Chapter Six: Three Thousand Imperial Women?

Seeing her burning with anxiety, Yang Nan had no choice but to take out the thirty-six tortoise shells and let her study and memorize them. Waving his hand to dismiss the attendant maidens, Yang Nan left Bai Yu alone in the boat and walked with Long Yao to the bow of the Indestructible Thunder Boat. As Yang Nan gazed abstractedly at the drifting white clouds wandering across the horizon, Long Yao frowned beside him and said, "Brother Yang, your decision this time was rather reckless. It will certainly bring you endless trouble in the future!"

Indifferently, Yang Nan replied, "The path of cultivation is always fraught with hardships. I was simply moved by Bai Yu's resolute and unyielding devotion, doing whatever it takes for her father. If it were anyone else, why would I care whether they live or die?"

A blush crept onto Long Yao's delicate face, and she murmured softly, "Brother Yang... could you... could it be that you have taken a fancy to this Bai Yu?"

Yang Nan stood dumbfounded, staring at Long Yao's flushed and pretty face. He truly could not comprehend why this elegant dragon maiden would harbor such thoughts.

*'Could it be that not only those scoundrels among my subordinates think of me as a lecher, but even this dragon maiden thinks the same?'* Yang Nan found it both amusing and exasperating. Such matters were hard to defend against, so he simply chose to pretend he hadn't heard. In his current state, aside from Qingyan's injuries, there was nothing else of importance in his heart. Be it the Saintess of Cicada Valley or a peerless beauty, how could these ever be what Yang Nan sought?

Healing Qingyan and resolving his emotional tribulation—that was the true path!

After hesitating for a long moment, Long Yao softly spoke again, "She comes from Cicada Valley and is the only daughter of the Cicada Sage. I fear that in the future, the entire valley will belong to her... No wonder... No wonder..."

Amused yet exasperated, Yang Nan asked, "No wonder what?"

Long Yao's blush spread all the way down to her neck as she whispered, "No wonder you fancy her. People say that Cicada Maidens are pure and represent the finest saintesses in this world. Countless men dream of winning a saintess just to comfort their lifetime, and you... you are no different!" As Long Yao spoke, a hint of melancholy seemed to linger in her bright eyes.

Chuckling, Yang Nan said, "Long Yao, you really have quite an imagination! In my valley, there are already flower maidens, bamboo maidens, clam maidens, swallow maidens, and over a dozen other peerless beauties of the mortal world. By your logic, I would truly possess the beauty of the entire realm. Furthermore, the exceptional beauties among the five demon tribes are countless. If I were to take them all in, I'd be busy from dawn till dusk just taking turns attending to them! Why bother cultivating immortality at all? I might as well just become an emperor!"

Hearing him tease, Long Yao refused to back down and retorted stubbornly, "Didn't the ancient Divine Emperor Yang Xi possess three thousand beauties, yet he still achieved Dao and ascended to immortality? Isn't the Yang spirit of the supreme heavenly deity none other than that romantic immortal? If you were to do the same, how would you fall short of him?"

Amused, Yang Nan said, "What a sharp-tongued little dragon princess you've become! How can I compare to the ancient Great God Yang Xi? I am currently just a Grandmaster! I am not even a Venerable yet, so how could I possibly be qualified to possess three thousand beauties? Even having three would be quite a handful!"

Unconvinced, Long Yao cried out, "The Great God Yang Xi practiced the Wheel of Yin-Yang Life and Death. If you are willing, you can search for it in the future, and by using this divine art to comprehend the immortal mysteries of life, death, yin, and yang, perhaps you too can attain the supreme divine throne!"

Seeing this little girl spouting nonsense, Yang Nan shook his head and sighed, "What a pity. That supreme technique of Yin-Yang Life and Death has been lost for tens of thousands of years. If I could truly learn it and attain the Great Dao simply by consorting with three thousand maidens, why wouldn't I gladly do it?"

Long Yao had only been speaking in jest, but seeing that Yang Nan genuinely seemed to want to learn this Yin-Yang Life and Death technique, she grew deeply embarrassed and anxious, stamping her feet repeatedly. Boldly, she reached out, pinched Yang Nan's waist, and snapped, "You... you actually want to consort with three thousand maidens! I... I... how can I spare you?"

Seeing her anxious and bashful appearance, Yang Nan laughed heartily in his heart. Spreading his hands, he said, "What's wrong with that? Although I am a Daoist priest, I am also a man. Wanting to encompass all the beauties of the world is completely natural! Flower maidens, fish maidens, cicada maidens... naturally, the more the better! If I could find this technique, I could spend every day simply gathering countless beauties. Why would I ever worry about the difficulty of achieving immortality?"

So anxious that tears welled up in her eyes, Long Yao said, "Fine! Go ahead and gather your three thousand beauties, and I will never care about you again!"

Realizing she was genuinely upset, Yang Nan chuckled softly and said, "Alright, Princess. Rest assured, even if I wanted to gather beauties, I would first have to find that supreme wondrous formula. I doubt even the heavenly realm possesses such a technique. Besides, apart from the Great God Yang Xi, have you ever heard of anyone truly achieving the Great Dao by practicing this method? Techniques must be suited to the person practicing them. I was merely making a joke—look at how flustered you got!"

Long Yao finally came to her senses and flushed with deep embarrassment, saying, "You knew all along, yet you still teased me?"

Yang Nan smiled and said, "Long Yao, do not forget: in this present age, if one wishes to succeed in cultivation, one must ride above the seven emotions and six desires rather than be consumed by them. I imagine the Great God Yang Xi certainly did the same. How to enter into emotion yet remain detached from it—that is the greatest difficulty. If one cannot detach themselves and falls into the net of emotion, I fear their cultivation will instantly plummet. How could they speak of becoming immortals or gods? If you wish to succeed in your cultivation in the future, you must remain vigilant!"

Who among mortals, other than the Supreme Being, can truly be devoid of emotion?

Even with Bu Xu's transcendent talent, he still could not transcend it. The profound difficulty of this single word "emotion" is evident!

For the Emperor Yang Xi to achieve immortal Dao, he must have attained the wondrous realm of entering emotion yet stepping out of it—standing amidst a forest of flowers without a single leaf clinging to his robes!

Yang Nan was determined not to follow in his master's footsteps. Bu Xu had loved too deeply, resulting in centuries of entanglement. Although Yang Nan had not heard his master mention Grandmaster Cangyan often, he could well imagine that even though that Grandmaster Cangyan had passed away, every word, every deed, every smile and frown remained forever engraved in his master's heart!

For ordinary mortals, such obsessive love is heaven-shaking and earth-shattering. But for those on the path of cultivation, it is the most fatal thing imaginable!

Yang Nan's teasing was also a reminder to Long Yao: if one invests too deeply in emotion, how can they ever extricate themselves in the future?

As for Yang Nan himself, whether he could overcome the trial of Qingyan remained an unknown variable!

While Long Yao was deep in thought, someone suddenly called out softly from behind, "Brother Yang..."

Yang Nan turned around and saw Bai Yu with a heavily flushed face. Combined with her saintly appearance, she looked exceptionally captivating. How could Yang Nan fail to understand? The teasing remarks from moments before had clearly been overheard in full by this Cicada Clan Saintess. Though he wished to offer an explanation, the words failed him, and he could only pretend to be oblivious.

"Has Miss Bai finished memorizing?" Yang Nan offered her a faint smile to ease her embarrassment and unease.

Collecting herself, Bai Yu returned the thirty-six tortoise shells and said with a shy blush, "Thank you, Brother Yang, for your great generosity. What we agreed upon, Bai Yu will never dare to forget, and I will surely repay this kindness in the future."

Accepting the tortoise shells, Yang Nan felt a start. It seemed Bai Yu had misunderstood something. He said in a deep voice, "Miss Bai, you need not be like this. These three items were already more than enough to exchange for the Hetuo Heavenly Mystery Map; there is no need to mention anything else. You and I met by a twist of fate; we might as well part ways and forget each other in the rivers and lakes."

With a calm expression, Bai Yu shook her head and said, "From this day forth, Cicada Valley will follow your every command. Should Brother Yang have any instructions in the future, Cicada Valley will respond like the wind! Bai Yu will take her leave now. Brother Yang, please take good care of yourself."

Suddenly, a pair of transparent wings unfolded with a flutter, and Bai Yu soared up into the sky. Her white robes, whiter than snow, paired with the transparent wings, refracted a colorful, iridescent glow in the sunlight, adding an even greater aura of holiness to her presence.

With a graceful dance of her wing-shadows, her fragrant trace had already vanished into the hazy distance...

Watching Bai Yu's departing figure, Yang Nan turned around and put away the three treasures and the transcript of the Profound Rebirth Technique. By now, Long Yao also understood that Yang Nan's ambitions did not lie in women, and her heart felt vastly relieved. Touched by Yang Nan's earlier words, she was currently nurturing her vigilance and pondering deeply, discarding all her previous girlish coquetting.

Yang Nan handed the Puxi Array Diagram to Ni Cai, who was currently hard at work inside the Yuanjia Cave Mansion. A look of overwhelming joy crossed Ni Cai's face, and sitting cross-legged on the ground like someone who had just found a priceless treasure, she immediately began studying it. The Yuansheng Cave Mansion had been heavily ravaged by Venerable Blue Star, and its power had been greatly diminished, which was why Ni Cai had been able to reclaim it so easily. The magic treasures and other items within the cave mansion had long since been stripped clean. However, turning it into something of one's own was no easy task. The grand principles of array formation across the world were interconnected; with this scroll of peerless array diagrams, Ni Cai would find the refinement process much smoother. Choosing not to disturb Ni Cai as she contemplated the mysteries of the array diagram, Yang Nan quietly withdrew and returned to the side of the Sun-Thunder Pond.

The various spiritual herbs by the Sun-Thunder Pond emitted a vibrant life force, their faint fragrances intertwining to refresh the mind of anyone who caught a whiff. Yang Nan took out the pair of Bright-Colored Twin Flying Wings. Their surface was transparent, yet when they caught the light, they radiated brilliant, shifting colors. A boundless, surging spiritual power emanated from the tiny wings; if worn on one's body, a single thought would allow one to travel a thousand miles in an instant—truly a wondrous artifact.

The mystic weapon Vast Ocean was also renowned. Legend had it that it was the personal weapon of the ancient immortal, the God of Vast Ocean, possessing immense power. It was said that a single stroke of its sword could drain the vast oceans. Although later generations lacked such divine might, cleaving boats and severing waves was well within its capabilities, and its power was truly no less than that of an immortal-grade magic treasure.

Among Yang Nan's followers, there were numerous water-attribute demons, but their cultivation levels were currently too low to make use of this divine weapon. Although Yang Nan could use the Indestructible Yin-Yang Wheel to transform his water-elemental magic power to wield it, it was ultimately not his own native power, making it rather inconvenient.

The hand-copied manual of the Profound Rebirth Technique was rather miraculous to Yang Nan. This marvelous technique for cultivating an indestructible physical body seemed tailored for the demon race. Since Yang Nan was human, his meridians and apertures differed vastly from those of demons; nevertheless, this technique possessed supreme miraculous efficacy in refining a demon's physical body, and legendary abilities like cicada sloughing and an indestructible fleshly body stemmed precisely from it.

While Yang Nan was tempted to study the mysteries of this demon technique, he had even more demons among his subordinates, and the person most suited to cultivate it was undoubtedly Dieyi.

Among his close companions, only Dieyi was also of the insect race. Thus, Yang Nan summoned her and imprinted this supreme wondrous formula directly into Dieyi's spiritual apertures, hoping she would make rapid progress and greatly increase her cultivation.

Having obtained the soul-cultivation method from the thirty-six Heavenly Mystery Maps as well as this scroll of the Profound Rebirth Technique, Dieyi's future achievements were destined to be boundless. Having received such immortal fate, Dieyi could only offer a respectful bow. Since her very being belonged to Yang Nan, words of thanks were entirely unnecessary.

If Yang Nan himself wished to practice the Profound Rebirth Technique, the only way was to use the Thirty-Six Great Derivative Transformation Arts to assume a demon form. The transformed demon form would possess all the necessary meridians and apertures, allowing him to practice this technique just as well as any other demon. However, the Thirty-Six Great Derivative Transformation Arts consumed immense magic power and could not be maintained indefinitely. After trying it out of initial curiosity, Yang Nan found it rather dull. Unless he could recover the remaining seventy-two transformation techniques to make assuming a demon form less arduous, learning demon techniques would remain an idle dream.

According to legend, the Great Derivative Zhou Tian Transformation originated from the ancient demon sage "Zhou." Zhou's soul belonged to a demon, yet he transformed into a human; Yang Nan, however, was now precisely the reverse. Under the refinement of the Indestructible Yin-Yang Wheel, his soul remained human, while his physical body could transform into a demon, though the duration was far too brief.

Since Yang Nan had his own supreme Great Dao to pursue, how could he genuinely waste time practicing demon techniques? He merely treated it as a curious experiment.

The Indestructible Thunder Boat crossed the East China Sea, flying straight toward the Spirit Beast Mountain. Though Yang Nan had been away from the mountain for only a little over a year, the atmosphere within had changed drastically with each passing day. Over these recent times, the four commanders had actively recruited troops, amassing a subordinate demon force numbering nearly a hundred thousand—truly a rare and formidable demonic faction in this world.

Seeing their master return, the four commanders hurried to the Yuqing Hall to pay their respects. Monkey Wine, Hua Haitai, Goldfish, and Su Shu all gazed at Yang Nan with burning warmth. During the days when Yang Nan was away, under the supervision of the outer sect disciples, these four commanders had not dared to harbor even the slightest rebellious thought.

Demons had always possessed simpler minds than humans. Since Yang Nan had subdued them, he was their master. The awe Yang Nan commanded in their hearts was as profound as that once held for Patriarch Qingya; as long as Yang Nan lived, the four commanders would never dare harbor any disloyal intentions!

In light of this, Yang Nan also selected a cultivation technique for each of them from the thirty-six Hetuo Heavenly Mystery Maps and passed them down. Overjoyed, the four commanders realized that top-tier cultivation techniques were exceedingly rare. No matter how hard they tried otherwise, without proper techniques, remaining forever stuck at the Grandmaster realm was their absolute limit—was that not precisely why the Roc Demon King had suffered the same fate back then?