Chapter 96: Spirit-Cleansing Pill, Spirit-Stripping Herb

Time once again drifted back to that fixed moment. Everyone held their breath, staring without blinking at the pillar of light that still stood within the luminous curtain. Yet, with the sealing array’s barrier as a point of comparison, the pillar of light now seemed far dimmer.

The places where the array plates had once been set showed no trace of the high-grade spirit-jade plates anymore, as though the barrier had materialized out of thin air.

Ji Yao thought to herself that she had underestimated things. These array plates were not third tier at all, but fourth-tier composite arrays, and an additional concealment formation had been carved into them as well. It must have been meant to keep the plates from being deliberately destroyed.

Once more, the howls of demon beasts rang out from within the pillar of light. The descending beasts appeared one by one, and when the seventh beast emerged, it was a pitch-black silver-winged cat with a pair of silver wings spread across its back.

Right along the outer edge of the sealing barrier, a golden sword light rose to the heavens. Sword energy roiled in all directions, and under the overwhelming sharpness of that sword intent, one could clearly see a crack drifting across the barrier.

A figure leapt into existence from the place where the sword light had risen, as if born directly out of it.

The crack drifted behind that figure and was perfectly blocked by him. Then the silver-winged cat within the barrier moved. A flash of silver light burst forth, and the cat vanished from where it stood. At that very instant, a fierce tiger’s roar erupted. The figure before the barrier shifted sideways.

Only then did the crowd finally see clearly that, at the place where the figure had blocked the crack, half of the silver-winged cat’s body had already squeezed out. Its sharp claws had been extended, clearly aiming for the space ahead, but the sudden tiger roar made its cat pupils contract, and it shrank back in fear, trying to retreat.

But the person before the barrier did not give it the chance. After sidestepping the claws, he struck with his longsword, and a peerless blade of light swept across the throat the cat had been about to withdraw.

Blood splashed through the air. The silver-winged cat’s head fell outside the barrier, while its body slid down along the barrier and dropped back into the sealing array.

Then a white and variegated blur shot out at great speed from the place where the man had first appeared. The other reached out and gathered it in, and the instant his arm touched that white shadow, it vanished abruptly.

Ji Yao did not know whether anyone else had seen or sensed it, but at the very least, her divine sense had clearly captured the form of that white blur. It was a white tiger with patterned stripes.

Though it was only a second-tier cub, Ji Yao did not believe for a moment that an ordinary second-tier tiger cub could subdue a third-tier peak silver-winged demon cat with nothing more than a single roar. Indeed, the cat had been suppressed by some invisible force.

Watching the figure approach them at an unhurried pace, Ji Yao knew that in the days to come, the Cloudsoaring Sect would likely be watched by the entire cultivation world.

As for Dongfang Shun, who had once again obtained a tremendous fortune, his every future appearance was probably going to be dazzlingly imposing.

Each time Ji Yao witnessed his opportunities, she had the uncanny feeling that she was trapped inside the story of a chosen male lead. And now that sensation had only grown stronger.

The others’ attention had still been fixed on Dongfang Shun as he walked toward the Cloudsoaring Sect when someone suddenly cried out, “Look at the pillar of light!”

Their gazes shifted. The central pillar of light had visibly shrunk by a full circle, and even the breach above it had become somewhat smaller.

Ji Yao glanced once, then turned her eyes back to Dongfang Shun. As expected, she received his voice transmission.

The inheritance site has been destroyed. Even if there is still an altar outside, it can no longer borrow the power of this place.

Ji Yao half-lowered her eyelids to show that she understood.

At this point, no more demon beasts were descending from the pillar of light. Including the dead silver-winged cat, the total number of beasts that had come down this time was only seven.

And with the cat dead, even those who had been watching the crack on the barrier could no longer find it. No matter how violently the beasts inside struck at the barrier, it remained utterly unmoved.

Instead, the flowing starlight issued an invisible wave. The harder the beasts crashed against it, the greater the force rebounding upon them. In the end, the remaining six beasts inside were all seen coughing blood from their mouths and noses, their auras weakening by the minute.

Such a sight was a welcome one to all, and this mission could be considered a complete success.

With only a handful of days left before the secret realm closed, the people of the seven sects made their arrangements and took their leave one after another. They would use the remaining time to gather as much Enlightening Immortal Grass as possible, which was the real task at hand.

Ji Yao also wanted to leave and find a place where no one was around to test her theory. So before Yun Fei could try to keep her, she cupped her hands and took her leave first, choosing a direction and departing alone.

The Enlightening Immortal Secret Realm seemed to have returned to how it had been before, yet it also seemed somehow different.

“I say, Dongfang Shun, just how long are you going to keep following me?” Ji Yao asked helplessly. She had never thought he could be this persistent before.

“I promised to help you find something,” Dongfang Shun said. His tone did not sound like a joke.

Ji Yao was a little stunned. Find what, exactly, was she supposed to be looking for?

Dongfang Shun pressed his lips together. “The cooperation agreement we made before entering.”

Ah? An agreement?

“Forget it. Don’t mention it. There’s no need to look for it anymore.” Ji Yao waved a hand. She did not want to dwell on the matter. “I was too late. By the time I got there, whatever it was had already disappeared.”

Because Ji Yao did not explain things clearly, the result was that someone misunderstood her.

Dongfang Shun already felt somewhat indebted to her. Hearing her words, he frowned so hard it looked as though he could crush a fly.

But he did not hesitate for long. After only a brief pause, he strode over to Ji Yao and handed her a pill bottle. “Take this.”

Ji Yao had not thought much of it. She knew that when Dongfang Shun made a move, the item was usually far from ordinary. Moreover, he himself was a master alchemist. So as she reached out to accept it, she casually asked, “What is it?”

“Purifying Spirit Pill.”

Just those three words made Ji Yao’s heart tremble. She immediately felt that the pill bottle in her hand had become alarmingly hot.

Something like that was clearly the sort of treasure that could change a person’s fate. If she accepted such a pill from Dongfang Shun now, who knew whether Heaven would record her name in some little black ledger.

Ji Yao did not think her own fortune was the sort to be favored by the heavens. If this chance had come to her by her own hand, that would have been one thing. But if it was being forced out of Dongfang Shun, that would be troubling.

“I don’t want it.” Ji Yao handed the pill bottle back to Dongfang Shun at once, eager to avoid it.

Dongfang Shun rubbed the bottle in his hand and said softly, “I once took a Spirit-Excision Herb. Now I only have dual spiritual roots of metal and wood. That is good enough.”

He would have been better off not saying that. Once he added that explanation, Ji Yao felt even colder all over.

Leaving the Spirit-Excision Herb aside for the moment, the Purifying Spirit Pill itself was already a pill whose exact formula and refining method had long since been lost.

The main ingredient used to refine it, the Spirit Vermilion Fruit, grew only in the wild. It bloomed once every ten thousand years and bore fruit once every ten thousand years. The fruit would remain on the branches and leaves for twelve hours, and once those twelve hours passed, it would dissolve into dew and evaporate away with the moonlight.

The Purifying Spirit Pill, as its name suggested, could permanently strip away the weakest attribute from the spiritual roots of whoever took it, and it did so with gentle medicinal properties and no side effects.

As for the Spirit-Excision Herb, it was a naturally occurring spiritual herb capable of removing an attribute from a person’s spiritual roots. It could not be refined; it could only be swallowed directly. As for its effect, it randomly excised one attribute, good or bad alike, entirely by luck.

And unlike the Purifying Spirit Pill, which was refined together with other spiritual plants to soften its force, the Spirit-Excision Herb was, true to its name, an agony like having one’s bones carved out. It forcibly cut one spiritual-root attribute from the body.

Dongfang Shun’s temperament was not something Ji Yao could claim to understand completely, but after several interactions, she had at least formed some impression of him: suspicious, and vengeful.

If she accepted his Purifying Spirit Pill now, then in the future, if Dongfang Shun ever remembered the unease and pain of taking that Spirit-Excision Herb, he might well resent her for it. Even if he did not hate her, it would likely remain a thorn in his heart.

So Ji Yao was truly frightened this time.