She transmitted: "Yuan Zhi, let's stop here. You should leave first. There are quite a few wooden sheep, and I might not be able to protect you."
Yuan Zhi knew her own strength; staying behind wouldn't help and might even burden Senior Sister Gu.
She nodded and took out the three talismans. "Senior Sister Gu, I didn't use the talismans. Please take them back."
"They're just little toys I drew on a whim. Keep them for fun," Gu Ningyun said, not taking them back.
Yuan Zhi had returned to this dangerous place just to lead the way for her. If anything happened to her while she was leaving, Gu Ningyun would feel responsible.
Giving away three talismans she had drawn herself to avoid the karmic debt of an innocent person's life was a bargain no matter how she looked at it.
Yuan Zhi looked up in surprise, but since Gu Ningyun was using a stealth talisman, she naturally couldn't see her.
Stowing the three top-grade talismans, Yuan Zhi's gratitude toward Gu Ningyun deepened.
She said nothing more. After transmitting her farewell to Gu Ningyun, she returned the way she had come.
Only after Yuan Zhi had left did Gu Ningyun continue forward.
As she drew closer, her divine sense picked up the source of the movement.
Dozens of wooden sheep were hidden in that patch of bushes.
Most of the wooden sheep had cultivation auras around the early stage of rank one, with only a few at the late stage of rank one.
In the center of the herd stood a tree stump as thick as two people's embrace. Beside it lay a relatively small wooden sheep whose aura was comparable to the peak of rank one.
The materials used to make these wooden sheep appeared to share the same source as the tree stump.
Could someone have cut down this tree and used its trunk to make these wooden sheep?
Gu Ningyun's divine sense probed downward along the tree stump. The deeper it went, the denser the Yimu spirit energy became.
When her divine sense reached the bottom of the main root, it suddenly emerged into an empty space.
In this underground space, the first thing to enter Gu Ningyun's divine sense was a pit about the size of a wooden basin.
At the bottom of the pit was a thin layer of green liquid, emitting a dense fragrance of flora and the breath of life—it was Yimu spirit liquid.
Yimu spirit liquid possessed a rich vitality. Besides having miraculous effects on the growth of plants, it could even repair a damaged dantian.
At the bottom of this spirit liquid, Gu Ningyun discovered two pieces of Yimu spirit marrow.
According to the 《Almanac of Heavenly Wonders》, a drop of Yimu essence would condense every ten thousand years in places where Yimu energy was abundant.
When Yimu essence accumulated to a certain point, it would form Yimu spirit marrow.
If Yimu spirit marrow was placed in a place with lush vegetation, the marrow would nourish all the plants with its own Yimu energy, and the plants would generate Yimu spirit liquid with their own flora breath and life force to feed back into the marrow.
The two complemented each other and would eventually form a new area rich in Yimu energy.
At this thought, Gu Ningyun's heart stirred. If she put this Yimu spirit marrow into her space and planted some spirit flowers, spirit herbs, and spirit fruit trees, wouldn't she have a portable Yimu land?
Gu Ningyun suppressed her excitement and used her divine sense to probe other areas.
She soon discovered an array plate not far from the pit. It was broken in half and completely devoid of spirit energy. Nearby was a pile of residual powder from exhausted top-grade spirit stones and a withered skeleton sitting in meditation.
Below this tree stump was actually a crude ancient cave dwelling.
Judging by the fact that the array plate had lost its luster yet still retained a faint trace of spirit energy fluctuations, it seemed the array had only recently stopped functioning.
Gu Ningyun couldn't help but speculate that the cave dwelling must have been protected by an array until the pile of top-grade spirit stones on the array plate finally ran out of energy, allowing the Yimu spirit marrow to connect with the vegetation outside.
Because not much time had passed, only a tiny bit of Yimu spirit liquid had formed at the bottom of the pit. In the dense forest outside, only the tree that had been cut down to a stump had absorbed the Yimu energy.
However, she didn't know who had cut down the tree and turned it into these wooden sheep.
Wooden sheep were originally inanimate objects, but because of the Yimu spirit energy within the wood, they had gained a semblance of living creatures.
Not only could they move freely, but because of the varying levels of Yimu spirit energy in the wood, different wooden sheep possessed different levels of rank one cultivation.
But inanimate objects were still inanimate objects. Even if they obtained Yimu energy, it was impossible for them to develop sapience and become true living beings in such a short time.
The movements of these wooden sheep were driven by nothing more than the instincts of plants and sheep.
According to Yuan Zhi's earlier description, these wooden sheep seemed to harbor a great deal of hatred toward humans.
Perhaps this was also an instinct left behind because the tree had been felled by a human.
Having considered the cause and effect, Gu Ningyun observed the pile of withered bones again.
Yimu spirit liquid prioritized vitality and could heal injuries, but it was ineffective against poison.
The skeleton was scattered in a corner of the cave dwelling, the bones covered in purple-black, reddish corrosion marks.
The owner of these bones had likely been poisoned and built this temporary cave dwelling beneath the dense forest to heal, only to die when the poison flared up.
Looking at the age of the skeleton, it was roughly ten thousand years old.
A cultivator who could live to be ten thousand years old must be at least a Body Integration powerhouse.
A Body Integration powerhouse!
Gu Ningyun abruptly withdrew her divine sense.
A Body Integration powerhouse who died of poisoning... besides a broken array plate and a pile of exhausted spirit stone powder, only two pieces of Yimu spirit marrow remained by his remains.
Why would he take out two pieces of Yimu spirit marrow right before he died?
Was that reasonable?
Or was it intentional?
The goal was to use the Yimu spirit marrow to lure someone to the cave dwelling for possession!
Gu Ningyun's divine sense swept over the dense forest once more. The wooden sheep were quietly surrounding the stump, grazing in the bushes.
Even though their mouths were just indentations and they couldn't actually eat anything.
She cautiously scanned the cave dwelling again. It was as peaceful as ever, with no unfamiliar divine sense fluctuations.
Was she overthinking it, or was the powerhouse's divine sense hidden so well that she couldn't detect it?
Gu Ningyun tried hard to recall what she had learned from the 《Almanac of Heavenly Wonders》.
Yimu energy had no effect on nourishing the divine sense. How powerful was the physical body of a Body Integration cultivator? Yet this powerhouse's body was reduced to bone, so a significant amount of time must have passed since his death.
If he wanted to protect his primordial spirit from dissipating while waiting for a future chance at possession, the best way would be to stay inside a treasure with soul-nourishing properties.
If such a treasure truly existed, where would it be?
What would a cultivator lured by the Yimu spirit marrow do after taking it?
Gu Ningyun glanced at the skeleton again.
The skeleton's hand was pinned under a mess of bones, with only a few scattered finger bones visible.
The hand?
The storage ring!
A treasure containing a soul could not be put into a storage ring. Could that treasure be right next to the storage ring, waiting for someone to rummage through the bones for the ring to seize the opportunity for possession?
Or, to think even more boldly...
The soul might suddenly appear and possess the cultivator before they could even take the Yimu spirit marrow.
Gu Ningyun didn't know if she was overthinking, but the human heart was unpredictable.
She would rather be cautious than suffer a setback and die from carelessness or wishful thinking.
Rate on N.U.
