It wasn't something meant for humans to cultivate, but that doesn't mean that the person who succeeded in cultivating it... wasn't human. It only showed that the great Emperor of Qing, driven by his inner desires, had forged an incredibly resilient heart, far surpassing that of ordinary mortals. Fan Xian sat beside Si Gu Jian's bed, pondering this, and couldn't help but feel a sense of awe. Though the mountain wasn't necessarily beautiful or approachable, it was exceedingly high and distant, piercing through the white clouds, making one feel moved.

He took a deep breath, rubbed his sore eyes, and said softly in a low voice, "In terms of talent, Haitang is sufficient. In terms of willpower, Shi San Lang is sufficient. In terms of diligence, I don't think I'm any worse than anyone else. But seeing things as they are now, I still don't see any opportunity for latecomers to take that step. Why is that?"

"Don't ask me." After that irritable curse, Si Gu Jian slowly closed his weary eyes, his voice hoarse and fragmented, "I'm just thinking, when all us old guys are dead, and only your Emperor remains in this world, he must be lonely."

After a moment of silence, Si Gu Jian suddenly continued with a subtle sarcasm, "I'm afraid he already started feeling lonely on Da Dong Mountain."

The faint sarcasm at the corner of his lips, it was hard to tell if it was directed at Emperor Qing or himself. At this moment, Fan Xian suddenly said extremely seriously, "I want to confirm something. Ye Liu Yun... has he really left the continent?"

Si Gu Jian pondered for a long time, then slowly moved his jaw with great difficulty.

Fan Xian took a deep breath, and then said, "In that case, it's alright."

Si Gu Jian closed his eyes and said, "It seems that after returning to Qing this time, you finally know something, and have decided something."

Fan Xian wasn't surprised that this Grandmaster could discern these emotions hidden in his heart from his words and emotions. After all, the other party wasn't truly an idiot. He smiled and said, "Even if it's not raining, you still have to bring an umbrella. It's always good to be prepared."

"What about Wu Zhu?" Si Gu Jian immediately pointed out the crux of the matter.

Fan Xian didn't answer his question directly, but instead asked, "What's your understanding of the Temple?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Si Gu Jian understood Wu Zhu's whereabouts, and a rare peaceful smile appeared on his face, saying, "The Temple? It's just a dead object, don't worry too much... even if the cultivation method your Emperor practices came from the Temple, so what? The Temple won't personally help him."

Fan Xian wasn't so sure about this. After all, many years ago, it seemed that the Temple had heard Emperor Qing's prayers and sent an envoy, transferring Uncle Wu Zhu away from Kyoto. And now, Uncle Wu Zhu had gone to the Temple. What kind of outcome would this bring in the end seemed to have the most fundamental and far-reaching impact on the general trend of the world.

Si Gu Jian closed his eyes, seemingly able to feel the deep worry and slight fear in Fan Xian's heart. After a long silence, he said, "The Temple... is just a temple, after all. It's not a true deity."

Fan Xian's heart stirred, and he asked, "Have you been to the Temple?"

"I'm not a freak like Ku He and Xiao En, why would I go to a place where even birds don't shit?" Si Gu Jian's brow furrowed, his thoughts clearly not matching the tone of his words. "Besides... I don't even know where the Temple is."

"However," he continued, "You need to understand one thing. If someone really came from the Temple to erase the traces your mother left in the world, then the Internal Treasury should have disappeared long ago, and you should be dead too."

Fan Xian was silent, thinking that this judgment was correct.

"Of course, we can also judge that the Temple did send an envoy to the world." Si Gu Jian suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes completely calm. "But don't forget, Wu Zhu, this block of wood, is also one of the Temple's envoys. Since he could protect your mother and your safety, that only shows that the envoy from the Temple isn't as powerful as you imagine."

Fan Xian raised his eyebrows, and then thought of a sentence that Uncle Wu Zhu had said many years ago.

"There aren't many people left at home anymore."

Could this sentence mean that the Temple has declined and doesn't have the ability to influence the world? If all this was really as he guessed, Fan Xian would be happy to accept this situation. After all, facing an Emperor as towering as a mountain was already putting him under immense pressure, and adding an unfathomable extraterrestrial Temple would really damage his confidence to the lowest point.

…

…

"Hmm... you once sent Xiao En back to Northern Qi, and your mother and Wu Zhu both came from the Temple. Don't you want to go back to the Temple and see what that ghostly place looks like?" Si Gu Jian opened his eyes and stared at Fan Xian, as if trying to see his true thoughts, or as if tempting him.

Fan Xian was slightly stunned upon hearing this, then he laughed and looked back at him, saying, "If I have the opportunity, I would still be willing to go and see, but that would be on the basis that my life can be guaranteed. As for you... to say such things at this time, you must be very curious?"

Si Gu Jian, as the pinnacle of human power, was also familiar with Wu Zhu, and vaguely knew what level the Temple's power was at. Therefore, he didn't have the awe and worship that welled up from the depths of the hearts of ordinary people in the world towards that ethereal Temple.

He was a Grandmaster, and his strength was strong enough to contend with the characters in that Temple, so when discussing the Temple, his tone wasn't very respectful. On the contrary, there was a deliberately revealed indifference and disdain.

But everyone has curiosity, and Grandmasters are no exception, especially a Grandmaster who is about to die. They see everything in the world lightly, but they still maintain curiosity and the desire to pry into that temple.

After all, only Xiao En and Ku He had been to the Temple, and both of these old men were already dead. Perhaps Ye Qing Mei and Wu Zhu came from the Temple, but Ye Qing Mei was also dead, and Wu Zhu was on the road home.

The secret of the extraterrestrial Temple remains the biggest secret in this world. Si Gu Jian looked at Fan Xian, his eyes calmly hiding a strange look. He knew that the only person who knew where the Temple was now should be this young man in front of him.

"I learned it from Xiao En. Uncle Wu Zhu's memory has always been bad, I suppose you know that too." Fan Xian said softly, "The Temple is in the far north. After passing through the Northern Qi Tianguan, you have to travel for several months on the snowy and frozen land, until you reach a place of eternal night. If you are lucky, you can see a magnificent and solemn black-cyan building, that... is the Temple."

Si Gu Jian became silent. Before death arrived, he finally knew where the Temple was. He seemed to have gotten his wish and should have been calm, but the small body under the thick quilt clearly exuded a faint aura of melancholy.

"So it's in the far north, where there's no sunlight all day long. Is it the underworld?" Si Gu Jian's eyes were like an ancient well, slowly rippling with aged wrinkles. He sighed and said, "Sure enough, it doesn't belong to this world. My heart yearns for it, my heart yearns for it."

"Hmm..." Fan Xian squinted, looking at the withered face under the quilt, and suddenly discovered that a certain radiance was gradually blooming on that face. Could it be that knowing the location of the Temple had caused this dying Grandmaster to suddenly burst out with some kind of obsession?

Fan Xian didn't explain what polar day and polar night were. These concepts didn't belong to this world, so there was no need to say them to make people's heads hurt. Since Si Gu Jian was willing to believe that the Temple didn't belong to this world, perhaps such a cognition would allow this Grandmaster to maintain his concept of this world.

"...My heart yearns for it," Si Gu Jian praised. "Back then, I thought, if the Da Dong Mountain affair could be concluded smoothly, I would travel to the ends of the earth to find the Temple."

"Everyone has curiosity about unknown things," Fan Xian could understand this emotion very well.

Si Gu Jian's eyelids narrowed slightly, like a cold sword piercing the roof, and he said in a hoarse voice, "I just want to see if I can tear down that broken temple with the sword in my hand."

Tear down the temple!

After a moment of stunned silence, countless complex emotions arose in Fan Xian's heart. He originally thought that Si Gu Jian, like Ku He and Xiao En in those years, was willing to go to that extraterrestrial Temple to satisfy the desire to explore the unknown that existed in the origin of every life. He didn't expect that this Grandmaster was actually thinking of challenging the Temple!

Carrying a sword on his back, walking slowly on the snowfield, encountering green mountains, entering thick doors, pointing his sword at the ethereal temple, and beheading all the people in the clouds.

What kind of heroic and magnificent spirit was this? If the Da Dong Mountain affair had really gone as Ku He and Si Gu Jian had planned, and the world had been stabilized in three directions, Si Gu Jian would have become tired of this world, and he would probably have really embarked on the path of challenging the heavens. And the synonym for the heavens in this world was naturally the Temple.

Thinking of that scene, even Fan Xian, who was as calm as he was, couldn't help but be slightly moved. However, he knew that all of this had ended with Emperor Qing's domineering punch on Da Dong Mountain. Throughout Si Gu Jian's life, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to reach the Temple, let alone point his sword at it.

This was indeed a pity.

"Will you go to the Temple?" Si Gu Jian suddenly stared into Fan Xian's eyes and asked.

"I don't have much understanding of the Temple, so naturally I don't have any great antipathy towards it." In his previous life, Fan Xian didn't know how many shameless appearances of religions he had seen. In comparison, the Temple in this world of Qing was far away in the ninth heaven, rarely interfering in worldly affairs. This style made Fan Xian more approving, and because it was mysterious and unpredictable, Fan Xian really couldn't feel too much resistance towards it.

"The Temple doesn't interfere in worldly affairs?" Si Gu Jian smiled and said, "How did your mother come out then? How did this world change? Why is Emperor Qing the way he is now? Maybe those high and mighty people in the Temple are really just coldly watching all of this, but we grew up on this continent, why should we let them watch our lives?"

"This feeling is very bad."

"This reminds me of many years ago, under the big green tree, watching those ants moving, watching those ants fighting." Si Gu Jian said indifferently, "But I'm not an ant. I don't like being watched."

After a long silence, Fan Xian said, "If I ever go to the Temple in the future, I will carry your ashes with me."

Si Gu Jian closed his eyes and said, "Few of the words you say are true."

Fan Xian suddenly found that this Grandmaster's tone of voice was like a child, and couldn't help but laugh, "I'm not a god of slaughter like you. I don't have the courage and strength to slaughter gods. If I'm not forced to, of course I don't want to go to the Temple and seek my own destruction."

After a slight pause, Fan Xian scratched his head and said, "Of course, who knows what will happen in the future? If there comes a day when I scatter your ashes on the stone steps of the Temple, to rub the toes of those gods, that would be considered fulfilling your wish."

Si Gu Jian said, "Then when burning me in a few days, you can't make the fire too strong. I don't have many bones on my body to begin with. If they're all burned into powder, then what kind of rubbing would that be? You have to leave some large joints."

Fan Xian replied, "This is indeed something to pay attention to."

There is great fear between life and death. In this fear, Si Gu Jian and Fan Xian were laughing and talking about the afterlife, the remains, the size of the fire, and where to return to. The atmosphere was relaxed, but Fan Xian couldn't help but feel a inexplicable sense of sadness.

The setting sun had sunk down most of the way, and the sea breeze blew through the city, gently sweeping through thousands of miles, directly into the depths of the thatched hut, causing a gust of wind outside the Sword Hut's quiet room. The thousands of swords in the big pit moved at the same time, clanging, which was touching.

Si Gu Jian turned his head with great difficulty, his gaze swept over Fan Xian's shoulder, looking at the long-legged mosquito in the corner of the wall that was already at the end of its life, unable to eat, unwilling to fly away, persistent and idiotic, and fell into a long silence.

Fan Xian sat beside him, suddenly leaned over, and whispered the story of the Ten Families Village in his ear. The Ten Families Village was located between Northern Qi and Dong Yi. If it really wanted to grow in the future, it couldn't do without the strong support of the Sword Hut, and the existence of the Ten Families Village would inevitably bring great benefits to Dong Yi City.

However, to Fan Xian's surprise, after hearing that the Ye family was preparing to open up a second battlefield in Dong Yi City, Si Gu Jian's expression remained calm and unchanged. He just stared at the corner of the wall, seeming to not care at all what Dong Yi City would become after his death.

For a moment, Fan Xian thought that he had wrongly judged Si Gu Jian's dying intentions, the most important intention that he had taught him.

At this moment, Si Gu Jian said, "There is a small booklet under my pillow. Ku He sent it to me from Mount Qing before he died, asking me to pass it on to you. I can't understand the things on the booklet. I hope you can understand it."

Fan Xian was stunned, wondering what exactly was written on the booklet that would make the two Grandmasters so serious before they died.

…

…

(Brothers and sisters, I said that I would make up for the chapters today, but I really have something to do today, so can it be postponed to the 21st? I also have to attend a friend's wedding tomorrow, uh... I'm also becoming a busy person.)