When the magic artifact, shaped like a sphere and carved with phoenix patterns, was handed from Xuan Kong to Mu Qiuhan, she couldn’t help but give it a few extra glances.
Earlier in the demon realm, Mu Qiuhan had heard that the Taiqing Immortal Sect possessed such a magic treasure. Later, after entering the immortal sect, she unintentionally overheard someone mentioning this magic artifact in the Scripture Pavilion. Thus, she speculated that this Dream Floating Life might be in Xuan Kong’s hands. Just now, after a bit of probing conversation, it turned out to be true.
It’s just that sacrificing one’s lifespan in exchange for cultivation speed is something most people wouldn’t agree to under normal circumstances. Living between heaven and earth is like a fleeting moment; if life were solely for cultivation and improvement, it would be truly tragic. However, at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be a better way.
Mu Qiuhan hadn’t expected Xuan Kong to give her the Dream Floating Life so easily. Without waiting for him to change his mind, she didn’t hesitate to slice open her palm, using her vital blood as a guide to inject spiritual energy into the magic artifact. A red light flashed, and her body vanished from the spot.
Once Dream Floating Life was activated, it contained its own small world, which others could not enter unless they also used vital blood as a guide and consumed lifespan.
Seeing her resume cultivation without hesitation, Xuan Kong sighed. He held the sphere in his hand and thought to himself, This child… truly doesn’t want to waste even a moment. He put the magic artifact back into his embrace, then summoned his treasure sword and took Shang Ningye onto it. The two of them headed towards the direction of the mystic realm again.
As soon as Mu Qiuhan entered that space, she felt as though she had stepped into a vacuum-like area. Around her was a square space, yet everything else was a vast whiteness, devoid of any other scenery. Presumably, the creator of this magic artifact understood the purpose of those who would use Dream Floating Life even at the cost of lifespan. Creating more scenery would only affect the cultivator’s state of mind.
Mu Qiuhan sat down cross-legged in this vast space and circulated her spiritual energy. This space felt no different from the outside world; the spiritual energy here was not more abundant than elsewhere. But Mu Qiuhan didn’t mind. Previously, in the Immortal Sect’s cultivation room, she had already discovered that the fire-attribute spiritual energy within her cultivated several times faster than her original wood-attribute spiritual energy.
Calculated this way, spending one day in this space, costing a year of lifespan, would be equivalent to a normal person cultivating for five or six years. At such a speed, although Tribulation Transcendence Stage was still a distant prospect, it could allow her to gain self-preservation ability in a short time.
Mu Qiuhan didn’t know how long she stayed in that void. In this space, there was no distinction between day and night, as if it were meant for people to forget the existence of time. However, the fire poison in her body flared up cycle after cycle. She used the spirit beast fur Shang Ningye had given her previously to suppress the poison in her dantian again and again, until the fur in her storage ring was completely used up.
The experience of multiple poison outbreaks made her clearly understand what the fire poison felt like when it flared up. She didn’t dare to continue circulating spiritual energy, so she formed a magic art according to the method Xuan Kong had told her before and stopped cultivating. Without the vital blood fueling it, the magic artifact naturally lost its power.
Mu Qiuhan fell out of that space and found herself in a dark and cramped place. If not for Shang Ningye still being by her side, she would have almost immediately activated her defensive mode. She carefully observed her surroundings and found the area was damp and stuffy. Reaching out, she felt stone walls all around her.
“What is this?” For a moment, she couldn’t accurately determine the current situation.
“This is a cave,” Shang Ningye said. Seeing her emerge from that space, Shang Ningye seemed a little more relaxed.
“Where is… Elder Xuan Kong?” With one person missing from her side, Mu Qiuhan instinctively felt something was wrong.
“The Elder went deep inside the cave last night to search for the Golden-Edged Chonglou,” Shang Ningye replied.
Last night? Mu Qiuhan was taken aback by her words. “What time is it now?”
Shang Ningye was silent for a moment before replying, “It’s completely dark in here. My spiritual energy is limited, so I can’t clearly sense the plants outside the cave. I only know that midday has passed; it should be sometime between 1 PM and 5 PM now.”
Mu Qiuhan furrowed her brow. “Since I entered that magic artifact, it’s been less than a day?”
Shang Ningye nodded.
But Mu Qiuhan frowned. No wonder this magic artifact is called Dream Floating Life. Although less than a day had passed in the outside world, for her, it was truly hundreds of days and nights of arduous cultivation. Perhaps this is the meaning of the saying “a fleeting dream.”
But didn’t Shang Ningye say before that the beast fur was enough for her to use for a year? Looking at it this way, did the magic artifact consume more than a year of lifespan per day, or was Shang Ningye’s previous estimation incorrect?
Before she could question her further, a dull rumbling sound came from deep within the mountain, like a stone cavity somewhere had collapsed. Although the sound seemed distant, Mu Qiuhan was already on alert. “You said you’ve been here before? What’s in this cave?”
Shang Ningye thought for a moment and replied, “I came once with my master over three hundred years ago. At that time, there was a den of young Torch Dragon in this cave.”
A den of Torch Dragon? Although Torch Dragon, these human-faced serpent-bodied creatures, don’t usually live in groups after reaching adulthood, the Golden-Edged Chonglou has the effect of bringing the dead back to life and regrowing bones. It’s a commonly used medicine for cultivators to resist damage during the lightning tribulation when entering the Mahayana stage. Therefore, the creatures guarding the vicinity of the Golden-Edged Chonglou are usually high-level spirit beasts close to the Mahayana stage.
Xuan Kong, an Integration stage cultivator, facing a Torch Dragon with cultivation close to his on his own would likely be quite difficult. Mu Qiuhan knew she didn’t have the strength to provoke that Torch Dragon, but she remembered she had promised Xuan Kong to help him protect Shang Ningye.
So she grabbed Shang Ningye’s arm, trying to pull her up from the stone cave. “Let’s go! If they really come over here, this barrier at the cave entrance probably won’t last long.”
But Shang Ningye hesitated and didn’t move. “Elder Xuan Kong gave me this life-saving jade slip earlier. If we are too far from him, in case something really happens, wouldn’t he have no chance to leave?”
Mu Qiuhan snorted coldly. “You probably forgot that the Torch Dragon’s Yin Eye can break through all formations. If that demon beast really reaches here, your jade slip will be no different from the stones here. At that time, let alone Xuan Kong, none of us three will likely have a chance to leave.”
Seeing Shang Ningye looking stunned, Mu Qiuhan asked in surprise, “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought of this?”
Shang Ningye shook her head. “Indeed, I know very little about the art of formations. So, in your opinion, what should we do?”
Mu Qiuhan was momentarily choked by her remarkably straightforward question. She stared at Shang Ningye somewhat helplessly, thinking to herself, How would I know what to do? I can’t beat that Torch Dragon.
As soon as Shang Ningye spoke, she realized she was asking for advice from a young disciple whose cultivation was still inferior to her own. This was truly somewhat absurd. But for some reason, she subconsciously asked anyway. The disciple named Mu Qiuhan seemed to possess a kind of strength that she lacked, and at this moment, she wanted to draw some of it from her.
Seeing Mu Qiuhan stay silent, Shang Ningye sighed. “Let’s go, we’ll head out. I promised your master I would escort you safely back to the sect.”
Mu Qiuhan was taken aback by her words. Hadn’t she promised Xuan Kong to protect Shang Ningye? How did it get completely reversed when she said it? She, the dignified Demon Lord, needed protection? For a moment, she didn’t know what she was thinking and blurted out. “With just your late Nascent Soul stage wood-attribute spiritual energy?”
As soon as she finished speaking, Shang Ningye’s expression seemed to change slightly. But she didn’t say anything, just reached out, broke open the barrier Xuan Kong had set from the inside, and then silently squeezed out through the narrow rock crevice.
Mu Qiuhan instinctively knew she had said the wrong thing, but didn’t know how to fix it, so she could only silently follow behind her. Shang Ningye seemed lost in thought and walked somewhat stumbling along the way. Mu Qiuhan saw a fist-sized stone lying across the narrow path ahead and was about to lift her foot to go around it, but saw Shang Ningye step on it as if she hadn’t seen it, then her body swayed.
After this happened a few times, Mu Qiuhan finally realized something was wrong. She activated the spiritual energy in her body, igniting a small ball of flame in her palm. The flickering firelight immediately illuminated the dark cave much more. That woman indeed stopped walking unsteadily. Mu Qiuhan looked at the slender yet upright figure ahead, her gaze darkening slightly.
After walking for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the two finally emerged from the dark cave. Shang Ningye reached out and grasped a vine hanging at the cave entrance, and green spiritual energy surged from her fingertips into the plant. The vine seemed to come alive, growing wildly. The soft vines wrapped around their waists, carrying them up the cliff.
A large patch of blue snow flowers shimmered with speckles of fluorescence under the sunlight, but Mu Qiuhan didn’t look at them. She stared at Shang Ningye’s face, which usually looked somewhat pale, and asked, “What’s wrong with your eyes?”
Shang Ningye seemed not to have expected her to ask about this. She froze for a moment, then stammered, “Nothing, I was born unable to see things very well in the dark.”
Mu Qiuhan looked at her unnatural demeanor and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She tentatively asked, “Dare I ask, Fairy, have you ever heard of Snow Artemisia?”
Sure enough, seeing Shang Ningye’s face turn pale, Mu Qiuhan’s heart skipped a beat. Perfected Yu Yang and her group of disciples had been planning for decades; it was impossible for them to have achieved no results at all. Looking at it this way, they might have already succeeded. It’s just that for some unknown reason, Shang Ningye hadn’t been controlled by them yet.
Thinking of this, Mu Qiuhan felt a surge of anger in her heart for some reason. Her hatred for those despicable and shameless Immortal Sect people also flared up fiercely at this moment. To think that she, with cultivation of Tribulation Transcendence Stage, had now ended up dying and losing her path, and even the Nascent Soul within her was only barely condensed by consuming lifespan. Although she was lucky enough to survive due to some fortuitous opportunity, her many comrades in the demon realm were not so fortunate. This revenge, however, must be exacted.
