38: Chapter 38 The Instructor

The Instructor lived in the northernmost part of the Loose Cultivators Alliance.

It was a stone courtyard with low walls and a door made of nailed wooden planks, without a lock.

An old locust tree stood in the courtyard, its canopy shading half the area.

Beneath the tree sat a few wooden chairs, and on one of them sat an old man.

The old man was very old.

His hair was completely white, his face covered in wrinkles, and his hands rested on his knees—fingers long, knuckles prominent.

He wore a white robe washed until it had turned grey, with a small piece of black bone hanging from his neck.

It was strung on a leather cord, dangling against his chest, half-hidden by the robe.

Inside the black bone, a dark golden light flowed.

It was the same as the two in Lu Chen's hands.

"You've come."

The old man's voice was dry.

Not hoarse—dry.

Like a throat that hadn't drunk water in many years.

Qin Wu stood at the courtyard gate without entering.

"Instructor, someone wants to see you."

"I know. The thread told me."

He raised his hand.

From his left wrist, the cuff slid down—revealing not skin, but a faint grey line.

Not a white line, a grey line.

It was wrapped around his wrist, very thin, like a strand of hair.

Its color had faded to the point of being almost invisible.

The line was glowing.

Very faintly, like charcoal about to extinguish.

"Come in."

Lu Chen walked in.

The courtyard was very clean; there were no fallen leaves on the ground—not because they had been swept, but because no one ever came here.

"Sit."

Lu Chen sat down on the wooden chair opposite him.

The shadow of the locust tree fell between the two, and when the wind blew, the shadow swayed.

"You are a Disciple of Li Xuanyi."

The old man did not deny it.

He looked down at the black bone hanging on his chest, pinched it with two fingers, and held it up to the moonlight to examine it.

"Before Master died, he divided a piece of bone for each of us.

He said—'While the bone exists, the person exists; if the bone shatters, the person perishes.'

He himself dissipated in the Inverted Tower, and we, his Disciples, scattered in all directions."

"How many of you are there in total?"

"Seven."

"There are ten finger bones in total.

Ten minus seven—"

"Master kept three for himself."

The old man placed the bone back onto his chest.

"You found two of his in the Inverted Tower.

One on the fifth level, one on the fourth."

"And two were given to the people who entered the tower."

Lu Chen said, "There were people who left messages on the walls of the first and fourth levels.

They took the finger bones."

The old man glanced at Lu Chen.

It wasn't appreciation, nor hostility—it was confirmation.

"You reached the fifth level."

"The fifth level."

"Did you see Master's last words?"

" 'To live forever is an endless prison sentence.' "

The old man repeated the sentence.

His voice was very flat, just like Lu Chen's—devoid of emotional fluctuation.

It wasn't that he controlled it well; it was that there was none.

"My name is Senior Bai Jie.

I am the fifth Disciple Master took in.

I have waited in the Loose Cultivators Alliance for seventy years—waiting for someone who could complete the Inverted Tower."

He looked at Lu Chen.

"In seventy years, I have only waited for you."

"Why wait?"

"Because the tenth finger bone is on the road that Master traveled, and Master said it cannot be moved.

The first to the ninth—dispersed among seven Disciples and two tower entrants.

Only by gathering all nine can one go to retrieve the tenth."

Senior Bai Jie untied the leather cord from his neck.

"Master said—when the Ten Fingers Clasped, one can reverse the Love-Refining Furnace."

Lu Chen's fingers curled slightly.

Reverse the Love-Refining Furnace.

It wasn't extraction, it was returning—giving back the emotions that had been refined away.

"Can they be returned?"

"I don't know.

Master didn't know either.

What he carved on the wall wasn't everything.

He left a portion with me—fearing that if someone managed to complete the Inverted Tower, they would at least know the whole truth."

Senior Bai Jie's dry voice lowered further.

"Ten Fingers Clasped, reverse the Love-Refining Furnace—but this reversal can only be done once.

And—"

"And what?"

"The day of the reversal, the Grey Spirit Root will shatter."

The wind in the courtyard blew.

The shadow of the locust tree swayed, and light fell onto Senior Bai Jie's face—that old face held no expression.

When he said this, it was the same as saying "It is windy today."

"What happens after the Grey Spirit Root shatters?"

"No Spiritual Root.

A cripple."

"What about immortality?"

"Gone.

Lifespan will regress to that of a Mortal—or even less."

Lu Chen did not speak.

He looked at the finger bone in Senior Bai Jie's hand—the sixth one.

Under the moonlight, the deep golden light in the bone core flowed, the same color as the light in his Dantian.

"Has your Grey Spirit Root shattered too?"

"No."

Senior Bai Jie turned his hand over.

The grey line on his left wrist—that faint circle that was about to fade away—was almost invisible in the moonlight.

"My Spiritual Root is still there.

But I didn't reach the fifth level.

I only reached the second level—Forget Friend."

"You retreated."

"I retreated.

In the Forget Friend pass, I saw someone—my Senior Sister.

And then I retreated.

Just like your Old Zhou."

Senior Bai Jie placed the finger bone on his knee.

"It has been sixty years.

I still remember her face.

Every time I think of it, it is torture—but I would rather remember."

Lu Chen looked at the grey line on his wrist.

"Your line—"

"It is about to break.

The color of the line is linked to emotion.

The lighter the line, the thinner the emotion.

My line is grey—which means my emotions have only the last layer left."

Senior Bai Jie looked at Lu Chen.

"Your line is still white.

It means you still care."

"I don't care."

"You care.

The line cannot deceive people."

Senior Bai Jie stood up.

When he stood, his body was very light, like a dry leaf lifted by the wind.

"The things you care about are not people, not events, not anything that can be named.

You might not even know what it is yourself—but the line knows."

He handed over the leather cord.

The sixth finger bone hung in mid-air, swaying between the two.

"Take it."

"Conditions?"

"No conditions.

I waited seventy years just to give this to someone who could complete the Inverted Tower."

Senior Bai Jie withdrew his hand—not the finger bone, but the hand beneath it.

"But I have to tell you one thing."

"What thing?"

"Your seventh finger bone—"

"Where is it?"

"Hehuan Sect.

My Senior Sister took it away.

She went to the Hehuan Sect and married an Elder of the Hehuan Sect at the time.

She has been dead for many years.

The finger bone should still be in the Secret Realm of the Hehuan Sect—the 'Cave of Ten Thousand Desires'."

Senior Bai Jie looked at Lu Chen.

"You cannot go there now."

"Why?"

"The Hehuan Sect does not accept those with a Grey Spirit Root.

To get in, you must first obtain a recommendation letter from the Xuantian Sect."

Xuantian Sect.

Lu Chen took the finger bone.

The moment it touched his hand, the deep golden light surged into his palm.

It was the same as before—from palm to arm to shoulder to Dantian.

The Spiritual Qi, at ninety-three percent in his Dantian, surged—

Ninety-five percent.

Ninety-seven percent.

Ninety-nine percent.

It stopped.

It was just a layer of paper away from Qi Refining Level 6.

But that layer of paper was still there—not because the Spiritual Qi was insufficient, but because his state of mind had not reached it.

The "reverse the Love-Refining Furnace" and "Grey Spirit Root will shatter" that Senior Bai Jie spoke of—these pieces of information had not yet settled in his Dantian.

"Almost."

"That missing bit is not Spiritual Qi."

Senior Bai Jie said, "It is that you haven't thought clearly yet—if you really gather all ten, do you truly want to reverse it?"

Lu Chen tucked the sixth finger bone into his robes.

He placed it with the fourth and fifth.

The three black bones touched, and the light in their cores echoed each other.

"Have you thought it through?"

Senior Bai Jie asked.

"Thought it through."

"To reverse or not?"

Lu Chen stood up.

The shadow of the locust tree slid off his face, revealing the light—his eyes were still empty.

"We'll see when the time comes.

Gather them first."

He turned and walked out.

Qin Wu was still standing at the courtyard gate, having not entered from the beginning to the end.

"You got it?"

"Got it."

"Next step?"

"Hehuan Sect.

But first, enter the Xuantian Sect."

Qin Wu paused.

"The Xuantian Sect is the enemy.

Elder Sun's people, the matter of the Restriction, the Sect Head being injured—it is all the Xuantian Sect behind it."

"I know."

"Then how will you get in?"

"It is not about how to get in."

Lu Chen walked to the alley entrance, "It is that they will come to find me themselves.

In ten days—the people of the Xuantian Sect will arrive at the Danding Sect and find that I am not there.

They will come looking."

"And then?"

"Then negotiations."

"What bargaining chip do you have?"

"The Inverted Tower.

The fifth level.

The truth about Li Xuanyi."

Qin Wu fell silent.

The moonlight stretched their shadows long, spreading them side by side on the ground.

The white line on his wrist was still glowing—two lines, the same color, the same light.

"I will go with you."

Lu Chen turned his head to look at him.

"Why?"

"Because you are alone."

Qin Wu looked at him—not looking at someone he knew, but looking at someone who shared the same line as himself.

"And the line is in your hand.

While the line exists—the person exists.

Where you go, the line goes."

Lu Chen looked down at his wrist.

White line.

Six circles and seven knots.

Glowing.

Not caring—he still did not care who Qin Wu was.

But the line cared.

tianxuan calendar, taiping year 19, Spring.

Lu Chen, Qi Refining Level 5 Peak.

Dantian at ninety-nine percent.

Sixth finger bone—gifted by Senior Bai Jie.

Seventh—Hehuan Sect · Cave of Ten Thousand Desires.

Eighth—Xuantian Sect.

Ninth—Unknown.

Tenth—Qingniu Ridge.

Loose Cultivators Alliance affairs concluded.

Next step—wait for the Xuantian Sect to arrive.

Or go find them proactively.