Ning Yin was so excited, she could hardly put it into words.
Clearly, she could barely protect herself, yet she still wanted to help him get on the arena.
She raised her hand and gave Yan Hanzhou’s shoulder a firm pat. “For what you just said, don’t worry, I will definitely help you find Heavenly Spirit Spring Water and solve your Waste Spiritual Root problem!”
Once she said it, she acted on it.
Ning Yin didn’t even return to Evening Cloud Peak, heading straight for the Soaring Cloud Sect’s Wanfa Tower.
Here, millions of books were stored, ranging from personal notes to profound cultivation secrets—everything one could imagine.
The Wild Chronicle that recorded the life of Lingxiao Immortal Lord was hidden right here in Wanfa Tower.
Although it was called a “wild chronicle,” the fact that it was kept in Wanfa Tower was proof enough that there was value in its contents.
Besides, this book also recorded in detail the history of changes on the Nine Heavens Continent a thousand years ago.
At that time, what is now called the Jiu Zhou Continent was known as the Nine Heavens. In a thousand-year-old immortal family, a baby boy was born, and the head of the family named him Lingxiao, meaning to surpass the Nine Heavens.
Lingxiao did not disappoint.
He started cultivating at three, built his foundation at five, and in ten years, walked a path others would need centuries to finish.
But later, his family was destroyed by the Demon Dao, his Spiritual Root shattered, and in utter despair, his fiancée fetched Heavenly Spirit Spring Water from Tianling Mountain for him.
“Tianling Mountain?” Ning Yin skimmed over the lines describing Tianling Mountain in detail.
Tianling Mountain was covered in snow all year round, never melting since ancient times.
The towering peak resembled a sword hanging upside down, its cliffs unfathomably deep, and fierce winds howled between the crags.
A sword hanging upside down?
“Yan Hanzhou, doesn’t this Tianling Mountain look just like the Reflection Cliff at Soaring Cloud Sect? An upside-down sword…” Ning Yin declared with certainty, “No mistake! It’s that very mountain at Reflection Cliff! Exactly the same!”
“But it’s strange. It’s only been a thousand years in the cultivation world, so why are there such huge differences between the Nine Heavens Continent from a thousand years ago and the present Jiu Zhou Continent? The places, peaks, lakes—their names are all changed, and the great sects and immortal families seem to have vanished without a trace.”
“Clouds shifting, seas changing, a thousand years is enough to change many things.”
“But isn’t this change a bit too much? Look, the book says there used to be countless Spirit Transformation and Great Perfection Stage experts, and Golden Core cultivators were just average disciples in the sect. But now, how many in our sect are above Golden Core?”
At this, Ning Yin sighed, “The sudden collapse in strength over this thousand years… I really wonder where all those geniuses from back then went. Why is there not a single record of them?”
Yan Hanzhou lifted his gaze, icy killing intent unconcealed.
“They were probably all killed.”
Ning Yin drew in a cold breath. “Impossible, right? Who could be so ruthless as to wipe out everyone and cause such a collapse? That would be a true demon king! And besides, if such a world-shaking event happened in the Nine Heavens Continent, why wasn’t it recorded?”
Once someone with a Heavenly Spiritual Root stepped onto the path of cultivation, their lifespan would become vastly different from ordinary folk.
A Foundation Establishment cultivator could live up to two hundred years.
Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators could live three to five hundred years, and Spirit Transformation experts could live for over a thousand.
Even though Spirit Transformation experts are rare on Jiu Zhou Continent today, they aren’t extinct.
If someone that bloodthirsty and cruel really committed such atrocities a thousand years ago, how could no one know of it now? How could it go unrecorded?
Not only is there no record on Jiu Zhou Continent, but even in novels, there’s not a word about it.
Usually, if even the novels don’t mention something, it means it wasn’t important.
Well, that’s normal.
Not the main character, not a supporting character—of course the background’s past isn’t important.
“Forget it, let’s hurry to Reflection Cliff and see if we can find Heavenly Spirit Spring Water.”
Logically, if Reflection Cliff really had Heavenly Spirit Spring Water, Soaring Cloud Sect has existed for a thousand years—how could it not have been discovered?
But then again, even Lingxiao Immortal Lord’s chance in the forbidden ground went unnoticed, didn’t it?
Standing at the edge of Reflection Cliff, Ning Yin suddenly felt that even if there was Heavenly Spirit Spring Water here, it was only natural it hadn’t been found.
The whole of Tianling Mountain was barren and covered in snow all year.
Looking around, it was all rocky cliffs—other than being the best place to punish disciples, how could there be any Heavenly Spirit Spring Water?
Yan Hanzhou gazed around, then suddenly whistled.
Soon, a dazzling Liuli Featherfinch flew up against the wind from the cliffs of Reflection Cliff.
“Liuli Featherfinch? Why is it here? I haven’t seen you since we left the forbidden ground—I thought you ran away.”
The Liuli Featherfinch ignored her, quietly landing on Yan Hanzhou’s shoulder.
Its gaze was sharp and focused, as if carefully listening to something. After a moment, it flapped its wings and flew off.
“Where’s it going?”
“To find Heavenly Spirit Spring Water.”
“Will it really find it?”
Sometimes, Yan Hanzhou thought he must be grasping at straws, actually believing what a wild chronicle said.
All that childhood sweetheart fiancée, Spiritual Root destroyed, forced to break off the engagement—pure nonsense!
The two waited at Reflection Cliff for who knows how long. Suddenly, Yan Hanzhou’s eyes sharpened as he looked in a certain direction.
“Let’s go!”
“What is it? You found it?” Ning Yin quickly followed. The two made their way through jagged rocks, crossing rugged mountain paths, and stopped before a sheer cliff.
Yan Hanzhou looked down.
The wind here was even more piercing than at the top of Reflection Cliff.
Ning Yin cautiously looked down. “Is it down there?”
“No, it’s in the middle.” Yan Hanzhou said, “Remember the Calm Mind Incantation I taught you?”
Ning Yin nodded, knowing she was about to free fall again.
She shut her eyes tight and silently recited the incantation.
The sensation of weightlessness came, and the wind howled past like knives, stinging her skin. She could feel a steady hand gripping her shoulder tightly.
“Open your eyes.”
Ning Yin opened her eyes.
The two of them had landed on a ledge halfway up the mountain.
The sea of mist around them was swept away by the Liuli Featherfinch’s wings, and there, set in the cliff, was a stone door.
The stone door rumbled open, revealing a pitch-black cave before them.
The Liuli Featherfinch flew in first, soon letting out a joyful chirp.
The two stepped into the cave, only to find that, though not large, it was warm and humid inside.
Looking around, they saw in the dim darkness, a single drop of water glowing with a white light slowly seeping from a crack in the stone wall, falling down.
The clear, ethereal sound of dripping water echoed softly through the cave.
Ning Yin and Yan Hanzhou exchanged glances, both seeing joy in the other’s eyes.
“Is this Heavenly Spirit Spring Water? Will it really cure the Waste Spiritual Root?”
Yan Hanzhou said in a low voice, “We’ll know if we try.”
Ning Yin looked around and found a stone cup near the dripping water.
She placed it under the drops, eyes fixed on the glowing bead of water.
Each time a drop fell into the cup, she would unconsciously nod slightly.
When the tiny stone cup was finally full, Ning Yin looked up at Yan Hanzhou, eyes shining with starlight. “It’s full, it’s full!”
She carefully picked up the stone cup. “Do you think Heavenly Spirit Spring Water will work for someone with an ordinary Spiritual Root like me? If I drink it, could I become a Heavenly Spiritual Root?”
Yan Hanzhou stared at her without blinking.
“Why are you looking at me? I found this, so of course I should drink first.” Ning Yin took a deep breath.
She was the one who suggested Heavenly Spirit Spring Water, and she found it.
If it was really Heavenly Spirit Spring Water, so be it. If not… then so be it!
With her eyes closed, Ning Yin was about to tip the cup to her lips when Yan Hanzhou snatched it away and downed it in one gulp.
“Hey!” Ning Yin cried out in shock, “Wait…! You just drank it like that? What if it’s not Heavenly Spirit Spring Water…”
Yan Hanzhou set down the empty cup. “If this is Heavenly Spirit Spring Water, then my fate isn’t finished. If not, I can’t blame anyone else.”
Yan Hanzhou could never forget the despair of having his Spiritual Root destroyed a thousand years ago—the rage with nowhere to go, the powerless agony that nearly drove him mad.
If he was fated to be a Waste Spiritual Root again in this life, he’d rather die and have his soul scattered.
Almost as soon as he drank it, countless warm currents surged through his once-blocked meridians, finally converging in his long-silent Spiritual Sea Dantian.
It was as if a parched wasteland, cracked for years, finally received a nourishing rain.
The withered and dormant Spiritual Root, under the nourishment of Heavenly Spirit Spring Water, revived and unfurled, like a tender shoot in early spring, growing vigorously in the dry earth and greedily absorbing long-lost vitality.
The feeling of the Spiritual Root’s recovery was exactly the same as a thousand years ago.
Yan Hanzhou could feel the power of his soul, which he had been suppressing, pouring into the depths of his Essence Field, as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged into his body like a tide.
A terrifying pressure spread out. Ning Yin staggered back, her breath catching in her chest.
But in the next instant, the terrifying pressure suddenly vanished.
Ning Yin looked at Yan Hanzhou, still shaken. “You… succeeded?”
Yan Hanzhou slowly opened his eyes. “I succeeded.”
“Then what is your cultivation now? Golden Core? Nascent Soul?” Ning Yin looked at him expectantly. “Or… Spirit Transformation?”
Yan Hanzhou quietly felt the Heavenly Spiritual Root crazily absorbing the surging spiritual energy in his body, and replied with utter calm, “Foundation Establishment.”