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Chapter 1386: Minor Blessed Land
The entire Xiaoluan Mountain Blessed Land, though filled with immortal cranes and colorful luan birds soaring, auspicious radiant glow clouds stretching for miles, and brimming with vitality, seemed to have only three people within it.
(TN: Xiao = Little; Luan = a subordinate species or a specific type of phoenix)
True-Person Rong, Bai Zixi, and the little girl called Xiao Ju (Little Ju).
With a casual point from True-Person Rong, four metal-stone puppets slowly rose, lifting Mo Hua’s icy stone bed and carrying it deeper into the Xiaoluan Mountain Blessed Land.
They stepped past jade-like flowers and exotic grasses, passed by clear emerald pools, moved through picturesque mountain scenery, and, amidst the flight of immortal cranes and colorful luan birds, arrived at the inner court’s alchemy chamber.
The alchemy chamber was antique and elegant, with jade pavilions and refined decor. Inside stood a high-grade pill furnace, and a new bed had just been prepared, laid out moments ago by the little girl, Xiao Ju.
True-Person Rong ordered the metal-stone puppets to place Mo Hua onto the bed, activated a formation, and dismissed the puppets.
Then she turned to Xiao Ju and said, “Xiao Ju, go play.”
Xiao Ju glanced at Bai Zixi, then at Mo Hua, pouting as she reluctantly left.
Inside the alchemy chamber, aside from Mo Hua, only True-Person Rong and Bai Zixi remained.
True-Person Rong looked at Bai Zixi, her gaze solemn. “Zixi, tell me the truth, who is this person? He’s not from the Bai Clan, is he?”
Bai Zixi was silent for a moment before slowly saying, “He is my junior brother.”
True-Person Rong frowned. “Where did you get a junior brother from?”
Bai Zixi pressed her lips together.
Seeing her like this, True-Person Rong knew she was unwilling to answer. She sighed, “Fine. Take care of yourself. Mind your limits.”
Zixi softly responded with an “Mm.”
True-Person Rong said no more, instead turning to examine Mo Hua’s injuries. The more she looked, the deeper her frown grew.
After watching for a while, Bai Zixi couldn’t help but ask, “Can he be saved?”
True-Person Rong nodded. “Barely.”
Bai Zixi asked, “Do we really have to use the Great Restoration Pill?”
She was a bit afraid of over-nourishing her junior brother to death.
“No need,” True-Person Rong said coldly. “Those fools from the Earth Sect, alchemy and medical arts were all reorganized by me according to the ancestral methods before being passed to them. Yet their skills are lacking. They can’t heal properly, but they remember quite well how to use the Great Restoration Pill to prolong life…”
True-Person Rong glanced at Mo Hua, took out a small ice-jade knife, and cut a small piece of flesh from his arm.
Bai Zixi’s gaze flickered when she saw Mo Hua being sliced, but she ultimately restrained herself and said nothing.
True-Person Rong placed the piece of flesh into a sealed jade box and said to Bai Zixi:
“Watch over him. I’ll study the lesion within his flesh.”
Bai Zixi nodded.
After cutting the sample, True-Person Rong left.
Inside the alchemy chamber, only Bai Zixi remained. Looking at Mo Hua lying on the icy bed, covered in wounds, pale as paper, and unconscious, she seemed to recall his once innocent and lively smile. Her gaze dimmed, and she stood there in a daze.
...
In another hidden chamber.
True-Person Rong carefully took out the sliced piece of Mo Hua’s flesh and placed it into a spiritual mirror formed by eighteen rotating glass panels, layered with overlapping light.
This was a treasure capable of peering into the very origin of heaven and earth’s spiritual power.
Feathered Ascension cultivators could use it to analyze the mechanisms of heaven and earth and comprehend the changes of laws.
Fourth-grade alchemy-medical cultivators could use it to observe the microscopic essence of spiritual energy and analyze a cultivator’s illness.
True-Person Rong placed the small piece of Mo Hua’s flesh into the glazed spiritual mirror, activated it, and examined its essence.
Within the eighteen-fold rotating glazed mirror, the internal composition of the flesh was revealed.
With just one glance, True-Person Rong’s brows knitted tightly.
The composition of this small piece of flesh was far too complex, its contamination far too severe.
Blood qi, killing qi, death qi, corpse qi, evil qi… all kinds of ancient, decayed, and filthy energies of heaven and earth had almost entirely converged within it. On the surface, it wasn’t too obvious, but once dissected by the glazed mirror, it became truly horrifying.
Earlier, True-Person Rong had thought that the Earth Sect elders were simply too unskilled to save the boy.
But now, seeing this situation, it was indeed a difficult case even for them.
This young man’s “condition” was far beyond standard limits.
“Yet… for a body of flesh to be corroded to this extent, and still not die?”
This was her first doubt.
She then activated the mirror further, probing deeper into the layers of Mo Hua’s flesh.
True-Person Rong’s attainments in alchemy far surpassed those of the Earth Sect’s elders. This deeper analysis indeed revealed a more profound secret.
“What dense vitality…”
Her expression suddenly changed. “No… this vitality isn’t right… it’s not the vitality of flesh and blood, nor the cultivator’s own life force…”
Mo Hua’s flesh was far too weak, it was impossible for it to possess such powerful vitality.
Then where did this vitality come from?
True-Person Rong stared at Mo Hua’s tissue sample, pondering for a long time before suddenly being startled, arriving at an answer that even she found unbelievable:
“The Law of Vitality?”
Not the material vitality of flesh and life...
But vitality at the level of laws themselves.
A young man, who had only recently formed his Golden Core, actually possessed… such vast law-level vitality within his body?
“How in the world… was this even created?”
True-Person Rong’s pupils slightly contracted. She had studied the Dao of medicine for her entire life, yet had never seen such a rare case.
Laws were elusive and intangible. Normally, only upon reaching Feathered Ascension could one begin to comprehend laws and step into that domain.
Without crossing that threshold—without one’s spiritual power undergoing a Great Circulation transformation—even late-stage Golden Core cultivators had absolutely no qualifications to comprehend laws.
And that wasn’t even the most outrageous part.
The most absurd thing was: How could laws possibly defy the objective rules of cultivation and merge into the body of a Golden Core cultivator?
True-Person Rong’s gaze deepened.
At that moment, the urge to completely slice Mo Hua apart for dissection and research swelled to its peak, nearly devouring her rationality.
A humanoid “law container” that had been polluted by the abyss yet did not die...
For someone like True-Person Rong, who studied laws, the temptation was simply too great.
She exerted tremendous effort to restrain this impulse, especially considering Zixi, she could not act recklessly.
Deep within, she felt intense regret.
Afterward, she suppressed the urge and stored the slice of Mo Hua’s flesh in a jade box, lest looking at it again would stir dark thoughts.
But as she put it away, she suddenly froze, unable to help but wonder:
Could there be… other secrets within this piece of flesh?
Was it really just the Vitality Law?
True-Person Rong wasn’t certain. After thinking it over again and again, she took out the flesh sample once more and placed it back into the glazed spirit mirror.
She observed it carefully again, but aside from the Vitality Law, no further details revealed themselves.
Yet by instinct, she felt something was wrong.
She had a vague sense that she was still overlooking something.
In the quiet chamber, after a long period of contemplation, True-Person Rong finally made up her mind.
From a precious box, she took out several spirit stones so pure they were nearly transparent and placed them beneath the mirror.
Then she activated Feathered Ascension true qi, increasing the magnification of the spirit mirror by another full level before peering through it again.
This was nearly an overload. The spiritual power within the mirror had already begun to show signs of disorder, its light glaring and unstable.
But because of this, the mirror captured something even deeper, revealing a clearer image of a certain law.
True-Person Rong found it difficult to describe what she had seen.
It seemed like the embryo of a monster, an indescribable abomination, pitch black…
In that instant, before she even dared to see it clearly, True-Person Rong struck the mirror with a palm, shattering it. She then shut her eyes tightly, held her breath, and forced herself to forget everything she had just seen.
A long time passed before she opened her eyes again, taking a deep breath to suppress the lingering fear in her chest.
Boundless regret filled her heart.
“What kind of karma… have I brought back into this Xiaoluan Mountain Blessed Land…”
Her face turned pale as Zixi’s words echoed in her mind:
“He is my junior brother.”
“Junior brother… junior brother…”
“Disciple of Zixi’s master…”
“Not from the Old Matriarch’s side, not from the Bai Clan, not from Dao Province… then it must be… from that sect?”
“Could it be… that one… Mr. Zhuang’s disciple?? Also that Daoist’s…”
True-Person Rong felt as if she had fallen into an icy abyss, her limbs turning cold. In the end, she let out a bitter laugh and sighed inwardly:
“The Old Matriarch was right... karma must be studied carefully. One misstep, and you run into a terrifying monster wearing human skin…”
True-Person Rong sat silently in the pavilion for a long time. Only after her emotions settled did she endure the pain of loss and begin to clean up the shattered glazed spirit mirror. Then, after careful consideration, she wrote down several prescriptions, acupuncture charts, and pill formulas, recording them into a jade slip.
Most of the issues had already been thoroughly analyzed through the Eighteen-Turn Glazed Spirit Mirror.
Mo Hua himself contained the Vitality Law. Starting from this point, True-Person Rong had already formed a treatment approach.
She rose and left, walking into the alchemy room, handing the jade slip to Bai Zixi:
“The treatment methods are all recorded in the jade slip. Try preparing the medicine and refining the pills yourself. But remember, use only medicine, absolutely do not use a blade.”
Bai Zixi accepted the jade slip and nodded. Then she said:
“I’ve never treated anyone before.”
Bai Zixi possessed exceptional talent and extraordinary comprehension. Under True-Person Rong’s guidance in alchemy and medicine, she progressed rapidly and reached a high level of mastery.
However, she had always been alone and had never used her alchemy or medical skills to save anyone.
There was no one in XiaoLuan Mountain Blessed Land for her to treat.
True-Person Rong said, “It’s fine, this is a good chance for practice. Just follow the jade slip.”
She herself was a Feathered Ascension expert, while Zixi was only at the Golden Core stage, but purely in terms of Golden Core-level alchemy, Zixi was not much inferior to her.
The person had been brought back by Zixi. As her senior sister, saving her junior brother was only natural.
As for True-Person Rong... she no longer dared to involve herself in such karma.
After giving a few more instructions, she left. But before departing, she couldn’t help but glance once more at Mo Hua.
At first glance, she had only thought him a handsome yet talentless youth, pleasing to the eye but empty within.
But now, after examining his flesh sample, she found it hard to imagine what kind of monstrous being was hidden beneath that human shell…
True-Person Rong frowned, shook her head, and turned to leave.
...
In the fragrant alchemy room, only Bai Zixi remained.
She began reviewing the jade slip left by True-Person Rong, studying the prescriptions, pill formulas, and the meridians that needed nourishment.
Then she started treating Mo Hua according to the methods recorded in the jade slip.
This included how to remove corpse qi, baleful qi, yin qi, and evil qi from his flesh; how to eliminate the corrupted and necrotic lesions within his body; how to use medicinal pills to restore his physical body and recover his vital essence.
Beneath Mo Hua’s bones, the Law of Vitality flowed, able to preserve his life for a certain period of time.
But the flesh and skin on the outside were far too weak, and the contamination was still spreading.
If it was not contained, if the various abyssal evil Qis were not uprooted, then once the law of vitality within him was exhausted, the situation would become truly perilous.
Bai Zixi’s attainments in the Dao of alchemy were already extremely high. After a brief look, she understood what needed to be done.
Without hesitation, she began to prepare spiritual liquids to cleanse the evil forces.
She also personally ignited the furnace to refine pills, strengthening Mo Hua’s foundation and replenishing his vitality.
The little girl Xiao Ju, delicate as a carved jade doll, assisted Bai Zixi, sorting herbs and boiling medicinal decoctions... though she still wore a reluctant expression.
Time passed bit by bit. Under Bai Zixi’s alchemy and careful treatment, Mo Hua’s injuries gradually improved.
...
Thus, ten days later.
Mo Hua, having just been fed a medicinal pill by Bai Zixi, still lay unconscious on the bed.
Yet his Sea of Consciousness was slowly beginning to awaken.
Mo Hua walked the path of proving the Dao through divine sense. His divine sense was far stronger than his physical body and spiritual power—by an unknown margin—so after suffering grievous injuries and nearing death, it was his divine sense that awoke first.
He began to regain a faint trace of awareness.
But his mind seemed filled with black and white... endless, profound darkness, and vast, boundless whiteness. The two intertwined into a chaotic haze, and he could not distinguish his current state, nor clearly remember where he was or what he had experienced.
He struggled to recall, but the more he tried, the more his head ached, and the more it hurt, the less he could remember.
At that very moment, in his hazy perception, he seemed to sense a white figure sitting beside him.
It was a woman, cool and graceful, both real and illusory, carrying an indescribable, ethereal beauty. She felt unfamiliar, yet strangely familiar at the same time.
“Is it… Little Senior Sister?”
Mo Hua felt he shouldn’t be mistaken.
Yet he also vaguely suspected he might be dreaming, or that some evil god was once again trying to lure him using the image of his senior sister.
However, the moment he sensed that white figure, it was as if his humanity had found an anchor. Gradually, he steadied himself, and the violent turmoil in his Sea of Consciousness lessened.
His emotions slowly calmed.
At that moment, the white figure moved, as if about to leave.
Panic surged in Mo Hua’s heart. Instinctively, he reached out, and grasped Bai Zixi’s hand.
(End of Chapter)