CH 32

Chapter 32: The Mysterious Flame

On the field practice exam island, Xu Wei encountered his own companions. His Junior Sister, intentionally or otherwise, subtly pushed Li Xinmei out. In the end, Li Xinmei left on her own.

Li Xinmei felt very vexed with these type of girls. They were clearly only over a dozen years of age yet, instead of properly cultivating, they invested all their energy on men. They couldn’t even compare to the two female cultivators from Red Dress Hall. With one look people could tell that they were the independent type.

Li Xinmei had originally planned to kill a spirit beast to use as bait. Thus, she set down an illusion array and waited for a spirit beast to fall into the trap. However, she felt ill at ease the entire time she was laying down the array. From time to time, she would turn back to look at the beach. Her cultivation was only at the Spirit Condensation stage so her spiritual consciousness was clearly incapable of reaching such a far range. However, she kept feeling that she could see the light in the ocean.

That light seemed to exert a magnetic pull on her, making her feel as if her heart had been caught by a cat. She felt that if she didn’t go look at it, she would definitely regret it.

In this kind of condition, there was no way she could focus on hunting spirit beasts. Thus, she decided it would be better to just go take a look.

This thought, having emerged, could no longer be suppressed. Li Xinmei pursed her lips, ascertained her position, then started heading quickly towards the sea. Her luck was pretty good. Not only did no one cross her path, no spirit beasts appeared either and she successfully reached the beach.

The wind on the surface of the sea was fierce. Li Xinmei took out the protective copper bell Grannie had given her from the spatial universe bag and revolved spiritual energy through it to protect herself. Then, she started heading cautiously towards the center of the sea.

However, when she had almost reached that golden light, the waves suddenly surged up wildly. The waves contained enormous pressure and as they crashed into the copper bell, they made large clangs. The power of the droplets was comparable to that of sharp swords. In just an instant, several holes were punched in the copper bell.

Li Xinmei was dumbstruck. What made her even more shocked was that, behind her, the entire island was shaking. Large trees on the island toppled as enormous rocks tumbled. The entire island was swaying left and right like a large boat that was about to overturn.

“An accident has occurred. All disciples, heed this command. Immediately fly into the air, the higher the better.”

Lou Yanshan, the Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, gave a loud shout. Then, he revolved all the spiritual energy in his body and focused his spiritual consciousness to lock onto the entire island. Utilizing the Great Capture Technique, he pulled out all the disciples he discovered one after the other. His movements were extremely fast and soon the majority of the Wuliang Sect disciples had been thrown out of the island. Within the group, many were injured. However, there was currently no one around to help treat their injuries.

The location of the light was right in front of her so Li Xinmei wasn’t willing to just leave. Her injured meridians had forced her to endure acute pain while cultivating so in comparison, the pain from the ocean water wasn’t that bad. She gritted her teeth and she moved forward. Finally, she firmly grabbed hold of that golden light.

She got it!

At this same moment, the entire island sank into the sea with a rumble. As everyone stared in wide-eyed shock, the island flipped inside the water and the surface that had originally been submerged appeared, revealing a majestic palace.

Everyone from the Wuliang Sect was stupefied.

Lou Yanshan seemed indescribably excited. “This, this is a secret location, it’s a secret location!”

After the palace beneath the island appeared, the surface of the ocean returned to being calm. Li Xinmei put the thing she grabbed into the spatial universe bag and returned to blend into the crowd with a calm expression. She didn’t dare to even glance at what she got.

The appearance of the mysterious palace indicated that the field practice exam for the new disciples of Wuliang Sect was going to end ahead of time. They immediately returned to Wuliang Sect as large amounts of high-leveled cultivators rushed to the island in order to enter the palace and search for treasures.

When Su Tingyun woke up, she discovered that she was lying in her own room. Xiao Mei was sitting next to the head of the bed and napping with her hand supporting her chin. Her facial color was a little pale and sickly.

Xiao Mei’s field practice was supposed to last an entire month, yet she’s already back? Su Tingyun flipped over and sat up. Naturally, Li Xinmei woke up when she moved. “Grannie, you’re awake.”

“You guys are already back. I’ve been unconscious for that long? Well, everything’s good now that you’ve returned.” Su Tingyun felt that she had recovered quite well. Her body didn’t hurt or itch. The red patches and pus-filled pimples on her skin had all vanished. Moreover, her skin even seemed slightly whiter than it used to be. The big worry in her heart evaporated and she started asking Li Xinmei about her harvest.

“Grannie, you’ve only been unconscious for three days.”

Li Xinmei’s smile was reserved. She had only tugged at the corners of her lips slightly. Then, she sat on the bed and said, “An accident occurred on the field practice island. I heard it was a mysterious land that had once disappeared. The Wuliang Sect originally wanted to seal off the news but it was of no use as, from the start, the island belonged to many different powers. In addition to that, some news had leaked out from within the factions so now, the news of this incident has already spread.”

Then, she lowered her voice as she said, “Currently, all the people from both orthodox and unorthodox sects are heading towards the island. The strong people in our sect have all headed over, including Spiritual Master Lingwu.”

After Li Xinmei said that, she added, “But Grannie doesn’t need to worry. The people that harmed you have already been thrown into Forbidden Heaven Precipice. Right now, Heaven Firmament Peak is safe.”

Li Xinmei’s expression as she said this was very cold. When she mentioned Gu Hao, she even gritted her teeth a little. Although she was young, she already possessed a strong, stern aura. It was clear that the incident in which Su Tingyun was poisoned affected her deeply.

Gu Hao had actually been thrown into Forbidden Heaven Precipice? Su Tingyun knew that it was impossible to return from Forbidden Heaven Precipice. She was shocked to learn that Spiritual Master Lingwu had punished Gu Hao this way.

Li Xinmei didn’t wait for her to finish digesting this news before pulling out a jade box that was about the size of one’s palm. She kicked off her shoes and bore into the quilt, squeezing in next to Su Tingyun. Then, she pulled up the blanket over their heads so that they were completely covered by the blanket.

Even Su Tingyun was baffled by Li Xinmei’s actions.

“Grannie, I found something in the field practice exam island,” said Li Xinmei excitedly. “I secretly took a look after coming back. Just that one glance almost made my heart jump out of my chest!”

What would it be? Su Tingyun started anticipating as well after seeing how keyed up Li Xinmei was. Then, she saw Li Xinmei carefully open the jade box a crack. In the next instant, she felt a heatwave transmit over, heating her cheeks to the point they were completely red. However, this wasn’t the end. With a whoosh, the natural silk quilt above her head ignited and started burning. Li Xinmei was extremely startled and hastily closed the box. Su Tingyun reacted quickly and threw the blanket to the ground as she utilized the secret art of Spring Wind Transform Rain. However, unexpectedly, the fire on the silk quilt could not be extinguished and in a blink, the entire quilt had been burned to ashes.

All that was left on the ground was a puddle of black water. There was not even a trace of the quilt left.

“That’s…” Su Tingyun was dumbstruck. Subconsciously, she gulped.

“It’s a pill fire. It’s definitely a pill fire.” In the end, Li Xinmei was still a child. Currently, she couldn’t cover up the pride she felt. Her eyes beamed with self-satisfaction as she said, “Grannie, didn’t Liu Feizhou win a first rank pill fire last time? I feel like ours is definitely even better than his.”

She tilted her head as she looked towards Su Tingyun. “Could it be a second rank pill fire?”

Su Tingyun was also pretty illiterate in this matter. Although she crammed a little in the Book Repository to learn about this world, she really hasn’t learned about something as rare as a pill fire. However, she had once felt the power of Liu Feizhou’s pill fire at close range when he sent out a bit of the flame to burn that cultivator to ashes. If that was compared with this pill fire’s power, from the pressure her spiritual consciousness sensed, it seemed that this pill fire was a little stronger.

Which meant, this flame might really be a second rank pill fire. Wonder which type it was?

“Grannie, you know how to refine pills so you should hurry and absorb this pill fire.”

Li Xinmei stuffed the jade box into Su Tingyun’s hands. She felt that she had really encountered great fortune this time, to have actually managed to encounter something that Grannie could use. She has always felt that she was like a child from a previous marriage (generally regarded as burdens). As of now, she finally was a little useful.

“Pill fire is such a precious thing…” Su Tingyun had been happy for Li Xinmei after hearing this news. She hadn’t expected for Li Xinmei to, without any hesitation, gift the pill fire to her.

“It’s not like I know how to refine pills. I don’t have that desire nor that talent. Grannie, after you absorb the pill fire, you can help me refine even more pills.” After she finished speaking, she stuffed the jade box into Su Tingyun’s hand and before Su Tingyun could reject, she said, “I have to head back to practice. I’ll come visit you again another day, Grannie.”

Then, Li Xinmei left like a gust of wind. Su Tingyun stood in place holding the jade box. She felt that the little flame in the box was already burning inside her, warming her heart.

Only because they treated each other sincerely that they depended on each other so much. And only because of that, they would think of the other first whenever they got something good.

…

Li Xinmei needed large amounts of Meridian Moistening Pills during her cultivation process. After Su Tingyun absorbed the pill fire, she’ll be able to refine better quality pills.

Back then, it hadn’t taken Liu Feizhou much effort to subdue the pill fire. She knew that the primordial spirit was used to subdue the pill fire. After Su Tingyun had injured Chu Ling with her mental pressure last time, she went to read up on information regarding the strength of mental power. She learned that her primordial spirit was probably at the Foundation Establishment Stage, so she was rather confident in her primordial spirit.

Wasn’t Liu Feizhou only at the Foundation Establishment Stage as well? He had subdued the flame so easily in front of so many people. He had calmly harmonized with the pill fire in just fifteen minutes.

However, though this was the case, Su Tingyun didn’t immediately set about the task. She spent some spirit stones to get into the first level of the Book Repository and read up on information regarding pill fires. Then, she waited until her mentality recovered before she started trying to subdue the pill flame.

Opening the jade box a crack, she sent her spiritual consciousness inside and wrapped up that flame. Originally, she was completely confident. However, the moment her spiritual consciousness made contact with that flame, she felt a wave of pain so strong her body trembled. She fell to the ground and curled up like a cooked prawn.

There were no physical raging flames. It was her primordial spirit that seemed to be on fire so there was nothing she could do to try and put it out. In just an instant, all the spiritual energy in her body had been burnt dry. Her spiritual consciousness energy had also dried up in a flash like scorched earth.

Was she going to die? In the past, even when she was poisoned and her spiritual consciousness was incomparably weak, she had never been this afraid.

It wasn’t her corporeal body that was going to be destroyed, but her spirit. She’ll truly vanish like smoke.

She had survived so many difficult predicaments, yet she was going to die here? At this moment, Su Tingyun was in so much pain that she was close to passing out. There were no external injuries on her but her entire body was red as if her blood was boiling.

During this moment of imminent peril, the jade ring on Su Tingyun’s hand suddenly emitted a faint cold light.

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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira, Proofread by Yours Truly