Chapter 2160.1: Severed Meridians

“What do you think of this matter?” Lu Tianling asked instead of offering his own views.

“There’s two possibilities..” He Wuheng mused. “The first is that the young master has finally learned a painful lesson from his last run-in and matured during the three months.”

“The other?” Light glinted in Lu Tianling’s eyes.

“..a powerhouse has possessed his body..”

Lu Yun had not been reborn through possession. Just as the Tome of Life and Death had once brought him to the world of immortals through the power of reincarnation, he was well and truly in this world. He really was Lu Yun, like he’d been reincarnated into the boy.

The past him was completely sealed beneath three thousand reincarnations. He wouldn’t fully awaken until he became the heavenly dao. At that point, he would travel through space and time to return to his home and safeguard his homeland.

Everyone had a past life—the past Lu Yun was the equivalent of his past life. Everything he possessed now was a result of three thousand worlds and three thousand lifetimes.

....

Dark City, the Ouyang Clan.

Ouyang Shengmu was pale as a sheet and his life hung by a thread. An Ouyang elder with an initial nascent soul cultivation exhausted his qi to keep Ouyang Shengmu alive, but was also grievously injured for his efforts.

A domineering man of roughly forty years old stood in front of Ouyang Shengmu’s bed. Killing intent shown out of his eyes. He was the current patriarch of the Ouyang Clan—Ouyang Baitian!

At latter nascent soul, he was one of the strongest in Darklake Empire.

The Ouyang Clan had existed in Darklake for thousands of years. Its foundations ran deep and the authority that Ouyang Baitian commanded was nothing that an upstart like Lu Tianling could compare to.

If it wasn’t for Lu Tianling possessing unparalleled strength and being the absolute strongest within the empire, the Lus wouldn’t have been able to establish themselves as a clan. The other six families would’ve razed it to the ground long ago.

Even so, the formation of the Lu Clan severely threatened the profits of the old cultivation families. They ostracized the newcomer at every turn, with the Ouyangs and Yuwens openly hostile to the Lus.

“The Lus are becoming ever more recklessly wanton. Ouyang Shengmu looks to be completely crippled,” a man dressed like a scholar said softly next to Ouyang Baitain.

“You Lings have suffered quite a loss too. That family of trash wrecked your Lingtian Pill Pavilion.” Ouyang Baitian smiled a smile that didn’t reach his eyes when he looked at the man.

The scholarly man was the patriarch of one of the seven great families—Ling Chongxiao.

“It’s just a pill pavilion, it doesn’t matter if it’s gone.” Ling Chongxiao didn’t mind in the slightest. “But since the poison pill has landed in Lu Tianling’s hands, our plan can commence ahead of time.”

“The Lings should not take action openly,” rang a third voice—patriarch of the Yuwens, Yuwen Zonglin. “The Lings look to be friendly with the Lus on the surface and it’s the Lus who’ve seized the pill from you. It has nothing to do with your clan. If the emperor is involved again this time, he will be wary of you even if the Lus don’t die.”

“Hmph! That Lu Tianling is just a genius from one of Darklake’s vassal nations, a second rank cultivation empire! How dare a bumpkin establish a clan in Darklake?!” Ling Chongxiao snorted.

Darklake Empire possessed two major second rank vassals—Dark Empire and Wing Empire. Lu Tianling came from Dark Empire.

Second rank cultivation empires saw golden core cultivators as their strongest citizens. But in Dark Empire, when one reached peak golden core, their superior nation took the cultivator away, no matter what their identity was.

When it came to the reasons.. a primary one was that a superior state would never permit a vassal nation to grow stronger and possibly out of control. The second was that resources were limited in a second rank nation. Even if the cultivator in question broke through to nascent soul, they would be hard pressed to take another step forward.

Darklake Empire brimmed with rich resources, enough to help a nascent soul cultivator continue on their path. The strongest of the empire were nascent soul cultivators. Any who made it to the empire were treated graciously and bestowed a high position.

But one such as Lu Tianling, establishing a great clan on equal footing with the other six blue bloods of the nation.. Well, that was unheard of.

Of course, once Lu Tianling or the three patriarchs reached latter nascent soul and seemed ready to break through to soul projection, Darklake’s superior nation—Dark Orchid Empire—would take the cultivator away.

There had been some cultivators among the six families or imperial family who reached the soul projection stage. They’d all joined Dark Orchid factions to become their subordinates or guest elders.

“The emperor is biased, what can we do?” Ouyang Baitian shook his head.

Due to a misunderstanding that Lu Yun had died three months ago, Lu Tianling stormed the Ouyang Clan with incandescent rage. Despite being surrounded by Ouyang experts, he killed one nascent soul powerhouse and two latter golden core ones before retreating at leisure.

After he was injured to save Lu Yun, the Ouyangs led their people to exterminate the Lu Clan. Emperor Situ Wenxian had stopped them, and that was the end of the matter.

“We can now visit him with the same excuse that Lu Tianling used against us. Let’s see what the emperor has to say this time!” Yuwen Zonglin snorted. If the emperor stopped them again, that would truly weaken the loyalty of the old families.

“But we must be on our guard still no matter what. The Lings cannot take action. Baitian and I are sufficient.”

None of the patriarchs mentioned Lu Yun from beginning to end. In their eyes, that was just Lu Tianling using his grandson to take revenge on the Ouyang Clan. What’d happened at Lingtian Pill Pavilion was a coincidence. It was precisely the type of behavior expected from Lu Yun as he’d committed no end of acts like these before.

....

The sun set in the west. Inside his meditation chamber, Lu Yun wiped off his forehead and slowly stood up, his footsteps a bit unsteady.

“I’m going to have a tough time explaining myself when grandfather asks about this,” Lu Yun sighed as he looked at the jade green pill in his hands. He felt that he had nothing to hide, but it was still more than a bit ludicrous to speak of taking the heavenly dao as his master and undergoing three thousand reincarnations.

Lying would be more believable, and for some reason, Lu Yun felt that becoming the heavenly dao’s disciple was a significant matter for more reasons than one. It had to do with an enormous plan that required proceeding with extreme caution.

“Mm, let’s just say that I’ve taken a stunning powerhouse as my master. That’s not really a lie as I really do have a stunning master.” Lu Yun swallowed a qi replenishment pill he’d brought back from Lingtian Pill Pavilion. His exhausted stores of Hongmeng qi recovered somewhat.

He naturally knew that his doings of the day wouldn’t escape his grandfather’s notice. He could even guess Lu Tianling’s reaction. It would be very alarming if Lu Tianling was unmoved, so it was to be expected that his grandfather would have certain questions. If nothing else, he would ask because he cared about his grandson.

The situation was similar to a student who always failed his tests suddenly testing full marks. The first thing that the parents and teacher needed to do wasn’t to praise the student, but to wonder if he’d cheated.

It was only logical.

More importantly was that Lu Yun knew today’s events were a scheme set up by the Ouyangs, Yuwen, and the Lings in the shadows. It wasn’t aimed at him, but at his grandfather.

If it’d looked like his defeat was imminent, Lu Tianling’s contingency plan would activate. Of course, the Yuwens and Ouyangs were no fools. They certainly had their preparations ready as well.

In that case, Lu Yun decided to go on the offensive and ensure that he occupied the moral high ground. He played along with their plans, and he foresaw that the two families would attempt to kick in their door in a few more days. They wanted to make use of him taking the poison pill, if nothing else.

....

When Lu Yun walked out of his room, he saw his second uncle sitting grumpily on a stone stool in the yard. The man’s cheeks were puffed out like an irate toad.

“Aiyo, what’s brought second uncle to my residence?” Lu Yun asked merrily.

“You’re finally willing to come out, huh?” Lu Xiaochi snorted. “What evil doings have you gotten up to in your room?”

“Um..” Lu Yun scratched his nose with embarrassment. “I was tired after making some money today so I.. took a nap.” He stretched and yawned to punctuate his words.

Lu Xiaochi rolled his eyes. “What are you trying to do?”

“What do you mean, second uncle?” Lu Yun was the perfect picture of baffled innocence.

“How do you explain what happened today??” Lu Xiaochi sniffed. “The vendor on the street was at least eighty years old. Why did you rob him?”

“Eh, didn’t I say? That guy yelled into my ears for quite a few years. He was annoying me to tears and I was incredibly irritated. Who else would I take it out on, if not him?” Lu Yun curled his lip.

Lu Xiaochi’s baleful expression deepened as he had no response to that.

“Immortal Gathering? How do you explain yourself there?”

“Huh? Immortal Gathering?” Lu Yun blinked.

“Ouyang Shengxiang!” Lu Xiaochi ground his teeth.

“Oh.. um.. surely you jest, second uncle,” Lu Yun coughed awkwardly. “She’s one of the three great beauties of the capital and the lover of my dreams, the goddess of my heart. Your nephew simply spoke of what we all want. Ouyang Shenghe beat me up because I took a peek at her bathing. Um.. the red mole really is very charming!”

Lu Xiaochi gaped, Lu Xuan remained as expressionless as always, and Lan’er covered her mouth.

“Er, you are dismissed, Lan’er. What we’re going to talk about is not fit for children.” Lu Yun waved her off.

Lan’er reddened and quickly retreated.

“Second uncle, I know you have certain thoughts about Ouyang Shengxiang, so your nephew will describe her beauty to you. She has curves in all the right places, whatever should be big is big and whatever should be small is small. Especially her.. just a hair bigger would be too big, just a tad smaller would be too small..”

“Enough!”