Speak of trouble, and trouble arrives.
Gu Chengming began to seriously suspect his own mouth had picked up a jinx — no sooner had he remarked that the dispersed calamity still had some breathing room before it came than a second moon impatiently hung itself in the sky.
But what was happening now clearly wasn't so simple as mere 'sudden onset.' The cultivation world held many coincidences, but behind most coincidences lay fate.
Take the acquisition of Dharma-Stations, for instance — his own inheritance from the Fate-Reversing Tribulation-Severing Sovereign and the Jiahao Sovereign, his acquisition of the Unfettered Freedom Formula, and so on.
Then again, even so-called great powers remained under the Heavenly Dao's jurisdiction after all — and when the Heavenly Dao itself wielded the knife to bring down a Great Tribulation, how could there possibly be such a thing as coincidence?
With that thought, Gu Chengming raised a hand to point at the second, coldly gleaming moon in the sky, then turned to Mo Wu beside him, his tone taking on a subtle edge.
"Senior," he said, choosing his words with care, "could it be that this dispersed calamity has arrived early because of you?"
Beside him, Mo Wu's expression had already grown strained.
Just as Gu Chengming had said — under ordinary circumstances, a dispersed calamity should never have arrived so swiftly.
That such an anomaly had arisen out of nowhere could only mean one thing: on her way rushing back to the sect, she had drawn something along with her.
— Could it be that the Heavenly Dao had already set its sights on that group of Sovereigns who'd fled the Tribulation Grounds?
At the thought, Mo Wu's face darkened further.
She had rushed back solely to make certain the Wenjian Sect's lineage wouldn't be cut off — never expecting that her own return would become the very thread that drew the calamity here.
Gu Chengming took in her expression but didn't press the matter further.
Things had already come to this — there was little point now in tracing who exactly had drawn the calamity here. The pressing matter was figuring out just what manner of power now hung in the sky.
"Senior, going by what you said earlier," he shifted the conversation to the heart of the matter, "since this calamity dispersed out of the Tribulation Grounds, do you know anything about it?"
Given what Mo Wu had said before, having spent time in the Tribulation Grounds, she ought to have at least some understanding of the various calamities that had escaped from there.
At his words, Mo Wu immediately smoothed away the awkwardness on her face, her expression turning serious as she began explaining in detail.
"This calamity is called the 'Moon Within Dream'…" she said, her gaze fixed on the second moon. "It's a remnant of Penglai."
Penglai?
Could this be the very Penglai Immortal Sect the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign had once spoken of?
At those two words, a few guesses surfaced in Gu Chengming's mind. Mo Wu went on to explain the Moon Within Dream's origins.
"The Moon Within Dream was once one of Penglai's sect-guarding treasures, one most skilled at conjuring existence from nothingness, turning the illusory into the real," she said slowly. "A thousand years ago, the Penglai Immortal Sect fell into utter ruin, and all its treasures, magical implements, and its mountain-guarding grand formation were swallowed by the passage of years along with it."
"And the Moon Within Dream was one such object. But for some reason, Penglai's last Sect Head didn't fully dissolve into nothingness after the sect's fall — a single lingering obsession remained, fusing with the Moon Within Dream, and over time it degenerated into one of the Great Tribulations of Heaven and Earth."
She paused, her tone growing graver. "Whoever lays eyes on the moon is drawn into it, becoming part of Penglai."
A chill ran through Gu Chengming.
To become part of Penglai, to enter Penglai and enjoy boundless bliss and freedom — it sounded like a tremendous stroke of fortune.
But in truth, Penglai had long since vanished from time and causality itself — a thing utterly, wholly dead.
To truly enter that Penglai would mean surrendering oneself wholly to that annihilated past — equivalent to vanishing completely from the mortal world.
That was precisely why the Moon Within Dream had been ranked among the genuine, bona fide Great Tribulations.
Just then, a familiar figure drifted over from not far away — the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign.
She had clearly already noticed something amiss with the moon overhead. Her moon-white robes stirred gently in the wind, and across her habitually cold, aloof features an unusual, hard-to-parse complexity now surfaced.
"Moon Within…"
Mo Wu sighed and told her everything — the Moon Within Dream's origins, the last Sect Head's remaining fragment of obsession, and the hidden truth of how it had fused with the treasure and degenerated into a Great Tribulation.
Gu Chengming's heart abruptly sank. For anyone else, seeing the Moon Within Dream might at most mean falling prey to the illusory temptation of boundless bliss. But the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign was different — the rebuilt Penglai the Moon Within Dream promised might well be precisely her own lingering obsession.
Had it been any other Sovereign, Gu Chengming might have found the words to offer some counsel.
But with this weighing on the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign specifically, even with a thousand words at his disposal, he found himself, for the moment, unable to find the right way to begin.
And things unfolded just as he'd feared.
Of everyone in this world, if there was one person who longed most for Penglai's fall to be undone, it would surely be this Sovereign — born of Penglai's own main sect, who had watched her homeland vanish before her very eyes.
But the complicated look in the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign's eyes faded quickly, and her response caught Gu Chengming completely off guard.
"Young friend…" She drew her gaze back and turned to face Gu Chengming. "I know you might be thinking that since the Moon Within Dream can turn the illusory real and rebuild Penglai, it might be a good thing for me."
"But as I see it, it's merely wearing Penglai's skin to carry out its own work of assimilation and devouring. The true Penglai was left behind forever, in the fall a thousand years ago."
A trace of wistfulness crossed her eyes as she spoke. "A Penglai bought by devouring the lives of the living — even if it could truly stand in this world, it would no longer be the Penglai I hold in my heart. Were I to actually accept it, that would be the greatest betrayal of Penglai there could be."
Gu Chengming listened in silence, already understanding.
The Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign's words seemed calm, but the struggle hidden between the lines could hardly be captured in a few sentences.
He didn't interrupt, only waited quietly as she swallowed down that struggle.
After a long moment, the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign drew a deep breath, the last trace of hesitation fading entirely from her eyes. She turned and spoke to Gu Chengming with solemn earnestness:
"Young friend, I'd like to ask you to help me put an end to this calamity, together."
Gu Chengming understood full well the weight behind the Flowing Cloud Moon-Tracing Sovereign's words. Without the slightest hesitation, he nodded gravely in agreement.
"Rest assured, Senior — Chengming will see this calamity ended together with you."
With the promise made, the next question was how to actually go about resolving this calamity.
Thanks to the Free Heaven Dharma-Station's special authority of 'freedom of the self,' Gu Chengming didn't exist within causal time at all.
In other words, of everyone present, he was by far the least likely to be assimilated by the Moon Within Dream.
Where others would be drawn in the instant they saw the moon, he could rely on this protective authority to move freely in and out of the Moon Within Dream, untouched by its assimilation.
For this very reason, Gu Chengming decided at once to venture personally into the Moon Within Dream first, to scout out its inner truths and illusions well enough, so that he could later address this Great Tribulation with a properly targeted approach.
And for a task this dangerous, he naturally wouldn't leave behind his capable helper who'd just gained a physical body.
So Gu Chengming summoned Arnold.
The instant Arnold heard they'd be scouting the Moon Within Dream, her eyes lit up at once — not a trace of fear in her, only lively enthusiasm as she pressed close.
"I know this treasure well!" she said, thumping her chest, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. "The Moon Within Dream's original owner was my best friend!"
At those words, something occurred to Gu Chengming.
Arnold had once mentioned having an especially close friend who was none other than Penglai's Sect Head, one most skilled in the art of divination.
A thought suddenly surfaced in his mind, and his expression turned subtly strange.
Surely it couldn't be this much of a coincidence? Could the obsession of the so-called 'last Sect Head' within the Moon Within Dream be none other than that of Senior Arnold's dearest old friend?
With that subtle suspicion in mind, Gu Chengming invoked the authority of the Free Heaven Dharma-Station and, bringing Arnold along, stepped into the moon hanging high overhead — the Moon Within Dream.
As radiant light swirled around them and the scene before his eyes solidified once more, Gu Chengming couldn't help a moment of surprise.
— What a Penglai Immortal Sect this was.
Everything within sight was a scene of peace and prosperity.
Pavilions and towers rose in graceful arrangement, spiritual qi drifting in mist around them, and the disciples passing to and fro all wore smiles on their faces — the whole scene radiating a thriving, peaceful air, with not the slightest sign that this was in fact the interior of a Great Tribulation that devoured the living.
A disciple standing guard at the sect gate spotted Gu Chengming, his eyes lighting up at once as he hurried over warmly to greet him.
"You must be a Sovereign visiting from the outside world?" the disciple said, his face brimming with delight. "Ah, it's been so long since we had any guests — please, come right in, I'll go inform the Sect Head at once!"
Holding Gu Chengming's hand, Arnold's brow furrowed slightly.
Everything here was normal to an unsettling degree — the disciple's warmth, the sect's peaceful air, all as natural as if they'd genuinely arrived at a Penglai Immortal Sect still standing in the living world, without the faintest trace of the danger or strangeness a Great Tribulation ought to carry.
Gu Chengming grew more wary by the moment, though his face betrayed nothing. Holding Arnold's hand, he followed the guiding disciple deeper into the sect grounds.
As they walked, Arnold looked this way and that, taking everything in, nodding to herself now and then with visible satisfaction.
"Not bad, not bad," she clicked her tongue in admiration. "After all these years, Penglai's still this loaded."
Gu Chengming could only sigh inwardly.
Senior Arnold, has it occurred to you that all of this might just be an illusion?
Oh, wait, no.
His thoughts shifted — perhaps this wasn't an ordinary illusion at all, but a real scene forcibly constructed through some secret method. He recalled what Mo Wu had said earlier about the technique of 'turning the illusory into the real, the empty into the substantial.'
Even as he mulled this over, they arrived at their destination.
It was a grand and imposing hall, three gilded characters on the plaque overhead — Sect Head's Hall — written in bold, forceful strokes.
At the head of the hall sat a woman.
She reclined at an angle in the seat of honor, her posture languid and unstudied, an indefinable air of careless ease radiating from her.
The instant she saw the newcomers, the corners of her lips curved, and she let out a soft laugh.
In truth, Gu Chengming had already prepared himself to invoke Free Heaven and slip away with Arnold at a moment's notice. But to draw out a bit more information first, he kept his composure outwardly unshaken, cupped his hands in a bow, and spoke with a smile.
"Senior, this junior begs your indulgence for the intrusion," he said, his tone respectful. "This junior is Gu Chengming, an elder of the Wenjian Sect, come today to observe the Penglai Immortal Sect—"
Before he could finish, Arnold beside him had already caught sight of the woman, her eyes suddenly lighting up.
"Ah—"
She seemed about to blurt out the woman's name, but the name, right on the tip of her tongue, was abruptly wiped away as though by some unseen force — try as she might, she couldn't recall it. Her mouth opened and closed, but in the end no sound came out.
And the woman in the seat of honor, the instant she saw Arnold, plainly had a flicker of warmth and joy cross her eyes — the look of an old friend reunited after long parting.
But watching Arnold struggle with the forgotten name, she too only parted her lips, then, as if she'd expected as much all along, smiled in quiet resignation and let it pass without comment.
Then she turned her gaze to Gu Chengming, a faint gleam seeming to stir within those languid eyes.
"An elder of the Wenjian Sect…?" she repeated softly, then shifted the subject at once. "You've come to resolve the 'Great Tribulation,' haven't you."
Gu Chengming's heart lurched.
— This Senior didn't seem trapped, oblivious, within some fabricated illusion at all. If anything, she seemed to have a complete grasp of everything in the outside world.
If that were truly the case, then this matter had just become far more troublesome.
A source of calamity with such perfect insight into the outside world would be far harder to deal with than a mere obsession lost in illusion.
His thoughts raced, and he was on the verge of instinctively invoking Free Heaven to flee, when he heard the woman continue on, unhurried.
"No need to be so tense," she said, smiling, her tone warm. "You and I share a bond, and you're a friend of an old friend of mine besides. I won't harm you."
"When Penglai takes in people, it's always been a matter of pure 'willingness.'"
She said slowly, "Only those who, wholeheartedly and sincerely, regard Penglai as their true belonging would ever choose to enter it."
Seeing that her demeanor differed so greatly from the fearsome calamity he'd imagined, Gu Chengming's anxious heart eased somewhat, and his courage grew along with it.
After a round of probing questions and answers, he gradually came to understand the inner workings of this calamity.
It turned out the so-called Moon Within Dream had been single-handedly created by this Senior herself, for the purpose of rebuilding a Penglai, turning the illusory into the real, and letting her annihilated homeland stand once more in the world.
And those who entered Penglai hadn't been bewitched by any secret method or soul-confounding illusion at all — every one of them had joined wholeheartedly and willingly.
Only because this Penglai could resolve some long-tangled wish weighing on their hearts, becoming their final belonging.
The more Gu Chengming listened, the stronger his sense of unease grew.
What did it mean, 'final belonging'?
As though reading his doubt, the Senior who called herself the Penglai Sovereign explained unhurriedly: "A 'final belonging,' properly speaking, can only exist once there's first been a 'first belonging.'"
Her lips curved. "And that's exactly why I'm able, from the very start, to draw in all those who have nowhere else to go."
She could help people recover their original hearts, help them find that 'first belonging.'
And what she relied on for this—
"was this art of divination."
Something stirred faintly in Gu Chengming's heart.
Arnold had mentioned before that this Senior was most skilled in the art of divination — able to fix a person's past with a single glance and reckon life, death, and the future.
But this notion of 'divining one's way back to one's original heart' seemed excessively mystical, sounding as insubstantial as a Mirror Flower or the Water Moon.
The Penglai Sovereign seemed to catch the skepticism in his eyes. She blinked and smiled with real interest. "Since you don't believe me, young friend, let this one demonstrate — then you'll know whether the art of divination is real.
"Take, for instance, your own origins, young friend."
Something stirred faintly within Gu Chengming.
He assumed she'd divine his origins in the Wenjian Sect, or perhaps his hidden identity as the heir of the Jiahao Sovereign or the Fate-Reversing Tribulation-Severing Sovereign, and braced himself at once, readying a response.
But to his utter astonishment, after the Penglai Sovereign counted a few calculations on her fingers, her delicate brows only knit together slowly.
She seemed genuinely puzzled by her own result, pausing in thought for a moment before slowly reciting out a string of numbers a full eighteen digits long.
Then she looked up at Gu Chengming, her face full of bafflement — clearly she herself had no idea what this baffling, nonsensical string of digits could possibly mean.
But the instant Gu Chengming made out that string of numbers clearly, he broke out in a cold sweat from head to toe.
— What the hell — how did you divine my national ID number?!
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