Nangong Zhu sat in the room for a long time, staring at a painting on the wall. A man and a woman stood closely together, smiling at each other.
He looked up at the painting, his expression calm.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
Nangong Zhu snapped back to reality, turning and walking to the door to open it.
The person outside had a pale face, their eyes unfocused.
It was as if they hadn’t spoken in a long time, and when they did, their voice was hoarse.
“Young Master Nangong, I need your help.”
Nangong Zhu coldly asked, “Why should I help you?”
“I will remember what happened back then,” Ying Heng said. “Please help me fuse my spiritual root, right now.”
Nangong Zhu withdrew the hand resting on the doorframe and crossed his arms, staring coldly at him. “Your body will be unable to withstand the forced fusion of a spiritual root. Are you sure?”
“Are you sure?”
“Even if I die, I won’t regret it.”
In fifteen days, Sang Dai and Su Xuan would emerge. Ying Heng hoped that by then, he could see Sang Dai.
He hoped he could remember some things, could give them all an explanation.
He hoped to come to a conclusion.
Had he been wrong?
—
Sang Dai’s meridians were subtly boiling.
She helplessly looked at the person in front of her, sitting in the little fox’s embrace, as the little fox kissed her neck.
Today was already the fifteenth day.
Sang Dai held onto him, feeling the subtle breakthrough in her cultivation. Dual cultivation was an excellent way of practice for cultivators, especially for those in high realms who were partners.
They were Heaven-grade spiritual root awakeners, and their cultivation speed was already fast and powerful. After using the Guixu spiritual power left to Sang Dai by the Snow Owl, their cultivation had advanced even more rapidly.
At this moment, Su Xuan was caught up in a surge of emotions. His heat had returned, and his mind was muddled, filled only with the most primal desire—the yearning for his beloved girl.
Sang Dai gasped, her head resting on his shoulder, her gaze falling on a book beside them.
It was a secret technique from the Hehuan Sect, given to Su Xuan by the sect master. Both of them were top-tier cultivators in the four realms, and Su Xuan had pulled Sang Dai into practicing three books.
Before entering the cave, they were already at the peak of the Grand Ascension realm, and now they were showing signs of breaking through. It had only been twenty days since they both reached the Grand Ascension peak.
At this moment, Sang Dai’s meridians were boiling severely, and she felt uncomfortable. She lay on Su Xuan’s shoulder, struggling to speak, “Su… Su Xuan… I feel… something’s wrong…”
Su Xuan kissed her lips, his mind dizzy and focused only on thrusting. The sword cultivator had turned into a helpless puppet.
Sang Dai fought to hold on to the last bit of her consciousness, turning her head with difficulty and stammering, “My meridians… they keep boiling…”
“It hurts so much, Su Xuan, it hurts…”
The little fox only heard the word “hurt,” and Su Xuan suddenly snapped out of his desire.
Both of them were covered in sweat. Sang Dai lay in his arms, gasping for air. As her consciousness returned, he realized something was wrong with his own body.
Su Xuan’s meridians were also boiling. Dual cultivation required the fusion of each other’s spiritual powers, and the spiritual power coursing through his meridians felt…
Not quite right.
Sang Dai was using the purest Guixu spiritual power. As the spiritual power flowed into his body through their twin marriage contract in their sea of consciousness, his spiritual power had grown stronger as well.
A small amount of pure Guixu spiritual power was incomparable to the countless eroded spiritual veins. It seemed to be cleansing the spiritual power in his meridians.
Su Xuan held back the pain, slowly pulling out, then gently laid Sang Dai on the bed. “Dai Dai?”
The heat clouded Su Xuan’s mind, but Sang Dai’s flushed face and the slight veins protruding from her neck forced him to stay alert.
He suppressed his desire and the pain, holding her wrist. Her meridians surged, and Su Xuan’s brows furrowed. He quickly began circulating his spiritual power to calm her meridians.
“Dai Dai, listen to me. I’m going to use my spiritual power to circulate through your meridians. You need to move your spiritual power with mine.”
“…Okay.”
Su Xuan’s spiritual power entered smoothly. There was a marriage contract between them, so Sang Dai didn’t feel the need to guard against him.
Sang Dai’s meridians were in disarray. Su Xuan used his spiritual power to clear the blockages, and Sang Dai circulated her own spiritual power to follow his movements.
One blockage after another was cleared, and the previously chaotic spiritual energy gradually began to flow in an orderly fashion, moving toward its proper course.
Sang Dai’s complexion gradually improved.
It had been five full days since they decided to practice dual cultivation using the Guixu spiritual power. The two of them had not stopped, except for bathing. They hadn’t even slept, spending each day focused on this.
As Heaven-grade spiritual root awakeners, their self-healing abilities were powerful, and their physiques were astonishing. Over these five days, Su Xuan had been in a state of mental fog, only focused on embracing her and cultivating in the cave. Now that he had become clear-headed, he noticed the abnormality in their bodies.
Su Xuan leaned down and kissed her brow. “Dai Dai, we may have been right about our guesses.”
Sang Dai opened her eyes, and Su Xuan wiped the sweat from her face before picking her up and holding her in his arms.
“The Weisheng family’s contract imprint wanted you to see something, but there’s a seal in your sea of consciousness. As your cultivation advances, at certain key moments, you will be able to see what the Weisheng family wanted you to see. The Snow Owl gave you its heart, and its heart stores the purest Guixu spiritual power. That power originates from the Great Wild era, and it’s far beyond what current spiritual veins can compare to.”
During the Great Wild era, tribulation-crossing cultivators were common, and there were nearly twenty Heaven-grade spiritual root awakeners in that era. In the entire history of the cultivation world, there were fewer than a hundred Heaven-grade spiritual root awakeners.
Su Xuan kissed her forehead gently to comfort her, speaking softly: “By cultivating with the Guixu spiritual power the Snow Owl left for you, our progress will be several times faster. And with our twin marriage contract, our souls are bound together. The Guixu spiritual power the Snow Owl gave you can also be transferred into my meridians, and I can use your spiritual power. My meridians are thus affected as well.”
“We’ve been doing this for several days, and I wasn’t clear-headed, but now I realize what’s happened.”
Sang Dai asked hoarsely, “What happened?”
Su Xuan took out a withered vine from his Qiankun bag.
“From before.”
He pricked his skin with the sharp tip and pierced it. The withered vine seemed to sense something, and the dried branches and leaves began to revive. Golden spiritual power was drawn from the wound, and the dark qi that had been entwined around the spiritual power…
Su Xuan lifted his arm to show her.
“Look.”
Sang Dai suddenly leaned forward and grabbed his wrist.
She wasn’t mistaken. The dark qi entwining the spiritual power had faded significantly, no longer as thick as it had been in Linglong Town.
“Wu Hanxu told me that this vine feeds on the Four Sufferings in the spiritual power. Everyone except you has the Four Sufferings in their spiritual power. But look, doesn’t my Four Sufferings seem to have diminished greatly now?”
Sang Dai felt as though she was struggling to breathe. She grabbed the vine that fed on the Four Sufferings and threw it away. Su Xuan burned it with Hellfire until it was completely gone.
Sang Dai stared at Su Xuan’s wound. The spiritual power that had been drawn out by the vine, now attached with the Four Sufferings, had indeed faded a great deal.
“Dai Dai, for these past days, you’ve been using the Guixu spiritual power to dual cultivate with me, and our spiritual powers have fused.”
Sang Dai suddenly looked up at him, her suspicions confirmed.
“Dai Dai, you’re not being corroded by the Four Sufferings, perhaps because of the Guixu spiritual power.”
After the Great Wild era, the Guixu spiritual veins were eroded by the Four Sufferings. The heart of the Snow Owl stored the untainted Guixu spiritual power, and the contract imprint of the Weisheng family carried the purest form of Guixu spiritual power.
That was the untainted Guixu spiritual power, the Guixu power from the Great Wild era.
Sang Dai asked in confusion, “But… my mother was also from the Weisheng family, and there are still dozens of them. They should all be immune to the Four Sufferings. Why did that person say that I’m the only one who’s immune to it…?”
She suddenly stopped speaking. Su Xuan quietly watched her.
Sang Dai slowly lifted her gaze and met Su Xuan’s eyes. “Tianyuxue told me that the Weisheng family has passed down the contract imprint through generations. The Snow Owl said that only the Weisheng family’s contract imprint can now activate the purest Guixu spiritual power.”
“Zhiyu Sword was made from Tianyu Stone, and the Tianyu Stone also contains Guixu spiritual power. I entered the Sword Sect at the age of ten, and the Zhiyu Sword, which had been sleeping for ten thousand years in the Sword Sect, chose me as its master. Zhiyu said that I have an aura that it trusts.”
“When we were surrounded and nearly killed in the Burning Heaven Realm, Senior Ling Yin told me that the way to use Tianyu Stone is through a blood oath. Su Xuan, when we activated the Guixu spiritual power in Tianyu Stone, was it because of my blood, or because of the bloodline of the Weisheng family?”
It seemed like she suddenly understood.
The Weisheng family’s contract imprint could activate the purest Guixu spiritual power, and the Guixu spiritual power could, in turn, counter the Four Sufferings.
The Weisheng family’s practice of passing down the contract imprint through generations was because this imprint could only be passed to the newborn bloodline. After Weisheng Xuan gave birth, she no longer held the imprint. It was passed to Sang Dai. When the Weisheng family was wiped out, everyone died in battle, but only Sang Dai survived—she was the only one saved.
Only Sang Dai held the Weisheng contract imprint. The Weisheng contract imprint protected her from being corrupted by the Four Sufferings from birth. After the Snow Owl gave its heart to her, the powerful Guixu spiritual power was stored in her sea of consciousness, making the Weisheng contract imprint even stronger.
As her cultivation grew stronger, the Weisheng contract imprint became more powerful, and the things she could see expanded as well.
Sang Dai held Su Xuan’s waist, resting her chin on his shoulder and closing her eyes.
She understood the words the Snow Owl had spoken.
— “Fate wants you dead, but I will help you live.”
The only one who could destroy the Guixu was Sang Dai. Fate wanted her to die, to remove her as a threat, but the Snow Owl had offered its heart, stored for ten thousand years, to her, granting her the most powerful Guixu spiritual power. Her Weisheng contract imprint had also grown stronger.
And the Weisheng contract imprint knew many things. It would help Sang Dai survive.
She knew what to do now. She understood what the Weisheng contract imprint and the Snow Owl wanted her to do.
What they wanted her to do was also what she wanted to do.
Sang Dai wrapped her arms around Su Xuan’s neck, tilted her head, and kissed him.
“Su Xuan, I’ll help you cleanse the Four Sufferings from your spiritual power. In fifteen days, we will help each other cross the tribulation.”
“Then, together, we will go to Guixu and destroy this heaven.”