Returning to her small abode, Tang Muxi sat on a square chair made of spirit bamboo, gazing at the verdant green pond in front of her house, her heart filled with uncertainty.
She shouldn’t have reacted so strongly earlier. Duan Yurong was sensitive and had been suppressed by Wang Qu for too long, leading her astray. But she had to stop her little schemes; otherwise, if Jiang Yin found out, she might not survive this summer.
Although her memory was a bit hazy, Tang Muxi clearly remembered that in her previous lives, she was bound by that force, forced to conspire with Duan Yurong to harm and humiliate Jiang Yin. Despite seizing the secret realm token, Duan Yurong suddenly disappeared and never went to the Tianji Secret Realm.
At that time, she was bound and couldn’t investigate Duan Yurong’s whereabouts. Now, thinking carefully, she feared that Duan Yurong had already been secretly killed by Jiang Yin before entering the secret realm.
The more Tang Muxi thought about it, the more uneasy she became. Finally, she abruptly stood up and walked straight towards Jiang Yin’s residence.
Jiang Yin, like her, was apprenticed to the teaching elder and lived together on the Spirit Gathering Peak. Here, the elder had personally set up a spirit gathering array, making the spiritual energy abundant and cultivation highly efficient.
On the surface, Tang Muxi had a top-grade wood spirit root. Although her cultivation was still shallow, her talent was extremely high. She had a quiet and small residence near the center of the spirit gathering array, living a rather leisurely life. However, Jiang Yin, due to her poor talent, was not valued by the elder and had to live at the foot of the Spirit Gathering Peak.
In reality, Tang Muxi did not have a wood spirit root. She had secretly tested herself several times and never detected any spirit root, theoretically closer to an ordinary person without a spirit root. Yet, she could not only cultivate but also progress rapidly.
Whether it was the five types of spiritual energy—gold, wood, water, fire, earth—or the violent and gloomy ghost energy, demonic energy, she could absorb and transform them at will.
She had never told anyone about this anomaly, not even her master, the teaching elder. After all, such a strange phenomenon, if known, might lead to her being labeled as a demon and hunted by everyone. Now, she disguised herself as having a top-grade wood spirit root simply because wood spiritual energy was more compatible with her.
Leaving her small abode, she ran all the way to the foot of the mountain. The lush spiritual plants and trees quickly receded, like sprouting buds growing rapidly through catalysis.
The Spirit Gathering Peak had abundant spiritual energy, and the spiritual plants and herbs grew well, with a wide variety. The best herb garden in the Tianji Sect was on this peak. Tang Muxi thought of Duan Yurong and felt a pang of guilt, keeping an eye out for any Marrow Cleansing Immortal Grass along the way, but as expected, found none.
Spiritual plants and artifacts were divided into four grades: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow, each with three sub-grades: upper, middle, and lower. The Marrow Cleansing Immortal Grass was a middle-grade Profound item. Although not high-grade, it was very rare because it only grew in places with pure water or wood spiritual energy.
In the spiritual cultivation world, the Marrow Cleansing Immortal Grass was quite precious and generally only used for dual spirit root cultivators to nurture heavenly spirit roots. For someone like Duan Yurong with four spirit roots, unless they had an extremely special status, no one would be willing to waste such a treasure.
Reaching the foot of the mountain at Jiang Yin’s residence, Tang Muxi still hadn’t found any Marrow Cleansing Immortal Grass. Knowing she couldn’t rush it, she reluctantly pushed aside the broken wooden fence in front of the house.
“Senior Sister Jiang, are you there?” This was Jiang Yin’s small courtyard, with bare land except for a few ordinary yellow-grade spiritual plants. The house seemed to have been in disrepair for years, with a broken hole in the roof on the east side, now barely covered with a few layers of straw. Clearly an elder’s disciple, yet living conditions were worse than those of a servant disciple.
Tang Muxi glanced at the straw-covered hole in the roof, feeling guilty. If she remembered correctly, she had smashed it in a fit of anger once, although she was forced to. But Jiang Yin didn’t know that! Living in such a place every day, looking at the hole in the roof, who knows how she would badmouth her.
Tang Muxi decided to repair the small courtyard as soon as possible to prevent Senior Sister from cursing her every day and holding a grudge.
“Senior Sister Jiang?” Tang Muxi approached the house and pushed the door open, but saw no one inside, feeling a bit stunned.
Where was she? She should be here at this time. In previous lives, after agreeing to Duan Yurong’s request, she had successfully forced Jiang Yin to hand over the token here. Why was there no one now?
Looking at the messy papers and pens on the table, it seemed like someone had been forcibly taken away.
Tang Muxi started to panic. She quickly used her spiritual power to create a paper crane based on her memory.
This was a tracking spell. As long as the paper crane was given a trace of the spiritual power or aura of the person being sought, it could find them within a ten-mile radius. Unfortunately, she was only at the Qi Refining stage, and creating a paper crane had already drained her spiritual power.
“Go.” She drew a wisp of Jiang Yin’s aura from the room and infused it into the paper crane. With a light touch of her fingertip, the glowing paper crane shot out like an arrow.
Seeing the paper crane’s determined direction, Tang Muxi was surprised. Knowing that Jiang Yin might be nearby, she felt a bit relieved and quickly followed.
On the other side, in the woods at the edge of Tianji Gate, Jiang Yin was covered in blood, leaning against a sturdy tree trunk, gasping for breath as she clutched a gruesome wound on her shoulder.
It had only been a quarter of an hour since her inexplicable rebirth. She clearly remembered that a quarter of an hour ago, she had pierced Tang Muxi’s heart with her sword, but suddenly, a thunderous roar from the heavens and a strange demonic aura had pulled her away.
When she opened her eyes again, she was in the woods, surrounded by hostile disciples of Tianji Gate.
She had returned to the past.
Jiang Yin vividly remembered this time period. It was when she lived on Gathering Spirit Peak, constantly bullied by others.
Dealing with these weaklings at the Qi Refining stage, even if she had lost her cultivation and reverted to her former self with five spiritual roots, she could easily defeat them.
Unfortunately, the timing of her rebirth was bad. Her original body was severely injured, and with several people attacking her in succession, no matter how she struggled, she couldn’t use any of the spells etched in her mind.
“Tsk. Damn it, I misjudged. Who would’ve thought a useless person without any cultivation could fight so well.” The leading disciple pressed his thumb against his nose, forcefully exhaling a bloody mess onto the grass beside him.
“Big brother, this woman is strange. I think we should all attack together and kill her quickly. If we delay any longer, who knows what might happen.” A tall, skinny man with a sneaky look suggested cautiously. Though he seemed insignificant and spineless, the vicious glint in his eyes was hard to hide.
As he finished speaking, several disciples around him started to jeer, slowly approaching with their magical weapons, clearly intent on killing.
However, the leading man wasn’t so easily swayed. He stared at Jiang Yin, then suddenly let out a sinister laugh. He took out a palm-sized, pitch-black sphere from his storage bag.
The sphere was covered in dark purple patterns, with a dark red glow at its center, pulsing like a heartbeat.
As soon as it appeared, even the midday sun seemed to dim. Dark currents surged, and demonic mist billowed, making everyone feel uneasy. Even the disciples who had been clamoring to attack broke out in a cold sweat, not daring to move.
The leading man sneered mockingly, his eyes filled with greed. “Jiang, you brought this upon yourself. Don’t blame me for being ruthless. I’m just doing my job, using this Soul Devouring Gu to take your life. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being too weak!”
With those final words, the man suddenly threw the black sphere to the ground. With a crisp sound, like shattering glass, dark purple insects escaped their confinement, exuding an ominous aura and pressure.
“Run!” At the man’s command, the group quickly fled, disappearing in an instant.
Jiang Yin coldly watched the foul-smelling Gu insect in front of her, its aura rising steadily. She didn’t know whether to be happy or worried.
The Soul Devouring Gu was a vicious insect from the Demon Realm, living off the essence and blood of others. It was said that its poison could kill instantly and corrode the soul.
Of course, those were just rumors. In her past life, after becoming the Demon Lord, Jiang Yin had used this insect to torment her enemies. While it couldn’t corrode souls, its intense toxicity was enough to make life worse than death.
The one in front of her didn’t seem to be fully grown, its cultivation only at the Foundation Establishment stage. Even so, its poison was something she couldn’t resist at her current level.
In her past life, after her spiritual roots were destroyed, she had sought countless dark and evil items to rebuild them, nearly dying in the process. Now, with her spiritual roots intact and the Soul Devouring Gu at hand, if she could capture and raise it, she might be able to create a “Ghostly Root” even more perfect than in her previous life.
Unfortunately… right now, she couldn’t even think about raising it; survival itself was a question.
Jiang Yin pressed her lips tightly together, her fingers clutching a forbidden technique that could temporarily boost her cultivation, struggling internally.
Though the forbidden technique was effective, its backlash was severe, potentially causing irreversible damage. If possible, she wanted to capture this demonic insect alive to use it as a catalyst for reconstructing her Ghostly Root.
But she had no other choice.
Just as her forbidden technique was about to take effect and the Soul Devouring Gu lunged at her, a familiar yet strange cry suddenly reached her ears: “Senior Sister, watch out!” Her fingers instinctively slipped, the forbidden technique abruptly interrupted. A piercing pain shot through her neck, but Jiang Yin seemed oblivious, gritting her teeth as she looked up at the fool who had ruined all her plans, wishing she could tear her apart on the spot.
Tang Muxi had followed the search party into the forest, only to see a demonic creature full of murderous intent pouncing on the bloodied Jiang Yin. Her heart leapt into her throat.
She ran with all her might, but her speed was far inferior to the demonic creature’s. Desperately, she cast a spell while shouting loudly, hoping to make Jiang Yin dodge.
Her shout did help Jiang Yin, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Not only did Jiang Yin fail to dodge, but she was also bitten by the demonic insect due to a momentary distraction. When she looked up, the overwhelming hatred in her eyes seemed to want to flay Tang Muxi alive and pierce her with a thousand arrows. The sheer intensity of it made Tang Muxi, who had just narrowly escaped death, shiver in fear, almost kneeling on the spot to beg for mercy.
The ferocious demonic creature bit into Jiang Yin’s neck, and almost instantly, black energy spread rapidly across half her neck. It was like a dense network of black veins, spreading wildly.
Tang Muxi was shocked. Without thinking, she unleashed a full-force attack, striking the unguarded head of the demonic insect.
Whether it was her imagination or not, at the moment her spell shattered the insect’s brain, she heard Jiang Yin’s incredulous and grief-stricken roar: “No! My Soul Devouring Gu!!!” But it was too late; the situation was irreversible.
Jiang Yin was overwhelmed by the poison. Although the demonic insect was killed, the poison within her was still potent, nearly taking her life in an instant. Her body swayed, and she fainted.
Tang Muxi quickly stepped forward to catch her, using her memory to swiftly seal Jiang Yin’s aura and meridians, temporarily halting the spread of the poison.
