Spirit Vessel

In a distant place at the Grand Southern Prefecture, the Evil Woman stood on a high peak with her cold eyes blinking towards the horizon. She reached out with her finger, and a beam of light appeared like a shooting star soaring across the sky.

On this day, many cultivators in the Grand Southern Prefecture saw this spectacle in the sky. A beam containing a world-destroying power shot through the horizon towards the northern region.

“Bang bang!”

This beam of light was accompanied by rolling thunder. It soared all the way through the Trinity County for 170,000 miles before falling on the Wanxiang Pagoda.

A vast murderous sensation descended from the sky, causing the experts from the previous generation of the pagoda to be greatly alarmed. This white beam of light caused even the sky to change its shade as it attacked the pagoda. This killing aura caused the clouds to roar and brought along cold and sharp winds.

“Where might Fellow Expert hail from?” The four old protectors of the Spirit Treasure Tower all pointed their fingers at the sky. Four spirit lights combined together to form an ancient formation like the shell of a Black Tortoise.

“Bam!”

The ancient formation was immediately pierced by the white light, and the four powerful old men were all injured at the same time as their bodies shook, spurting out blood.

They were all experts close to the Giant level, experts with comparable power to a Tower Lord, but their joint effort could not stop this white light.

“Hmph! This Evil Woman is indeed arrogant. Wanting to destroy the Spirit Treasure Tower from thousands of miles away, she really does not put us in her eyes.” The Spirit Treasure Tower Lord was a real Giant. Moreover, she was also a ninth rank Treasure Seeking Master with a vision countless times that of an ordinary man. Just a single glance could surpass 100,000 miles. She could faintly see the Evil Woman’s supreme figure standing on top of the Heavenly Cloud Peak like an evil god in a painting.

Right when her eyes met the Evil Woman, the Evil Woman also coldly glared at her.

“Pluff!” The Tower Lord’s eyes felt a sharp pain. She withdrew her gaze from thousands of miles away like a receding tide. Two drops of blood suddenly spilled from the corners of her eyes. She was actually wounded by the Evil Woman’s glare!

The Tower Lord was extremely shaken. This Evil Woman was too terrifying. Fortunately, she had reached the Giant level. Otherwise, she would have died for sure under that glare.

A first level Heaven’s Mandate cultivator could control a sword to kill someone from a thousand miles away, but the Evil Woman almost blinded the Tower Lord from 170,000 miles away.

However, the Wanxiang Pagoda was still the number one learning sacred ground in the world, and the Spirit Treasure Tower was the number one forbidden ground of the pagoda, so there were many experts hiding in the darkness to protect it. After their combined efforts, they finally managed to repel the single finger beam from the Evil Woman. Nevertheless, many old men were also gravely injured since they paid a great price.

No one knew why the Evil Woman suddenly decided to attack the Spirit Treasure Tower. Many became alarmed since the Evil Woman had dared to attack this tower. Maybe sooner or later, she will rush into the pagoda.

Feng Feiyun opened his eyes and his divine intent went back into his brain. He clearly knew that the Evil Woman had taken action earlier. Could this have something to do with him entering the Corpse Palace?

Even if everything was just an illusion, the Corpse Palace was still hiding a huge secret about the Evil Woman.

‘It is best that the Evil Woman doesn’t rush into the Wanxiang Pagoda.’ He had such a thought in his mind.

***

On this day, many great characters from the pagoda all entered the Spirit Treasure Tower and had a secret meeting. Groups came and went; clearly, they were all startled by the Evil Woman.

Just one attack from 170,000 miles away was already that frightening; if she personally came, then even if the pagoda had experts as numerous as the clouds, it still wouldn’t necessarily be able to stop her.

Feng Feiyun and Murong Ta were nothing before these experts, so as they walked down the stone steps, no one even bothered giving them a glance.

“Have you seen the Evil Woman before?” Murong Ta curiously asked while walking next to Feng Feiyun.

“Of course I’ve met her!” Feng Feiyun slightly looked at him with a strange glimmer in his eyes before staring at him more intensely. Then, he stroked his chin with an even more meticulous glance.

Murong Ta punched him in the chest and pretended to be angry: “I’m not a girl, so why are you staring at me like this?”

“Nothing, I’m just curious... Your eyebrows are a bit asymmetrical right now, why are you so nervous?” His lips curled into a smile as he suddenly put his arm around Murong Ta’s thin shoulder and dragged him over before whispering into his ear: “I’ll tell you a secret. Back in my Spirit State City, everyone used to say this: a person with asymmetrical eyebrows might appear to be stoic on the outside, but they are very warm on the inside... Ow! You actually hit my chest. It hurts a lot, stop, I’m only speaking the truth!” [1. The term used in this passage is 闷骚; I couldn’t come up with a good equivalence in English, but it almost has the meaning of a tsundere, except it is a lot more broad and even has a positive connotation. It could be an introverted person who is full of passion and hope. “A person with asymmetrical eyebrows is a tsundere.”]

“How could your place have such a saying?” Murong Ta pushed Feng Feiyun’s arm away and kept on going down the stairs. He didn’t bother looking back at him as if he was angry.

“Hey, why are you so petty as a man! I’m only joking around. How about this, two days later, I’ll make it up to you with a flower drinking session, yeah?” Feng Feiyun chased after him and once again grabbed his shoulder without any reservation, revealing quite a free spirit. [2. Flower drinking session means going to a brothel.]

“I don’t want to go to such a dirty place.” Murong Ta once again pushed Feng Feiyun’s arm away, but Feng Feiyun hugged him too tightly so he couldn’t break apart.

It was very normal for good brothers to act so close together!

“Brother Murong, your words are quite mistaken. Without prostitutes, how could we have so many wonderful and romantic tales? A young person should enjoy his life, you are way too obstinate.” Feng Feiyun pulled on Murong Ta’s neck and sighed deeply.

“Hmph, unfortunately, these romantic tales all end with men betraying the hearts of women. A brothel might be a paradise for men like us, but it is hell for the spirit of women.” Murong Ta’s eyes became cold with a glimmer of ruthlessness.

“A dog’s butcher has more affection than the unloyal scholars. We are the butchers, with friendship and loyalty, so those heartless bastards are not the same as us.” [3. The first sentence has a very interesting background story. Back in the Ming Dynasty, the royal family was conceited and arrogant, including their servants. One of their favourite hobbies was to take their dogs on a stroll and have them bite/kill people for fun. One day, they met a scholar, but right before the scholar was about to be killed, a butcher showed up and killed the dog. Later, the servants brought this case to court; the servants blackmailed the scholar into betraying the butcher, and the scholar ultimately decided to betray his benefactor. However, the judge was wise and ruled against both the servants and scholar. The judge then spoke the phrase: A dog’s butcher has more affection than the unloyal scholars.]

“Friendship and loyalty!” Murong Ta laughed in a sarcastic manner.

Feng Feiyun looked at him and asked: “Why is Brother Murong laughing in such an exaggerated manner?”

“Nothing, I am only remembering a bad person.” Murong Ta said.

“Bad in what way?” Feng Feiyun asked.

“When I was a kid, my mother told me about this sinful man named Feng Laisan. At three years of age, he was a beggar; at five, he was competing for food with pigs and dogs; at nine, he became a thief. After fourteen years of age, he did even more evil deeds. On a cold winter day with three feet of snow, Feng Laisan met a girl from the same village as him. She was wearing very thin and tattered clothing, and even her shoes had holes in it. She was running in the cold snow, wanting to go to town to get her sick mother some medicine. Meanwhile, Feng Laisan was rolling in the snow. He had been hungry for three days and three nights. This girl took pity on him and gave him the last of her bun so that he didn’t die from starvation.” Murong Ta was telling the story while going down the Spirit Treasure Tower. [4. Ergou = second dog; Laisan = regene third. Feng Ergou was one of Feng Feiyun’s previous aliases, and obviously this Feng Laisan is also meant to be him.]

Feng Feiyun was still hugging his shoulder while listening very carefully before suddenly interjecting: “The snow covered even the mountain, yet this girl still weathered the cold to go get medicine for her mother. This filial piety is quite commendable.”

“Of course it is quite commendable, but she met a sinful man like Feng Laisan.” Murong Ta said as he gritted his teeth.

“Surely this Feng Laisan’s sexual urge was incited after meeting this girl?” Feng Feiyun asked.

“Not just that. After eating the bun, this bastard raped the girl in the snow. Afterward, he slashed the extremely ill mother of the girl to death and took the girl in as his wife. A fellow righteous villager came to demand justice. Make a guess, what did this sinful Feng Laisan say?” Murong Ta looked straight at Feng Feiyun and asked.

“What did he say?” Feng Feiyun inquired.

“He said he was a humane person with loyalty!” Murong Ta wryly sneered and replied. [5. For this part, I believe the sinful man is saying he is loyal because he is marrying the girl, and is humane by killing the extremely sick mother to spare her from suffering further since the girl couldn’t get medicine? This part was vague for me too, but this conjecture makes sense.]

“Haha!” Feng Feiyun burst out in laughter and said: “Such a scum still considers himself a humane and loyal person. That is the funniest thing in this world.” After laughing, Feng Feiyun became serious and said: “Is Feng really his last name?”

“Definitely!” Murong Ta asserted.

“And he is called Feng Laisan?” Feng Feiyun asked again.

“That is not for certain.” Murong Ta paused for a bit and then said: “In the end, it is already not easy to remember the last name of such scum like this, let alone his full name.” Murong Ta then grunted and quickly stepped outside. [6. The strokes for these names are similar with each other. This is San 三, and this is Yun 云.]

Feng Feiyun stood in the same spot while staring at Murong Ta’s back as he stroked his chin. His eyes narrowed with a smirk, carrying a deep meaning.

“Hey, wait for me!” Feng Feiyun once again rushed forward and hugged Murong Ta’s shoulder again. Because he was taller than Murong Ta, he almost pulled Murong Ta’s face into his chest.