Su Zhuyi and the others hadn’t hidden from anyone when they went down the mountain this time.

The Gujian Sect had formations, and other disciples had to register when entering or leaving the mountain gate. This rule just didn’t apply to those from Luoxue Peak.

They also had a rule that new disciples couldn’t leave the mountain for a hundred years. Su Zhuyi going down the mountain was originally against regulations, but she had already gone out once to Changning Village with the sect master’s approval. Moreover, her trip had subdued the flying corpse and spread Gujian Sect’s good reputation, so everyone tacitly agreed that she, having reached the Golden Core stage, could go down the mountain. Therefore, the gatekeepers didn’t stop her when they saw her leave, instead waving goodbye with smiles.

Most importantly, Su Zhuyi walked together with Qinghe. Everyone who saw that ice block Qinghe wished they could stay as far away as possible and didn’t dare stop her at all.

“Quite a few people knew I was going down the mountain. Who could have leaked the information?”

According to her past behavior, if she discovered someone in a sect was secretly harming her but couldn’t identify the target, she would chop up all the cultivators in the entire sect. That definitely wouldn’t work now.

Her strength was insufficient, so she could only endure it.

When she left Gujian Sect, she wore a mask to conceal her identity, and Qinghe did the same. Moreover, the flying magical treasure they rode this time wasn’t Qinghe’s flashy red cloud fan, but a dark, somber black qin-colored ancient qin. Yet they were still targeted by Xueluo Sect’s death warriors.

Such tracking secret techniques did exist, but they needed her hair or flesh and blood aura…

Having endured so long in Xueluo Sect in her previous life, she was especially careful in these aspects – not even a single hair would fall into others’ hands. Thinking this way, it seemed only the Soul-Refining Whip from last time could have been stained with her flesh and blood aura. After all, she had been whipped by the Soul-Refining Whip.

Thinking this way, the scope was greatly narrowed, but the identities of those few people were somewhat troublesome.

Peak Master Yun?

Peak Master Yun had always been dissatisfied with Luoxue Peak and had nearly been injured by her Songfeng sword qi last time. Could it be Peak Master Yun?

Su Zhuyi sat on the flying magical treasure, thinking while taking out a small round mirror from her storage magical treasure. She then undid her hair bun and re-styled it into a flying fairy bun, then took out rouge and powder she had casually taken from Suyue Sect to draw her eyebrows and apply rouge and lipstick. The originally beautiful girl, with slight adornment, became dazzlingly gorgeous, her beauty possessing an aggressive and attacking quality, as if wherever she was, everyone else could only retreat in shame, becoming dim and colorless.

Like on the Wangtian Tree, in that dark little room, the only bright shark pearl. Everything around was hidden in darkness, only the night pearl blazing brilliantly.

Seeing her sitting there applying makeup, Qinghe simply closed his eyes – out of sight, out of mind.

After Su Zhuyi finished her grooming and saw Qinghe with his eyes closed, she snorted coldly: “Someone in the sect is informing outsiders, leaking my whereabouts. He thinks I’ll die, so I must return looking devastatingly beautiful. When the time comes, you lock your divine consciousness on the surroundings and watch carefully. If anyone behaves strangely, definitely don’t let them go.”

It was hard to find clues now, so it was better to try this approach. Maybe she could discover something, and even if she discovered nothing, she had no losses.

Returning to the sect, Qinghe concealed his form while Su Zhuyi swaggered around various places. When she walked, her mouth corners held a smile, and if anyone greeted her, she would smile in response. After making a complete round, Su Zhuyi asked Qinghe: “Did you sense anyone acting improperly?”

Qinghe: “…”

He answered sulkily: “No.”

Almost everyone had expressions of being mesmerized. These people were truly shallow.

When they returned to Luoxue Peak, Qinghe took out a storage bag and handed it to Su Zhuyi. When passing the item, he asked with a cold face: “Have you been secretly practicing Hehuan Sect’s seduction arts?”

Su Zhuyi took the storage bag, slightly raised her chin, and asked imperiously: “Do I need to learn that?”

Qinghe glanced at her without arguing, directly turned, and walked to Master Luo Ying’s room door. Seeing this, Su Zhuyi made a dismissive sound and returned to her room. She stood by the stone tablet at her door for a while, placing one hand on the tablet and saying softly: “Tell me, do I need to learn seduction arts?”

On the Wangtian Tree, her meridians were completely severed, and she had not a trace of spiritual energy. Even if she had learned some seduction arts then, she couldn’t have used them at all. But without seduction arts, hadn’t she still lured the world’s foremost sword dao supreme into bed?

Thinking of the past, Su Zhuyi’s cheeks flushed slightly. She wasn’t being shy, just…

She suddenly missed Qin Jianglan a bit. After all, that fellow was naturally gifted, and the experience was indeed somewhat soul-stirring. Lightly tapping the stone tablet with her fingers, Su Zhuyi pursed her lips slightly, her voice melodious and husky: “Qin Jianglan, don’t you think so?”

…

After standing by the stone tablet for a moment, Su Zhuyi slowly returned to her room.

She felt somewhat restless and simply recited the Calming Heart Incantation twice before settling down a bit. She suddenly remembered the past – Qin Jianglan used to recite the Calming Heart Incantation every day. Was he reciting it for her to hear?

Perhaps he was reciting it for himself. After all, with a demoness constantly swaying before his eyes and teasing him anytime, anywhere, without cease, his ability to persist so long was quite impressive.

Su Zhuyi shook her head. She couldn’t keep thinking about those matters. She gathered her mind and extended her divine consciousness into the storage bag Qinghe had given her, discovering many magical treasures inside, including those two Floating Life Mirrors. It seemed that although Qinghe’s mouth was annoyingly unpleasant, he wouldn’t neglect what needed to be done.

After inventorying what Qinghe had taken, Su Zhuyi found four spirit treasures, several types of high-grade pill-refining and weapon-forging materials, and top-grade spirit stones stored in special spirit boxes. One square little spirit box contained ten thousand top-grade spirit stones, and there were fifteen such boxes here, meaning one hundred and fifty thousand top-grade spirit stones. She could use these spirit stones to set up a spirit-gathering formation, making Luoxue Peak’s spiritual energy even more abundant, which would speed up her cultivation.

Among the four spirit treasures was a small round shield. The shield looked very small with bright colors – Su Zhuyi thought it would be perfect for Little Skull. There was also a golden bell that belonged around a dog’s neck, probably made by Fan Jinxin like the golden silk soft armor on her body – truly ugly.

The remaining items were a flying magical treasure and a pill furnace. Su Zhuyi could use the flying magical treasure, and she could also refine pills, though in her previous life, she more often refined poisons. Now the priority was cultivation to improve her realm and find a way to sense the Liuguang Mirror, so she had no plans to refine pills for now.

In the past, she would have been very happy to see so many cultivation resources, but now she didn’t feel particularly excited, probably because she lacked nothing. She alone enjoyed almost all of Luoxue Peak’s cultivation resources and could go to Cangfeng to get anything she was missing. Thinking this way, there seemed to be no need to raid others.

She was different from before.

She tossed the items aside with little interest and began meditating to cultivate. Only when her divine consciousness was completely exhausted did she stop and go outside to practice swordwork.

Two days later, the sect master appeared at Luoxue Peak, bringing news about Quicksand River.

Quicksand River wasn’t actually a river, but a spiritual energy spring eye, yet different from ordinary spiritual springs.

The spring eye only produced water every thousand years, and after one night could barely fill a small pond. After filling up, the spring eye would dry up again. Cultivators soaking in the spiritual spring could nourish their primordial spirit, and that spring water refined into pills could also improve cultivation aptitude and cleanse marrow and temper the body – truly a precious treasure.

After this spiritual spring was discovered, everyone wanted to claim it. Later, the Yunxiao Sect and the four major sects reached an agreement to jointly seal Quicksand River. Each time it produced water, they would determine the final distribution through competitions.

“Cultivators who have soaked in Quicksand River are all now at the Nascent Soul stage, clearly the power holders of their respective sects,” the sect master said with a smile.

So are you saying that only by soaking in the spiritual spring can one break through to Nascent Soul, or that one can become a sect master?

Su Zhuyi chuckled twice in her heart. She had never heard of Quicksand River in her previous life, so they truly valued this Quicksand River highly.

“Producing water once every thousand years – then Master never soaked in it,” Su Zhuyi said indifferently.

Yet Luo Ying was the Gujian Sect’s most formidable sword cultivator.

“Luo Ying ate quite a few Spirit Marrow Pills back then,” the sect master glared at Su Zhuyi and pretended to be angry: “Don’t interrupt. Let me finish.”

“Originally, we planned to have Qinghe go,” he looked at Su Zhuyi, “but after careful consideration, we think perhaps you going would be better.”

“Why?”

“Quicksand River nourishes the spirit, but not everyone can soak in it continuously. Each time, only five people can enter that spring water pool – Yunxiao Sect and the four major sects each send one person, forming a perfect circle.”

“Over these years, we’ve discovered that the younger, stronger in primordial spirit, and higher in cultivation aptitude one is, the longer they can soak in Quicksand River. The longer the soaking, the greater the potential and limitless prospects. So after all five people exit the river, we distribute that pool of spring water according to the length of soaking time.”

“So those Spirit Marrow Pills are made from other people’s bath water? And it’s a five-person communal bath?” Su Zhuyi asked in some shock.

Master Luo Ying had grown up eating such Spirit Marrow Pills!

Sect Master: “…”

Duan Linshu darkened his face and shouted: “Focus! What nonsense are you thinking about all day!”

His disciple’s attention always went astray – he wanted to flick her forehead!

“Anyway, this time we’ve decided to have you go. You’re young and already at the mid-Golden Core stage. Even your master can’t match this cultivation speed. I believe you can persist to the end.” The sect master patted Su Zhuyi’s shoulder. “Gujian Sect has always been the eternal second place. Whether we can win this time depends on you.”

Su Zhuyi: “…”

She had just been lamenting that she could enjoy all of Luoxue Peak’s cultivation resources alone, and now it was time to serve the sect. It wasn’t particularly annoying – it seemed she had some favorable feelings toward the Gujian Sect. Of course, she absolutely wouldn’t let go of whoever leaked her whereabouts.

“Fine.” She could improve her primordial spirit power anyway – it would be a waste not to go.