Cultivating Immortality by Raising a Cat (GL) Chapter 90

“This is some self-important nonsense from someone who thought she was clever!” Unlike Lin Mianmian’s hesitation, the angry little white rabbit was the first to thump open the lids of the two boxes on the left, which had the words “A-Bai” burned onto them.
Inside the two boxes, one held a mixed pile of spirit stones, talismans, porcelain bottles, and jade boxes. The other held all kinds of magic tools and magic treasures shrunk down until they looked like toys.
The little white rabbit jumped onto the edge of a box and looked inside twice. She gave a cold snort, and all the rabbit fur on her body moved without wind from anger.
Lin Mianmian pulled back her gaze. She also had a rough guess of what was inside the two boxes on the right.
Her fingertip gently brushed over the burn marks spelling “Mianmian” on the box lid. Lin Mianmian could almost imagine how Yuan Zhaoyang had gathered fire at her fingertip and written with it back then.
She opened the two boxes on the right that bore the word “Mianmian.” The things inside looked almost the same as A-Bai’s two boxes.
One box held spirit stones, talismans, pills, and some spiritual plants. The other held some magic tools that looked like miscellaneous items, several sets of robes, and some jade slips.
Lin Mianmian still could not accurately recognize the grades of magic tools. But that did not stop her from seeing the meaning of Yuan Zhaoyang’s gift from the porcelain bottles that covered pills needed from early Qi Refining all the way to late Foundation Establishment.
If she did not return in a year, she would divide her “belongings”?
That truly made one a little angry.
Looking at the several sets of robes that seemed faintly familiar, Lin Mianmian’s hand, gripping the box edge, trembled and tightened. Her heart was sour and bitter, and heat gathered in her eyes.
Winter had clearly already passed, yet she could not stop the cold in her body.
The grass and rabbit were silent for a long time. In the end, A-Bai was the first to stretch out a paw and put the two boxes on the right into the golden bell.
“Put yours away.” The little white rabbit rubbed her face, then patted the remaining boxes with her paws. “I am going to Wanyi Peak to take a look.”
A-Bai’s words pulled Lin Mianmian out of her sorrow for the moment.
“I will go too.” Lin Mianmian lightly sniffed, closed the lids on the remaining two boxes, and put them into her storage hair.
Below Wanyi Peak’s waist, there was fog year-round. For disciples with low cultivation, walking there was not easy. So for all these months, Lin Mianmian had only looked over from beside Clear Heart Hall.
Now that A-Bai said she wanted to go up the peak and look, Lin Mianmian naturally wanted to follow.
For a Golden Core great demon like the little white rabbit, Wanyi Peak’s bit of fog was naturally not enough to matter.
The grass and rabbit left as soon as they decided. Very soon, they used the outer valley teleportation array to arrive at the foot of Wanyi Peak.
The fog on Wanyi Peak was thick. As soon as they reached the teleportation array at the foot of the peak, they could see that a few steps away, everything was already a foggy white. Yet although the fog was heavy, it did not leave the foot of Wanyi Peak at all. The teleportation array only a few steps from the peak’s foot had no fog at all.
It was as if a transparent cover kept all that fog inside Wanyi Peak’s range.
“Let us go.” The little white rabbit walked in front to lead the way. With a few hops, she reached the edge of the fog. One paw stretched forward, and the fog within two or three steps in front of the rabbit scattered to both sides.
Once Lin Mianmian walked to A-Bai’s side, the little white rabbit jumped onto her shoulder. Like this, although the fog still wound around them, the direction ahead opened into a path about four or five meters long.
A-Bai patted Lin Mianmian’s face with a soft little paw. “Just walk forward along the path I pushed open with spiritual energy.”
Lin Mianmian naturally agreed.
As she walked, she could not help trying it herself.
More than half her spiritual energy poured out, but she could not even push open a palm-sized patch of fog on her left.
The gap between early Qi Refining and Golden Core was truly too large.
A-Bai naturally saw Lin Mianmian’s movement.
“The fog on Wanyi Peak is a little different from ordinary fog. After you reach Foundation Establishment, you should at least be able to push away fog a few steps out. But if you do not want to get lost, it is best to bring a map of Wanyi Peak in advance, then follow these little markers.” As A-Bai spoke, her paw pointed to some small metal markers by the road ahead.
Lin Mianmian looked where A-Bai pointed and could not help sighing. “This is a little too complicated. If they fear the fog will confuse people, would it not solve things to make a few more teleportation arrays, like on Great Lecture Hall Mountain?”
Perhaps because the “gift” from Yuan Zhaoyang had given too great a shock earlier, A-Bai did not dislike Lin Mianmian for being too naive now. Instead, she patiently explained, “The Five Elements Sect covers a wide area. Places where many disciples come and go often, such as Great Lecture Hall Mountain, Array Peak, Talisman Peak, Artifact Peak, and even the main peak, all have quite a few teleportation arrays. But aside from those, places like Hengshui Peak where we guest elders live, this Wanyi Peak, and many places you have not gone to or even heard of, do not have many teleportation arrays. Most are like here, with only one at the foot of the peak, or even only nearby. The main reason is naturally that disciples rarely come to these places, and low-cultivation disciples come even less. As for high-cultivation cultivators, they have flying magic treasures of their own. Their speed is not worse than teleportation arrays, and they are also convenient to use.”
As she spoke, A-Bai slapped out a huge half-transparent ice bowl from the golden bell and continued, “Here. You saw this before, right? This is my flying magic treasure. I originally wanted to fly you straight here from the outer gate. It would save us walking. But I thought…”
Lin Mianmian waited for a moment and did not hear the little rabbit continue, so she asked, “Thought what?”
A-Bai put the ice bowl back into the golden bell. She seemed to hesitate before continuing. “I thought that if Yuan Zhaoyang never comes out of seclusion, and if something happens to me too, at least I can take you through this route once. If anything happens later, maybe you can still come up and help.”
A-Bai said this naturally because of the strange fragrance Yuan Zhaoyang had smelled on Lin Mianmian before, which was said to even help increase cultivation. Perhaps because of Yuan Zhaoyang’s “gift,” A-Bai felt uneasy and wanted to leave a path behind.
But though A-Bai felt she was thinking carefully, the person listening beside her did not think that way.
As soon as A-Bai finished speaking, the next second, someone pinched the back of her neck and lifted her up.
Heavens, a Golden Core great demon had been lifted by the scruff!
A-Bai did not even have time to go wild. She was so shocked that she did not even react. The whole rabbit looked dazed as Lin Mianmian pulled her down from her shoulder and held her in her hand.
“Pah, pah, pah. Childish words carry no harm.” Lin Mianmian frowned and held the little rabbit, speaking quickly. After speaking, she felt something was not right. “It should be rabbit words carry no harm!”
A-Bai, held in Lin Mianmian’s hand and shaken twice, was full of confusion.
“Quick, say it with me.” Lin Mianmian shook the little rabbit in her hand twice more.
What was this?
Holding me by the back of the neck and shaking me around. Am I some silly wild rabbit you caught while waiting by a stump?
A-Bai angrily lifted her head, but met Lin Mianmian’s slightly red eyes.
“…Rabbit words carry no harm.” The little rabbit lowered her head again.
“It is pah, pah, pah, rabbit words carry no harm.” Lin Mianmian was stubborn.
…
The little rabbit, shaken twice more, reflexively wanted to lift her head. But halfway up, she stopped.
“Pah, pah, pah, rabbit words carry no harm.” A-Bai’s voice was full of helplessness, but also seemed to carry a different softness.
Lin Mianmian did not continue educating A-Bai about what she had said earlier. A-Bai, standing back on Lin Mianmian’s shoulder, also did not bring it up again.
For a time, the one using spiritual energy to open the road opened the road, and the one walking properly walked properly. The space already quiet because of the surrounding fog became even quieter.
They walked like this for a long time, until the fog gradually thinned.
Lin Mianmian stepped forward. Finally, it was no longer only the single direction in front of her that had no fog.
Without knowing it, they had passed through the fog and reached the waist of the peak.
Lin Mianmian had not yet had time to look around and match the peak waist to the view she had seen from afar when the little white rabbit had already jumped down from her shoulder and darted forward a distance.
“Mianmian, come.” A-Bai stood at a fork ahead and waved a paw at Lin Mianmian.
Lin Mianmian stepped forward. She had just reached A-Bai’s side when the little white rabbit pushed her forward again, and her vision suddenly blurred.
Clearly, there had been a three-way fork ahead just now. Now, when she looked again, the road had a full five forks.
“I set an array here. If someone enters the array from below and goes upward, I can sense it no matter how far away I am. But this is the Five Elements Sect’s territory after all, so I cannot set up an array with much killing power. This array’s effect is only to trap people. Let us not speak of low-cultivation ones. A Golden Core should be trapped for half an hour, enough time for me to return. As for people with even higher cultivation, they probably would not come up.” A-Bai also stepped into the array and stood by Lin Mianmian’s foot, stepping on her shoe. “Come. I will teach you the quick way to undo this array.”
The quick way to undo an array naturally began with breaking the array eyes.
But A-Bai’s array was somewhat complex. If an array eye was broken, one array would evolve into three. The more array eyes were destroyed, the more arrays would evolve. It truly would confuse disciples with insufficient cultivation for a long time.
If one did not break the array eyes, then one had to undo the array by taking it apart.
Lin Mianmian knew why A-Bai was teaching her to undo the array now. But since A-Bai no longer said it clearly, Lin Mianmian also did not want to mention unlucky things. Instead of wasting words, if A-Bai taught, she would learn.
In any case, she would definitely never need to use it.
Her feelings were very complicated, but Lin Mianmian still seriously followed the little white rabbit and learned to move grass and dig wood, turn flowers and shift earth, pile stones and pull vines.
Very soon, as the last pile of stones was built, what appeared before Lin Mianmian’s eyes was once again the three-way fork.
They took the leftmost path from the fork and walked upward. The path twisted and turned, passing several cave residences along the way. Those should have been the homes of the Golden Core cultivators of Wanyi Peak who were trapped in the Eastern Sea, as well as their disciples. They went farther up until they reached a spot about one-third of the way from the peak waist to the summit. The little white rabbit stopped beside a huge boulder leaning against the cliff.
“Mm, it should be here.” A-Bai touched the boulder. The array on it carried a familiar aura.
Senior Sister Yuan was here?
Lin Mianmian copied A-Bai and reached out to touch the boulder. Her heart beat two times faster.
A-Bai carefully inspected the boulder, then confirmed again, “Mm, it is here. She should have chosen a cave or carved out a cave residence, then used this boulder to set the first array.”
“The first array?” Lin Mianmian instinctively asked.
“After all, she is on another sect’s land. She has to be more careful. If outside force interferes during core formation, that is also very troublesome.” A-Bai narrowed her eyes and looked around the surroundings. Then she turned her gaze back to the boulder. “I think behind this rock door, there should be several more layers of arrays and restrictions.”
Lin Mianmian touched the boulder again and could not help asking, “Then will we disturb her by being here?”
“No.” A-Bai’s tone was certain after checking the place in person. “This first array is already set up very thoroughly. It blocks water and fire, cuts off cold and heat, blocks sound, smell, and divine sense.”
So Senior Sister Yuan would not know they had come.
Lin Mianmian felt a little at ease. For some reason, she also felt a little bitterness.
A-Bai had said she was coming up to look, and she truly only came up to look. Yuan Zhaoyang’s array was clever and tight. Perhaps it was also linked ring by ring with the arrays behind it. Even if A-Bai could undo it, she would not make a move to undo it.
The meaning of coming up seemed only to make herself a little more at ease. The little white rabbit dug at the dirt beside the boulder for a while, then treated the dirt pile as Yuan Zhaoyang’s face and kicked it twice. With that, the anger from receiving the gift was temporarily settled.
Before going down the mountain, the little rabbit’s gaze swept several times over the dull gray jade bracelet on Lin Mianmian’s wrist. In the end, she still said nothing and took Lin Mianmian down the mountain.
Before it was necessary, everything should still follow nature.
Without Yuan Zhaoyang’s supervision, A-Bai ate whatever she wanted every day and drank whatever she wanted.
The foods and wines gathered from the mortal world were delicious and mellow. Stored in one Moon Rock Sand Box after another, every bite kept its first freshness.
What was Clear Heart Hall? A-Bai had long since crossed it off the Five Elements Sect’s map.
Days of freedom were so wonderful. Yet as time passed, food that had not changed in flavor at all gradually lost the power to make the rabbit happy.
After receiving Yuan Zhaoyang’s “gift,” the little rabbit’s gloom began to expand without limit.
She did not much love eating anymore, nor drinking. When free, she had no thought of cultivating. All day, she either lay on the stone table in the Hengshui Peak courtyard to bask in the sun, or lay on the stone table in Lin Mianmian’s courtyard to bask in the sun.
The summer sun was a little hot. A-Bai had an ice spiritual root, so after basking for a few days, she was unwilling to keep lying like that all day. So she dug out the new story she had written halfway while in the mortal world some time ago and continued writing.
Perhaps because something weighed on her heart, after writing for less than half a day, the story became stuck at a bottleneck where it was almost impossible to continue.
The thing story writers feared most was a bottleneck. Once stuck for days or months, the breath that should have carried a story straight through would break. Continuing after that became somewhat difficult. A-Bai relied on her high age and broad experience. In the years she had used the pen name Lord Huanxue, she had written book after book. Forget bottlenecks. Every time she picked up a pen, she could write. There was not even a pause. With such talent, no wonder Lord Huanxue’s books sold so well.
But she usually never got stuck. This time, when she did get stuck, she got stuck at the key moment and the key point.
A-Bai’s book was called Cow Mengmeng’s Ascension. From the name, one could tell it was a cultivation story. When she had been in the mortal world, the story was already more than half written. Cow Mengmeng had broken through to Nascent Soul. The frustration and accumulation the main character needed to experience early on had all passed. According to A-Bai’s rhythm, next should have been the counterattack cow blowing up the heavens in all kinds of satisfying ways. But for some reason, when she picked up the story today and continued writing, as she wrote and wrote, the main character Cow Mengmeng was written into a plot where she had to choose one of two people. One was Sheep Miaomiao, a good fellow disciple who had walked with Cow Mengmeng from Qi Refining all the way to Nascent Soul, sharing hardship and sweetness and witnessing Cow Mengmeng’s whole growth. The other was Donkey Wudan, a new character written only today, who in the story had known Cow Mengmeng for three or four years and had spent seven or eight months with her.
A plot where only one of the two could live invaded this book, which was supposed to blow up the heavens with satisfaction, as silently as if A-Bai’s brain had shorted out.
No matter how one looked at this kind of plot, it had nothing to do with satisfaction. Calling it tormenting the main character would be closer.
But Lord Huanxue had her own pride. That was to follow inspiration and firmly refuse to revise. In truth, past stories had always come to her easily and vividly. With a cultivator’s powerful memory, there had never even been a flaw.
But this time, A-Bai felt that something was wrong as she wrote. Now, forcing herself to fight the idea her own brain had produced a quarter hour ago only relied on her final breath of pride.
Even without looking at the background, one was a friend who had supported the main character from Qi Refining to Nascent Soul for hundreds of years, while the other was a friend known only for a few years. Just looking at the names, Sheep Miaomiao and Donkey Wudan, no matter how one looked, the former felt hundreds of times more sincere than the latter. The latter name’s cannon-fodder aura was almost spilling out of the jade slip.
A problem one could see through with a single thought left A-Bai unable for a long time to make Cow Mengmeng choose.
Another half day passed. A-Bai, who had not written a single word, angrily threw the jade slip back into the golden bell.
In truth, how could she blame Cow Mengmeng for being indecisive and not quickly blowing up the heavens?
What one thought during the day would be dreamed at night.
What a rabbit worried over would be written by the pen.
She could only blame herself for worrying until she lost measure, lost sense, gave rise to a thought, moved her heart, and yet could not bear it.
Only the fragrance could loosen Yuan Zhaoyang’s cultivation, which had not advanced for decades. Then what about Lin Mianmian’s blood, body, and even soul?
If Yuan Zhaoyang never managed to condense a Golden Core, or if something went wrong during the process, could A-Bai truly use Lin Mianmian to gamble for Yuan Zhaoyang’s chance at life?
It was not that A-Bai was unwilling to use demonic cultivator methods and fall into the demonic path. Most of the reason was Lin Mianmian herself.
A-Bai felt she should not think it, did not dare think it. But the story she had written halfway told her that not only had she thought it, she had hesitated even when the weight on the two sides was clearly different.
Lin Mianmian knew nothing of the little rabbit’s complicated mood, self-loathing, and endless gloom.
The friendly sect exchange drew near. All Affairs Hall had sent out many basic construction tasks, and the rewards were rich. Aside from attending some important classes at Great Lecture Hall, Lin Mianmian spent the rest of her time doing tasks.
After all, A-Bai was lazy by nature. All day, she either lay down or sprawled out. After seeing it often, Lin Mianmian did not feel anything wrong with the little rabbit these days.
Mm, perhaps she was somewhat down.
But there was no helping that. After all, Lin Mianmian herself, who had received Senior Sister Yuan’s “gift,” was also very down.
Still, in Lin Mianmian’s view, the little white rabbit lying limply at home feeling down was better than continuing to wander outside. After all, the things A-Bai had said on Wanyi Peak a few days ago had sounded like last words, and they had truly frightened Lin Mianmian.
These one or two people were cultivators who had lived a hundred years, yet when they met trouble, their negative energy was even greater than hers.
Several more days passed in a blink.
The day of the friendly sect exchange finally arrived.
Although the Five Elements Sect had prepared for the exchange in somewhat of a hurry, at least everyone worked with one heart. Before the exchange began, everything was arranged properly. So on the day the exchange began, although the Five Elements Sect was busy, it was still orderly.
Compared with the sect’s order, the place that seemed most chaotic was Du Yixi and Han Qingyao’s side under the main peak.
Seeing that the friendly sect exchange had arrived, and people from the sects were coming one after another, a new problem appeared in the main array of the sect-protecting array. Du Yixi was so angry that she directly fell backward onto the couch and refused to get up.
“No, I cannot. I will not do it! I will not do it!” Du Yixi dodged Han Qingyao’s hand that came to pull her, turned, hugged the blanket on the couch, and rolled into the innermost corner. She pressed tight against the other side of the couch and refused to come down no matter what. Where was the image of a Soul Formation cultivator and sect master?
Standing by the couch, Han Qingyao looked at her own stretched-out hand that had caught nothing. She paused, drew it back, and lightly curled it in. But she did not let Du Yixi go. “Right now, up above, the sects are arriving one after another. If there is any problem with our sect-protecting array at this time, it will surely fall into their eyes again.”
“Let it fall, let it fall. Ever since our Golden Cores went to the Eastern Sea, how many people have been watching us? Heh. What, do they think our Golden Cores will not return? Do they think we will not have new Golden Cores? Do they think our Nascent Souls and Soul Formations do not exist?” Du Yixi tugged at the blanket in her hands. The more she spoke, the angrier she became. “This sect-protecting array has been repaired again and again for more than ten years. I say we should tear it all down. We can make a new great array, and it might not be more trouble than this!”
Han Qingyao looked at Du Yixi, who rarely showed impatience, then looked at the blanket that Du Yixi was about to tear apart. She lightly sighed and lowered her head. “It is because I am useless.”
The low voice smashed into Du Yixi’s heart until it hurt.
“Yaoyao…” Du Yixi immediately flipped over and sat up with a proper expression. She could not help reaching for Han Qingyao’s sleeve.
The latter lightly stepped back, just enough to avoid her.
“Yaoyao, you know I do not mean that.” Du Yixi wanted to reach out and pull her again, but in the end, she drew her hand back and tugged the blanket again. “I only feel that the problem with the sect-protecting array is probably not simple. Our one-sided repairs seem to be getting less and less effective. If the final result is still that we cannot repair it, then it would be better to cut it off when it should be cut off, abandon it, and make a new one.”
But Han Qingyao shook her head. “Since the Five Elements Sect was founded, this sect-protecting array has existed. Over tens of thousands of years, the people of the Five Elements Sect evolved and added to it on this foundation, until it reached today’s scale. Let alone its mysteries and effects, just its meaning alone says we should not abandon it now.”
“If one should cut and does not, one will suffer chaos from it. For something that always cannot be handled well, the best way to handle it is to not want it anymore.” Du Yixi had always been lazy. Back then, she had taken over the Five Elements Sect for reasons she could not avoid. Before, when the Five Elements Sect ran well and did not need her to spend much effort, she could still adapt. But in the past ten years or so, just repairing this great array had nearly driven her mad several times. If Han Qingyao had not been here, Du Yixi would never have been able to come down to this underground cave every few days and act as some spirit-stone converter. Now, whenever this great array was mentioned, Du Yixi’s head filled with irritation, so her words were naturally much colder.
On the couch sat the Five Elements Sect’s sect master, hugging the blanket and fuming. Her light gray robes had been rolled full of wrinkles, and even the wooden hairpin holding her hair was a little crooked, letting a few loose strands fall softly beside her ear.
Where was the image of a sect master? She looked more like an angry little wife.
Using her lowered head as cover, Han Qingyao actually glanced sideways at the Soul Formation great power. She lightly breathed out and in the end took a step back first. “Even if we set up a new great array, we still have to get through the exchange in front of us first.”
“Eh?” Du Yixi let go of the blanket, whose threads were almost pulled loose, with a face full of surprise. “You agree?”
Han Qingyao was both angry and amused. “What do you mean, I agree? You are the sect master. If you say we change it, then we change it.”
“But every time I said it before, you had many reasons to persuade me.” Du Yixi truly had not expected Han Qingyao to cooperate with her. This did not fit Han Qingyao’s worship and care for this great array at all.
“You said it yourself. You have said it many times. I cannot keep disobeying the sect master’s meaning. Also…” Han Qingyao lifted her head and looked deeply at Du Yixi. “Also, are you not always like this? Things you cannot handle, you do not want anymore.”
After speaking, Han Qingyao did not wait for Du Yixi to answer anything. She did not even look at Du Yixi again. She directly turned, changed back into a hamster, and quickly darted into the distant great array.
On the couch, Du Yixi pressed one palm onto the blanket and smiled bitterly.
The underground space was empty. Aside from the shining array, there was only one person and one hamster.
Their earlier conversation had not become an argument. But by the end, it was full of sourness.
Du Yixi knew she should get up and enter the great array to continue helping Han Qingyao replenish its spiritual energy. But she could not get up. Han Qingyao’s words had truly made things awkward.
The sect master touched her face, hoping her skin could become a little thicker so she could pretend not to understand and break the strange mood underground.
Of course, in such a short time, the sect master had no way to make her skin thicker.
The one who broke the strange underground mood was Array Peak’s peak master, Shi Jianbu, who had only recently come out of seclusion for the exchange.
As one of the only three people who could currently enter the underground main array, Shi Jianbu felt the array’s full spiritual energy as soon as he came in, as well as the mood that was completely opposite to the joy and liveliness above ground.
“Ha, busy, are you?” Shi Jianbu was a tall, strong man of seven chi, yet this mood forced him to begin with awkward talk.
“Is there something above?” Du Yixi had already straightened herself up when she sensed Shi Jianbu’s aura. Now, she did not circle around with him and sharply pointed to the main point.
Shi Jianbu decided that next time, he should not try awkward talk.
“The people from each sect have arrived one after another. The others are still all right, but Chen Xiao from Guiyuan Sect has also come.” Shi Jianbu’s face was solemn.
“Heh.” Du Yixi sneered. “Guiyuan Sect. I knew the ones who could wait the least would be them.”
Shi Jianbu continued, “By reason, for an exchange, the guest side’s leader should at most be a Nascent Soul cultivator. Chen Xiao came under the excuse of visiting his disciple’s daughter. When he came through the sect-protecting array, he even laughed and said he was disturbing us and that we did not need to mind him, since he only came to see his little grand-disciple.”
“He truly knows how to find excuses. Liu Longyue is a disciple of our Five Elements Sect. What kind of grand-disciple is she to him?” Du Yixi’s anger grew even stronger. But when she turned and saw the little fur ball darting through the great array with a piece of jade over her head, her brows and eyes slowly loosened. “Forget it. Liu Longyue often goes to Guiyuan Sect, and being liked by Chen Xiao, a Soul Formation cultivator, is also her fortune.”
“Chen Xiao came with Guiyuan Sect’s team for the exchange this time. I fear it is not as simple as coming to see Liu Longyue.” Shi Jianbu scratched his connected beard. “Sect Master, do you want to go up and look?”
“No need. No matter what Chen Xiao came for, our Five Elements Sect has not fallen so low that we cannot receive one Soul Formation cultivator well.” Du Yixi glanced toward the little hamster in the great array and continued, “Chen Xiao is Guiyuan Sect’s deputy sect master. Go invite our deputy sect master out to keep him good company.”
“Sect Master’s meaning is to go knock on Deputy Sect Master Zhao’s seclusion door?” Shi Jianbu became even more tangled. His rough palm hesitated as it rubbed over his chin several times, looking very troubled.
“Zhao Hehong has been in seclusion for decades. It is time for him to come out and do some proper work. The Five Elements Sect only has two Soul Formation cultivators, me and him. If we do not call him out now, do you want your sect master to go keep Chen Xiao company?” Du Yixi lifted her eyes in dissatisfaction.
Originally, had Shi Jianbu come down here, was it not because he wanted to ask Du Yixi to go up and meet Chen Xiao? Leaving aside what plan Chen Xiao’s group had, since Guiyuan Sect and the Five Elements Sect were still friendly sects, and Chen Xiao was Guiyuan Sect’s deputy sect master, Du Yixi should go meet him, receive him a little, and fulfill the duty of host, right?
At heart, Shi Jianbu had always been a straightforward rough man. Now, what he was thinking was almost written on his face.
Du Yixi adjusted the wooden hairpin in her hair and said seriously, “The great array still needs me. Go knock on the door.”
For the great array, Shi Jianbu could temporarily help with his Nascent Soul strength too. He still wanted to speak, but Du Yixi raised her hand and stopped him.
“Enough. Must I say it out loud? Chen Xiao is truly too ugly. If I have to face him for the whole exchange, that is something I absolutely cannot do.” Du Yixi looked serious. “Zhao Hehong was only in an unimportant seclusion this time. I think he is mostly hiding from the sect’s worldly work. Now it is time for him to come out and work. You do not need to feel that knocking on his door will disturb him. Just treat it as helping me knock his lazy bones awake.”
Du Yixi spoke heavily. Some things she could say as jokes, but Shi Jianbu did not dare keep listening to them as jokes. He could only agree again and again, then quickly take his leave.
Shi Jianbu’s aura soon disappeared, and the underground space became quiet again.
Du Yixi relaxed her straight-backed sitting posture and leaned crookedly against the couch. By habit, she held two spirit stones in her hand and absorbed them. Once more, her gaze fell on the shining great array not far away.
For a sect to rise and develop, it needed the sincere efforts of many disciples, tens of thousands of years, or even longer.
But for a sect to decline, perhaps all it needed was a small joke from the heavens. It might only need a thousand years. No, a hundred years, or even less.
Let alone a sect. Back then, who could have expected that all Soul Formation cultivators in the cultivation world would be forced to undergo ascension lightning tribulation at the same time and finally vanish without a trace?
That had happened a thousand years ago, a heavy blow to the cultivation world.
If the disappearance of the cultivation world’s Soul Formation cultivators that time was a natural disaster, then a hundred years ago, when the four regions joined hands and tried to open the path to ascension, causing most of the new Soul Formation cultivators from the past thousand years to fall, who knew whether that counted as a man-made disaster?
The cultivation world, which had lost all Soul Formation cultivators, had not even properly caught its breath before it was wounded again.
Take the Five Elements Sect as an example. A thousand years ago, eight Soul Formation cultivators guarded the sect, laying the foundation for the Five Elements Sect’s important position in Nanhe. After the forced-ascension incident, no sect had Soul Formation cultivators anymore. Then, by a hundred years ago, the Five Elements Sect again had four newly advanced Soul Formation cultivators, which counted as quite good among Nanhe’s sects.
Only… during the four-region alliance, two of the Five Elements Sect’s Soul Formation cultivators fell in the Eastern Sea, weakening the Five Elements Sect’s strength again.
Now, looking at Nanhe’s four great sects, Guiyuan Sect had one early Soul Formation cultivator, two mid Soul Formation cultivators, and one late Soul Formation cultivator. Great Sword Mountain had three mid Soul Formation cultivators. Ten Thousand Demons Gate had two early Soul Formation cultivators and one mid Soul Formation cultivator.
And the Five Elements Sect had only Du Yixi at early Soul Formation and Zhao Hehong at mid Soul Formation.
Whether in numbers or strength, the Five Elements Sect had already shown weakness among Nanhe’s four great sects. Add to that the fact that most of its Golden Core cultivators were trapped in the Eastern Sea with no return date in sight…
Its upper-level strength showed weakness, and its middle-level power was missing. Du Yixi understood very well that if this continued for long, the division of power in Nanhe would change sooner or later.
Originally, Du Yixi had wanted to use this exchange as a chance to see which sects had already developed thoughts. After all, the four regions had only been cut off for a little over ten years. The years of the cultivation world were long. She had thought they should not be in such a hurry to make a move. Seeing clearly first and having some guard was always good.
But Du Yixi truly had not expected Guiyuan Sect to send Chen Xiao, a Soul Formation cultivator, with the team, directly breaking the rules and also overturning Du Yixi’s earlier thought that they would not rush to act.
Could it be that this friendly sect exchange was destined to be unable to stay friendly?