Eternal Illusion Chapter 2 The Border Witch

The Border Witch

Yvurgon: What's going on? I can't sense your presence at all.

Jiang Qiu: What are you gibbering about?

Yvurgon: Can you understand me now? What did you do to me?

Jiang Qiu: Just a little magic. Answer my question: you clearly have no mana, so how can you reshape a body from a spiritual soul, and how can you use that kind of extraordinary power? A spiritual soul—a person without spiritual power can actually see the soul of a Spirit Transformation cultivator like me. She's no ordinary figure. Let me probe and gather some intelligence.

Before asking others, shouldn't you introduce yourself first? I don't even know what you are. Look at me—just a weak and helpless pitiful stranger from afar. It would be terrible if I ran into bad people. The people outside the Yvurgon Forest call me the Border Witch. A witch—then what do you normally do? Hunt demon beasts for medicinal materials, brew magic potions, and research topics of interest. What topics? Things like immortality and truth—the common aspirations of all mages under heaven.

Your turn. I'm called Jiang Qiu, just an ordinary cultivator. What a strange pronunciation. What is a cultivator? What do they do normally? Cultivators are practitioners whose goal is to become immortals. There's no fixed path—we cultivate in various ways. The tradition I follow emphasizes withering the form, shedding the skin, cleansing the heart, abandoning desire, and fasting the mind to achieve immortality.

Immortality? What is an immortal? Didn't you say you were researching immortality? Immortals are beings who have transcended lifespan limits and attained supreme liberation. In a sense, we're fellow travelers in the same research direction. Fellow Daoist Yvur, only gods are truly immortal. Are immortals beings like gods? And cultivators actually have ways to become gods! Are those strange magics of yours also exclusive to cultivators?

That wasn't magic. That was immortal dao arts performed based on spiritual power and corresponding techniques. Spiritual power, immortal dao arts—the world actually contains so many concepts I've never even heard of. Fellow Daoist, have you asked everything you wanted? Then I'll take my leave. Mountains and waters will meet again—we'll see each other if fate allows. Wait—where are you going?

Fellow Daoist should be able to tell that I don't belong here. I accidentally entered a mechanism in ancient ruins and was teleported by a mysterious formation. I still haven't figured out where I am. So I plan to look around, quickly understand the situation, and find a way home. This forest is at the edge of the continent. The language you just spoke doesn't exist anywhere on the mainland. Perhaps you came from beyond the sea.

But the depths of that sea harbor strange and sinister entities. They disrupt all flows of power. Once out at sea, even the most powerful mages become no different from ordinary mortals. They also disrupt your sense of direction. Without a special sextant blessed by a god and nautical charts, venturing deep into the ocean is seeking death.

Ocean mists that disrupt power flow and sense of direction—that sounds a bit like the Sea of the Living. Legend says the depths of the Sea of the Living are filled with death-fog miasma. No living creature can cross that great fog—not even Mahayana cultivators. That place is universally acknowledged as the end of the world in the cultivation realm. Could the attendant head really have thrown me to the other side of the sea—beyond the edge of the world? This witch has actually given quite a lot of useful intelligence. Let me keep probing.

So what? I have an eighty-year-old mother and three hungry children at home. My whole family is waiting for me to return. No matter how dangerous the journey, I must go home. Thank you for your kind warning, Fellow Daoist Yvur. Until we meet again. Jiang Qiu, wait. Is there something else, Fellow Daoist Yvur? Those things you mentioned—spiritual power, immortal dao arts, achieving immortality and eternal life—are they all real? This is beyond all reason. Whether to believe or not is your business, Fellow Daoist. I don't need to prove anything.

Wait—I'm very interested in cultivator matters. Tell me about your path to immortality, and I'll help you find a way to set sail. That would involve the transmission of a dao lineage. Dharma cannot be lightly passed on. Can your magic be freely taught to others? Fair point. Then how about magic? You don't have any mana in your body, so you've clearly never been exposed to magic. I'll teach you the methods to command mana, and all the magic I know. How about it?

Fine—more skills never hurt anyone. But compared to the immortal dao arts of my cultivation world, your techniques can't even hope to reach the great dao of immortality. Are you sure that's a fair trade? Then what more do you want? Room and board? I'm asking—will you provide room and board? Yes. Deal—you provide room and board, teach me magic, and help me find my way back to my homeland. In exchange, I will transmit to you the supreme cultivation arts, guide you to awaken spiritual roots, and help you achieve the immortal dao.

From now on, we'll each use our own titles: I'll call you teacher, and you'll call me master. Transmitting my dao lineage to her doesn't matter—she may not even have spirit roots. Even if she does, this place has no spiritual energy, so she can't draw energy into her body and enter Qi Refining. This deal is guaranteed profit. But empty promises are untrustworthy. Do you have any magically binding contract documents? True. Let's do this.

This is a Wheel of Fate covenant, blessed by the gods. Whoever breaks it will suffer divine punishment. I've already signed my name—your turn. There's definitely a law-based power in this. The contract is valid. Did it fail? Do I have to write my name in your language? The Wheel of Fate covenant works regardless of language. "Jiang Qiu" isn't your real name, is it? What swindler uses his real name while traveling the world?

Depends on how you define real and fake names. The name my parents gave me, I haven't used in a long time. I've used my current name for most of my life. Write the name your parents gave you. What if my parents changed it? Then write all names. Fine.