The 《Almanac of Heavenly Wonders》 recorded several types of spirit springs, but none matched the one in her space. Gu Ningyun decided not to dwell on it further.
Regarding the mysterious black ore she had mined in Yushui City before coming to Xiaoyao, Gu Ningyun finally found relevant information.
It turned out to be an associated mineral called Soul-Severing Crystal, which had the function of isolating divine sense and preventing spirit energy from dissipating.
When a spirit vein first forms, if the surrounding spirit energy becomes thin, the vein will form Soul-Severing Crystals as an associated mineral to protect itself.
Normally, spirit veins form in places with lush spirit plants and dense spirit energy.
Furthermore, a spirit vein complements its surroundings, making spirit plants more vibrant and the environment more saturated with energy.
Unless there is a sudden, major environmental shift, a place with a spirit vein will not experience a thinning of spirit energy.
Because it requires such a specific alignment of time and place, Soul-Severing Crystal is considered a rare associated mineral.
Gu Ningyun had some suspicions about that small spirit stone mine when she was digging, which was why she had collected the black ore into her space.
Only after reading this information did she fully understand why the spirit stone mine she had excavated just outside Yushui City had remained undiscovered right under the noses of cultivators.
She finally understood why the small hill outside Yushui City remained barren of spirit energy despite having a spirit stone mine beneath it.
It truly was because of the Soul-Severing Crystal.
...
One year later.
New Disciple Training Department, Governing Peak.
“The Penglai Dao Discussion Meeting won't start for another year.
That is to say, the ten of us Qi Refining disciples who are attending as observers need to split into two groups. We’ll disguise ourselves as loose cultivators or members of small sects and travel across half of Yunzhou and the entirety of Cangzhou to reach Donglin City in the east.
One month before the meeting begins, the sect seniors participating in the discussion will meet us in Donglin City and take us to Penglai together.”
“Correct. For this discussion meeting, Xiaoyao has a total of fifty observer slots, and only ten of those are for Qi Refining disciples,” Perfected Person Ye said.
“This is a trial specially arranged for the ten of us by the sect. There will be Golden Core stage disciples guarding you from the shadows.”
Gu Ningyun exchanged glances with her companions, all of them looking eager to try.
The groups were quickly decided: the five from Ruiyu Pavilion formed one group, while the other five formed the second.
“Prepare yourselves and set out in the next few days.”
After bidding farewell to Perfected Person Ye, Jiang Yao spoke with an excited tone, “You all have your things on you, right?”
“Yes, I can leave anytime.” Wen Xuan’s eyes were sparkling.
Mu Chenze and Jun Luo also indicated they were ready, so all four of them turned their gaze toward Gu Ningyun.
“...”
Gu Ningyun rubbed her forehead. “Shouldn’t we have a plan?”
“It’s just getting ourselves to Donglin City by the sea. What’s there to plan?” Jiang Yao argued. “You’re wound too tight, Ningyun. You want to plan everything.”
“Exactly! Let’s have a spontaneous trial this time!” Wen Xuan draped an arm over her shoulder, her smile bright.
Gu Ningyun... she was actually starting to feel tempted.
Not planning didn't mean not preparing at all.
Gu Ningyun and the others looked at their Xiaoyao disciple robes, then rummaged through their storage bags for their three-year-old robes that were clearly too small. They silently made a trip to Wuxin City.
When they arrived at the entrance of a shop selling dharma robes and saw the dazzling array of garments, the group fell into a brief silence.
Jiang Yao asked, “What kind of robes should we buy? Are we pretending to be loose cultivators or small sect disciples?”
Wen Xuan added, “We can’t use the teleportation arrays at the sect’s outposts, so how are we going to travel?”
Mu Chenze noted, “I heard Donglin City is by the sea, and there are many activities for hunting sea demons. Should we leave a few months early to spend time there?”
Jun Luo said, “Regardless, I cannot neglect my daily thirty thousand sword swings.”
“See? We still need a simple plan,” Gu Ningyun sighed. The group silently found a corner to huddle in, their heads pressed together.
The four of them simultaneously looked at Gu Ningyun.
Mu Chenze winked at her. “Ningyun, I saw your eyes darting around back at the training department. You must have a good idea, right?”
Hearing the words 'good idea,' Wen Xuan also covered her mouth and giggled.
Gu Ningyun: “...” Could they not make those faces? It made her ideas sound like they were devious or something.
“Ahem, I just have a few thoughts.”
Gu Ningyun tried to maintain a serious expression. “First is the matter of our identities.
I was thinking we should pose as disciples of a small sect.”
The others remained silent, listening intently.
“Mainly because while there are many loose cultivators in the cultivation world, five people our age traveling together doesn't look like loose cultivators. It looks like sect disciples out for a trial.
Since that's the case, we might as well lean into it.”
Jiang Yao thought for a moment. “Then shouldn’t we come up with a name? Just in case someone asks about our background, we’ll have an answer.”
Wen Xuan suggested, “I think Wolf Fang Sect sounds good. It sounds domineering.”
“No, no, that’s too common. Not fun at all.” Mu Chenze shook his folding fan. “How about the Kanshui Sect? It sounds very profound.”
“Kanshui Sect, Kanshui...” Jiang Yao repeated it a few times and shook his head. “That’s no good either. It sounds like 'Kill-Who' Sect.”
“Then what name do you suggest?” Wen Xuan rested her chin in her palms, puffing out her cheeks.
Jiang Yao frowned and thought for a long time. “How about the Fatal Sect? It sounds like we aren't to be trifled with.”
Mu Chenze countered, “Inappropriate. It sounds like a villainous group. We’d be targeted easily.”
“Then what should it be?” Jiang Yao looked distressed. “Jun Luo, Ningyun, what do you two think?”
Jun Luo was sitting cross-legged by the wall, flipping through a map of the Five Continents.
Hearing the question, he considered for a moment. “I’m fine with anything.”
Just then, a large yellow dog trotted past not far away, holding a meat bun in its mouth with its head held high.
As it passed Gu Ningyun’s group, the dog even gave them a sideways glance.
Looking at the dog, a human's best guardian, Gu Ningyun smiled. “How about calling it Night-Unlocked-Gate?”
Jiang Yao and Mu Chenze looked at each other.
Jiang Yao: “That sounds very strange.”
Mu Chenze: “It’s a bit fun.”
Wen Xuan: “I think it works.”
Jiang Yao and Mu Chenze said in unison, “That’s the one!”
With the small sect name decided, Gu Ningyun continued, “I originally thought about using my spirit boat for travel.
But considering that it wouldn't be reasonable for Qi Refining cultivators from a small sect to pull out a mysterious-rank top-grade spirit boat, I decided against it.”
Jiang Yao nodded. “We can save it for escaping if we run into a Foundation Establishment cultivator we can’t beat.”
“Right. So I was thinking that for normal travel, we could rent carriages from the World Carriage House.”
Gu Ningyun glanced at Mu Chenze, her eyes twinkling. “Or, Wen Xuan, do you three want to go to the library and pick a movement technique? We could travel directly using movement techniques.”
Mu Chenze’s eyes lit up as well. “Oh, right! Do you three want to learn a movement technique? This is a great chance for practical practice.”
“That’s feasible.”
Once the matter of practicing movement techniques was settled, they discussed the route.
“Since Donglin City has sea beast hunting, and we have eleven months in total, why don’t we spend three months on the road?
We’ll leave about seven months for hunting at sea in Donglin City, and keep the last month as a buffer, just in case.”
Gu Ningyun spread the map Jun Luo had handed her on the ground. “Yunzhou is Xiaoyao territory, so it will be relatively safe.
While we’re within Yunzhou, we’ll focus entirely on practicing our movement techniques. We’ll only enter cities if we need supplies or rest; otherwise, we’ll bypass them to focus on making progress.”
“Cangzhou is the territory of the Changxuan Sect, Hundred Flowers Sect, White Moon Sect, Ten Directions Sect, and other small sects. The situation there is different from Yunzhou, which is solely governed by Xiaoyao. We’ll adjust our plan once we get there.”
“Fine, let’s do that.”
“There’s also the matter of communication.”
At this point, Gu Ningyun looked a bit conflicted. “We usually use our identity jade tokens to send messages. Once we’re on the trial, it won't be convenient to expose our identity jade tokens. How will we communicate?”
Mu Chenze smiled slightly. “Ningyun, don’t forget the World Forum. Everyone in the Five Continents is on it.”
Gu Ningyun’s eyes widened.
She had been so busy cultivating that she rarely browsed the World Forum. When she did post, it was to communicate with other sect disciples, so she had subconsciously assumed it was a feature exclusive to the disciple jade tokens of major sects.
Based on Mu Chenze’s meaning, it seemed this thing was universal across the Five Continents.
In that case... “You mean we can create alt accounts!”
“Alt... account? What does that mean?” Mu Chenze’s smile froze.
Gu Ningyun didn't know how to explain for a moment, so she pulled them toward the street. “What do they call those things out here?”
She remembered the prompt her identity jade token had given her back in the space. “Is it called a Spirit-Attuning Jade Token? Where can we buy them? Let’s go check.”
“Take a look, everyone. Which kind of Spirit-Attuning Jade Token would you like?”
In a small shop, the owner rummaged through the bottom of a cabinet for a long time before pulling out three Spirit-Attuning Jade Tokens and placing them on the counter.
Gu Ningyun observed closely. The box in the middle of the bottom shelf seemed to have the most stock, while the boxes on either side had the least.
She swept her divine sense over them. All three jade tokens on the counter were made of white jade and looked identical on the surface, but her divine sense could detect subtle differences in their quality.
Jiang Yao, who often hung around the Artifact Peak, was more sensitive to such forged items. “These three jade tokens feel a bit different to me.
The one on the far left has the crudest craftsmanship. The one in the middle is slightly better, with a few complex processing techniques added.
The one on the far right has the most complex craftsmanship, but...”
Wen Xuan asked, “But what?”
Before Jiang Yao could answer, the shopkeeper chuckled. “This young friend has a good eye. Truly worthy of being a Xiaoyao disciple.”
“The one on the left is the cheapest, only twenty low-grade spirit stones.”
The shopkeeper smiled benevolently. “But I don’t recommend you buy that one. After all, while you can browse the World Forum with it, you can’t add friends, send private messages, or post on the forum.”
The shopkeeper paused, smiling as he observed the expressions of the five disciples.
Gu Ningyun watched the shopkeeper’s smile and noticed his eyes darting toward the upper left occasionally. Something felt off.
She stared with her round, almond-shaped eyes. “And the other two, shopkeeper?”
“The one on the right has all the features—World Forum, friends, and chat—but in my opinion, it’s not suitable for you either.”
The shopkeeper sighed. “This one costs twenty mid-grade spirit stones. It’s too expensive; it’s not worth it.”
“One hundred low-grade spirit stones equal one mid-grade spirit stone. A hundred-fold increase... it really doesn't seem worth it,” Gu Ningyun nodded thoughtfully.
Jiang Yao, Mu Chenze, and Wen Xuan exchanged glances and then silently looked away.
This scene... why did it look so much like the one in front of the Five Continents Bookhouse?
“Exactly! I thought it was expensive when I stocked it. And don't let the twenty mid-grade spirit stone price tag fool you; sometimes, there are little accidents when sending messages.”
“What kind of accidents?” Gu Ningyun asked promptly.
“For example, when sending a message, it might fail to go through, or it might say it was sent but the other person never receives it.
In the worst cases, you might add a friend only for their information to disappear from your friend list entirely.”
Gu Ningyun’s mouth hung open.
“These universal Spirit-Attuning Jade Tokens are naturally no match for the ones from your sect.
The one on the right is already the best on the market, yet these accidents still happen. That’s why I don’t recommend spending so much money on it.”
The shopkeeper leaned forward slightly. “I’m not trying to cheat you. To be honest, the middle one is the best choice for you all.
First, the price is fair—only five mid-grade spirit stones.
As for features, the World Forum, friends, and chat interfaces all work. There’s only one catch: the friend list is limited to fifty people.
But that doesn't really matter much, right?”
“Ohhh~” Gu Ningyun nodded as if enlightened. This was her first time encountering a shady merchant since transmigrating; it was quite a novel experience.
“Ayyy~” The shopkeeper nodded in agreement. This was his first time encountering someone so easy to fool in a long time; he was quite happy.
“It’s just the price...” Gu Ningyun looked hesitant.
The shopkeeper’s tone turned extremely sincere. “I’ve run this shop here in Wuxin City at the foot of Xiaoyao for decades. Many Xiaoyao disciples come to buy from me, and they all know I’m an honest businessman.
To tell you the truth, I even have a nephew who is a disciple of Xiaoyao.
Honestly, for the sake of my nephew’s reputation, I couldn’t possibly cheat you.”
Seeing Gu Ningyun still look hesitant, he added, “Xiaoyao people don’t lie to Xiaoyao people.”
“We’ll think about it first. Thank you for the introduction, shopkeeper.”
As soon as Gu Ningyun finished speaking, she grabbed her companions’ sleeves and ran out of the shop.
“Hey! Why are you leaving? I can give you a discount!”
The shopkeeper shouted after them, but Gu Ningyun only ran faster.
Once they were far away, Wen Xuan asked, “What’s wrong, Ningyun?”
Mu Chenze and Jun Luo were from cultivation families, but they hadn't been taught much about things unrelated to cultivation in their youth, so they didn't quite understand either.
“I’m not entirely sure, but that shopkeeper felt unreliable.”
Gu Ningyun rubbed her chin. “We rarely deal with these things and don't know the market prices.
To avoid being scammed, let’s just go to the Xiaoyao Chamber of Commerce to buy our things.”
“Oh, right! Because the Xiaoyao outpost is on the edge of Wuxin City, we’ve always stayed on this street. We’ve never actually been to the Xiaoyao Chamber of Commerce in the city center.”
Wen Xuan’s enthusiasm surged. “Let’s go to the Xiaoyao Chamber of Commerce now. We can see if they have any dharma robes for sale while we’re at it.”
Rate on N.U.
