Chapter 24 Part 2

Outside the dharma hall, Xie Chaosheng stood beneath a tree. Her cheeks remained pale, her brows shadowed with melancholy. Upon waking, she hadn’t seen Cang Lang and feared the demonic cultivators had taken her. Only after inquiring did she learn Cang Lang was a guest at Taiyi, though the auxiliary teachers wouldn’t let her visit.

A chill mountain wind blew. A immortal crane with a bright red crest, snow-white body, and golden eyes with an iron beak preened its feathers with its long bill. Moments later, it cried twice toward Xie Chaosheng. She snapped back, nodded to it, and stepped toward the dharma hall.

White jade steps stretched ahead, pavilions and halls shrouded in vast mists. Xie Chaosheng had taken only a few steps when her body suddenly lightened, as if borne up by the clouds. When the fog before her cleared, she was inside the hall. Pearl curtains parted to either side, revealing a lotus dais where a profoundly ethereal figure sat cross-legged. Flanking her were several delicately carved child attendants who saluted Xie Chaosheng upon her arrival.

Xie Chaosheng bowed deeply to Lian Rusu. “Disciple pays respects to Master.” She couldn’t clearly see Lian Rusu’s features on the lotus dais; her vision always blurred into hazy mist.

“No need for excessive courtesy.” A clear and cold voice entered her ears. Xie Chaosheng felt a momentary daze, and her body was lifted by a gentle breeze. “Your injuries haven’t healed yet. Why aren’t you resting in your cave abode?” Lian Rusu asked again.

Xie Chaosheng pursed her lips and apologized, “This disciple knows her mistake.” If she hadn’t failed to recognize the origins of that little snake and treated it as an ordinary spirit pet, Taiyi Sect wouldn’t have been dragged into the internal strife of Demonic Prison Heavenly Palace. As a direct disciple of the Taiyi Sect Master, she should have prioritized the sect, but on the Path of No Return, she couldn’t bear to see Cang Lang in distress, which ultimately led to this situation. “Please punish this disciple, Master,” Xie Chaosheng said with another bow.

Lian Rusu gazed at Xie Chaosheng. She suddenly recalled Li Ruoshui’s words, and looking at Xie Chaosheng now, something felt off. She had wanted to comfort her a few words, but the words died on her lips. She simply said, “It was Ji Canglang who deceived you. This has nothing to do with you. No need to blame yourself.”

Hearing Lian Rusu’s words did not ease the heaviness in Xie Chaosheng’s heart. She lifted her head to gaze at the vast, misty clouds, her mind already envisioning Lian Rusu’s ethereal, otherworldly figure—perfectly proportioned, neither too tall nor too short.

She had arrived at Taiyi Sect at the age of seven. Among the young children who entered the sect that year, she had stood out the most, so the Sect Master, who had no disciples at the time, took her as a true disciple. She always remembered that voice—coaxing her to sleep when she was frightened and anxious, guiding her when she was lost. She had always taken her master as her role model, yet on her very first outing for training, she had made a mistake.

Moreover, she wanted to know how Taiyi Sect planned to deal with Cang Lang.

If Demonic Prison Heavenly Palace intervened, would they send Cang Lang back to that prison?

“We’ll discuss how to handle Ji Canglang when the people from Demonic Prison Heavenly Palace arrive,” Lian Rusu said, seeing through Xie Chaosheng’s thoughts.

Xie Chaosheng pursed her lips. “This disciple heard that there’s infighting in Demonic Prison Heavenly Palace for the position. Little… Ji Canglang, she…” Competition in Demonic Prison Heavenly Palace was extremely brutal; they revered the strong even more than immortal sects did. Winner takes all. As the daughter of the former Demon Venerable, if she couldn’t inherit the Demon Venerable position, would the new master of the Demon Palace let her grow up? In the Path of No Return, so many demonic sect cultivators had wanted to kill her.

Lian Rusu said nothing, but Li Ruoshui’s earlier words resurfaced in her mind.

She needed to pay close attention to Xie Chaosheng and Cang Lang. The former was her Taiyi disciple, so she wouldn’t neglect her. But the latter—if she intervened, she had to be prepared for Demonic Prison Heavenly Palace’s wrath. Return to Ruins Realm would rotate in fifty years; no matter what, the demonic sects needed to settle things by then.

“Go back and rest,” Lian Rusu said after a long pause, letting out a faint sigh.

“Master—” Xie Chaosheng’s voice grew more urgent.

But Lian Rusu did not respond again. Amid the drifting mists and clouds, the lotus platform stood empty.

Lian Rusu had already left the grand hall and returned to Nanhua Dojo.

She took out the Tianyan Mirror, intending to refute the impropriety of Li Ruoshui’s words.

She hadn’t cultivated Heartless Dao.

Nor was it possible for anything absurd to happen between her and her disciples.

But doing so would reveal to Fellow Daoist Shangshan that she was the Taiyi Sect Master. What would the fellow Daoist think then? From the way Fellow Daoist Shangshan usually teased the Taiyi Sect Master, her impression didn’t seem favorable.

In her hesitation, Lian Rusu opened the Dharma Transmission Jade Slip. Besides the complete scriptures, there were many tiny annotations in small script, from an unknown hand. The interpretations differed across chapters, completely unlike the classics she usually consulted! Fellow Daoist Shangshan could interpret scriptures in the future, but her current cultivation wasn’t sufficient yet. So where had she obtained these precious texts?

At that moment, Li Ruoshui had no time to resolve Lian Rusu’s doubts or accept her gratitude.

She continued her training on the Path of No Return, gathering outer medicines like those from Taishang Sect and Purple Thunder Chariot for Perfect Golden Body Cultivation. But to cultivate this technique to the second layer suitable for Heart Fixing Realm, she still lacked Five Stone Marrow. The map didn’t mark its location, so it probably wasn’t produced here.

Perfect Golden Body Cultivation was stalled due to insufficient outer medicines, and Universe One Qi Palm similarly lacked enough Cinnabar Sand. She could fulfill her vow by killing Ruin Spirits to “repay the loan,” but without matching divine abilities, it wasn’t ideal.

After pondering for a while, Li Ruoshui took out the Taiyi Blazing Fire Profound Light. This technique bore the name “Taiyi,” truly originating from some heaven-piercing ancestor of Taiyi Sect in the past. Cultivating it required sufficient fire energy; Fire Element Cinnabar was one method. Perfect—she didn’t have any. The Spirit Jade Pills she had left weren’t enough to buy the needed Cinnabar Sand.

Fortunately, besides Fire Element Cinnabar, heavenly fire, earthly fire, or even the spiritual breath of fire-attuned cultivators could be used. Li Ruoshui left her cave and, following the map, found a volcano that erupted every three days. The volcano stood on a small island at the boundary between Heart Fixing and Golden Core cultivation zones. At the island’s center, fiery energy blazed, with clouds of steam and colorful vapors. A crimson spire faintly floated amid the mists.

Spiritual energy was abundant here, but the piercing winds and raging flames could incinerate flesh and bones or destroy one’s internals if one wasn’t careful. Without adapting one’s body to the environment, prolonged exposure would ruin one’s foundation.

Ordinary fire-attuned cultivators with any resources chose gentler methods—like using premium Fire Element Cinnabar to temper themselves. Only someone as penniless as Li Ruoshui had no other choice and resorted to the simplest, most brutal approach: using whatever was available.

Walking the world without Spirit Jade Pills meant enduring hardship.

Gazing at the spire’s mouth, Li Ruoshui sighed deeply.

Those who endure the bitterest of bitters would make others suffer tomorrow.

After getting drenched in the rain, she just wanted to kick over someone else’s umbrella.

Supreme Blazing Fire Mysterious Light was a premium offensive Dao technique that emphasized overwhelming force and momentum—perfectly suited to Li Ruoshui, who cultivated Vow Dao. After all, upon making her vow, she had borrowed the thickest mana available at her realm, giving her ample capital. But this technique was hard to cultivate. By the time Li Ruoshui forged the profound light amid the piercing winds and blazing fires, half a year had passed.

At the volcano’s mouth, smoked and scorched, she looked like a lump of charred coal.

A beam of profound light struck down, and the volcano mouth boomed with an explosion, shattering completely.

The restless flames within the mountain were stirred by vital energy, transforming into blazing magma that erupted fiercely like a vast flood, surging in all directions and instantly engulfing several wandering Ruin Spirits on the periphery.

At the moment of eruption, Li Ruoshui’s expression changed drastically. Though she escaped quickly, a heatwave still hurled her through the air. She tumbled and crashed to the ground from midair, leaving a human-shaped crater.

Before Li Ruoshui could climb out of the pit, nearby fruit trees swayed in the wind. Massive fruits plummeted one after another, each landing precisely on her. With a series of squelching sounds, she was smeared in fruit pulp, turning into a sticky red mess. Li Ruoshui winced—there was no time to curse the thieving heavens. A buzzing sound forced her to flee with her head covered. Without looking back, she knew the bursting fruit pulp had attracted a swarm of stinging monstrous insects.

Was it because she hadn’t cultivated a premium escape technique?

Probably not.

This was sheer bad luck! She had been in closed-door cultivation for Supreme Blazing Fire Mysterious Light, delaying her vow completion. Heaven was pressing her to repay the debt, her luck plummeting.

But was she really that talented? Could normal cultivation reach Fixed Heart Third Layer in a year?

While fleeing, Li Ruoshui slew a few weak Ruin Spirits and barely shook off the misfortune.

Huddled in a cave, she pulled out the Tianyan Mirror to check—

Things were different now; vital energy was extremely abundant. Her cultivation speed was normal. Breaking through minor layers within a realm varied by person; the biggest hurdle for cultivators was forming the Golden Core. From first to third layer might take one or two years, but from Heart Fixing to Golden Core could take ten or twenty.

Once she completed her vow and truly reached third layer, she’d have plenty of time to “repay.”

Li Ruoshui breathed a sigh of relief. She was truly afraid she was a genius.

If prodigies cultivated Causal Vow Dao, the death line would chase them relentlessly.

After feeling relieved, Li Ruoshui cleared her unread messages.

Feng Qing’s nonsense was the most voluminous: unique sword cultivator greetings, asking if she was dead yet, and ending with news that she had reached third layer and was returning to Wind Moon Heartless Sect to attempt Golden Core.

Li Ruoshui: “The bet’s settled. I take eight parts of the Spirit Jade Pills, you two. Remember to pay up.”

Feng Qing replied soon: “Are you that short on Spirit Jade Pills?”

Li Ruoshui: “Yes.” She was scraping by on her meager assets. A bad premonition arose, and she pressed, “You didn’t lose it all, did you?”

Feng Qing went full defeatist: “Creditors at the door. If I don’t pay, I get beaten.”

Li Ruoshui: “…” Why had she trusted this one to hold onto Spirit Jade Pills? No need to guess—Feng Qing was surely grinning like a smug bastard right now!

After mentally thrashing Feng Qing a hundred times, Li Ruoshui exhaled and mustered her best spirits to greet her close friend.

Unread messages were few.

She had said she was in seclusion, but had her close friend really not sent even one message during that time?

What if she had actually died?

As Li Ruoshui grumbled inwardly, Chen Buyan’s name imprint lit up.

Upon reading Chen Buyan’s message clearly, Li Ruoshui’s expression changed abruptly, her eyes lighting up. But then the light faded. Leaning against the stone wall, shock, confusion, conflict, regret flashed across her face like a lantern show.

Her close friend had sent her a million Spirit Jade Pills!

She earned ten a month—how many years to save that?