502: Chapter 502 Senior Sister, please save the child! I want to go to Pengcheng to change my fate!

A young female Cultivator dressed in indigo-blue immortal robes rushed into the main hall of Hundred Flowers Peak, practically crawling and stumbling.

The newcomer was a True Disciple of the Xuantian Immortal Sect's Inner Sect, Zhang Ningshuang.

Third-level Heavenly Immortal.

Even in the Inner Sect, she was considered a person of some standing.

But at this moment, her immortal robes were askew, her hair bun was mostly undone, and her delicate face was flushed bright red; the way she ran was no different from someone being hunted down.

She didn't have even half the dignity of a True Disciple left.

“Junior Sister Lin!”

As soon as Zhang Ningshuang stepped into the hall, she saw the figure sitting upright in the very center.

Lin Wan was dressed in a simple white skirt, motionless, like a porcelain doll forgotten in an empty hall.

Zhang Ningshuang didn't have time to look closely; she rushed forward in a few quick strides and grabbed Lin Wan's cold sleeve.

Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice was cracked.

“Junior Sister Lin! I beg of you, lend me some Immortal Stones!”

“Three million! high-grade immortal stones!”

Lin Wan didn't move, not even lifting an eyelid.

But Zhang Ningshuang couldn't care less anymore; her words poured out like a flood through an open gate.

“I know it's a huge amount, but I really need it urgently!”

“I can give you an IOU! Even a Soul Contract! The strictest kind, you can write whatever terms you want!”

“If that's not enough—”

She grit her teeth, as if making a desperate, life-altering decision.

“I'll mortgage my Immortal Cave to you! I bought it with five hundred years of savings; the location, Spiritual Vein, and Formations are all top-tier. It's definitely worth this price!”

Zhang Ningshuang's voice was already tinged with a sob.

An Inner Sect True Disciple who was usually haughty and aloof was now in a posture so humble it was as if she were kneeling to beg for a final lifeline.

The hall fell silent for two breaths.

Then, Lin Wan moved.

Very slowly.

Like a doll that had been left for too long with joints about to rust, she slowly turned her head.

She looked at Zhang Ningshuang, and those eyes were empty.

It wasn't sadness, nor was it indifference; it was a complete, utter emptiness where nothing remained.

Like two ancient wells that had been dry for a thousand years, they couldn't even reflect a single drop of water.

“Three million.”

Her voice was very soft, so soft it seemed to drift in from across a wall.

“What does Senior Sister Zhang want to do with it?”

Her tone was no different from asking “is the sun coming out today?”

Zhang Ningshuang's heart trembled.

She had known Lin Wan for over three thousand years, but she had never seen her like this.

The Fairy of Hundred Flowers, who used to have two sweet dimples when she smiled and was as gentle as a spring breeze in March, now looked like... a dead person.

But she didn't have time to think about it, nor did she dare to.

She gripped Lin Wan's sleeve tightly, as if afraid this lifeline would fly away, and blurted everything out with frantic gestures.

“immortal body marrow core!”

“First-rank immortal body marrow core!”

When these words burst from her mouth, a nearly pathological excitement appeared on her face.

“I just received news—the Peng City branch of the Lingbao Trading Firm!”

“At the auction on the first of next month, they will have a limited supply of first-rank immortal body marrow cores!”

Her breathing was rapid and heavy, every word trembling.

“Junior Sister Lin, do you understand what this means?”

“An immortal body!”

“I've been stuck at the Third-level Heavenly Immortal stage for a full eight hundred years!”

“Eight hundred years!”

Her voice suddenly rose, and her eyes were already shimmering with tears.

“My dao foundation is almost solidified; if I don't break through now, my life will be over!”

“But as long as I can get one, even just one first-rank immortal body marrow core, I'm absolutely certain I can break through the Bottleneck!”

“The Fourth-level Heavenly Immortal stage! I'll be able to reach the Fourth-level Heavenly Immortal stage!”

As Zhang Ningshuang said this, her entire body was shaking.

Immortal body.

For a Cultivator like her with mediocre Aptitude who had ground her way up step by step through hard work, these two words were synonymous with changing one's fate.

Higher cultivation efficiency, a stronger Foundation for combat power, and a broader path ahead.

It wasn't just a treasure.

It was a different kind of life.

“I've visited all my fellow disciples; I've borrowed everything I could and sold everything I could.”

Her voice grew hoarse, as if she had torn her last shred of dignity to pieces and spread it on the ground.

“Two million. Scraping everything together, I've only managed to gather two million high-grade immortal stones.”

“I'm still three million short.”

She released her grip on Lin Wan's sleeve, took half a step back, and bowed deeply.

A Third-level Heavenly Immortal Inner Sect True Disciple performed a near-prostrate bow to a Junior Sister who had entered the sect hundreds of years after her.

“Junior Sister Lin, you are the Peak Master of Hundred Flowers Peak and a Personal Disciple of a Golden Immortal Elder.”

“You must have a way... right?”

“I beg you.”

Her tears finally broke free, splashing drop by drop onto the cold jade floor.

“Think of it as saving my life.”

The hall fell back into silence.

Lin Wan maintained her head-turned posture, looking motionlessly at the tearful Senior Sister before her.

Every word Zhang Ningshuang spoke and every tear she shed fell into Lin Wan's eyes like stones dropped into asphalt—sinking and vanishing without a single ripple.

“Three million.”

“Immortal body.”

“Bottleneck.”

“Changing fate.”

To the Lin Wan of seven days ago, these words might have stirred some sense of fellow-disciple camaraderie.

But now, the things weighing on her heart were too heavy.

So heavy that all the joys and sorrows of the world had become distant scenery that had nothing to do with her.

Zhang Ningshuang was on the verge of despair.

She looked into Lin Wan's empty, emotionless eyes, and her heart grew colder bit by bit.

It's over.

Junior Sister has probably been driven witless by some blow.

Asking was pointless.

Just as she was about to withdraw her last shred of hope and swallow her bitterness in resignation—

Two words unintentionally escaped her mouth.

“...The auction over in Peng City is bound to be fiercely competitive, I'm afraid—”

“Peng City.”

Wait, Peng City?!

That moment was like a stone thrown into a pool of stagnant water that had been rotting for seven days.

A ripple finally appeared on the surface of the stagnant water, extremely fine and shallow.

So fine that Zhang Ningshuang didn't notice it at all.

But if someone could see into the depths of Lin Wan's eyes at this moment, they would discover something.

Lin Wan's eyes were still empty.

But within that emptiness, an extremely tiny focal point was beginning to reconsolidate.