It was quiet.
So quiet.
All around was silent.
Bao Gu’s heart was in her throat.
She knew that neither Zi Yunshu nor the demon saint had any magical treasures that could hold enough water to form a lake like this in the Sealed Heaven Deadlands.
Even if Zi Yunshu was a flood dragon and could summon clouds and rain, that was just using water magic to gather moisture from the air or water from lakes and marshes to make rainclouds—it couldn’t just create a lake out of thin air.
Bao Gu told herself not to panic, to stay calm.
Even if something had changed, until she figured it out, she couldn’t assume it was a bad thing.
She sent out her divine sense to feel for changes in the surroundings and found that this whole body of water hadn’t been split by any spatial formation—it was all in the same space.
She skimmed over the waves, riding the wind, and after rushing nearly a hundred miles, she finally saw the edge of the lake.
Bao Gu saw the endless yellow sand at the lake’s edge and let out a small sigh of relief.
The sand meant she was still in the desert, and this vast lake she’d just crossed was just a water source in the desert.
Tiny green shoots were scattered across the damp yellow sand at the lakeshore, giving off a faint, woody spiritual fragrance.
They were sprouts—plant sprouts.
These sprouts had grown from seeds that had landed on the sand, probably blown here by the wind, but there were so many it seemed like someone had deliberately scattered them.
Bao Gu carefully examined the grass seeds that had just sprouted and recognized them as spiritual herb seeds.
Seeing them, she remembered that spiritual herbs, unlike ordinary weeds, had to grow in places rich in spiritual energy.
That made her notice that the spiritual energy here was abundant, no longer as dead and stagnant as the Sealed Heaven Deadlands had been before, but full of vitality.
She figured it wouldn’t be long before this lake and these seeds would make the place burst with life.
But where were Little Martial Aunt and the demon saint? Had she gone the wrong way? The freshly sprouted seeds under her feet, sown just a couple of days ago, told her she hadn’t.
These spiritual herb seeds were sold by the seed in the cultivation world—not rare, but not cheap either, since they were of a decent grade, at least three to five lower-grade spirit stones each.
There were so many seeds scattered along the lakeshore that it was impossible to count; it was like scattering spirit stones, not seeds.
Only her demon saint, who had no concept of the value of spirit stones and had a huge stash of spiritual herb seeds, would do something like this.
Judging by the scale, they clearly meant to turn this place into a medicinal garden.
Freshly sown spiritual herb seeds needed to be watered often, and if the spiritual energy wasn’t rich enough, you’d have to mix water with liquefied spirit stones or use spiritual spring water.
Since the demon saint had scattered so many spiritual herb seeds, there was no way she wouldn’t be tending to them—they had to be nearby.
She called out again, “Little Martial Aunt… Demon Saint…” She walked along the lakeshore, searching and calling out as she went, looking for any sign of them.
Time ticked by.
Suddenly, she heard a long, dragon-like roar in the distance, and then she felt a gaze fall on her.
She looked in the direction of the sound and the gaze, and saw a long, glowing white figure dancing in the sky at the far edge of the horizon.
Little Martial Aunt!
Bao Gu was overjoyed and immediately flew toward the white figure.
She flew toward the long white shadow, and it flew toward her.
As they got closer, she saw it was a white flood dragon, nearly thirty feet long, flying straight at her.
Soon, the white flood dragon reached Bao Gu, spun in the air, and transformed into a sly, bright-eyed, beautiful woman who landed beside her.
She grinned and asked, “Did you see that lake? Surprised, aren’t you?”
Bao Gu asked urgently, “Where’s the demon saint?”
Zi Yunshu noticed Bao Gu seemed off and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Bao Gu said, “Get the demon saint—we have to leave right now.”
Zi Yunshu’s face changed.
“Leave right now? Are you kidding? We finally found a place this perfect to settle down, I… I just turned a water spirit I caught here into a giant lake, and the demon saint scattered all her spiritual herb seeds along the shore, and you want us to leave?”
Bao Gu said, “All the major powers in the cultivation world are here in the Wild Ancient Mountains, digging for sacred artifacts.
They’re digging up everything—there won’t be a single spiritual herb seedling left wherever they go.”
Zi Yunshu blinked in shock, not quite processing it.
Bao Gu quickly explained what had happened, repeating everything Xue Qing had told her word for word to Zi Yunshu.
When Zi Yunshu heard it, her face went pale with fright.
“Let’s go, quick, let’s find the demon saint.” She turned into a white flood dragon and was about to rush into the desert, but suddenly looked back at the big lake and shouted, “That lake is made from a water spirit, and there are spiritual herb seeds—Bao Gu, put the lake away!”
Bao Gu’s extra-large storage pouch could hold it, but her cultivation was too low to move such a huge lake.
Zi Yunshu snapped, “Are you stupid? Can’t you earth-escape? Earth-escape to the bottom of the lake and open your void treasure realm to scoop it up!” She was so mad she was grinding her teeth.
“We finally found a place to settle, and now we have to move again! So annoying!”
Bao Gu said nothing.
She used earth-escape to dive under the lake, took the extra-large storage pouch off her arm, and poured her divine sense into it, making it expand.
The pouch could get as big as her divine sense could cover, but her cultivation was too low—her divine sense couldn’t cover the whole lake.
Bao Gu had no choice but to send a message to Zi Yunshu, calling her over for help.
Zi Yunshu turned back into human form and came to Bao Gu’s side.
She gave Bao Gu a sidelong look.
“That’s your void treasure realm—how am I supposed to control it?”
Bao Gu said, “It doesn’t recognize an owner!”
Zi Yunshu jumped in shock.
“It doesn’t?”
Bao Gu said, “That’s why I always keep it on my arm and never take it off.
My divine sense is weak—if I take it off, anyone with stronger divine sense could steal it.
Little Martial Aunt, just pour your divine sense into the surface of the void treasure realm and focus—you’ll be able to control it.”
Zi Yunshu gave Bao Gu a suspicious look, but did as she said.
She immediately found she could control the void treasure realm, and not only that, everything inside it appeared clearly in her mind—every flower, every blade of grass, every grain of sand and speck of dust.
She controlled the void treasure realm and easily put the entire huge lake, along with the yellow sand at its edge, into the void inside the extra-large storage pouch.
With a thought, the void treasure realm that had just swallowed the whole lake turned into a palm-sized piece of hide in her hand.
The hide was white as jade, soft and delicate like a woman’s skin.
She instinctively used her divine sense to check if it was human skin, and as soon as her sense touched it, she fell into the void inside the hide.
Zi Yunshu shoved the void treasure realm into Bao Gu’s arms. “I really don’t want to give this back to you.” This thing was basically a heaven-defying treasure! The stronger your divine sense, the more powerful it was—if your divine sense was strong enough, you could probably use it to scoop up the sky.
In Bao Gu’s hands, though, she couldn’t even put away a single lake.
Bao Gu stuck the extra-large storage pouch back on her arm, glanced at Zi Yunshu, and asked, “Would you want to carry your dad around with you?”
Zi Yunshu thought that sounded really weird and shot back, “You’re the one carrying your dad around!” Then she remembered her own dad and the Xuantian Sect were both being carried around by Bao Gu, and she rolled her eyes.
“Let’s go, let’s find the demon saint.” She turned back into a flood dragon, grabbed Bao Gu, tossed her onto her back, and carried her deep into the desert.
Zi Yunshu was way faster than Bao Gu—so fast that the wind forced Bao Gu to press herself tightly against Zi Yunshu’s back and hold on for dear life, or she’d get thrown off and embarrass herself.
Even though Bao Gu could fight Void Tearing stage cultivators with the Xuantian Sword, her own cultivation was weak—her speed, divine sense, and understanding of the laws of heaven were nowhere near Void Tearing stage, not even as good as Yu Mi when she was just at the early Nascent Soul stage.
Bao Gu thought of the lake and what Zi Yunshu had said earlier.
“Little Martial Aunt, you caught a water spirit here? There are water spirits here?”
Zi Yunshu said, “Yeah! Didn’t you know the most likely place to find water spirits is the desert? When a water spirit appears, it drains all the water from thousands or even tens of thousands of miles around, turning the land into desert.
Of course, there are exceptions—there are water spirits in the ocean too, but they’re much harder to find.
Water spirits hide in water, and even if they’re right under your nose, you might not notice.”
Before long, Bao Gu saw a patch of ruins suddenly appear in the desert ahead—broken walls and shattered pillars half-buried in the yellow sand.
Snow-white jade platforms, pillars like giant columns holding up the sky, collapsed and shattered steps…
Bao Gu, already in a bad mood, felt even heavier.
Everything before her was ancient, desolate, and somber, with a sadness that was hard to put into words.
The demon saint, who had been digging through the ruins, put down what she was doing and came over to Bao Gu and Zi Yunshu.
She said to Bao Gu, “Many years ago, there was a terrible battle here that destroyed the Ascension Platform…” Her hands were filthy, still holding a stone.
She opened her palm, and the stone floated in the air.
“Do you know what this is? It’s a levitating stone—it isn’t affected by gravity and floats in the air.
If you want to build a sky city or a floating island, you need these as the foundation.
Even if there wasn’t a sky city here before, there were at least floating islands.
But most of the levitating stones were smashed in the battle, and there aren’t many left.
Even the Ascension Platform… Bao Gu, come with me, I’ll show you something really good.”
Bao Gu grabbed the demon saint, who was about to turn and show her the treasure, and shouted, “Demon Saint, we have to leave.
All the major powers in the cultivation world are digging up sacred artifacts in the Wild Ancient Mountains…”
The demon saint went, “Hm?” and looked at Bao Gu in confusion.
Bao Gu gritted her teeth.
“The cultivation world is dismantling the formations in the Wild Ancient Mountains and digging up the sacred artifacts used as formation cores.”
The demon saint finally understood, and her face changed dramatically.
“Are they insane?” She was so angry her face went white.
Bao Gu said, “Demon Saint, we can’t stop them.
Even if we tried, we can’t leave you two here in danger.”
The demon saint took several deep breaths, but still couldn’t stop trembling.
She said, “Did you tell them what’s sealed here?”
Bao Gu said, “With the lure of sacred artifacts, do you think they’d listen? If they dig, the artifacts are theirs.
If they don’t, the artifacts go to Xuantian Sect! If they take the artifacts and run, who cares about the consequences? They have sacred artifacts to protect themselves—what do they have to fear? This is Xuantian Sect’s territory, in the borders of the Yue Kingdom.
If something goes wrong, Xuantian Sect and Yue Kingdom will take the blame.
Why wouldn’t they dig?” She closed her eyes.
“And, Demon Saint, if I tell them there’s a drought demon here, they might even try to use you to suppress it! Come on, let’s go, I’ll take you to the demon domain.
There are too many sacred artifacts buried here.
They’ve only just started digging, but as more and more artifacts are unearthed, they’ll get crazier.
By then, even if they know the drought demon could destroy the world, they’ll still take the risk to keep digging, and the most likely thing is that all the cultivators involved will join forces to use you to suppress the drought demon…”
The demon saint’s face went deathly pale.
“Bao Gu, you don’t know what happens when the drought demon is released.
None of you do.
You haven’t lived through that disaster…”
Bao Gu cried out in shock, “Demon Saint, you… you… you were already around when the drought demon was released?”
The demon saint closed her eyes in pain and shook her head.
She steadied herself and said, “Bao Gu, don’t rush to leave just yet.
It’ll take them some time to reach the foundation of the seals in the Wild Ancient Mountains.
Come with me.”
Seeing the demon saint so calm, Bao Gu felt reassured.
She was still full of questions, but since the demon saint didn’t want to talk, she didn’t ask.
She followed the demon saint, stepping over yellow sand and broken walls, and before long, she was stunned by the sight before her.
