Chapter 134: The City Lord, Ethereal as an Immortal

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Their movements were not particularly forceful, yet their words allowed no room for doubt. Clearly, they had not mistaken the two of them for anyone else. Since the invitation came from the City Lord, he must have been watching them for some time.

If they did not wish to provoke a confrontation in the middle of the main road, Ji Yao and Mu Baiyun had no choice but to go with them.

What they could not understand was how the City Lord’s men had noticed them at all. They had been in the city for less than half an hour, and neither of them had done anything conspicuous. By all rights, they should not have attracted the attention of the City Lord’s Residence.

For now, however, they could only keep their suspicions to themselves. Walking between two lines of city guards, they followed closely behind the cultivator leading the way.

Escaping from this procession might not have been difficult. The real problem was how to leave the city afterward. Thus, despite their wariness and countless conjectures, Ji Yao and Mu Baiyun maintained calm expressions as they entered the City Lord’s Residence alongside the guards.

Mu Baiyun had the advantage of his naturally impassive face. Ji Yao, on the other hand, was forcing herself to appear composed. Had this been the Ji Yao of her previous life, she would never have been so tense merely because she was about to meet some important figure.

Take the Ji Yao who had first arrived in the Micang Realm, for example. Although she had treated Situ Jing with caution and had been intimidated by the other woman’s presence, she had not truly felt the threat to her life in any direct sense.

She had simply been lucky. Situ Jing had harbored no ill will toward her. Had she encountered someone else who lost patience at the slightest disagreement, she might have been crushed to death on the spot. The more deeply Ji Yao integrated herself into this world, and the more she faced such dangers firsthand, the more deeply she came to revere life.

Throughout the journey, Mu Baiyun kept Ji Yao behind him.

Though the two of them were not pressed against each other, they walked closer than usual. Mu Baiyun therefore sensed the stiffness in the person behind him. Unable to speak openly or communicate through spiritual transmission, he subtly moved nearer and secretly tugged at Ji Yao’s wrist, letting her know that he would remain by her side.

The City Lord’s Residence in Boundless City was not the magnificent, imposing place Ji Yao had imagined. Instead, it had been built entirely from enormous black and white stones. The stark contrast and extreme simplicity were, in fact, perfectly suited to the Great Dao of Yin and Yang.

The leading cultivator did not take them into the main hall. He brought them directly to the rear courtyard of the City Lord’s Residence, and only the two of them entered.

The leading Nascent Soul cultivator stopped outside the courtyard gate. As for the Golden Core city guards, they had halted in the front courtyard. They seemed entirely unconcerned that the two of them might attempt to flee.

Once Ji Yao and Mu Baiyun entered, the courtyard gate closed silently behind them. At the center of the courtyard lay a huge Taiji diagram, one half spread with fine white sand and the other with black soil. The two slowly flowed around each other without interference.

“You have come at last.”

The voice came from the only room in the courtyard. It was a man’s voice, impossible to describe in words, rich and magnetic enough to stir an inexplicable flutter in the heart.

He had said “you,” which meant that only one of them was the person he had sought. Ji Yao exchanged a glance with Mu Baiyun and suddenly felt that the man might be referring to her.

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Her heart began pounding violently, and a familiar sensation surged through her. She had deliberately searched for it before—how could she have forgotten?

She stepped forward and came to stand beside Mu Baiyun. Unable to restrain herself, she asked, “Who are you?”

The sensation was exactly the same, yet the place she had sensed it before was the Qijue Abyss. She had not discovered anything similar here. If her perception had not been mistaken, then the person inside the room must be concealing some secret.

“Ha! Little girl, did you not already know who I was before you came?” The man’s voice held no displeasure. He sounded as though he were merely making idle conversation.

“We know that you are the Lord of Boundless City, but…” Ji Yao pressed her lips together. “What I want to ask is why you sought us out. Forgive me for speaking presumptuously, but you were looking for me, weren’t you? This has nothing to do with my senior brother, does it?”

“Junior Sister!” Afraid that Ji Yao might say something that would alarm him, Mu Baiyun called out in warning.

The man inside the room chuckled softly. “You have already guessed why I sought you out. Since you have come right to my doorstep, even someone who claims not to care would still take a look, if only to satisfy his curiosity.”

“As for your senior brother, do you truly think he would be willing to let you follow the city guards here alone? Or would you have the heart to leave him out, forcing him to worry about you from somewhere he cannot see?”

Ji Yao had to admit that this man understood the human heart exceedingly well. Neither of them could deny the truth of what he had said, so she simply stopped dwelling on the matter.

“Senior, forgive my boldness. Since you summoned us here, you must have anticipated what I would ask. What connection do you have with the Qijue Abyss?”

The moment Ji Yao finished speaking, the room fell silent. She began to worry that her question had angered him.

Then the door opened.

A white figure appeared in the doorway.

In the blink of an eye, the figure vanished. When it reappeared, it was already standing at the center of the courtyard, atop the Taiji diagram. Its feet rested upon yin and yang, allowing them to flow beneath it while it remained unmoving, as steady as a mountain.

Only then could Ji Yao and Mu Baiyun clearly see what the other looked like.

He wore white robes and had black hair. His attire was simple beyond compare, yet he possessed a beauty so breathtaking that no one could bear to profane it.

His features were exquisite and delicate, surpassing even Mu Baiyun’s. His beauty was balanced to perfection: one degree more would have been excessive, one degree less would have seemed pale. It was as though the Creator had favored him, granting him every finest gift. Merely looking at him was enough to make the heart intoxicated.

Calling him an immortal descended to the mortal world would not have been an exaggeration. At the very least, compared with Situ Jing, an immortal from the Upper Realm, he seemed even more removed from the dust of the world.

“People are always partial to appearances. Little girl, are you no exception?” he asked.

His voice remained deep and mellow. Faced with him directly, however, it seemed to possess a power that could ensnare the heart, making it even harder to resist his allure.

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Although Ji Yao’s eyes never left his face, her voice remained perfectly lucid.

“I am merely an ordinary mortal. Since the people of this world favor beauty, why should I be exempt? The mortal world tempers the heart. I must naturally experience the affairs of the world before I can learn where my heart truly lies. Only by remaining true to my original intent can I see things through to the end.”

“What an interesting little girl.”

The Boundless Perfected One standing before them did not appear old. No one could say how many years he had lived, but judging by his appearance alone, he seemed only slightly more mature than Mu Baiyun.

“Little girl, why do you not tell me how you view yin and yang, spirit and demon?”

As he raised both hands, the white sand and black soil on the Taiji diagram began to spread upward. They slowly gathered in his palms, forming two constantly rotating spheres, one black and one white.

Two energies rose from the Boundless Perfected One—one spiritual, the other demonic. They depended upon and nourished each other while remaining entirely distinct, revolving with effortless harmony.

Under the influence of these two powers, his presence shifted seamlessly between immortal and demonic. One moment he was aloof and otherworldly, like an exiled immortal; the next, he was bewitching and sinister, like a Demon Emperor.

Clearly, this sensation affected Ji Yao alone. Mu Baiyun could hear their conversation clearly, but whenever he looked toward the figure, he could not see him distinctly. Through the haze, he could perceive only an extraordinarily beautiful face.

Mu Baiyun watched Ji Yao with concern. She stared at that figure without blinking, yet her words made it clear that her consciousness remained lucid.

He feared that if he spoke suddenly and displeased the Boundless Perfected One, the man might attack Ji Yao. Thus, he could only watch in silence, prepared to pull her back at the first sign of danger.

Whether such an intention could be realized before a Fusion-stage Perfected One was another matter entirely.

After a long while, Ji Yao finally spoke.

“Yin and yang depend upon one another; immortality and demonhood rest upon a single thought. Where boundaries exist, there are none as well. In the end, all comes down to the heart’s path.”

End of Chapter