Chapter 53: Exposure Part 2

Bo Xuenong was blatantly hinting that Shen Yanting could still pet her furry ears. Shen Yanting wanted to explain that she did not treat Bo Xuenong as a demon pet, that hugging head and tail to sleep last night was just an accident, and that she actually did not like furry animals that much. But her actions and thoughts were completely opposite. The moment Bo Xuenong leaned over, she instinctively lifted her hand along with her.

The furry ears received a pet and swayed gently in her palm.

The tail behind Bo Xuenong also perked up, inadvertently brushing Shen Yanting’s lower back. The tingling sensation it stirred made last night’s awkward scene resurface in her mind.

The blush that had finally faded completely from Shen Yanting’s face reappeared. She sat a bit farther from Bo Xuenong. “Let’s go out and take a look.”

Bo Xuenong agreed excitedly. “Okay!”

She eagerly jumped off the bed first and quickly tidied up, afraid that being even a little slow would make Shen Yanting miss her sincerity.

How could Shen Yanting not see it?

Bo Xuenong always had a way of unwittingly bewitching this already shaken heart. Shen Yanting was gradually unable to see if she could continue being a benevolent master in the future.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded outside the silent room where only the wind blew. Soon, their door was knocked on by Fu Aoqing. “Senior Sister Shen, Xuenong!”

The knocking dispersed Shen Yanting’s chaotic thoughts. She was just about to go open the door for Fu Aoqing when Bo Xuenong had already rushed over first. She yanked open the door and, seeing the utterly haggard Fu Aoqing with two panda eyes, softly called out, “Sect Master, who bullied you while Master and I were away?”

No one had bullied Fu Aoqing.

If she had to say, it was the Heavenly Feast Sect.

Fu Aoqing had not slept a wink last night. Though she had cultivated immortality for over seven hundred years, she had never experienced the cruelty of the Cultivation World. She had not expected to feel the misery of lacking strength back in her hometown where she once lived.

Just thinking of the corpses strewn across the village and what had happened to Gui Nianqin and the villagers made her unable to sleep peacefully. She wished she could grind the Heavenly Feast Sect people to dust and scatter their bones.

There was more than one reason she could not sleep. Mistlongevity Village had not been quiet last night—low sobs and fragmented talking voices had continued. There were those digging graves for their children overnight, burning incense, and fainting from crying only to wake and cry again.

Also… the bedding had been too cold last night.

A dense pain crept through her heart with the chill. Fu Aoqing had only been able to shed tears, which made her look a bit haggard.

Fu Aoqing’s mind stirred, and she suddenly grabbed Shen Yanting’s sleeve, asking anxiously, “Senior Sister Shen, corpse refiners… corpse refiners really can’t have body temperature, right?”

She had been very close to Gui Nian’an in her youth and often shared a bed. Last night, they had naturally slept in the same bed too, but Gui Nian’an’s body had no body heat at all—cold like ice.

The entire bed grew extremely cold along with Gui Nian’an. She felt as if she slept in a coffin with a dead person lying beside her. Even with some cultivation, she shivered uncontrollably from the chill. In the latter half of the night, Gui Nian’an discovered this change and took the initiative to knock on Liu Huairou’s door.

The Gui Residence had only three rooms in total. Liu Huairou was now an ordinary person without cultivation. After she learned of the situation, she gave her room to Gui Nian’an and went to share Gui Nianqin’s room.

Gui Nianqin feared Fu Aoqing might overthink it, so she specially told her that it was good for grown girls to sleep separately, and they could do so from now on.

Fu Aoqing looked at Gui Nian’an’s face, which had become much younger, and stroked her palm, which also lacked temperature. Only then did she realize that while Gui Nianqin did not have the same chill as Gui Nian’an, she also lacked a normal person’s warmth.

Gui Nian’an could still barely be considered human, with coldness clinging to her body. Gui Nianqin, however, had completely departed from the realm of the living. She was merely a talisman, without warmth or chill on her body, and would remain stable forever in the future.

Fu Aoqing became even less able to sleep.

She lay awake cursing the Heavenly Feast Sect all night. As soon as the sky began to lighten, she left the Gui Residence and came to find Shen Yanting and Bo Xuenong.

Gui Nianqin’s condition could no longer be changed, but what about Gui Nian’an?

Shen Yanting did not know much about corpse refining, but she roughly guessed Gui Nian’an’s future path. She did not want to further wound the already scarred Fu Aoqing, so Bo Xuenong spoke for her: “Sect Master, Gui Nian’an should be the one who understands her own situation best. She should have told you. She will only become more and more like a living dead person.”

The current Gui Nian’an could still be said to have some body temperature. As her cultivation grew stronger, the extreme cold would turn into an attack method. Anyone near her would feel like falling into an ice cellar. This counted as a decent ability, but it was hard for anyone to feel joy about it.

Fu Aoqing still refused to give up: “Is there no hope at all to regain body temperature?”

“None.” Bo Xuenong did not spare much thought for Fu Aoqing’s fragile mindset on the verge of collapse. She spoke bluntly: “Sect Master, she is a corpse refiner. The more she resembles a corpse, the stronger she becomes. Do not try to change her. If you want to continue being good friends with her, then grow stronger yourself. As your cultivation improves, your resistance to cold will also strengthen.”

Bo Xuenong actually advised Fu Aoqing.

That face showed no killing intent from irritation, nor did it wear a gentle but false smile. She simply calmly analyzed the situation for Fu Aoqing and stated the solution.

Shen Yanting suddenly understood. Since the future could not be known, they should maintain the status quo and take it one step at a time.

At least now Bo Xuenong looked fine, even gradually integrating into the group.

Fu Aoqing gave a bitter laugh. After surviving such a great ordeal, she lost the carefree boldness to face death she once had. She could not help asking Shen Yanting: “Senior Sister Shen, can I really reshape my spirit root through Granny?”

Bo Xuenong patted Fu Aoqing’s shoulder: “Of course, Sect Master. You will not exhaust your lifespan.”

Contrary to their expectations, Shen Yanting did not nod. Instead, she shook her head: “I was going to tell you both today anyway. Actually, the people of Mistlongevity Village cannot be considered to truly possess spirit roots in the proper sense.”

Bo Xuenong and Fu Aoqing were stunned simultaneously: “Master, what do you mean?”

Shen Yanting took out paper and pen from her storage ring and seriously wrote down Gui Nianqin’s name first, then Fu Aoqing’s and Gui Nian’an’s, and finally Mistlongevity Village.

She circled Gui Nianqin’s name: “I only realized it yesterday when I saw most of the villagers die and their spiritual power return to Village Chief Gui at the same time, upgrading her from a Seventh-Grade Spirit Gathering Talisman to a Grade Six Illusion Spirit Talisman. The spiritual power in the villagers comes from Village Chief Gui. They appear to have spirit roots and can cultivate, but in reality, their spirit roots are not solidified and do not belong to them. They can indeed cultivate, but once Village Chief Gui refuses to share spiritual power with any of them, the illusory spirit roots will vanish, and their cultivation will stagnate.

Shen Yanting paused her voice before continuing: “Moreover, they can only rely on this abnormally abundant spiritual power to become spirit cultivators and cannot walk other immortal paths. And if Village Chief Gui dies unexpectedly, everyone in the village dependent on her power will die. Among them, only you and Gui Nian’an are exceptions. You originally had a spirit root, while Gui Nian’an gathered enough corpse qi from cultivators’ corpses over these years to form a spirit root suited only for corpse refining. The grade of the spirit root she obtained this way is probably not low, but if she stops absorbing corpse qi, her spirit root and cultivation might collapse. As for you…”

Shen Yanting’s voice softened: “Junior Sister Fu, you can indeed gain a better spirit root and longer lifespan through Village Chief Gui’s power, but you are currently a sword cultivator. To walk the same path as them, you must first cripple your own cultivation. Moreover, your life would then be completely tied to Village Chief Gui. If she no longer cares for you, you would become a cripple. If she dies, you would die too.”

Fu Aoqing differed from the people of Mistlongevity Village. She was the sect master of the Imperial Serenity Sect, and they had accompanied each other for five hundred years.

For a sword cultivator to cripple their cultivation, they first had to destroy their lifebound sword. The lifebound sword was one with the body, and the pain of destroying it went without saying.

Fu Aoqing could endure it somewhat since her cultivation was low and she had not yet reached sword heart refining or sword bone refining stages, unlike Bo Xuenong, who had nascent soul cultivation and was at the bone refining stage.

Bo Xuenong could not abandon her lifebound sword without hollowing out the sword bones in her body. This was also why both she and Shen Yanting now knew something was wrong with the Suspended Ink Sword—one could only advise using it less, while the other still pretended not to know.

However, Fu Aoqing had lived safely and smoothly these past few centuries under Shen Yanting’s protection. She had not experienced great suffering, and no one in the sect dared truly injure her severely. She rarely even got hurt. Bo Xuenong and Shen Yanting could not help worrying that she might not withstand the pain of severing her lifebound sword.

Fu Aoqing gritted her teeth: “Senior Sister, Xuenong, I can do it! Nian’an and the others have endured even greater pain, and they made it through. So can I! You have all seen it—Granny is a very, very good village chief. She has always treated me well. I am not afraid to entrust my life and immortal path to her. I trust her!”

She differed greatly from the lazy Fu Aoqing of before. Now, she yearned to live and craved power.