Volume 1, Chapter 33 – Revealed

Shi Feng clenched the saber in his hand. If this woman of unknown origin really was a peerless demon king who had already taken human form, then she had definitely already noticed him hiding in the dark. Today, both he and Shi Lan would die here with no chance of survival.

If it was the second possibility…

Judging from the woman’s movements, she clearly felt no fear or discomfort from the bonfire at all. For a ghostly soul to reach this level, it would need at least several hundred years of cultivation. She would be hard to deal with, but if he just had to protect Shi Lan and get her out safely, it shouldn’t be a problem.

While Shi Feng’s thoughts were spinning, that eerie woman patted the empty ground beside her, a smile curling on her lips. “Young master, come sit here.”

Shi Lan forced herself to calm down. After thinking for a while, her eyes lit up. She stopped retreating, closed her eyes, steadied her mind, and activated Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight.

Heaven’s Eye Qi-Sight could see the rise and fall, strength and weakness, of a person’s fortune.

Human or ghost, one glance would tell.

The moment Heaven’s Eye opened, the bizarre woman by the fire vanished without a trace, leaving behind only a faint, translucent shadow. The shadow’s face was blurred, its whole form shrouded in black mist.

Behind the shadow there was no visible flow of fortune at all, only a single black line stretching off into the darkness deeper within the valley.

It was obvious the woman in front of her was not a living person.

Seeing Shi Lan standing in place without moving, a cold light flashed in the strange woman’s eyes. She stood up and walked toward Shi Lan.

Seeing the woman move, Shi Feng’s muscles tensed, ready to explode into action like a man-eating tiger about to pounce. The saber in his hand gave off a faint, fiery red glow.

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The eerie woman walked up to Shi Lan and raised a hand to caress Shi Lan’s cheek.

Her fingertips were icy cold, making Shi Lan shiver. At that moment, the All-Heavens Samsara System that Shi Lan had almost forgotten about suddenly reacted.

“Soul-form detected. Target eligible for capture.”

As this voice rang out, the eerie woman in front of Shi Lan rippled like water ruffled by the wind, wave after wave distorting her figure.

In the blink of an eye, she shrank into a clump of energy invisible to the naked eye and shot into Shi Lan’s body through her mouth.

Shi Lan lightly covered her throat. In that instant, it felt as if she had swallowed a large chunk of ice. A chill rose from deep inside, freezing her until even her head started to ache faintly.

Before Shi Lan could dwell on the feeling, a blade aura several zhang long swept past her body, a wave of scorching heat slamming into her face and curling the hair at her forehead under the burn.

Shi Feng’s body froze mid-leap, saber in hand, his expression full of barely concealed shock.

He had already prepared himself for a desperate fight to the death, but before he could even swing a second time, that eerie woman was gone, as if a gust of wind had blown her away without a trace.

“Shi Feng?”

Looking at Shi Feng suspended in midair, Shi Lan understood everything.

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Shi Feng drifted back to the ground and stepped forward a bit nervously. “Young master, are you alright?”

Shi Lan shook her head and thanked him. All along the way, if Shi Feng hadn’t been secretly helping her, clearing out those fearsome-looking demon beasts, she probably never would have made it this far.

“Why didn’t you just show yourself? Why follow me from the shadows?” Shi Lan asked in puzzlement.

“The clan head knew you’d run away and ordered me to protect you in secret.”

Hearing this, Shi Lan was a little surprised. “He didn’t tell you to take me back?”

Shi Feng shook his head. He also found it strange. In his letter, Shi Tianlu had only said that Shi Lan was not to head west and that Shi Feng was to protect her well. Aside from that, there was nothing else—he hadn’t mentioned Tenglong City at all.

Shi Lan didn’t press further. She sat back down by the fire, added another piece of meat to the rack, then summoned the panel of the All-Heavens Samsara System.

The contents on the panel were no different from before. The lottery, shop, and the other function tabs were still dim and unresponsive.

“System, what about that soul-form just now?”

“It has been recycled by the system.”

“What use is that kind of soul-form?”

“The energy of a soul-form can be used to restore part of the system’s functions.”

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Shi Lan’s chest warmed slightly. If the functions of the All-Heavens Samsara System were restored, it would definitely be a huge boon to her.

Thinking of this, Shi Lan turned her gaze toward the pitch-black valley. That soul-form from just now was connected by a black line to some place within the valley. There was definitely something wrong in there.

After finishing the roasted meat, Shi Lan began cultivating the Jade Tempering Art. She was gradually getting used to replacing sleep with cultivation.

The next morning, Shi Lan opened her eyes, packed her things, roughly memorized the layout of the valley, then mounted her horse and rode out.

There was definitely something off about this valley, but Shi Lan didn’t want to explore it right now. If she ran into that kind of soul-form again, who knew if the All-Heavens Samsara System would act a second time? She wouldn’t stake her life on a system that worked one moment and failed the next.

A solitary journey turned into one for two.

After Shi Lan casually mentioned that demonic beast flesh and blood helped her increase her strength, the grade of the meat she was eating rose another notch. Shi Feng started deliberately tracking down and hunting Innate Realm demon beasts.

With the nourishment of that demonic beast flesh and blood, plus the Jade Tempering Art and her greatly improved constitution, Shi Lan’s strength began to soar.

And after she had eaten that demonic beast flesh, many demon beasts’ names appeared on the simulation roster in the system’s virtual space.

……

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. During this half month, Shi Lan devoured demonic beast flesh by day, using the Jade Tempering Art to refine the power within that flesh and blood into her own strength.

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At night she entered the virtual space, simulating battles against demon beasts. Her understanding of some types of demon beasts advanced by leaps and bounds.

At this moment, Shi Lan was sitting cross-legged on a barren plain. The Jade Tempering Art was running at full speed, driving the airflow formed from demonic beast blood-qi to crash against the barrier of the sixth stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

It had been just over a month since her last breakthrough, and Shi Lan had already reached the peak of the fifth stage of the Body Tempering Realm, touching the barrier of the sixth stage. Even Shi Feng was left dumbfounded by this speed.

Shi Lan emptied her mind of distractions and circulated the Jade Tempering Art with all her might. Under the impact of the surging qi, it only took a few passes before the barrier of the sixth stage of the Body Tempering Realm began to tremble.

Her constitution had only improved a little, but compared to before, the difficulty of breaking through had dropped by severalfold.

The barrier of the sixth stage did not hold out for long before it was shattered to pieces by the torrent of qi.

Shi Lan opened her eyes and leapt to her feet, her bones cracking in a rapid series of pops as her body toughened yet another notch.

Unable to hold back the surge of new strength, Shi Lan unleashed the Vajra Divine Fist. With every punch and movement, the air around her howled.

After running through the Vajra Divine Fist twice in a row, Shi Lan finally drew her fists back slowly, still not satisfied and showing no sign of fatigue.

As her cultivation deepened, the true power of the Jade Tempering Art was starting to show.