Chapter 3

It took a long time for my senses to return. By then, an elder from the Hall of Justice had arrived, and the disciples were loudly accusing me of persecuting and humiliating Cui Fuling.

“Elder, Bai Zhi deliberately forced Junior Sister Fuling to kneel,” her junior brother explained. “I could not stand it, so I taught her a lesson. Who knew she was so frail she couldn’t withstand one palm strike?”

He was the one who had sent me flying, though he was ordinarily praised for respecting his fellow disciples.

Under everyone’s disgusted gaze, I wiped the blood from my lips, struggled upright, and staggered toward Cui Fuling.

“Tell them,” I said with a smile. “Did I force you to kneel?”

Her eldest senior brother moved in front of her. Cui Fuling’s eyes darted toward the junior brother who now faced punishment. If she admitted she had offered to kneel, he would be guilty of attacking a fellow disciple without cause. After a moment’s struggle, she bit her lip, said nothing, and nodded tearfully.

“Outer disciple Bai Zhi is corrupt of heart and has harmed a fellow disciple. One month in isolation!” the elder declared before sweeping away.

Blood covered my face as they dragged me off like a dog.

The last time I had been locked up, only my wrist was injured. That single palm strike had now ruptured my organs and broken bones throughout my body. Had a childhood spent tasting medicinal herbs not filled me with their lingering power, I would already have been dead.

In the black chamber, blood kept pouring from my mouth. Thinking of my family, I pulled the jade pendant from beneath my collar. I was not related to the Bai family by blood. My adoptive father had told me the pendant was already around my neck when they found me, and no one had ever been able to remove it. He believed it must be a treasure that could save my life.

Yet I was about to die, and it did nothing.

I hugged my knees and lost consciousness. Blood from my lips dripped onto the pendant and seeped into it.

“Little girl, wake up.”

I did not know how long I had been unconscious when a voice reached me. Forcing my eyes open, I recoiled from a dark figure that looked less like a man than a remnant soul.

“Do not fear. My soul resides in your pendant. Your blood has now bound it to you, so its legacy is yours.” The voice belonged to a genial middle-aged man.

“Whose legacy?” I asked, clutching the bloodstained jade.

“I forgot.” The shadow scratched its head sheepishly. “But I can set you on the immortal path first. You are lucky to have met me.”

“Senior, I have no spiritual root. I cannot draw in spiritual energy.” Ever since deciding on revenge, I had searched the sect day and night for a way to cultivate. Only strength would let me kill my enemies, but even the testing stone had declared me talentless.

“No. A seal is blocking your spiritual meridians—and, as luck would have it, I know how to remove it.”

A seal? Who had placed it on me?

Black spiritual power plunged into my body before I could react. My dantian felt as though it were being ripped apart. I bit my lip and made no sound. I had nothing left to lose. Compared with seeing my family burned beyond recognition, this pain was nothing.

The chamber dissolved into chaos. An ancient voice thundered through the void: “You are merely mortal. How dare you question the Heavenly Dao?”

The words stabbed into my sea of consciousness like blades.

“I reject my fate. I refuse to submit. I hate them. I will slay the immortals!”

I opened my eyes in the mist, every word as unyielding as stone. Faint explosions rippled through my meridians. Pure spiritual power rose from my dantian and battered through blockages that had existed for years.

The seal broke.

“A Chaos Spiritual Root, unique in all the world. Everything in the pendant is yours, little girl. I must sleep for a while.”

The soul vanished. I leaned against the wall, breathing hard, and circulated a minor heavenly cycle.

Cultivators normally possessed one or more of the five elemental roots—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—or a mutation such as ice or lightning. They could absorb only the power matching their roots, which made cultivation slow. Yet when I summoned the five elements, every one of them poured into my dantian and merged before flowing through my meridians.

My cultivation surged from early Qi Refining all the way to early Foundation Establishment. In moments, my organs and meridians healed.

Was this the power of the Chaos Spiritual Root—to absorb all five elements?

Joy rose in me, followed by a still greater hatred. Even the Heavenly Dao stood on my side. I would avenge my family and grind every one of them to ash.

No one visited during my month in isolation. Occasionally, a guard threw stale buns through a hole. I picked them up, blew off the dust, and ate. How else could I remember every humiliation clearly?

I cultivated without rest, advancing from early Foundation Establishment to its peak in that single month.

There were lower and upper realms of cultivation. The lower realm comprised Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Spirit Transformation, and Mahayana, each divided into early, middle, and peak stages. One could reach the upper realm only after ascension, and no one from the Nine Provinces had ascended in almost five centuries.

Ye Junhua stood at peak Mahayana. People called him the man most likely to ascend within a century. He had once taken a year to advance from early Qi Refining to peak Foundation Establishment. It seemed my talent was greater.

“Bai Zhi, your confinement is over.”

The stone door opened, flooding the chamber with painful light. A steward impatiently drove me outside. No one was waiting. No one cared where I went.

“Little girl, why haven’t you examined the pendant while I slept?” the soul asked as it finally awakened.

I bowed toward the empty air. “Thank you for saving me, Senior. The pendant is sealed as well, and I am too weak to open it.”

“Tsk. I have grown too feeble. There is another fragment of my power in the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm to the east. Help restore my soul, and I will help you unlock the pendant.”

I agreed. He had remade my life; I would risk anything to repay him.

“A loyal child,” he muttered before falling asleep again.

Two outer disciples passed nearby, excitedly whispering. “Second Elder said every disciple at Foundation Establishment may enter the Spirit Ruins trial, inner or outer. We must break through before next month!”

Hidden beneath the trees, I considered their words. All I had to do was register.