Chapter 44: Beneath White Dragon Cliff

Zong Zheng smiled and said, "Little Third Master, asking a question like that shows you are an outsider."

"There have been no immortals since the Song Dynasty! True immortals ceased to appear after the Song era. Cultivators either fail to achieve immortality throughout their entire lives or specialize in ghost immortality."

"Weren't those three Taoist priests walking the unorthodox path?"

In the Daoist text *Zhong-Lv Chandao Ji*, immortals are divided into five ranks: ghost immortals, human immortals, earth immortals, divine immortals, and celestial immortals. Ghost immortals are of the lowest tier, and orthodox cultivators will not resort to cultivating ghost immortality unless driven by absolute necessity.

Of course, there are also some cultivators who fail to comprehend the Great Dao and seek quick success, choosing to specialize specifically in ghost immortality.

Ghost immortals achieved through heterodox arts do not possess any transcendental immortal demeanor; instead, every one of them appears withered like dead wood. They are referred to by orthodox immortal families as clear-spirited ghosts rather than pure-yang immortals.

Viewed in this light, all three Taoist priests were cultivating ghost immortality, albeit using different secret methods.

The Taoist priest who remained at Bailong Cliff should be the most formidable among the three, and his path to immortality bore the highest probability of success.

I tentatively remarked, "Since that Taoist priest wants to achieve ghost immortality, he must have made thorough preparations. Can just the two of us open the secret tomb?"

"Wealth and honor are sought amidst danger!" Zong Zheng chuckled and said, "Didn't Little Third Master say yourself that the fewer people eating a steamed bun, the better?"

I glanced at him without saying another word, drove the car back to Zong Zheng's house and parked it, hoisted Ye Huan—now stuffed inside a sack—from the trunk onto my shoulder, and accompanied Zong Zheng up toward Bailong Cliff.

Along the entire way, I kept my senses alert for any sign of the two old men. Those two old fellows seemed to have vanished into thin air; not only had they failed to show up, but they hadn't even left a single marker behind.

Those two old men had better not fail me at a time like this!

I was still counting on them to help me turn the tables.

However, I walked all the way to the foot of Bailong Cliff without discovering the slightest trace of the two old men.

That Bailong Cliff, concealed deep within the mountain ridges, looked at first glance like nothing more than a white rock wedged between two mounds. Although it possessed a certain winding contour, it bore no resemblance to the shape of a dragon.

On the contrary, the pool of water at the foot of the mountain carried a certain aura of geomancy. However, I could not spot the whereabouts of the so-called golden toad anywhere.

When I turned to look at Zong Zheng, he was already smiling and saying, "Little Third Master, keep calm and be patient. Now is not yet the time for the golden toad to manifest. When the bright moon hangs high in the night sky, that will be the moment for us to make our move. Wait for me here for a moment."

Zong Zheng hurried over to a nearby hillside and dug continuously for quite a while before finally unearthing a mechanical sluice gate from beneath a mound of earth covered in fallen pine needles.

Zong Zheng opened the sluice gate and stepped back to the side. Clear water swiftly cascaded down the contour of the mountain into the pool below.

Nourished by the mountain spring, this expanse of geomantic terrain instantly came "alive," exuding spiritual grace in every aspect.

Geomancy values not only the concealment of wind and the gathering of energy, but it must also be "alive." No matter how auspicious a geomantic treasure spot might be, once its spiritual vitality is choked off and it appears lifeless and stagnant, it ceases to serve any purpose whatsoever.

So it turned out that the ancestors of the Zong family had deliberately severed the geomantic currents here in order to suppress the golden toad.

A mere half-hour later, the pool at the foot of the mountain had expanded to twice its size, and the mountain water was flowing onward down the mountain through the outlet behind the pool.

I looked at the continually expanding pool and said, "The golden toad you mentioned—surely it can't just crawl out of the water on its own?"

Zong Zheng gave a thumbs-up. "Little Third Master, truly discerning insight. Toads, aren't they just like that? They are active when there is plenty of water, but when water is scarce, they will find some muddy puddle to hide in without ever breaking the surface. If the golden toad never raises its head, what will the White Dragon feed on?"

"The ancestors of the Zong family choked off the spiritual energy here without completely severing all the geomantic currents, allowing the pool water to keep flowing. That forced the Taoist priest inside the secret tomb to throw out ghost-script stones seeking help."

"For generations, my family has simply picked up those ghost-script stones at the foot of the mountain bit by bit."

"Little Third Master must surely know about this!"

"Hmph!" I merely uttered a monosyllabic reply and said nothing more. Zong Zheng was not telling the whole truth.

If the Zong family had collected the ghost-script stones merely to conceal the White Dragon Secret Tomb, they would not have brazenly displayed those stones out in their courtyard.

Whichever sorcerer happened to feel curious would naturally come over to take a look, wouldn't that render the Zong family's collection of ghost-script stones common knowledge to the world?

I refuse to believe that over all these years, no other sorcerers ever paid attention to Bailong Cliff.

It was just that those people had probably already become ghosts beneath the blades of the Zong family, weren't they?

I casually found a spot to sit down on the mountain and waited until dark. Only then did Zong Zheng walk over carrying canned food and hot water. "Little Third Master, there's nothing much up on the mountain, please make do with this for now! We still have work to do tonight!"

I set Zong Zheng's offerings aside, took out the dried meat I had brought myself, and began to chew slowly. Zong Zheng smiled without a word. After sitting in silence for a moment, he asked, "Little Third Master, whose lineage do you study under? Although the Third Master has been making great waves in the provincial capital all these years, I've never heard of him engaging in the business of subduing demons and eliminating devils."

I looked at him with an ambiguous smile. "What? Probing my background?"

Zong Zheng let out a couple of awkward chuckles, whereupon I said, "What harm is there in telling you? Even if I don't say, won't you see it for yourself in a little while?"

"The secret arts of our Yuan family involve summoning ghosts and deities."

Zong Zheng exclaimed in shock, "Your Yuan family can open the gates of ghosts? Surely you aren't at enmity with the Thirteen Ghost Gates, are you?"

I asked impassively, "What does opening or not opening the ghost gates have to do with them?"

Zong Zheng said, "Little Third Master, why don't you understand?"

"What is the duty of the Thirteen Ghost Gates? It is to guard the boundary between the yin and yang realms and stand watch over the gates of ghosts!"

"And what is the purpose of summoning ghosts and deities? Isn't it to open the ghost gates and allow ghosts, deities, and ghost immortals to descend into the mortal world?"

"Doesn't your Yuan family have a dedicated location for summoning ghosts and deities? Think about it—once you punch through that location, doesn't it turn into yet another ghost gate? Isn't that setting yourself in direct opposition to the Thirteen Ghost Gates?"

"Why are sorcerers who can summon ghosts and deities so rare? It's precisely because they were all exterminated by the Thirteen Ghost Gates."

Upon hearing this, I could not help frowning slightly:

Everyone within the sorcery world knows that while it is easy to summon ordinary ghosts, summoning ghost immortals and deities is exceptionally difficult.

The power of ghosts and deities already surpasses the boundaries permitted in the mortal realm. Aside from the netherworld deities of the underworld, no other ghosts, deities, or ghost immortals are allowed to linger idly in the mortal world.

To summon them forth, one must rupture the barrier between yin and yang, which in itself is equivalent to chiseling a hole right through between the two realms.

Although the barrier between the two realms can repair itself automatically, that particular barrier remains fragile during the process. Powerful ghosts and deities can easily force their way in and out.

Furthermore, just as Zong Zheng said, if sorcerers take shortcuts and repeatedly open the yin-yang barrier from the exact same location, through the accumulation of days and months, that spot will inevitably become a brand-new ghost gate.

Could this be the reason why the Thirteen Ghost Gates took action against the Yuan family?

Zong Zheng was not necessarily lying, but his words could not be completely trusted either.

At the very least, until I found the core successor of the Thirteen Ghost Gates, I would not fully trust Zong Zheng.