The frost-colored sword light charged into the lightning.
In the next instant, the white lightning fell, swallowing her figure.
The entire valley shuddered violently. The distant mountain forest was illuminated by the lightning as bright as day, forcing Xuan Yi and the others backward from the shockwave.
After a long time, the thunder finally ceased. The cloud layer slowly dispersed, allowing daylight to spill back into the valley.
In the center of the scorched ground, Yun Heng was half-kneeling, one hand propping herself up on her sword and the other resting on her knee. Her robes had been tattered by the lightning tribulation, the ends of her hair were singed, and wet blood stained the corners of her lips.
Inside her dantian, a tiny Nascent Soul sat cross-legged in her spiritual sea, frost light and lightning intent interwoven around its body.
The Nascent Soul was formed.
In the next moment, her fingers loosened, and she tumbled forward.
Xuan Yi appeared almost the instant she fell, reaching out to catch her.
“Young Lord!”
Yun Heng opened her eyes slightly, her voice very faint. “I am fine.”
Yun Heng took out a Spirit-Replenishing Pill and a Rejuvenation Pill from her Qiankun Spirit-Storing Bag.
Xuan Yi immediately took them and poured out the pills for her.
As the Spirit-Replenishing Pill entered her stomach, her parched spiritual energy finally began to recover a bit. The medicinal power of the Rejuvenation Pill followed closely behind, warmly seeping into her wounds.
Her meridians had been scorched by the lightning intent, and her bones felt as if they had been shattered inch by inch before being pieced back together. Yet the Profound Bone Body-Forging Art continued to operate slowly; the residual lightning intent lingering deep within her bones and meridians instead became nourishment to temper her body further.
Yun Heng closed her eyes to adjust her breathing.
Xuan Yi stood guard nearby, while Xuan Er and the others scattered to protect the entire valley.
This place was already far from Tianque City, and with the Shadow Guards guarding it, no one would disturb her in the short term.
The sky shifted from afternoon to dusk.
The marks of lightning in the valley gradually cooled, and a thin white mist rose from the scorched earth. Yun Heng sat cross-legged in the valley, her chaotic aura gradually returning to stability.
She slowly opened her eyes. Having finally broken through, Yun Heng could feel that she had grown significantly stronger after this ordeal. The leap from Golden Core to Nascent Soul was far greater than any previous breakthrough she had made, giving her much more confidence now to enter Tianque City.
Her injuries were not fully healed, but they no longer hindered her movements. Seeing how badly damaged her clothes were, she retrieved a dark cloak from her Ever-Changing Wardrobe Box, put it on, and tied the broken jade back onto her waist.
“Young Lord, would you like to rest for another night?”
Yun Heng looked in the direction of Tianque City. “No.”
She had already caused quite a stir with the lightning tribulation here. Although it was far from Tianque City, she could not linger for long. “Let us head to Tianque City.”
Outside Tianque City, cultivators surged like a tide.
Yun Heng stood at the end of the line entering the city, looking up at what lay ahead.
The city walls were extraordinarily high, with dark greenish-black bricks stretching upward until they nearly merged into the cloud layer. The array runes on the wall were not glaring; they merely glimmered with faint golden light under the sun, swimming across the cracks between the bricks before quickly fading away.
Tianque City held its position as the number one city in the Eastern Region not only because merchant routes converged here and sects and prominent families gathered, but also because of this defensive city array.
Rumor had it that this array had once repelled a Void Refinement grandmaster, though whether that was true or false, no one dared to test it.
Yun Heng did not have the Shadow Guards accompany her openly. Before entering the city, she merely gave a low command. “Return to the bag for now.”
Xuan Yi and the others bowed their heads in unison. “Understood.”
Five shadows silently slipped into the Qiankun Spirit-Storing Bag.
Yun Heng pulled the drawstring of the bag shut, took out her Rogue Cultivator Jade Slip, and walked forward slowly with the queue.
There were many people in line, and the queue moved very slowly. It took a long time before it was finally Yun Heng's turn.
The city guard cultivator took her Rogue Cultivator Jade Slip and swept it over an array plate beside him. A pale white spiritual light flashed across the array plate before quickly fading.
Nothing unusual.
“After entering the city, no private fights are permitted, nor are you allowed to fly through the air across the main streets.”
The city guard cultivator handed the jade slip back to her. Yun Heng took it, and the guard raised his hand to grant her passage.
As she stepped through the city gates, the bustling sounds of the city suddenly washed over her.
The main street was broad and paved with bluestone. Buildings lined both sides continuously, with spiritual lamps hanging high. Pill pavilions, talisman halls, spirit beast guilds, and artifact shops stretched as far as the eye could see.
There were so many cultivators here; Meridian Condensation cultivators could be seen everywhere, and Golden Core cultivators were hardly rare.
Though she was now at early stage Nascent Soul—by no means weak—she was still far from being able to run amok unchecked.
The Eastern Market had the tallest buildings and the densest cluster of shops. From afar, one could see a nine-story building standing at the end of the street. Its structure was deep black, with bells hanging from the eaves, and people streamed in and out of its front doors, making it far grander than the surrounding shops.
The Southern Street had mostly inns and taverns, with cultivators entering and leaving in a wider variety of attire. Yun Heng chose an inn that looked spacious and clean, with a wooden plaque hanging above its doors that read: Tingfeng Inn.
She walked inside, where many cultivators were seated in the main hall.
The innkeeper raised his head, saw her, and immediately offered a smile. “Looking for a room, fellow cultivator?”
“A superior room.”
The innkeeper flipped open a jade ledger. “We have two superior rooms left. A standard superior room costs ten mid-grade spirit stones a day.”
“I will stay for three days.”
The innkeeper's smile widened as he reached out to retrieve a room tally.
Just then, hushed discussions reached her ears from a nearby table.
“I heard that the people from the Taihua Sword Sect are arriving tomorrow.”
“So early? The Qingming Secret Realm only opens in a month. Didn't they usually arrive half a month early in the past?”
“Who knows? This time, Xie Wujiu is leading the team...”
Yun Heng's hand paused slightly as she reached for the room tally.
The Qingming Secret Realm.
Xie Wujiu.
With these two names brought together, she quickly recalled the corresponding plot from the original book.
The Qingming Secret Realm indeed opened around this time. It was the place where Su Mingyuan obtained her first major opportunity after leaving the Xuanxiao Sect.
In the original book, she accidentally entered an ancient vine array inside the secret realm. Hidden within the array was a Qingming Spirit Seed, an old artifact that had spilled out from the Ancient Qingming Hall. It could break vine and wood restrictions while also nourishing spiritual roots and stabilizing fortune.
After acquiring the Qingming Spirit Seed, Su Mingyuan happened to run into Xie Wujiu, who was trapped inside the array.
Xie Wujiu's sword Qi had been suppressed, leaving him severely injured. Su Mingyuan used the Qingming Spirit Seed to break the array and rescued him.
Su Mingyuan's cultivation went smoother and smoother later on, allowing her to always detect opportunities a step ahead whenever she entered secret realms, which was inextricably tied to this Qingming Spirit Seed.
From then on, the two of them became entangled with each other.
Whenever Su Mingyuan traveled out to gain experience, in addition to people from the Xuanxiao Sect, she also received protection from the Taihua Sword Sect. Xie Wujiu paved the way for her, blocked swords for her, and testified on her behalf. In many subsequent dangerous situations, he always appeared at just the right time.
“Fellow cultivator, your room is Room Yi on the third floor.”
Yun Heng pulled her thoughts back, taking the room tally without going upstairs right away. She turned toward the table where the speaker had been sitting, where two cultivators were seated.
One wore grey robes with lean features. The other wore a brown short robe with a wine gourd hanging from his waist. Neither looked like sect disciples; they appeared more like rogue cultivators who frequented Tianque City year-round.
Yun Heng walked over.
“Fellow cultivators.”
The two raised their heads to look at her.
Yun Heng said, “I just overheard you discussing the Qingming Secret Realm. I have newly arrived here and wonder if you could share a few words about it?”
As she spoke, she retrieved two high-grade spirit stones and placed them on the table.
The spirit stones hit the table, shimmering with clear light.
The two exchanged a glance, and the grey-robed cultivator smiled. “You jest, fellow cultivator. Since you wish to know, we will certainly tell you everything we know.”
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