Chapter 177
Chapter 177: Suspecting Her Spiritual Root Was Stolen
Rong Qian Ning inclined her head slightly and said, “When you fell at seven, you came back covered in injuries. The clan invited physicians for you, and even invited two alchemists, and only then were your wounds stabilized. However, how you were injured could never be discovered. After I entered Glorious Radiance Sect, I told the Grand Elder about your case back then. She is my master.”
Hearing this, Rong Shu was taken aback. She had not expected that something from seven years ago had weighed on Rong Qian Ning’s mind for so long, especially when it had nothing to do with her directly.
Rong Qian Ning’s expression gradually turned grave. “Master told me that your situation at the time was very likely caused by a cultivator.”
“A cultivator?” Rong Shu was startled. Although she had learned that the Return to Bygone Memories Pill might help her retrieve lost memories, it was also possible that nothing would be recovered. The memory of falling from the cliff had been chaotic then and was now blank, as if something had forcibly wiped it away.
Rong Qian Ning asked, “Has anything abnormal occurred in your cultivation recently? Or have you felt any discomfort anywhere?”
“The dantian sometimes aches faintly. It is an old ailment and does not hinder me.” Rong Shu did not reveal that her cultivation progress rose and plunged like a roller coaster.
“The dantian,” Rong Qian Ning murmured, then continued, “Originally, Master had a conjecture. We were not sure whether it applied to you.”
“What conjecture?” Rong Shu pressed at once.
Rong Qian Ning looked at her with a complex gaze. “Master suspects that someone dug out your spiritual root.”
“Had my spiritual root dug out?” Rong Shu instinctively looked toward her dantian. If her spiritual root had been excavated, why did she still have one now? “But I have a Wind-Fire Spiritual Root.”
“Which is why, for the past five years, no one in the Rong Clan thought along these lines,” Rong Qian Ning said. “Most people have never even heard of the evil art of extracting another’s spiritual root, and in the cultivation world it is held in utter loathing. Now that you are in the cultivation world, you may encounter the culprit who did this. Be careful in all things. Do not place too much trust in any one person.”
Having heard such a grave revelation, Rong Shu felt that the long-standing knot in her heart had been nudged open by a sliver. In the past there had been no clues at all. She had been young, had little say, and lacked strength, so she could not investigate anything. Now she had a pill formula that could restore memories, and she had this conversation with Rong Qian Ning.
She bowed her head solemnly in thanks: “Big Sister, thank you.”
“You are in the sect now. Cultivate well and do not waste those dual spiritual roots,” Rong Qian Ning said. Having said what she came to say, she did not intend to reminisce further. As the eldest sister, she merely offered a few words of admonishment.
Rong Shu nodded. “I understand, Big Sister.”
“Our mission is complete, so we are leaving first,” Rong Qian Ning added. “Take your time with your tasks. By the way, do you have a Nine Palace Mirror?”
“I do,” Rong Shu said.
“Let us exchange contact marks. If anything happens, inform me,” Rong Qian Ning replied, taking out her own Nine Palace Mirror.
After the two of them exchanged Nine Palace Mirror contact marks, Rong Qian Ning turned to go. Just before she left, she looked back and said one last thing: “Also, be careful of the people around you, for example that female disciple under Immortal Venerable Ze Yu.”
After Rong Qian Ning left, Rong Shu could not calm down for a long while. “Digging out a spiritual root,” she murmured. [Did someone really dig out my spiritual root? Who was it? And which attribute was taken?]
Big Sister had asked whether there were abnormalities in her cultivation. Besides the roller-coaster progress, there was another point: although she lacked spiritual roots of certain attributes, she could still cultivate those other elements. [So was it that my spiritual root was stolen?]
Then she thought again and felt something did not fit. [I am cultivating nine elements. It cannot be that, aside from the wind and fire, the other seven were all dug out. Moreover, I have no dark-element root, yet my progress in the dark element is not slower than in wind. That does not look like someone whose spiritual root was removed.]
Being an alchemist, Rong Shu also knew something of the fate of cultivators whose spiritual roots were dug out. Those who survived at all, even if they could no longer cultivate, were already considered fortunate. In most cases they died on the spot.
“Lightning, water, and ice,” she murmured as her eyes flickered. In the nine elements, lightning, water, and ice progressed the slowest for her, and they were the likeliest to have had roots taken, which would explain the difficulty in cultivating them. Of those three, lightning was somewhat better. Water, before the nourishment of Ambrosial Jade Dew, was painfully slow. Ice was the slowest of all.
[Is it the water element, or the ice element, or both,] she wondered. Then she recalled Rong Qian Ning’s parting warning. [Was she telling me to be careful of Yu Ruan Ruan? Yu Ruan Ruan entered the sect eight years ago, which is exactly when the original me fell from the cliff. She also has an ice-element Heavenly Spiritual Root.]
A vague sense of having grasped something rose within Rong Shu, though for the moment it remained only her conjecture and there was not yet evidence.
Elsewhere, Rong Qian Ning walked away with a cool expression, though she felt a quiet breath of relief in her heart. [I wonder if Rong Shu will heed my words. And that Yu Ruan Ruan.]
Her eyes held greater weight and doubt as she remembered. On the night she was found to have excellent talent and was directly accepted as a personal disciple by the Glorious Radiance Sect’s Grand Elder, Rong Qian Ning, who should have been too excited to sleep, instead had a dream. It was vivid, so vivid it felt as if it had really happened.
In the dream, her unremarkable younger cousin Rong Shu was suddenly favored at age seven by Immortal Venerable Ze Yu of Heaven’s Evolution Sect and accepted as a personal disciple. The dream’s Rong Shu was a darling of the heavens in Heaven’s Evolution Sect, born with an ice-element Heavenly Spiritual Root and an exceptional gift.
The dream was very short, so short that she remembered only this much. Yet when she woke, the real Rong Shu had not been taken as a personal disciple at seven by Immortal Venerable Ze Yu, nor did she have any Heavenly Spiritual Root; she was plain and unremarkable. As she grew older, Rong Qian Ning buried the dream and told no one.
Until, by chance, she learned that under Immortal Venerable Ze Yu there was a girl named Yu Ruan Ruan, an ice-element Heavenly Spiritual Root, accepted outside the sect as a disciple. The year Yu Ruan Ruan was accepted happened to match the time when, in the dream, “Rong Shu” was taken as a disciple.
What she had thought a clouded dream, unworthy of belief, suddenly snapped into clarity the instant she learned these facts. It was as if she understood at once. Her younger cousin’s fate and talent had been stolen.
While Rong Qian Ning was feeling this mixture of sympathy and rue, Rong Shu, head lowered, was still thinking about the matter of a dug-out spiritual root. Thinking and thinking, she suddenly felt her aura stir oddly. She was about to break through again. In the next instant she forced it down. [If I break through like this out in the open, it will draw attention.]
“Enough. Thinking more is useless. I should finish my tasks first,” she decided, then set out according to her original plan to look for Soul Recall Grass.
In the zone where Soul Recall Grass grew, there were guardian beasts with notoriously savage tempers. Only beasts that lived beside Soul Recall Grass could keep their hearts calm, which was why places with this herb usually had such beasts dwelling nearby. However, these seemingly ferocious beasts had a rather fatal weakness: they were clumsy. Sometimes they would topple over onto their backs and, if luck was bad, flail for half a day without getting up.
In fact, among the four gathering tasks she had chosen, the guardian beasts each had some obvious weakness. If she could seize on those weak points, then even a weak cultivator could toy with such beasts in the palm of the hand. This was exactly because Rong Shu had considered that she, this humble one, was only a small Qi Refining fourth-layer cultivator and naturally could not take on anything too difficult. If she fought head-on, how could she defeat these vicious beasts? So in the eyes of outsiders who did not know the truth, weakling Rong Shu could only rely on technique to evade their attacks and pluck the herbs.
With the sect-issued task map in hand, Rong Shu soon found a broad patch of Soul Recall Grass and, nearby, a whole group of beasts.
“Roar!” One after another the beasts bellowed like thunder at the intruder, ferocious and ill at ease.
Rong Shu lazily raised her right hand and snapped her fingers. In an instant, a ring of fire appeared before the beasts and encircled them. The gesture enraged them. Relying on thick hide and tough flesh, they tried to stride through the ring. Just as they were about to break past, the ordinary red flames suddenly turned a deep blue. The beasts that touched those blue flames howled in agony.
Their hides were thick, but the blue fire burned the soul.
With no beast to stop her, Rong Shu easily harvested several clumps of Soul Recall Grass. “Soul Recall Grass is in hand,” she said softly, then added, “I should take a bit more.”
She put aside the portion of Soul Recall Grass needed for her task into a Storage Pouch. Seeing that the beasts had been seared enough by the Exotic Flame and had all settled down, not daring to take a step out of the ring, she withdrew the Exotic Flame.
The beasts glared at her with eyes like bronze bells, fury fixed upon Rong Shu. She, in excellent spirits, picked over another dozen plants while the beasts only watched from afar, roaring in heartache without a single one daring to come forward. At last, cheerful, she waved and said, “Bye now, I am off. I will drop by again when I have time.”
Their answering roars might as well have been saying, Get lost, get lost, get lost, get lost, and never come back, hateful human.
With little mission time left, Rong Shu, having obtained the Soul Recall Grass, rushed straight to the fourth task site. The fourth task also went smoothly, without any mishap. After completing all four tasks, she rested for one night and, at first light, set off back to Heaven’s Evolution Sect.
On the way, she made a stop at the black market. Her senior brother had once said that in the black market, if you could name the price, you could buy whatever you wanted, including intelligence and information. Rong Shu went to purchase two sets of information: the ten-year activity trail of Heaven’s Evolution Sect’s Jun Xiu Ran, and the ten-year activity trail of Heaven’s Evolution Sect’s Yu Ruan Ruan. Ten years happened to cover the period when she fell from the cliff. She briskly paid the Spirit Stones. The black market needed time to investigate, so she left first.
Ten days later, by using the Teleportation Arrays linking the three main cities, she shortened the journey by three quarters and finally returned to Heaven’s Evolution Sect before her mission deadline. Upon returning, she headed straight for the Task Pavilion.
As she walked, she felt that the sect’s atmosphere was off, more stifled than before. [It has been two years since the Demonic Cultivators attacked. Heaven’s Evolution Sect did not suffer a mortal blow. It cannot be that it still has not recovered.] Two years was enough to repair all the structures damaged back then. The traces of destruction were no longer visible.
On the way to the Task Pavilion, a patrol of law-enforcement disciples stopped her. The leader, a male disciple at the Golden Core Stage with his right hand resting on the hilt at his waist as if ready to draw at the slightest move, asked in a cool tone, “Which peak and which elder do you belong to?”
Rong Shu cupped her hands and replied, “Limitless Peak, fifth disciple under Immortal Venerable Ze Yu, Rong Shu.”
“Your identity token. Show it,” he said. She handed the token over. After checking it, he asked, “Have you just returned to the sect? Your name did not appear in the last few rounds of investigation.”
“Yes, I just finished a mission and hurried back,” Rong Shu said with a nod. Hearing him mention several rounds of investigation, her eyes shifted. “May I ask, senior brother, what investigation?”
Returning her token, the Golden Core Stage disciple said, “The sect has been sweeping for Demonic Cultivator spies recently. Junior sister, be careful. Those Demonic Cultivators most like to move against disciples with good talent or high standing.” Finding no issues and recognizing the status of a personal disciple, his tone grew somewhat more courteous.
Rong Shu was a little taken aback and grumbled inwardly, [What kind of mole could they be, to be hunted for two years without being found.] “Thank you for the warning, senior brother,” she said.
After the patrol passed, she went on to the Task Pavilion, submitted her missions, received her rewards, and immediately accepted a half-month assignment in the forbidden valley.