Northern Derivation Chapter Thirty-Nine: Dead Silence

At the junction of the Illusory Moon Marsh and the Cold Nightmare Mountain Range, a man and a woman flew on swords. These were Mo Hao and his senior sister, Meng Xin, traveling from the Void Sword Sect. Mo Hao had originally been teleported from the Azure Water Pool to the vicinity of a small mountain village, but he was unfamiliar with the route back. Although he had attempted to revisit the location where he appeared, he found nothing, and even Meng Xin, a cultivator at the False Core stage, could not detect anything with her divine sense.

Meng Xin looked at her junior brother with confusion, wondering why he had brought her to this place.

Nearly a month passed. Fortunately, with Meng Xin guiding him, they finally arrived at the borders of the Cold Nightmare Mountain Range. Mo Hao consulted a map, and they slowly searched for the Azure Water Pool along the perimeter. They encountered several beasts at the Qi Refinement stage, but Mo Hao, who had reached the peak of the late Qi Refinement stage, dispatched them within two blows. Over the past few months, he had mastered three divine abilities and used a small bow and the Extreme Archery technique—recovered from the bell belonging to the old man Xing Huang—to great effect.

As for the Foundation Establishment beasts they encountered, Mo Hao did not need to intervene. Relying on her False Core cultivation, Meng Xin defeated those fierce beasts in a single strike.

Mo Hao named the small bow the "Heavenly Remnant Bow," derived from the "Heavenly Remnant Divine Art." By imbuing the bow with his Five-Colored Divine Light and spiritual power, he could kill beasts with bodies tougher than vengeful spirits in one shot, as the Five-Colored Divine Light penetrated their defenses internally, leaving them helpless.

Just as Mo Hao was failing to match the terrain to his memory of the Azure Water Pool, Meng Xin let out a soft exclamation. Mo Hao turned to her in confusion. Seeing nothing himself, he waited silently for her to investigate.

Meng Xin closed her eyes, releasing her divine sense to survey the surroundings. After a moment, she shouted, "Let's go!"

She flew off in a specific direction. Mo Hao, not yet understanding what had happened, hurriedly followed. They flew south for a short time until they reached a dense forest. From a distance, Mo Hao saw colorful little snakes hanging from many of the branches. He was puzzled; while there were many snakes, they seemed ordinary.

"Senior Sister, what is the difference? The Azure Water Pool doesn't look like this. And there are snakes everywhere in this jungle. Did we find the wrong place?"

Meng Xin sighed. "Look more closely!"

Heeding her words, Mo Hao focused his attention. Suddenly, he realized that while the snakes were moving, they were all repeating the same motion.

"An illusion array!"

He immediately realized that the array was so realistic that it was nearly impossible to discern without careful observation or divine sense. Though he possessed the "Mimicry Art," it could not compare to true divine sense.

"Heavenly Eye Technique!"

Mo Hao channeled his ability, and the scene before him shifted into a clear pool surrounded by familiar buildings. However, the place was deathly silent; he saw no sign of any beasts. He was perplexed; this had once been a place where spirits gathered. How could it be so desolate? Moreover, his Heavenly Eye had easily pierced an illusion array that could trap a Golden Core demon. If it were that simple, what was the point of the array?

Meng Xin attempted to pierce the array with her flying sword. With a crisp sound, the sword bounced back. Frowning, she channeled the thunder of heaven and earth into the blade: "Break!"

She struck with a force far greater than the blow she had used to slay Zheng Dang, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. The sword, crackling with lightning, struck the array with a thunderous boom, raising a cloud of dust. When it settled, a small hole had been torn in the array, but before they could celebrate, it slowly healed, returning to its original state.

Meng Xin’s expression changed drastically. This was her strongest strike. The fact that the hole healed so quickly shocked her. Even her master, Jiang Jianfeng—a late-stage Golden Core cultivator—could not set such an array. Could this have been created by a Nascent Soul cultivator?

Turning to Mo Hao, she asked, "Was the senior demon who taught you the Heavenly Remnant Scroll truly at the Golden Core stage?"

Mo Hao thought for a moment, nodded, then shook his head. "I only remember her saying that Golden Core demons can take human form; she never mentioned her cultivation level. But the beast beside her was at the late Foundation Establishment stage, and it could not advance to the Golden Core path because it had been ravaged by the Five-Colored Divine Light."

Meng Xin frowned. "Did you notice anything else?"

After thinking for a long time—nearly three years had passed—Mo Hao realized he could recall little. Suddenly, he remembered: "Oh, Senior Sister! When that senior performed the empowerment technique on me, she spat out a golden core. She also said I shouldn't come to our Cold Nightmare Mountain Range, or the Golden Core ancestors here would cause her trouble!"

"What? Empowerment?" Meng Xin ignored the mention of the golden core and focused on the word 'empowerment.'

Mo Hao nodded. "Yes, is there something wrong?"

Meng Xin looked enlightened. "I understand. That senior didn't want the people of our mountain range to know you had encountered a Nascent Soul demon. Otherwise, you would have been thoroughly investigated. She likely didn't want to expose your Five-Elements Spirit Veins!"

"Why? When she performed the empowerment, she clearly spat out a genuine golden core!" Mo Hao was full of questions.

"Sigh, why are you so dull today? While I can perform empowerment, even Master would never dare to do so for someone with Five-Elements Spirit Veins, because empowerment requires gathering the spiritual energy of the five elements. Don't you know this from practicing your art?"

"Oh! You mean the mutual generation and restriction of the five elements cannot be withstood by a typical Golden Core cultivator!"

Meng Xin nodded. "Exactly. Furthermore, besides human cultivators and some demon tribes, there are some demon races that do not need to shatter their cores to condense an infant when entering the Nascent Soul stage!"

Mo Hao finally understood. However, since even Meng Xin could not break the array, it was clearly not just an illusion, but a major defensive formation. The priority now was how to get inside.

They were truly stumped. While Meng Xin was not in a hurry, Mo Hao was anxious. If he could retrieve that wisp of Five-Colored Divine Light from Liu Chi's body, he could fulfill his Heavenly Dao vow without wasting much time. With the Fluorescent Mist Secret Realm set to open, he wanted to be in the first wave of explorers to ensure he didn't miss out on the newly spawned spiritual treasures.

While wracking his brain, he recalled the scene of Liu Yue seeing him off. He took a talisman from his storage bag. He had assumed it was a simple escape talisman, but he noticed it now had no spiritual power left. Yet, unlike ordinary one-time talismans, it had not turned to ash.

"Senior Sister, take a look at this."

Meng Xin, who had been watching him, took the talisman and placed it on a large rock to inspect it with her divine sense. Her expression shifted from a frown to realization, leaving Mo Hao confused.

"There is indeed more to this than meets the eye. Someone placed a restriction on it. I cannot force it open, or it will be destroyed. Its original function is gone, but it can still be infused with spiritual power. Try it!"

Mo Hao channeled his power into the talisman. It began to glow with a pale blue light and flew from his palm. A small, playful face emerged from the talisman. Mo Hao gasped, "Senior Liu?"

It was indeed the face of Liu Yue. The face moved, looked at them, and nodded. With a loud boom, the talisman charged into the array, and the scenery shifted instantly to the Azure Water Pool.

They flew toward the buildings, but Mo Hao noticed the place was lifeless. The vitality of the past was gone. Upon reaching the dwellings, they found the area in ruins, as if it had been ransacked. Mo Hao wanted to rush into the main hall, but Meng Xin held him back.

"It is desolate, as if it hasn't been inhabited for a long time. There are several beast corpses, and all the restrictions have been broken."

Hearing this, Mo Hao rushed in, concerned only with the Heavenly Dao vow. He found the hall overgrown with weeds and littered with the withered remains of spirit beasts. In the deepest part of the hall, he found two corpses: the snow-white leopard and the golden-scaled dragon, Liu Yue and Liu Chi.

"Don't be sad, Mo Hao," Meng Xin said. "Their enemies must have come for their demon cores."

Both corpses had bloody holes where their cores should have been. While Mo Hao felt a pang of sadness for Liu Yue’s kindness, his greater concern was his broken promise and the potential impact on his future cultivation.

Meng Xin went outside to give him space. Mo Hao, desperate to fulfill his vow, decided to extract the remaining Five-Colored Divine Light from Liu Chi's corpse. To his delight, he succeeded; the attackers had clearly been uninterested in the Five-Colored Divine Light.

Just as he was finishing, he saw the golden dragon’s corpse twitch. His heart skipped a beat; if the Nascent Soul demon were still alive, he would be torn to shreds. He waited in terror, but there was no further movement.

However, a wisp of golden light emerged from the dragon’s forehead, shaped like a miniature golden dragon. Before Mo Hao could react, it dove into his forehead and merged with his body.