Chapter 8
Chapter 8: Collapsed Spiritual Root
***
Su Wanqing concentrated and felt carefully. Her cultivation wasn’t high enough, so detecting talent spiritual roots required getting very close to be effective.
That’s why she was holding Lin Muyu, seeking maximum contact area to probe more carefully.
But the familiar faint citrus fragrance drifting from Lin Muyu also made her somewhat dazed.
Sister really smells so good…
It wasn’t until the person in her arms shifted restlessly that she snapped back to reality.
Casting aside the chaotic thoughts in her mind, she gathered her spirit and probed toward the person in her arms.
“What is this??”
Su Wanqing couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. She saw something she couldn’t understand.
A green spiritual root stood straight upright within Lin Muyu’s body.
Beside it, one blue and one brown broken spiritual roots were turning into fragments, being absorbed by the green spiritual root.
Making it slowly grow larger.
“What’s wrong?”
Lin Muyu’s heart jumped. Could there be something wrong with her body?
Moving the person in her arms to the side, Su Wanqing’s eyes flashed with a trace of solemnity.
“You have a spiritual root, and it’s even a supreme single spiritual root, which means your cultivation talent is very high, but your spiritual root is very strange.”
Su Wanqing looked at Lin Muyu, whose eyes were filled with worry and confusion, paused, then continued:
“You originally had water, earth, and wood triple spiritual roots, but for some unknown reason, the water and earth spiritual roots are gradually collapsing and being absorbed by the wood spiritual root.”
“What will happen?”
Lin Muyu was deeply worried. Could it be that she couldn’t cultivate? Then how could she take revenge, how could she fight against fate?
“Now you’ve changed from triple spiritual roots to a supreme single spiritual root. Theoretically your talent is higher, but…”
Su Wanqing’s cold voice was like delivering a verdict, harshly striking Lin Muyu’s fragile heart.
“The reason is unknown.”
“I’ve never heard of such a situation in the cultivation world. Methods that can change spiritual roots are very rare. The most common is using evil arts to dig out others’ spiritual roots for transplantation.”
“However, due to rejection reactions, this method has a very low success rate.”
“Moreover, spiritual roots exist as a complete whole. If the person you dig from has triple spiritual roots, even if you want to transplant them, you can only transplant all three spiritual roots together. It’s impossible to separate them.”
“So… I don’t know what the cost of spiritual root collapse into a single spiritual root is, and you must protect this secret well.”
Su Wanqing looked at Lin Muyu with meaningful eyes.
“If I’m discovered with this secret, I’d probably be dissected for research.”
Lin Muyu understood. The timid her surprisingly showed no trace of terror on her face, but was quite calm instead.
Reality had taught her that hiding was impossible, so it was better to face it bravely.
Su Wanqing was somewhat silent. Although she didn’t know what “dissected for research” meant, she knew Lin Muyu had understood her meaning.
Although the triple spiritual roots had collapsed into a single spiritual root, greatly improving her talent, it also brought enormous unknown dangers.
Sometimes, unknown things are the most terrifying.
“Thank you…”
Lin Muyu gently leaned against Su Wanqing again, softly expressing her gratitude.
“Mm.”
Su Wanqing’s tone was as calm as usual, but her gaze unconsciously wandered.
…
“I’m sorry, fellow villagers. It’s my fault that harmed you all. I will avenge you, even if the path ahead is full of thorns!”
Lin Muyu knelt before the densely packed tombstones, shouting loudly.
At the same time, she murmured in a voice only she could hear: “Even if I become cultivation material, unable to seek death…”
Stepping onto this path, she had already made her decision and would never retreat again.
“This isn’t your fault.”
Not far away, a fairy dressed in plain white robes said coldly.
“Perhaps.”
Lin Muyu understood everything in her heart.
Perhaps if she had dared to face fate directly, she wouldn’t have implicated these innocent people.
Perhaps if she had sufficient strength, she could have protected those she wanted to protect.
She could no longer be weak.
“Farewell, village I once thought I could stay in for a lifetime.”
“Farewell, my lovely students and simple villagers.”
Before turning away, she took a deep look at that familiar village, then without looking back, jumped onto Su Wanqing’s flying sword.
“Farewell, weak and pitiful me.”
Su Wanqing curiously glanced at Lin Muyu.
“She seems somewhat different now.”
She could see before that this mortal had cowardice and struggle in her bones, as if escaping from something.
But now, it was like a tenacious new sprout had emerged from her bones, seemingly flickering with a faint light.
“Hold on tight to me, don’t get thrown off.”
After giving a brief reminder, Su Wanqing departed.
The swift wind slapped against Lin Muyu’s face, making her unconsciously tighten her arms around Su Wanqing’s slender waist.
“Okay!”
A fresh fragrance like gardenia flowers came rushing toward her.
Although she had smelled it many times before, she had to admit that the female lead’s fragrance really smelled wonderful!
Lin Muyu obediently buried her entire face into Su Wanqing’s back, fully absorbing this fragrance.
Feeling the strange sensation on her back, Su Wanqing’s body couldn’t help but tremble, quickly adjusting herself and pretending nothing had happened.
If Lin Muyu could see Su Wanqing from the front, she would discover that the cold fairy’s cheeks were now showing a trace of light red.
“What a sight, why is senior sister so concerned about this mortal.”
The young man looked at the two with amazement, scratching his head in confusion.
Could it be that his unworldly senior sister liked this type?
Senior sister… likes women?
No, didn’t she say she didn’t like women when Junior Sister Yu confessed to her?
Besides, doesn’t senior sister have a fiance?
The young man’s heart was full of doubts. Unable to figure it out, he decided not to think about it anymore and immediately followed.
…
At the foot of the green mountains, in the small town.
“Let’s stop here. Tomorrow is the sect’s quadrennial cultivation examination. You can register to participate.”
“Okay.”
Su Wanqing didn’t bring Lin Muyu directly back to the sect, but left her in a small town at the foot of the mountain.
She was only a Foundation Establishment stage disciple and didn’t have the authority to let someone directly become a Qinglan Sect disciple.
As one of the four great sects, tens of thousands of people wanted to ascend to this cultivation holy land every year.
If there wasn’t the hard requirement of being under 17 years old, there would probably be even more applicants.
Lin Muyu got off the flying sword and looked around curiously.
Looking at the bustling town, with people occasionally flying by on swords in the sky.
It was incomparable to the small village she had stayed in before.
“Take c…”
Lin Muyu turned back wanting to say goodbye, only to find Su Wanqing had long since disappeared.
She wasn’t annoyed. Su Wanqing bringing her here was already beyond expectations.
After all, aside from their two encounters, the female lead had no reason to help her.
Adjusting her mindset, Lin Muyu planned to first find an inn to stay the night, since tomorrow was the cultivation examination.
Just as she hadn’t walked a few steps, a petite black-clothed figure rushed straight toward her.
At this speed, Lin Muyu had no time to dodge at all.
“Bang.”
She was immediately knocked down, her buttocks having an intimate encounter with the ground.
“I’m sorry…”
The black-clothed figure that was also knocked down immediately got up to apologize, and a clear, delicate loli voice reached her ears.