Chapter 12

At first, an abnormal fluctuation of spiritual energy inside the Meditation Room attracted Feng Xiwu’s attention. Liuli said she was practicing spells and talismans, so Feng Xiwu left her alone.

And then… it exploded.

Feng Xiwu’s reaction was incredibly fast. The instant that violent burst of airflow erupted, she had already broken down the door, raising a single-handed wall of ice while pulling Liuli to her side and swiftly retreating.

Who knew, the source of the explosion was on Liuli herself.

The berserk airflow burst outward, was blocked by the ice wall, and rebounded.

Feng Xiwu was completely unharmed. At her cultivation level, ordinary small attacks couldn’t harm her in the slightest.

But Liuli… the clothes over her stomach were blown through with a huge hole, and she was whipped all over by the airflow. After everything subsided, she looked completely disheveled, like a beggar.

Liuli staggered to stand still, her hand clutching her stomach. She opened her mouth to say something. “Blegh—”

A huge mouthful of fresh blood poured out along her mouth.

Liuli: “!!!”

This was completely different from the mist of blood she’d coughed up when her Qi circulation went wrong before! It was the difference between a waterfall and a water faucet!

“I… wah… am… blegh… not… ptui… it’s…”

Whenever Liuli opened her mouth, large gushes of blood poured out. Even so, it couldn’t stop her from rambling.

A vein throbbed at Feng Xiwu’s temple. She slammed a palm onto Liuli’s chest, pouring in True Qi to protect her heart meridians first. Then, dragging the person along, within a few breaths—before Liuli could even see the path clearly—Feng Xiwu threw her into a pool of water.

This wasn’t Bright Moon Pond. It was surrounded by mountain walls, and the faint rumble of water could be heard.

The water temperature in this pool was extremely low. The water reached Liuli’s thighs. The moment she entered, Liuli shivered. Buoyed by the water, she couldn’t keep her footing for a moment, feeling as if she might slip and drown in the water the next second. Terrified, Liuli instinctively clung tightly to Feng Xiwu’s arm.

Her mouth still didn’t forget to keep talking:

“Wah… going… cough… to… die… ugh… urp… blegh…”

The blood Liuli spurted out dyed a large swath of the pool water, which was already releasing wisps of cold mist, a deep red. Feng Xiwu said in a deep voice, “Shut up.”

Liuli: “…”

Tears pattered down. She was about to die, and she was still being yelled at! Such a cold and heartless woman!

Heartbroken, Liuli no longer cared about fear or the cold. She turned around, her back to her, not wanting to pay her any attention.

Feng Xiwu didn’t notice her little mood at all, thinking the child had guessed what she was about to do. She pressed down on Liuli’s shoulder, and with a plop, Liuli knelt into the pool.

Liuli: “Wah—”

Blood streaming from her mouth, tears flowing from her eyes, Liuli looked down at the water now reaching her chest. The blood-red water’s surface rippled in circles. Through the faint, flickering reflection, she could still make out a figure with hair as messy as a chicken coop, utterly miserable.

Dying this miserably… this was such a failure…

Before her grief could escalate, a pair of hands pressed onto her back.

One palm pressed over her heart, the other at her lower back.

Feng Xiwu’s surging True Qi instantly poured in, seizing control of all of Liuli’s meridians.

Before long, Liuli felt the tearing pain all over her body greatly ease.

Feng Xiwu treats me so well.

Unilaterally declaring I am angry, unilaterally declaring I forgive you, Liuli reached out, scooped up the pool water, and began washing her face and smoothing her hair.

As she smoothed it, Liuli stopped moving.

The pool water, quickly clarifying after she stopped spitting blood, reflected the indescribable look in the eyes of the person behind her.

Liuli withdrew her hand, turned her head, and offered a well-behaved, fake smile.

This time, her injuries were more severe than before. For some unknown reason, her dantian area felt as if it had been violently attacked.

Feng Xiwu gently pushed her shoulder, turning her around to face herself.

Liuli soaked in the water. The water temperature was extremely low. Now, after recovering a bit, the cold Qi was entering her body. Coupled with the fact that Feng Xiwu’s True Qi was also cold, she shivered even more violently.

Feng Xiwu asked her, “What did you do?”

Liuli was somewhat guilty. “Nothing much…”

“Speak.”

Seeing Feng Xiwu’s brow slightly furrow, Liuli keenly sensed that she seemed angry. Her heart skipped a beat. Not daring to act coy or throw a tantrum, she hung her head and obediently confessed the trouble she’d caused.

It turned out that after Liuli entered the Meditation Room, she felt that the spiritual energy density inside was much higher than outside, and the water element concentration was also much higher. Wicked thoughts arose in her mind: she wanted to make the spiritual energy density even higher.

This way, her cultivation would yield twice the result with half the effort.

And the reason the Meditation Room had this effect was that a Spirit Gathering Array was carved into the ground of the room.

Liuli was a spell cultivator. Her knowledge of formations and talismans was very shallow. But since the underlying principles were the same, she thought: Qi circulates within a cultivator’s body according to specific pathways, and when an array operates, its spiritual energy also circulates according to the array’s pathways.

Therefore, spells, arrays, talismans, and cultivation techniques were all the same thing, just with different carriers.

Liuli simply thought: why not create a Spirit Gathering Array directly on herself?

When cultivators first began their cultivation, they didn’t just learn techniques and spells. They also had to learn basic knowledge like alchemy and talisman drawing. After all, broadening one’s knowledge was more beneficial to cultivation.

So, although Liuli wasn’t proficient, she could draw simple little talismans.

She first experimented on her arm, drawing a simple Spirit Gathering Talisman. But she found that this required her to divert a portion of her mind to control the flow of True Qi along the talisman’s lines, and the spiritual energy it drew in was negligible. Moreover, it didn’t have the effect of high water element concentration like the Meditation Room.

On one hand, the talisman itself couldn’t compare to an array; on the other hand, many arrays had variations—they weren’t rigid.

So, Liuli carefully observed the patterns of the Spirit Gathering Array, memorized them, and planned to draw them onto her body.

As she was drawing, a bright idea struck her. She thought that operating an array, even a miniature one, was much more complex than a talisman. If the energy consumed exceeded the energy absorbed, it wouldn’t be worth the loss.

Why not just draw one inside her dantian using True Qi? That way, running it would just mean her Qi circulation took a few dozen extra turns, without needing to release True Qi outside and waste it. She could also directly gather spiritual energy into her dantian.

Imagining that as long as she cultivated according to the normal way of running her cultivation technique, she could gulp down large mouthfuls of high-purity spiritual energy—how awesome would that be!

So Liuli… began her suicidal endeavor.

At first, when she mobilized the True Qi in her dantian and made it circulate into a circle, Liuli felt her dantian sort of cramp. It was a very subtle sensation. Besides “cramp,” Liuli couldn’t think of another appropriate adjective for the moment.

Soon, after getting used to it, the discomfort disappeared. Then, Liuli circulated it into more complex shapes. This was a long and laborious process, taking her a full day and night.

It could be called forgetting to eat or sleep, racking her brains. Finally, she drew out a tiny Spirit Gathering Array.

And then it exploded.

Liuli slapped the pool water, splashing up a few droplets, and said indignantly, “It was drawn perfectly well! I have no idea why it turned out like this.”

The water in this pool contained an extremely rich amount of water element. Although Liuli was cold soaking in it, the water element she absorbed soothed the internal injuries, keeping her cold without damage.

After listening to Liuli’s account, Feng Xiwu was shocked by this child’s rich imagination and swift, decisive execution. She stared at her for a long while before speaking.

“That was a Water Spirit Gathering Array. Although the spiritual energy it drew in was rich in water element, it still had impurities. The True Qi inside a cultivator’s body is pure. When the two collided, naturally, they couldn’t coexist peacefully.”

Liuli soaked in the water, the clothes that had been blown into strips gently floating. She gave a sheepish laugh. “Practice yields true knowledge. I understand now. I swear, I will never do such a stupid thing again!”

Feng Xiwu, however, said, “Liuli, do you know why, though they all utilize the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, there are such great differences between cultivation techniques, arrays, talismans, and alchemy?”

How would Liuli know these things? She was a staunch atheist in her past life. Coming across the ride of transmigration, she had only accepted the existence of “unscientific” things.

Liuli shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Because the essence of people differs from that of grass and trees, and the essence of grass and trees differs from that of stone,” Feng Xiwu said. “It is precisely because of these differences that the Dao manifests in myriad ways.”

So it was a difference in carriers. As Liuli pondered, she realized what she had overlooked.

She had forgotten that the inherent complexity of things themselves was different. Therefore, to utilize spiritual energy, if you changed the carrier, you had to change the method. Simply copying it mechanically wouldn’t work.

Liuli nodded in shame, realizing she had oversimplified cultivation. “I know I was wrong.”

Next time, she would do her experiments more cautiously!

Sincerely admitting fault, but determined never to reform. That described Liuli.

Liuli now did feel some regret, but not for reckless cultivation. She regretted revealing her impatient, quick-success-seeking nature in front of Feng Xiwu.

This kind of image definitely wouldn’t be liked.

She wondered if she could salvage her image later.

Liuli was lost in random thoughts and didn’t notice a slightly cool hand resting on her head.

A bit awkward, a bit stiff, that slender, elegant hand patted her head twice.

Liuli looked up in astonishment.

Feng Xiwu said, “Liuli, cultivation is inherently an act against heaven. Mortals cannot fathom the secrets of heaven, nor do they know the ultimate end. You, me, countless Seniors… all are crossing the river by feeling the stones. No one dares to claim that the path beneath their own feet is the one and only correct path.”

“For you to dare to walk your own path—that’s very good. Do not admit fault.”

Meaning… she was praising her?

The corner of Liuli’s mouth secretly curled up, her teeth biting her lower lip in a reserved smile.

Feng Xiwu withdrew her hand and continued, “But the more solitary the path, the more you must think thrice before acting. Do you understand?”

Liuli’s smile collapsed. So it meant she was calling her brainless. Dejected and unhappy, she said, “I understand.”

“That’s good then.” Feng Xiwu was very gratified.

Having healed Liuli’s injuries several times now, she had already discovered that her physique was different from ordinary people. The wounds on Liuli’s body healed extremely quickly. She was also rather fortunate. Although her dantian was injured, because the array was small, the spiritual energy it drew in was also limited, so the injury wasn’t severe.

But even so, it would still take a full day to heal all the wounds caused by the True Qi explosion throughout her body.

After soaking in the pool for a long time, Liuli couldn’t hold the kneeling position anymore and plopped down to sit. The pool water, which had reached her chest, instantly submerged past her nostrils.

Liuli: “Glub glub glub…”

Damn it! So it was because she was short that she was made to kneel for the treatment!

Liuli repositioned herself back on her knees. She had looked underwater—there was a white jade platform below, probably designed according to Feng Xiwu’s height. Couldn’t one see that when Feng Xiwu sat cross-legged, the pool water only reached up to her slender, fair neck…

After who knows how long, Liuli’s nose stung, and two streams of hot tears rolled down.

“Perfected One, my knees hurt.”

Feng Xiwu had one hand pressing over her dantian, using the other to wipe away her tears, somewhat puzzled. “Why do you cry so easily?”

Liuli cried expressionlessly. “Probably because that shut-in author thought crying girls are more endearing.” So they installed an exceptionally developed tear gland for the first female lead, Xue Liuli.

What she muttered was only half-understood by Feng Xiwu, who knew she loved talking nonsense and didn’t take it seriously. She just shook her head and smiled. “Forget it. You can sit.”

Sit where?

Before Liuli could react, Feng Xiwu gently pulled her into her embrace, and she suddenly found herself sitting on the woman’s long, shapely thighs.

Liuli: “!”