Chapter 41: Lightning in the Left, Fire in the Right! Ancestor of Dao, Aid Me!

With a bell-like "boom," Wen Yuan leaned against the door with his arms crossed.
The door was made of steel and remained completely motionless.
"To know the ways of heaven is easy, but to defy them is hard. Human strength ultimately cannot conquer steel. Ah... that hurts."
"Can you... still walk? Would you like me to carry you instead?"
"Not for now." He felt his shoulder. "It's dislocated, fortunately not broken. As expected, even though I've eaten fairy-root radishes since childhood, and even though I keep my body in the state of a primordial Dao physique, a broken bone is still a broken bone when it happens. Primordial meridians can allow spiritual energy to flow unimpeded, but primordial bones are still just bones. Only through the complete shedding of mortal bones and the washing away of mortal flesh can a primordial Dao physique truly forge a foundation. Yet, shedding the mortal frame to forge the Dao is profoundly difficult."
The smell of blood grew closer, and visible frost had already appeared at the end of the corridor.
"By the way, how did you escape last time?" Suddenly turning his head, he asked Shang Luo, "My master said that when he broke through the door last time, he thought he would have to clear out a mess before finding you. He never expected you to be standing right behind the door, as if waiting there. Was that also the result of your divination? Including that gun?"
"That gun wasn't. How could I possibly calculate an ambiguous result and shoot myself in the head? I was just trying to scare him; I knew all along that the gun would jam. But waiting by the door was indeed prompted by a certain revelation."
"That spirit artifact?"
"Mm."
"Well, that was certainly accurate." While answering, he felt his shoulder, probed the scapula with his fingers a few times, and with a sharp "crack," snapped the dislocated arm back into place.
"Ow!" He cried out in pain. "I think the tendons and bones are injured... It takes a hundred days to recover from tendon and bone injuries. What about my racing competition?"
"You're still thinking about the racing competition at a time like this?"
"Heaven never cuts off all avenues of escape; we will definitely find a way out. There must be a way... but human effort can achieve anything."
[Your hope of rescue is zero.] Apollonia's voice was much calmer than usual. [So... hand me over. Your lives are limited, and you only get one. But my life is infinite.]
"She still wants us to hand her over," Shang Luo said, looking up. "She says her life is infinite."
"Nonsense!" Wen Yuan was still adjusting his arm. "Even without studying Buddhism, I know that without abandoning the 'attachment to self,' there is no possibility of rebirth. While a spirit artifact can live once more, after the consciousness is interrupted, is the one who wakes up still her? So let me make this clear first."

He looked into Shang Luo's eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of that "spirit artifact" within them: "Shang Luo, I am protecting you out of a sense of responsibility, not out of mere loyalty—I am not that heroically righteous yet. I am protecting that spirit artifact because of orders. Master believes that the two of you will be of great use to the imperial court, but conversely, you might also become a grave threat to the court's heart. Therefore, I must bring you back; that is the order I received. So think carefully now: heaven leaves no dead end, there must be a way to take her down."
"Wait..." Shang Luo suddenly raised a hand. "That spear."
"A spear? You mean the one she was holding earlier? What on earth was that?"
"That is the Spear of the Sun God, a spiritual weapon. As you saw, Phaethon easily defeated people stronger than her with the Spear of the Sun God. My assessment is that the function of the Spear of the Sun God is to enforce contracts. Phaethon promised me that as long as we cooperated with the experiment, she would let us leave safely and pay me the 'reward' to help me build my Dao foundation. She has broken her oath, so perhaps we can use the Spear of the Sun God to counter-kill her."
"That makes sense, and she truly ought to give you a reliable method to stabilize your foundation. Look at what you brewed yourself—what kind of ghost creation was that? You took it four times, resulting in cultivation deviation twice and bleeding from the seven orifices once. Although it succeeded once, would you dare gamble on that single success? It's better to seek an opportunity from someone reliable—perhaps that Foundation Establishment Pill was meant to trade for this very opportunity. Hey? Look!"
Wen Yuan's eyes suddenly lit up: "From this perspective, isn't this our sliver of survival? Human effort can achieve anything, this is our chance. In a moment, I'll go draw her away, and you... no, you and the spirit artifact will go retrieve that Spear of the Sun God. Then, while I'm sparring with her, drive the spear straight through her heart."
"But how are you going to lure her away? She's clearly coming specifically for the 'spirit artifact'."
"No. Didn't you say earlier that she recognizes neither family nor relatives? If she recognizes no one, how could she recognize this spirit artifact? That proves she is actually coming for the spirit artifact's spiritual energy. As long as I can generate a spiritual energy far more intense than that spirit artifact's, I can draw her over."
[This kid has some real skills! He actually managed to guess that aether sources can mask one another, with the strong suppressing the weak. Just like the faint glow of decaying grass, how could it compare to the bright moon in the firmament? In truth, you only need to find a chance to bring her out under the sun; the sun's aether will completely suppress my aether traces, and she won't be able to find me at all—if he can create an aether source stronger than mine, Phaethon won't be able to find me either.]
"The spirit artifact says it's feasible," Shang Luo relayed Apollonia's judgment, "but you'll have to pull out all the stops."
"Consider it done." He patted the small pouch at his waist. "As big as you need it to be. But we only have one chance, there won't be a second."
...
The dark miasma continued to spread through the corridor. Following the traces of aether, a massive dark shadow moved within the mist. The shadow's outline was swallowed by the darkness, with only a pair of glowing red eyes flickering in the gloom.
The shadow's pace was slow, but every step it took caused the dark miasma to surge further forward.
"Not..." Phaethon looked at the ceiling light. "Not this beam of light."
After the figure passed, the light overhead went out in silence.
Pausing beneath yet another light, Phaethon looked up once more:
"No, not this beam of light..."
"The one you're looking for is this!" Wen Yuan's figure suddenly appeared ahead, yet Phaethon remained unmoved. She was only interested in light and cared nothing for the lives of mortals.
Suddenly, those crimson pupils shifted, looking past Wen Yuan—Shang Luo was running over there. In her vision, it was a faint blue light that could pierce through all darkness.
"Light!"
The dark shadow took a sudden step, leaping past Wen Yuan's head in a single bound to land behind him.
"Phaethon, is that your name?"
Hearing her own name, the dark shadow actually stopped. She turned her head slightly to look at Wen Yuan who had spoken.
"You want spiritual energy, right? Then take a look at this!"
Wen Yuan pulled a waist plaque from his pouch; the plaque emitted no fluctuation of spiritual energy whatsoever.
Much like Lu Huaiyang's waist plaque, it shared the standard design of a Brocade Guard token, carved from cyan jade. A name was inscribed right in the center of the jade, but what was written there was not Wen Yuan's name, but two characters mostly worn away: Wen Yan. The reverse side was carved with the two characters "Yun Tuan" in seal script.
"Father, I'm sorry, I couldn't inherit your plaque... But one day, I will earn a plaque of my own."
With his right hand, he gripped the waist plaque, while his left hand formed the thunder-summoning sword mudra pointing straight ahead, chanting aloud:
"Jade Pure Primordial Cyan, true talismans proclaim the covenant, shifting the dual breaths, fusing into primordial truth. Five thunders, five thunders, swiftly gather in Huangning! Mist and vapors transform, roaring lightning and swift thunder..."
Finishing the incantation, his right hand snapped violently, shattering the jade plaque into fine powder. Brilliant, dazzling thunder surged forth from the shattered jade. The lightning was channeled from his right hand directly into the thunder-summoning sword mudra held in his left:
"Zero on the left, fire on the right! Dao Ancestor assist me! Lightning, strike!"