Chapter 69
When the two returned to the barren wasteland of the Void Realm, as expected, the ground was already strewn with corpses, and the residual spiritual energy of shattered primordial spirits still lingered in the air.
Su Zhen looked down at the remains scattered across the slope, her gaze drifting into the distance. "What did you leave behind here, Senior?"
Xiao Yu stood beside her, answering casually, "Some spell seals of mental illusion. By now, they've already been used up."
Su Zhen nodded. "To make them kill each other, right?"
She knew quite a few similar spells herself, but most required the caster to personally apply the spell to the target. A sense of curiosity arose within her, and she began discussing it with him.
Xiao Yu demonstrated a few spell seals to her, but as they talked, the conversation strayed once more. "I left these when I brought you in earlier, thinking perhaps we'd return quickly. I didn't expect it to take so long."
Su Zhen cast a peculiar look at him.
Xiao Yu paused for a moment, then pressed a hand to his brow. "I didn't mean it like that! Besides, isn't that something where it takes as long as you want it to? I was merely hesitating whether to go all the way to the final step."
"Why hesitate?"
"Well, because you are about to face a rather difficult barrier."
Xiao Yu said with a conflicted expression, "I didn't want to make it feel like we were seizing a last chance, knowing that you'd likely have such thoughts. Though you certainly wouldn't think you are bound to fail, you would still consider that possibility..."
"Senior."
Su Zhen interrupted him. "If you carry on like this, there will be no end to it. If we had taken that final step, wouldn't it be just like the flag of returning home to get married—becoming increasingly ominous?"
Xiao Yu looked at her in shock.
Xiao Yu: "...What you say makes a lot of sense."
Su Zhen sighed helplessly. "I knew Senior loved splitting hairs like this."
While they spoke, she could once again perceive that in the neighboring planes, exotic beasts were still stirring, and cultivators were approaching rapidly.
Su Zhen pulled out the bow. "Shall I go in then?"
Xiao Yu nodded without a word, his expression very tense, yet he tried his utmost to put on an indifferent and relaxed posture, making it look all the more bizarre.
Su Zhen was amused.
She stepped closer, stood on tiptoe, and reached out to brush across his brow, forcibly smoothing away his tightly furrowed brows. "Don't be like this—"
The latter's expression became even stranger due to the artificial intervention.
Su Zhen couldn't help laughing. "Senior, you really ought to look in a mirror."
Xiao Yu sighed, gripped her wrist, and turned his head to rub against her fingers. "I only wish to look at you more."
Su Zhen pinched his cheek. "Senior, wait for me here. Don't let your imagination run wild, and don't wander off—"
Wait.
Why did this sound somewhat like an aging mother lecturing her son?
She frowned again. "If you cannot wait, so be it. Before long, I should be able to come find you."
Xiao Yu nodded slightly. "I'll try my best. Either way, waiting for you, or waiting for you to find me, is the height of bliss for me."
Su Zhen once again felt a subtle wave of emotion.
She thought she had grown accustomed to such words, but every time she heard them, the feeling remained delicate—though naturally, joy predominated.
"By the way, if I am inside for too long, remember to keep an eye on my cousin and cousin-in-law, and don't let them go missing in the Spirit Realm again."
After receiving a reply, Su Zhen unfastened the sachet from her waist and tossed it over. "All my savings are in here. If I kick the bucket, then you—"
"There is no if."
Xiao Yu caught it in his hand. "I'll just hand it back to you later."
Su Zhen silently drew her bow.
Though she was slightly reluctant to admit it, the reluctance to part in her heart at this moment vastly outweighed her worry.
This reluctance was not born of fear that they would never meet again, or that they would cross paths without recognizing one another; it was simply a pure reluctance to leave him behind.
Very well, there was nothing to be reluctant to admit—it was just that occasionally, it felt truly incredible.
Because the temperament and disposition of this fellow Xiao Yu were exceedingly rare.
...At least rare to her, and she had never imagined that she would one day grow to love such a person.
Naturally, she had never precisely imagined what kind of person she would eventually fall in love with, because compared to cultivation and ascension, this was simply not something that had to be done.
The very moment she was pulled into the plane, Su Zhen was exceptionally calm.
Due to the continuous breakthroughs in her cultivation realm, her primordial spirit had already become extremely stable, without the slightest trace of discomfort—completely different from when she first entered.
Her physical body grew feeble and collapsed to the ground, while her primordial spirit floated forward, coming to a halt beside the pool of water.
A hair's breadth away from the Quasi-Saint Realm, yet restricted by the Heavenly Dao, her path of ascension was blocked. Clearly, it was no longer possible for her to ascend step by step through conventional cultivation.
Complaints were useless now, and hatred was equally useless. No matter how deep her resentment, emotions could not alter reality.
The only thing she had to do was strive to break the deadlock.
Su Zhen sank into the freezing, cold pool.
The moment the darkness dissipated, she opened her eyes drowsily, feeling a mild headache—likely caused by reading books too late into the night.
Su Zhen was very familiar with this sensation. Ever since she learned to read, she had often stayed up late reading all sorts of miscellaneous texts, ranging from poetry and prose to magical spells and incantations.
...Spells?
What were spells?
At this thought, countless memories surged into her mind, all concerning the past of "herself."
Her parents ran a small bookstore, occasionally copying books and writing letters for others to earn a little money. Although they were not wealthy, they lacked for nothing in food and clothing, and the family lived in great harmony.
Ever since she was enlightened, having mastered only a thousand or two characters, she had immersed herself daily in the sea of books. Possessing the ability to never forget a single thing she laid eyes upon, her fondness for reading grew all the more fervent.
Before her sixteenth birthday, she had already read the vast majority of the classic texts in the shop. Moreover, she still had to help people write letters from time to time; had it not been for that, she probably could have read even more.
The bright light outside the window poured in, illuminating the dancing dust motes indoors.
The bookstore appeared slightly cramped; books were neatly arranged in camphor-wood cabinets, bamboo slips were piled high, and the surroundings exuded a faint fragrance of ink.
Su Zhen lay slumped across the table, supporting her head with one hand as she swept her gaze over the somewhat cluttered desk—a celadon-glazed brush holder, a bronze-carved paperweight, two ink sticks, several water-bamboo writing brushes of varying thicknesses, a Songhua stone inkstone, an ivory paper knife, and a thick stack of paper.
For a split second, she found all of this both unfamiliar and familiar, differing somewhat from the study in her memory.
However, once Su Zhen caught sight of the open scroll on the table, she was instantly captivated.
It was a volume of strange customs and tales of the Asura tribe, telling the story of a small clan whose protagonists were three siblings. They had grown up together in a deep mountain within the Spirit Realm. Later, a group of cultivators hunted exotic beasts nearby, fighting so fiercely that the mountains cracked and the earth split, destroying the cave where they dwelt. Consequently, they were forced to fly out, wandering and embarking on adventures everywhere. As they grew older, divergences arose among them; they parted ways, with some remaining in the Spirit Realm, some going to the Void Realm, and others heading to the Demon Realm.
This book was exceedingly thick and divided into upper and lower volumes. Last year—no, last night—she had stayed up late until the Hour of the Rat, only finishing a little less than half of the upper volume because she had to mind the shop during the day. She had been forced to sleep, yet had not rested well at all, and her dreams had been filled with the stories from the book.
For some reason, the contents of this book fascinated her immensely.
Right.
Originally, no special reason was needed. She had been like this since childhood; whenever she encountered something she did not understand, she felt an inherent curiosity.
Furthermore, books describing alien races were already rare, and it was even harder to come by one that wasn't a tale of love at first sight between an alien and a human—she didn't hold any aversion to such romantic scripts, but after reading too many romances between humans and demons, or humans and ghosts, they always felt largely the same. Reading a serious account describing the daily lives of an alien race felt exceptionally precious.
Su Zhen read with rapt absorption. Customers came into the shop, but as long as they didn't approach to make inquiries, she ignored them entirely, merely dividing a shred of her attention to watch them and prevent book theft.
Two days passed in this manner, and she had already reached the lower volume. By dusk, a customer stepped into the bookstore and walked straight inside.
"...Proprietor?"
"Hm?"
Su Zhen stood up, moving from her writing desk to the counter at the side. "How may I help you, honored guest?"
The man looked to be about twenty years old, clad in snow-white brocade robes, radiating an extraordinary presence and graceful bearing in every gesture.
He pondered for a moment before asking, "I heard the proprietor writes a fine hand?"
Su Zhen was slightly taken aback. "My mother writes even better, but she is simply not at leisure these days."
Her parents had gone far away to visit relatives, but she didn't need to explain that to an outsider. Hearing the question, she merely asked, "Is the honored guest here to have a letter written?"
However, those who usually came to spend money on letter-writing were mostly illiterate or only knew a few characters. Their lack of schooling was due to family background, so naturally they wouldn't wear robes like these.
Even if the pageboys or maidservants of wealthy households occasionally came by—wearing fine clothes bestowed by their masters—they still wouldn't possess such an air.
As she was pondering this, she heard the man ask again, "I am looking for someone to copy books."
Su Zhen immediately refused, stating that she didn't have the time.
The man smiled faintly, flipped his hand, and placed a lump of gold on the table.
The gold ingot was exceptionally large, of the finest purity, clean, polished, and gleaming brightly.
Su Zhen: "...What book is the honored guest looking to have copied?"
She was still quite capable of doing the math. Her family's circumstances were ordinary, but whenever she earned money, she could buy more books to read, and perhaps even purchase the secret manuals of immortals.
By now, she had read quite a few books; the texts spoke of cultivators, demon races, and how they traversed the skies, split mountains, and cleaved rivers.
Not to mention alien races, many cultivators were humans as well, starting out as ordinary mortals before embarking on cultivation.
She had always been curious about how they actually cultivated, yet the books never mentioned such things. Even when they described someone entering an immortal sect, they merely brushed past the mental formulas and cultivation techniques in a single stroke.
The man glanced at her. "I must ask the proprietor to write a few characters for me to see."
Su Zhen smiled, walked over to the desk, rolled up her sleeves, picked up a brush, and wrote a line of characters on the paper. They were standard regular script—upright and rigid, with strong bones and powerful strokes, truly striking three-tenths of an inch deep into the paper.
The man stood beside her, watching, a look of astonished appreciation in his eyes. "Truly a magnificent hand."
(End of Chapter)
---
Su Zhen calmly saturated her brush with ink, transferred it to her left hand, and wrote another line beneath the first. This time, she changed to a different script style, one that grew pure, delicate, and winding like pine wind and moonlight, resembling immortal dew and bright pearls.
The man drew a soft breath. "...It hardly looks like it was written by the same person."
With that, he bowed to her. "The proprietor is remarkably gifted."
Su Zhen smiled as she looked at him. "Actually, I know other styles too, but these two are my finest. I can also imitate the handwriting of others; if the honored guest has a preference, you may specify one."
A flicker crossed the man's eyes. "Truly?"
Su Zhen nodded slightly. "Only that I would need a moment to practice, and I write somewhat slower; that will cost extra."
Hearing this, the man smiled. "Money is naturally no object."
With that, he flipped his hand and produced a bank note.
Su Zhen glanced at it, catching the denomination, and couldn't help drawing a soft breath, thinking that even if she sold her family's shop, it wouldn't amount to this much money.
However—
Vaguely, she still felt something was amiss.
Even hundreds of thousands or millions of taels of silver weren't all that much; converted into spiritual stones, they would merely amount to—
Amount to what?
Su Zhen reached out to support her head, staring dazedly at the tabletop.
"This bank note is a deposit."
The man smiled gently. "If the proprietor can copy this text from beginning to end, imitating the handwriting found within, I will pay you double the amount."
Having said that, he placed a remarkably thick scroll of bamboo slips onto the counter.
Su Zhen was slightly startled.
The other party had walked into the shop empty-handed; such a massive scroll of bamboo slips could not possibly be tucked into a sleeve, yet it had suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Su Zhen: "...Are you a cultivator?"
The man nodded.
Su Zhen immediately grew hesitant, because the sum offered by the other party was far too great. She couldn't help feeling suspicious, yet hearing that he was a cultivator made it somewhat plausible.
For cultivators, acquiring wealth was far easier than for ordinary people.
To say nothing else, mere common pills for maintaining youth, enhancing beauty, and ridding ailments held little value among cultivators, yet many mortals pursued them avidly, willing to pay exorbitant prices.
Even if they lacked spiritual energy and the efficacy of refined pills was greatly diminished, such pills still retained some effect.
...Why would I know these things?
Su Zhen shook her head, dimly recalling that some book seemed to have mentioned them, though she couldn't remember which book it was for the moment.
The cultivator before her spoke again: "So, how does the proprietor find my proposition?"
Su Zhen collected her thoughts and expressed that she wished to take a look first. The man readily agreed, and she unfolded a portion of the heavy bamboo slips.
Though they appeared to be bamboo slips, they felt quite warm to the touch, smooth and delicate. They didn't feel like pieces of bamboo at all, but rather like thinned jade stone.
The handwriting upon them wasn't particularly difficult to imitate, but she wondered whether she would need to write on the exact same material. Pondering this, she couldn't help glancing at the content.
Su Zhen's gaze paused, and she turned her head to look at the title. On the extreme right of the scroll, six large characters were clearly inscribed: *Secret Wheel Execution Life Incantation Method*.
...This was actually an immortal-family spell?
Her heart leaped wildly, filled simultaneously with tension and excitement.
The cultivator glanced at her, though he misunderstood her reaction. "The proprietor need not worry. Although this is a sole surviving manuscript of my sect, it is impervious to water and fire, and unharmed by ordinary metals. You have no need to fear breaking it."
He then produced an identical set of blank slips, still of a similar jade texture. "Just write on these. Should you make a mistake, you can simply wash it away with water within half a quarter of an hour."
Having accepted the task, Su Zhen should have practiced her handwriting first to mimic the original script's style, but she simply couldn't resist reading through the entire book.
The text spoke of incantations, and more than one. When grouped together, they formed the secret spell indicated by the title.
She once again read through it with rapt fascination for two whole days. Possessing a photographic memory, she found that although the slips were heavy, the content wasn't particularly vast.
Su Zhen committed the incantations mentioned within to memory. Though the contents were profoundly esoteric, for reasons unknown, she managed to understand roughly seven or eight-tenths of it.
She merely suffered from a lack of spiritual energy within her body; even knowing the spells, she could not cast them.
Another two days passed until the book was fully copied. When the man returned and inspected the work, he was thoroughly satisfied, clapping his hands together. "The proprietor possesses marvelous skills."
Then he sighed. "Though I am older than you by a few hundred years, I merely learned a few months' worth when I first entered the mountains, barely managing to write legibly."
Su Zhen shook her head. "...The Immortal Elder is busy with cultivation, so naturally your abilities far surpass mine. But why didn't the Immortal Elder use spells to conjure an identical copy?"
The man shook his head as well, explaining that things formed by spiritual energy bore numerous limitations. With that, he drew out two more bank notes and handed them to her. Su Zhen accepted them and asked him about the Dao of cultivation.
He gave her a look. "I am a rogue cultivator, but I can point out a path for you. Head to the Tianyuan Sect, the premier immortal sect of the Eastern Domain. It is not currently the season for them to select and recruit disciples, but there are many small towns outside the mountain where—"
"—where disciples of the sect are stationed in several of these towns, carrying Spirit-Identifying Plates to test those endowed with spiritual roots."
Although a cultivator's spiritual roots could be cleansed and refined, those possessing innate spiritual roots typically advanced much faster in cultivation compared to those refined later. Thus, major sects were always eager to recruit such individuals.
Yet, why did she know about the Tianyuan Sect?
Could it be that some book had mentioned it?
Right.
Su Zhen thought in a hazy daze that she must have read a book which mentioned the Tianyuan Sect, only she couldn't remember how it all fit together for the moment.
The man asked once more, "Are you an only child? Do you have any siblings?"
"No."
"Then your parents may not necessarily allow you to become a cultivator. I've seen plenty like that—they all pin their hopes of elder-care on their children."
Su Zhen asked perplexedly, "How would becoming a cultivator prevent me from caring for them? They are not even forty yet; spending a few years in an immortal mansion will do no harm."
No.
How could her parents possibly prevent her from becoming a cultivator?
Her parents—
Why would they ever think of matters like elder-care? They weren't mortals.
These strange thoughts flashed through her mind and vanished.
The man chuckled softly. "That is merely childish talk. Not to mention a few years, even after several decades you might not have learned anything. By then you'd most likely be unwilling to return home, lingering on within the mountains. Once a century or two passes and your lifespan is exhausted, your parents will long since have turned to dust."
Su Zhen scoffed. "You jest. The Foundation Establishment Realm alone can prolong life up to two hundred years, and I shall use mere—"
A nameless anger suddenly flared in her heart, making her feel as though this person looked down on her far too much.
Yet his words weren't directed specifically at her; clearly, he had witnessed such situations far too often.
No.
No—
Su Zhen felt her anger subsiding, dimly sensing that this was not a good omen. Perhaps she ought to have remained angrier.
Even so, she finally calmed herself and cupped her fists. "What my parents think is their own affair. If the Immortal Elder can point the way for me, I shall owe you a favor."
Having said this, she felt somewhat uncomfortable once more.
The small town at the foot of Tianyuan Mountain—how could she be unfamiliar with the route?
She had once linked arms with someone as they strolled through bustling markets, had sat upon someone's shoulders to watch lanterns, and had drunk wine in those taverns alongside someone else.
Whose memory was this?
"...Is that so?"
The man gave her a somewhat surprised look, the corners of his mouth curving. "My face and spiritual pressure right now are both false. Well, you wouldn't be able to sense my spiritual pressure anyway. But should you truly make a name for yourself one day, just don't forget today."
With that, he detailed how to find those few towns.
After the man departed, Su Zhen left a letter for her parents, set aside the greater part of the money, locked up the bookstore, and went home to pack a few belongings. She exchanged currency for copper coins and silver bits at the money changer, bought a horse and dried rations, and set off on her journey.
Enduring wind and frost as she trekked for several months, staying at inns on only a handful of occasions while making do in the wilderness most of the time, she somehow hardened her resolve and pushed through.
Traversing half of the Eastern Domain, she finally reached one of the towns, and the subsequent events unfolded quite smoothly.
They tested her and found she possessed the True Spiritual Roots of Gold and Wood. Though this aptitude wasn't exceptionally brilliant, it was barely sufficient to enter the inner sect.
It was not the season for external recruitment, and several elders in charge of such matters were currently in secluded cultivation.
The cultivator who brought her up the mountain was a registered disciple of the chief managing elder of the Lingxiao Peak. Upon reporting the matter to his master, the elder heard that the new child was literate and commanded his disciple to bring her before him so he could test her handwriting.
She picked up the brush and completed the writing in one stroke, copying the characters on the plaque of the courtyard outside. Stroking his beard in approval, the elder accepted her as his registered disciple, assigning her to handle documents, organize and copy files, and occasionally reply to letters on his behalf. From time to time, he instructed her in cultivation; because she spent a great deal of time in the elder's company, she actually saw more of him than his other personal disciples.
The elder was of advanced years and possessed numerous personal disciples—twenty-some in total, the youngest being decades old while the eldest was over five hundred. Most of them had refined Earth Spiritual Roots, alongside one who possessed Heavenly Spiritual Roots.
The older ones had either completed their training or buried themselves in cultivation, paying no heed to external matters, whereas the younger ones harbored their own agendas.
Some seized the opportunity to befriend her, while others glared at her with hostility. She treated them all with indifference, her mind entirely consumed by cultivation and the various secret manuals within the elder's study; she simply had no time to spare for them.
Three years passed thus. She refined a Profound Spiritual Root, advanced into the Qi Condensation Realm, and was finally permitted to venture out on trials with her fellow disciples.
After a long lapse, Su Zhen once again experienced that peculiar sensation.
She fell into a state of contradiction, as though split into two people: one who eagerly wished to go out and fight, and another who longed to remain on the mountain to read more books, deeming going out a waste of time.
Yet—
Upon further reflection, since she already mastered all those spells anyway, there was truly no need to go out; she might as well stay behind on Lingxiao Peak.
Thus, the two selves merged back into one.
Another two years slipped by until the elder finally lost his patience and chased her out, telling her she simply had to go on a trial a few times to keep people from gossiping behind her back.
The leader of the group was the elder's personal disciple, already in the Profound Immortal Realm. He led them all the way to the border of the Eastern Domain to clear out a pack of demonic beasts.
Similar trials were repeated a few times until, eventually, the target changed to demonic entities.
The two sides engaged in a fierce melee within the dense forest. Dark purple miasma churned over the muddy pools, and out of the swamps crawled a swarm of juvenile flea-demons. Each was the size of a washbasin, their membranous wings buzzing on their backs, their mouthparts as sharp as blades, occasionally spitting foul, stinking venomous mist.
They were forest insects mutated and transformed by the miasma, possessing extremely weak strength; an ordinary cultivator in the Qi Condensation Realm could handle three or five of them without issue.
Yet there were no less than a hundred of them at the moment, stretching the dozen or so cultivators to their limits, preventing an easy resolution.
However, trial tasks always required exerting some effort, and since this wasn't everyone's first time doing so, they all gritted their teeth and persevered.
The Profound Immortal Realm leader, who had been watching from afar, suddenly furrowed his brow. A flash of cold light danced beside his hand as he grasped a gleaming, frigid sword.
He spun around to block a flying sword-qi, engaging in a fierce battle with a demon cultivator who had ambushed him from behind.
The flea-demons continued to crawl out endlessly; the miasma failed to dissipate and instead grew even denser, causing the formation of the young cultivators to scatter.
Gradually, everyone found it increasingly difficult to cope, and most sustained injuries. While the group was flustered and overwhelmed, Su Zhen felt nothing at all; such a situation didn't even qualify as troublesome to her.
Her hands were empty, save for a silver-inlaid jade plaque hanging at her waist, which aided in circulating the spiritual energy within her body—a common item used by low-realm magic-cultivators.
Almost all the sword-cultivators beside her appeared more disheveled than she did, despite her being in the lowest realm—merely at the third layer of Qi Condensation—yet she had slain even more demonic entities than they had.
The forest was in complete chaos, and the distance between the cultivators grew wider and wider.
Su Zhen dealt with a dozen or so demonic entities, fighting and retreating simultaneously. Her grasp on how to strike and evade was extremely precise, wasting not a shred of spiritual energy. In the span of a breath, she had already wiped out a third of them.
However, the spiritual energy within this body was truly scarce. Even though she only employed the most basic five-element spells, after fighting for a quarter of an hour, it was mostly depleted.
——This body?
She thought with a trace of confusion, having already cleared out the last demonic entity beside her. Instead of assisting her fellow disciples, she sat down in place to rest, figuring she would recover some spiritual energy first.
Yet for some reason, her spiritual energy recovered very slowly—
No, not slowly either.
She possessed a Profound Spiritual Root, and this was simply the recovery rate proper to a Profound Spiritual Root.
Su Zhen supported her head with one hand, feeling that something was amiss. Suddenly, an angry roar rang out beside her: "You broke away long ago! Why didn't you come help us?!"
Two figures walked over, holding swords and drenched in blood.
Su Zhen managed to recall their identities. "...Senior Brother Wang, Senior Sister Zhang."
Senior Brother Wang's face was gloomy. "The three of us fell into a bitter fight just now, and my younger sister was dragged away by a demonic entity—her life or death is unknown..."
Su Zhen looked utterly puzzled. "What has that to do with me? I ran out of spiritual energy and sat down here; otherwise, I would have fled long ago. There's miasma all around us."
Those of slightly higher realms naturally attracted a relatively larger share of demonic entities, and their bodies contained correspondingly more spiritual energy.
Yet if they failed to exercise restraint while striking and carelessly exhausted their spiritual energy early, they had no right to blame others.
Senior Brother Wang gritted his teeth. "You! You're merely a lowly pariah, yet you usually put on an aloof front and pester Master day in and day out—"
Consumed by rage as he spoke, he thrust his sword forward without warning. "Let me see if you really have no spiritual energy left!"
Su Zhen instantly sprang up to dodge.
Senior Brother Wang sneered, calling upon his companion to join the attack. "Junior Sister, let's kill her here and now; no one else will be the wiser."
The Zhang sister hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Second Senior Sister was dragged off by those demon cultivators; she most likely went to another plane. Whether it's the Demon Realm or somewhere else, she won't be back anytime soon!"
With that, she turned her gaze toward Su Zhen, her eyes filled with bone-deep hatred.
"...Just the other day, Ninth Senior Brother said that Master praised your comprehension as exceptionally high and rare in the world, even claiming you are no inferior to Senior Immortal Murong under the Sect Master's seat! What are you? A mere maggot in the gutter who lucked into entering the sect—how could you ever compare to Senior Sister Murong!"
"?"
What in the world was Immortal Murong?
Ah.
Murong Xi.
Su Zhen suddenly snapped to attention.
Wasn't that the Venerable Jingyang? How did he become Immortal Murong?
Su Zhen's head swelled like a bucket, a tangled mess of confusion in her mind.
Zhang sister continued sternly, "They even said your spiritual root was slightly lacking, but it could be made up for, and he had already decided to let you enter his inner chambers as a personal disciple."
Senior Brother Wang gave a cold hum. "Master even considered letting you try inheriting his *Sustaining Leaf*. If you matched with it, you would obtain a lower-grade immortal weapon! We've entered the sect for years, yet we haven't even laid a finger on that sword!"
Su Zhen watched them with a frown.
Both of them were the elder's personal disciples, having previously attempted to befriend her simply because she never had the time to entertain them.
Su Zhen: "You've been affected by the miasma..."
Though in their hearts they likely held resentment and jealousy, otherwise they wouldn't have spoken thus.
Still, today's matters clearly could not end peacefully.
Since they had uttered such words, once they regained their senses, they would inevitably find a way to silence her.
Senior Brother Wang lunged forward first, his gold-hilted sword trembling to scatter several sword-blooms in the air, the tip faintly shrouding all her vital acupoints.
Su Zhen once again slipped into that bizarre sensation. Every defense of her opponent was riddled with flaws, fragile beyond measure, yet somehow she found herself unable to dispatch him instantly.
This left her deeply uncomfortable.
Immediately following this, a different thought arose within her mind.
This opportunity was truly rare. If she died here, others would simply assume it was the work of demonic entities; and if the two of them died here, the outcome would be the same.
Su Zhen raised her hand, her ten fingers intertwining and twisting at a strange angle. The last remnants of spiritual energy in her body surged, and spell seals gradually manifested across her face.
The remains of the demonic entities scattered throughout the forest began to have their residual spiritual energy slowly extracted, converging from all directions.
Su Zhen felt a simultaneous wave of heat in the soles of both feet. That turbid spiritual energy poured into her body, and the unformed spell in her hand rapidly condensed.
The sword blade pierced into her chest.
Senior Brother Wang's face was suffused with wild elation—then that smile froze.
Su Zhen's fingers gently brushed against his jaw.
Senior Brother Wang's face melted away like wax, his skin peeling to reveal muscle and tissue, while blood gushed from his eyes, streaming down into her palm.
Swiftly, like a snowman melting in the sunlight, his entire body withered and liquefied, transforming into a pool of blood that fell entirely into her hands and was completely absorbed.
Su Zhen pulled the sword from her chest, tossing it aside casually. The piercing wound healed in the blink of an eye.
*Secret Wheel Execution Life Incantation Method.*
She burst out laughing. "So that's how it is..."
No.
That wasn't all.
In that instant, countless unfamiliar visions flashed before her eyes, and a flood of disjointed information and knowledge poured directly into her mind.
The spell extracted not merely a person's life force, but their memories, skills, and learning as well, while filtering out useless emotions.
Though this was merely a Qi Condensation cultivator, Senior Brother Wang was over two decades older than her, hailing from a prominent clan, and thus possessed much knowledge she lacked.
Had she tried to learn it herself, it would have taken several years; now, it took but a single breath.
The swordsmanship he had practiced with bitter toil, the secret incantations he had labored over—
All of them were now stored within her mind.
"Hahahaha! How marvelous!"
Su Zhen trembled with excitement.
This sensation—
Many, many years ago, she had knelt upon the wasteland, listening faintly to the voice of the divine demon.
At that moment, knowledge as vast as the sea, secret immortal arts, and profound truths surged like a tidal wave, drowning and engulfing her.
She shuddered uncontrollably, tears welling in her eyes, her frantic laughter echoing across the blood-red desert.
Then she willingly lowered her head to serve as an instrument of His will.
The covenant seal had emerged upon her spine.
...Whose memory was this?
The answer no longer mattered.
The same joy, the same fulfillment, the same madness.
At that moment, memory and reality completely overlapped.
"You! You're a demon cultivator?!"
Roused by the scream, Su Zhen slowly turned her head, her eyes gleaming with greed and covetousness as she looked toward the trembling Zhang sister.