Lady Cultivator

Once the Yao couple had gone far, Mo Tiange pressed the space between her eyebrows and in the next second, she was already out of the Virtual Sky World. She stared at the direction those two went in and sank into contemplation.

Shang Ruwan might not see it, but Mo Tiange saw it clearly. Yan Zixiu’s eyes always shifted around when he spoke—what he said was most likely not what he truly felt. When he talked about Mo Tiange, his gaze also seemed to have a different meaning. Although Shang Ruwan was very thorough in her observations of other people, she had absolute trust in her husband, so she simply didn’t notice any of that.

Alas, from their dialogue, they must’ve been deeply in love with each other—so in love that they even ignored other people’s opinions, fled from their clans and eloped. Who would’ve thought that after being together in marital love, a change like this would happen between them? Yao Zixiu obviously had some reluctance in his heart. How could cultivators completely give up on cultivating? When they eloped, perhaps his feelings were sincere. But later, he became unwilling to remain like that his whole life—he still wanted his cultivation level to advance to the next realm. What did he mean by: “I can take you back home in a just and open way”? Those were all lies. His true intention was to gain power for himself.

After being lost in her thoughts for a while, Mo Tiange shook her head. This was their business; it didn’t have anything to do with her. But that Shang Ruwan was really pitiful. Although her cultivation level was average, her mental state was far better than many disciples of cultivation groups. Based on their dialogue, her aptitude probably wasn’t bad either. If she cultivated diligently, maybe she could still make a realm-breakthrough.

Love… Back then, wasn’t Tianqiao also like this? In the beginning, she was happily in love, but after a long time, Meng Sigui finally revealed his character, and the originally vivacious and passionate Tianqiao also became meek. Shang Ruwan would most likely turn out even more pitiful. She abandoned everything to elope; if she lost this love one day, wouldn’t that mean she would have nothing left? No lover, no clan, not even a future which could’ve been beautiful at some point…

It was no wonder her uncle said that being weak and affectionate was the greatest enemy for female cultivators. Had Shang Ruwan not been attached to her emotions, perhaps her cultivation level would’ve been far above her current cultivation level with her clan as her backing. As Mo Tiange thought about it, she couldn’t help but heave a sigh.

Even though Yao Zixiu had ill intentions towards her, it didn’t change the fact that they all had the same purpose. Sensing that the two people had walked quite a distance away from her, Mo Tiange simply released her divine sense, and it locked onto them. She hid her figure then went inside, following the two of them.

In the darkness, she went downward along the stone path following their trace, but she was surprisingly completely alright. Nevertheless, something made Mo Tiange wary. Her divine sense was locked onto the Yao couple, but after they entered a stone door, she could no longer sense their presence.

While Mo Tiange debated whether or not she should enter this stone door, which obviously had some secrets in it, she discovered someone else’s presence. That person was precisely Daoist Fangzheng. Because of what happened with Yao Zixiu, Mo Tiange naturally became even more vigilant than before. The moment she sensed Daoist Fangzheng’s presence, she immediately went into her Virtual Sky World.

Daoist Fangzheng uttered an “Eh!” then after looking all around vigilantly, he quickly walked towards the stone door the Yao couple went into and also went inside. Just like the Yao couple, Daoist Fangzheng’s presence vanished without a trace after he entered the stone door.

Just as Mo Tiange was about to come out of the Virtual Sky World, she discovered there was a group of five people entering the hall. She scanned them using her divine sense. Among the five people, two were male cultivators in the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm, and the remaining three were female cultivators in the early stage of the Foundation Building realm. She didn’t know whether the male cultivators were companions, but the three female cultivators were obviously disciples from the same cultivation group.

Maybe it was because the formation outside was already broken, but when these five people entered, they obviously didn’t look as miserable as the four of them.

The five people walked into the stone door together; the two male cultivators walked in front while the three female cultivators followed from behind. Soon afterward, Mo Tiange also decided that she better go inside to temper herself. Since the formation outside was easily broken, even if she couldn’t obtain anything, she wouldn’t lose her life no matter what kind of danger existed inside because she had the Virtual Sky World. Besides, she originally left the school to gain experience, so she mustn’t be overly cautious. Otherwise, this trip would lose its purpose.

Mo Tiange came out of the Virtual Sky World then stepped into the stone door without any hesitation.

Right after Mo Tiange entered, she instantly felt a wood spiritual aura fluctuation from under her feet. Furthermore, the stone ground simultaneously moved. One moment, the scene in front of her darkened, and in the next, it brightened. Mo Tiange discovered she was now inside a hall with an arched ceiling. Under her feet was a round stone platform which floated in the air. Not too far from her, there were four floating round stone platforms. The Yao couple was on one platform, Daoist Fangzheng was on another one, the two male cultivators were on one, and so were the three female cultivators.

These five stone platforms were respectively gold, green, blue, red, and yellow in color, and they were also emitting pure five-element spiritual aura. The stone platform Mo Tiange was standing on was green. Her stone platform moved towards the four others, but when it got into position to form a pentagon with the four others, it stopped.

At that moment, Shang Ruwan, who was sitting on the red-colored stone platform, seemed to be alright. Upon seeing Mo Tiange standing there looking stunned, she laughed and said, “Little Sister, good thing you also came in unharmed.”

Mo Tiange was aware Yao Zixiu had ill intentions towards her, but Shang Ruwan was completely oblivious about it, so she was still treating Mo Tiange cordially. Mo Tiange also felt that she was quite kind, so she smiled back and said, “Thanks for worrying about me, Big Sister.”

After Shang Ruwan and Mo Tiange greeted each other, Shang Ruwan asked casually, “I wonder what Little Sister thinks of this hall?”

Mo Tiange looked around then answered, “Big Sister and other Fellow Daoists entered before me; did you maybe discover anything?”

Shang Ruwan smiled and pointed at the two male cultivators on the yellow-colored stone platform. “Fellow Daoist Lu and Fellow Daoist Wang said these are Five Elements Platforms, but they don’t know how these work.”

Upon hearing what she said, Mo Tiange shifted her gaze towards the two male cultivators. She asked, “Are these Five Elements Platforms magic tools or…?”

The slightly taller one among the two male cultivators answered, “Five Elements Platforms first appeared in Tianliang School, which was located on Mount Yuzhu of Kunwu Mountain Range. Its history dates back to several thousand years ago. Because Mount Yuzhu’s region was constructed of stone forests, every cultivator in Mount Yuzhu area lived above stone pillars. The Five Elements Platforms were first built for the convenience of the school’s disciples who had low cultivation levels and couldn’t fly.”

“However, it was recorded in the book that the reason why Five Elements Platforms were named that way was because each stone platform evolved from a formation; the five elements weren’t controlled by humans, and they were able to fly onto the mountain according to a fixed pattern. Nevertheless, while the appearance and function of these platforms are almost the same as the Five Elements Platforms mentioned in the book, each platform only possesses one of the five elements and moreover, there’s nothing else inside this hall—this really exceeds everything I saw before.”

When he finished, the male cultivator beside him added: “There are only three kinds of things every being could master: divine comprehension, spiritual aura, and primordial blood. However, we don’t know what would happen if a mistake occurred.”

Seeing that those male cultivators were able to recite the origins of objects related to formations, they most likely came from a cultivation group that majored in formations.

One of the three female cultivators was the first to look frightened. She looked at the stone door which wasn’t yet closed then said softly, “Senior Martial Sister Yan, we don’t have the slightest understanding about formations; we can’t determine whether what they said is right or not. It’d be better for us to leave first.”

Upon hearing this, another female cultivator frowned then said in agreement, “What Junior Martial Sister Yun said is reasonable. Besides, we haven’t finished taking care of the matter given to us by master; it’s inappropriate for us to take risks now.”

Since the two of them said this, the person known as Senior Martial Sister Yan nodded and said, “That being the case, we better finish our task first.”

Unexpectedly, right after she said that, the stone platform below them floated towards the stone door, causing the three people to gasp in astonishment. When the stone platform reached the door, the three of them glanced at each other. That Senior Martial Sister Yan then said, “Let’s try thinking of going back there.”

The three women reached an agreement and sure enough, the stone platform actually floated back to its original position.

Everyone in the hall showed happy expressions but a second later, their happy faces were replaced by bitter smiles. Shang Ruwan, still with a bitter smile etched on her face, said, “Even if we know how to control these, we don’t know where we should go.”

Something then surprised everyone. After Shang Ruwan said “where we should go,” it echoed inside the main hall. A beam of white light flashed in front of everyone, and they saw four huge words appearing in the middle of the hall. Mo Tiange happened to be positioned across Shang Ruwan, so she saw four words backward—This Life Eternal Day.

This life eternal day?

Mo Tiange only had time to skim through these words with her divine comprehension before she felt her stone platform moving at a high speed. The other stone platforms acted the same as hers; all revolved at lightning speed with the middle of the hall as the center of their rotation. The gales they went through when they entered the valley unexpectedly blew upwards towards them from the abyss under the platform.

Mo Tiange wanted to release her body-protecting aura, but she then saw a greenish ray emerging along the edge of her stone platform. Soon afterward, she felt her foothold disappearing, causing her to instinctively summon her White Silk Handkerchief. Once she regained her composure, she found that the hall had vanished, the Five Elements Platforms had vanished, and even all those people who were standing next to her a moment ago had also vanished.

She had returned to the verdant, sunny valley again. Under her feet was the White Silk Handkerchief. The stone statue in the valley was still the same stone statue, but the cave opening was nowhere to be seen. On the contrary, there were now a lot of stone platforms that looked like steps on the mountain wall, which looked precipitous earlier. Furthermore, many Five Elements Platforms flew all over the valley, and each Five Elements Platform consisted of five annular colors. The trees in the valley also weren’t small and short like they previously were; now, they were all tall and gigantic. Each tree was also connected to other trees by a wooden bridge made of interweaving vines.

Compared to before, not only did the valley have much more spiritual aura, but it even had some more human aura. This made Mo Tiange feel that maybe in the next second, a female with a high bun and phoenix hairpin wearing a short top exposing her beautiful shoulder and a fluttering skirt would appear from above one of the stone platforms at the precipitous mountain wall.

Just as this thought flashed across her mind, a female, dressed in a way Mo Tiange just thought, suddenly appeared above the stone platform at the middle of the mountain wall. That woman stepped onto a horsetail whisk and flew towards her at a high speed. Mo Tiange waited, prepared to fight. Nevertheless, that woman said: “Fellow Daoist, did you see the two martial sisters who came with me?”

Mo Tiange examined the woman carefully. Although her clothes were completely different from before, this woman was obviously the woman surnamed Yan in the hall a moment ago. It was just that in these clothes, she looked even more graceful and charming.

Mo Tiange asked with astonishment, “Fellow Daoist Yan, why are you dressed like this?”

That woman surnamed Yan looked a bit astounded. “Miss, don’t you look the same as me?”

Just as Mo Tiange was about to refute, she suddenly felt a slight chill running across her shoulder. She looked down only to discover that she, who a moment ago was still wearing a wide robe with wide sleeves, was now wearing a small, short top and a long skirt just like the woman surnamed Yan. However, while that woman’s clothes were in the same brilliant gold color as the stone platform from before, Mo Tiange’s clothes were in a vivid green color.

Upon recalling that her clothes only changed after the woman surnamed Yan came over, Mo Tiange asked, “Fellow Daoist Yan, did your clothes change into this when you arrived here?”

The woman surnamed Yan thought for a while then answered, “When I arrived here and discovered that I was separated from my martial sisters, it seemed my clothes hadn’t changed. It seemed they changed into this when I walked onto the stone platform.”

Mo Tiange continued to ask, “In that case, when Fellow Daoist saw me, was I already wearing these clothes?”

A frown appeared on the woman’s face. She answered, “Well… I’m not too sure.”

Mo Tiange’s expression changed. Divine comprehension could actually create such a huge effect here.

She only gave it a bit of thought, yet she already understood what was happening. Obviously, after she showed up here and saw the stone statue, the divine comprehension inside her mind flashed, and the scene in front of her became identical to what she had in her mind.

An Illusory Formation; this was also an Illusory Formation! She and Wei Jiasi also experienced an Illusory Formation during the demonic beast riot. But compared to this one, that formation was simply too crude. Mo Tiange recalled that when she experienced the previous Illusory Formation, she was able to break it right after she was trapped inside. With the Illusory Formation she was currently facing, however, she knew perfectly well that everything was fake, but everything in this formation seemed completely flawless.

Upon seeing the change in Mo Tiange’s expression, the woman surnamed Yan furrowed her brows. “Fellow Daoist, is there something wrong?”

Mo Tiange took a deep breath. As she observed their surroundings, she said, “Fellow Daoist, don’t you realize that whatever we’re thinking becomes real?”

A thought flashed across her mind, and from the grass, a spiritual beast resembling Xiaohuo suddenly appeared and threw itself towards her. Mo Tiange reached out to stroke this “Xiaohuo’s” head. It felt smooth, just like the real one.

That woman surnamed Yan’s expression changed after she heard what Mo Tiange said. She thought for a while then made a hand seal. A wind blade was launched and went towards “Xiaohuo.” Unexpectedly, “Xiaohuo” suddenly leaped to dodge it then spouted Ardent Yang Real Fire.

“AH!” That woman surnamed Yan immediately dodged out of the way. She shouted at Mo Tiange, “Fellow Daoist, is this not real?”

Mo Tiange moved her hand, and the Shuttle of Flying Apsara transformed into golden rays which trapped “Xiaohuo” in the middle. She then used the Soul-Refining Art to ruthlessly press it down. “Xiaohuo,” the second rank spiritual beast whimpered, and immediately fell to the ground.

As she stared at “Xiaohuo’s” carcass, Mo Tiange said slowly, “This is fake.”

The woman surnamed Yan stared at her with astonishment. She personally tested it out; this was indeed a second rank spiritual beast. However, once Mo Tiange moved, it was killed without any resistance at all—

“How’s it fake?”

Although it wasn’t the real Xiaohuo, Mo Tiange still frowned and turned around to avoid looking at the mangled spiritual beast carcass. She then explained to the woman, “I didn’t bring a spiritual beast with me on this trip. I was just giving it a try now. Sure enough, once I thought about spiritual beasts, it took the appearance of my spiritual beast. In addition, even their cultivation levels were the same.”

The only flaw in this illusion was that after Xiaohuo advanced to the second rank, its Ardent Yang Real Fire turned into Sun Real Fire. Nevertheless, this fake “Xiaohuo” indeed had the appearance of a second rank Inferno Beast. Realizing this point, a wrinkle once again appeared on Mo Tiange’s brows. This showed that the master of this Illusory Formation basically established this formation based on their own thoughts. But this also illustrated an even more substantial problem—the master of this Illusory Formation had very profound knowledge; whatever the people who entered the formation thought, he was able to create it!

This fact was even more terrifying than the power of the Illusory Formation itself. The existence of the Illusory Formation showed that the master was extremely proficient in formations. Every formation could be broken, but with his knowledge, he was able to make this formation flawless! Besides, from another point of view, who could’ve had this kind of profound knowledge? He was actually able to create perfect imitations of almost everything people thought; there were only some things, which had gone through weird changes, that he couldn’t imitate. This was terrible!

The more deeply Mo Tiange thought, the more Mo Tiange felt that the master of this Illusory Formation far exceeded her expectations. In the end, her forehead was covered with beads of sweat.

As for that woman surnamed Yan, although she heard Mo Tiange’s explanation, she didn’t understand why Mo Tiange was reacting this way, so she was filled with doubt. However, the way Mo Tiange so easily killed a second rank spiritual beast allowed her to see that Mo Tiange’s strength was relatively high compared to ordinary middle stage Foundation Building cultivators—she couldn’t help but feel a bit awed by Mo Tiange.

“Little Sister is Yan Ruoshu of Bixuan Court; may I know Big Sister’s name? Which group does Big Sister belong to?” She originally called Mo Tiange either “Miss” or “Fellow Daoist,” but now, she called herself “Little Sister” and called Mo Tiange “Big Sister”—obviously, she was deliberately trying to make them closer.

Mo Tiange answered indifferently, “I’m Ye Xiaotian. My group isn’t famous; presumably, Fellow Daoist wouldn’t know of it.”

Upon hearing Mo Tiange’s indifferent tone as well as her unwillingness to state which group she came from, Yan Ruoshu felt quite angry. But considering how unperturbed Mo Tiange was in facing their current problem, she repressed her anger.

“Big Sister Ye, what’s going on here?”

“This should be an Illusory Formation.” Mo Tiange lowered her gaze to look at herself then closed her eyes and thought about something. By the time she opened her eyes again, as she expected, the clothes on her body already reverted back to her original clothes.

“An Illusory Formation?” Yan Ruoshu turned her head and looked around. As she thought about how none of the vegetation and animals was real, she couldn’t help but feel scared. “Then what should we do?”

“There’s nothing we can do for the time being.” Mo Tiange took out her White Silk Handkerchief and Shuttle of Flying Apsara. Now that she was well-prepared to face the enemy, she looked back towards the woman and said, “Let’s go. We should look for the others first. After we find them, we can think of our next steps.”

“Alright…” Yan Ruoshu also couldn’t do anything, so she nodded helplessly.

After walking for some time, Yan Ruoshu asked, “Big Sister Ye, did you come to the secular world to handle some matters too?”

Mo Tiange was walking and concentrating on observing the situation at the same time, so when she head Yan Ruoshu’s question, she just grunted carelessly as an answer.

Yan Ruoshu continued on: “Then this is really such a coincidence! The three of us martial sisters were also ordered by our master to come to the secular world to handle some things. We happened to discover that this place leaked spiritual aura, so we came to take a look. Big Sister Ye, what kind of matters do you have to take care of? If it’s possible, why don’t we travel together?”

That woman was indeed rather chatty. Mo Tiange frowned and said, “I was ordered by my master to leave the mountain and travel around, so I’m not sure what my next destination will be.”

“Ah! Then wouldn’t it be good for Big Sister Ye to go with us? We’re all women; there are definitely a lot of things we can talk about. Big Sister Ye…”

As that woman continued to blabber on, Mo Tiange secretly frowned. She knew what kind of cultivation group Bixuan Court was. Reportedly, that cultivation group only accepted women. It was founded at a very secret place and rarely had any dealings with the outside world; it was a comparably mysterious cultivation group. Its power was neither huge nor small; its power was more or less the same as Yunwu Sect and Zixia Sect.

Nevertheless, Yan Ruoshu previously treated Mo Tiange indifferently, but now she was extremely cordial towards her. It was obviously because she was here alone and she saw that Mo Tiange’s cultivation level was higher than hers, so she tried to get into Mo Tiange’s good books.

In fact, Yan Ruoshu didn’t need to be like this. Mo Tiange wasn’t in the habit of completely abandoning her companion. There was only the two of them now; if anything dangerous came up, she would naturally help Yan Ruoshu out.

“Fellow Daoist Yan, do you and your martial sisters have a way of contacting each other?” Mo Tiange cut Yan Ruoshu short.

Yan Ruoshu paused for a second before she nodded. “We have our Group Summoning Talisman.”

The so-called Group Summoning Talisman was a way for disciples of the same group to pass messages to each other. This talisman was different from a personal Summoning Talisman; a particular technique was needed to use it. In case it was issued, every disciple of that group who was present within a certain range would receive it. Mo Tiange herself also had several Group Summoning Talismans in her possession. Every disciple who left the mountain received some. However, they weren’t easy to manufacture, so if it wasn’t urgent, it was better not to use it.

Once Mo Tiange heard Yan Ruoshu’s answer, she said, “In that case, Fellow Daoist Yan better try sending the Group Summoning Talisman. Finding them will be too difficult if we’re looking blindly like this.”