Lady Cultivator

Mo Tiange didn’t know whether she was dreaming or not.

But her fingers felt warm, and the air smelled sweet.

“Auntie!”

She looked back and saw Zhenji running towards her. He looked small, not yet grown up.

She felt something was amiss, but Zhenji already threw himself at her and hugged her arms, grinning. This kind of softness was also real.

“Auntie, where have you been? I’m already in the fifth layer oh!” the little Ye Zhenji bragged.

She smiled, saying: “I… went to cultivate.” She did, didn’t she? She remembered the feeling of regulating her breathing and spiritual aura filling her body.

Ye Zhenji tugged at her then said with a smile, “Auntie, you’re always cultivating and cultivating—don’t you feel bored? Grandmaster already said that in doing everything, we must balance it with adequate rest. Cultivating all the time isn’t good either. You better go and play with me.”

“Well…” she said, “Grandmaster has his own methods in cultivating, but not everyone can use the same method as him. Aunt’s only interested in cultivating. Aunt feels the happiest when she’s cultivating.”

“But…” Little Ye Zhenji hung his head.

She chuckled then took Xiaohuo out of the spiritual beast pouch. “Here, Xiaohuo will play with you, okay? Go look for Hualing. Don’t you two always play together?”

“… Alright.”

In an instant, Ye Zhenji disappeared. It was as if he vanished into thin air. However, she didn’t feel there was anything wrong with that.

She didn’t return to cultivating either. Instead, in this bright, beautiful spring scene, she walked on the dawn dew of Clear Spring Peak, strolling around leisurely without any particular destination.

She felt like she had nothing to do, but she also felt as if she was waiting for something.

Wind blew and the air was filled with the sweet fragrances of some unknown flowers and plants. Someone walked towards her, treading on the grass softly. His footsteps were light, and his composure seemed relaxed.

“Why didn’t you call me when you arrived?” he said with a small smile.

A happy smile also bloomed on her face. She turned and looked at the tall, slender man, who had a calm bearing.

His eyebrows were dark as if they were drawn in ink. His face was chiseled, but his facial features were soft and elegant, the kind of softness and elegance that made people surrender at a glance.

He smiled and said, “You’ve formed your Gold Core?”

She nodded. “I’ve formed my Gold Core.”

Without saying anything else, the two of them ever-so naturally walked towards each other then proceeded to walk on the grass slowly.

They walked through the beautiful spring breeze. They walked through the lush summer. They walked through gorgeous autumn lights. They walked through the stillness of the winter sun…

Year after year.

They went through several hundreds of years hand in hand. Time sped by. In a flash, they already advanced into the Nascent Soul realm then the Deification realm and stood at the summit of the human world.

He smiled and said, “We’ll stay like this for the rest of our lives, alright?”

“For the rest of our lives? Now that we’ve advanced into the Deification realm, we have ten thousand years in our lifespans at least. Are you really willing to be like this for the rest of your life?”

“… I’m willing. If we can ascend to become real immortals, we’ll still be together. If we can’t, then let’s stay like this for the rest of our lives.”

…

Mo Tiange opened her eyes. The Virtual Sky World was completely empty; she was the only one there.

She’d already stopped absorbing spiritual aura. Her whole body was in a calm state.

Upon going through the Ten Thousand Laws of Nature Formation, she was no longer tangled with the shadow of her childhood, but at the same time, the secrets buried at the bottom of her heart were also triggered. Fortunately, she eventually managed to free herself from them. The dream was beautiful, but reality wasn’t that bad either.

Anything called everlasting and unchanging was simply a myth. Even mortal women wouldn’t believe in forever. Only the Heavenly Dao existed constantly, and it circulated round and round without an end.

She stood up and dusted off her sleeves. A thread of raging spiritual aura lingered between her sleeves.

She was already a Core Formation cultivator now.

With a slight smile, she left everything that made her wallow in her Inner Demon in the past and came out of the Virtual Sky World.

Just as she was about to perform some tricks to create something similar to the celestial phenomena that appeared during core-formation, she suddenly heard roars of thunder. Loud rumbles of storms rang out. Clouds gathered and the wind blew. Spiritual lights were flashing in the air.

Qin Xi sprang out of his seat and spread his divine sense. A split second later, a happy yet helpless expression emerged on his face. He mumbled, “She… formed her Gold Core…”

This wasn’t the same as the time she built her foundation. At that time, spiritual auras converged and auspicious clouds loomed—immortal aura lingered on the whole school. This time, the weather was volatile, and thunder was rolling as if it were celebrating.

They didn’t know that the combination of the Distant Past era’s Spiritual Roots of the Origin, Art of the Origin, and cultivating environment—the combination of factors in Mo Tiange’s core-formation—was the only reason such violent celestial phenomena appeared. For a while, all seven peaks of Mount Taikang were shrouded in wind and clouds. Endless spiritual aura rushed towards Shangqing Palace of Clear Spring Peak. Aura Refining disciples whose cultivation was rather low couldn’t bear them; their minds were under enormous pressures, and they found it difficult to breathe.

“Is this a core-formation or a soul-formation?” someone shouted.

One after another, the high level cultivators on the six peaks came out of their caves. Their gazes were directed at Clear Spring Peak, and all of them sank into contemplation.

Among them, Lord Daoist Zhenyang also gazed at the violent weather and spiritual lights above Clear Spring Peak then sighed. “Core-formation; someone’s successfully formed their Gold Core.”

Bai Yanfei, who’d been following him, was dumbfounded. “Master, how can core-formation bring about such violent celestial phenomena?”

Lord Daoist Zhenyang fiddled with his beard, smiling. “Your Martial Uncle Jinghe’s really lucky. The disciple he casually accepted turned out to be such a genius. Presumably, in the future, Clear Spring Peak will have at least two new Nascent Soul cultivators.”

Bai Yanfei looked up and stared at Clear Spring Peak. His gaze was filled with a mix of frustration and envy.

It was Clear Spring Peak again. Was it perhaps that Senior Martial Sister Mo?

When that thought emerged, he became even more upset inside. With his single spiritual root as his aptitude, he originally thought he was the most outstanding disciple in his generation, but as it turned out, some people had been above him all along.

Memories of that year once again appeared in his mind. On the barren mountain top of Clear Spring Peak, that woman pointed and spoke coldly to him, the genius. In his twenties, he was still young, so he only felt ashamed and angry. However, the passage of time only validated her words one after another.

That year, he’d just built his foundation, but she was already in the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm. When he was in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm, she already advanced to the Core Formation realm. Although he, Bai Yanfei, had outstanding talents, he wasn’t a real genius in the end.

His master said Clear Spring Peak would have two new Nascent Soul cultivators. One must be that Qin Shoujing. Soul-formation had never been easy, but he wouldn’t be like those short-sighted disciples who thought Qin Shoujing was now ruined. Qin Shoujing was barely two hundred years old; he still had years and years to try forming his Nascent Soul. The other one… was probably that Senior Martial Sister Mo. After that event, he finally realized Senior Martial Sister Mo’s talents were even better than his. Everything he said that year… was nothing but a joke…

Mo Tiange walked out of the hut. Her whole body was covered in spiritual aura which flickered in seven colors of lights just like a rainbow. A little magpie formed from spiritual aura fluttered next to her.

She smiled and extended her hand, lightly grazing it with her fingertips. However, that spiritual magpie instantly scattered and once again became spiritual light.

When she looked up, she saw that the entire Mingxin Residence was full of flickering, extremely beautiful lights from spiritual aura. From the crack in the stone wall where daylight poured in, she could see that the same spiritual lights filled the whole sky and danced high above.

After a long time, the storm sounds finally faded bit by bit, the auspicious clouds dispersed, and the spiritual lights also became still.

The disciples at Clear Spring Peak, and even in the entire Xuanqing School, learned of one thing.

Lord Daoist Jinghe’s last disciple, Martial Uncle Mo, formed her Gold Core, thus joining the ranks of the Core Formation cultivators.

Mo Tiange hadn’t yet stepped outside Mingxin Residence when she received countless Summoning Talismans from her friends like Ye Jingwen, Luo Fengxue, Han Qingyu, Kuang Zhu, Zhan Bai and the others, as well as her Core Formation senior martial siblings who she hadn’t really interacted with in the past.

When she was still in the Foundation Building realm, although she was Lord Daoist Jinghe’s disciple and thus only needed to call the Core Formation cultivators she met “senior martial sister” or “senior martial brother,” her realm was inferior to theirs in the end—those people would treat her with a bit of courtesy, but they wouldn’t really make friends with her. Now that she’d officially become a Core Formation cultivator, her Core Formation senior martial siblings finally showed the enthusiasm to interact with her as their peer by sending their congratulatory messages.

Mo Tiange looked at them one by one then sent out the same thank you message through Summoning Talismans. Once she finished, she finally stepped out of Mingxin Residence and went towards the main hall.

It was hard to come by, but Lord Daoist Jinghe was sitting upright on his dragon couch, staring at her with a smile.

Although this disciple wasn’t personally taught by him and he always assumed a laissez-faire attitude and let her progress as she wished, he always guided her step by step toward the correct path.

Mo Tiange earnestly knelt down and kowtowed. “Disciple thanks Master for Master’s sixty years of teaching grace.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe accepted her kowtow then lightly flung his sleeve to prop her up. “The path of cultivation is rugged and rough. You have to experience everything on your own. The things Master can advise you are limited, so from now on, you have to depend on your own hard work.”

“Yes, Disciple will keep this in mind.”

One after another, Xuanqing School disciples found out that the last disciple of Lord Daoist Jinghe of Clear Spring Peak was only eighty four years old but already succeeded in forming her Gold Core, thus joining the ranks of the Core Formation cultivators.

More than a hundred years after Master Daoist Shoujing and Master Daoist Lingxi, Xuanqing School finally had another genius cultivator who formed her Gold Core before she was a hundred years old.

For a time, even the news about Master Daoist Lingxi entering Closed Door Meditation to tackle his soul-formation was no longer attractive to people.

Because Master Daoist Lingxi eventually failed. Right now, he had just come out of his Closed Door Meditation.

Consequently, in just thirty years, the title of Xuanqing School’s most outstanding disciple of the generation once again changed ownership.

When Mo Tiange learned about the matter, she was torn between laughter and tears. She really didn’t know whether or not she should cry in sympathy for that unlucky Master Daoist Lingxi. At his first one hundred years, he ought to be at his most impressive peak, but Qin Shoujing, who was the same age, always stood above him. When Qin Shoujing was finally pulled down from the throne and Li Lingxi could finally receive the genius title after much difficulty, she suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Regarding this genius title, Mo Tiange simply dismissed it with a laugh.

In the Celestial Pole, Xuanqing School was renowned for producing talented cultivators—Lord Daoist Zhenyang a thousand years ago, Lord Daoist Miaoyi several hundred years ago, also Master Daoist Shoujing and Master Daoist Lingxi a hundred some years ago, up until the youngest among them now, Mo Tiange and Bai Yanfei.

Right now, both Qin Shoujing and Li Lingxi encountered setbacks in their soul-formations. As for Bai Yanfei, he was already eighty two years old, but he was still only in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm, so presumably, he’d only form his Gold Core after he was a hundred years old. Thus only Mo Tiange was left. She succeeded in forming her Gold Core at eighty four years old, only a bit slower than Qin Shoujing, but much quicker than Li Lingxi.

But so what? Although there weren’t many high level cultivators in the Celestial Pole, the number of Nascent Soul cultivators was still more than a hundred. If one couldn’t form their Nascent Soul, one couldn’t be called a real genius in the end. This applied to everyone, whether it was Qin Shoujing, Li Lingxi, Mo Tiange, or Bai Yanfei.

This was the cultivation world. Even if it was only a title, it was also this pragmatic.

“Tiange, as long as a disciple successfully forms their Gold Core, they have to be bestowed a Daoist name. Since you’ve succeeded, we should choose a day to hold your Core-Formation Ceremony to celebrate your advancement.”

“Master…” Mo Tiange said hesitatingly, “I… don’t want to publicize the matter.”

Lord Daoist Jinghe laughed. “This has nothing to do with publicizing things. Every disciple who forms their Gold Core will be treated like this. At that time, there’ll be more than a Nascent Soul cultivator to be your witness. Those that have a master will have their master bestowing them with a Daoist name. If they don’t have a master, the Head Grand Supreme Elder will bestow them their Daoist name. You don’t have to refuse—every disciple has to go through this step.”

“… Yes.” Since he put it that way, she could only agree.

“In addition, you’ve already formed your Gold Core—according to reason, Master has to bestow you another Immortal’s Cave. As it happens, after your Martial Uncle Xuanyin advanced into the Nascent Soul realm, his Immortal’s Cave has been unoccupied. From now on, that Immortal’s Cave will be yours.”

Mo Tiange was surprised yet extremely delighted. “Thank you, Master.”

She knew Lord Daoist Xuanyin’s previous cave. Its main cave was enormous, and there were many small caves around it for disciple dwellings. Although the spiritual aura there was inferior to the spiritual aura at Shangqing Palace, it could already be considered rare for a Core Formation’s Immortal’s Cave.

Lord Daoist Jinghe chuckled. “That’ll do. You’ve just formed your Gold Core; you should go and stabilize your realm first. There are still a lot of other matters to attend to, but I’ll let others inform you about them later.”

“Yes, Master.”