66: Six spiritual roots

After the three of them finished refining the Medicinal Pills and the Primordial Yang within their bodies,

Spring Breeze was the first to stand up. Her movements attempted to remain steady, but her tightly pursed lips and tensed jawline betrayed the turmoil within her heart.

Her gaze deliberately avoided the whip scars beneath Xia Yuxuan's cloak, swept past Transforming Rain, and finally landed on the figure curled up in the corner, her eyes interlaced with lingering anger, fear from the incident, and a decision she had to make.

“Transforming Rain,” Spring Breeze's voice was low but clear, breaking the silence in the room, “we must return to Shuiyue Peak immediately.” She paused for a moment, adding emphasis, “And, we must enter seclusion immediately upon our return.”

Her fingers unconsciously rubbed the Storage Pouch at her waist repeatedly, her knuckles turning white from the force. “The matter of losing our Pure Yin Bodies must never be discovered,”

“Especially, we cannot let Revered Master sense any clues, otherwise if she starts questioning...”

She didn't continue, but the worry flashing in her eyes and the possible consequences she imagined made a slight chill run down her spine.

Transforming Rain snapped her head up, her face filled with indignation, her lips moving as if she wanted to argue.

But Spring Breeze's warning gaze pierced like an icicle, causing her throat to choke. Transforming Rain turned her face away resentfully, her shoulders slumping as her fingers irritably picked at the edge of the prayer mat.

Spring Breeze's gaze turned toward Xia Yuxuan in the corner, her tone cold and carrying an unquestionable air of judgment:

“As for you, Junior Sister Xia.” She paused deliberately, “You previously made such a grand show of asking for methods to improve cultivation through a Cauldron that everyone knows about it.

Now that your Pure Yin Body is gone, it's actually for the best.

We can report back to Revered Master,”

The corner of her mouth curled into a cold arc, filled with obvious irony, “and say that your Cauldron method was remarkably effective, and the mission... can be considered complete.”

Xia Yuxuan's body, wrapped in the oversized cloak, trembled almost imperceptibly.

She kept her head down, her long eyelashes drooping to cast shadows on her pale cheeks, biting her lower lip tightly without making a sound.

“Although this matter was not your original intent,” Spring Breeze's eyes pinned sharply onto Xia Yuxuan as she continued, “it ultimately started because of you.

Therefore, the compensation you must make, Junior Sister Xia, is to remain in the Outer Sect. Every month, go to Purple Bamboo Peak on time to collect Medicinal Pills from Lu Yang, and then deliver them to where Transforming Rain and I are in seclusion.”

Xia Yuxuan buried her head even lower, almost shrinking into her cloak.

After a long while, she squeezed out two almost inaudible words from the depths of her throat: “Under...stood.”

That voice was raspy, exhausted, and filled with humiliation and a heavy sense of guilt.

Spring Breeze stopped looking at her, turned to push open the door, and signaled for Transforming Rain to follow.

Transforming Rain stood up immediately, her movements carrying an urgency to escape this place; she gave Xia Yuxuan in the corner one last cold glance, her eyes distant, before quickly following out.

With a "bang," the heavy sound of the door closing echoed in the deathly silent room.

The moment the door closed, Xia Yuxuan's tense body went limp like a puppet whose strings had been cut, and she slid down the wall to sit on the cold floor.

The silent air seemed to have weight, pressing heavily on her chest and making it difficult for her to breathe.

She instinctively raised her hand, lightly touching the whip marks on her body through the coarse fabric of the cloak.

The sharp sting that followed made her shrink back involuntarily, gasping in a breath of cold air.

This clear sense of pain was like a key, instantly opening the floodgates of memory.

Lu Yang's figure emerged with extreme clarity: those eyes without any warmth, the whip falling without mercy, and that chilling severity.

Xia Yuxuan's fingers tightened unconsciously, sinking deep into the folds of her cloak.

That severity... actually stirred an indescribable illusion deep in her heart.

A blurred image of a father, hidden deep in her heart, emerged along with it.

Majestic, unquestionable, carrying a sense of power that made her both fearful and unable to resist wanting to draw closer.

Lu Yang's cold expression when he struck her unexpectedly overlapped with this blurred shadow,

causing her heart to skip a beat, welling up with a mixture of grievance, fear, and a secret yearning for that kind of powerful strength that she hadn't even clearly realized herself.

She shook her head vigorously, trying to dispel this absurd association. A massive sense of exhaustion submerged her completely like a surging tide.

Growing up in the law-of-the-jungle environment of the Hehuan Sect without a father's protection, her mother's concern and warmth had gradually cooled after her talent was confirmed to be mediocre, eventually leaving only indifference.

Shuiyue Peak was vast, yet she felt like a rootless duckweed with nowhere to rely on.

Become stronger! This thought had never been as sharp and strongly etched into her mind as it was at this moment.

She had to become powerful—powerful enough that her mother would have to look at her properly again, powerful enough that no one could ever manipulate her fate at will again!

A deep sense of loneliness and powerlessness wrapped around her tightly.

Slowly, bit by bit, she curled her body up, her arms tightly hugging her cold knees as she buried her entire face deep inside.

The hood of her cloak slipped down, revealing messy black hair and a few strands stuck to her cheeks, wet with tears.

She remained curled up motionless on the cold, hard floor, like a small animal instinctively retreating into its shell after being injured.

Extreme physical and mental exhaustion finally overwhelmed all her chaotic thoughts; her heavy eyelids slowly closed, and she fell into a deep sleep while maintaining this self-protective posture, with only her furrowed brows seeming to still endure the pain or the intrusion of an uneasy dream... On the other side, at Purple Bamboo Peak,

Lu Yang sat cross-legged in the center of the quiet room, focusing entirely on sensing the changes in the Spiritual Roots within his body.

After simultaneously absorbing the Spiritual Roots of Spring Breeze, Transforming Rain, and Xia Yuxuan through the Dragon Phoenix Yin-Yang Art, the improvement brought about was obvious.

The most significant was the Water Spirit Root. Because both Spring Breeze and Transforming Rain were at the Foundation Establishment Early-stage, the majestic water-element spiritual energy contained within their Origins was absorbed and converted by the Cultivation Technique, directly pushing his own Water Spirit Root to the Foundation Establishment Early-stage Realm.

A cool and powerful water-element spiritual energy flowed and circulated through his Meridians, its intensity and smoothness far surpassing what it was before.

Even more surprising to him was that he had actually simultaneously acquired a brand-new Spiritual Root attribute—the Wind Spirit Root!

This increased the total number of his Spiritual Roots from five to six.

Although this meant his Spiritual Root attributes were more mixed and the resources and energy required for cultivation would multiply, it was accompanied by a significant increase in total spiritual energy and an acceleration in spiritual energy recovery speed; his overall strength had undoubtedly been enhanced.

The most delightful thing was that this newly born Wind Spirit Root possessed the Foundation Establishment Early-stage Realm as soon as it appeared!

Lu Yang carefully sensed the subtle changes in his body; with every breath, he seemed to perceive the flow of air more clearly, and his body felt a fraction lighter than before.

The core advantage of the Wind Spirit Root lay in speed; whether it was cultivating wind-attribute techniques or performing wind-system Spells, it could greatly enhance the swiftness and flexibility of one's movement techniques.

In the later stages, if he could obtain rare wind-system Magic Treasures like Wind-Thunder Wings, he could push this speed advantage to the extreme.

This was equivalent to directly skipping the long process of accumulation from the Qi Refinement Stage, saving him an incalculable amount of time and resources.

Of Lu Yang's current Spiritual Roots, only the Wood Spirit Root and Fire Spirit Root remained at the Qi Refining Great Perfection Realm.

All the others had reached the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Driven by the newly promoted Foundation Establishment Early-stage Water and Wind Spiritual Roots, combined with the mysterious effects of the Dragon Phoenix Yin-Yang Art, Lu Yang clearly felt that the invisible threshold leading to the Foundation Establishment Stage was already close at hand.

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