Moments later, Qi Shubai, who was meditating in a quiet room, noticed his disciple token flickering unpredictably.
Keeping his eyes closed and sitting cross-legged, he sent a sliver of his spiritual sense into the token to see who was contacting him.
*Ding.*
“Senior brother, something strange happened in the Kongyu…”
Ding Sang Sang’s voice came, calmly summarizing the incident.
“Little junior sister? Got it.”
Qi Shubai quickly opened his eyes, and the next moment, his figure vanished from the quiet room and appeared outside Yun Miao’s courtyard.
Bang!
The defensive barrier he had just erected today was smashed to pieces by his own palm, emitting a sharp cracking sound in the still night.
The creaking wooden door opened, and Qi Shubai strode inside. The walls, floor, and table were covered with layers of wild cursive script, overlapping densely.
The blood-red stains mingled with thick black ink filled every corner but the ceiling. The entire room radiated a silent madness that was truly shocking!
Yun Miao, who had just been laughing and chatting with him earlier, now lay fainted on the floor, her face pale and bleeding from all seven orifices.
Judging from the ink and blood stains on her fingers and clothes, this entire eerie chaos was clearly her doing.
If those disciples who were screaming ‘Kongyu is haunted!’ in the Kongyu could see this scene, they’d probably scream and run away, further cementing their belief that the Kongyu was truly haunted.
Qi Shubai, as the Xuantian Sect’s senior brother, had seen many storms over the years and was not easily frightened. But when his spiritual sense probed Yun Miao’s body, he was shocked by her condition.
There was no abnormality in any other part of her body except for severe brain trauma; her Purple Mansion had unexpectedly opened!
The Purple Mansion and Dantian are innate body structures. For ordinary people, these are closed by default.
The Dantian lies three inches below the navel and must be opened first by Spirit Qi before it can gather energy.
The Purple Mansion, located beneath the brow, requires strong mental will to open, allowing the spiritual sense to perceive all things. It is also called the ‘Heaven-Opening Eye.’
Now, Yun Miao, only a young disciple just breaking through the Qi Refining Seventh Layer, who hadn’t even learned to release Spirit Qi yet, inexplicably had her Purple Mansion open, possessing the divine-sense exploration ability that usually only Foundation Establishment cultivators have!
But this was no blessing. Her Shihai was in turmoil, stirred up by violent storms crashing against the Purple Mansion, causing severe cracks.
This was just like a violent upheaval in the Dantian’s spiritual power. Damage to the Dantian might reduce a cultivator to a cripple or kill them outright; damage to the Purple Mansion might cause dementia or death.
Qi Shubai’s face darkened.
He first suppressed the chaotic spiritual sense to stabilize her, then quickly scooped her up and sent a mental message to the Master and Tian Laokou while flying at full speed toward the Dan Peak’s Yao Lu.
During this, he could clearly feel Yun Miao’s spiritual sense rippling outward like water waves, and the disciple token at her waist was receiving it, flickering like starlight.
It seemed that the strange message in the Kongyu was not sent through the stored spiritual sense in the disciple token, but unconsciously emitted by her while unconscious.
Danger.
Fortunately, that strange message attracted everyone’s attention; otherwise, who knew how long it would have taken before anyone discovered what had happened to the junior sister?
The Yao Lu, located halfway up Dan Peak, was a bamboo pavilion nestled in ten thousand acres of spirit fields.
Its back wall was covered with flourishing climbing ivy, whose broad leaves rustled in the night breeze. This was also the residence of Dan Peak’s peak master, Tian Xin.
Qi Shubai hurried inside with Yun Miao in his arms. “Master! Please save the junior sister. Her Purple Mansion suddenly opened, and her Shihai is in chaos…”
Before he could finish, a tendril of climbing ivy descended and gently lifted Yun Miao onto a bamboo bed on the second floor.
Qi Shubai followed quickly upstairs. Recalling the lively, active girl from the daytime and seeing her now lying pale and weak, barely breathing, her clothes ill-fitting, he felt a pang of worry and guilt.
@Infinite Good Reads, all on Jinjiang Literature City
***
The next day, Yun Miao woke to find herself wearing the holographic helmet again after sleeping the entire night.
Having experienced this before, she was less panicked this time but still woke with a heavy heart. She washed up with a somber mood and ate breakfast without appetite.
After dawdling for two hours, she reluctantly donned the holographic helmet and logged back into the game, bracing herself for the dreaded reload and replay.
Yet, no death prompt appeared. Instead, she felt utterly weak, eyes closed, lying somewhere filled with bitter medicinal aroma, in complete darkness, unable to speak or move.
She opened the system panel with her mind to see what was wrong and was greeted by a series of negative debuffs filling her character status.
Weakness, bleeding, mental lethargy, exhaustion, confusion.
Just as Yun Miao was shocked by her serious illness upon awakening, she suddenly heard the voices of her senior brother, master, and Tian Laokou.
“It’s my fault.”
“How could it be your fault? Opening the Purple Mansion is solely linked to the cultivator’s intent and doesn’t cause external Spirit Qi fluctuations.”
“Plus, the blood smell inside was completely blocked by the formation. Even if you were at Nascent Soul stage, you would need to break the formation first to detect anything inside. So it’s normal that you didn’t notice.”
“Exactly. If you had noticed, I’d have sent you straight to the Disciplinary Hall.”
“Tian Laokou, when will my disciple wake up?”
“Not sure. All that could be done has been done. Now it’s up to her own will. If she doesn’t wake up today, she never will. Even if she does, there’s a chance she’ll become a fool. Senior brother, prepare yourself.”
In her ear.
Yun Miao was bewildered: Who might become a fool? Surely they weren’t talking about her?
The next second, she felt someone sitting beside her, gently stroking her head. Then her master’s sorrowful voice came.
“Ah, my poor disciple. I thought you had at least a hundred years left to live, but we’ve barely spent a day together and now you’re…”
Wake up quickly. The disciple recruitment ceremony is about to start, and your master is still waiting to drink your apprenticeship tea.
“But if you wake up a fool, with your proud personality, you probably won’t be able to bear it. It might be better to just stay asleep forever. Don’t worry, you’ll lie peacefully in your coffin, and I will give you a grand funeral.”
Yun Miao: ???!
Realizing she would truly have to reload if she didn’t wake, her weak and exhausted body suddenly gained a spark of strength.
The still-sorrowful Sect Master Chang suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chin. Lowering his head, he saw Yun Miao had opened her pitch-black eyes without him noticing, her pale hand grabbing his drooping beard. A ghostly voice floated into his ear.
“Master, I think… I can still be saved.”
Sect Master Chang was stunned, then excitedly turned to Tian Laokou.
“Tian Laokou, Miao’s awake!”
Qi Shubai quickly stepped to the bedside, full of concern. “Little junior sister, you finally woke up.”
A small black shadow jumped onto the bamboo bed, nuzzling Yun Miao’s cheek. She turned her head slightly to see Little Black Wolf’s quiet amber eyes, its dark pupils silently reflecting her pale face.
Yun Miao stroked its furry head, voice full of surprise. “Reserve Rations, you’re here too. Haven’t seen you in days; I almost forgot about you.”
The Little Black Wolf let her mess its fur while its amber eyes quietly met hers, as if already guessing the ‘almost’ was a lie.
“Move aside, move aside, don’t block the way.” Tian Laokou brusquely pushed past the master, disciple, and little wolf blocking the bed, then raised his hand to Yun Miao’s brow and asked.
“Do you remember your name?”
Yun Miao, though not feeling pain, was heavy and exhausted. She obediently answered every question without argument.
“Yun Miao.”
“Gender?”
“Female.”
“Parents’ names?”
“Born from the cracks in stones, no father, no mother.”
“Current residence?”
“Living in the Bamboo Grove on the main peak, next to senior brother.”
“One plus one equals…”
“Two.”
“How many spirit stones in your storage bag?”
“Ten lower-grade spirit stones.”
“Do you remember who I am?”
“Tian Laokou.”
“No, I’m the Sect Master’s junior brother; you should call me senior uncle.”
“Senior uncle.”
“Tian Laokou risked his life to save you last night, using many top-grade pills to save your life and mend your damaged Purple Mansion. Do you think senior uncle treated you well?”
“Yes.”
Tian Laokou looked at the obedient girl lying on the bed, his face creased into a smile like a steamed bun. He eagerly rubbed his hands.
“Since senior uncle treated you so well, then say this now: ‘I am willing to give all my spirit stones to the sect’s best senior uncle.’ How about that…”
Bang!
Before Tian Laokou finished, Sect Master Chang slapped him away, sending him tumbling down the stairs like a meatball, ‘thud thud thud,’ landing in the open alchemy furnace on the first floor.
The Little Black Wolf, originally resting by Yun Miao’s side, twitched its ears, glanced at Sect Master Chang, then laid back down.
Tian Laokou’s angry curses soon echoed from downstairs: “Senior brother, the sect forbids killing fellow disciples! I’m going to report you to the Disciplinary Hall!”
Sect Master Chang calmly stroked his beard.
“The sect also forbids bullying the weak and robbing property. If you don’t accept that, then we can both go to the Disciplinary Hall later and see whether Sister Yaoguang punishes me or you.”
Then he looked kindly at the weak Yun Miao on the bed and comforted her.
“Good disciple, it’s good you woke up. Don’t worry. From now on, just rest well, and you’ll recover soon.”
Qi Shubai stepped forward to say something, but at that moment, Ning Yu’s voice sounded outside the Yao Lu, saying she had news to report.
Sect Master Chang gestured for Ning Yu to enter.
Tian Laokou, who was still kicking in the furnace, bounced back up to the second floor like an agile plump ball, brushing off the black soot and pretending nothing had happened.
The bamboo stairs creaked. Yun Miao looked up to see Ning Yu leading a nervous-looking girl upstairs.
The girl had a round face and big eyes, plump in appearance.
Besides a disciple token and storage bag at her waist, she wore many other ornaments, such as a thumb-sized Yaoqian Shu, a Jin Suanpan, and copper coins strung with red cords.
But the most eye-catching was the fist-sized Jin Chan pendant hanging at her waist—shining bright gold, heavy and conspicuous.
Because of all these trinkets, the round-faced girl’s footsteps jingled and clattered as she walked, each sound telling the story of her eagerness for wealth.
Looking at this girl covered in symbols shouting ‘Wealth is coming, wealth is coming, wealth from all directions,’ Yun Miao had already vaguely guessed her name.