Before its death, the vulture king exhausted all of its lightning force to detonate the remaining lightning energy. A violent wave of lightning crashed over Shen Qingci, leaving her with no choice but to take the brunt of the impact.
The hair over her entire body was singed completely clean, and her meridians shuddered so violently they nearly ruptured. She came dangerously close to falling off the cliff, sword and all!
The female cultivator stepped out from behind the counter and crouched down to inspect the vulture's corpse. After finishing her examination, she stood up, her divine sense sweeping over Shen Qingci's bald scalp and scorched brow bone. Her expression was now entirely different from how it had been three months ago.
“Fellow Daoist, you are even harsher on yourself than on your enemies,” she remarked.
Shen Qingci pulled at the corner of her mouth in a faint smirk.
“Which family do you belong to?” the female cultivator asked.
Shen Qingci did not answer.
Understanding that it was not her place to pry further, the female cultivator collected the vulture's corpse, retrieved a small storage bag from beneath her abacus, and tossed it over.
Shen Qingci swept her divine sense inside. It contained three hundred and twenty mid-grade spirit stones, which was twenty-five percent higher than the market rate for the vulture's corpse.
“Senior, this is too much,” Shen Qingci said.
“Too much? Just take it,” the female cultivator replied, sitting back behind the counter and placing her fingers on the abacus once more. “In Leiyuan Market, the rule is to quote prices based on the person. Since you risked your life for this merchandise, I am happy to pay a bit extra.”
The steward, standing by the shelves, nearly had her eyes pop out of her head.
She had worked under the shopkeeper for nearly thirty years, yet this was the first time she had ever seen her master voluntarily raise a price.
In the past, no matter who came to sell goods, the shopkeeper would always nitpick to drive the price down, only relenting once the seller's face turned thoroughly sour.
What was wrong with her today?
Had she been possessed by an evil ghost cultivator?
Once Shen Qingci left the shop, the steward could no longer hold back. She scurried over and asked, “Shopkeeper, why did you actively raise the price this time and the last few times?”
“In the past, no matter who came, you would find faults to lower the price. This time, instead of driving it down, you raised it. All the shops in Leiyuan Market operate this way. If we act like this, the other shops might think we're breaking the rules.”
The female cultivator didn't even look up. “Breaking the rules?”
“In Leiyuan Market, Golden Core cultivators make the rules. It is already generous of me not to have swallowed up their shops.”
The steward was left speechless.
“Then why do you regard this female Foundation Establishment cultivator so highly?”
“She is worth it,” the female cultivator said, flicking her abacus a couple of times with a calm expression. “The flock of lightning vultures on Soul-Severing Cliff is notoriously fierce. Even a mid Foundation Establishment stage cultivator wouldn't survive three days up there. Yet, as an early Foundation Establishment stage junior, she has slain over a dozen lightning vultures in just a few months and even brought back a complete vulture corpse to sell.”
“With a sword lunatic like her, she will either perish on the cliff or become a formidable figure in the Four Regions that no one dares to provoke.”
“It is not worth offending a future terror for the sake of a few mid-grade spirit stones.”
“Besides, it's always good to forge a favorable tie. Who doesn't face difficulties on the path of cultivation? If I give her a bit more today, it might secure me an escape route in the future.”
The steward's lips parted, but she swallowed her remaining words.
Shen Qingci tucked away her spirit stones and went to the market to restock on some essential items.
Eight bottles of Qi-Returning Pills, ten packs of Blood-Stopping Powder, two boxes of Bone-Knitting Salve, and three sets of robes... The robes she wore now were purely consumable items; a single trip down the cliff would leave one practically ruined.
Along the way, she also bought several stacks of warning talismans, which would allow her to detect approaching lightning vultures ahead of time when she spent the night on the cliff.
With her purchases complete, she returned to Haitao Residence. Closing the door, she first cleaned her wounds and then sat in meditation to recover.
Having endured four months of this, her cultivation progress far exceeded her usual rate.
Her foundation, which had been tempered by twelve heavenly tribulation lightning bolts, was thoroughly stimulated beneath the thunderclouds.
The purple vortex of qi in her dantian had grown a full size larger than when she first arrived, and her spiritual energy was rapidly approaching the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage, just one step away from breaking through to the mid Foundation Establishment stage.
The sword was also becoming easier to handle with each use. Every time she channeled her spiritual energy into it, its sword momentum grew thirty percent sharper than before.
She had given this sword a name: Shiyi.
It signified both recovering a discarded treasure and seizing a slim chance to break through her realm on this perilous cliff.
If it truly accompanied her through a few years of hardship on Soul-Severing Cliff, Jinglei would likely have to take a back seat to it once she returned.
Though a sword spirit was inanimate, a bond was forged through shared trials.
At the start of the fifth month, Shen Qingci climbed to a height of four hundred zhang on the cliff face. In this area, the thunderclouds were so close they were within arm's reach.
With every step she took, three or four fine lightning bolts would strike her body, and she had to rely entirely on her physical form to withstand them.
Had she possessed any other spiritual root, she would have been reduced to charcoal long ago.
Strangely, the higher she went, the fewer lightning vultures there were.
The thunderclouds were too dense for the Purple-Necked Lightning Vultures of the Foundation Establishment stage to endure, and only a few solitary early Golden Core stage lightning birds occasionally swept through the clouds.
Shen Qingci held her breath against the cliff face, waiting for them to fly far away before continuing her ascent. She planned to climb another fifty zhang to find a stable hollow to enter secluded cultivation and break through to the mid Foundation Establishment stage.
Upon reaching four hundred and fifty zhang, she indeed found a natural hollow in the cliff face.
The cave entrance was half the height of a person, and the interior was about one zhang deep, with a floor made of hard black rock.
The cave walls were smooth, entirely tempered by tens of thousands of years of lightning strikes. The concentration of spiritual energy here was already ten times that of the cliff base. The moment Shen Qingci stepped inside, the spiritual energy in her meridians began to surge of its own accord.
She sat down cross-legged and placed Shiyi by her side.
Lightning struck down one after another outside, yet the interior of the cave was extraordinarily quiet, save for the faint sound of spiritual energy surging within her body.
This single sitting lasted for ten whole days.
...
High up to the upper right of Soul-Severing Cliff, a flying vessel lay hidden within the clouds. Shen Tinglan stood before a porthole, her divine sense penetrating the thick clouds to rest outside the hollow at four hundred and fifty zhang on the cliff face.
Her little niece was sitting cross-legged inside the cave, lightning fluctuating all around her body. The vortex of qi in her dantian spun faster and faster, already reaching the critical point of breakthrough.
She took a brief glance before withdrawing her divine sense, her entire body freezing in front of the porthole.
Where was her sweet, soft, and adorable little niece?
How had she ended up in such a miserable state?!
Her scalp was completely bald, her brow bones were scorched red, and even her eyelashes were singed down to a few stubby remains. There wasn't a single spot on her body left unscathed; she looked exactly like a freshly baked bald monk from the Western Region.
She didn't dare to take a second look.
She feared that if she looked just once more, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from rushing down to grab her and bring her back to the flying vessel.
But this was A-Ci's own trial, the path that the heir of the Shen family had to walk.
Since A-Ci had survived the twelve lightning tribulations of the Foundation Establishment stage, her aunt could not interfere with this trial on Soul-Severing Cliff.
“Is Tinglan feeling sorry for A-Ci?”
A voice transmission entered her sea of consciousness, the ending tone rising with clear amusement.
“Shut up!”
“Why would I feel sorry for her? The intensity of A-Ci's current trial cannot even compare to a fraction of what I went through back then.”
“And who gave you permission to call her A-Ci?”
The other end of the transmission fell silent for a moment. When it spoke again, the voice was steeped in laughter. “Tinglan, are you still refusing to acknowledge me? But my innocence...”
Shen Tinglan's expression changed abruptly. She raised her hand to dismiss the guards and maids in the cabin. Only when everyone else had exited the room did she lower her voice and snap toward the direction of the transmission, “A mere kiss counts as your innocence?”
“How does it not?” the voice replied leisurely. “I have lived for a thousand years, yet I had never been kissed by anyone before.”
“Are you planning to go back on your word, Tinglan?”
“That was merely an accidental collision. It doesn't count,” Shen Tinglan said coldly.
“It doesn't count?”
The voice suddenly sounded much closer, as if a breath were brushing past the back of Shen Tinglan's neck, lazy and lingering. “Then how about I touch you once, and we call it an accident as well? Would that count?”
“You dare?!”
“Tinglan, you know my nature best. I have always held grudges. If you stubbornly refuse to acknowledge it, I will follow you day in and day out, asking for it every single day until you agree.”
“You are absolutely mad.”
“Yes, I went mad long ago,” the person chuckled softly, their tone soft and clingy. “So don't even think about shaking me off. Not in this lifetime.”
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