Heavenly Maiden?
That title made Tong Shishi’s heart skip a beat. What kind of existence could claim the title of ‘Heaven’?
But regardless, the fact that the other party was willing to communicate with her filled her heart with joy. It meant many unclear situations could finally be clarified.
Immediately, Tong Shishi kowtowed several times. “Greetings to the Heavenly Maiden!”
Su Xiaoyu gave a slight nod.
From her high vantage point, everyone in the Qixi Festival Sect kept their heads bowed, none daring to look up at her. This meant she didn’t even need to pay much attention to controlling her expressions.
Then, Su Xiaoyu spoke: “Tong Shishi, I have some questions for you.”
Tong Shishi: “Please instruct me, Heavenly Maiden.”
She hadn’t expected the Heavenly Maiden to know her name. She was both surprised and delighted, wondering what the Heavenly Maiden was about to say to her.
Su Xiaoyu considered her words carefully before asking, “What is this place? And what is cultivation?”
How to communicate with Tong Shishi was something Su Xiaoyu had been pondering while eating her egg noodles earlier. She couldn’t appear too ordinary; she needed to maintain a certain level of prestige. This would help with future Faith Value acquisition. So her choice of words was very important.
Hearing Su Xiaoyu’s question, Tong Shishi was stunned.
Asking where this place was?
That question was simple enough. But what did she mean by asking what cultivation was?
Tong Shishi’s mind was racing as she answered the first question: “Heavenly Maiden, this place is Magpie Mountain.”
Su Xiaoyu: “Broader in scope.”
Tong Shishi: “Broader in scope… that would be Alkaid Province.”
“Broader.”
“Broader? The Big Dipper Continent.”
“Broader still.”
“That… the Cultivation World…”
The more Tong Shishi answered, the more her heart trembled.
What kind of existence could it be, that it didn’t even have a basic understanding of being in the Cultivation World?
As she answered, Tong Shishi’s mind automatically filled in vast amounts of context, making Su Xiaoyu’s figure seem even more mysteriously unfathomable.
Su Xiaoyu looked down. “The Cultivation World… a new world. So, what is cultivation?”
Tong Shishi felt Su Xiaoyu’s words contained a huge amount of information, constantly making her imagination run wild.
But she still had to answer the Heavenly Maiden’s words.
Tong Shishi pondered for a moment and said, “What is called cultivation is to absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy to strengthen oneself, and then establish a Dao foundation, condense a Golden Core, break the Core to form a Nascent Soul, evolve the Divine Sense, integrate the Dao with Heaven and Earth, and transcend the Tribulation to become an Immortal.”
Su Xiaoyu thought that such a vague explanation wouldn’t help her understand how to start cultivating.
What she wanted at this moment was to subtly figure out the basics of starting cultivation, to see if she could cultivate in reality.
So, Su Xiaoyu then said, “More detailed.”
Tong Shishi swallowed and began explaining in detail, starting from Qi Refining.
She knew that an existence of this level wanting to understand such basic questions was most likely because it hadn’t taken a path like standard cultivation. It must be walking a completely new path, hence knowing so little about cultivation.
Of course, there was another possibility: that the other party was truly a consciousness born from the heavens. At the moment of its birth, it was not yet familiar with its location or the various aspects of the Cultivation World. Tong Shishi even felt this possibility was more likely.
As Tong Shishi continued her explanation, Su Xiaoyu’s understanding of cultivation gradually grew.
To cultivate, one’s Spiritual Root was an unavoidable topic.
When mentioning this topic, Tong Shishi also spoke with a hint of despondence, mentioning that she and the other members of the Qixi Festival Sect were all cultivators with Inferior Spiritual Roots, which was why they could only huddle in this remote corner.
She then explained that to test one’s own Spiritual Root, one only needed to come into contact with a special object called the Five Elements Orb.
The Five Elements Orb was a naturally formed treasure containing the five elements within it. Upon contact, it would cause the orb to emit the five colored lights representing the five elements in succession. The strength of the light represented the degree of the person’s Affinity to that element.
This treasure wasn’t expensive, and the Qixi Festival Sect currently possessed one.
Hearing this, Su Xiaoyu couldn’t help but feel a strong urge to test herself with this Five Elements Orb to see her own Spiritual Root.
As the Heavenly Maiden, she could easily use curiosity as an excuse to have Tong Shishi bring out the Five Elements Orb for her to test.
But what if the test result showed an Inferior Spiritual Root?
How could the dignified Heavenly Maiden have an Inferior Spiritual Root? Wouldn’t that completely destroy her image?
Thinking of this, Su Xiaoyu had no choice but to suppress the restlessness in her heart. She decided to find an opportunity later to secretly touch that Five Elements Orb.
As Tong Shishi continued her explanation, Su Xiaoyu also gained a general understanding of how to step onto the path of cultivation. People with different Spiritual Roots and different Affinities needed different cultivation methods initially. So, identifying the Spiritual Root was the first priority.
Having understood enough, Su Xiaoyu then said, “I understand.”
With those words, Su Xiaoyu ceased her ‘Divine Manifestation’.
When the oppressive pressure overhead vanished, Tong Shishi and the others dared to raise their heads and look up, seeing a vast, cloudless sky.
“Huff…”
Seeing this, Tong Shishi and Li Yidan let out a long sigh of relief.
Li Yidan praised, “As expected of the Sect Leader. I couldn’t even speak a word just now.”
Tong Shishi was speechless for a moment, then asked, “Yidan, what kind of existence do you think the Heavenly Maiden is?”
This question truly stumped Li Yidan.
Although she hadn’t dared to speak earlier, she had heard the entire exchange clearly and naturally sensed the layers of mystery surrounding the Heavenly Maiden.
She shook her head. “The information we have is clearly insufficient to understand what the Heavenly Maiden is. And I think perhaps we shouldn’t probe too deeply into the Heavenly Maiden’s matters. That’s not something we should do.”
Tong Shishi nodded in profound agreement. “You’re right. At our level, how could we be qualified to understand those things? Being able to answer the Heavenly Maiden’s questions is our honor.”
…
Although Su Xiaoyu had stopped her ‘Divine Manifestation’, she was still observing the situation inside the diorama box through its transparent walls.
Seeing that her performance had indeed intimidated Tong Shishi and the others, she felt a lot more reassured.
Then she glanced at the top right corner of the diorama box.
The Faith Value displayed there had jumped to 136 points.
“It went up again. Just showing my face boosted it. But it feels a bit slow. I can’t even afford a single tree from Magpie Mountain, although that’s partly because that particular tree is quite large. Other trees might cost less… In short, getting more people to notice me should increase the Faith Value more easily, right?”
Su Xiaoyu murmured to herself.
But because of her limited Vision Range, she couldn’t make more people notice her.
No… maybe there was a way.
Su Xiaoyu thought of the five people from the Blazing Heaven Sect.
If she couldn’t reach places beyond her Vision Range, she could simply let people from beyond her Vision Range come to her. Didn’t the five from the Blazing Heaven Sect come and provide her with some Faith Value for that very reason?
Thinking of this, Su Xiaoyu looked thoughtful.
