Chapter 36: The Mystery of the Silent Sea

"The Complete Record of Immortal Lore..."
He seemed to have glimpsed it while searching for information on sword cultivators in the Book of Scenic Immortal Things.
It was a story that sounded rather fantastical.
Song Yan did not rush to retrieve the jade scroll of the Complete Record of Immortal Lore, but instead rummaged through Wan Songran's miscellaneous belongings, as if to confirm something.
He found a black wooden token, engraved with a large “Wan,” and beneath it, in smaller characters, “Songran.”
A book.
He finally found what he was looking for—a family discipline manual for the Wan clan.
It was very new, likely never touched by Wan Songran himself; instead, Song Yan picked it up and began to read.
“Wan clan...”
“Ancestor Nascent Soul cultivator?”
“Wan Zhihong? Ancestral home in the Central Region...”
So he really was from the Central Region...
The Central Region of this continent was vast and boundless, yet it held only one immortal court—the Great Tang.
For places like Chu, struggling for survival in the narrow gap between the Central Region and the Southern Frontier, the Central Region, whether in the mundane or the immortal world, was a land of prosperity and yearning.
His gaze fell upon the flute.
It was three feet and three inches long, held in the hand much like a short sword.
Its body was black and crimson, with a black cloud carved at the flute's end. The upper section seemed to have once had an ornament, now broken off at the black cloud, leaving only the flute.
Above the black cloud on the flute, two ancient characters were inscribed vertically. Song Yan had once studied this script to annotate obscure passages in Five-Star Pulse Grasping.
“Tail of Gluttony.”
For some reason, as he stared at these words, a vast and terrifying demonic aura seemed to surge toward him.
Song Yan shuddered, chilled, but found nothing unusual around him. He only saw the little snake treasure, Xiao He, bundled up in a small blanket on the bed, staring at Song Yan and the flute in his hand.
“What a sinister treasure...”
“Yan Yan, what are you doing?”
You haven’t talked to me for a long time.
“Oh, I’m reading an ancient legend...”
Song Yan finally opened the Complete Record of Immortal Lore and searched through its contents carefully.
He finally found, in one passage, the legend that connected him to the Tail of Gluttony Flute.
“Secret Tales of Tianhai City...”
At some point, Xiao He transformed into a little snake, slithered up Song Yan’s neck, and her tiny forked tongue gently touched the jade scroll.
“I want to see, I want to see too!”
An ancient secret unfolded before them, like a series of paintings, slowly spreading out in front of the man and snake.
The legend goes that in ancient times, in the Central Region, there was a famous city called Tianhai.
In Tianhai City, cultivators and ordinary people coexisted harmoniously.
Here, cultivators were seen more as professionals, a pursuit, rather than lofty “immortals.”

One year, Tianhai City was suddenly beset by a beast tide of unprecedented ferocity.
Cultivators worked together, constantly clearing away the monsters, but could not discover their origin; they seemed inexhaustible, born from the city’s shadows.
Ordinary people could not withstand such a disaster, and many cultivators also perished or were wounded.
Just when all hope seemed lost, a robed cultivator from the south arrived, his waist adorned with a black and crimson flute, calling himself the Beast Summoner.
He surveyed the situation and said to the people, “I have a method that may resolve this anomaly.”
“But it requires significant effort, so I ask for your reward.”
The people of Tianhai City were overjoyed and quickly agreed, begging the robed man to help at once.
He played his ancient flute, and melodious notes rang out.
The monstrous tide that surged through Tianhai, like waves, all gathered and flocked toward the robed man, stopping in front of him as if listening to the music.
He played the flute and led the beasts out of the city, the entire tide following him.
It seemed the crisis had been perfectly resolved.
But the story was far from over.
In the immortal world, the aftermath of the tale is told in two main ways.
One version is widely spread:
The threat was removed, the Beast Summoner received his reward.
He lingered in the city for several days, but a vigilant cultivator followed him as he was about to leave.
It was discovered that the beast tide had been orchestrated by him, merely to seize the city’s cultivation resources.
The cultivator returned and informed the others; the people were furious, and Tianhai’s cultivators pursued him.
In the end, the Beast Summoner was badly wounded and perished.
The second version, less circulated, is entirely different:
The crisis was resolved, but when the Beast Summoner sought his promised reward, the city’s cultivators reneged, refusing to pay him.
In anger, he played his flute, causing the city’s spirit beasts, herbs, and even ordinary people to fall into madness, slaughtering one another.
Yet, Tianhai’s cultivators, being many and powerful, rose up against him, and he fled, ultimately dying from his wounds.
“...”
Song Yan pondered.
Two stories, completely different versions.
“Yan Yan...”
“Hmm?”
“Which one do you think is real?”
“...”
Song Yan shook his head, indicating he did not know.
But he did not dwell on the truth of the stories.
Instead, he began to reassess the value of the Tail of Gluttony Flute.
“If this ancient flute is truly the one from the legend, then the Beast Summoner of Tianhai's secret tale is very likely the Wan clan’s ancestor, Wan Zhihong.”

Could this flute be a genuine artifact once wielded by a great master?
In the immortal world, magical tools and talismans are divided into genuine, imitation, and counterfeit categories.
Take magical tools for example: genuine items are treasures born of heaven and earth, or crafted by master artisans.
Their power and ease of use are unparalleled.
Imitations, as the name suggests, are made by less skilled craftsmen or disciples of the masters, mimicking genuine items.
They are inferior in all respects, but overall quite good—high cost performance.
Counterfeits are made by little tricksters, worthless things meant to deceive ignorant cultivators and swindle their spirit stones.
Song Yan had always believed that any so-called “treasure” in the hands of a mere Qi Refining disciple, even if its effects were miraculous, could only be an imitation at best.
But if this is genuine...
A magical treasure used by a Nascent Soul cultivator!!!
To Song Yan, the flute was no longer just an instrument.
It was an inexhaustible source of spirit stones!
Selling it at the Lingyuan Marsh market auction for a few hundred spirit stones to a bunch of clueless fools?
Impossible!
He needed a real buyer!
Having made up his mind, he set the treasured flute aside.
The rest of the pills and talismans were sorted by Song Yan—those useful for his own cultivation he kept, the rest he put together with the magical tools he planned to sell, to be handed to Granny Qin later.
Notably, among Wang Xi’s belongings was a bottle of Qi Condensing Pills.
The spiritual energy and efficacy of Qi Condensing Pills far surpassed Yellow Bud Pills; they were meant for cultivators in the late stages of Qi Refining.
Having methodically finished everything, Song Yan began to plan.
“At present, the things most lacking for cultivation are supreme spiritual items and the natal flying sword.”
One could strengthen the Dao seed under the Sword Mansion, the other not only strengthens but is the most important killing tool for a sword cultivator.
It could be said that the natal flying sword determines whether a sword cultivator is powerful.
“First, restore my spiritual power to the fourth layer of Qi Refining.”
Whether for the natal flying sword or for merging a supreme spiritual item, at least the mid-stage of Qi Refining was required.
Returning to the mid-stage meant regaining the ability to protect himself.
Song Yan sat cross-legged on the stone bed, clearing the chaotic thoughts in his mind and slowly began to cultivate.
Only Xiao He remained, clutching the jade scroll at the table, pondering deeply.
“Which one is true, I wonder?”