Wei Yunqing sent out her divine sense and swept the area. It was a cramped cave, pitch-black on all sides, with only the sound of dripping water. For the moment, it was safe.
Only then did she relax a little. As soon as she did, the pain in her dantian grew sharper. When she looked inward with her divine sense, her face went pale. A gash as long as her index finger split her dantian. It could not store spiritual power at all, and even her natal sword could not enter for nurturing.
Wei Yunqing groped for the Tianqing Waterwood Sword and held it, muttering, "Was it you who brought me here?"
The natal sword quivered and sent a thread of intent. The place they had been teleported to was dangerous. When its master lost consciousness, it had no spiritual power to draw on and could not attack, so it had only been able to hide.
Wei Yunqing stroked the blade lightly. "Good thing I have you."
She drew out a fifth-grade Shengji Pill from the crimson bracelet and swallowed it, mending the wounds she had taken fighting the Stone Lin. After a deep breath, she considered her next move.
Although the Shengji Pill soothed her internal and external injuries, the wound in her dantian showed no sign of healing. Wei Yunqing's heart sank to the bottom of the sea. Her hatred for that late fifth-rank Shi Lin deepened.
She did not stop to think that she had attacked first and had even set her sights on its cubs. How could the beast not fight her like a mad thing?
If she had not underestimated her opponent, believing that, as a Divine Transformation cultivator with a spirit treasure whose sword spirit had awakened, she could sweep the field without first confirming the Shi Lin's true strength, how would she have suffered such a heavy wound?
Self-reflection was not in Wei Yunqing's nature. She always found fault in others. She never noticed that she was being used by Long Ya's blade spirit.
Yes. The sword spirit of the Waterwood Sword was Long Ya's blade spirit. It had hidden inside the Yin Water Stone, smoothly merging into Wei Yunqing's natal sword. The sword's grade did rise after the Yin Water Stone was fused, and a sword spirit did awaken. Long Ya simply devoured that newborn sword spirit and took its place, wearing the disguise securely.
Long Ya fed Wei Yunqing a few sweets at the right time, letting her taste the power of a spirit treasure. Then, when she provoked the late fifth-rank Shi Lin, it fought with everything it had, giving her the illusion she could win. At the critical moment, it tripped her, leaving her severely injured.
When Wei Yunqing was forced to crush a Ten-thousand-li Transmission Talisman, Long Ya knew the chance had come. After they appeared above the sea, it found its bearings, carried the unconscious Wei Yunqing straight into the abyss, and drew near the place where its former master's body was sealed.
Yunxi and the others had not considered that the Evil God's body could be sealed under the sea. They searched across the continent. Even when they looked toward the waters, they searched islands and ignored the depths.
So Wei Yunqing did not know that people outside were frantic to find her. She herself already had one foot inside the seal of the Evil God's body.
Knowing she could not linger long, Wei Yunqing rested until her state steadied, then gripped her sword and began to look for a way out. Soon she realized she had blundered into the periphery of a sealed ground. She even detected that the sealing force drew on a top-grade spirit vein. Wei Yunqing was wild with joy.
Then she frowned. She wanted that top-grade spirit vein. But with her dantian torn, she could not store spiritual power. Harvesting a spirit vein would be exhausting. And she still did not know what was sealed here. If she released something terrifying and was shredded on the spot, that would be the end.
Just as she hesitated, the sword in her hand trembled and pointed its tip in a direction, clearly urging its master to investigate.
Wei Yunqing did not hesitate. Guided by the natal sword, she skirted the top-grade spirit vein, winding through the cramped tunnels until she reached a hollow roughly thirty square meters wide. There she saw a withered tree branch shrouded by layered arrays.
At first she did not recognize the branch. She was no fool, though. Anything wrapped by so many arrays was valuable. She did not rush in. She circled the formations and examined them. A moment later, elation surged through her. The black, dead-looking branch was in fact an Undying Tree.
"Ha ha ha. Heaven does not abandon me. An Undying Tree. My dantian can be mended."
After the first rush of joy, Wei Yunqing hugged her natal sword and kissed it. All credit to the sword spirit. She never suspected this was deliberate.
She was a dual Water and Wood spiritual roots cultivator. The refining materials fused into her natal sword were of Water and Wood. It seemed only natural that the sword spirit would be drawn to Water and Wood treasures.
Wei Yunqing began studying the protective array. It was a compound formation. If she tried to break it by force, the Undying Tree at the core would self-destruct, and the formation would lock onto her as the destroyer and activate its killing array to grind her to pulp.
Even setting aside whether she had the ability to brute-force it, once drawn into the formation she would shed a layer of skin even if she lived. With her dantian damaged, she had no confidence of escaping intact.
She could only sit outside the array and begin to unweave it layer by layer. It would take time, but it would achieve her goal.
From her probing, they were on the deep seafloor. This particular site must have sealed some great treasure and formed its own pocket space, keeping the seawater out. Sea beasts would not draw near.
Ordinary cultivators would not come so deep to explore. She decided that after crushing the Transmission Talisman, she had been randomly shunted here by luck. No one would stab her in the back, and no one would steal her prize. She could work in peace.
So Wei Yunqing set a barrier formation at the cave mouth and began her study. The natal sword only trembled once and fell quiet. While Wei Yunqing focused on unlocking layer after layer, the Undying Tree inside the formation flickered once and went still again.
This time, Wei Yunqing showed extreme patience. She spent a full thirty years unraveling the formation step by step. Staring at the final protective layer, a keen light burst in her eyes.
During the thirty years of Wei Yunqing's disappearance, Yunxi took over the Haoran Sect's intelligence network in place of her master Yu Lin, sifting vast flows of information every day, yet found not the slightest trace of Wei Yunqing. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.
When Yu Lin finished consolidating his realm and left seclusion, there was still no news. Yunxi decided that fool must be holed up somewhere she could not reach, committing some grand stupidity. She would search personally and meet her trump-card undercover agent, Xiao He, along the way.
Yunxi swiftly handed off duties to her master, exchanged a few words with Ancestor Hao Yi, and vanished.