After killing someone, Su Zhuyi acted as if nothing had happened. She didn’t speak but nonchalantly began examining their surroundings.

She was only wearing a chest band and undergarments. Now she used a slight spell to dry the water, removed the hairpin binding her hair, and let her full head of azure hair completely loose to cover her back. Then she no longer paid attention to the other people in the pool.

There was a barrier around them. Now that the barrier couldn’t be opened, they couldn’t get out. She looked around for two reasons: first, to see if there was a way to open the barrier, and second, to find the source—why did this Quicksand River have such spiritual springs that could enhance divine consciousness? Why did they have to wait a thousand years? Where did these spiritual springs come from? Was there some kind of mysterious magic artifact? Su Zhuyi had seen a record in ancient books about a treasure from millions of years ago called Jade in Stone, a natural treasure not made by humans. That Jade in Stone would produce one drop of golden spring water each day that could nourish the primordial spirit, called Golden Jade Marrow, extremely valuable.

She gently tapped the stone wall with her fingers, thinking—could something like Jade in Stone be hidden beneath this barrier?

While Su Zhuyi was carefully searching, she felt several panicked gazes constantly wandering over her body. Su Zhuyi stood up, turned around, and chuckled twice at the three young cultivators huddled together, saying: “What are you all standing around for? Just continue cultivating.”

That smile was very alluring—clearly like a blooming lotus emerging from water, yet it made others’ hearts turn cold, as if their hearts were tightly constricted.

Dan Ruyun gathered courage to say: “There’s no spiritual energy left in the pool.”

Su Zhuyi scoffed: “No spiritual energy in the pool, so there’s none in the air either? None in your body either? Divine consciousness exhausted?”

These righteous path disciples were far inferior to her fellow disciples from back then. Each one had been protected too well. If they were thrown into the Xueluo Sect, probably not one would survive.

“This corpse…” Perhaps because Qin Chuan was beside her, and Dan Ruyun had just spoken, Chang Yuege couldn’t help but sigh: “Although Dong Richen was indeed wrong, the crime didn’t warrant death. We’re all fellow disciples of the righteous path—directly killing him is really…”

Before he finished speaking, Su Zhuyi’s glare made him swallow his words.

The coldness in that gaze seemed to become knives, almost stabbing into his heart. At this moment, Qin Chuan beside him said: “If Su Zhuyi’s strength had been insufficient and he had succeeded, we, as disciples of famous righteous sects, would have watched helplessly as a fellow daoist was violated yet been powerless to help. Our dao hearts would have been damaged afterward.”

“Uh…” Chang Yuege couldn’t find words to refute this.

Dan Ruyun hurriedly said, “Exactly. This Dong Richen deserved to die. Haven’t you heard? Dong Fushan Sect had someone who used bloody methods of absorbing yin to supplement yang…”

That person had killed many women. It was said that female corpses were piled several layers deep in the back mountain. Such a person wasn’t human but a beast—what difference was there from those evil demons? She couldn’t quite bring herself to speak of it, only stammering a few words, but everyone understood without her being too explicit.

The incident at Dong Fushan Sect had been suppressed, so many people didn’t know about it. But Dongfang Yaoyang had been having physical problems recently and had invited alchemy masters from Danhe Sect to visit Dong Fushan Sect as guests to refine pills, so Danhe Sect did know about this matter. Dan Ruyun was the beloved daughter of a Danhe Sect elder, with a good constitution and especially high alchemy talent. She was greatly cherished in the sect, so these matters weren’t hidden from her.

“Maybe this Dong Richen learned from that person.” She had no good feelings toward Dong Richen whatsoever. Though she hadn’t expected Su Zhuyi to kill him so efficiently, now that he was killed, he was dead. After they got out, if Dong Fushan Sect wanted to pursue the matter, she would speak up for Su Zhuyi.

“So now, continue cultivating?” They couldn’t just sit there staring at each other.

Dan Ruyun looked at Chang Yuege: “Isn’t your Xundao Sect very skilled in a technique called Thousand Leaf Hands?”

Thousand Leaf Hands—countless phantoms on the hands with green vitality growing among the shadows. Once deployed, others couldn’t get close, and each leaf was a very powerful attacking method. It was quite a formidable technique of the Xundao Sect.

“Yes, my Lesser Thousand Leaf Hands have reached the peak level.” Chang Yuege smiled confidently, then flipped his wrist, and a greenish leaf appeared in his palm.

“Use your Thousand Leaf Hands to get this corpse up into the air.” Dan Ruyun frowned. “This pool water will be used to refine Spiritual Marrow Pills later. Having it soak like this is disgusting.”

Chang Yuege: “…”

Having no choice, he used Thousand Leaf Hands to move the corpse into the air, then murmured: “I don’t want to eat the Spiritual Marrow Pills this time.”

“We’ve soaked in the spiritual spring, so eating them wouldn’t have much effect anyway. It’s just those outstanding disciples in our sects…” Dan Ruyun shook her head, feeling nauseated just thinking about it.

Su Zhuyi wasn’t paying attention to them now. She was there tapping the stone walls, following patterns to explore the shadow runes on the stone walls. She did discover some secrets, but there was no way to open the barrier here now.

This barrier should have been created long ago by the joint efforts of the Yunxiao Sect and the four major sects’ great powers, precisely to protect the Quicksand River’s spiritual spring and the established distribution method. Though she could now see the array of eyes of the formation barrier, with her current Golden Core stage strength, even knowing where the array of eyes were, she had no way to break them open.

If they stayed here for ten days, the barrier would automatically open. But she had killed someone, so the sect masters outside were probably fighting now. If they saw her trying to break the barrier here, they probably wouldn’t tolerate her. She only had Golden Core cultivation, while those five sect masters were the top great powers of the righteous cultivation path. She definitely couldn’t go too far.

Thinking of this, Su Zhuyi became too lazy to make trouble. She simply sat down and continued cultivating.

Time was running short. She didn’t know how much longer Qin Jianglan could hold on. In her previous life, she cursed him to die every day, but now she couldn’t bear for him to die.

Would his life be erased more slowly if more people remembered him? Should she have Master and Senior Brother burn incense for him when she returned? In the future, when she went to the mortal world to subdue demons and monsters, she could report Qin Jianglan’s birth date and name, preferably with a self-prepared portrait…

With no spiritual energy in the pool now, cultivation meant circulating the spiritual energy within one’s own body according to cultivation methods. Many people felt this didn’t greatly improve their strength, but actually, such daily practice would gradually accelerate the speed of spiritual energy circulation. Though short-term practice had minimal effect, long-term persistence meant that with the same techniques and constitution, she could circulate spiritual energy much faster than others, naturally cultivating faster than others too.

Previously, every time she cultivated, she would exhaust her divine consciousness and spiritual energy completely, overexerting herself. Though extremely painful each time she was completely drained, the effects were also significant.

Su Zhuyi still multitasked while cultivating. She discovered that even without absorbing spiritual energy from the pool, those red leaves would still redistribute when they began cultivating. Originally, the red leaves around her and Qin Chuan were comparable, but now there were more red leaves around her. Among the four people in the pool, she alone occupied two-thirds, while Qin Chuan, Chang Yuege, and Dan Ruyun together had fewer than her.

She heard these red leaves were excellent materials for refining weapons and pills. Since that was the case, she wouldn’t be polite.

After another two days, the barrier finally opened.

Seeing the scene inside the barrier, all five sect masters outside were stunned.

Four disciples sat quietly in the pool, still cultivating. Most of the red leaves around them were gathered beside Gujian Sect’s Su Zhuyi, followed by Yunxiao Sect’s Qin Chuan, who was slightly better off. The remaining two had almost no leaves around them, looking quite pitiful.

The disciples who came were all carefully selected by each sect. Even if there were some differences in constitution, they shouldn’t be this obvious. In all the previous times, nothing like this had ever happened.

“This—that little girl from Gujian Sect has a better constitution than Triple Yang Convergence?” Xundao Sect’s sect master said in surprise, glancing at Yunxiao Sect’s sect master as he spoke.

Yunxiao Sect’s sect master didn’t speak, his brow slightly furrowed. Dong Fushan Sect’s sect master, Dong Lin’s face was iron-blue face. When he saw the people in the pool, his pupils slightly contracted, his heart filled with towering rage, his gaze seeming ready to kill. Dong Richen was his nephew, with an excellent constitution and extraordinary talent. He had brought him to soak in the spiritual spring, never expecting he would die here, his corpse even humiliated like this!

…

The four people in the pool cultivated quietly, as if nothing had happened. If not for the corpse hanging above them, everyone would almost think only four people had entered.

Dan Qingshan glanced at Xundao Sect’s sect master: “That thing wrapping around Dong Fushan Sect’s Dong Richen’s corpse is your disciple’s Thousand Leaf Hands, right?”

Xundao Sect’s famous technique, Thousand Leaf Hands, which could attack and defend, had been used by him as a tree corpse-hanging tree at that.

Seeing the four disciples inside concentrating on cultivation, everyone had some idea. Duan Linshu even relaxed slightly. That Dong Fushan Sect disciple might have aroused everyone’s anger and was subdued together, with only the final blow being Su Zhuyi’s doing, so the heart-blood soul lamp only showed Su Zhuyi, but it actually wasn’t her doing alone. This way, things became much simpler.

Now they just had to wait for them to come out and ask for clarification.

After the barrier opened, they could vaguely see the scene inside the pool, but still couldn’t enter. However, the disciples inside could come out. Only after the last person came out would the barrier be completely opened, and they could go in to distribute the red leaves and pool water.

“Wonder how long the longest among them can persist this time.” Dan Qingshan said. He looked at the several disciples in the pool with some satisfaction. After all, after ten days, their expressions were all very natural, seemingly not enduring divine soul pain, suggesting they could persist much longer.

Cultivating in this pool, the longer the time, the greater the pressure on the primordial spirit. Now seeing their complexions were all good, even better than before, these people would be the leaders of each major sect in the future if nothing went wrong. Dong Fushan Sect had suffered this time and would probably be seriously injured.

Combined with the previous incident, perhaps it would become just three major sects in the future.

Dong Lin also realized this.

They had always been at odds with the Gujian Sect. This time, they had formed an even deeper grudge. Life for life was natural justice. As soon as that murderer came out, he would strike immediately, first crippling her cultivation before discussing anything else!