Chapter 028

Chapter 28: The Second Path

It was Pei Xuan. He said in a low voice: “You did very well.”

Ye Wan Wan could not stop the smile at the corner of her lips. She nodded hard and said: “I will do even better.”

Because this was not Supreme Sect. This was Heavenly One Sect.

After the Thunder Tribulation, Ye Wan Wan rested for seven days before she fully recovered.

But when her friends saw her again and sensed her cultivation, Bai Jian and Fang He An both went quiet. Fang He An asked: “Junior sister, why did you fall back to the Qi Refining Stage?”

Li Wan Zhi pointed to his own eyes and said: “If I hadn’t seen you cross the Thunder Tribulation with my own eyes, I would have thought I dreamed it that day.”

Ye Wan Wan touched her nose. The day after her Tribulation, she discovered this had happened. Pei Xuan had already told her about the possibility before the Tribulation, so she did not panic.

Pei Xuan had explained her choices: “In this Tribulation, you have two paths. First, shatter your original five Golden Cores, rebuild with Core Condensation, redo Foundation Establishment, then Core Condensation again to form a Nascent Soul. That is the normal path for cultivators. But for you it will be very hard. You will face the same wall you hit before, with your realm stuck. You might overcome it, but you might not. If you fail to overcome it, you could stay there for the rest of your life.”

She asked: “What is the second choice?”

He said: “Continue your Core Condensation without turning back. Break the normal maximum number of Golden Cores, accumulate cores, then break through to Nascent Soul. Use the Spirit Refining Art I taught you and walk the second path, a road ordinary cultivators have not taken.”

Then he asked: “Do you dare to try?”

After Pei Xuan talked with her, Ye Wan Wan thought about it for three days, recalling every detail from her past life. Her problem with Multiple Spiritual Roots making it hard to break into Nascent Soul was something Yan Ding had most likely figured out. So no matter how outstanding she seemed before, Supreme Sect still would not give her real responsibility. A “genius” who can never reach Nascent Soul is not a true genius, and would not be valued.

Her father had tried to help her by self sealing her spiritual roots to open a path for her, but when Yan Ding saw through it, he only felt anger, and that anger shifted onto her.

After sorting it all out, Ye Wan Wan chose the second path.

Pei Xuan asked her then: “Are you sure? This is the first time either of us has walked this road. My advice might be wrong. If it is wrong, you could be stuck at Golden Core for life.”

She answered with a steady voice: “If I end up at Golden Core, then Golden Core it is. Even if I stay there my whole life, I accept it. The results of both choices are about the same for me anyway, so I choose the second method.”

At worst, she could always walk the path of a Talisman Cultivator later.

Master and disciple met each other’s eyes and chose a road no one had walked.

“I will help you,” Pei Xuan said.

So that is why Li Wan Zhi and the others were now seeing a Ye Wan Wan at the Qi Refining Stage.

Ye Wan Wan smiled and said: “Yes, I started over from the beginning.”

Li Wan Zhi circled around her with a frown, staring at her head as he asked: “Something is off, very off. Did someone possess you?”

Ye Wan Wan laughed softly. She raised her hand and formed a seal, and Golden Core pressure poured out like a tide.

Li Wan Zhi’s eyes lit up as he blurted: “This is the Golden Core Stage!”

Ye Wan Wan gathered the Golden Core aura back in and hid her true realm as she said: “My spiritual roots are unusual, so my cultivation method is different. Don’t worry, senior brother. The Golden Core is me, and the Qi Refining Stage is also me. I can still protect myself.”

Fang He An asked: “About the secret realm, did Seventh Senior Uncle tell you?”

Ye Wan Wan had come down the mountain this time for the secret realm opening one month later. She nodded and said: “He did. I’m going with you.”

Before the Grand Sect Tournament, they would first visit the secret realm to collect treasures. That would give them a better chance to win the tournament.

Fang He An said: “Alright. This time senior sister and you, plus me. The three of us will set out.”

“What about me?” Li Wan Zhi asked at the side.

Fang He An pushed his head away and said: “If you haven’t reached Core Formation yet, step aside.”

“…”

Li Wan Zhi reached out in protest and said: “I’m only one step away.”

“We leave in half a month,” Fang He An said. “If you can reach Core Formation within those fifteen days, you can come.” The moment he finished, Li Wan Zhi slumped.

But it was not that Li Wan Zhi lacked talent. He had entered the sect with Ye Wan Wan. He could not match her, but in one year he had already reached Foundation Establishment Stage Great Perfection, and was only one step from Core Formation.

Ye Wan Wan’s speed was simply abnormal. [If not for the Spirit Market’s time flow, I wouldn’t be this fast.] Five Spiritual Roots mean her training time should be five times longer than others. Even with talent, cultivation still needs real time.

“Let me go. I can definitely break through,” Li Wan Zhi kept begging.

“If you trigger your Tribulation on the road, we’ll have to protect you. Be good and stay in the sect,” Fang He An said, dragging him off. The two senior brothers went straight to sparring. For the rest of that year, they hardly heard Li Wan Zhi talk about running off again.

After they left, Bai Jian handed Ye Wan Wan a sack of Spirit Stones. Inside was ten thousand Spirit Stones.

Ye Wan Wan was surprised and said: “Senior sister.”

Bai Jian’s eyes curved as she said: “A gift of congratulations.”

Ye Wan Wan tightened her grip on the bag. Bai Jian patted her head and said: “Keep it up.”

After the four met and decided what to bring for the trip, Ye Wan Wan returned to Snow Mountain. Pei Xuan was not on the stone platform, so he must have been inside his cave. The gate of Azure Sea Soul Manor was tightly shut.

Ye Wan Wan entered her own cave and then threw herself straight into the Spirit Market. Inside, her cave dwelling was still the same tiny thatched hut. It was so small that once a bed was inside, there was almost no room left.

With Spirit Stones in her arms, Ye Wan Wan opened the Spirit Market page. To get a better house and a faster time flow, she had to upgrade the Flower Spirit Stone. Last time, the thatched hut had cost fifteen thousand. This time, the bamboo house cost thirty thousand.

Counting the money from the talismans she had sold, plus what Bai Jian had given her and the monthly allowance she had just received as a disciple, she had just over thirty thousand.

Without hesitating, Ye Wan Wan spent all her Spirit Stones.

Before her eyes, the tiny thatched hut blinked and upgraded into a tiny bamboo house. When she tested the time flow, it was three times faster: one day outside equaled three days inside. This time, she was not thrown out after only one day. She could stay in the Spirit Market longer.

Touching the shabby little bamboo house, Ye Wan Wan murmured: “I wonder what the top tier is like, how many times the time flow is, and how many Spirit Stones it will cost.” In her last life, she had not pushed it to the highest level. She was even more curious about the master behind this Spirit Market.

But for now, she could only work hard to earn Spirit Stones. Otherwise, with only three times the speed, it still would not be enough for her needs.

Ye Wan Wan sat cross-legged, ready to push her cultivation as fast as possible. Pei Xuan had said that her speed would slow more and more in the future. A large part of the spiritual qi she drew in would be absorbed by her Golden Cores, so condensing qi again and redoing Foundation Establishment would not be easy.

This was not surprising. Not everyone’s dantian can hold that many Golden Cores. [My bottleneck is very likely the eleventh Golden Core. It might also be the next Foundation Establishment Stage.] But that was still a long way off.

For three days, Ye Wan Wan cultivated the Spirit Refining Art, drawing the Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi from ten li around her. She used the art’s special effect to make up for the slower training speed. It balanced out.

After three days: her water and fire roots were at Qi Refining, second layer; metal, wood, and earth were steady at first layer.

Ye Wan Wan looked inward at her dantian, calmed her heart, and kept training. After half a month inside the Spirit Market, she was kicked out. Fifteen days inside meant five days outside. She did the math and said: “Close enough. Looks like I have to stay outside for one day before I can go back in.”

After staying one day outside, she hurried back in again.

During these days, Disciples’ Peak also sent good news: Li Wan Zhi had reached Core Formation.