Vacant Spirit Grounds
Xie Bulao wobbled his way to the meeting spot, looking as if he was only half awake. He reeked of evil unlike the first two meetings Mu Yu had with him. The white ape fiend king wasn’t fond of Xie Bulao. Xie Bulao constantly bragged about amputating one of Feng Haochen’s fingers, earning everyone’s ire.
“What are you all looking at me for? Is my face dirty?” Xie Bulao rubbed his face.
Mu Yu, by coincidence, spotted an extra finger next to Xie Bulao’s right thumb. He didn’t remember seeing the extra finger in their previous meetings. The finger blended in almost perfectly. He was able to move it freely and didn’t let the sinister qi run wild as it did when Mu Yu returned it. Feng Haochen also noticed the extra finger as he went to sit. “Your sixth finger has grown out already?”
Xie Bulao strutted over to sit opposite Feng Haochen. “My precious Sixth Sin. If you still had your cultivation, I’d beat you for sure.”
Sixth Sin referred to Xie Bulao’s sixth finger. Because Feng Haochen took it from him, he forced his disciples to swear an oath to take a finger from Sword Shadow Dust Gale before killing them.
Feng Haochen shook his head. “If you try anything funny with it again, I’ll find a way to chop it off again.”
“You’re no longer the same Sword Shadow Dust Gale. You don’t scare me. I feel fifty years younger now with my Sixth Sin. When I was doing it with Watercloud Sect’s elder last night, I finally pulled off the challenging position I never dared t-“
“Shut it. Don’t you feel embarrassed talking about it front of the juniors?”
“What for? They call me crazy. I call them ignorant. All of us are different. You need to be different. We only need two straight-laced people. You and Illusionary Clear Rain are enough. I bring the laughs.”
Xie Bulao was a completely different man, blabbering non-stop. Feng Haochen knew it would never end. Thus, he suggested, “We should begin preparing for the formation.”
“You brought Eternally Youthful Ku Mu on board? You’re a charmer, aren’t you? I did say Ku Mu would smash himself in the foot if he kept playing with poison. Has it happened yet?”
“Keep playing with evil qi, and you’ll kill yourself,” Ku Mu fired back, affronted despite it being a joke.
“Tsk, tsk, do something about that foul temper. Why didn’t we recognise each other at Melodic House when we know each other?”
“You have to be as inane as you to identify someone who’s an old man one moment and a middle-aged man the next.”
“You’re the weakest cultivator, yet you have the biggest temper. Oh well, I’m in a good mood today. I’ll let you off the hook out of respect for your skills with formations. Let’s go to Vacant Spirit grounds. That’s the most suitable place to cast it.” Xie Bulao stopped lounging around and lazily ambled to the door.
“An Ping, you, Ling’er and Qing Mei wait here. We’ll be back soon,” instructed Feng Haochen.
Uncle An nodded. Lan Ling’er was disappointed. Xiaoshuai lounged around on the table and stuffed his face.
“What’s Vacant Space Grounds?” Mu Yu inquired.
“It’s a place the five elements can’t easily control,” answered Ku Mu.
“Wow. Where is it?”
It was rare for any place to not have the presence of the five elements. After all, what in the world was there that didn’t contain one of the five elements? Humans were a special case. Though they possessed the unique traits of the five elements, owing to the five co-existing and keeping each other in check, removing the unique traits would prevent elemental demons controlling them.
“Is it in the sky? The five elements don’t exist in the sky, right?” Xiang Nan queried.
“There’s water mist. It’s only a little, but it’s undoubtedly there,” Qiao Xue corrected.
“It’s a secret place you five don’t need to know. Just follow me.”
Xie Bulao led the five out of Twenty-Five Kilometres South Garden and northward. They travelled so fast that they literally teleported through a void. There were narrow, long and towering rocky mountains all around. Green plants grew along the faces of the cliffs hundreds of metres long. A flowing river was located at the bottom and stretched beyond what the naked eye could see. At the heart of each mountain was a pool of burbling lava. Somehow, the plants managed to survive the harsh conditions. Colourful gems were inlaid into the cliff faces.
“This is Vacant Spirit Grounds?” exclaimed Mu Yu. “I can sense vitality from trees.”
All five of them could sense their relevant elements. It went against what they were told.
“Although the five elements may exist here, this is a forbidden zone for the elemental demons. Don’t believe me? Give it a try,” Xie Bulao shared.
The five exchanged looks of doubt. Mu Yu stepped onto a pine tree. He could sense vitality circulating and its strong life force. Its rhizome was sprouting. He placed his hand on and commanded it to develop faster. Alas, it didn’t heed his command. Qiao Xue couldn’t control the water she stood on. Lie Shang dipped his hand into lava and stirred it, but it wouldn’t follow his orders. Cheng Yan and Xiang Nan also failed to impose their will on objects they usually could.
“The five elements are balanced here. The four coexist and counter each other. When you try to manipulate one element, the other four will stop you. Accordingly, the elemental demons’ abilities are nullified. It’s impossible to throw off the balance here. Not even the five spirit lords can leverage the terrain. Vacant Spirit Grounds doesn’t mean the five elements don’t exist. It means that the five are balanced,” Feng Haochen elucidated, addressing the topic for the first time. “Our bodies are similar. None of them can disturb the five elements’ balance in our bodies. For that reason, they can’t turn the elements inside us against us. Likewise, you can only control the five elements you possess; you can’t damage anything here.”
Mu Yu voiced, “I have a question. Shifu, you said we’re also human, so we should fit the bill. Why, then, do we have their abilities?”
Feng Haochen touched his beard. “It may be balanced in everyone, but it doesn’t mean the amount is equal in everyone. Some may be born with more or less of one particular element. Having less is the key takeaway because it simply means the discrepancy isn’t great enough to ruin the balance. You, for example, have a prominent wood element, while the others barely have much of it. The reincarnated spirit lords found your unique bodies, which is why they chose you.”
“Do you know how many infants die upon birth? They die due to the five elements in them lacking the minimum requirement for survival. The closer one’s balance is close to perfect, the longer their life expectancy. You five have an extreme imbalance. As such, you five should’ve died as soon as you were born. By some luck, the elemental spirit lords chose you five, thereby saving you lives,” Xie Bulao informed with mockery writing all over his face.
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