Lady Cultivator

There were five stone sculptures, and their cultivation levels were all in the late stage of the Foundation Building realm.

Mo Tiange took one quick look at them and made a quick calculation in her mind. Since the door was closed, the room was now locked. They had no other options aside from defeating these stone sculptures.

They already knew the sculptures’ weakness. Their problem now was dealing with the sculptures’ sword aura. Each of these five stone sculptures possessed extraordinary strength. Whenever they swung their swords, their domineering sword aura interwove into a sword net. Even though they were slow, her Shuttle of Flying Apsara still couldn’t take them down. Furthermore, because these stone sculptures didn’t have their own consciousness, items with a psychotic effect like the Enchanting Lantern also weren’t of much use.

Could they break each one of them individually? That idea suddenly appeared in Mo Tiange’s mind, and she immediately looked at Daoist Fangzheng. “Fellow Daoist, I’ll distract four of them—you take care of the last one.”

Daoist Fangzheng nodded immediately. “Okay!” If this was a one-on-one fight, it wouldn’t be too hard to destroy them even if his cultivation level was slightly weaker since he already knew their weakness.

After reaching an agreement with Daoist Fangzheng, Mo Tiange flew up then floated in midair. With a sigh, she took out several talismans from inside her Qiankun Bag.

As the advanced inner disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator, how could she be completely devoid of treasures? Over these past years, although Lord Daoist Jinghe didn’t instruct her on cultivating, he was never stingy towards her in every other regard. Since she left the mountain this time, he even gave her several life-saving objects. It was just that before this moment, she always thought it’d be best for her to handle things she could handle herself—in the end, relying too much on the objects he gave wasn’t good for her development.

However, she was having a hard time even protecting her own life now, so she’d naturally use whatever methods she had. Otherwise, if she lost her life, she wouldn’t receive any compensation!

Holding a talisman in her hand, Mo Tiange closed her eyes then murmured some incantations.

Along with her incantations, her whole body started emitting a mist-like white spiritual light. This spiritual light signified the gathering of spiritual aura. The denser the spiritual aura, the brighter the spiritual light. When her incantations were over, she instantly opened her eyes and shouted, “Go!”

The talisman burst into flames then transformed into four flame columns which swept over the four stone sculptures in an instant.

The stone sculptures swung their swords as if they wanted to slice the flame columns. This time, however, their actions were useless. The four flame columns were completely unscathed; they penetrated the stone sculptures’ sword aura and in a flash, they enveloped the stone sculptures.

The four stone sculptures were now motionless, maintaining the positions they had when they raised their swords.

Mo Tiange shouted, “Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, quick! I can only keep this up for an incense stick of time!”

Once Mo Tiange used this move, the entire stone room was instantly shrouded in spiritual aura. Daoist Fangzheng was dumbstruck to witness what happened. But when he heard her shout, just like someone awoken from their dream, he hastily pounced onto the last remaining stone sculpture.

Daoist Fangzheng waved his hand, hurling a talisman forward. It was actually a wood element talisman—Thick Soil Filling The Ground.

The ground under the stone sculpture suddenly turned into silt, which gushed up and trapped it.

The stone sculpture brandished its sword blindly. However, how could it cut the silt underneath him? Daoist Fangzheng grabbed his chance; he raised his horsetail whisk, causing countless whisk hairs to float above the stone sculpture and trap it underneath.

This time, the stone sculpture swung its sword to ward off the hair and succeeded.

Daoist Fangzheng immediately withdrew the whisk hair. Soon after, he hurled several talismans.

Foundation Building realm talismans were different from Aura Refining ones. Even if one was wealthy, they would still have a hard time buying some. This single move cost Daoist Fanzheng an arm and a leg.

Under the barrage of several high-level talismans, the stone statue gradually lost its ability to lift its sword. A myriad of whisk hairs once again rushed out. Two threads directly bored into the stone sculpture’s ears. After a couple of cracking noises, the stone sculpture was motionless at last.

Mo Tiange felt a bit relieved. She hurled another talisman and murmured some incantations, once again trapping the four stone sculptures. They didn’t need to discuss much this time—Daoist Fangzheng swung his horsetail whisk to pierce the stone sculptures’ ears.

The four stone sculptures fell in succession.

Mo Tiange heaved a deep sigh. She could no longer hold on and fell on the ground. There was no strength left in her legs, so she just sat down.

These two talismans weren’t normally used by ordinary Foundation Building cultivators as they were the best grade talismans. The so-called best grade talismans were, in fact, just the same as magic weapons; they weren’t classified into grades. This kind of talisman could only be drawn by cultivators in the Core Formation realm and higher. A portion of magic weapon strength was sealed inside them, and they had extraordinary power, so they were just like real magic weapons.

It was common knowledge that Aura Refining and Foundation Building cultivators could also use magic weapons. However, magic weapons could only display 1% or even 0.1% of their real strength in their hands—they couldn’t be compared to magic weapons wielded by Core Formations and Nascent Soul cultivators. But these magic talismans weren’t the same; the strength of genuine magic weapons was sealed inside them. Although they weren’t useful against Nascent Soul cultivators, they could be used to fight Core Formation cultivators! It was just that these magic talismans could only be used once.

Even so, using this talisman cost Mo Tiange a tremendous amount of spiritual aura. For a while, Mo Tiange felt extremely exhausted.

But she had someone else with her now, so she didn’t dare to rest for too long. She swallowed several Restorative Panaceas and adjusted her breath for a moment. Soon after, she was on her feet again.

“Fellow Daoist Fangzheng, do you find anything?”

After taking a short rest, Daoist Fangzheng stood up then examined their surroundings. Right now, he was carefully examining the thing behind the stone sculptures.

Upon hearing her question, Daoist Fangzheng didn’t stop looking around and merely turned his body to the side. “Fellow Daoist Ye, come quickly and take a look at this!”

From his tone, it sounded like he found something, so Mo Tiange made her way towards him.

Daoist Fangzheng pointed at the stone wall. “Fellow Daoist Ye, take a careful look.”

Right after Mo Tiange stepped forward, she was completely dumbfounded. On the stone wall were thin, densely-packed drawings. These drawings were meticulously engraved, but the contents were surprisingly messy. It was as if someone had spontaneously drawn whatever came up in their mind. Some drawings were of people, some were plants and strange animals, and some were writings about techniques or laws. As Mo Tiange examined the drawings bit by bit, surprise and delight gushed up inside.

The master of this place was truly a genius—the secret techniques he wrote down were actually techniques she never heard before!

For example, there was a kind of Instant Transportation Technique known as Flash of Storm which would allow the user to transport several dozen feet in a flash. If it was practiced in full, transporting several thousand feet wouldn’t be a problem. Most of the so-called Instant Transportation Techniques used in the present day didn’t live up to their reputations. They just made the user extremely fast, so they appeared like they were transported in an instant. Genuine Instant Transportation Techniques weren’t commonplace. Normally, they were passed on only within big cultivation groups. Xuanqing School also had one of these, but only cultivators in the Core Formation realm and above were able to practice it.

In addition, there were also some incomplete, slovenly scrawled techniques and laws. Mo Tiange was quite disappointed about this. She was hoping she could find some records about mechanisms among these drawings, but there were none unfortunately.

When Mo Tiange reached the last of the drawings, she suddenly found another paragraph in the corner.

“My name is Xu Ziwei, a disciple under Venerable Swordsman Xuansu of Gujian Sect. At a hundred years old, I advanced to the Core Formation realm. At three hundred years old, I advanced to the Nascent Soul realm. At four hundred years old, I rebelled against Gujian Sect, hid in the Stormy Valley in the Nine Spirits Mountain in Jin Country in the secular world. From then onward, I became Wanderer Ziwei.”

“I’ve lived in seclusion here for a thousand years and not once have I entered Kunwu again. Over and over, I think about the first half of my lifetime. The agony… The regret… If I can’t see Zilan before I pass away, my regret would also…” 

The last part was messily engraved. After carefully trying to identify the words, Mo Tiange realized that the word “Zilan” was written repeatedly.

“Zilan”—this word was obviously a name. It sounded like a woman’s name. Wanderer Ziwei never mentioned this name in any other parts of these drawings, but he repeatedly mentioned it in this paragraph. Based on the man’s tone in this paragraph, he seemed to miss this person very much, but he didn’t dare to mention it. It was only when he was about to pass away that he could no longer hold back and poured out his feelings.

As Mo Tiange examined this paragraph, she couldn’t help but feel puzzled.

Since Wanderer Ziwei was a member of Gujian Sect and even formed his Nascent Soul at such a young age, why did he want to rebel against the sect? In big cultivation groups like Gujian Sect, rebelling against the group was a very serious matter. Even if there were some conflicts between him and the sect, he was already a Nascent Soul cultivator—he could’ve used the “Elder” title and stayed far away from the monastery. There was no need for him to rebel against the sect.

Besides, after he betrayed his sect, he had lived in seclusion in the secular world. It was as if he didn’t have any purpose at all. That being the case, it seemed like there wasn’t any conflict of interest between him and his sect, but if that wasn’t the case, why would he have rebelled against his sect?

He also said he often thought of the agony and regret from the first half of his lifetime; for a cultivator from a great cultivation group who successfully formed his Nascent Soul at such a young age, what part of that could’ve possibly been agonizing? What part of that could’ve possibly made him feel regretful until his death? If these points were connected… Because of regret he rebelled against his master and lived in seclusion… How grave could the matter possibly have been?

There was also “Zilan” at the end. For a Nascent Soul cultivator, was there any reason why he couldn’t see the person he wanted to see? That person must’ve either disappeared or he himself didn’t dare to go and see her. It wouldn’t matter much if that person disappeared, but if she didn’t, what kind of matter could be so grave that he didn’t dare to see her? Did it perhaps have something to do with the matter he felt regretful about?

Mo Tiange felt this was really confusing and inexplicable.

Daoist Fangzheng also came over to read the paragraph. He said with astonishment, “Gujian Sect? The master of this place was actually a senior from Gujian Sect! Then how could he be so proficient in Illusory Formations and the Art of Engineering? That’s not typical of a sword cultivator!”

Mo Tiange was stunned. That was true; that should’ve been the most questionable point. Gujian Sect was a sect of sword cultivators, so according to reason, Wanderer Ziwei ought to be a sword cultivator too. Nevertheless, from his manner of doing things, they hadn’t seen any resemblances to a sword cultivator since the beginning. When they first descended to the valley, the gales and the miasma were caused by a formation. Later, they entered an Illusory Formation. Who else could’ve laid it aside from a very proficient person? There were also those flying Five Elements Platforms; those almost made them assume that the master of this place was a senior from Tianliang School. Lastly, there was this stone room. Peak stage Foundation Building puppets—the Art of Engineering!

The most conventional type of cultivator, as well as the most numerous type, was Dharma cultivators. This type of cultivator progressed on the path of cultivation step by step and mainly relied on spells, magic weapons, and talismans. The other types like sword cultivators, talisman cultivators, medical cultivators, and so on were all less common. Among them, because sword cultivators were normally stronger in fights of magical powers, there were relatively more of them. Nonetheless, compared to the number of Dharma cultivators, the number of sword cultivators was just 1%.

The reason why Dharma cultivators were the most numerous was because they practiced in the conventional way and could dabble in any other methods, so their odds of making realm-breakthroughs were high. Sword cultivators were strong in fights of magical powers but in the end, they cultivated their sword using their body their whole lives, so their odds in making realm-breakthroughs were rather low. Because of that, sword cultivators normally only focused on cultivating their sword and rarely learned other things. Nevertheless, everything in this place had toppled this practice!

A sword cultivator who was proficient in formations and the Art of Engineering and was extremely knowledgeable… was simply too terrifying!

Mo Tiange was 100% certain that the master of this place was definitely a rarely seen genius.

“Fellow Daoist Ye, we better forget about everything else for now. Let’s take the Sunstones first.” After he finished examining the drawings, Daoist Fangzheng was actually concerned about those things. But that wasn’t weird—those things were the most valuable objects here after all.

Mo Tiange didn’t object. “Alright. I made a promise to Fellow Daoist before, so Fellow Daoist can choose first now; Fellow Daoist can also take more.”

Daoist Fangzheng was beside himself with joy and immediately flew up. However, just as he was about to take the topmost Sunstone, they suddenly heard a rumbling noise. A thread of spiritual aura from an unknown origin suddenly gushed out and beat Daoist Fangzheng to the ground.