Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 32

The seed of the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine had not been fully awakened yet. It still needed to be watered a few more times with poisonous blood and wood spiritual energy. Only when the seed returned to a full, round shape would it truly be alive again.
At that time, she could begin trying to form a life-bound contract with the seed.
The quest for resolving He Sheng’s death had rewarded her with five wood spirit stones in total. Yan Zhuguang calculated it and felt that all of them might have to be used here. But if it was for the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine, she did not feel distressed about spending these wood spirit stones.
Unfortunately, the most urgent problem right now was not the wood spirit stones. It was that all the poisons stored in her inventory had already been used up. Even if she wanted to continue nourishing the seed, she could not.
Yan Zhuguang put the seed into the inventory with some regret. She needed to find a way to collect poisonous materials.
Thinking was only thinking. Yan Zhuguang did not act at once. She was not someone who did whatever came to mind. Collecting poisons would have to be done slowly.
Yan Zhuguang pressed these matters down in her heart and took out a marrow-cleansing pill. This was the entry gift for inner sect disciples of Fenghua Immortal Sect. A yellow-grade marrow-cleansing pill was much better than the beginner marrow-cleansing pill from the system’s beginner gift pack.
“Host,” the system said, “it was only a beginner gift pack, after all. Most hosts take it before they start cultivation, so beginner level is more suitable.”
Not every host was like this host, who had studied the system for so long before agreeing to form a contract with it. When its old hosts received a marrow-cleansing pill, the first thing they did was swallow it, then happily expel the toxins from their bodies.
Yan Zhuguang did not mean to look down on the system. “I will not use that beginner marrow-cleansing pill. Can it be exchanged?”
A person could only take a marrow-cleansing pill once in their life. The second pill’s effect would be greatly reduced. Since she had this yellow-grade marrow-cleansing pill, the one in her inventory was useless.
The system said apologetically, “Items from the beginner gift pack and quest rewards are bound, so they cannot be exchanged. Host can only use outside channels for them. But this pill you have now is an unbound item, so it can be exchanged.”
If anything could be exchanged freely, it would not have needed to modify quest rewards before claiming them. It could have simply used items in the inventory to exchange after the quest was finished.
Yan Zhuguang nodded. In other words, the system’s own things could not be exchanged with each other, but things from the outside world could be exchanged with the system, and the system’s things could also be exchanged with the outside world.
After understanding the rules, Yan Zhuguang did not delay. She stood and changed out of her dress, putting on clothes that could handle dirt. Then she walked into the middle room, sat on the floor, and tossed the yellow-grade marrow-cleansing pill into her mouth.
Yan Zhuguang could have taken a marrow-cleansing pill long ago, but at that time her body had been poor. Forcing herself to take one would have burdened her body, so she had endured until now.
Now, her wood spiritual power had already nursed her body back to near full health. This was the right time to use the marrow-cleansing pill.
After Yan Zhuguang swallowed the pill, her expression did not change much. But as time passed, black spots began to appear on her body. More and more appeared, hardening into clumps. She looked rather miserable.
These were toxins that the original body had accumulated. Once these impurities were expelled, her cultivation speed would rise by another step.
About two hours later, Yan Zhuguang moved. She opened her eyes and sniffed the smell on her body with disgust. Then she took out a dust-cleansing talisman and stuck it on herself. All the filth on her body disappeared.
After that, Yan Zhuguang took out two water talismans and two fire talismans, rinsed and dried herself once more, changed into another set of clothes, and burned the clothes she had worn earlier with a burst of fire.
These dust-cleansing talismans, water talismans, and fire talismans had all been made by Yan Zhuguang herself in her free time. She did not have water or fire spiritual energy. Forcing her wood spiritual energy to transform into those elements would be too wasteful for her current fourth level of Qi Refining, so she had made these basic talismans in case of need. Now they had come in handy.
After all the toxins in her body were expelled, Yan Zhuguang’s body truly felt much lighter. The dullness that could not be removed no matter how she nursed herself faded away. Her skin went from ordinary fairness to a smooth, jade-like white.
“Wow, Host has become beautiful on a whole new level!”
The system eagerly formed a virtual mirror for Yan Zhuguang and projected her appearance onto it.
After being cared for on Zhouxue Peak of Fenghua Immortal Sect for more than a month, Yan Zhuguang had already lost her malnourished sprout-like look and had started to grow taller.
The person in the mirror had a pair of large, dark eyes. The corners of her eyes tilted up slightly and carried a faint red tint, adding a trace of charm to her already bright face.
Yan Zhuguang blinked. Her thin lips curved faintly, and her clear black eyes turned deep. In the blink of an eye, she changed from an innocent young girl into a spirit who could steal souls in the night.
The system covered its virtual cheeks and screamed silently. Host was too beautiful. It wanted to cheer for Host like mad.
But that smile did not last long. Yan Zhuguang drew in her aura, and her whole person returned to the obedient look she wore in front of Yun Mixue. All that demonic charm and temptation turned into innocence and playfulness.
Yan Zhuguang looked for a while and soon lost interest. In her previous life, she had looked at this face for who knew how many years. She had long since seen enough of it. Compared with this bright and dazzling face, she was more interested in Yun Mixue’s gentle, water-like appearance.
“Put it away. I want to cultivate.”
The system obediently put away the mirror. Yan Zhuguang sat cross-legged on the bed and began circulating the Greenwood Rejuvenation Art.
Only when she began cultivating did she realize something felt different. Cultivating in this room was several times faster than cultivating in the side room before.
She carefully sensed it for a while and discovered that the difference came from the bed she was sitting on.
This bed should have been made from a special material that could increase the speed at which the person sitting on it absorbed spiritual energy. Yan Zhuguang had an extremely thick wood spiritual root and the Wood Spirit Body. With the bed’s help added on, her cultivation speed could be called terrifying.
Yan Zhuguang adjusted her mood. She would remember every kindness Senior Sister showed her. One day, she would repay them all.
The spiritual energy near Zhouxue Peak began to gather toward Ice-Snow Cottage. Compared with the vast spiritual energy of Zhouxue Peak, it was only a tiny amount. Even so, this spiritual energy flow, almost visible to the naked eye, was already enough to shock people.
Unfortunately, Zhouxue Peak was Yun Mixue’s territory. Registered disciples rarely came to Zhouxue Peak without her orders, and she had no personal disciples. Because of that, no one noticed the change in the spiritual energy on Zhouxue Peak.
Wisps of cloud and mist gathered around the waist of the snowy peak and shifted without pause. Time also slipped by quickly without anyone realizing it. In the blink of an eye, six years had passed since the small recruitment meeting.
Six years was not very long in the cultivation world. Perhaps it was only a short seclusion for some cultivators.
But to Yan Zhuguang, it was enough time to grow from a ten-year-old girl into a sixteen-year-old young woman.
Yan Zhuguang spent most of her time cultivating. It was not that she had become obsessed with cultivation and forgotten Senior Sister. It was that for these six years, Yun Mixue had spent most of her time away from Fenghua Immortal Sect.
There were already some clues about the former sect master’s fall. With the upper levels of Fenghua Immortal Sect working together, they finally found the place where the former sect master had died.
The sect master needed to guard Fenghua Immortal Sect, so the heavy task of going out to investigate fell on Yun Mixue and several managing elders.
Yan Zhuguang did want to go with Yun Mixue. Unfortunately, her status was not enough, and her strength was also lacking. Yun Mixue did not mention the matter to her at all.
Although Yan Zhuguang learned the news from the system, she could not bring it up with Yun Mixue, or it might cause unnecessary suspicion.
During these six years, Yun Mixue would occasionally return to report the investigation’s progress to the sect master. She would also make time to visit Yan Zhuguang on Zhouxue Peak. But she usually could not stay long and soon had to leave again.
Yan Zhuguang and Yun Mixue were together little and apart often. Each time, they almost only had enough time to talk, and for Yan Zhuguang to secretly check whether Yun Mixue had been poisoned, before they had to separate again. Yan Zhuguang felt very regretful.
To be able to follow Yun Mixue as soon as possible, Yan Zhuguang cultivated even harder. Just now, she had finally reached Foundation Establishment and entered the early stage.
That also meant she had reached Fenghua Immortal Sect’s lowest standard for leaving the sect freely. She could now leave Fenghua Immortal Sect and train outside.
Yan Zhuguang, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, suddenly opened her eyes. A trace of dark light flashed through her deep black eyes, and her whole person became a little more bewitching.
Soon, that dark light withdrew. Yan Zhuguang’s tense body relaxed, and the restless spiritual energy around her after the breakthrough gradually calmed.
“Congratulations on successfully reaching Foundation Establishment, Host!”
The system scattered flowers above Yan Zhuguang’s head. “I have already exchanged the Foundation Establishment side quest reward for poisonous materials of equal value and put them in Host’s inventory.”
“Mm.”
Yan Zhuguang answered faintly.
The sound made half of the system’s body go weak.
Its host’s voice had already been pleasant when she was young. Now that she had grown up, the childishness in her voice had faded, leaving only a slightly low, tingling softness that could melt a heart into dough.
The system felt that it was completely hopeless.
Yan Zhuguang took out the last wood spirit stone, then took out the poisonous materials she had saved from recent side quests. Like the previous four times, she made another bowl of poisonous blood and threw the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine seed into it.
The seed’s devouring power had grown stronger and stronger. For the final poisonous blood refined from her own blood, Yan Zhuguang used nearly a year’s worth of saved poisonous materials. Yet before the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine seed, it lasted no more than a blink.
Fortunately, after being watered with poisonous blood five times, the originally shriveled seed finally became full and round. The Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine seed had completely regained its vitality.
At last, she could form a contract with her life-bound spiritual plant.
The system watched its host’s movements curiously. It wondered how one contracted such a fierce spiritual plant.
Yan Zhuguang placed her jade-white fingertip on the wound she had used for bleeding earlier, which had not fully healed yet, and lightly cut across it. The wound opened again. Then she picked up the seed and quickly stuffed it into the cut.
The system’s mouth fell open. If it remembered correctly, Host had said that once the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine touched blood, it would release toxins and devour the entire living creature. Was Host throwing her life away?
Of course Yan Zhuguang was not throwing her life away.
The instant the seed touched blood, Yan Zhuguang’s face went pale. A violent toxin spread from the seed and followed her blood through more than half her body in an instant.
However, Yan Zhuguang was not easy to bully either. She had a poison spiritual root. Although she had not yet contracted a life-bound poison or fully transformed her spiritual root into a poison spiritual root, while she cultivated wood spiritual energy, the poison spiritual energy inside her body had also been growing steadily.
Before the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine’s toxin could spread through her whole body, the poison spiritual energy inside Yan Zhuguang’s body acted. It quickly wrapped around the toxin and began absorbing it in great mouthfuls.
The Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine seed was still waiting for its toxin to spread through its prey’s entire body so it could feast. It had not expected its toxin to vanish cleanly in the blink of an eye.
Unwilling to give up, it continued releasing toxin. Yan Zhuguang’s poison spiritual energy had not yet reached its limit, so it repeated the same trick and absorbed the toxin in her blood completely.
No matter how fierce the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine was, right now it was only a seed. After releasing toxin several times, it grew weak. This was the moment. Yan Zhuguang’s wood and poison spiritual energy wrapped around a drop of blood essence and poured into the seed all at once.
The Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine seed trembled. Gradually, its first resistance turned into obedience.
The deep green seed spun inside Yan Zhuguang’s heart. Yan Zhuguang closed her hand. When she opened it again, the seed had vanished.
The first step of contracting her life-bound spiritual plant was complete. Next came slow communication and nourishment over time. It could not be rushed.
Yan Zhuguang rose from the bed, and her bones and tendons immediately crackled. “Senior Sister is still in Tianyu City?”
“Yes, Host.”
Yan Zhuguang patted her robe, though there were no wrinkles on it. “Let’s go. We are going to find her.”
Yun Mixue had been away from her sight for too long. Yan Zhuguang was almost unable to bear it anymore.