Chapter 041

Chapter 41: I Have More Golden Cores Than Others

Ye Qian stared as the girl who had escaped from the valley came into view. If she hadn’t been mistaken, the shadow hiding in the fog earlier had also been her. But Ye Wan Wan had been right behind them. Why was she coming out only now?

Ye Qian clenched her teeth. The girl’s face was veiled, but she had a strong feeling it was Ye Wan Wan. The brows were too alike. Even the figure matched. If it really was Ye Wan Wan, she must not let Dou Ming notice. She turned her head and ran with him as she urged: “Senior brother, the movement behind us is getting worse. Let’s go faster.”

Dou Ming didn’t doubt her and picked up the pace.

Ye Wan Wan sensed Ye Qian’s hateful glare. She didn’t give chase. She simply swept a calm glance their way and kept moving, dragging someone behind her.

It was Sun Qu.

She asked, dry and direct: “Why did I save him?”

If she hadn’t doubled back to fish him out, she would have escaped earlier. Little One inside the Violet Cloud Ring answered: “I sensed something familiar on him. He likely carries something I want.”

“What is it?”

“I’m still thinking.”

The devouring was too fast for it to think then, so it had told Ye Wan Wan to save him first. The collapse inside the valley hadn’t fully stopped, only the cliff walls were holding it back. It was not safe.

As she hauled Sun Qu a few meters farther and scanned the area, Ye Wan Wan’s face looked a bit pale. Little One noticed and teased: “Oh, you overdid it, didn’t you? Worn out?”

She said evenly: “I need to find a place to heal and meditate. Can you keep watch?”

Two Golden Talismans had wrung her dry. If she didn’t recover, the next twenty-some days would be rough.

Little One twitched his mouth: “No need to work that hard. Just go into the Star Marsh Realm.”

“Star Marsh Realm…” Ye Wan Wan’s mind jumped to that ring of Spirit Lake. She looked down at the ring and asked: “Enter the ring?”

Could a ring hold its own master?

Little One understood and explained: “The ring now has me, a Parasitic Spirit. It’s not like those cheap storage rings. Think it, and you can come in.”

“Cheap?” Storage rings were never cheap. She asked, practical: “And then what? Leave the ring on the ground for someone to pick up?”

“I can disguise it. As the ring’s Parasitic Spirit, I can turn it into a speck of dust and hide it in the soil. No one will find it.”

Ye Wan Wan’s brow smoothed: “Sounds good.”

“But go farther first. If the devouring force spreads here, it’s over.”

“Thanks for the reminder. I’m not stupid.”

She flew on, dragging Sun Qu until she was well away from the valley mouth and the surroundings felt safe. She tossed Sun Qu into the ring, then entered the Violet Cloud Ring herself.

Inside, the ring had become a Star Marsh. A Spirit Lake circled a patch of rich, dark land. In the middle stood a ten-thousand-year-old Core Formation Fruit Tree. Nearby grew the third-level Black Sour Fruit Tree she had transplanted, more than a dozen third-level spirit herbs, and other herbs scattered around the Pill Tree. Everything grew well, even better than before they were moved.

Ye Wan Wan’s eyes turned thoughtful. Little One formed a Spirit Body and perched on the Pill Tree, arms crossed as he declared from on high: “These low-level herbs are lucky to enter the Star Marsh Realm. They must have done good in a past life, humph.”

In his eyes, he wouldn’t have let such weeds in. Ye Wan Wan lifted her skirt hem and sat cross-legged: “To me, you’re no different from them. You all end up as medicine. No need to argue about noble or low.”

Little One puffed up and swooped in front of her: “I am a great Array Spirit, the rarest Companion Spirit in this world, master of a whole domain. How dare you say I’m the same as weeds!”

Ye Wan Wan kept her eyes closed. Little One wailed, on the verge of tears: “Apologize to me now, or I’ll get mad. I won’t play with you!”

She said in a flat tone: “I’m going to meditate. Go play by yourself.”

With a light wave, she pushed Star Marsh aside. Five Golden Cores floated around her, forming a guarding circle.

Star Marsh stared at the Golden Cores, lost in long thought: [How can a cultivator’s Golden Core leave the body?]

He could not figure it out. Even Pei Xuan had almost lost his composure the first time he saw this. No one expected Ye Wan Wan to use the special nature of the Spirit Refining Art to build five larger meridian paths outside her body by cycling qi inside and out. It was like a larger phantom of Ye Wan Wan wrapped around her true body. Within those outer meridians, her Golden Cores could travel outside, patrol, and even lay down a wider attack range that enemies could not guard against.

When Ye Wan Wan told Pei Xuan the idea, he looked at her for a long time and said: “You really are a genius.”

She had heard that word too many times and felt tired of it. She only wanted to be stronger. If this way worked, that was enough.

But Pei Xuan had still warned her: “There is a flaw. If someone knocks down your Golden Core, you could lose it and suffer a grave wound. It would not be worth it.”

Golden Cores were life itself to a cultivator. Ye Wan Wan had answered without worry: “Master, that won’t be a problem. I have more Golden Cores than others.”

Pei Xuan had fallen silent. That settled it.

Ye Wan Wan ran the Spirit Refining Art. Qi from Heaven and Earth stirred, poured through the Violet Cloud Ring, and streamed into the Star Marsh. Five ribbons of spiritual mist flew from the void toward her. Star Marsh sucked in a breath. The whirlpool around Ye Wan Wan kept pulling in an enormous amount of Heaven and Earth qi.

[This new master is something else.]

Even the previous master of the secret realm, that old man, hadn’t shown this much talent at the Golden Core Stage. Yet someone with Five Spiritual Roots, a path known to be hard, could do this.

Star Marsh’s gaze shifted, then steadied. He made up his mind to follow and see. Maybe she could truly help him, and he would not be trapped in the Star Marsh Realm forever.

After watching for a while, he suddenly remembered Sun Qu. He smacked his forehead, hurried over, and began stripping the man’s belongings to study them.

Five days later, Ye Wan Wan finished her meditation and opened her eyes. Her meridians felt clear and strong. She lifted her hand and sensed it at once: she had broken through.

In the third segment of the Qi Refining Stage, she rose from layer two to layer three. As for her five roots, her Wood Spiritual Root reached Qi Refining layer four. Her Water and Fire Spiritual Roots reached layer three. Metal and Earth were at layer two.

Her brow arched. The wood attribute here was so rich that her wood root had jumped two layers straight into the fourth. That was fast, to say the least.