Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Sure enough, after being dismissed by Mo Tiange's lecture, Tang Shen no longer came looking for her, and the way he looked at her also returned to normal—obviously, he'd let go of that idea of his. Actually, he now cultivated much more diligently than before. Every time he encountered a difficult problem, he'd either take advantage of the free time the two elders had to ask them for advice or he went to Mo Tiange and asked her about it.

In their current situation, Tang Shen made up part of their manpower, so Mo Tiange also didn't try to hide anything; if she knew the answer, she told him. Therefore, Tang Shen's cultivation level rose very quickly. He had a Pure Yang Const.i.tution after all, and his apt.i.tude couldn't be as bad as hers was back then.

As for other matters, the two Core Formation elders already had plans. Mo Tiange was only a nominal guest elder; she had neither right nor ability to interfere and it was also inappropriate for her to comment too much on them. Besides, she had no better solution. Ren Yufeng's current strength was too terrifying. She couldn't enter the Virtual Sky World for the time being, so she couldn't concoct medicinal pills. Just dissolving the dead aura in her body was already troublesome—trying to make a realm-breakthrough was simply impossible. Since she couldn't make a realm-breakthrough, she wouldn't be able to deal with Ren Yufeng, so she could only defer the decision to Elder Qingyi and Elder Qingmiao.

On the seventh floor of the Dao-Achieving PaG.o.da was several thousand years of Bixuan Court's collections, and there were quite a few treasures among them. Now that they were facing a group-extermination, Elder Qingyi decided to put these collections to use.

For this reason, Xia Qing immediately devoted herself to concocting medicinal pills after her injuries were healed. As for Wei Haolan, rebuilding the group couldn't be done without her, so the two elders were extremely generous. They gave the spiritual panaceas the group collected for years to Wei Haolan to treat her injuries. Because of that, Wei Haolan's injuries were finally stabilized several months later, and they also managed to preserve her cultivation. However, she was already plagued by dead aura. It might take her even longer than Mo Tiange to be healed completely. Furthermore, her dantian was injured; she basically had no chance of advancing to the Core Formation realm.

When she learned about this matter from the two elders, Wei Haolan went into a daze for a long time. Even though she was a cultivator who cared more about power and influence, she still found it hard to accept that she might not be able to make any realm-breakthroughs again.

Fortunately, Wei Haolan was a strong person, and she had long been mentally prepared about the extent of her injuries, so was able to readjust her expectations very quickly. Every day, she still recuperated and a.s.sisted Xia Qing in concocting medicinal pills.

In the blink of an eye, one year pa.s.sed by. Under the generous use of spiritual panaceas, Elder Qingyi's and Elder Qingmiao's injuries were eventually healed. They then announced that they were going to enter Closed Door Meditation to practice a secret technique and told the others not to go to the fourth floor and disturb them unless necessary.

Upon hearing this news, Wei Haolan and the two others were all startled and their expressions also became mournful, causing Mo Tiange to feel perplexed about why they reacted this way.

When Mo Tiange recalled what Elder Qingyi and Elder Qingmiao said when they invited her to become the guest elder, she secretly asked Wei Haolan about it.

"Sect Head Wei, the secret technique the two elders spoke of, will it… cost them their lives?"

Wei Haolan was silent. Quite a while later, she heaved a sigh and said, "Fellow Daoist Ye's now our Bixuan Court guest elder; we should indeed tell you about these matters. You're right; before the founder, Primordial Lady Bishui, pa.s.sed away, she left behind a secret technique known as Blood-Prohibition Secret Technique. Every Bixuan Court Foundation Building disciple is required to learn the first half; it's a desperate attempt to drag our enemies down with us. The latter half of this technique, however, can only be practiced by Core Formation cultivators and above. Moreover, it also requires a lot of time and strength. What it can do is… merge several people's cultivations into one, thus turning them into the strongest existence among Core Formation cultivators."

"… So that means… what Elder Qingxi used back then was this Blood-Prohibition Secret Technique?"

Wei Haolan nodded. "Yes. Unfortunately, Elder Qingxi was already injured at that time and that person's power was also extraordinary, so she could only hinder him for a while…"

"Then what about Elder Qingyi and Elder Qingmiao?" Mo Tiange asked with a heavy expression, "What will happen to them if they use this secret technique?"

With a bitter smile, Wei Haolan said, "Although this secret technique can be practiced by Core Formation cultivators and above, n.o.body in many generations of Bixuan Court's Core Formation grandmasters has practiced this secret technique completely."

Mo Tiange was stunned. "Why?" Even if their lives would be difficult to preserve if they used it, studying it as preparation for any contingencies was also good. Why had no one even practiced it before?

"Because," Wei Haolan said slowly, one word after another, "If we practice the latter half of this secret technique, we can no longer be considered humans."

Mo Tiange couldn't say anything for a long time. Can no longer be considered humans… what did this mean? If they couldn't be considered humans, what would they be?

Seemingly noticing her bewilderment, Wei Haolan shook her head. "The so-called blood prohibition requires blood as the price. If people draw out all of their blood, won't they turn into dry corpses? How could they still be considered human?"

Mo Tiange was completely shocked upon hearing what Wei Haolan said.

Wei Haolan looked away, hiding the sadness in her eyes. "The two elders are already prepared to face death… We have to work hard in our cultivation and rebuild Bixuan Court to fulfill their wishes."

It was no wonder the three of them looked like that when they found out the elders were going to practice the secret technique. By practicing this secret technique, their fates were already doomed from the beginning. Whether they succeeded or not, they'd definitely end up dead.

With such a heavy mood, Mo Tiange threw herself into recuperating and practicing spells.

There was a powerful enemy close at hand, but she couldn't do anything; this kind of feeling was really too difficult to bear. Ever since she advanced to the Foundation Building realm, she never had wanted to become stronger so desperately like she did now.

Therefore, after confirming she'd have to spend a very long time dissolving the dead aura, she threw all her energy into studying the Jade Slip Mo Yaoqing left behind.

In fact, this Jade Slip didn't have any earth-shattering, extraordinary secret techniques. Instead, it contained all kinds of spell-using techniques and provided some insights in practicing the Art of Sunu.

Nevertheless, Mo Yaoqing was indeed a heaven-gifted genius. Simple spells turned out to have such great power through her explanations. Small, unnoticeable modifications practically caused some spells to take on new forms and increased their strength greatly. Among them, tips for practicing the Art of Sunu even made Mo Tiange eagerly throw herself into studying it.

Her main cultivation technique was the Sunu Art of the Origin modified by Zhong Muling. It was a cultivation technique formed from merging the Taiyuan Record and the Art of Sunu. Its details weren't at all different from those of the two cultivation techniques, so for Mo Tiange, Mo Yaoqing's cultivation knowledge was extremely useful.

In addition, the Jade Slip also contained some information Mo Yaoqing recorded in pa.s.sing such as modifications to pill recipes, as well as some concepts for refining magic weapons. Matters about pill-concocting, tool-refining, formations, restrictions and so on were almost all there. This information just included things Mo Yaoqing normally thought about; some of them had been put to practice, but others were nothing but thought experiments.

But since she could visualize pill recipes as well as a whole new way of refining magic weapons, she could definitely be considered among the Grand Masters, especially since she was particularly knowledgeable in those two fields.

After discovering Mo Yaoqing was so well-rounded, on one hand, Mo Tiange was filled with amazement, but on the other hand, she was also bewildered. With such talent, Mo Yaoqing wasn't at all inferior to Wanderer Ziwei—why did her original group only treat her as a superb Dual Cultivation candidate instead of nurturing her for the future of their group?

Mo Yaoqing's personal note behind the Jade Slip offered an answer for her confusion.

"I stepped onto the path towards immortality at the age of five, built my foundation at the age of twenty, formed my Gold Core at a hundred years old, and formed my Nascent Soul at five hundred years old. During those years, the hards.h.i.+ps I endured don't need to be mentioned. Sadly, I was born a woman, and I also possess a Pure Yin Const.i.tution. If not, how could I possibly be forced to constantly wander around, stranded on foreign land, unable to return to my homeland my whole life?"

"As a woman, walking on the path towards immortality is extremely difficult. I admitted my innate talents were outstanding and my intelligence also didn't lose out to anyone in my group. Nevertheless, because of the Pure Yin Const.i.tution my body possesses, I have only been regarded as a Human Furnace. I carefully looked into the reason. Because the path of cultivation was dominated by men, over time, n.o.body was able to see the bigger picture, so they didn't understand the talents of women."

This admission was filled with harbored laments over being unappreciated, causing Mo Tiange, who read it, to also heave a sigh. To be honest, although she felt her talents were extraordinary and her intelligence wasn't to be looked down upon, compared to Mo Yaoqing, Mo Tiange could only feel admiration and respect towards her. There were too many things within the Jade Slip that she had to study—her current abilities definitely couldn't be compared to Mo Yaoqing.

Whether it was Mo Yaoqing or Wanderer Ziwei, both made her realize that there were actually geniuses like them in this world—the road she had to walk on was still very long, so she must never be complacent.

The latter part of this personal note also contained some of Mo Yaoqing's private matters.

"In Yunzhong, I met a male cultivator named Zhong Muling, who unexpectedly possessed a Pure Neutral Body. What's even harder to come by is that he still retains a pure and kind character, indeed someone worthy of friends.h.i.+p."

"Met a man with a Pure Yang Body; indeed a good match. However, this person has a haughty temperament; I don't like him, so that's all there is to this matter."

There was more recorded: "Forming my Nascent Soul can no longer be delayed; I'm extremely anxious. My enemies grow in number with each pa.s.sing day. If I don't make a realm-breakthrough soon, it'll be hard to preserve my life. After contemplating for several days, I finally have a plan. This plan's a very bad move. Once I carry it out, I'd certainly be too ashamed to face Zhong Muling. However, I can't find a better solution for now."

The man she talked about before ought to be Yuan Bao, but from her tone, she seemed to not have the slightest care for him. Presumably, such a genius like Mo Yaoqing was also a very proud person who didn't think much of the path of Dual Cultivation. However, what was the plan that would make her too ashamed to face Zhong Muling?

As she continued to read, Mo Tiange finally understood.

"According to reason, performing Dual Cultivation with someone that possesses a Pure Yang Body would provide even more extraordinary benefits, but I really don't like that Daoist Yuan Bao. Zhong Muling, on the other hand, has a sincere nature; I'm really fond of him. Besides, he also possesses a Pure Neutral Body. Although performing Dual Cultivation with someone with a Pure Neutral Body isn't as good as performing Dual Cultivation with someone with a Pure Yang Body, it isn't bad either. I have a good friends.h.i.+p with Zhong Muling, but it was really hard for me to bring up this matter to him. Therefore, I just used the Soul-Frightening bell to bewitch him, hence allowing me to complete Dual Cultivation…"

At this point, Mo Tiange was thoroughly stunned. As it turned out, Zhong Muling was bew- This ancestor of hers… Not only did her intelligence not lose out to men, but even her way of doing things and boldness were also comparable to men!

On one hand, Mo Tiange admired Mo Yaoqing, but on the other hand, she also felt this matter was indeed not a very virtuous thing to do—how could Zhong Muling be willing?

"Zhong Muling wasn't a sentimental person and this time, my actions were indeed dishonorable, so I thought he'd certainly break off our friends.h.i.+p when he woke up. To my surprise, however, although Zhong Muling wasn't happy about it, he didn't turn against me. He said the kindness he owed me before was now paid with this matter. I was ashamed. I thought for a long time and eventually decided to leave Yunzhong…"

After that were some matters regarding her arrival in Linhai, setting up a Transporting Formation, rescuing a group of women who were treated as Human Furnaces in Kunwu, founding Bixuan Court, a.s.suming the name Primordial Lady Bishui…

Mo Tiange found some messy notes slipped in between them. "One night of husband and wife relations unexpectedly resulted in pregnancy. I was cultivating wholeheartedly to become an immortal, so I shouldn't have kept him. However, my heart couldn't bear to do it. Out of consideration for his father, I finally gave birth to him. Unfortunately, this child didn't possess spiritual roots—we were doomed to be separated in this life, so I could only leave him in the secular world…"

There were many other notes in between. Later, Mo Tiange found another paragraph below: "I'm now in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul realm. I don't have much time left in my lifespan; there's already no hope of advancing. Regarding the child I gave birth to, after several hundred years, I have a lot of descendants, but only several among them possess spiritual roots. Moreover, their spiritual roots are all wasted spiritual roots, so they aren't suitable to be introduced to the path towards immortality. A few among them possess a Pure Yin Const.i.tution but have no spiritual roots. Right now, my death is imminent; the Art of Sunu will eventually die out, so I can only take a trip to the secular world, leaving a sealed thread of my divine sense among my descendants. If one among them possesses a Pure Yin Const.i.tution in the future, I can pa.s.s down the Art of Sunu…"