Luo Nannan had not seen Luo Yunting's figure for a while. She mustered up her courage and asked Wen Jingshu, “Immortal, my royal brother...”
Wen Jingshu replied, “He went to settle his mother.”
Luo Nannan hearing this, finally let out a sigh of relief.
Traveling all this way without a single familiar face around her, she felt extremely insecure.
Wen Jingshu saw her lost and anxious look but did not say much.
Luo Nannan was still too young, so it was only natural for her to subconsciously want someone to rely on. Once she had spent a few years in the cultivation world and learned its cold, harsh rules, she would naturally become independent.
While Wen Jingshu leisurely recruited disciples in the mortal realm, Yun Xiange did not dare to stop for even a moment on her end.
Meeting such a hardworking “Shu Jing” in Jiangyuan Valley had given her a profound sense of crisis.
Over the years, she had been completely obsessed with the fact that she had transmigrated into a book. Upon arrival, she had busied herself with winning over the people around the female protagonist, and later planned how to snatch the protagonist's opportunities. She had entirely forgotten that cultivation was like rowing against the current—to not advance was to retreat.
The moment she returned to the sect from Jiangyuan Valley, she handed over the twenty-eight hand seals to the sect.
Even though it was only half, it was still a massive contribution. The sect rewarded her with twenty thousand contribution points, which Yun Xiange immediately took to the Library to exchange for a Heaven-grade cultivation technique.
To be accepted as a personal disciple by Beili, Yun Xiange's natural aptitude was naturally excellent; she possessed a solid ninety-three percent top-grade metal spiritual root.
After exchanging for the cultivation technique, she used all her remaining points to secure entry into the Sword Tomb.
According to the plot of the book, Wen Jingshu's natal sword was a divine sword obtained from the Sword Tomb, named the Sumeru Sword.
On the outside, this sword appeared completely ordinary, but in truth, it possessed immense power and limitless potential. More importantly, it already had a sword spirit.
A sword with a sword spirit could achieve perfect synergy with a cultivator, allowing them to unleash the divine sword's power to its maximum potential.
In the book, Wen Jingshu had relied on this very sword to rise to fame in a single battle during the Grand Sect Tournament!
Yun Xiange's eyes were filled with burning ambition as she stepped into the alchemy room with resolute strides.
An alchemist was the most noble profession in the cultivation world, and the one that best reflected a cultivator's natural talent! She had to become an alchemist.
She would become an alchemist, something even the female protagonist could not achieve!
When the time came, she would ruthlessly slap Wen Jingshu in the face!
In the mortal realm, Wen Jingshu, who was currently playing with a stone, suddenly sneezed.
The stone was something she had found in Qian De's storage ring. She had been in a rush back then and had not looked at it closely. Now that she had some free time, and remembering Zhaocai's strange behavior that day, she could not help but take it out again.
The surface of the black stone was bumpy and uneven. It was neither aesthetically pleasing nor did it possess any fluctuations of spiritual energy.
Yet, the less remarkable it seemed, the more peculiar Wen Jingshu felt it was.
What exactly was this...
Wen Jingshu rubbed her nose, squinted her eyes, and carefully examined the stone under the moonlight.
To her surprise, the soft moonlight actually penetrated right through the pitch-black stone.
She could even see a faint, almost imperceptible rhythm of energy flowing inside.
Wen Jingshu frowned, gritted her teeth, and decided to try blood-binding it first.
Unsurprisingly, the blood was not absorbed at all.
After messing around with it for a good while longer, Wen Jingshu chose to give up and casually put the item away.
With the sparse spiritual energy in the mortal realm, Wen Jingshu could not cultivate, so she could only practice her swordplay.
She had only been practicing for about an hour when the transmission talisman she had left for Luo Yunting suddenly lit up, and his urgent voice echoed from within:
“Immortal, come quickly! Zhaocai has found an Innate Sword Embryo!”
An Innate Sword Embryo?
Wen Jingshu sat up abruptly, instantly filled with energy.
The legendary Innate Sword Embryo, an essential component for divine weapons that could grow alongside its master and perfectly adapt to its master's spiritual root attributes?
Originally, Wen Jingshu had been troubled by the fact that her lightning element countered her wood element. If she were to find a lightning-attribute sword, the effectiveness of her natal sword would inevitably be compromised when she utilized her wood immortal root...
But now, with an Innate Sword Embryo, any concern about lightning countering wood completely vanished!
In that split second, Wen Jingshu even thought of several different materials to forge her natal divine sword.
Too eager to reply, Wen Jingshu casually threw a defensive formation over the place where the children were staying and rushed off in a frantic hurry to find Luo Yunting.
On Luo Yunting's side, it felt as though he had only waited for the duration of an incense stick before Wen Jingshu materialized right in front of him.
“Where is it?”
Luo Yunting did not waste any words and pointed to a mountain ahead of them, saying, “Right inside!”
He then explained, “Zhaocai squeezed inside to investigate and confirmed that the treasure within is indeed an Innate Sword Embryo. It is just that our strength is too limited to extract it...”
Wen Jingshu looked at the boy and the two beasts, indicating her understanding.
However...
Zhaocai's rank was too low. Even though Wen Jingshu had a contract with it, she could only roughly grasp its meaning.
How did Luo Yunting know exactly what Zhaocai was saying?
Then she recalled Luo Yunting's Heavenly Oracle Spirit Constitution. Ah... it is likely due to this unique constitution.
In that case, wouldn't Luo Yunting be a chosen beast tamer?
Before Wen Jingshu's thoughts could wander any further, Zhaocai continued, “Squeak, squeak, squeak.”
Luo Yunting translated, “Zhaocai says the Innate Sword Embryo is the spiritual eye of this place. If it is taken recklessly, the surrounding area will turn completely barren, and not a single blade of grass will grow for ten thousand years.”
Wen Jingshu rapidly calculated the situation in her mind.
An ordinary cultivator would surely think nothing of it. What did it matter to them if this place turned into a desert?
But it did matter.
Recklessly taking away the source of life here would affect everyone and everything in this region—from the common folk who relied on the heavens for food and worked hard to cultivate fertile fields, down to a single blade of grass by the roadside or an inconspicuous ant. This would create a cause.
When one's cultivation reached the later stages, the effect of this cause would feed back into the cultivator in various ways, whether as a bottleneck in breakthrough, a decline in luck, or being plagued by misfortune...
Cultivators sought immortality, born from the Heavenly Dao yet acting against it. To ascend, one must tie the cause and untie the effect, debating the Dao with the Heavenly Dao itself. Attaining the Dao meant ascension; losing it meant death.
Many high-stage cultivators possessed immense power and felt superior to others, unconsciously accumulating a massive debt of causes without ever resolving the effects. In the end, the heavenly tribulations awaiting them would be exceptionally perilous. Some were even destroyed by inner demons before the tribulation lightning could even strike.
During her thousand years of seeking the Dao as a talisman cultivator, Wen Jingshu had been exploring this very Dao of Karma.
However, before she could fully comprehend this path, she had been reborn as the young Wen Jingshu.
Coincidentally, the Wen family also placed great importance on karma.
Her parents, despite being fragile alchemists with a one-in-a-million chance of ascension, had both successfully ascended to the Immortal Realm. Considering how the Wen family, though cautious, possessed strong moral boundaries and a conscience, never deigned to bicker with the weak, never bullied others with their power, and even helped injured spirit beasts...
Evidently, these good effects had ultimately rewarded them in return.
Wen Jingshu fell into deep thought. It would be quite troublesome to obtain this treasure.
Hearing Luo Yunting's words, Zhaocai nodded in agreement and continued, “Squeak, squeak, squeak.”
Luo Yunting translated, “The master must exchange it with a treasure of equal value.”
Wen Jingshu's brow furrowed even deeper.
That was an Innate Sword Embryo!
If it were before she upgraded the Shengsheng Bead, Wen Jingshu might have been able to rummage up something comparable to an Innate Sword Embryo.
But now...
Just as Wen Jingshu was feeling distressed, Zhaocai squeaked again, “Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
Luo Yunting said, “Use that black stone from Qian De.”
Wen Jingshu was speechless.
Good grief. Her eradicating evil was the cause, and obtaining the black stone to exchange for the Innate Sword Embryo was the effect?
Wasn't this karmic cycle arriving a bit too suddenly?
It was just...
Why did this make her feel even more resolute about her Dao of Karma?
Rate on N.U.
