CH 40.1

A cultivator has to pass a total of six stages before ascending to the Immortal Realm. They are: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Pill, Nascent Soul, Divine Transformation and Tribulation. Each stage has 10 inner stages that are consistent with different kinds of hurdles. Some cultivators can build their foundation overnight and ascend in just a few years. But some people aren’t allowed to enter the immortal door for life.

From Foundation Establishment to Golden Pill Stage, the cultivators cultivate to form a Jindan or Golden Core in his body. After crossing the Golden Pill Stage and reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, a cultivator starts forming a Nascent Soul.

Hearing that Qin Wanwan wanted to form her Nascent Soul* here, Xie Lutang couldn’t help but frown: “Miss Qin, why did you choose to form Nascent Soul here? This is too risky.”

[T/N: ‘Yuan Ying’ means ‘Baby’ or ‘having a baby’. ‘Yuan Ying’ also means ‘Nascent Soul’. And each time, the MTL translated ‘Yuan Ying’ as ‘having a baby’. I wonder if it’s my fault that I wrote ‘stopping the baby’ in the previous chapter?]

The process of forming a Nascent Soul is extremely difficult. With the slightest mistake, all the work will vanish into thin air. The backlash of forming a Nascent Soul was straight death.

Qin Wanwan observed the surrounding area, pursed her lips, and explained: “Xie-daojun, do you remember what I said before? I met a gentleman in the temple in the backyard, named Song Shi. He was almost identical to Lin Yanzhi’s statue, and treated me extremely well.”

“I remember.” Xie Lutang nodded, “Why are you suddenly mentioning him?”

“That day when we were looking for who has Miyu as their spiritual beast in Guicheng, I met him. He told me that Hua Rong was previously raised by Lin Yanzhi and had other feelings towards Lin Yanzhi rather than admiring him as his saviour or worshipping him as his Master. Jian Xingzhi looks very similar to Lin Yanzhi. In fact, it was because of his words that we decided we must send Jian Xingzhi to Hua Rong.”

“Indeed.”

“But such a person, he died long ago.” Qin Wanwan reminded Xie Lutang, “Not only is he dead, but he looks more like Lin Yanzhi than Jian Xingzhi. With his looks, whether he is a male pet or a stand-in for Lin Yanzhi, he should have not stayed in the backyard.”

“So what do you mean?”

Xie Lutang understood somewhat and concluded: “Do you mean that the ‘Song Shi’ you met wasn’t the real ‘Song Shi’ at all? If it’s true, then perhaps he was Hua Rong, or perhaps he was one of Hua Rong’s men. In any case, he was the person sent by Hua Rong to guide us to give him Senior.”

“Exactly. So there’s the second question, why does he want Jian Xingzhi?”

Qin Wanwan analyzed, “His backyard is full of people who are similar to Lin Yanzhi, he also has laid such a large spell formation for gathering Qi. He might have also found a way to find Linglong Jade and made it appear here. Linglong Jade is a huge source of energy by nature. To infuse someone with so much power, he wanted to find a body that is extremely similar to Lin Yanzhi. He was raised by Lin Yanzhi, what do you think he wants to do? ”

“He is trying to resurrect Lin Yanzhi?!”

Xie Lutang reacted, “Resurrecting the dead, this is completely going against the heavens.”

“He wants Jian Xingzhi’s body, in order to resurrect Lin Yanzhi. Then there is the third question, why didn’t he just capture Jian Xingzhi?”

Xie Lutang shook his head, “I don’t know.”

For a moment, Qin Wanwan felt as if she felt the aura of Di Renjie and Li Yuanfang* between herself and Xie Lutang. She raised her hand on her knees, and her face showed a profound expression of speculation: “I guess, because he didn’t have the ability, so he had to trick Jian Xingzhi to some place where he would have the ability to take Jian Xingzhi’s body. Nan Feng was just caught by accident. So now this spell, it only has two roles; either let Lin Yanzhi resurrect inside Jian Xingzhi’s body, or …… is to give him(Hua Rong) the power so that he can use it to defeat and control Jian Xingzhi. But no matter which role the spell formation has, I just need to empty the Qi around here. If I consume all the Qi, the spell formation can’t take shape. If it can’t take shape, Hua Rong can neither resurrect Lin Yanzhi nor can he kill Jian Xingzhi.”

[T/N: ‘Amazing Detective Di Renjie’, also known as ‘Shen Tan Di Renjie’ and ‘Wu Chao Mi An’, is a Chinese television series based on gong’an detective stories related to Di Renjie, a Tang dynasty magistrate and statesman. Li Yuanfang is the name of his assistant.]

“The process of trying to form a Nascent Soul needs a lot of Qi……” Xie Lutang murmured, “so you plan to use the spiritual energy of here to make it as a pot and form the Nascent Soul inside.”

“That’s right.” Qin Wanwan nodded: “So you now have to go out and bring help to save Jian Xingzhi. I will stay here to draw the Qi away, when I enter the first stage of the Nascent Soul,” Qin Wanwan pursed her lips, “I will come with you to save him.”

“But when you form a Nascent Soul, your body will be unprotected. When the time comes, if Hua Rong perceives the movement here, he can come directly over……”

Qin Wanwan didn’t speak, a moment later, she calmly gave him a vague answer: “That would happen when Jian Xingzhi dies. Otherwise, he would not leave Jian Xingzhi in the middle of resurrecting to disturb me from forming a Nascent Soul.”

“But Jian Xingzhi,” Qin Wanwan smiled, her eyes filled with belief, “There is no way he would die here.”

He was the Long Aotian of the Immortal Realm. How could he simply die in the hands of a small city lord of Guicheng?

“Go on.”

Qin Wanwan urged him, “I’m afraid the more you delay, the more he’ll be in danger.”

Xie Lutang smiled, he looked at Qin Wanwan sitting on the ground, and vaguely saw a few temperaments of Jian Xingzhi on Qin Wanwan.

He turned around with determined eyes, raised his hand and wiped his sword, blood dripped onto the ground. The spell formation that Jian Xingzhi threw down on the ground lit up. Qin Wanwan glanced at Nan Feng next to him and reminded him, “Follow Daoist Xie out together, it would be better if you escape.”

“Oh.” Nan Feng said with aggravation, “In your heart, I’m not as useful as this banana.”

“You are very useful.” Qin Wanwan comforted him, “many people are more useless than you.”

“Miss Qin,” Xie Lutang said with a serious face, “I’m leaving, please take care of yourself.”

“Master,” Nan Feng climbed onto Xie Lutang’s shoulders and looked at Qin Wanwan with worry, “You must protect yourself well.”

“Don’t worry.” Qin Wanwan’s face was calm and serious, as if Zhuge Liang* was alive and planning, “I have a plan, you guys go.”

[T/N: ‘Zhuge Liang’ (Chinese: 諸葛亮 / 诸葛亮) (181 – c.September 234), courtesy name ‘Kongming’, was a Chinese statesman and military strategist. He was chancellor and later regent of the state of ‘Shu Han’ during the Three Kingdoms period. He is recognised as the most accomplished strategist of his era, and has been compared to ‘Sun Tzu’, the author of ‘The Art of War’.]

Xie Lutang nodded, he raised his hand and light bloomed and shot towards the sky. The roof of the hillock instantly broke and a big hole appeared. Xie Lutang followed the light and rushed out.

Qin Wanwan looked at Xie Lutang who was going outside like a rocket launch. The moment Xie Lutang disappeared, she could no longer maintain the calm, self-possessed, warm-blooded chivalrous noble image, and instantly collapsed.

She painfully raised her hand to cover her face and began to calm her panicked emotions.

“There’s no problem.”

Her legs shook as she reassured herself, “Don’t be afraid, Hua Rong can’t come here. It won’t hurt, it’s just forming a Nascent Soul, it won’t hurt ……”

Won’t hurt, my ass!

Consolation is useless, it even has the opposite effect.

Because she had read too many books, she knew clearly that in order to form the Nascent Soul, not only does the cultivator need to have a sense of the Heavenly Dao to reach the first stage of Nascent Soul and have enough Qi, but also has to have the body and strength that can accommodate and endure the Qi needed to form the Nascent Soul.

She has no problem perceiving the Heavenly Dao, she can even pass the tribulation. The Qi is also very much available, it should be a very small matter.

But the problem is, strengthening the body ah. She has only one way to strengthen her body.

Expansion of her spiritual veins to its fullest, and using the ‘Spring Birth’ heart method to constantly quench her muscles and body.

Using the ‘Spring Birth’ method, isn’t it as equal as having Jian Xingzhi beating her into total paralysis? Can the pain of spiritual roots expanding and breaking bone be compared?!

Qin Wanwan thought left and right, constantly rubbing her hand. 38 sensed her anxiety and carefully advised, “Master, female leads should never be afraid of pain ……”

“Shut up! What big female lead? I should have the character of a sweet little innocent female lead, who can only eat, sleep and play. Who wants to have this kind of broken plot?!”

Qin Wanwan became angry as soon as she heard the voice of 38. She was angry, sad and painful, all the three at the same time. “Why would I have the ‘raise the supporting female lead’s’ plot? I can’t endure pain and suffering, are you guys blind?!”

“Just ……” 38 explained somehow, “Maybe, God couldn’t tolerate how you are so unmotivated and sent you in this kind of setting to work hard. After all, being energetic brings positive energy ah.”

The words choked Qin Wanwan, and felt as if 38 was standing on the moral high ground. Qin Wanwan endured for a while before asking: “Are you cold? If you are cold, come down from above. Your Master will warm you up.”

“Don’t worry,” 38 didn’t understand her implying and simply replied, “I’m not cold.”

Qin Wanwan took a deep breath, and tried to calm down. That chattering system was too noisy.

She thought about it and decided to accept the reality.

Let’s start, and then strengthen the body.

Qin Wanwan raised her hand and began to set up a formation under her feet. After preparing the formation to expand her spiritual roots, she took a deep breath and raised her hand to form a seal in front of her body.

She was really too afraid of pain and purposely prepared an illusion for her. If she saw the illusion in front of her, she might be able to alleviate the pain.

When everything was set up, she closed her eyes and sat down as the spell formation lit up. All the Qi instantly poured in towards Qin Wanwan, rushing brutally into her body and pulling apart the spiritual roots she used to circulate the Qi to their fullest.

Qin Wanwan immediately entered the illusion, eating barbecue and drinking milk tea in the illusion. Although, she didn’t know why sitting at the table she still felt pain all over her body, she didn’t feel any pain directly on the face, which was a great relief.

No one can refuse drinking milk tea, especially with coconut.

While Qin Wanwan was quenching her body, Xie Lutang jumped out of the cave. Once outside, he found that the entire City Lord’s Mansion had changed drastically.

The sky was black, the city was dyed with blood, there was not a sound around, as if the whole city had disappeared into thin air.