Volume 1, Chapter 194 – Wuxu

“Boom—”

At the instant water surged up in the well, a blinding flash of lightning split the sky, followed by thunder that sounded as if it would tear heaven and earth apart.

Under the blazing sun, the clear sky was shrouded in dense dark clouds within a few breaths.

Shi Lan tilted her head back to look at the sky, her eyes full of doubt. It was only a single dragon vein leaking dragon qi—how could it cause such a massive anomaly?

With Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight open, Shi Lan carefully observed the dragon vein, and suddenly her expression shifted.

“This is… golden light of fortune?!”

Within the hidden qi meridian underground, a faint golden thread, not very conspicuous, was woven into the flow of qi.

But this golden thread had fractured as the dragon qi leaked and was beginning to gradually disperse.

Shi Lan’s expression grew slightly excited, and she sped up her search for the dragon lair.

Golden light of fortune was a legendary treasure, something that could change the course of an ordinary person’s entire life. Fortune existed in the unseen, untouchable yet undeniably real.

Since she’d mastered Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight, Shi Lan naturally had no doubts about such things as luck and fate.

Even though this golden light of fortune was only a single thread—pitifully little—it was still incredibly rare and precious.

A dragon vein was called a dragon vein precisely because of that hidden qi meridian. Now that the dragon qi was leaking, the meridian would not be able to last much longer before it dissipated.

Without the qi meridian, a dragon vein was just an oddly shaped ordinary mountain range. The dragon lair would dry up along with it, and the golden light of fortune would naturally cease to exist.

No matter who had caused the dragon qi to leak, the most urgent task now was to find the soon-to-be-dried dragon lair and seize some of that golden light of fortune before it was completely gone.

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Following the dragon vein back to its source, Shi Lan soon found the dragon lair inside a hidden cave.

Climbing mountains and crossing ridges was extremely exhausting. Old Hongtou, advanced in years, couldn’t keep up and had been left at the foot of the mountain by Shi Lan; only A Qi had followed her here.

The cave was deep, the passage stretching for several dozen zhang, the light rather dim.

As they walked forward, Shi Lan and A Qi quickly arrived at a spring no more than three feet across. The water level in the spring was visibly, slowly dropping.

In the soil beside the spring swayed a small tree less than a foot tall, with a sky-blue fruit the size of a longan hanging from its branch.

Shi Lan didn’t recognize the species, but judging from the concentration of spiritual qi, this plant already surpassed most second-grade spiritual materials. While there was still some distance to true third-grade spiritual material, the gap was no longer large.

Though the spiritual herb was right before her eyes, Shi Lan paid it no mind. Instead, she took out nine spirit crystals and arranged them in a nine-palace pattern. Then she drew a short sword and began carving array patterns between the nine crystals.

This short sword was one of the two magic artifacts stored in the system’s temporary storage. The other was a nine-story little pagoda.

Without true qi to drive them, these two items couldn’t display much of their power for Shi Lan at the moment.

The formation she was setting up was similar to a spirit-gathering formation, yet also different.

This formation was called the Spirit-Seizing Formation.

“Stay here and don’t run around.”

After giving A Qi this instruction, Shi Lan walked to the center of the formation and sat down, slowly closing her eyes.

Compared to the effects of a spirit-gathering formation, the Spirit-Seizing Formation was far more overbearing.

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The moment Shi Lan activated the formation, the dropping water level in the spring slowed, then stopped, then began to flow back up, spilling over the mouth of the spring. Wisps of white mist peeled off from the spring water, streaming toward the formation Shi Lan had laid out.

A layer of faint golden light, almost invisible to the naked eye, was also drawn over, merging into the void around Shi Lan and being absorbed and devoured by some unknown thing.

No matter who had opened up the dragon vein, Shi Lan was going to take a share. Letting a treasure like the golden light of fortune disperse on its own would be far too wasteful.

These days, Shi Lan hadn’t taught A Qi any martial arts. She’d only been teaching him to read, because with him illiterate, it was hard to explain many concepts about martial cultivation.

So this opportunity could only be enjoyed by Shi Lan alone.

…

The lightning flickering through the sky was filled with an ominous air. Dark clouds had been gathered for quite some time, yet not a single drop of rain fell.

This strange sight made the people who had withdrawn five or six li away start whispering among themselves.

“Heaven is angry!”

“I knew something was off. That water bubbling up in the well looked wrong from the start. We must’ve dug up something that shouldn’t be touched.”

“This well is ill-omened. We should seal it up as soon as possible, or Heaven will punish us!”

…

Shen Mingyi walked to Zhao Hanyi’s side, worry written all over his face. “Your Highness, are you sure we didn’t dig in the wrong place?”

Wiping the well water from the corner of his mouth, Zhao Hanyi shook his head and said, “Absolutely impossible. This is precisely the location Master gave. And this well water matches the characteristics Master described.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the bubbling well water gradually calmed and began seeping back into the ground.

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“Your Highness, was this also within Perfected Wuxu’s expectations?” Shen Mingyi was completely at a loss.

“No. Master never mentioned this…”

Zhao Hanyi’s expression changed slightly. His master had never brought up a situation like this.

“This is a grave matter. I’ll write a letter at once and ask Master to come here as soon as possible to take charge.”

A dragon vein was no trifling affair. It concerned the very foundation of the Qianyuan Dynasty’s national fortune and allowed no carelessness.

“No need.”

A slightly cool voice sounded, and a gray shadow swept past, drifting into the well like a feather.

Hearing the voice, Shen Mingyi turned around and saw a handsome man in a gray Daoist robe standing behind him. He looked only in his early twenties, even younger than Zhao Hanyi.

As Shen Mingyi stared in shock, Zhao Hanyi’s face filled with respect as he bent slightly at the waist and said, “Master.”

At this address, Shen Mingyi’s heart gave a violent tremor.

Perfected Wuxu—Sect Master of the Xuanshi Dao, strongest of the three Martial Grandmasters in the world, the emperor’s honored guest of honor.

It was said that Perfected Wuxu’s strength was only a single step away from that legendary Void-Shattering realm.

Any one of these identities alone would be enough to shake the world. Gathered in one person, they were enough to make ninety-nine percent of people on earth blanch in awe.

“Greetings, Perfected One.”

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Looking at Perfected Wuxu’s youthful face, Shen Mingyi bowed deeply, full of reverence.

Perfected Wuxu had made a name for himself nearly a hundred years ago, yet his face was so young. It was hard not to associate such an unbelievable thing with the immortals and gods of legend.

Without so much as a glance at Shen Mingyi, Wuxu looked calmly at Zhao Hanyi and said, “This poor Daoist calculated that someone was attempting to steal the dragon vein’s fortune of our dynasty, so I came in haste.”

“Who would dare such a thing?” Zhao Hanyi flared up in alarm and anger.

“Do not panic, Your Highness. This person can’t stir up any real storm. Come with this poor Daoist.”

With that, Wuxu’s body rose like a wild goose, soaring up. In a single breath he was out of the well and gliding into the distance. After a few light bounds, his figure vanished from sight.

“Th-this…”

Hoisted out of the well in a couple of tugs by Zhao Hanyi, Shen Mingyi stared, dumbfounded, at the spot where Wuxu had disappeared.

“How to deal with this well—we’ll talk when I return.”

Zhao Hanyi said this, then floated after Wuxu, following from afar.

“Your Highness…”

Before Shen Mingyi could finish, Zhao Hanyi’s figure had also vanished, swallowed by the mountains.

…