"Can you resolve the Deceit?" Zhou Henn asked.
Wu Zhao shook his head. "I know how to resolve Santu Mountain, but I’m completely clueless about No Return Road and the Yellow Springs Gate."
Li Qingxian recalled the various anecdotes recorded in the *Chronicles of the Fate Master*. Although it didn’t go into detail, it had documented similar situations.
"Are there no other options?" Zhou Henn asked.
Wu Zhao glanced at Li Qingxian and said, "Currently, only a Great Fate Master can fully resolve an ’Unending Mysterious Land,’ because many Fate Masters treat a Deceitful Land as a form of destiny. A few Upper-Grade Experts can also get through, but they can’t resolve it. They rely purely on brute force, and every person who forces their way through will have their lifespan shortened by ten years."
Over on the side, Zhou Chunfeng said, "If we can’t find a way to resolve the Deceit within one hour, I’ll break through this gate by force."
"Old Zhou, you..." Wu Zhao sighed and glanced at Li Qingxian.
"Lord Wu, what do you know about this Yellow Springs? Could you please explain it all in detail? I have some rudimentary knowledge from a Fate Skill lineage, so perhaps I can resolve the Deceit," Li Qingxian said.
"A Deceitful Land is formed after a Deceitful Demon dies. Under normal circumstances, it remains dormant, but it can be activated by the power of other Deceitful Demons. The Yellow Springs Mysterious Land originates from the power of a great Deceitful Demon. As for who it was, we don’t know. We can only call it the Yellow Springs Emperor."
"You’re addressing that demonic being directly?" Li Qingxian didn’t dare say the name.
Wu Zhao gave a wry smile. "You can’t speak its name recklessly before entering a Deceitful Land. But now that we’re inside and already afflicted by the Deceit, it doesn’t matter anymore. All of you, look at your left wrists, and then try to find your pulse there."
Everyone looked down and saw a new mark on their left wrist: a yellow cloud, about the size of a thumbprint.
They reached out to feel it, and every person’s expression changed slightly.
There was no pulse in their left wrists. Their right wrists were normal, yet their bodies felt no discomfort.
"Is there anything else?" Li Qingxian asked.
"The Yellow Springs Mysterious Land... it’s both good and bad. The good part is, you only need to uncover three ’Deceits’ to resolve it easily. The bad part is, if you can’t, twelve people will die. Many would rather face a Deceitful Demon in a life-or-death battle than encounter this kind of Deceitful Land. Just think, what would happen if only twelve people were afflicted this time? This Deceitful Land is just residual power, so it should be easy to resolve. For example, a Middle-Grade Fate Master can resolve No Return Road... some Middle-Grade Fate Masters can resolve it... The problem is... I’m not a Fate Master. I only know how to resolve Santu Mountain. As for the Yellow Springs Gate, only Great Fate Masters have ever resolved it..."
Wu Zhao rambled on, and Li Qingxian mentally noted every word.
After Wu Zhao finished speaking, everyone fell silent.
Li Qingxian thought to himself, ’My Grade Level is the lowest. Even with the protection of my Life Formation, my chance of dying is much higher than Zhou Chunfeng’s, Zhou Henn’s, or Wu Zhao’s. It’s probably about the same as Jing Guan’s.’
’The biggest problem is that Deceitful Demons love to kill Fate Masters!’
’That almost completely negates the protection of my Life Formation.’
’I even suspect that the first Yellow Springs Ship is very likely to head straight for me.’
Li Qingxian pondered for a long time before making a decision.
’I can’t just sit here and wait to die!’
Li Qingxian said, "The White Road is in the west, which should be the Dui Position. However, the Deceitful Land is cloaked in other powers, causing the trigram positions to shift. I just tried, but my Magical Power is too weak to perform the Inference. Lord Wu, can you deduce the true trigram position of the No Return Road?"
"I’ll try." As he spoke, Wu Zhao took an Eight Trigrams Disc from his Qi Fortune Silver Fish Pouch and began to walk around slowly, performing the Inference.
Before long, Wu Zhao said, "It’s the Kun Position, but it occasionally shifts to the Separate Position. That’s how the power of a Deceitful Land works. The trigram positions are unstable and can even change completely."
"If it’s the Kun Position..." Li Qingxian mused for a moment, then said, "It can be resolved! Since Great Fate Masters treat ’No Return Road’ as a kind of destiny, it’s likely similar to the ’Entrapment’ aspect of a Fate Grid. I have a Fate Skill that can resolve entrapment within a Fate Grid, but my Magical Power is insufficient. I’ll need to borrow your Magical Power, Lord Wu."
"As long as you’re willing to try using a Fate Skill to resolve the Deceit, all my Magical Power is yours!" Wu Zhao was overjoyed.
The others also looked at Li Qingxian with excitement.
Zhou Henn said, "You just became a Fate Master. What if you suffer a backlash from forcefully resolving the Deceit?"
Zhou Henn’s expression was grim, the scar that stretched across his nose making him look even more ferocious.
"Suffering a backlash is still better than sitting here waiting to die," Li Qingxian said.
"A hero emerges from the youth!" Wu Zhao exclaimed.
Li Qingxian lowered his head in thought, slowly running through the Inference and recalling the mnemonic chants and his knowledge of Fate Skills.
Everyone watched him nervously.
After a while, Li Qingxian looked up and asked, "Do you have a live ox here?"
The Prison Guard Captain replied, "No living things are allowed in or out of the Imperial Prison West Courtyard. Forget a live ox, we don’t even have live mosquitoes."
Wu Zhao asked thoughtfully, "Because an ox’s eyes can see Yin and Yang?"
Li Qingxian nodded. "There are many Fate Skills for resolving entrapment. The only one I can use that is also suitable for the No Return Road is the ’Breaking Bull Skill’."
"I knew it was that Fate Skill. Does beef not work?" Wu Zhao asked.
"Of course not."
Wu Zhao thought for a moment and said, "We don’t have a live ox here, but we do have a live Ox Demon."
"As long as it’s an ox! However, I have to be the one to kill it," Li Qingxian said.
Wu Zhao said, "What’s killing a few more Ox Demons if it’s to save lives? I’ll go get one myself. However, that Ox Demon is too large, so I’ll have to use Magic to shrink it to the size of a common yellow ox. Don’t move. I’ll bring it over."
"Wait, the Breaking Bull Skill requires some Life Materials."
"Scribe, take this down," Jing Guan immediately ordered.
Li Qingxian listed the items as he thought of them, "Red string and red cloth; if you don’t have red, regular ones will do. Seven bowls to hold the ox blood. Seven candles, white ones, not red. A butcher’s knife or a blade that has killed a person. A bowl of clean water, a bundle of cloth, a shovel for digging, and a wooden plank—preferably a blank ancestral tablet used for rituals."
"Alright. You all, come with me." Wu Zhao took the paper and led a few Prison Guards away.
The rest stood in place, watching as Wu Zhao entered a distant prison cell while the Prison Guards went off to gather the Life Materials.
The Prison Guard Captain had a strange expression on his face but said nothing.
After a good while, the subordinates returned first with the Life Materials. They had everything, even the blank ancestral tablet.
Before long, Wu Zhao came back leading a black ox covered in cyan patterns. It was the size of a common draft ox, but its eyes were milky white, and it walked slowly.
"Lord Zhou Henn, please help me by carving some words on the blank tablet. Write ’Ox Grave.’"
Zhou Henn took the blank tablet, his index finger like a steel blade, and carved the two words "Ox Grave." Li Qingxian then took out his own knife and made a small mark on it.
"You guards, dig a pit. About a foot deep, just enough to fit the ox’s heart."
Once they had finished digging, Li Qingxian also shoveled out a scoop of dirt.
Li Qingxian held a ghost-headed saber, aimed at the black ox’s neck, and glanced at Wu Zhao.
Wu Zhao nodded slightly.
"You few, get ready. First, collect seven bowls of ox blood. You don’t need to fill them; just enough to cover the bottom is fine. You must collect it bowl by bowl; don’t pour from one to another. Then, stuff the red string and red cloth into the severed neck to soak them in blood."
Li Qingxian took a deep breath, raised the saber high, channeled Magical Power throughout his body, and swung down fiercely.
THWACK!
Blood sprayed as the ox’s head tumbled to the ground, rolling a few times.
The ox’s body swayed and then collapsed.
Several Prison Guards rushed forward, holding bowls to catch the blood. Afterward, they stuffed the red string and cloth into the stump of the ox’s neck to absorb the blood.
Li Qingxian reached up to wipe a speck of blood from his face, walked over to the ox’s rear, and swung his saber to cut off its tail.
Li Qingxian dropped the saber, holding the ox tail in his left hand. "Lord Wu," he said, "I’ll have to trouble you to use your object-retrieval Magic to take out the ox’s heart. Please try not to damage anything else."
"Simple."