Waiting for you online - - - Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Song Zi Heng was startled and squatted down to carefully examine the walking corpse’s fatal wound. Due to decay, the exact location could no longer be determined, but it was undoubtedly in the abdominal area. He saw a cultivator who was rumoured to have had his core stolen for the first time. He had little experience, but these two brothers have walked the Jianghu and have seen a lot. He asked, “How did you know that he had his golden core dug out?”

Huang Hong said, “Your Highness, his abdomen had such a large hole you see. Although it’s decayed, at that time of death there must have been a large wound in this area. In addition, other than the Dantian* area,5 there are many wounds elsewhere, yet they are not fatal. As if deliberately trying to keep him alive. The cultivation level of this cultivator is not shallow. Any fighting techniques that underestimated the enemy will most likely be shooting oneself in the foot*. To take such a risk, most likely the person must be kept alive in order to dig out the golden core. Once dead, followed by the collapse of spiritual power, the golden cores would be useless. Finally, this corpse specialized in digging out people’s belly and intestines, it is obviously due to strong resentment. We’ve seen a few core thieves kill before. The way the murdered cultivators died is similar to the way he died.”

“These demonic cultivators really deserve to be hacked into pieces.” Song Zi Heng gritted his teeth and said, “Stealing people’s lifelong cultivation, it’s the same as killing them.”

Huang Wu sighed: “It’s because the temptation of the human core is too great. The more powerful the cultivator core, the more supplements can be obtained. I heard that the top human core can even change a person’s roots.”

“Aren’t roots born naturally?” Song Zi Xiao looked at the corpse and shuddered at the thought of the despair of having the golden core ripped out of one’s body alive.

“The golden core condenses one’s innate qualifications and acquired cultivation. To eat such a human core, is equal to eating a part of the cultivator’s innate and acquired nature. It is said that those who have had their golden cores dug are unable to form cores again even after reincarnation.”

“Since the cult Tianshu, which specializes in this path, was exterminated, the demonic cultivators who stole cores have rarely been seen in the cultivational world. Such demonic cultivators will be punished if they are encountered, but I never thought they would still be so daring.” Song Zi Heng looked at the cultivators who died in vain and felt compassion for them in his heart.

“After the Tianshu Sect was eliminated, such demonic cultivators are indeed much fewer, but it is impossible to get rid of them completely. In fact…” Huang Wu wanted to say something but stopped.

“What?”

“Ten years ago there was a tragic case related to the theft of cores in Yanzhou. I am not sure whether Your Highness heard of it before.”

“I haven’t.”

“Your Highness was young at the time, so it’s normal that you had not heard of it. It was a small sect, but it was also a righteous immortal sect. That master had cheated and killed his best friend of thirty years in order to change his own son’s roots.”

The Song brothers were frozen.

Huang Hong’s expression was gloomy: “He got that cultivator drunk, dug out his golden core and destroyed the corpse to get rid of the evidence. Later, when the matter was revealed, vengeful people slaughtered the whole family.”

Song Zi Heng listened until his scalp tightened*. The evil of people is far worse than evil spirits.

“So, it is not only the demonic cultivators who specialize in this path to steal golden cores. There are special ‘core hunters’ in Jianghu. The golden cores are extremely expensive, ordinary people cannot afford them. In the end, who ate these cultivators’ golden cores, no one can say for sure.”

Huang Hong’s left out a few points, but how will the people present not understand. Even those righteous cultivators, have they never been tempted by the human cores before?

Song Zi Heng looked at that too-horrible-to-look-at corpse of the cultivator, thinking that he must have had the feeling of helping the people during his lifetime and the idea of cultivating immortality. Since the day he learned to cultivate diligently, rain or shine, his lifetime of work was brutally plundered. In the end, he couldn’t even be buried in peace, and was reduced to a walking corpse that harms people. As an immortal cultivator, it was impossible not to empathize with such a tragedy.

Song Zi Heng was flustered and he said: “Since we passed here and just happened to run into him, it can also be considered as a kind of fate. He is also a victim. To ferry people to the western sky, this matter should not end this way. Huang Hong and Huang Wu, it’s dawn, you go to the Chunyang Sect and the Wuyun Sect respectively. Order them to investigate the cause of death of this cultivator. One is to find the murderer and stop him from doing evil again, and the other is to find out the identity of this cultivator and send him back to his hometown to be buried.”

“Got it.”

“Big brother.” Song Zi Xiao tugged at the corner of his big brother’s clothes, “Why would someone want to practice in such a harmful way?”

“…Because there are bad people in this world.”

—-

This time, the one who hosted the Jiaolong assembly was the Wuliang Sect of Mount Shu. The two brothers had been riding their horses since they set out from the Daming Mansion, stopping every now and then along the way. They were supposed to have plenty of time, but now, in order to investigate this case of core theft, they were going to be delayed in Gutuo Town for a few days and planned to go directly to Mount Shu by sword flight.

Later in the evening, Huang Hong and Huang Wu came back, their expressions didn’t look very good.

“How was it?”

Huang Hong said, “This Chunyang Sect and Wuyun Sect both made a promise, but they tried to shift their responsibilities to each other with their words, I don’t know if they will seriously investigate.”

Song Zi Heng frowned and said, “This is not acceptable, I will go there personally.”

“Your Highness, you’d better not go.” Huang Wu had a difficult look on his face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Chunyang Sect is known for its old-fashioned thinking and stubbornness, refusing Daming Mansion’s government’s decrees several times and failed to be courteous to the emperor. While that Wuyun Sect, which is sophisticated on the surface but has not offered taxes for two years, finding all kinds of excuses to delay. I am afraid that if Your Highness goes, you will get frustrated.”

Song Zi Heng became silent.

The ancestor of the Song clan once relied on the Zongxuan Sword Technique to make a name for himself in Jiuzhou, aspire to the throne in the immortal world, and laid the foundation for a hundred years afterwards, but failed to produce a supreme talent for three consecutive generations. It was already difficult to maintain its former glory, and the resistance from various immortal clans and families was becoming more and more blatant. These are the things that Song Zi Heng has learned from his travels. And now that the Chunyang Sect and the Wuyun Sect will not regard him as the eldest prince, he can understand why his father wants him to win the championship at Jiaolong assembly, which is to show the world that the Song clan has a successor.

“As the immortal clan stationed in the local area, they don’t care about the death of the cultivators who got their cores stolen and ignore the people’s request for help against the evil spirits. So indifferent and derelict in their duties, what kind of path are they practicing?” Song Zi Heng looked irritated, “Transcending the world of mortals is not the same as retiring from the world. By just focusing on your own ascension and ignoring the suffering of the people, isn’t it against the original intention of cultivation?”

“Your Highness is absolutely right.”

Song Zi Xiao said, “Big brother, if they don’t investigate, we will investigate ourselves.”

“Okay, we’ll do it ourselves.”

—

The four of them spent two days visiting several villages and towns near Mount Gutuo and made some discoveries. The only one that matched their description was a cultivator who had appeared in Gutuo town more than a year ago, about forty years old, very dark skin and no obvious sect markings on his body. A solo traveler, possibly speaking with a Minnan* accent. Other than that, there were no more useful clues.

Although they didn’t come out completely empty-handed, to rely on this to find the identity of the cultivator, the few days of work was certainly not enough.

Two days later, Chunyang Sect sent someone to come. One was to greet the Song brothers, the second is to report some clues that they have found while investigating. Seems like slacking is slacking, shifting responsibility is shifting responsibility, but at least Chunyang Sect investigated. Unfortunately their abilities are limited, but at the same time they already sent a letter to the Huaying faction to assist in the investigation. Huaying faction is the largest immortal sect in the Jianzhou territory.

Huang Wu said: “It seems that this Tongnan* [virgin-boy] sect is still better than the Wuyun sect.”

Song Zi Xiao said curiously, “What Tongnan [child-boy]sect? There is an all-children sect?”

The tea that Song Zi Heng just drank almost spit out.

Huang Hong glared at his own brother: “Loose tongue in front of the Ninth Highness.”

Huang Wu was slightly embarrassed.

“Big brother?” Song Zi Xiao looked at Song Zi Heng in confusion.

Song Zi Heng coughed lightly: “They are talking about the Chunyang Sect. Chunyang Sect is mainly martial arts cultivation, and they cultivate the body of Chunyang. The so-called body of Chunyang is…cultivating yuan yang*, and then…” he said till the end and didn’t know how to explain appropriately, and give a sideways glance at Huang Wu with good temper and amusement.

“The body of Chun Yang? What exactly do you mean?” Song Zi Xiao is at the age of curiosity, naturally unable to shake through this.

“It means if you want to practise their method, you can’t get married.” Huang Hong said euphemistically.

Chunyang Sect cultivates the body of Chunyang. The abstruse meaning of the method is to keep the yuan yang intact. Once the yuan yang leaks, the method is immediately broken. Unless they practice other methods from scratch, no more refinement is possible. Therefore, one has to be pure of heart, have few desires and cannot lust. Although this Chunyang method has achieved great success, in the cultivational world it always had a crucial position. However not many people are willing to practice this method. After all, when outsiders look at them, they simply lose all interest in life.

Song Zi Xiao wasn’t sure if he understood: “Big brother, why don’t you practice this technique?”

Song Zi Heng smiled helplessly: “Why should I cultivate it?”

“If you cultivate the Chunyang method, will you not be able to get married?”

“Hmm?” Song Zi Heng was puzzled, “Don’t you want me to get married?”

“I don’t want you to.”

“Why?” Song Zi Heng pinched his face and teased him, “Don’t you want to have a gentle and beautiful sister-in-law who might cook even better than big brother.”

“I don’t want you to.” Song Zi Xiao said seriously, “Second brother said that I can’t sleep with you after you become a married man.”

“Hahahahaha.” Song Zi Heng couldn’t help but laugh, “Is it possible that you want to sleep with big brother for the rest of your life? You’ll also get married in the future.”

Song Zi Xiao’s little face was wrinkled into a ball, “Then I won’t get married. If we don’t get married, then won’t we always be like this?” He didn’t understand the real meaning of marriage yet, he only knew that if another person appeared, he and his big brother couldn’t be like this anymore. It wouldn’t be right and he wouldn’t allow it.

Huang Wu laughed, “Ninth Highness, it’s fine if you don’t want to get married, but His Highness has reached the age to get married. I heard that at this Jiaolong assembly, the emperor is going to find a wealthy girl for His Highness.”

Song Zi Heng laughed, “Really? How come I didn’t hear about it?” He was at the beginning of his youth and had fantasies about love, but he had no imagination about his future wife. After all, it was not his decision to make.

Song Zi Xiao was stunned and stopped talking.

“The Emperor and Consort Shen are worried that you would get distracted, so they didn’t say anything. I heard it from Elder Hui Neng.” Huang Hong said, “If Your Highness won the championship at the Jiaolong assembly and set a marriage contract with whichever wealthy family’s daughter, that would be two joyous occasions.”

Song Zi Heng was slightly embarrassed, but his heart was vaguely looking forward to it.

Song Zi Xiao fiercely pushed Song Zi Heng, turned his head and ran away.

“Hey…” Song Zi Heng was staggered by that push, almost falling off his chair, “This child, I spoiled him too much, no manners at all.”

Song Zi Xiao was throwing a tantrum, refusing to eat at night, and did not sleep with Song Zi Heng. He insisted on renting another room. Song Zi Heng just thought he was being petty and didn’t take it to heart. He asked the shopkeeper to keep the food ready in case he was hungry and looked for food in the middle of the night.

During the middle of the night, Song Zi Xiao never stepped out of his room. Song Zi Heng was just next door, hesitating on whether to go and coax him, but he started to feel tired and fell asleep instead.

Not sure how long he slept, Song Zi Heng suddenly woke up. He felt a burst of spiritual pressure mixed with a murderous aura. Their Song clan’s Returning Heart Method can make one’s perception of danger very keen.

Song Zi Heng rolled over and got up. He didn’t care what it was, but his first priority was to ensure Song Zi Xiao’s safety.

Dantian* [丹田]—acupuncture point 3 inches below the navel

shoot oneself in the foot* [搬石砸脚] — you carry the stone and smash your own foot, basically trying to do something that will hurt yourself

scalp tightened* [头皮发紧] —feel terrified

Minnan* —Southern Fujian in China

Tongnan* aka virgin boy [童男]— In this novel, all Chunyang Sect’s disciple have to remain virgin, so the characters came out with a nickname for this sect, called virgin boy sect xD But our cute innocent SZX thinks that they are saying “children” sect. SZH isn’t that pure…since he almost puked his tea, LOL.

yuan yang* [元阳] — from my POV, it should mean semen. Basically, when a woman and man have intercourse, the male will release his yuan yang, which results in breaking the Chunyang cultivation. Kindly refer to the phrase “Once the yuan yang leaks, the method is immediately broken” in one of the paragraphs.