When the Qingyi Maiden in the Fugui Mirror spoke the confused words, “I don’t know,” everyone sighed for her.
Sect Master Chang and the others simply could not comprehend why a genius capable of deciphering the secrets of the Dengtianti could not answer such a simple question.
The world.
Was this question really that difficult? Not at all. One only needed to speak plainly and say what they truly desired.
What exactly was she confused about? What else did she need to ponder?
It was at this moment that the Qingyi Maiden hesitated and said, “If I must say… I just want to explore and understand this world.”
Everyone was stunned, unable to grasp what kind of answer this was. This goal was too vague, too ambiguous, even too bland…
They found it hard to imagine someone whose desire and ambition for the world was merely to explore and understand it.
Before they could start questioning, the Qingyi Maiden’s one after another odd questions hit them like a barrage, leaving the hall in complete silence.
Even above the clouds within the Dengtianti, silence reigned. The entire world seemed to hold its breath.
Amid this heavy silence, the Qingyi Maiden uttered her final question.
“By the way, do farts from those with Wind Spiritual Roots last longer and linger more melodiously than those of other cultivators?”
The crowd inside the hall:
Figures:
It was strange—after waiting three days just to hear her answer, no one spoke or debated once they actually heard it.
They simply looked at her in shock, hoping to catch a trace of amusement on the Qingyi Maiden’s face.
Yet she remained expressionless, her gaze vacant and unfocused, clearly still under the influence of the Remnant Soul.
This proved that her words were sincere, like those of a newborn infant, filled with the purest curiosity and desire to know the world.
Of course, having curiosity about the world was a good thing, and a pure heart was also admirable, but the problem was… her questions themselves were the biggest problem!
They had just begged her to speak honestly and reveal her heart’s desires, but now they wanted to cover their ears and make her swallow back these questions!
How could any normal person think of such questions?
How could a normal person want to know the answers to these questions?
How could a normal person pursue cultivation and ask about Dao just because of such things? What exactly did this person… what did she take cultivation for?!
And what did the Earth Spirit Root have to do with understanding the world? She basically just wanted to know how to be a deadbeat!
If Sect Master Chang and the others had only admired the girl’s rock-solid mind for resisting the Windchant Patriarch’s Remnant Soul’s seduction so far, now they truly admired her—and felt ashamed in comparison.
After all, just listening to these questions made their ears, brains, and Dao Hearts feel polluted, yet she could ask them so calmly.
But the most frightening thing was… as she gradually understood what she sought, her hair, hair ribbon, and the edges of her clothes began to flutter in the air, as if invisible currents swirled rapidly around her!
Several Peak Masters and Elders jumped up in alarm, eyes fixed intently on the cloud currents rising in the mirror.
“This is…”
“Enlightenment?!”
“This girl really is as clever as Master said… with such insight, having a low-grade Linggen isn’t such a big deal.”
“Ah?!”
“Hey, stop worrying about aptitude for now—look at the current situation! What exactly is she enlightening on?”
Figures:
“Don’t understand?”
“What did you just say?”
Oh, right, she’s inside a cultivation game, and the NPC can’t understand anything beyond the game’s scope.
Yun Miao felt even sleepier. Thinking to quickly finish this hidden plot and go offline to sleep, she spoke elegantly:
“I said I want to understand the whole world. No, I should say… I want to seek Dao.”
“Since Dao is the world’s true principle, the ultimate truth of Heaven and Earth, if Dao is truly that wondrous, then if I only seek the Great Dao, I should be able to find the answers to those questions, right?”
Figures: “Could you… say that again?”
Yun Miao repeated herself, her heavy eyelids closing completely.
“Done? I’m feeling a bit comfortable now, want to sleep.”
The cloud qi in the figure’s body spun again. With each rotation, her form became more transparent. The voice, once calm, gained a sharp edge.
“Do you truly cultivate just to seek Dao? Not for immortality, not for strength, not to become immortal? Then tell me, what if you could seek Dao without cultivating at all? What would you do?!”
Without hesitation, Yun Miao answered, “Then I wouldn’t cultivate, just seek Dao!”
From what she had learned on her journey, her poor aptitude was only slightly better than a Wulinggen mortal’s.
She basically gave up the normal cultivation and progression path, choosing instead to simply experience and explore the world.
After all, it was just a game—playing a game isn’t like answering test questions with standard rules.
The wind swirling above the clouds grew stronger. The figure’s voice became rougher: “What did you say?”
“I said, I won’t cultivate, only seek Dao. If I hear Dao in the morning, I’m content to die by nightfall!”
Yun Miao’s brain was too tired to think clearly. She believed she spoke loudly, but it was just dreamlike muttering.
After speaking, she could no longer hold on and fell fully asleep, unaware that as her words ended, a wild wind suddenly rose around her, as if something was entering her body!
The hearts of those in the hall trembled at her words. They stared at the Qingyi Maiden on the Fugui Mirror, who sat cross-legged above the clouds, head bowed, eyes closed, sleeping soundly.
The surging Spirit Qi shattered the white clouds into fragments like cotton, while her braided hair in front of her chest was blown apart.
The bright red hair ribbon danced gracefully in the wind. Her black hair fluttered wildly behind her, and her wide sleeves and skirt billowed like a swaying Qinglian.
The overtaxed Remnant Soul looked even more transparent in the gale, like a flickering candle about to be snuffed out. Yet she laughed, throwing her head back in carefree, hearty laughter.
“So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is! Haha! Before death and after… the solution that eluded even the grandest assembly is actually so simple!”
The figure laughed, then suddenly turned toward a direction in the void. Though eyeless, everyone in the hall felt as if her “gaze” pierced through the mirror and met theirs.
“Did you all hear that? This is the true breakthrough—truly not cultivating but only seeking Dao. If one never pursues immortality or transcendence, naturally one is free from desire and hence invincible.”
“If only seeking Dao, birth, aging, sickness, death, the rising and falling of tides—these are all Dao. When one reaches the end of the road, they will smile peacefully in death. Why must so many become mad?”
Sect Master Chang suddenly stood, “Ancestor, be careful with your words!”
Only then did he recall the Windchant Patriarch’s Remnant Soul within the Dengtianti could not “see” outside the mirror, nor hear their voices.
Fortunately, the Windchant Patriarch in the Fugui Mirror stopped speaking and stood, slowly approaching the enlightening Qingyi Maiden.
Her nearly transparent hand gently pressed on the maiden’s Heavenly Gate, her tone soft and tired once more, leaving behind her earlier excitement.
“Good child, you are even smarter than I imagined. It’s a pity you were born at the wrong time… no, you were born at the right time. This era needs clever people like you so the world will have less despair, even if just a little.”
“Don’t say the Ancestor doesn’t care for you. Since you helped me fulfill a wish before my Remnant Soul fades, I will grant you a chance, as a… parting gift to a new disciple from me, the Ancestor.”
As she spoke, the wild wind above the clouds intensified. Streams of blue light shot out from the depths of that space and entered the Qingyi Maiden’s body.
Her form grew increasingly transparent, silently transforming into specks of glowing light before her.
The milky clouds and the Spirit Qi vortex surrounding Yun Miao converged and merged. In an instant, the wind and clouds changed violently, forming a larger, stranger vortex.
The images in the Fugui Mirror, once detailed, flickered as if disturbed by some unknown force.
When the figure’s hand pressed on Yun Miao’s Heavenly Gate, Huo Xin and the others quickly turned to Sect Master Chang in shock.
With the sudden anomaly inside the Dengtianti, all the Peak Masters and Elders jumped up together, staring at the white-bearded old man at the front
“This is…”
“Quick, stop the Ancestor!”
Sect Master Chang, who had stood then sat back down, showed no sign of standing again, instead lowering his head in distress and pressing his forehead.
“It’s too late.”
At that moment, the image in the Fugui Mirror flickered violently before vanishing completely. The smooth mirror surface reflected the crowd’s anxious expressions.
Outside the hall came a sudden explosion, followed by howling winds.
Everyone quickly turned to look outside, seeing that on the Cloudview Platform built on the main peak’s cliff edge, a huge Spirit Qi vortex had formed.
The ever-present mist atop the cliff was torn apart by the vortex, fragmented into wisps of cloud that then transformed into the purest Spirit Qi, merging into the whirlpool.
Within this raging vortex floated a Qingyi Maiden, seated cross-legged more than three feet above the ground.
Above her head hung a chicken-egg-sized Jade Linglong Orb, radiating strands of blue treasure light that protected her entire body without a single gap.
She closed her eyes, head bowed, still sound asleep, utterly motionless.
The entire scene was a mesmerizing blend of motion and stillness, unfathomably profound.
The newly inducted disciples watched in awe, just as a streak of orange-red light slowly rose from a distant mountaintop.
The sky had unknowingly brightened to dawn, and a ray of morning light bathed the Cloudview Platform in a golden glow.