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墨書 Inktalez
Li Xiaonan watched as the golden core within him grew larger, even developing a small crack. He knew he was not far from the Nascent Soul Stage. Awakening from his meditation, he glanced at Ling Kui beside him, a silly smile unconsciously spreading across his face.
He stood up and looked around, noticing a deep pool about two hundred meters away. The water was crystal clear, cascading down from a waterfall, with only the sound of flowing water filling the air.
Li Xiaonan shook his head, thinking to himself: My luck is truly terrible. If I fell into that pool, I wouldn't be seriously hurt. But then he remembered that his injuries had healed and his cultivation had improved significantly. More importantly...
He silently turned to look at Ling Kui, who was still recovering, and thought: It was all worth it.
He took off his tattered clothes and the completely useless Heart-Guarding Mirror. Sighing, he reflected: If it weren't for this Heart-Guarding Mirror, I wouldn't have survived the fall from the cliff, let alone passed Xing Su's trial.
Li Xiaonan had already planned everything out. Relying on his high-grade defensive spirit tool, he had first used a ploy to trick Xing Su into approaching him. When Xing Su let his guard down, Li Xiaonan detonated a dummy to catch him off guard.
Although the Heart-Guarding Mirror couldn't protect him completely, it safeguarded vital areas: his heart and Dantian. As long as those two places remained unharmed, Li Xiaonan believed he could still recover his body with his cultivation.
Aside from the unexpected fall from the cliff, everything else had gone according to plan. Li Xiaonan mused: I should find a way to simulate this Heart-Guarding Mirror into a full suit of armor to spare myself some pain.
With that thought in mind, he jumped into the pool and began swimming joyfully. Suddenly curious, he wondered if there were any fish in the water. Taking a deep breath, he dove beneath the surface.
The water was icy cold; this was Li Xiaonan's first swim since beginning his cultivation. Everything in the pool was clearly visible to him; it seemed deep enough that he couldn't see the bottom. What surprised him even more was that there were no fish at all in the pool—not even any aquatic plants.
The deeper he swam, the more uneasy he felt—such a large pool without any life? No fish or even water plants?
Having cultivated for some time now, he could hold his breath for quite a while without needing to surface. He continued swimming deeper into the pool, vaguely seeing a bright light at the bottom that shone up towards him.
Li Xiaonan swam forcefully toward the light. After about ten minutes, he got closer and closer until finally with a splash, he passed through that beam of light.
Li Xiaonan was stunned; he never expected that the bottom of the pond would lead to another world. Before his eyes lay a cave, its walls embedded with luminous pearls of various sizes, radiating a soft glow.
He muttered to himself, "Damn! Who spent so much on this?"
While luminous pearls weren't considered particularly precious in the cultivation world, the sheer number here was astonishing—at least over a thousand.
Li Xiaonan dazedly climbed out of the pond and looked around. At one end of the cave, there was a tunnel. He walked toward it, guided by the gentle light emitted by the luminous pearls. After about five minutes, Li Xiaonan was once again taken aback, his jaw nearly dropping to the ground.
The long corridor opened into a ten-square-meter cavern, which contained nothing but a floor covered in spirit stones—High-Quality Spirit Stones—piled higher than Li Xiaonan himself. Using his sharp mind, he calculated that each spirit stone measured thirty cubic centimeters. Ten meters equaled one thousand centimeters, and since he stood at 1.8 meters tall, that translated to 180 centimeters. This place must contain around one million spirit stones.
What are spirit stones?
Spirit stones are the most common and essential resource in the cultivation world. They represent immense spiritual energy and are necessary for setting up complex formations. In short, spirit stones are resources; they are money!
If one day Li Xiaonan found himself trapped in a space devoid of spiritual energy, these one million spirit stones would last him at least ten thousand years.
Li Xiaonan's mouth twitched as he thought, "Wow! So there really is a cave beneath the cliff, and inside it lies treasure!"
He stumbled back to the pond's edge and swam from one end to the other.
At that moment, Ling Kui was waking from her meditation at the bottom of the cliff. Her True Essence Power had recovered about seventy to eighty percent. She was startled to find that Li Xiaonan was missing.
Just as she was about to get up and search around, she suddenly saw a figure burst out from the pond.
In the cultivation world, people often used the term "emerging lotus" to describe naturally beautiful women, but at this moment, Ling Kui wished to apply that phrase to Li Xiaonan instead.
He suddenly burst out of the water, sending a splash that sparkled in the sunlight, his upper body bare and glistening like a clean, beautiful droplet of water.
At that moment, he also spotted Ling Kui. He laughed heartily and waved, calling out, " Ling Kui! Ling Kui! Come into the water!"
Ling Kui's face flushed red, hesitating for a moment before flying towards the pond.
Li Xiaonan didn't notice the unusual expression on Ling Kui's face; his mind was filled with the treasures he had just discovered. He naturally took Ling Kui's hand and said with a smile, "There’s another world at the bottom of this pond, inside..."
Ling Kui lowered her head, her cheeks becoming even rosier, resembling two blooming peach blossoms. She thought to herself: What am I thinking? How could I have misunderstood him?
She slowly followed behind Li Xiaonan, and when she saw the pile of spirit stones he mentioned, she was taken aback.
Both Li Xiaonan and his partner, Ling Kui, were stunned, though Li Xiaonan appeared more foolish.
Regaining her composure, Ling Kui said lightly, "You discovered this; why tell me?"
Li Xiaonan scratched his head with a silly grin and replied, "I don't know."
Ling Kui smiled faintly before lowering her head again and said softly, "You should collect them all."
Li Xiaonan was momentarily stunned but nodded with a smile as he gathered all the spirit stones into his Soul Ring.
Ling Kui exclaimed in surprise, "Oh? There’s still a way forward?"
Li Xiaonan followed her gaze and saw that there was indeed a passageway in the stone wall leading deeper into the cave.
Ling Kui and Li Xiaonan walked into the passage, one after the other.
Suddenly, Ling Kui halted, staring blankly. "So... my mother's grave is here. No wonder I couldn't find it in Dragon Valley after searching for over a hundred years..."
Upon hearing this, Li Xiaonan was taken aback and leaned forward to look into the cave.
The walls of the cave were adorned with glowing spirit stones. Li Xiaonan gasped; these weren't Luminous Pearls, but spirit stones. What kind of craftsmanship was this? Peering deeper, he saw a crystal statue of a woman. The woman's features were exquisite, her smile serene, and she bore a resemblance to Ling Kui.
Li Xiaonan followed Ling Kui into the cave.
Ling Kui stood silently before the statue, her body trembling slightly.
Feeling the awkward atmosphere, Li Xiaonan didn't know what to say and forced a smile. "Is this your mother? She's so beautiful, like a fairy."
To most Earthlings, fairies are beautiful and exalted beings, the highest compliment for women. Naturally, Li Xiaonan thought the same, so in this incredibly awkward situation, he offered his praise.
Unexpectedly, Ling Kui shuddered at his words and replied coldly, "My mother was just a mortal; that bastard is the fairy!"
Standing behind Ling Kui, Li Xiaonan scratched his head helplessly, unsure how to respond.
Turning to face him, Ling Kui had tears glistening in her eyes that tugged at his heart.
She spoke softly, "Do you know why people call me Demoness? My father is the Dragon Immortal from the fairy realm, while my mother was just a mortal woman from the world of cultivation. The union of fairy and mortal produced me—a demon born by nature! You said you liked me; do you still like me now?"
As Ling Kui stepped closer to him, Li Xiaonan said nothing. Instead, he embraced her tightly, allowing her tears to soak into his chest.
He gently stroked Ling Kui's slender back and softly said, "I want you! No matter what you are, I have decided that you are my Li Xiaonan's woman!"
Li Xiaonan's thoughts began to drift away. Inner Thoughts: What does it matter if I am a fairy? A human? A demon? I can't even figure out what I am. I was just a tiny thread on Earth; what qualifications do I have to talk about identity? In this world, as long as my fists are strong enough, I can protect what I want. So all I need to do is work hard to become stronger.
Ling Kui managed to break free from his embrace, her eyes slightly red and swollen, her face flushed. Li Xiaonan grinned foolishly at her and playfully punched his palm, saying, "I should pay my respects to the Mother of the Mountain!"
Ling Kui did not stop him; she simply lowered her head shyly.
Li Xiaonan walked up to the statue, knelt down on both knees, and knocked his head three times. Just as he struck the third time, he hit the floor so hard that it cracked a hole in it.
Startled, he thought: Has my head become harder after cultivating?
He looked down into the hole and was surprised to find two Jade Eye Tablets inside. He picked them up and thought: Wow! Falling off a cliff brings treasures, and now I've even found secret manuals.
He wanted to check the contents of the Jade Eye Tablets immediately but ultimately resisted the urge and handed them to Ling Kui beside him.
Ling Kui was taken aback and began to carefully study the Jade Eye Tablet.
Li Xiaonan silently watched her as her emotions grew more intense. Tears streamed down her face as she murmured, "So that's how it is..."
She turned to look at the Crystal Statue and smiled, saying, "Mother is very happy."
Li Xiaonan was taken aback when Ling Kui smiled and stuffed one of the Jade Eye Tablets into his hand while starting to read the second Jade Eye Tablet.
Li Xiaonan focused his gaze and realized it was a journal from Ling Kui's parents, telling the story of how Ling Kui's father and mother fell in love.
He sighed inwardly: "Calcium oxide, does such a cliché love story really exist? It's even more ridiculous than the tale of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl!"
The story goes something like this: a Dragon Immortal falls in love with a mortal, disregarding the obstacles from the celestial realm, ultimately uniting and giving birth to a child of love. Soon after, the celestial realm sends someone to strike down the mortal girl with divine lightning. Heartbroken, the Dragon Immortal is eventually captured by celestial beings and imprisoned on an island in the Cultivation realm.
The Jade Eye Tablet contains the words left by Ling Kui's father for his daughter.
Ling Kui:
"My father was powerless; he could not protect your mother nor watch you grow up. Do not think of coming to save him; live a simple life."
"Remember! Do not go to the celestial realm!"
Li Xiaonan finished reading the entire Jade Eye Tablet. Unlike Ling Kui, who was directly involved, he could view it from a third-party perspective. Although he couldn't discern any clues, he felt that something was amiss.
His inner thoughts were: "After reaching the Great Ascension in Cultivation, one must eventually ascend to the celestial realm. What did Ling Kui's father mean by advising her not to go there? Is he suggesting that Ling Kui should abandon Cultivation? That doesn't make sense... Never mind; after all, the Dragon Immortal will be my future father-in-law. I will have to rescue him from that island someday and ask him then."
Li Xiaonan shook his head and looked at the other Jade Eye Tablet in Ling Kui's hand, asking, "What does the other one say?"
Ling Kui's face flushed slightly as she replied softly, "It's nothing; just some Cultivation techniques left by my father."
Li Xiaonan nodded and returned the Jade Eye Tablet he held back to Ling Kui.
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