Chapter 143: Ahem, ahem, ahem, hehehe

"Disciple doesn't understand." In the dead of night on the fifth and a half day, Liang Si was woken up to do hard labor. They were currently standing upon a patch of broken walls and ruined courtyard.

This courtyard was situated slightly to the south of Mogan City, a desolate little place. Over the past few days, there had been traces of thunderclouds scorching the ground here, and numerous footprints even appeared within the courtyard.

"What don't you understand?"

"Since this is a place Senior Uncle and the others visited, and Mogan City has already returned to peace, why has Master brought this disciple here to keep watch for two nights?"

"Just look at how soundly your First Master is sleeping right now!"

"..." Liang Si.

"Work more, speak less."

"..." Liang Si: "Understood."

"When you are supposed to know, you will naturally be told."

"Tonight is the night of the full moon, and we've waited a long time for this." Lu Wei drifted out from Wen Jingē's body. "I only knew that on the full moon night, my chances of finding my physical body would be slightly higher. The location was chosen by your Master, who called it the ancestral land of Qianyan."

"The place chosen by Master surely cannot be wrong."

Having experienced the events of her past life, although Liang Si was often helpless regarding Wen Jingē's occasional embarrassing moments, she still placed unconditional trust in her during critical times.

"Flatterer!" Lu Wei gave her a side-eye. "If I die once more, will you cling to me like this as well? When people speak ill of me behind my back, will you spit a mouthful of water and drown them?"

Liang Si stared at him for a long time. "...No."

"Why?"

"In my past life..."

"Ahem, cough, cough, cough! Get to work! No, cough, no slacking off!"

"Fine, fine, fine, I won't ask if I'm not supposed to. It's not like you fell into demonic cultivation under my guidance in our past life!"

Liang Si's face turned pale, and she smiled awkwardly, "Ha-ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha, F-First Master is joking!"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, I must be joking." Wen Jingē finished echoing him, picked up her shovel, and began to work.

"Wait, did I really guess right?"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..." Wen Jingē coughed.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha..." Liang Si chuckled foolishly.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha..."

Two gazes landed simultaneously on Lu Wei, who was still in soul form. He said uncomfortably, "I just felt that if I didn't make some strange noises, I wouldn't fit in."

Liang Si: ...

Wen Jingē: ...

"You two, get to work, don't stop! It's almost the Zi hour; if we miss this month, we'll have to wait until the next."

"Do you think your body is buried deep?"

"It should... be pretty deep, right? Otherwise, grave robbers would have dug it up already."

"That makes sense." Wen Jingē closed her eyes. Seeing the two of them looking at her in bewilderment, she explained, "I recently comprehended a bit of the Soul Clan's techniques. Let's try it out. If it doesn't work, we'll just keep digging."

Lu Wei: "You really only comprehended a bit?"

"Just a bit," Wen Jingē said modestly.

"Should I step away first?" There were too many past precedents, leaving Lu Wei perpetually on edge.

"The Soul Clan? Such a low-damage minor race, what high-level spells could they possibly cast? Seeing one would be like seeing a ghost."

Lu Wei looked around vigilantly, scurrying over to Liang Si's side to stand back-to-back with him. "Little Five Wen, you know what? Right now, I'm terrified that the moment you finish saying those words, a ghost is going to pop up beside me."

Wen Jingē's mouth twitched. Though speechless inwardly, she still put on the demeanor of an expert on the outside.

During those early days of descending the mountain, leading disciples in performing rituals, she had made occasional appearances. The frequency wasn't high, but she had mastered the dignified posture of a grand master to perfection.

Regardless of whether you actually know how or not, as long as you put up the front, people will feel at ease around you.

Seeking gods, asking Buddhas, and kowtowing to immortals are all about seeking peace of mind.

As for whose mind is being put at ease, that depends on the believer themselves.

"Don't panic! Don't panic! Don't panic when facing trouble! Take out an image-recording stone and capture it as a souvenir."

At this time, Liang Si did not yet fully understand the multi-functional nature of the image-recording stone. Because this world lacked advertisements, let alone advertising laws, she had no idea this gadget could be sold for a pretty penny in her Master's hands.

She naively produced the image-recording stone and naively activated the recording function.

Then, amidst a flurry of lightning and flint-like maneuvers, her Master ascended to the heavens once more, and her Master burrowed into the earth again—ascending, burrowing, ascending, burrowing...

The speed was so astonishingly fast that even the surrounding stones could not endure the commotion. On the projection of the image-recording stone, all that could be seen was a human-shaped flash of lightning trailing sparks and electric arcs, drilling into the sky and burrowing into the earth.

If placed in later generations, workers would surely be delighted, for this was a human-shaped electric drill that provided continuous discharge without needing to be plugged in.

Soon, Wen Jingē came to a halt. This time, she fell directly into the cave she had carved out herself.

She spat out the silt and sand from her mouth. "I found it. A coffin of ice, and you've been hacked into eight pieces."

Lu Wei had yet to recover from Wen Jingē's shocking performance.

By the time he rose to prominence, the Soul Clan was already marching toward its twilight. He had no idea why the Soul Clan was treated as pariahs by the Three Realms, nor did he know what an officially qualified member of the Soul Clan was capable of.

He simply could not connect Wen Jingē's fluid and effortless movements just now with the legendary techniques of the Soul Clan; instead, he associated her more with a ground-burrowing rat.

"Master?" Liang Si snapped out of her trance. She slapped herself across the face to confirm she wasn't dreaming, then leaped down into the circular opening nearly two meters in diameter on the ground.

"Master, are you down there?"

"Tell your First Master to come down. I've been shouting for ages, and he still hasn't come down." Wen Jingē tutted. "As for this body, I'm afraid you won't be able to use it anymore."

"Why?" Lu Wei was filled with confusion.

He had caught sight of his own self, hacked into eight pieces. Alongside him, the silver armor he once wore had also been dismantled; his limbs were sawed off, his torso severed in the middle, all anchored within an ice coffin.

Had it not been for Wen Jingē's appearance, perhaps no one would have imagined that beneath this long-abandoned courtyard lay a cavern—an ice cave housing a crystal sarcophagus, within which he had been frozen.

"If you were to sew this body back together, do you have any idea what you would face?"

"It would be hard to remain as free as I am now?"

"There is a mark of the Soul Clan upon you," Wen Jingē said. "This shell no longer belongs to you. It has already evolved an independent entity of its own; it no longer needs you."

"Doesn't need me?" He was stunned. "What do you mean, it doesn't need me?"

"The mark of the Soul Clan tells me that you can never hope to reclaim your body. There is only one path left for you, and it is a dead end."

"A dead end..."

"First Master, think about it, who on earth did you offend? Perhaps you can beg for their forgiveness."

"Things from ten thousand years ago, where on earth am I supposed to go to seek forgiveness?" he asked indignantly, "Where am I supposed to go?"

"This... Disciple considered things inadequately, I ask First Master to..."

"It's my fault for losing my temper with you. It's fine."

"However, I do have a way, you know. Beg me!"