Chapter 002

Chapter 2: Heaven Grade Five Spiritual Roots

Ji Chang Huai grew flustered. He had shouted the wrong name in a panic just now, so he hurried to his feet and said softly: “Junior Sister, why are you here?”

He forgot all about the badly injured Ye Wan Wan on the bed.

Ye Wan Wan lay there feeling as if her whole body and even her soul were breaking apart. The pain forced her to curl up. She wanted to drive these two out, but she could not move. [You two shameless people, why won’t you get out! Get out!]

Hearing Ji Chang Huai’s voice, Ye Qian forced a smile that looked more like a bitter one as she carried a bowl of medicine and said timidly: “Eldest Senior Brother, I heard Senior Sister Little Seven came down the mountain, so I came to see her.”

Ji Chang Huai scolded her gently: “Your body isn’t well either. Why come all this way? Your Senior Sister has us looking after her.”

Ye Qian bit her lower lip, glanced carefully at Ye Wan Wan, and whispered: “I’m afraid Senior Sister is still angry with me.”

“She won’t be,” Ji Chang Huai said as he took the medicine from her hand, his voice gentle: “You’re so well behaved. How could she be angry with you?”

Ye Qian looked at Ye Wan Wan again with caution and asked: “Then why won’t Senior Sister look at me now…”

Ji Chang Huai followed her gaze. On the bed, Ye Wan Wan had turned her back and curled under the quilt, clearly refusing to acknowledge Ye Qian.

Tears filled Ye Qian’s eyes. She cried, biting her lip: “Senior Sister still blames me. I… I know… it’s all my fault.”

She sobbed harder and said: “But about the Golden Core, I really didn’t know… I never meant to take Senior Sister’s Golden Core. I only learned my father came up the mountain after I woke up. If I had known earlier, I would have never agreed.”

“I am willing to return the Golden Core to Senior Sister. Senior Sister, please don’t be mad at me, sob…”

Ji Chang Huai could not bear to see Ye Qian cry. He flailed to comfort the little miss and said anxiously: “I know, Senior Brother knows. This isn’t your fault. Master has already decided what to do about the Golden Core. You don’t need to say any more.”

“Little Seven isn’t angry with you. She won’t be angry.”

One cried and one coaxed, and the sobbing went on and on.

Clang.

A sharp sound of metal leaving its sheath cut through the room. Both of them froze and looked toward the bed.

Pale as paper, Ye Wan Wan still drew a dagger and held it out to Ye Qian as she said coldly: “Come.”

Ye Qian stared, stunned: “What?”

“Dig,” Ye Wan Wan said.

Ji Chang Huai’s stalled mind started working again. He slapped the dagger away in anger, his hand crashing down on Ye Wan Wan’s wrist and the bed.

Crack.

Clang.

The blade hit the floor. Ye Wan Wan’s face turned even whiter.

Ji Chang Huai recognized the dagger. It was the one he had given Ye Wan Wan. Rage boiled up as he shouted: “You really are heartless. You dare force Little Eight to dig out her Golden Core right in front of me. Who knows what else you’ve done behind our backs.”

“I did not give you that artifact to use like this.”

He kicked the dagger away and kept cursing while staring at Ye Wan Wan. She did not lift her head and listened calmly.

“Get out,” she said. Her voice was weak, but she repeated the same word again and again: “Get out.”

[Get out!]

Red heat kindled in her eyes. Her left hand clenched. Between her trembling fingers, she began to draw a slow, painful stroke of a Killing Talisman. [Kill them. Kill them all. Even if I die, I will drag them down with me.]

But just then, Ye Qian grabbed Ji Chang Huai’s sleeve and cried: “Senior Sister and Senior Brother, please don’t fight. This is all because of me. I’ll go down the mountain right now and leave the Supreme Sect. Please don’t argue.”

“Little Eight!” Ji Chang Huai called, but before he could finish, Ye Qian was already crying as she ran out the door. From outside, they heard someone ask: “Junior Sister, what’s wrong?”

“Third Senior Brother, I’m leaving the Supreme Sect.”

“Wait, why are you crying? Did someone bully you? I know, it must be Ye Wan Wan. I’ll go teach her a lesson!”

Both inside the room heard every word at the door.

Soon, Dou Ming came back dragging Ye Qian with him. At first sight of Ye Wan Wan, he scowled and yanked her off the bed.

The Talisman Arts were broken off.

Ye Wan Wan laughed. She laughed loud and bleak, so loud that everyone in the room jumped in fright.

As she was dragged from the bed, the girl coughed blood again and again. The blood kept pouring out, spreading across the floor like it would dye the whole room red. Yet her laughter did not stop, as if mocking her own life. [How could I be so foolish. How did it take me this long to see them clearly.]

All three faces turned pale.

Ye Qian cried: “Is Senior Sister going to die?”

Blood kept spilling from Ye Wan Wan’s mouth. Frightened, Dou Ming let go.

…

Under a tense, choking air, Elder Yu Chun from Elmwood Hall finished checking the girl’s pulse and roared: “Didn’t I say before I left that she must rest in silence? What are you doing now?”

“Do you want her dead that badly?”

“You are all fellow disciples. Dou Ming, you struck so viciously. Were you trying to kill her?”

Dou Ming muttered: “How was I supposed to know her meridians were really broken? I thought she was pretending.”

“You-” Elder Yu Chun gave a short, furious laugh and snapped: “Fine. I won’t meddle in the mess between you, but right now she is my patient. If you cause her death, none of you are allowed to set foot in Elmwood Hall again!”

“And I won’t come to your Azure Cloud Peak either!”

Ji Chang Huai and Dou Ming both panicked and rushed to apologize.

Their junior sister had always been frail, and it was Elder Yu Chun who treated her. If Elder Yu Chun refused to come to Azure Cloud Peak, what would their junior sister do in the future? They bowed and begged, each trying to smooth things over.

“Our junior sister’s health still needs your help to nurse back to strength. Please don’t abandon her,” they said.

Hearing this, Elder Yu Chun looked at the girl on the couch with mixed feelings. In the past, when they said “junior sister,” they had meant her. Times had changed.

He wrote several prescriptions of rare spirit medicines and charged Ji Chang Huai and Dou Ming a heavy price. After warning them a thousand times that Ye Wan Wan must keep complete rest, he left, still shaken. Even he was shocked that, with injuries this severe, Ye Wan Wan was still alive. Her will to live was powerful, so strong you could not ignore it.

Ye Wan Wan did not know his thoughts. If she had, she would have answered: [Of course I want to live. I finally got a second chance.] She would not die like this. She could not.

Because of Elder Yu Chun’s orders, Ye Wan Wan was spared punishment at Black Ice Cliff and instead put under a year of confinement. No one was allowed to see her except Elder Yu Chun. It gave her time to heal.

A month later, her body stabilized bit by bit. Elder Yu Chun sighed and said: “You are the strongest survivor I have ever seen. In just one month, you’ve recovered to this point. But child, your meridians are broken and your Golden Core was dug out. From now on you may…” He did not finish, but he knew she understood. Cultivation might no longer be possible for her.

Seeing Ye Wan Wan drop her gaze in silence, he comforted her: “Think it through, child. Being alive is already good.”

He left her several more medicines and told her to rest well. Ye Wan Wan stood slowly and walked around the room. One day, two days, three days went by. Only after she could move freely did she sit cross-legged.

All her cultivation had scattered clean. She had nothing left. Yet she did not panic.

Her spiritual roots and meridians were different from ordinary people. She was born with Heaven Grade Five Spiritual Roots.

Spiritual roots are rated as Low Grade, Middle Grade, High Grade, Supreme Grade, and the rarest, Heaven Grade. The quality of one’s spiritual root decides how quickly a cultivator can absorb Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi.

Ye Wan Wan’s spiritual roots were the highest among the Supreme Grade, the peerless Heaven Grade Spiritual Root. Unfortunately, she had all five attributes. With Five Spiritual Roots, cultivation is extremely slow.

So before she joined the sect, the father of this body sealed her other four attributes and left only fire. Because of that, after entering the Supreme Sect, she charged ahead and broke through to the Golden Core at age fifteen. But after forming her Golden Core, she stopped making progress.

In her past life, she could not understand why she never advanced after reaching Golden Core. Many years later, she finally realized the reason: her spiritual roots should never have been sealed. The five elements must all be present.

She gathered a thread of spiritual power and slowly washed her meridians. Each movement felt like being torn apart. She trembled from the pain, but she kept going, bit by bit.

A month later, she broke through the fragile Self Sealing inside her body. She felt a restraint crack and fall away. Opening her palm, she watched five lights glide across her skin. They were her Innate Five Spiritual Roots. She closed her fingers around them.

Success.

Though her face was still pale, her eyes blazed bright.