Lady Cultivator

Mo Tiange had her own reasons for giving him a precious Body-Concealing Talisman. Firstly, she was no longer a wretched, wandering little Aura Refining cultivator. She now belonged to a cultivation group and had a master. Giving away a mere Body-Concealing Talisman was nothing to her. Secondly, “pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger” might be a very effective method, but if she had sufficient strength, she didn’t need to use that trick at all.

There were five groups of people there in total. Regarding the three female disciples of Bixuan Court, it would be great if they didn’t drag the rest of the group down; Mo Tiange didn’t think much of their fighting strength. As for the two male cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang, their cultivation levels were quite high and they weren’t weak; if they worked together, she actually felt they might be quite hard to handle. Nevertheless, the two of them couldn’t work as one. The Yao couple, on the other hand, worked well with each other, but their cultivation levels were a bit low. Daoist Fangzheng’s cultivation level was comparably high and he was also strong in fights of magical power. However, he didn’t have many treasures, so Mo Tiange was confident that if she went all-out, it wouldn’t be difficult to defeat him.

That being the case, she might as well display a bit of her strength. If it was anyone else, it wouldn’t really matter, but Daoist Fangzheng was a smart person; not only would he hold her in high regard, but he would also sincerely view her as his comrade.

Inside an Illusory Formation, it would be very easy for people to be deceived if they didn’t have other people reminding them, so having an ally was better than being alone.

After giving the Body-Concealing Talisman to Daoist Fangzheng then chatting for a short while, Mo Tiange went to a corner and once again sat down to meditate.

Because of the phantom a moment ago, the two cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang also lost interest in winning Yun Hanyan’s favor. Instead, they moved to the side and began whispering to each other. Apparently, they were discussing Mo Tiange’s real identity.

But Mo Tiange didn’t pay them any attention. No matter what these people thought about her, each of them would go their separate ways after they left the valley; why would her identity matter at that point?

Just like that, they passed the night scared but unharmed. All kinds of illusions appeared that night, but fortunately, they constantly kept each other grounded, so those illusions didn’t cause any major issues.

When dawn arrived and birds started chirping, the first ray of sunshine finally broke through the valley. The cliffs surrounding this valley were high and steep, so by the time the sun shone upon the valley, it was already the hour of the snake ¹ .

The six people present were all Foundation Building cultivators, so they didn’t need to rest. However, after passing the night in a terrified state, the two women surnamed Yun and Liu weren’t in good spirits now.

Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng glanced at each other; both saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes. These women really could do nothing except drag other people down! Unfortunately, although they wanted to cast these women aside, they were afraid they’d be affected if they did so.

The sky was now bright, but the others still hadn’t appeared. The two men surnamed Lu and Wang could no longer sit still. They whispered for a moment then simultaneously walked towards Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng—they’d only been trapped inside the formation for less than a day, but small groups had formed among them. Yun and Liu, as well as Lu and Wang, each came from the same cultivation group. Even if each couple had some internal conflict between themselves, they were still together. Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng both came alone and their characters were also relatively similar, so they automatically became closer to each other.

“Fellow Daoists.” The one who spoke was the cultivator surnamed Lu.

Mo Tiange and Daoist Fangzheng both opened their eyes to look at him.

The two men surnamed Lu and Wang was already sitting cross-legged in front of them. “Fellow Daoists, continuing on like this isn’t a solution. Complex Illusory Formations generally consume the strength of the people who enter them. The longer we’re trapped here, the more detrimental the situation will be for us. Our blood essence might also be consumed until nothing is left.”

Daoist Fangzheng was utterly shocked by what he just heard. “Consuming blood essence?”

The cultivator surnamed Wang took over and explained, “Correct! We, fellow martial brothers, are the disciples of Guigu School which originated from Tianliang School. Since Tiangliang School has long been exterminated, our Guigu School is definitely the strongest now when it comes to the Law of Formations.”

It was only now that these two cultivators mentioned the legacy inherited by their school. Mo Tiange had indeed heard of Guigu School before. Although the cultivator surnamed Wang was exaggerating a bit, the truth wasn’t far off. There weren’t any great cultivation groups in the Celestial Pole who were well-established in formations; there were only several medium-sized cultivation groups which specialized in formations, and among them, Guigu School could be considered well-known. However—

The corners of Mo Tiange’s lips curved, forming a vague smile on her face. The words spoken by the cultivators surnamed Lu and Wang sounded rather terrifying. She also studied Illusory Formations before, and there was indeed a theory that it’d consume people’s blood essence. However, that would only occur if the people couldn’t extricate themselves from the trap. Inside an Illusory Formation, their blood essence would be absorbed if one was confounded by the illusion, but if they could maintain their mental state, they wouldn’t be affected much.

Upon seeing her expression, the two men surnamed Lu and Wang felt rather doubtful because they didn’t understand her thought process. They glanced at each other then the cultivator surnamed Lu proceeded to say with a smile, “Little Brother’s Lu Xiangxin. This is my junior martial brother, Wang Xiangzhe. May we know what Fellow Daoists’ names are?”

Mo Tiange didn’t know whether Daoist Fangzheng had exchanged greetings with these two, but right after she entered the hall with the five-colored Five Elements Platforms, the mechanism started immediately, so she only heard these two people’s surnames from Shang Ruwan.

“My Daoist name’s Fangzheng.” Daoist Fangzheng nodded at the two men.

Mo Tiange also answered: “Ye Xiaotian.”

The two men surnamed Lu and Wang were a bit surprised, but they didn’t fuss about why her name was different from the one they heard last night.

The four people once again exchanged greetings. Lu Xiangxin then said, “Fellow Daoists, in short, the longer we stay inside this Illusory Formation, the heavier the damage our bodies will sustain. Therefore, we better leave this formation quickly.”

Mo Tiange chuckled. “We’ve been trying to leave; it’s just that we haven’t been able to find the exit. Since Fellow Daoists are saying this, have you perhaps found a solution already?”

“This…” Lu Xiangxin hesitated for a moment.

Wang Xiangzhi took over and said, “Miss Ye, to be honest, this formation’s indeed very sophisticated; we also can’t figure it out. Nevertheless, we also shouldn’t remain passive forever, right?”

Daoist Fangheng took a glance at Mo Tiange’s expression then asked the two men, “Then according to Fellow Daoists, what should we do?”

Hearing Daoist Fangzheng soften his tone when he spoke, Lu Xiangxin was encouraged. “Based on our studies in formations, it’s impossible for a formation to be completely flawless no matter how sophisticated it is. Although this valley isn’t large, it’s very complex. As long as we continue looking, we’ll certainly be able to find something.”

“You’re right, but…” Mo Tiange cast a glance at the two women surnamed Yun and Liu. “There are six of us here. Are we going to split up in our search?”

The two men surnamed Lu and Wang noticed the hint she gave through her glance. They were both smart people, so how could they not understand her meaning? Both immediately looked conflicted. “This…”

Mo Tiange put on a fake smile. “Fellow Daoists, eating without working won’t do, ah~!”

Lu Xiangxin wasn’t affected much, but Wang Xiangzhi on the other hand… After he heard what Mo Tiange said, his face instantly flushed. The glance Mo Tiange cast at the two women before asked the two male cultivators whether or not they would take charge of those women. Both Lu and Wang hesitated because after all, flirting was flirting; their own lives were still a bit more important. Now, Mo Tiange’s words were meant to satirize them, saying they wanted to take advantage of others but didn’t want to be responsible. Wang Xiangzhi was a thin-skinned man. Seeing that Mo Tiange, who was also a beautiful woman, mocked them straight to their faces, he couldn’t help but feel ashamed.

For a while, the situation became uncomfortable. Only the two women surnamed Yun and Liu were completely oblivious about it because they were quite a distance from them.

“Cough!” Daoist Fangzheng coughed then said, “Fellow Daoists, this old man’s going to talk honestly; it’s already courteous of us not to take their lives. This old man doesn’t want to be burdened on behalf of other people!”

Daoist Fangzheng was an individual cultivator. The world of individual cultivators was much crueler than the world cultivation group disciples lived in. In general, if they wanted to go on an adventure together, those who didn’t display sufficient strength wouldn’t be admitted into their group. However, he hadn’t made things difficult for those two Bixuan Court female disciples until now, so he had indeed shown them enough courtesy. After all, this situation was different from going on an agreed-upon adventure; right now, the nine of them were bound together incidentally.

Since Daoist Fangzheng said this, the two men surnamed Lu and Wang had nothing to say. After glancing at each other, Lu Xiangxin immediately expressed his stance: “Alright, the four of us will continue the search. As for other people… we don’t really care about them. But since we stood on separate Five Elements Platforms, we better take their survival into consideration.”

What he said received approval from the other three.

The three people continued to discuss the idea for a moment then Lu Xiangxin went to talk to the two women.

Mo Tiange didn’t have any interest in what they were talking about. She only saw from afar that upon hearing what Lu Xiangxin said, Yun Hanyan bowed her head and wiped her tears. After spending a short while consoling the women, Lu Xiangxin came back with a bitter smile on his face.

Mo Tiange was too lazy to worry about other people’s matters. Naturally, Daoist Fangzheng also wouldn’t pay any attention to matters related to entanglement between youngsters like these ones. Thus, the four of them proceeded on their way in silence. From the moment they got down from the altar, they continued their search slowly.

They hadn’t gone too far from the altar when Wang Xiangzhi suddenly called out to them.

Although the four of them moved together, they searched separately. At that moment, the three others lifted their heads and directed their gazes at him.

Wang Xiangzhi beckoned at them; his expression looked serious.

The three others flew towards him.

Once Mo Tiange arrived at where Wang Xiangzhi was standing, her expression instantly became grave.

It was Yan Ruoshu. She was lying on a Five Elements Platform, looking extremely pale and wasn’t breathing.

Mo Tiange crouched down. She tried inserting her spiritual aura into Yan Ruoshu’s body, but it was futile, so she stood up and shook her head. “Too late.”

Ever since they got trapped inside the Illusory Formation, they had never faced any real danger despite not being able to leave. Now that someone actually died, the four people’s expressions instantly turned grave.

This formation was indeed an Illusory Formation, but as they expected, it was also one that could kill people.

Mo Tiange was the only woman among the four of them, so the task of inspecting the corpse naturally fell into her hands.

There weren’t any wounds on Yan Rushu’s body. Her clothes were intact, and there was also no trace of a struggle. It seemed as if she suddenly dropped dead there. After cautiously examining her corpse, Mo Tiange finally realized that Yan Ruoshu’s posture was rather strange. Her arm was stretched to the side as if she wanted to grab something—

“What do you think?” Wang Xiangzhi asked impatiently.

Instead of answering, Mo Tiange once again moved her spiritual aura and inserted it into the top of Yan Ruoshu’s head.

After people died, their meridians turned stiff, so spiritual aura wouldn’t be able to pass through. However, the tops of people’s heads were actually a shortcut towards their dantian, and spiritual aura could still be inserted into the body from that point.

Several seconds later, Mo Tiange retracted her palm and stood up with a dignified expression.

“Fellow Daoist Ye, what happened in the end?” Daoist Fangzheng asked with concern.

Mo Tiange sighed. “The blood essence in her whole body was exhausted. She was probably blinded by the illusion and couldn’t extricate herself from it in the end.” Yan Ruoshu’s posture clearly showed that she wanted to grab something, but there was nothing in front of her now. That object was probably part of her illusion, so when she died, it naturally disappeared.

“…” The other three were once again silent.

Lu Xiangxin and Wang Xiangzhi glanced at each other; both saw the shock in each other’s eyes. When they talked about their blood essence potentially getting exhausted, they only wanted to scare these two people; they never expected that such thing could happen for real, so how could they possibly not be in a panic now?

Mo Tiange muttered to herself for a while then said, “Fellow Daoists, it seems Yan Ruoshu died last night. However, we didn’t sense anything…”

Daoist Fangzheng was dumbfounded. He said, “Fellow Daoist, are you saying our lives won’t be affected by other people?”

“Not exactly.” Mo Tiange took out an empty Qiankun Bag. With a wave of her hand, she stored Yan Ruoshu’s corpse inside it. “After all, the three of them stood on one stone platform; maybe having one of them alive is enough.”

Upon seeing Mo Tiange taking Yan Ruoshu’s corpse away, the three others went green with envy. Of course, it wasn’t because they had an odd fetish or something; they were just coveting the things Yan Ruoshu possessed. Nevertheless, they also didn’t dare to offend Mo Tiange over this matter. After all, she didn’t directly take Yan Ruoshu’s Qiankun Bag—she was just storing the corpse away. She was probably going to give it to the other two female cultivators, so they didn’t really take this matter to heart.

“But this proves that if we’re blinded by the illusion, we might exhaust our blood essence and die…”

The three others once again sank into silence.

“Alright, we shouldn’t waste our time here. Let’s continue our search.”

Daoist Fangzheng nodded. “We… better be more careful. Let’s search in pairs.”

Although they didn’t split up, they searched separately. This time, they no longer dared to walk alone, so with gloomy moods, they went in pairs, slowly searching along the way.

It was unclear whether they were lucky or unlucky, but right after they began searching the intersection of the valley, they suddenly heard a loud cry.

The four people glanced at each other. After they confirmed it wasn’t a hallucination, they finally flew towards the source of that cry.

They didn’t fly far before sharp-eyed Mo Tiange spotted Shang Ruwan’s silhouette on a Five Elements Platform.

She was glad, but that feeling immediately turned into fright.

It was indeed Shang Ruwan, but not too far from her was another person!

“Ah!” Wang Xiangzhi cried out in surprise then said in astonishment, “That’s… that’s Fellow Daoist Yao, but why… why would he…”

Mo Tiange’s brows were deeply furrowed. Looking at that silhouette, it was indeed Yao Zixiu, but there was something strange about him—his cultivation level was unexpectedly in the Core Formation realm! How could that be possible!?

Mo Tiange didn’t eliminate the possibility that some kind of fated chances might exist in this Illusory Formation. However, those fated chances definitely wouldn’t cause a cultivator to directly jump from the early stage of the Foundation Building realm to the Core Formation realm in an instant! The dantian and meridians of an early stage Foundation Building cultivator could only contain a limited amount of spiritual aura, but the spiritual aura needed in the Core Formation realm was 100,000 times more than that, so both their dantian and meridians had to be reconstructed. Even if there was enough spiritual aura to make a cultivator directly jump from the early stage of the Foundation Building realm to the Core Formation realm, they still needed one to three years to remold their body first!

Was it perhaps an illusion? But based on Shang Ruwan’s expression, that was unlikely…

The three others were filled with hesitation over whether they wanted to head over there or not. After all, the spiritual aura pressure of a Core Formation cultivator’s was present—they didn’t dare to enter a conflict against a Core Formation cultivator. However, at that moment, Mo Tiange was already flying towards Shang Ruwan.

“Fellow Daoist Ye!” Daoist Fangzheng shouted, but he couldn’t stop her, so he helplessly stayed still and remained hesitant. When he turned around to look at the two others, however, he saw that both Lu Xiangxin and Wang Xiangzhi looked restless as if they wanted to do something.

Daoist Fangzheng knew in his heart that this situation wasn’t good, so he immediately said, “Fellow Daoists, do you really believe there’s a way for someone to directly jump from the early stage of the Foundation Building realm to the Core Formation realm?”

Lu Xiangxin and Wang Xiangzhi glanced at each other then showed perfunctory smiles. “How could we? We’re just… curious, okay! Are you not curious?”

“This…” There was uncertainty in Daoist Fangzheng’s eyes. How could he possibly not be curious? As an individual cultivator, how much effort had he exerted just to cultivate until he reached the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm? Right now, there wasn’t much time left in his lifespan, so he was anxiously looking for fated chances to advance to the late stage and proceed towards the Core Formation realm, but…

“It’d be best for Fellow Daoists to cool your heads a bit! I am curious, but does this kind of shortcut really exist in this world? Yesterday, we were almost deceived by that White Jade Snow Lotus; do Fellow Daoists still remember?”

After he said that, the two people looked surprised, but they indeed calmed down.

Daoist Fangzheng continued on: “We might as well take a look at what’s happening. It’s not too late for us to go if there’s anything wrong.”

On the other end, Mo Tiange already flew to Shang Ruwan’s side. She called out softly, “Big Sister Shang, are you alright?”

Shang Ruwan was so flustered that she didn’t even notice that someone was heading towards her. Now that she finally saw Mo Tiange, she instantly grabbed Mo Tiange’s hands, looking like she was in a complete panic. “Little Sister Ye, I…”

“Big Sister, calm down.” Seeing that Shang Ruwan couldn’t even speak properly, Mo Tiange immediately pacified her. “You should tell me what’s happening first. That… Is that your husband?”

Shang Ruwan nodded with confusion. After she took a deep breath, she could eventually get some words out. “Yes, that’s Big Brother Xiu.”

“What happened to you guys? We spent the entire day looking for you both yesterday, but we couldn’t find you. How did Fellow Daoist Yao suddenly advance to the Core Formation realm?”

Once Shang Ruwan, who was sitting on a stone platform with her whole face covered with sweat, heard what Mo Tiange said, she was completely shocked. “Yesterday? Little Sister Ye, when did we arrive here?”

A slight wrinkle appeared on Mo Tiange’s brows. “Yesterday.”

“Yesterday…” Shang Ruwan muttered. Horror slowly emerged on her face. “That’s not right. Big brother Xiu and I… We’ve been living here for three years!”

Upon hearing her words, Mo Tiange was flabbergasted. Three years! The six of them had only spent one night together, so why did Shang Ruwan think it was three years?

“Big Sister Shang, calm down. Tell me slowly—what happened to you both?”

With Mo Tiange appeasing her, Shang Ruwan eventually regained some of her calmness and started speaking slowly: “After the Five Elements Platform was activated, Big Brother Xiu and I arrived here. We realized this place was brimming with spiritual aura and was a very suitable cultivating area. Furthermore, this place was as beautiful as a fairyland, and there was no one disturbing us here. Although we couldn’t get out, this place was tantamount to paradise, so I suggested that we live here…”

“At first, I felt very happy. There was no one bothering us here, and we didn’t need to wander around or hide from other people… But Big Brother Xiu became increasingly irritable. He said his cultivation had reached a bottleneck, and although this place was brimming with spiritual aura, it wasn’t helpful to his cultivation at all. He said he wanted to enter Closed Door Meditation; he wanted to become strong… We had an argument. In my anger, I ran out, but the result was that when I came back, I saw…” At that point, Shang Ruwan grabbed Mo Tiange’s sleeves; tears finally fell. “Little Sister Ye, Big Brother Xiu’s definitely experiencing a spiritual aura deviation! Wrong, this is really wrong… Look at him…”

Mo Tiange lifted her gaze to look at Yao Zixiu, who was at a spot not too far from them. Yao Zixiu seemed to be practicing some kind of secret techniques; he floated in the air, and his whole body was completely covered in a black thing. Faint sounds of a storm could also be heard from inside that thing…

One day, three years. Mo Tiange could roughly guess what happened. “This life eternal day”—she could finally guess the meaning of these four words. This life was eternal and eternity was only one day—this was the most terrifying aspect of this Illusory Formation!

Shang Ruwan always fantasized about having a tranquil life. This place was like paradise, triggering that idea to appear in her mind again. Therefore, in the beginning, they faced Shang Ruwan’s illusion; a world only for the two of them with no one bothering them. Because of that, the others hadn’t been able to find them. However, although they felt three years had passed, that wasn’t the reality; that was the reason Yao Zixiu’s cultivation didn’t progress at all. Shang Ruwan was unconcerned about this matter, but Yao Zixiu was disgruntled, thus triggering this change.

But what was going on with Yao Zixiu? Mo Tiange really couldn’t understand. She herself also obtained enormous fated chances, whether it was her Deification ancestor or her Virtual Sky World. However, she didn’t believe that in this world, fated chances could allow people to soar from the early stage of the Foundation Building realm to the Core Formation realm in just one night!

“Big Sister Shang.” After a long while, Mo Tiange said slowly, “I think… Your husband isn’t experiencing a spiritual aura deviation.”