Chapter 134*

Chapter 134: Chapter 134*

The third watch of the night arrived in utter silence. Outside the window, a sliver of crescent moon hung suspended in the ink-wash sky, casting a cold, silver frost over the tranquil courtyard of the Apothecary Department.

The distant chime of the sect’s night bell echoed softly through the mist before fading into the vast mountain valleys.

Inside the guest chamber, Li Yan sat cross-legged upon the jade bed.

He listened intently, extending his spiritual sense as far as his suppressed state allowed. In the adjacent courtyard, the breathing of his master and Senior Brother Anyu was deep and steady, both having entered deep meditative cultivation.

Li Yan lowered his head and raised his right arm. Beneath the moonlight, the Sealing Phoenix Jade tied around his wrist glowed with a faint, milky luster.

The cold, suppressive energy flowing from the artifact felt like a heavy stone slab pressing down upon a raging volcano, keeping the turbulent, ravenous aura of the Phoenix bloodline thoroughly dormant.

Clack.

Li Yan closed his eyes. With a single flick of his divine consciousness, his soul seemed to detach from his physical vessel, plunging into the boundless darkness between reality and void.

Whoosh—!

The suffocating stillness of the guest chamber vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced by a wave of celestial spiritual energy so dense that it felt like breathing pure liquid jade.

Li Yan opened his eyes to find himself standing once more upon the glittering, star-flecked black soil of the timeless mythical space.

Endless silver mist drifted across the landscape like celestial silk. In the center of the realm, the Spirit Spring bubbled merrily, its crystal-clear waters releasing ripples of medicinal fragrance that instantly washed away the residual phantom aches lingering within his soul.

Farther in the distance, rows of rare, heaven-grade spirit herbs swayed gently, their leaves glistening with condensed morning dew.

Clang!

A crisp sword chime rang out through the air.

From the open field, Fan Jian shot across the sky like a ray of dark crimson light, landing neatly before Li Yan. The Nine Heavens Scorching Sun Blade planted itself upright into the black soil, vibrating lightly as its divine consciousness pulsed with familiar warmth.

"Master, you have returned," the sword’s voice resonated respectfully in his mind.

"I am back," Li Yan murmured, reaching out to pat the hilt of the blade with affectionate familiarity.

"You certainly took your sweet time," a crisp, playful voice floated down from the bough of an ancient spirit peach tree.

Xiaoxiao drifted down like a falling petal, her translucent spirit form was clad in fluttering crimson robes. Her arms were folded across her chest as she floated in mid-air, her bright eyes narrowing into two sharp, scrutinizing crescents as she looked Li Yan up and down.

"Look at you," Xiaoxiao clicked her tongue, shaking her head with an exaggerated sigh of mock disdain. "A newly awakened bloodline bearer, yet you let a pair of overgrown mountain lizards beat you into a half-dead ghost. If the ancient masters of this pavilion knew their successor was carried home on someone’s back like a sack of turnips, they would crawl out of their immortal graves just to spit blood!"

Li Yan’s lips twitched slightly. He rolled his eyes, utterly unbothered by her poisonous tongue.

"If you have the leisure to stand there mocking me, why don’t you explain what happened in that cave?" Li Yan walked over to the edge of the Spirit Spring, bending down to scoop up a handful of the sweet, invigorating liquid to wash his face. "My wrist turned black as coal, my meridians nearly shattered, and Master was forced to use an ancient heaven-rank jade to seal my bloodline. He told me that if the seal ever breaks before I reach a higher realm, the bloodline will devour me from the inside out."

Xiaoxiao’s teasing demeanor vanished the moment the bloodline was mentioned.

Her spirit form drifted closer, hovering right above his right wrist. She stared intently at the phantom projection of the Sealing Phoenix Jade, her brows furrowing into deep ridges.

"Your master, Fu Hanzheng, possesses keen eyes," Xiaoxiao admitted, her tone unusually solemn. "His diagnosis was completely correct, though he still underestimates the terrifying nature of what sleeps inside you."

Li Yan dried his hands on his inner sleeve and looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"The Phoenix bloodline is inherently divided into distinct lineages," Xiaoxiao explained, floating toward the shelves of ancient jade slips. "Some inherit the Immortal Rebirth flame, some inherit the Purifying Sacred flame... but yours is the Devouring Phoenix. In the primordial era, this bloodline was known as a taboo existence—an insatiable beast that feeds upon the spiritual essence of heaven, earth, gods, and demons alike!"

Xiaoxiao turned to face him, her eyes burning with serious intensity.

"When you were in that cavern, you were surrounded by death, rotting bone, and decades of accumulated spiritual corpses. Pushed to your absolute limit by the venomous miasma, your body cried out for survival. That desperate instinct of yours acted like a spark thrown into a barrel of sparkpowder! The Devouring Phoenix bloodline smelled the feast and tore through its slumber ahead of time, greedily siphoning every drop of remnant Qi from those corpses into your vessel."

"So that was why my strength suddenly surged..." Li Yan whispered, remembering how easily he had cleaved through the female lizard’s defenses with Fan Jian.

"Yes! But a surging river cannot be poured into a fragile clay teacup!" Xiaoxiao poked him firmly in the forehead with a translucent finger. "Your physical vessel is still mortal flesh! You haven’t tempered your bones, you haven’t reinforced your meridians with dragon-marrow essence, yet you forced the equivalent of decades of violent, unrefined spiritual Qi into your body at once! If your bloodline hadn’t been sealed in time, that ravenous power would have corroded your dantian into an empty void!"

Li Yan felt a lingering shudder run down his spine. Hearing the truth laid bare, he finally realized just how close he had walked along the precipice of death.

"Then... Master’s cover story of pausing my cultivation to focus on body tempering..."

"It is not merely a cover story; it is your only path to survival!" Xiaoxiao declared firmly, her hands resting on her hips.