“Although it is said to be a competition for the sole position of True Immortal, multiple True Immortals should be able to exist at the same time.”
It was widely accepted in the cultivation world that a Great Vehicle cultivator who wished to become a True Immortal had to undergo nine layers of heavenly tribulation.
That was the theory.
However, in reality, there had been quite a few Great Vehicle cultivators throughout history who, even after passing the test of the Heavenly Dao’s tribulation, still remained stuck at the peak of the Great Vehicle realm.
There were many different opinions regarding the secret to achieving True Immortal status, but none had reached a unified conclusion.
Therefore, Great Vehicle cultivators at their peak would usually only risk ascending when their lifespan was nearing its end and they were about to pass away.
True Immortals were extremely rare. Throughout the tens of millions of years of immortal realm history, only thirteen had appeared.
Every cultivator who achieved the position of True Immortal possessed heaven-defying talent and was invincible in their era.
Thus, they were collectively known as “Immortal Venerables.”
“The most recent Immortal Venerable was the ‘Wind Blossom Immortal Venerable.’ He came from a rogue cultivator background and was the strongest person of his generation. However, he mysteriously disappeared eight hundred and fifty years ago. Many people speculate that he fell during some great calamity.”
As He Shu thought about this, her mind gradually drifted far away.
By the time she came back to her senses, the door to her room had already been pushed open.
“Young miss, you’re still not asleep?”
Mu Xinlian opened the door and walked in. She was holding a pillow. Under He Shu’s astonished gaze, she sat down on the bed.
“Wait? Wasn’t my door locked?”
He Shu’s face was filled with bewilderment. Compared to Mu Xinlian suddenly barging in, she was more concerned about the fact that she had apparently forgotten to lock the door.
“Why did you come here?”
“I can’t sleep.”
Mu Xinlian’s answer was concise.
“Since I couldn’t sleep, I came to find you, young miss. I didn’t expect that you wouldn’t be asleep either.”
As Mu Xinlian spoke, she slipped under the blanket, leaving only a small head exposed.
Seeing this, He Shu inwardly facepalmed. How could she not know what this little girl was thinking?
She was probably checking whether He Shu was asleep so she could take advantage of the situation.
“If young miss doesn’t mind… then I’ll just… ow!”
Mu Xinlian’s face turned red, but before she could finish speaking, she was kicked off the bed.
Immediately afterward, a pillow was thrown onto her face.
Although it didn’t hurt, Mu Xinlian still put on a wronged expression.
“If you can’t sleep, why don’t you meditate and cultivate instead? What are you doing in my room?!”
“Also, I clearly remember locking my door. How did you suddenly get in?”
He Shu stood beside the bed, looking down at Mu Xinlian, who was lying on the floor with a pitiful expression.
Their eyes met. He Shu could clearly see a trace of panic and nervousness flash through Mu Xinlian’s eyes.
However, the panic only lasted for an instant. Mu Xinlian immediately switched into full acting mode.
“Um… young miss, you must have remembered wrong. Your door really wasn’t locked.”
“Really?”
“Really!”
“Really really?”
“Really really really!”
“I’ll ‘really’ your sister! You picked the lock and didn’t even bother to put it away? You just threw it on the floor!”
He Shu pointed at the lock core that had fallen to the ground near the open door.
She felt both angry and amused.
When exactly had Mu Xinlian learned how to pick locks?
Judging from the crude technique, she had probably used brute force and shattered the lock core with her true essence.
With a loud bang, He Shu slammed the door shut.
Mu Xinlian was thrown outside and landed sprawled on the floor.
Along with her, two pill recipes were also thrown out.
Mu Xinlian stood up from the ground, patted the dust off her body, and picked up the two pill recipes to examine them carefully.
The first pill recipe recorded a pill called the Calming Spirit Pill.
Its effect was to treat insomnia.
The second pill had no name. Its effect was to suppress He Shu’s sensitive physique.
It was obvious that He Shu was telling Mu Xinlian: “If you can’t sleep, do something useful instead of being a rebellious daughter.”
Mu Xinlian smiled awkwardly and put the two pill recipes away.
***
The next day, in the morning, Bai Liuli and Shen Qingci came out of their rooms looking refreshed.
“Ah~ I took a hot bath last night. It felt so good~”
Bai Liuli stretched her fair and well-proportioned arms. Her voice was lazy yet full of energy.
Shen Qingci did not respond to her demeanor. Instead, he looked toward Mu Xinlian and He Shu’s rooms.
“Hmm? Why is Miss Mu’s room door missing? And… why is it so black?”
Recalling the faint explosion he had heard in the middle of the night, Shen Qingci guessed that Mu Xinlian had blown up her furnace while refining pills.
“Artifact refining carries risks. Pill refining requires caution…”
After walking past Mu Xinlian’s room, Shen Qingci arrived at He Shu’s door and placed his hand on the handle.
“Hmm? Why won’t it turn?”
Upon closer inspection, he discovered that a restrictive formation had been placed on the door.
Seeing this, Shen Qingci could not help but complain inwardly.
“What exactly were those two doing last night?”
He knocked on the door with one hand. After waiting less than half a quarter-hour, the door opened.
What entered Shen Qingci’s sight was He Shu with two dark circles under her eyes.
“You…”
He Shu had been disturbed by Mu Xinlian last night.
The slight drowsiness she had just managed to cultivate had instantly vanished without a trace.
As a result, she had spent the entire night attempting to draw qi into her body.
Unfortunately, all eighty-plus attempts had ended in failure.
Although He Shu had an artificial Golden Core inside her body and could use spells and divine abilities, her cultivation had been crippled.
Both her body and spirit had fallen back to the level of an ordinary mortal.
Therefore, staying awake all night had taken a heavy toll on her mentally.
This could be clearly seen from her heavy dark circles.
“Good~ morning~”
He Shu greeted them weakly, as if she might fall asleep at any moment.
She unconsciously stepped forward, intending to leave the room, but failed to notice her own long hair dragging on the ground.
She tripped and fell straight to the floor.
Shen Qingci truly did not know what to say.
He remained silent, one hand on his waist and the other supporting his forehead.
Bai Liuli had just finished stretching her slightly sore shoulders.
Upon hearing the commotion, she also came over to watch the show.
“What happened? What’s going on?”
“Hmm? Why is there a person lying here?”
Bai Liuli looked at the speechless scene and leaned close to Shen Qingci’s ear, quietly asking for gossip.
“What happened? Did you knock her out?”
Shen Qingci turned around with a disgusted expression.
For some reason, looking at Bai Liuli’s excited face suddenly made him want to hit someone.
Three hours later, inside Shen Qingci’s room.
Four pairs of eyes simultaneously turned toward Mu Xinlian.
All of them looked very serious.
“Miss Mu, are you certain about what you said? Last night, you sensed a Nascent Soul level aura flying over our heads?”
Shen Qingci had his arms crossed, supporting his chin with one hand.
His tone carried a hint of doubt.
“It’s absolutely true! I blew up my furnace last night because of this. It really wasn’t a problem with my technique!”
“Moreover, that aura made me feel an overwhelming yin energy, as if it came from mountains of corpses and seas of blood.”
Mu Xinlian spoke animatedly while gesturing with her hands.
He Shu was still sleeping with her head on the table.
Therefore, the only ones actually discussing the matter were Shen Qingci, Bai Liuli, He Qingyuan, and Mu Xinlian.
The room fell silent for a moment before Bai Liuli finally spoke.
“Do you think it could be the Grief Valley City Lord? After all, the Grief Valley City Lord is also a soul cultivator.”
“No.”
Shen Qingci immediately rejected Bai Liuli’s suggestion.
“The Grief Valley City Lord is indeed a soul cultivator, but Miss Mu’s description of that aura was ‘mountains of corpses and seas of blood.’ That doesn’t match the soul path.”
“Soul path cultivators cultivate their souls and control soul beasts. It is one of the orthodox cultivation paths. Based on Miss Mu’s description, that mysterious Nascent Soul cultivator is more likely to be a blood path cultivator.”