Immortals of the End Times

Chapter 56: The Imperial Concubine's Recommendation, Memory Alteration
Inside the Penglai Palace in the Xuan Kingdom, the candlelight was dim, and the water clock dripped.

Emperor Zhaoming placed his hand on the dragon throne, his gaze sharp as a blade, and looked down at Consort Li kneeling below: "The Tiannan Secret Realm is about to open, and the top-grade golden light spiritual resources will be carefully cultivated by the grotto heavens."

If you can gain a foothold in the grotto, it will be a turning point for me.

However, to guard against the Demon Queen's revenge, it is necessary to befriend the Flower Peak Master.

Her father was the former peak master, who had rendered meritorious service to the grotto-heaven and was respected by the grotto master. Her own cultivation was also high. If she could gain his favor, the position of empress would be easily within her grasp.

Consort Li knelt on the brocade cushion, her moon-white skirt spread out, and she lowered her eyes and whispered, "I am but a mortal, though I possess spiritual talent, how could I possibly catch the eye of such immortals?"

The emperor shook his head: "Peak Master Hua cultivates the Six Revolutions Profound Ice Technique, but suffers from the pain of 'Profound Yin Backlash,' and has sought medical help to no avail. Ordinary cultivators who approach him during the backlash will have their meridians severed, but only the Crimson Sun Spirit Mushroom can temporarily alleviate the pain."

"I have prepared one. When the cultivators from the celestial realm come to recruit immortal seeds, you can offer it to them; perhaps this will forge a good relationship."

"Cold poison? Red Sun Lingzhi?" Consort Li seemed to understand something, but hesitated to speak.

"Hmm?" The emperor raised an eyebrow.

"Does Your Majesty remember Physician Zhao from the Imperial Hospital? Last month, I suffered from a cold, and he cured me with just three acupuncture needles."

"Imperial Physician Zhao?" The emperor chuckled and shook his head. "I have some impression of him, but he is just an ordinary person after all." He suddenly stopped.

I recall that Peak Master Hua did indeed invite divine physicians from the mortal realm to treat me, because mortals are not like cultivators and there is no risk of spiritual energy conflict, but in the end no one could cure me completely.

However, many of the imperial physicians in the palace possessed medical skills that surpassed those of ordinary doctors; otherwise, they would not have been recruited into the palace as officials.
Seeing that the emperor was interested, Consort Li said softly, "Imperial Physician Zhao is well-versed in medical principles and can determine the course of cold poison."

The emperor pondered, "Very well, it is, after all, a token of my appreciation. I can mention it when presenting the lingzhi mushroom, but if she is not interested, I should not force her."

Time flies, and three days have passed in the blink of an eye.

Under Zhao Wuji's behind-the-scenes manipulation, the entire Wajin Gang helped him search along the left bank of the Chishui River, covering the mountains and plains for clues that matched the location of the buried wine.

The Buried Wine Map records the landscape a thousand years ago, and the mountains and rivers have changed considerably since then.

However, with the map of the buried wine as a reference, and Ye Wu's familiarity with the left bank of the Chishui River, the search area was quickly narrowed down.

Zhao Wuji hadn't been idle for the past three days either, staying at the mountain stronghold to oversee the overall situation, deterring villains, and preventing anyone from the Wajin Gang from using underhanded tactics.

During these three days, he also familiarized himself with the Dream Marriage Technique, sneaking into the dreams of the fourth leader of the Wajin Gang and others, transforming into the appearance of a spirit master to intimidate them, and knowing all their little thoughts.

Furthermore, she altered the short-term memories of several people who knew Kobayashi's mailing address, leaving no trace.

Over the course of three days, he also became familiar with the magical artifacts and talismans left behind by the spirit master after his death.

The talisman is a bone-removing Yin Wind Talisman, which can be activated four times.

Once activated by spiritual power, it can summon a yin wind to engulf the enemy, blowing away their flesh and breaking their bones, which is extremely insidious.

Magical artifacts are difficult to control and activate; they require magical techniques to be used effectively, otherwise it is a waste of spiritual energy.

Although Zhao Wuji was proficient in many powerful Earthly Fiend Techniques, apart from the Ball Manipulation Technique which allowed him to control iron balls and pills, he had not learned any other weapon manipulation techniques and was completely unable to control non-ball-type magical artifacts.

Even with the old fox's magical weapon, the Hundred Beast Claw, he could only imitate the old fox, using pure spiritual power to unleash a straight attack. While powerful, it lacked flexibility.

It works well against ordinary opponents, but it's hard to be effective against cultivators of the same level who wield magical artifacts.

"I ended up with two magical artifacts even though I didn't know how to use them. Maintaining these artifacts requires spiritual energy, and it would be a shame to throw them away. It's such a hassle. Luckily, I got a source crystal, which made up for it somewhat."

"Only after learning the summoning and teleportation techniques from the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends Arts will you be able to skillfully wield any magical artifact."

Inside the room, Zhao Wuji fiddled with a thread-like magical artifact. He casually unleashed a strike, requiring no true energy; the sharp finger bones at the tips of the threads could easily pierce through thick walls.

After playing with it for a while, he put away the magical artifact and picked up the source crystal, which was only the size of a soybean, to examine it.

This source crystal contains about a dozen strands of spiritual energy, which is quite considerable, but it is dissipating at an extremely slow rate.

"Let's just absorb it and turn it into Yin and Yang energy, then lock it in with the Void Elixir method to prevent it from being lost."

Zhao Wuji shook his head and casually absorbed the source crystal, transforming it into more than ten streams of yin and yang energy.

Not long after, Xiaolin knocked on the door and entered the house, excitedly reporting the situation.

"My lord, Ye Wu has found the burial site for the wine; it's basically confirmed to be there, however..."

"Oh?" Zhao Wuji quickly stood up. "But what?"

“However, neither I nor the others found it, but he said he had found it and asked me to inform you immediately.” “None of you found it, only he did.” Zhao Wuji’s heart skipped a beat, and he pondered, “Could it be that the Yelang Kingdom had set up a formation?”

He immediately ordered, "Once the location is confirmed, don't spread it around. Prepare to send all the Wajin Gang members looking for wine away. Go and call Hu Si over."

"Yes!"

Three hours later, hundreds of Wajin gang members were hastily recalled by Hu Si and several minor leaders.

These gang members searched the mountains for four days but found nothing. Just as they were feeling puzzled, Hu Si, the leader, waved his hand and gave each of them a reward of one or two taels of silver.

With the silver in hand, the gang members were overjoyed and didn't bother to ask why.

Even though a few clever ones wanted to inquire further, they were glared at and driven away by the foreman.

As a result, apart from Zhao Wuji, Xiao Lin, Ye Wu, and even Hu Si, no one knew whether the location where the wine was buried had been found.

At this moment, inside the gang's main hall, Hu Si and a group of leaders stood trembling with fear, none daring to look up at their senior, who was wearing a straw hat, opposite them.

Each of them had a thin, hair-like gold needle inserted into the back of their neck.

This is the 'compassion' of the old master; all the meridians in his body have been sealed off by the technique of cutting off the meridians with golden needles.

Without daily acupuncture treatments, they would die from ruptured meridians.

But now that the mysterious senior opposite them seems to have achieved his goal, Hu Si and the others are worried that he will reveal his true intentions and then discard them after they have served their purpose.

"Go to sleep!"

At this moment, the senior wearing a straw hat suddenly turned around and uttered three words.

The men's faces immediately turned ashen.

"senior!"

Hu Si's legs went weak, thinking that his time was coming and that this senior was going to make them sleep forever.

However, before they could retreat and escape, they all felt their eyelids drooping and a strong drowsiness surged over them, with the words "Go to sleep" echoing in their minds.

"Puff-puff--"

The group all fell to the ground and fell asleep, and soon began to snore.

Suddenly, the strands of hair wrapped around Zhao Wuji's fingertips ignited with a ghostly blue flame.

His eyes blazed with a sharp light, and a wisp of the spiritual essence of a Grandmaster of Returning to Truth entered everyone's dreams through his hair.

This is precisely the mystery of the dream marriage technique: infiltrating the dream world and creating dreams to alter short-term memories.

At this moment, in Hu Si's dream, a powerful figure from the Yun Kingdom wearing a bamboo hat was killing the White Bone Spirit Master with a single palm strike. As his skirt fluttered, a jade pendant from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion was revealed at his waist.

Memory manipulation!

After a moment, the light in Zhao Wuji's eyes dimmed, and he withdrew his powerful magical intent.

These mortal memories are like dough, at his mercy.

Not only did it erase its own existence, but it also implanted fictional powerful figures from the Yun Kingdom.

When the White Bone Path comes to investigate, they will only find carefully crafted false clues.

"These past few days of practicing this technique haven't been in vain; things have gone more smoothly than expected."

Zhao Wuji released his hand seal, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

In the future, when one's cultivation reaches a higher level, it is possible to forcibly alter the memories of cultivators.

His figure flickered and disappeared from the hall without a trace, heading to the place where Ye Wu had found the buried wine.

Later, when cultivators from the White Bone Path came to investigate the matter of the Spirit Lord, Hu Si and the others didn't even remember him.

All that is known is that it was a senior expert from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion of the Cloud Kingdom who made the move.
...

(End of this chapter)