Wen Jingshu was shocked by what she saw. The place where her wood spiritual root had once been was indeed empty of a spiritual root, except at the very base, where she discovered a layer of spiritual root that looked as if it had been shaved incredibly thin.
Upon sensing it carefully, she could feel that it was of the wood attribute, but compared to her previous wood spiritual root, this wood attribute was much purer, though its color was far lighter.
Normally, the purer a spiritual root was, the richer its color should be. Yet her current wood spiritual root's color was so light it had practically become transparent.
So...
Was her current wood spiritual root ruined, or had it become better?
Sensing her current body and realizing she could absorb the purer energy here, Wen Jingshu felt that her wood spiritual root had indeed improved.
Unable to figure it out, she simply stopped thinking about it. Once Wen Jingshu was fully rested, she cast a Dust-Cleansing Spell, changed her clothes, and finally began to properly examine her surroundings.
There were no mountains, no plains, and certainly no sun, moon, or stars; everywhere was a vast expanse of white.
Wen Jingshu had landed on a bridge.
Directly ahead of the bridge stood a magnificent and sprawling palace.
The palace floated in midair, and other than the dense white mist, there was nothing else in the sky.
She sensed her surroundings but could only detect a very faint trace of spatial laws.
Could this be a mustard seed space?
With this speculation, Wen Jingshu's heart hammered against her ribs.
A mustard seed space was different from a portable abode. Even if a portable abode could cultivate spiritual plants and house living creatures, at its core, it was merely a more advanced storage space.
A mustard seed space was different; it was the precursor to a minor world.
When fully developed, it would generate its own Heavenly Dao and become a self-contained world.
Whether it became a world or not was not the most important thing to Wen Jingshu. The most crucial part was that a mustard seed space could hide people, making it virtually undetectable to other cultivators.
In other words, if she could obtain this mustard seed space, she could directly enter it whenever she encountered danger in the future. Born from heaven and earth, a mustard seed space could not be destroyed by any worldly force.
Furthermore, a mustard seed space could transform into anything in the world.
For example, it could turn into a speck of dust, a leaf, a stone...
Just imagining how she could snatch a treasure, hide inside the mustard seed space, and then manipulate it to turn into a speck of dust to escape...
Just the thought of it made Wen Jingshu incredibly excited.
After her initial wild joy, Wen Jingshu had to return to reality.
It was already a stroke of dumb luck that she had stumbled into this place and hadn't exploded from the pure immortal qi. As for this mustard seed space...
Wen Jingshu hesitated on the bridge for a long time. Guided by the Muyuan Bead's repeated nudges to go inside, she ultimately chose to enter the palace and investigate.
The entrance had already vanished, so she had to find a way out anyway. Moreover, she felt a vague sensation that this place was her great opportunity.
Rather than being passive, it was better to take the initiative.
Having made up her mind, Wen Jingshu held her sword in her right hand and a talisman in her left, cautiously making her way toward the palace.
Wen Jingshu did not know that the dense aura around her was immortal qi. She only knew that her newly upgraded wood spiritual root was highly compatible with this energy, which also made it convenient for her to use her wood spiritual root to scout the surroundings.
Upon entering the palace, a wave of cold, eerie air rushed at her.
True to its exterior, the inside of the palace was also magnificent, though it felt somewhat desolate from the prolonged absence of human presence.
Just as Wen Jingshu stepped inside, the Muyuan Bead inside her stirred once more, urgently guiding her in a certain direction.
Following the guidance, Wen Jingshu made several twists and turns before arriving at a study.
The study was filled with a dazzling array of books, but Wen Jingshu had no interest in reading them at the moment. She only wanted to know what the Muyuan Bead was sensing.
Once she walked up to a certain bookshelf, the sensation from the Muyuan Bead grew even stronger. Before she could even look for a hidden mechanism, a series of thuds echoed as if something was pounding against the back of the bookshelf.
Wen Jingshu took a few steps back. The Muyuan Bead flew out of its own accord and hovered in front of the bookshelf, emitting a brilliant green light as it trembled uncontrollably in midair.
With another loud bang, the bookshelf, seemingly unable to withstand the heavy impact, exploded completely.
Wen Jingshu shielded her face with her sleeve. Once the smoke cleared, she looked up and saw a slightly smaller bead circling the Muyuan Bead.
The bead was pitch-black, and the space around it warped slightly wherever it passed, as if it contained profound laws.
This is definitely a treasure!
The moment Wen Jingshu laid eyes on the black bead, the thought instantly flashed through her mind.
Just as Wen Jingshu was pondering how to obtain it, the Muyuan Bead whooshed back into her hidden dantian, and the black bead followed right behind it.
Immediately after, a flood of information appeared in Wen Jingshu's mind.
This bead was called the Boundary-Breaking Bead. Its owner could shatter spatial barriers to achieve spatial leaps or travel.
Furthermore, the bead contained its own minor world, and the space she was currently in was inside the Boundary-Breaking Bead.
After entering Wen Jingshu's dantian, the Boundary-Breaking Bead continued to circle the Muyuan Bead. Although she had only refined the Muyuan Bead, she could now directly activate the Boundary-Breaking Bead.
Various signs indicated that these two beads were intricately linked.
Having obtained the Boundary-Breaking Bead, Wen Jingshu now held absolute control over this space.
Wen Jingshu slumped onto the ground, letting out a long sigh of relief.
She was safe.
Wen Jingshu closed her eyes to rest for a while, ate some food, and then began to sense the treasures within the Boundary-Breaking Bead.
Sweeping her divine sense across the entire palace, Wen Jingshu couldn't find even half a low-grade spirit stone. There were some bottles containing pills, but the pills inside had long since decayed into ash.
The magical artifacts fared no better; the moment her divine sense brushed against them, they crumbled into dust.
In this massive palace, it seemed only this room full of books remained intact.
“Oh well. It doesn't matter if those things have decayed. The Boundary-Breaking Bead is worth far more than any of them.”
That being said, Wen Jingshu had no idea how to leave the Boundary-Breaking Bead. Looking at the stacks of books before her, she resolved to find the answer here.
However, she was dumbfounded the moment she flipped open the first page of one of the books.
She couldn't recognize a single character on it!
Refusing to believe her bad luck, Wen Jingshu flipped through several other books, but she still couldn't understand them.
Well, this was just great. Her life was saved, but now she was trapped here.
For a moment, Wen Jingshu didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Just as she was in a bind, a clear, cool voice of a youth suddenly came from behind her: “Where did this little kid come from?”
Startled, Wen Jingshu spun around to see a young man.
His black hair was tied up high, and his features carried a blend of aloofness and the sharp edge unique to youth.
He had a high-bridged nose, a well-defined jawline, and a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes that shone with a clean, bright light, conveying both open-hearted frankness and a touch of quiet composure.
A small beauty mark sat beneath the outer corner of his right eye. When expressionless, he carried an air of detachment, but the moment he raised his eyes, he was filled with vibrant, spirited energy.
Dressed in a sharp, form-fitting outfit of red and black, and idly playing with a small dart in his hand, he truly embodied the image of a dashing, spirited young man.