The Forbidden Path to Immortality-Chapter 241

The Underworld Flame Yama coughed again, harder this time. Much harder. He doubled over, shuddering all through, his chest heaving like it might burst.

Li Xun kept his eyes locked on him, while out of the corner of his eye, he had the old Yin Jin completely in his sights

Of the two old wrecks, one was coughing his guts out, while the other acted like nothing at all had changed in the room, grinning with her toothless, flat mouth, happily absorbed in the play.

It was only then that Li Xun realized his spine had gone rigid without him even noticing.

On stage, the play had reached the fun part, the actors’ voices lively and cheerful. But it felt completely out of place in the tense atmosphere of the room. Maybe because of that, the moment Li Xun felt his body changing, he found he couldn’t get nervous at all.

In that heartbeat, the atmosphere shifted again. He let his gaze drop slightly, his face calm, as if he hadn’t quite caught the meaning behind Yama's words. Quietly, he said, “My understanding is shallow, Sect Master. Forgive me if I’ve made a fool of myself.”

Nether One froze the hand that was about to tear through space, yet stayed ready to strike at a moment’s notice. On the surface, though, the room seemed to have returned to normal

The coughing eased. “Excessive humility isn’t always wise,” the Underworld Flame Yama finally said. His breath was weaker, but the light in his deep-set eyes was just as strong. “When I said you stand too high, I didn’t necessarily mean it as an insult.”

The aura around him gradually evened out, his tone becoming calm.

“These past years, you’ve handled things with care and precision, always planning your moves carefully. And when the moment came, you struck right where it mattered. That’s no small feat.

“Most people, in your position, would either be too cautious to act decisively, or too ruthless to think things through. Care too much about the details, and you lose your edge; act too boldly, and you miss what’s in front of you. But you… you’ve managed to balance both. I’d say that has a lot to do with where you come from.”

He pointed a finger from afar, looking at Li Xun like an elder watching a mischievous junior. “To truly understand people, to put people before things, that’s the real shortcut to success. Ha! A shortcut indeed.”

The change in tone was obvious. Li Xun noticed it and frowned ever so slightly. “Please, Sect Leader, enlighten me," he said.

“What’s there to enlighten?” The Underworld Flame Yama croaked a chuckle. “The path of cultivation is nothing more than two approaches: the orthodox and the unorthodox. If you were in the Mingxin Sword Sect, sure, there’d be grand, proper ‘great roads’ to guide you. But we... we’re the crooked path, we take the shortcuts. So the way you act actually fits our sect’s philosophy perfectly. It’s just that…”

His tone shifted again as he slowly shook his head. “There’s one thing, though, that I’ve always been curious about. Can you clear up my doubt?”

Li Xun didn’t hesitate. “Please ask, Sect Master.”

“Indecision, no wise man falls into it. Every flaw in the world can be traced back to hesitation. You, of all people, who see so clearly into the hearts of others, should understand that truth. So why is it,” His eyes narrowed slightly, “that you still haven’t grasped it yourself?”

His words left little room for doubt. Li Xun was silent for a moment, then said, “It’s easy to cut off what’s rotten. But what if I can’t tell what part is poison? Then what?”

The words were blunt, but the Underworld Flame Yama just laughed. Yin Jin glanced over at Li Xun, her toothless mouth stretching into a bizarre grin.

The Underworld Flame Yama for quite a while before catching his breath. “Completely wrong! Clever as you are, I didn’t expect you’d be this blind!”

He lifted both hands. “This isn’t about whether something’s good or evil. As a matter of fact, it’s not even a matter of choosing the ‘right’ path. Every sect has its own way that leads to the ultimate truth; the only question is whether it suits you. Look…”

He raised his left hand slightly. “This hand is chained,” he said. “As long as you behave yourself, you’ll be safe enough. But the other hand? It’s free, though one day it might run into disaster. So tell me, which one would you cut off? Or rather, which one should be cut off?”

Li Xun chuckled, saying nothing.

The old man’s murky eyes turned toward him. Somehow, Li Xun suddenly felt a rush of heat wash through his body. His qi flared wildly through his meridians, completely out of control. Startled, his first thought was that he’d been struck by some technique. But the strange sensation vanished as quickly as it came.

By the time Li Xun steadied his mind, the old woman’s cackling reached his ears. “Young people… always hung up on the strangest things. And you, Sect Master… locking this, locking that? Look at the boy, what choice did he ever really have?”

For a heartbeat, the Underworld Flame Yama’s eyes flared. Gray-white sparks coalesced in his pupils, and a sudden flash in the air made Li Xun shudder despite himself.

He instinctively went on the defensive. But then, just as quickly, the crushing pressure vanished. The Underworld Flame Yama didn’t slump back into his half-dead state this time, though. He straightened up instead. And he barked: “Where is it? The Yinfire Pearl, where is the pearl in your heart-meridian?”

The words hit Li Xun like a punch to the head. Then it all clicked and he secretly ground his teeth.

Damn it.

He wasn’t upset that the Yinfire Pearl had been exposed; Master Ghost’s arrangement always had a good chance of being discovered by the Underworld Flame Yama. No, what frustrated him was realizing that he had been completely unaware of the Underworld Flame Yama’s suspicion all along.

All these years…

But there was no time for him to brood.

The Underworld Flame Yama clearly cared a great deal about this. Seeing Li Xun hesitate, he pressed harder, voice rough and urgent: “What’s the story with the Yinfire Pearl? Speak.”

If it were anyone else, Li Xun wouldn’t think much of it. But seeing the usually calm and unreadable Underworld Flame Yama so anxious made his heart tighten a little. He swallowed it down, kept his face blank, and drew a slow breath through his nose.

“Thank you for your concern, Sect Master,” he said. “Something unexpected happened a few days ago... the bead was dissolved.”

The Underworld Flame Yama blinked. “Dissolved?” Then he suddenly slumped back down, looking weak again. He let out a dry, humorless laugh. “If you've really dissolved the Yinfire Pearl, then I and Elder Yin are already as good as dead. Why waste time talking?”

He paused, slowly shaking his head. “If that were the case… why I bothered doing this at all?”

Li Xun studied his expression. Whatever the Underworld Flame Yama was after, right now it looked a lot like genuine concern. A small flicker of awkwardness nudged at him, but caution won out. He kept his head down and his face cool.

The Underworld Flame Yama chuckled soon enough.

“Fine,” he said. “fine. Either way, you look confident. If you could really put the Yinfire Pearl to use... well, that’d be a great thing for you… Heh. So, you’ve figured out where you slipped up now, haven’t you?”

At this point, pretending any further was pointless. Li Xun gave a slight nod. “I only wonder. When did Sect Master notice?”

The Underworld Flame Yama and Elder Yin traded a look and shared a very strange smile. Li Xun blinked.

Then Elder Yin burst out cackling.

“Young ones will always be young; still not thinking things through! Did you really believe that little trick of yours could fool everyone? Maybe it could fool others, but how could you possibly hide it from his senior brother?

“The moment you showed your face back then, Ming Huo'er saw something was off. But even he never expected you to have two faces. It took us seven, eight years of digging to figure out what the other one looked like… impressive. Truly impressive!”

“Seven, eight years…” Li Xun muttered, the words tasting bitter on his tongue.

By the reckoning, his identity had been exposed for fifty years. And all that time, he’d crossed paths with the Underworld Flame Yama more than once... without realizing a thing. Wasn’t that basically flirting with death?

Taking a deep breath, he forced all those messy, anxious thoughts down. He lifted his gaze to the Underworld Flame Yama, even managing a thin, cold smile. “So... why?”

The Underworld Flame Yama chuckled between coughs. “I already told you. We’re outsiders, the so-called demonic path. Our sect never cared for loyalty, righteousness, or any of that saintly nonsense. We value talent… no, to be precise, we value benefit.

“Doesn’t matter who you are. As long as you live well here and your interests don’t conflict with the sect’s, we’ll make use of you. You’ve been with us for decades; have you ever done anything truly harmful to the sect? And more importantly… did you ever have any reason to?”

Li Xun had no words.

The Underworld Flame Yama laughed. “You never caused the sect harm. Quite the opposite. You earned merit again and again, brought us honor. It benefited you and benefited us. So why would I bother exposing you?”

“Then… why now?”

“Now?” He gave a small shake of his head. “Things are still fine now. It’s just a pity… I likely won’t be around to see what comes next.”

Li Xun hadn’t expected him to speak so bluntly. He blinked, then heard a sigh.

“If this body of mine weren’t failing faster every day, I wouldn’t resort to such a clumsy technique. Hah… when a man’s near his end, well, whether he speaks kindly or not, strange thoughts always creep in. You won’t hold it against me, will you?”

Li Xun cleared his throat.

Sure, the Underworld Flame Yama might really be on his last legs. But how many in the Tongxuan Realm would dare look down on him? This sickly old ghost was obviously just messing with him.

Li Xun’s face twitched, but in the end, he held himself back.

It wasn’t out of respect for the old or pity for the weak. No... he had smelled something off. The Underworld Flame Yama had been talking in circles, revealing his stance bit by bit. And it looked like it was leaning heavily in Li Xun’s favor.

So Li Xun lowered his head and kept quiet, giving the appearance of deference.

The Underworld Flame Yama didn’t look serious. He spoke casually, like he was talking about the weather. “... All these years, I’ve been digging into your past… quite entertaining, really. Elder Yin knows, of course. Well, she’s the only one who does.”

Li Xun’s gaze flicked over Yin Jin’s wrinkled face. The woman everyone in the sect jokingly called “the muddle-headed granny” had once again risen a few notches in his mind.

Noticing his look, she beamed at him and nodded. Those usually cloudy eyes of hers suddenly seemed bottomless.

Perhaps sensing what he was thinking, the Underworld Flame Yama chuckled. “Don’t let Elder Yin’s usual appearance fool you. She’s been cultivating for more than five thousand years. She’s one of the oldest and most respected figures in this realm. And one of the two people the sect could never do without.”

“Never do without? Two people?” Li Xun’s curiosity sparked. “And who’s the other one?”

....

TLer: i love this quote: “It’s easy to cut off what’s rotten. But what if I can’t tell what part is poison? Then what?” It really says so much about his character. He isn’t evil, but he isn't a good perosn either. He’s just a man who’s lost the ability to tell what’s good and what’s not. He can’t distinguish between them anymore.

I also loved the part where Yama tells him he has to choose a path, whether he likes it or not. That moment is so powerful. It’s such a beautiful chapter. I’m really glad I decided to translate this series. When I was reading MTL, I didn’t get to enjoy the dialogue and ended up overlooking so many details. I'm like reading for the first time.