At this point, An Chengxi’s expression grew grave as she continued, “This junior believes that Meng Changsheng went to such lengths to orchestrate all this for the sake of seizing a body and restarting his cultivation! To extend his lifespan once more!”
“Seizing a body and restarting cultivation…” Lin Wan’er frowned and said, “This humble girl has only heard vague rumours of such things, nothing concrete or evidential.”
An Chengxi replied, “This junior learned of it only by a stroke of luck. After Chen’er began cultivating the Nine Mysterious Heavenly Scripture, in order to help him seek opportunities, this junior once ventured into the Hundred Thousand Mountains. I intended to find the immortal abode where Meng Changsheng had secluded himself for cultivation all those years ago, yet unexpectedly, in the depths of the Hundred Thousand Mountains, I encountered a Daoist elder about the same age as Master Kongyin. That elder suddenly appeared and blocked my path, warning me that to proceed further would lead to the Blood Lake Hell.”
“Blood Lake Hell?” Lin Wan’er blurted out, “The Blood Lake Hell spoken of in Daoism should merely be a legend, akin to the eighteen layers of hell! How could it exist within the Hundred Thousand Mountains?”
An Chengxi explained, “The Blood Lake Hell in Daoism is a hell formed from the grievances and departed souls of those who died unjustly or through great sin. The elder said that place was the Blood Lake Hell because, just like the Daoist tales, countless people had met wrongful deaths there. He told this junior that the depths of the Hundred Thousand Mountains housed a formation forged through the sacrifice of innumerable lives, and that formation was still operating to this day, with some evil cultivator within it performing soldier dissolution.”
“Soldier dissolution…” Lin Wan’er murmured, “This humble girl has heard that soldier dissolution is when those who fail the heavenly tribulation abandon their fleshly body to preserve their primordial spirit. So this… is the legendary path of the scattered immortal!”
“Yes,” An Chengxi nodded emphatically and continued her explanation, “The elder said as much: it is the path of the scattered immortal.”
Lin Wan’er asked doubtfully, “But that should not be possible… It is said that in this world, only cultivators at the Tribulation Passing stage can perform soldier dissolution to become scattered immortals upon failing their tribulation. Others lack the capacity altogether; once their lifespan ends, they are doomed to soul scattering and total annihilation of their primordial spirit! Grandmaster’s cultivation never even broke through the thousand-year lifespan, let alone reached the Tribulation Passing stage. How could he have the ability to dissolve into a scattered immortal?”
An Chengxi sighed, “That is the most terrifying part. The elder himself was a cultivator of the Dao. He told this junior that any cultivator’s primordial spirit will dissipate into smoke upon the natural end of their lifespan. Yet the evil cultivator in that formation, despite lacking sufficient strength, could still perform soldier dissolution because, before his death, he used countless lives to replicate a Blood Lake Hell in the Hundred Thousand Mountains according to Daoist legends. That Blood Lake Hell has escaped the five elements and three realms, deceiving the heavenly dao and the cycle of reincarnation!”
“If there truly is a purgatory in this world, then he has essentially crafted his own private purgatory on earth. The heavenly dao believes it to be part of hell, hell believes it to be part of the human realm, and that bloodthirsty evil cultivator can thus dissolve there without heavenly retribution.”
At this, An Chengxi turned to Lin Wan’er and asked earnestly, “To slaughter so many in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, this must have occurred in ancient times. Meng Changsheng secluded himself there for many years, making him the prime suspect. Moreover, he lived exactly a thousand years, and given his obsession with longevity, he is the most likely to commit such an act.”
Lin Wan’er shook her head, “But… my father once said that Grandmaster simply reached the end of his thousand-year lifespan and passed peacefully, bequeathing the two Eternal Evergreen Pills to him and Wu Feiyan before his death. After my father and Wu Feiyan handled his funeral affairs, as they prepared to leave the mountains, that was when Wu Feiyan turned on my father. By then, Grandmaster had already passed. If he were that evil cultivator, it would contradict what my father said. Before his death, my father told this humble girl all of this, and he would surely not lie.”
An Chengxi sighed, “Senior, your father did not lie. The one who lied was Meng Changsheng.”
