Chapter 74
Chapter 74: Ming Yue Didn’t Belong to Her
“What kind of wood-element immortal art could have this kind of power?”
The question burned in Zhao Qing Tu’s mind, but he couldn’t calm down enough to find an answer.
Death qi continued devouring his life. His body had shriveled like a dried corpse. He looked like a scrawny old man, barely holding himself together with the strained spirit power in his Yellow Bud.
Shao Heng, on the other hand, kept digging deeper into Azure Emperor’s mysteries. Her momentum surged as she pressed forward, step by step, refusing to give him room to breathe.
Zhao Qing Tu suddenly lifted his head and sneered, teeth bared. “You think you’ve won? You’re only mid First Realm. You’re just relying on dirty tricks.”
From the space between his brows, where his inner core lay, a sword pellet shot out. In an instant it became a blue-white ice sword, sharp enough to freeze everything it faced.
But the secret realm’s rules manifested, pressing the sword’s power down again and again.
If Shao Heng were the one being suppressed, she would’ve been furious.
Now, as the beneficiary, she almost wanted to laugh at the sky.
Vines and branches surged before her, layering into a protective barrier. Even weakened, the swordlight still cut through the barrier piece by piece—but the severed plants regrew again and again under Azure Emperor’s support, until the swordlight was worn away entirely.
That sword forced Shao Heng to focus with everything she had.
When she looked up afterward—
Zhao Qing Tu was gone.
“Hahaha!”
Shao Heng laughed out loud, the sound echoing through the trees.
Zhao Qing Tu had been overbearing and aggressive. Even while losing, he’d insisted she’d stolen what was his. He’d chased her with killing intent—
And in the end, he was the one who ran.
How could she not laugh?
Shao Heng lifted a hand to her brow. The rune projection that represented Azure Emperor had already faded. Earlier, it had been hidden behind the loose hair at her forehead. Neither Ao Chuan nor Zhao Qing Tu had seen it.
In a real fight—where injury and death waited at the edge of every breath—a cultivator’s understanding of themselves deepened rapidly. Shao Heng was no exception.
“What a roundabout way,” she muttered.
To strengthen her combat ability, she’d poured most of her effort into practicing immortal arts. She’d neglected her own inborn divine ability.
Azure Emperor—ranked among the top divine abilities—was so profound it never should have lost to any top-grade immortal art.
This should have been her strongest method, other than merging sun, moon, and stars.
Shao Heng drew in her spirit power. The wildly surging plants around her slowly returned to normal. But if a cultivator skilled in wood-element arts had been present, they would’ve noticed something unsettling—
These trees and vines now held an affinity toward her that bordered on reverence.
“That divine ability of yours is incredible,” Ao Chuan said, voice thick with surprise.
Not long after he’d been born, he’d suffered because of death qi. He’d also swallowed plenty of spirit liquid. He could clearly sense the rich life force within it—and the way it stimulated his bloodline toward further awakening. After following Shao Heng for so long, he’d always assumed her ability was a strange support-type gift.
Today, after watching her abandon immortal arts and rely fully on her divine ability in battle, he finally understood how terrifying its combat strength could be.
“Of course it is,” Shao Heng replied. She’d never told Ao Chuan the true name of her divine ability.
“After this fight, I understand innate divine abilities better,” she continued, turning and walking deeper into the forest. “And over this time, I’ve gathered plenty of treasure herbs and spiritual items. I need to find a place for seclusion, stabilize my foundation, and refine them one by one. My cultivation should rise a lot.”
“Ao?” Ao Chuan made a small, questioning sound.
“I thought you wanted to keep chasing that male cultivator. You’re really letting him go?”
With Azure Emperor and Ao Chuan assisting, even if Shao Heng ran into an ordinary peak First Realm Vine Demon, it wouldn’t be able to gain an advantage over her.
She walked calmly, letting her breathing settle.
“Who does he think he is?” she said lightly. “Once I break through to peak First Realm, I’ll crush him with one hand.”
Her eyes cooled.
“Strictly speaking, we don’t have a blood feud. It was only a clash of interests.”
“From now on, it won’t be me exhausting myself chasing him.” A faint smile tugged at her mouth. “He should be the one praying day and night that he never runs into me again.”
She tilted her head slightly, voice turning into an easy provocation. “And you, Little White Dragon—you boast about being a pure-blood True Dragon heavenly demon. Your methods can’t be just this, right? The True Dragons I read about in ancient books had far more tricks than this.”
Ao Chuan bristled instantly. “Don’t look down on dragons! I just haven’t learned many inherited demon arts yet!”
“Then go into seclusion with me,” Shao Heng said, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Cultivate properly.”
She found a clearing embraced by trees and cast a vine-wrapping technique, then boosted it with spirit liquid. The vines thickened and intertwined, weaving together without the slightest gap.
After that, she placed an array plate to conceal the aura and disguise the area.
Only then did she sit down cross-legged, close her eyes, and circulate her qi.
In the earlier battle, she’d pushed her divine ability to the limit. Her understanding of Azure Emperor deepened, rooting itself into her bones.
Even though the surrounding trees and vines blocked the light until the clearing felt like twilight, Shao Heng still saw a glowing grass seed appear before her inner eye.
It sank into the soil.
Spring sprouted. Summer grew. Autumn withered. Winter died.
Then spring wind rose again, and new grass broke through the earth.
The cycle repeated, again and again, until Shao Heng’s mind gradually merged with that seed—living each rise and fall as if it were her own breath.
Ao Chuan slipped off her arm and coiled beside her.
He sensed the rich aura of life spilling from Shao Heng and muttered, half-annoyed, half-bewildered, “What divine ability does she have, hiding it so carefully?”
“Hmph. So she just doesn’t trust me.”
Divine abilities were countless, some sharing similar traits and effects. Ao Chuan dug through his bloodline inheritance memories, listing possibilities in his head—Life-and-Death Disk, Longevity Willow, Three-Coin Balance—only to discard them one after another.
But today, after seeing Shao Heng command plants in battle, that feeling of ruling all trees…
A spark struck.
“Could it be… Azure Emperor?”
Ao Chuan shook his head hard, immediately rejecting the thought.
“That divine ability has only appeared twice,” he muttered. “One was an ancient heavenly demon—an avatar of a divine tree. The other was an Immortal Clan remnant bloodline. Both were granted by the Dao only after forging an immortal foundation at the Fourth Realm.”
He glanced at Shao Heng, still and silent in cultivation. “She’s Human Clan…”
Still, her cultivation speed should have been among the very best. And she’d never had the most lavish resources.
Ao Chuan clicked his tongue, forcing his wandering thoughts away.
He knew Shao Heng had been provoking him earlier. He also knew he’d fallen for it.
After his breakthrough, several demon arts carried in True Dragon bloodline were now available to cultivate. Ao Chuan planned to seize this time, master them all, and then turn the tables.
So he began to cultivate in earnest.
—
In the secret realm, a towering peak rose like a giant palm, five fingers reaching toward the sky.
On one of those finger-like peaks, a male cultivator in dark robes leaned against a rock wall, staring up at the full moon.
“Brother,” a woman’s voice said softly, “what are you looking at?”
A woman in a yellow dress sat down beside him. With fairy-like beauty and a calm, distant air, she was Ji Xuan Yin.
“Did you notice something strange?”
Ji Fei Guang didn’t answer at first. He reached toward the moon as if he wanted to grasp it between his fingers.
“Xuan Yin,” he said at last, “do you know why the ancient cultivator Ling Jiang failed when she tried to refine the Tai Yin star fragment?”
“Why?” Ji Xuan Yin asked, clearly uninterested—but willing to humor him.
Ji Fei Guang heard the perfunctory tone anyway. He reached out and flicked her forehead. No matter how she tried to dodge, she couldn’t.
Ji Xuan Yin’s eyes flashed with frustration.
Seeing her expression, Ji Fei Guang laughed. “The Sect Master told me before I entered the secret realm. It’s because Ming Yue didn’t belong to her.”
His gaze stayed on the moon, bright and intent.
“But that refinement still changed part of the Tai Yin star fragment’s traits. If we can obtain Ling Jiang’s inheritance, we might be able to build on what she started—finish what she couldn’t—and truly refine this Tai Yin fragment into a natal item.”
His voice dropped, almost reverent.
“That would be… one step to the heavens.”