CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 41: EMPEROR ANCESTOR AND AFANG

"Ji Nanhong’s background is deeper than I imagined," Chen Guan thought to himself.

"Have you made up your mind?" Ji Nanhong asked coldly, looking at Chen Guan. She tried to appear indifferent about the matter of dual cultivation itself.

"The text recorded here may not be effective. I’ve never heard of practicing a Secret Technique without using a Secret Technique Core," Chen Guan pretended to act naive.

"The text recorded here is real," Ji Nanhong replied without hesitation.

"How do you know?" Chen Guan looked at Ji Nanhong with astonishment.

Ji Nanhong resisted the urge to slap Chen Guan hard and then forcibly dual cultivate with him to stop his nonsense, speaking without any emotion, "This Secret Technique was left by the Emperor Ancestor, so it naturally can’t be fake. The effects mentioned are absolutely not empty words."

"Left by the Emperor Ancestor? Why would the Emperor Ancestor leave such a Dharma Gate in this kind of place?" Chen Guan could now finally be sure that Ji Nanhong also knew about the Emperor Ancestor leaving behind the "Ah Fang Scripture" here.

Ji Nanhong held her patience and said, "There’s no time to explain the detailed situation right now. You just need to know that this ’Ah Fang Scripture’ was created by the Emperor Ancestor, and it cannot be wrong."

"The Emperor Ancestor, such a person, would surely leave a unique study that reigns supreme across the Eight Desolations and the Six Harmonies, so why would he create a Dual Cultivation Secret Technique?" Chen Guan wanted to extract more information from Ji Nanhong.

"Why wouldn’t he? Have you heard the story of the Ah Fang Palace?" Ji Nanhong didn’t wait for Chen Guan to speak before continuing on her own: "The stories you’ve heard mostly say the Ah Fang Palace was built by the Emperor Ancestor for his own enjoyment, but there are also some rumors saying the Ah Fang Palace was built by the Emperor Ancestor to commemorate a woman named Ah Fang."

"I can tell you, the Ah Fang Palace was indeed built by the Emperor Ancestor to memorialize a woman named Ah Fang, and even this ’Ah Fang Scripture’ was created by the Emperor Ancestor for Ah Fang, not for his own cultivation use. This dual cultivation Chapter is only a part of the ’Ah Fang Scripture’, created by the Emperor Ancestor to achieve immortality with Ah Fang for eternal companionship," Ji Nanhong said calmly.

Chen Guan was dumbstruck. He only knew from Wang Lian that the Emperor Ancestor had created a Secret Technique of cultivation that humans could practice without relying on a Secret Technique Core, the ’Ah Fang Scripture’. Yet, he didn’t expect this Secret Technique to be created for a woman, which was simply bewildering and hard to imagine.

"Where did you hear this wild tale from? I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s certainly wild. I’ve never heard of a woman named Ah Fang beside the Emperor Ancestor. If she was truly so favored, how could she remain obscure?" Chen Guan was somewhat skeptical of Ji Nanhong’s account.

Ji Nanhong did not refute Chen Guan; she just said lightly, "Because Ah Fang was the Emperor Ancestor’s first love, and she died shortly after the Emperor Ancestor unified the Six Harmonies. Otherwise, why do you think the Emperor Ancestor never took a consort in his lifetime?"

"This doesn’t make sense. According to you, Ah Fang is already dead. Why would the Emperor Ancestor create a Secret Technique for her? How would this dual cultivation be practiced? Could it be with a ghost?" Chen Guan found Ji Nanhong’s words too hard to believe, with too many logical holes.

"Why do you think the Emperor Ancestor was seeking the Elixir of Life?" Ji Nanhong replied coldly.

Chen Guan was stunned: "Are you saying that the Emperor Ancestor’s search for immortality was not about his own cultivation of immortality, but to resurrect Ah Fang?"

"Believe it or not, that’s the reality. Now, there’s only this one path that might allow us to get out alive. Otherwise, as long as my injuries remain unhealed, we could be killed at any moment. You think it through," Ji Nanhong’s mood was very poor at that moment.

Although Chen Guan was indeed not bad-looking, under unavoidable circumstances, she didn’t shy away from having something happen between them.

But Chen Guan’s repeated hesitations made it seem as if Ji Nanhong was begging for something to happen with Chen Guan, feeling her pride a bit insulted.

Chen Guan didn’t bother with how Ji Nanhong felt; his mood was equally grim.

If what Ji Nanhong said was true, then the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ was meant for women, and men likely couldn’t practice it.

If that’s the case, then even if he obtained all of the ’Ah Fang Scripture’, it would be useless to him. Probably, the only part of the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ useful for men would be this Chapter of the Dual Cultivation Technique.

Chen Guan thought of how, after hearing about this place, the predecessor of the Wang Family didn’t make an active effort to find the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ here, seemingly not regarding it with much importance. It took so many years before Wang Lian came to this place to search for the ’Ah Fang Scripture’. Could it be that over so many years, that predecessor of the Wang Family only told Wang Lian about it?

Compared to such conjectures, Chen Guan considered it more credible that the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ was a Secret Technique that only women could cultivate.

The predecessor of the Wang Family was a man, so when he got the information about this place, he neither tried to take the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ nor did he send his other descendants to take the risk.

Ji Nanhong also knew about the ’Ah Fang Scripture’. She was a woman too. Were these just coincidences?

The more Chen Guan thought about it, the more he felt that Ji Nanhong’s words could be true; perhaps the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ was indeed a Secret Technique created by the Emperor Ancestor for a woman.

When he thought like this, Chen Guan couldn’t help but feel down. After being so determined to obtain the ’Ah Fang Scripture’, he was now being told he didn’t even have the fundamental qualifications to practice it. Anyone would feel incredibly frustrated.

"If the ’Ah Fang Scripture’ really can’t be practiced, then we can only make other plans," Chen Guan was thinking to himself when suddenly the words of light flared up again, this time the shadow on the mountain wall became a standing figure, and it now held a sword in its hand.

The sword was also a shadow, resembling the style of a Qin Sword.

Chen Guan felt uneasy all over because up to now, he still felt that the shadow had been watching him, and now it felt as though the shadow sword in the shadow’s hand was ready to strike at any moment.

As Chen Guan was thinking, he suddenly saw the shadow really lift the shadow sword, the silhouette flashed in the underground space, as if encircling the space under the enclosing lights.

Instinctively, both Chen Guan and Ji Nanhong fell to the ground.

But their actions were clearly too slow. The shadow sword had already slashed over them before they hit the ground.

Chen Guan hurriedly checked his body, discovering that nothing was wrong, and he felt no pain. Only then did he exhale a long breath.

"Look over there..." Ji Nanhong’s voice came.

Chen Guan turned his head to look at her, seeing her finger pointing in a direction, her face full of shock. He couldn’t help but follow her gaze.

Not far above them, the Corpse King, now merged into one, crawled down along a Bone Chain from above.

It turned out the Corpse King had disappeared to find a place to restore its split body and only now came back to trouble Ji Nanhong and Chen Guan after recovering.

But the current Corpse King, although it was back to its original Unity of Yin and Yang form, was missing half its head; both heads had only the part below the nostrils remaining, the upper part of the heads nowhere to be seen, with the cuts clean as if sliced by a knife.

The Corpse King’s body hung motionless, swaying gently in mid-air with the Bone Chain, looking as though it was already dead.

Chen Guan only felt chills down his spine, realizing that the shadow’s sword had just slain such a powerful Corpse King.