently his nephew’s son is one month old!”

“…”

“Uh, today’s tofu pudding seems to taste a little off.”

“Shh, don’t say it. Just eat.”

“Today’s tofu pudding was made together with Da-shixiong. He made it for the Sect Master. No one is perfect. Da-shixiong only has one small flaw: his cooking tastes bad. He really is perfect.”

“Delicious, delicious. Very delicious.”

Meng Baixu happily carried the tofu pudding back.

“Shizun, I made it.”

Wen Tingshu lowered his eyes and looked at the tofu pudding, which had quite a proper appearance.

“You didn’t make it alone.”

Meng Baixu said, “I added the soybeans spoonful by spoonful. The most important things were all added by me. How does that not count as me making it?”

Wen Tingshu said, “It counts.”

Meng Baixu watched Shizun eat one bite. That would be enough for later.

“Eat slowly. I’m going to class.”

Recently, Wen Tingshu had tasted several times the feeling of being cared for by his disciple in return. He could not help shaking his head and smiling.

He was becoming more and more like an adult.

He did not let down his disciple’s sincere heart. Even though the tofu pudding was a little coarse, he still ate it bite by bite until it was finished.

After finishing, he picked up the bamboo flute hanging under the tree. The water-controlling array had already been inserted into it. What remained was polishing it smooth and fixing the color. Bamboo would turn yellow after some time, but it had to remain lush and green to be worthy of his young, radiant disciple.

Gradually, the wind rose, and the viburnum flowers were blown like snow.

Wen Tingshu brushed away the white petals that had fallen onto his knees and stood, casually glancing at the rain clouds surging in from the east.

It was going to rain.

Fortunately, Lanshe knew rain-avoidance arts.

Suddenly, Wen Tingshu turned and looked straight at the mist hidden within the clouds, his expression becoming grave.

A secret realm.

He had not known that secret realms could grow feet and dare float over to Hengxue Mountain.

Could it be that another heavenly pillar had loosened?

The continent was covered layer upon layer with secret realms, like three thousand worlds. As early as three hundred years ago, Wen Tingshu had discovered that these three thousand worlds had faint signs of pressing downward.

The secret realms were all filled with obsessions. In that catastrophe when spiritual qi dried up, none of the great powers who died from their bodies exploding had been willing to accept it. Once they descended and merged with the cultivation continent, they would seize bodies and revive, rampaging in a chaotic state, mindless and witless, spreading outward.

However, heaven had four pillars: Kunlun, Great Wilderness, Buzhou, and Hengxue—the four largest spiritual mountain ranges in the cultivation world. They supported heaven and earth, drove down the turbid, raised the clear, and separated the secret realms from the continent.

Wen Tingshu had visited every divine mountain and finally discovered where the problem lay: Hengxue Mountain.

The peak of Hengxue Mountain had suffered a fracture in its pillar. The heavenly pillar was imbalanced, which gave the secret realms a chance to press downward.

Wen Tingshu used his own body in place of the pillar, guarding Hengxue Mountain and never leaving even a step for the rest of his life, stopping the secret realms from pressing down.

One person worrying about the sky falling was enough.

But the cultivators of the cultivation world still had to grow strong themselves. If one day came when they had to fight those spreading thousand-year-old remnant souls of great powers, they had to be capable of victory.

Thus, he founded the Hengxue Sect, comprehended a method for breaking realms, and had cultivators diligently study. Once they learned enough skills, he sent them out to clear secret realms.

Although the secret realms were dense, invisible, and untouchable, they could not regenerate, while cultivators were passed down generation after generation.

One day, they would see the blue sky.

At this moment, one-third of the cultivators in the Hengxue Sect saw the swirling dark clouds floating in midair.

“A secret realm!”

“This is the entrance to a secret realm!”

Experienced cultivators recognized it at a glance. It was only that the cloud cave of this entrance looked far too strange and dangerous, meaning the owner of the secret realm had extremely high cultivation before death. They could not be careless.

“Why can’t I see it? Where is it? What does it look like?”

“You can’t see it?”

The Hengxue Sect trained every day. After discovering the abnormality, they quickly reflected and compared among themselves. They discovered that only those who had eaten tofu pudding that morning could see it.

At this moment, Zhongli Yun appeared, his face dark enough to drip water.

Liu Xishi was actually an undercover agent of the Fuguang Sect. By the time he discovered it, the man was already gone.

Did they think setting such a trap would accomplish anything? Did they think Wen Tingshu was vegetarian?

Zhongli Yun said, “Everyone, remain calm. Those who can see it and those who cannot, line up on the left and right. No mistakes.”

Meng Baixu raised his head and looked toward the secret realm.

“Everyone, step back. This secret realm is a high-level secret realm. Ordinary clearing methods do not apply. I will go in first to investigate. Without the Sect Master’s order, no one is allowed to enter. Violators will be severely punished.”

“Da-shixiong!”

“Meng Baixu!”

Zhongli Yun was shocked and reached out, but caught nothing.

Wen Tingshu’s precious disciple had gone in!

This was serious!

Amid the strange and treacherous waves of cloud, another white figure followed without hesitation.

“It’s the Sect Master.”

Zhongli Yun looked up at the sky.

With the Sect Master there, it should be fine…

Right?