Lady Cultivator

Qin Xi suddenly felt the space between his eyebrows pulsating. It was as if something was happening.

He opened his eyes, wrinkled his brows, and sank into contemplation.

People of the cultivation world could sense ominous hunches sometimes. He was now precisely sensing an ominous hunch. Could it be that something was happening?

Before he figured out the reason for this omen, he already called out: “Zhenji…”

However, he stopped midway during his call. Zhenji wasn’t here today; he went to take the test inside the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation—could it be that the ominous hunch he sensed had something to do with Zhenji?

He pondered the matter for a while, but in the end, he still felt restless. Thus, he dusted off his sleeves, stood up, opened the cave door, and slowly made his way out.

The bright sunshine outside threw his mind off track. Right, it’d been so many years since he last went out. So many years had passed that he couldn’t even clearly remember how many years it’d been in the end…

This was the longest he’d ever been in Closed Door Meditation. For more than thirty years, he never left his Immortal’s Cave, continuing to progress from the middle stage until the peak stage of the Core Formation realm. Right now, he was even only one step away from forming his Nascent Soul. Initially, he wanted to continue his Closed Door Meditation until he formed his Nascent Soul, but now…

The space between his eyebrows was throbbing acutely with pain. He felt he didn’t have time to think too much, so he made a wave, causing a pure white cloud wisp to appear under his feet. He stepped on the cloud and flew to the main peak.

When the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation appeared, master also told him to go inside and have a try, but he refused on the grounds that he was still in Closed Door Meditation, so he had no idea where that Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation was located.

Nevertheless, once he spread his divine sense, he easily found a place in the main peak where people were gathered. Presumably, that was his destination.

Without any hesitation, he stepped on the cloud, directing it to fly downward.

By the time he landed, he could already see the commotion at the scene. Many disciples that had come out upon failing the test were gathered closely together around something.

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The Core Formation elders, who were managing the site, had long sensed his spiritual aura pressure. One of them wanted to see who was arriving, so he pushed his way through the crowd of disciples. As soon as he did that, however, he was astonished by whom he saw. “Junior Martial Brother Shoujing?”

Qin Xi walked over. “Senior Martial Brother, what happened?”

“Oh.” The elder finally snapped out of his astonished state and said, “It’s good you came—something happened to your Clear Spring Peak disciples.”

Qin Xi wrinkled his brows but said nothing. He just followed that elder into the crowd.

“Junior Martial Brother Shoujing!” School Head Shen, who was crouching on the ground to examine the situation, called out.

Before Qin Xi could say anything, he already saw the disciple lying on the ground. Quite a while later, he finally found his voice. “What’s going on?”

Another elder spoke: “Something happened in the third test. These two disciples ran into each other; one was experiencing a real human illusion, while the other one was out of luck—she was going through the Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit, when her wisdom started to become blurry, so…”

As he followed that elder’s line of sight, Qin Xi frowned once again. “Mingzhu?”

Ruan Mingzhu was sitting in a corner. She was in a daze, shivering and didn’t even respond when Qin Xi called her.

School Head Shen said, “She was transported out when she was inside her demonic barrier. It’s best not to talk to her now.”

Qin Xi nodded. His gaze was once again fixated on the fainted Mo Tiange, who lay on the ground. “Wasn’t it said that this was a formation to test and train disciples and that there wouldn’t be any danger?”

While continuing to import his spiritual aura into Mo Tiange’s body, School Head Shen said, “There shouldn’t be any life-threatening dangers. The moment this disciple received a deadly attack, she was immediately transported out of the formation. It was just that when she was attacked, her consciousness happened to be in a dazed state, so her mind was temporarily injured.”

“… I see.” Upon seeing School Head Shen stopping, Qin Xi also crouched down to sense Mo Tiange’s pulse and input his spiritual aura to examine her condition.

There was no problem with her meridians, and her dantian was also in good condition… but her sea of knowledge was closed. The wrinkles in his brows became deeper. A closed sea of knowledge could mean a big or a small issue. Although it wasn’t life-threatening, being attacked by others when one was going through a mental test was definitely very dangerous. If the stimulation one received was too excessive, they might take a dozen to twenty years to wake up or they might even never wake up at all!

Qin Xi raised his eyes to look at Ruan Mingzhu. He wanted to say something, but based on her cowering look, it seemed like she wasn’t faring well either, so he eventually renounced his intentions.

“Junior Martial Brother Shoujing, this is your junior martial sister from the same master, right? You better take her back first. This matter might either be severe or trivial; you better let Martial Uncle Jinghe examine her.”

Qin Xi didn’t hesitate and immediately nodded. “Alright.” He lowered himself to hold Mo Tiange then looked at Ruan Mingzhu. “Senior Martial Brother School Head, my apologies, but I’ll have to trouble you to look after my martial nephew for a while. I’ll soon get people to take her back.”

“That’s what I ought to do.” School Head Shen naturally wouldn’t refuse. Lord Daoist Jinghe’s beloved disciple was heavily injured inside the formation and his grand-disciple was greatly stimulated… with his kind of personality, it would already be good if he didn’t blame them. Besides, they were indeed responsible for this matter. There were indeed some dangers involved in entering this Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation, but because they were afraid these disciples wouldn’t be willing to take the risk, they didn’t explain the matters in detail and only told the disciples to be careful.

“Master! Master!” Ye Zhenji had just exited the formation, but he was unexpectedly greeted with this scene. His face immediately became pale as he looked at Mo Tiange. “What happened to my aunt?”

Qin Xi frowned and said, “We can talk about it after we head back.”

He then waved his sleeve to summon the flying cloud and took Ye Zhenji back to Clear Spring Peak.

The flying cloud flew at its fastest speed. In just a very short time, they already reached the summit of Clear Spring Peak and landed in front of Shangqing Palace.

Qin Xi didn’t make any stops. He continued to walk towards Shangqing Palace with Mo Tiange in his arms.

“Martial Uncle Shoujing!” The gate-keeping disciples looked astonished to see his gloomy expression and the unconscious Mo Tiange in his embrace.

Qin Xi didn’t pay any attention to those disciples. He directly barged into Shangqing Palace, calling loudly, “Master!”

Lord Daoist Jinghe’s divine sense was covering the surrounding area, so he was wondering what was happening. The moment he turned around, however, he was completely shocked by what he saw. “What happened?”

While placing Mo Tiange down, Qin Xi said anxiously, “Master, take a look—she was attacked when she was going through the mental test inside the formation. I’ve examined her; she seems to have not been injured, but her sea of knowledge is closed.”

After hearing what Qin Xi said, Lord Daoist Jinghe grabbed Mo Tiange’s wrist, sensing her meridians and examining her injuries.

His expression immediately turned grave.

Qin Xi couldn’t hold back, asking: “How’s she?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe stroked his beard; his brows were deeply wrinkled. “Not too good. I reckon she must’ve just discovered there are some weaknesses in her mental state, then she was attacked when she was facing the Five Confusions Plaguing Spirit—”

“Then what should we do?”

Lord Daoist Jinghe glared at him. “Can you not interrupt? I haven’t finished speaking!”

Upon being glared at by him, Qin Xi had nothing to say and could only admit his mistake. “Okay, I won’t interrupt.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe continued to say: “She closed her sea of knowledge in her subconscious attempt at protecting herself, so we don’t have to worry about her safety because there shouldn’t be a problem in that regard. However, waking her up is a bit troublesome.”

After confirming his disciple was alright, Lord Daoist Jinghe stroked his beard and stopped speaking, waiting for Qin Xi to come and ask further. However, after being reprimanded just now, Qin Xi no longer asked and just continued to stare at him. Qin continued staring at him until he felt exceptionally bored. Just as he started to feel angry, Ye Zhenji asked hastily, “Grandmaster, what should we do then?”

Ye Zhenji’s perfect timing made Lord Daoist Jinghe feel extremely satisfied. He suddenly felt Ye Zhenji was very pleasing to the eye, so he beamed and said, “Nothing in particular. We’ll just have to take care of her; it’s enough for us to keep her body safe. After some time, when she realizes there’s no danger, she’ll naturally start to open her sea of knowledge again.”

“Oh…” Both Ye Zhenji and Qin Xi sighed at the same time.

Qin Xi thought about the matter then asked again: “Master, how long will she be in this state?”

“Mmm… the shortest will be a few months, the longest will be several to several dozen years.” He then patted Qin Xi’s shoulder and said irresponsibly, “Rest assured; she’s still young now—even if she wakes up in several dozen years, it still won’t be late for her to form her Gold Core.”

Once he finished saying that, he ignored Qin Xi’s gloomy expression and waved his hand. “That’ll do. Take her back to Mingxin Residence. En, it’s enough to let Xiuqin and the others take care of her.”

Qin Xi mustered his best effort to hold himself back, but in the end, he still couldn’t hold back. “Master! It’ll be fine if it’s just a few years, but several dozen years—although she’s not mortal, problems are bound to appear in her body if she continuously stays in this unconscious state, okay?! Can’t you just think of some other way?”

“Huh?” Originally, Ye Zhenji’s worries had already faded when he heard his aunt was alright, but he now became anxious again. “Grandmaster, is that true?”

“Nonsense!” The one who answered was unexpectedly Qin Xi. His brows were deeply wrinkled, and his voice was suffused with anger. “Us cultivators don’t need to eat, but we still have to absorb spiritual aura—we rely on spiritual aura to sustain our lives! If she stays unconscious for several years or several dozen years, she’ll still indeed survive, but since she’ll stop absorbing spiritual aura, her body will wither and dry up. At that time, even if she wakes up, her cultivation level will definitely regress!”

“Ah! It’s that serious?!” Ye Zhenji then turned towards Lord Daoist Jinghe and said wretchedly, “Grandmaster! You can’t just look on as my aunt becomes a shriveled old lady—my aunt’s still young!”

“Pffft!” Lord Daoist Jinghe spurted a mouthful of tea. “A shriveled old lady! Hahahaha! As expected of a brat like you to come up with this!”

“Master!” Qin Xi glared at him furiously. “If you want to laugh, you can laugh all you want after the matter’s handled—you should think of some solution now!”

“What solution can there be?” Lord Daoist Jinghe shrugged with an innocent expression. “I’ve already told you; after some time, she’ll naturally wake up.”

“Really?” Qin Xi smoothed out his expression. “Master, you don’t want Nine Turns Mind-Pacifying Pills anymore?”

“Ah! Brat, you’re threatening me?!” Lord Daoist Jinghe bellowed accusingly.

“So what if I am?” Qin Xi raised his eyebrows. “Don’t forget that all your spiritual plants are in my hands. You want medicinal pills? Sure; work your brain and fix this matter first!”

Lord Daoist Jinghe gnashed his teeth. “Stinky brat, I let you learn to concoct medicinal pills but in the end, you actually use your skills to threaten me!”

Unfortunately, Qin Xi looked unperturbed. He didn’t even glance at Lord Daoist Jinghe.

Lord Daoist Jinghe was livid. His eyes were shifting around, but all of a sudden, he seemed to have thought about something, and his gaze was once again fixated on Qin Xi. “Didn’t you say you were in strict Closed Door Meditation? Why did you come out?”

“…” Qin Xi was stunned. He opened and closed his mouth seemingly wanting to say something. However, he eventually couldn’t say anything.

Upon seeing how Qin Xi’s expression turned from angry to awkward, Lord Daoist Jinghe burst out laughing while swatting the table. He laughed so heartily that he couldn’t even straighten his back. “Hahaha! Brat, you’re making me laugh to death! You were still in Closed Door Meditation; you’ve been in Closed Door Meditation for thirty five years—why did you suddenly come out without telling anyone? Hey, don’t say this doesn’t count as coming out! You’ve gone out of your cave, you’ve sat outside and even met other people and drank tea—if this doesn’t count as coming out of Closed Door Meditation, what is this? Hey, hey, what happened in the end? Tell Master; how did you know something happened to Tiange? Why did you suddenly come out of your Closed Door Meditation?”

Qin Xi didn’t say anything. He looked away but then looked down and started counting ants.

Lord Daoist Jinghe sneakily came closer to him. “Quickly say it—what happened in the end? You’ve been in Closed Door Meditation for thirty five years, and you even said you wouldn’t come out unless you made a realm-breakthrough. But now you suddenly came out; you have to at least explain to Master, right? Speak, speak!”

Qin Xi could no longer stand being pestered like this, so he could only speak. “I thought something happened to Zhenji.”

This time, even Ye Zhenji, who was crouching next to them, also turned his head towards him.

His master was in front of him while his disciple was next to him; Qin Xi’s current expression indeed looked miserable. “I… had an ominous hunch. I thought something happened to Zhenji, so I…”

“Oh, you can actually have an ominous hunch.” Lord Daoist Jinghe nodded his head in an extremely serious way. “Not easy… It’s really not easy…”