Chapter 7

He Kun warmly introduced the situation to Le Li when she expressed her desire to understand more.

“On the peak, besides the True Immortal and the Near True Immortal, there are also the Near True Immortal’s two disciples: Senior Brother Wen Shenghuan and Junior Sister Yu Sulan. The True Immortal has me by his side, the Near True Immortal has Zheng Fang, and now with you, there are seven of us.”

Le Li was actually already aware of most of this. In her previous life, she had only crossed paths twice with Wen Shenghuan and had almost no interaction with him. After reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, she had some dealings with Yu Sulan, so they were somewhat acquainted. She smiled quietly at the thought—this life, without junior brothers and sisters, she had gained senior siblings instead. It felt rather curious in a way.

“Senior Brother Wen likes to go out and gain experience. He left the sect half a year ago, and no one knows when he’ll return. Junior Sister Yu is in seclusion now; maybe you’ll meet her in a few days.”

“I’ve heard of Senior Brother Wen. Everyone says he’s like a divine dragon—seen only in glimpses, never fully revealed.”

“Ha, everyone says that. Look, the Mo Wen Courtyard ahead is where Senior Brother Wen lives, and further on is the Wang Chun Courtyard for Senior Sister Yu. I live in the Qing Yin Courtyard below, and Zheng Fang is in the Lin Feng Courtyard.”

As they spoke, they walked along the mountain path, soon arriving at the Purple Bamboo Courtyard. The thick green bamboo leaves trembled in the wind, dancing gracefully.

“Junior Sister Le, you must be tired from the journey. Rest well. If you need anything, contact me. This is a hundred lower-grade spirit stones given by the True Immortal for you. Use them to buy whatever you like.”

“Thank you, Master,” Le Li accepted the spirit stones, bowed toward Han Yongnian’s abode, and then thanked He Kun as well. “Much obliged, Senior Brother He.”

He Kun left, and before parting, they exchanged jade slips for communication.

Le Li pushed open the courtyard door and entered the house. The sky was already dim, casting the room in shadows. She summoned a spiritual power to activate a luminous stone, which immediately filled the room with a gentle light.

Familiar with her surroundings, she found the control casting platform and adjusted the array flags. In an instant, the formation rose, enveloping the entire courtyard.

In the corner of the courtyard, dense bamboo clusters grew, arranged with stone tables and benches on a paved stone floor. On the right half was a spiritual field covering nearly a hundred square meters.

Within the Lingxiao Sect, inner disciples each had their own courtyard. The terrain and appearance varied, but inside, the layout was nearly identical: two spacious rooms, one for cultivation and rest, the other a reception hall.

An isolation array was mandatory—not only to block sounds and spiritual probes from outside but also providing defense. Once the array was activated, no one could enter without the owner’s permission; forced entry was treated as an attack. Even if the owner killed the intruder, the sect would not investigate, while the intruder would face severe punishment under sect rules.

Even with deep hatred among disciples, no one dared to break into another’s courtyard for revenge—unless they had already cast aside sect laws. Thus, one’s own cultivation space, courtyard, or abode was the safest place within the sect.

With the isolation array activated, Le Li completely relaxed inside and out. After days of travel and enduring the torment of the Nánmíng Lihuo flame, her body was exhausted. She had been enduring it all along but now only wished to rest well.

She first took a fasting pill to quell her hunger, then cast spells to clean the room and dispel dust from herself. Taking bedding from her storage bag, she laid out the bed and extinguished the luminous stone before lying down. Soon, she slipped into sleep.

In the middle of the night, Le Li abruptly opened her eyes in the darkness and sat up on the bed, alertly scanning her surroundings. Seeing the room’s furnishings, she realized she had been reborn and was now in the courtyard of Qian Yuan Peak.

Le Li relaxed her back and switched on the luminous stone, leaning against the bed’s edge. Just now, she had dreamt again of the unhappy events from her past life! They seemed etched deeply into her soul, impossible to forget—and she did not wish to forget.

She understood clearly that such pain could not vanish overnight; only by strengthening herself and overcoming them could she find true peace.

Now fully awake, she sat cross-legged and reached into her storage bag with her spiritual sense, pulling out the Hong Ming Dao.

The blade measured three feet three inches in length and weighed ten jin. It gleamed coldly, sharp beyond compare.

A flash of spiritual light, she cut her fingertip and let blood drip onto the hilt. The crimson drop quickly vanished into the handle. With her spiritual sense, she guided the blade to accept her as its master.

After bonding, the Hong Ming Dao felt much lighter in her hand. Infused with spiritual power, its cold light intensified.

“What a fine blade!”

Le Li treasured it, familiarizing herself with its feel before putting it away. She then took out a jade slip containing the cultivation technique and immersed her spiritual sense in it, studying the “Tai Chi Dual Phenomena Technique” word by word.

With the memories and insight from her previous life, just a first reading made her sense the technique’s profound subtlety. Thanks to her past experience, she could draw parallels and quickly grasp the essence and principles of the Tai Chi Dual Phenomena Technique.

Setting aside the jade slip, Le Li calmed her breath and focused her mind. Following the technique’s instructions, she formed hand seals to awaken her spiritual roots’ response to spiritual energy. Soon, dense fire and ice spiritual energies gathered around her.

The spiritual energy concentration in the courtyard was more than three times that of the trial grounds, swirling around Le Li like layers of mist.

Somewhat clumsily, she shifted her hand seals, slowly drawing the fire and ice energies into her meridians. Her spiritual sense guided the energies to circulate along the Tai Chi Dual Phenomena Technique’s defined paths.

As expected, the fire and ice energies began to neutralize each other inside her meridians. While they canceled out, the two energies collided in a remarkable way, producing an inexplicable expansion force that inflated her meridians, filling them with a swollen sensation.

Her spiritual sense led the energies forward; after one complete cycle of the technique, the spiritual energies transformed into spiritual power in her dantian. The fire energy gathered in one region, the ice energy in another, without interference.

She persevered, repeatedly guiding the energies into her meridians. When the technique’s circulation became somewhat smooth, her meridians felt numb and swollen.

Having pushed herself to the limit today, she stopped immediately to avoid damaging her meridians, exhaling a breath of stale air.

Mastering a technique from initial activation to smooth operation takes at least a month of spiritual guidance and refinement. Only then can the meridians build inertia, allowing spiritual energy to enter and circulate automatically during cultivation, transforming into spiritual power in the dantian.

After several sessions, Le Li clearly sensed that cultivating the Tai Chi Dual Phenomena Technique converted about fifty percent of fire spiritual energy and only forty percent of ice spiritual energy into their respective powers—less efficient than the Longevity Qi Refining Technique.

However, the Tai Chi Dual Phenomena Technique compressed the spiritual energy and increased its density during absorption. Combined with the courtyard’s abundant spiritual energy, the total spiritual power conversion after the same period was nearly sixty percent higher than the Qi Refining Technique.

This is the advantage of a superior technique. One can imagine that specializing in a fire attribute technique of the same level would yield even more fire spiritual power, accelerating cultivation.

But there’s no turning back. Having chosen this path, she must persevere. Besides, as her master said, fire and ice spiritual powers are purer and more active. Even the first cultivation attracted and refined the spiritual power in her dantian.

Purified spiritual power lasts longer at the same cultivation level and is more responsive when commanding spiritual weapons and treasures—both crucial in cultivation.

Le Li rose and opened the door. Dawn had long broken. After a quick tidy-up, she left the courtyard, heading down the mountain toward the Steward Hall.

She arrived late; most disciples had already exchanged their old identity jade slips for new ones, collected their robes, and departed.

On the way, she exchanged greetings with several inner disciples, whose gazes mixed envy with subtle resentment and unwillingness.

Originally, Le Li had only a single fire spiritual root. If she had been accepted as a disciple by a Golden Core True Immortal, none of them would have felt resentful. But now everyone knew that she had refined the Nánmíng Lihuo flame and developed an ice spiritual root. Even so, two Golden Core True Immortals had taken her as a disciple, while those with better roots than hers were ignored. It was only natural their hearts felt unbalanced.

Still, these were mere feelings of imbalance—no one was foolish enough to provoke Le Li openly. They neither dared nor had the time.

Ordinary inner disciples without a master could only do as Le Li had planned: pay out of pocket to exchange cultivation techniques at the library.

They lacked contribution points and were mostly preoccupied with how to earn more to obtain suitable cultivation methods, hurrying past one another.

Le Li entered the Steward Hall, reported her name, and handed in her old identity jade slip.

After verifying her information, the Steward Hall disciples transferred the contribution points from her old jade slip to the new one and handed her two sets of robes symbolizing an intimate disciple.

Le Li’s spiritual sense scanned the new jade slip, which now showed six hundred contribution points. The white robe’s sleeves bore two silver embroidered stripes—marks of an intimate disciple.

Intimate disciples were also inner disciples but had masters who personally taught them, passing down the sect’s cultivation techniques.

Though Le Li had not inherited Han Yongnian’s spiritual power technique, she had inherited his Asura Blade Technique, making her unquestionably an intimate disciple.

She stored the jade slip and robes in her storage bag and left the Steward Hall, heading to the Task Hall to exchange the spirit herbs and refining materials she had gathered a few days ago for contribution points.

When she emerged from the Task Hall, her identity jade slip showed an additional 390 contribution points. Apart from the herbs and materials, she had also exchanged her spiritual sword for points—there was no need to keep it now that she was letting go entirely.

“You exchanged your sword for contribution points? Are you not going to spar with me?” Chen Qiaoxuan suddenly appeared, walking alongside her.

Le Li shook her head. “I will spar, but it will have to wait. Master ordered me to practice the blade technique first. Once I’ve mastered it, I’ll spar with you.”

“That’s good. Han True Immortal’s Asura Blade Technique is renowned far and wide. I look forward to learning from you,” Chen Qiaoxuan said, eyes glinting. “Actually, I don’t quite understand why you didn’t choose to become Disciple of Yan True Immortal. Not that Han True Immortal is bad—but you’re primarily fire-rooted. Following Yan True Immortal might be better for your immortal path. You could still try refining the Nánmíng Lihuo again.”

Le Li knew Chen Qiaoxuan was puzzled but couldn’t speak of her previous life. She offered a reason that was hard to argue.

“When the Nánmíng Lihuo left the trial grounds, I suddenly had a premonition that I wasn’t destined for Qing Xuan Peak. Forcing it would only harm me. The ice root was a warning. I fear that becoming Yan True Immortal’s disciple might bring bad things.”

Chen Qiaoxuan clicked his tongue. He hadn’t expected that. Such mysterious feelings were indeed hard to ignore. Choosing Han True Immortal then made perfect sense.

“Where are you going now?”

“To the library.”

“I’m not going. We’ll talk another day.”

With that, Chen Qiaoxuan turned a corner and vanished.

Le Li shrugged and continued walking toward the library.