Su Zhuyi recovered faster than the little white snake.

This should be thanks to Qin Jianglan’s efforts—after all, he massaged her for several hours every day. The rest of the time, Qin Jianglan was mostly healing his injuries. He went out and negotiated the matter of the Rebirth Pond with the Pangu clansmen without much effort.

Giant rebirth was becoming increasingly difficult, their primordial spirits growing weaker. Over these ten thousand years, clansmen had perished, but no primordial spirits had entered the Rebirth Pond for rebirth. Even when they found a wisp of primordial spirit, what surfaced was a withered rebirth lotus. The remaining giants were becoming more and more dull, and with each dissipation of the primordial spirit, memories gradually disappeared. They all realized that perhaps before long, their race would completely perish.

Though they were happy about Su Zhuyi and Qin Jianglan’s appearance, their bodies didn’t resemble giants. Although they were dull, they vaguely felt something was amiss, but didn’t take it to heart. The disparity in strength was too great—they feared no potential threats at all.

Even though Wu’er looked like a little giant, he didn’t have the aura of a Pangu clansmen. But even without it, he was still well-loved by the Pangu clan—after all, Wu’er was a child, and a child with clear, pure eyes who was sensible and adorable.

If there were a place that could prevent their primordial spirits from dissipating, they would desire it greatly.

As for life and death?

As long as their primordial spirits remained intact, to them, that was eternal life. Moreover, they were actually trapped in this ancient secret realm. If they truly perished in the future but their primordial spirits could be preserved in the Liuguang Mirror, they could also leave the ancient secret realm and venture into broader worlds.

…

Qin Jianglan used the Liuguang Mirror to collect the Rebirth Pond.

When he did all this, Su Zhuyi didn’t know. She was a sculpture and couldn’t move, and she didn’t carelessly use her divine consciousness either—after all, it had been completely dried up before and needed proper nourishment. The reason she didn’t use divine consciousness to explore her surroundings was because she had sufficient trust in this place.

She trusted it enough to feel there would be no danger around, and thus abandoned the instincts she’d developed in the Xueluo Sect.

Living again, her days were truly much more comfortable than her previous life.

Though she’d suffered some hardships, most of the time was comfortable. She had as many cultivation resources as she wanted, never worried about spirit stones or pills, and didn’t have to constantly guard against people around her trying to kill her.

Precisely because she didn’t use divine consciousness to guard against her surroundings, when Qin Jianglan returned, saying he’d already collected the Rebirth Pond, Su Zhuyi was somewhat startled. But then she thought about how those giants outside were quite dull, so she could understand why they could be persuaded by Qin Jianglan.

Qin Jianglan spoke of it lightly, but Su Zhuyi could see he should be very tired.

His injuries hadn’t completely healed to begin with.

Driving the Liuguang Mirror to collect the Rebirth Pond must have consumed a large amount of his spiritual energy—it wasn’t as easy as he made it sound.

“Are you tired? Go rest,” Su Zhuyi said.

Qin Jianglan shook his head. “I’m fine.” He took out a teapot and a teacup from his storage treasure. The pot contained spiritual spring water, which he boiled with fire magic and set aside.

“Today on the mountain, I saw spiritual tea that’s extinct in the outside world. Growing on cliff faces—I picked some.” He placed a dark red leaf in the teacup. Without any flowing tea preparation movements, he just casually placed it in the cup, then poured the boiling water in.

That small, dark red curled leaf gradually unfurled in the boiling water. The dark red seemed to seep out from the leaf, making the red much lighter, as if a bright red camellia was slowly blooming in the cup. The clear spring water in the cup also turned crimson, yet not pure crimson—there was also golden yellow and peach pink, like colorful clouds at the horizon.

He picked up the teacup and gently swirled it. The flower in the cup swayed left and right, and rich spiritual energy rushed toward them.

“This is good for divine consciousness recovery.” He brought the cup to his lips and gently blew. The tea leaves floating in the boiling water suddenly froze solid, and ice crystals formed throughout the cup. With a twist of his wrist and another shake, faint, misty vapor rose like clouds.

“For nourishing the spirit.” He walked to Su Zhuyi’s side, looked down at her eyes, and smiled gently.

Su Zhuyi thought Qin Jianglan was going to give it to her to drink.

After all, he often fed her food and drink before. She could turn her body now, but her hands still couldn’t move because they were propped against the sword and petrified together with it. Her wrists were still frozen solid, so eating pills and spirit fruits still required Qin Jianglan’s care.

But then she saw Qin Jianglan sitting beside her and drinking from the teacup himself.

The tea was elegantly fragrant with rich spiritual energy and a trace of frosty breath that made Su Zhuyi involuntarily swallow saliva, waiting for the spiritual tea to moisten her mouth. Who knew he’d drink it himself?

Fine, he was too exhausted from collecting the Rebirth Pond. She’d reluctantly forgive him this once and wait for him to finish before brewing another cup.

After drinking twice, Qin Jianglan brought the teacup to Su Zhuyi’s lips.

He’d already drunk half the teacup had to be tilted outward.

Su Zhuyi tilted her head back slightly, and as the tea entered her throat, she could drink it this way, but a trace of tea slid from the corner of her mouth, flowing down her neck and leaving a transparent, clear water trail on her snow-white skin.

Qin Jianglan moved the cup away, leaned down, and used his tongue tip to clean all the water droplets from her neck.

“Can’t waste it,” he said. “This spiritual tea is very rare. I only picked three leaves.”

Su Zhuyi narrowed her eyes slightly and smiled. “Then why don’t you just feed me with your mouth?” When she used to say sweet words, she would deliberately lower her voice to make it sound husky and seductive. But now her voice was clear and bright, her throat seeming washed clean by mountain spring water. Her voice was like tinkling spring water, pleasant to hear, yet it made Qin Jianglan even more entranced.

Feed her with his mouth? Qin Jianglan’s originally somewhat pale face showed a trace of light red, as if the mist from the cup had stained his face with rouge.

He’d originally come to tease her.

But found himself still one move behind.

When it came to thick skin, who could compare to her?

Qin Jianglan took another sip of tea, then leaned down and kissed her lips.

As he transferred the clear tea to her, his tongue also slipped inside. The tea was ice cold, but her lips and tongue were sweet and warm. He traced carefully in her mouth, lingering between her teeth. Only after she finished the tea did he reluctantly separate, then took another sip.

A cup of tea wasn’t much, but the two of them spent a full half hour drinking it.

After finishing the tea, Su Zhuyi felt her body warm. Her divine consciousness gradually cleared and recovered almost completely. With divine consciousness restored, she could naturally control it at will. Her divine consciousness materialized, gently caressing Qin Jianglan’s body like a gentle breeze, just like in the Liuguang Mirror.

“Do you want me to help you?” Leaning forward, her waist was quite soft, her body seeming boneless as she pressed against him, even rubbing against Qin Jianglan twice.

Both her body and divine consciousness were restless.

Her upper body was very alluring. With those movements, her already loose clothing fell to her shoulders, exposing large areas of snow-white skin.

But her lower body was still stone.

Qin Jianglan’s eyes darkened somewhat at the sight.

Su Zhuyi chuckled softly. Her wrist suddenly moved twice, and she discovered rubble falling from her wrist too. Originally only her wrists couldn’t move in her upper body, but now even her wrists were almost recovered. It seemed if she persisted another month or so, she should be fully healed.

Thinking this, Su Zhuyi felt her mood was quite good.

She blinked mischievously, looked down to see his reaction, lightly bit her lips, her tongue tip licking across her lip, then repeated, “Do you want me to help you?”

Her gaze swept over his body, her eyes showing no trace of shyness.

The Sword Ancestor, still in petrification, finally couldn’t help but snort coldly: “You two are enough!”

In the end, Su Zhuyi still didn’t help Qin Jianglan, though she was quite willing. However, Qin Jianglan didn’t give her this opportunity.

He properly dressed her upper body and combed her hair before returning to the bed to meditate. After Su Zhuyi finished teasing, she also began cultivating—the spiritual energy in her body couldn’t be wasted.

Thus, after another three to five days, her hands were also freed, while the similarly petrified little white snake had only recovered a small section of its tail.

Wu’er was very worried. He knew this spirit snake had helped big sister and must be saved at all costs.

He ran over to learn, asking Su Zhuyi why she recovered so quickly.

Su Zhuyi said, “You have to massage it every day.”

“Eh?” Wu’er didn’t understand.

“Just knead and rub it constantly. Then it’ll heal quickly.”

“Does little uncle massage you every day too?”

Seeing Wu’er’s still innocent eyes, Su Zhuyi finally felt a bit embarrassed, but she still nodded calmly.

Wu’er completely believed Su Zhuyi’s words.

From then on, he held the white snake in his hands every day, rubbing it constantly like kneading rope. Indeed, there were some results—it recovered much faster than before.

In the blink of an eye, a month passed. Su Zhuyi’s body completely recovered. The moment she could move, she immediately kicked off her shoes and pounced on the bed, pressing down the meditating Qin Jianglan. The Sword Ancestor had also recovered and was long gone, fled without a trace.

Qin Jianglan had been watching her all along—how could he not know she was about to recover?

When he was guarding her, his eyes had a ghostly green light, like a vicious wolf. Yet at the crucial moment, he instead sat on the bed to meditate.

Fake propriety!

She’d gained so many benefits from dual cultivation, and these past days, he’d been rubbing and touching her. Now that she could move, the first thing was to properly deal with this fake gentleman.

The instant she pounced, her slender waist was encircled by large hands. She sat in his embrace, just like many times on the Wangtian Tree.

This was only the beginning.

Intertwined like mandarin ducks, brocade coverlets churning red waves, fragrant sweat glistening, thoroughly satisfying.

…

Su Zhuyi had recovered, and Elder Yi and the others’ injuries had long healed, so they planned to leave Rebirth Valley.

They’d come to the ancient secret realm to seek treasure, not to retire here.

However, this time going out, everyone traveled freely without encountering any danger, and easily obtained treasures. If they encountered stragglers from the Dong Fushang Sect on the road, Su Zhuyi would still take their lives. She was never soft-hearted. Dong Fushang Sect had repeatedly harmed them, nearly killed Elder Yi and Elder Mei, and even wanted to kill Little Skull to steal his immortal sword. In Su Zhuyi’s eyes, death by a thousand cuts wouldn’t be excessive for them.

Time passed quickly. When the seven-star trajectory moved away, they were directly sent out of the ancient secret realm. Only after everyone emerged did some people belatedly discover that such a large sect as the Dong Fushang Sect had only one female disciple survive.

But this female disciple’s strength was not to be underestimated—she had subdued a powerful water qilin.

Regardless, Dong Fushang Sect’s strength was greatly damaged. Their sect master and elders were almost all dead, no longer able to be called one of the four great cultivation sects alongside other sects.

This revenge was settled. After emerging, Su Zhuyi didn’t concern herself with other matters. She and Qin Jianglan planned to go to Quicksand River.

Going to Quicksand River had only one purpose: to find that Jianmu Tree.

The Jianmu Tree that Su Zhuyi had seen when she mistakenly entered the barrier.

Among the five elements, wood conquers earth, meaning plants break through the soil to emerge. However, other plants were too weak and instead had to depend on Breath Soil to grow. Only the Jianmu Tree could truly restrain Breath Soil.

To force the Breath Soil out of Su Zhuyi’s body, they might need to rely on the Jianmu Tree. This was the conclusion she and Qin Jianglan reached through deep discussion these days. As for whether they could succeed, they’d have to wait until they found the Jianmu Tree.