Chapter 138: The Land of Extinguished Spirit

A Cultivator?

Her luck was not bad; she had found another Cultivator before her Illusion Technique wore off. If she had used her true appearance, she feared she wouldn't have been able to exchange any information even if she had approached, and suddenly seeing a strange Golden Core Cultivator would only have made the other person unnecessarily vigilant.

It was just that she couldn't fly on her Sword right now, and the Shuttle Spirit Boat was unusable either, so she could only give Sword Lai a few instructions before walking over on foot.

By the time she ran to the place Sword Lai had mentioned, the sky was already turning dark.

After confirming that Sword Lai had not been discovered by the other party, Ruan Xing praised him and told him to continue scouting in other directions, while she herself put on a cold and aloof expression and swaggered down the street.

Her Divine Sense spread out casually, and within a few minutes, she found the Cultivator. Her eyes then sharpened, and she shouted coldly, "Who's there!"

An old man dressed in gray robes poked his head out from behind a half-collapsed wall, looking helpless. "Don't be so agitated, fellow sect member."

Ruan Xing looked closely and saw that it was Elder Wen.

She immediately felt relieved. Originally, she had been worried that if it were someone from the other two sects, she would have to guard her own personal safety; after all, those people all thought they had entered a Secret Realm, were straining to find the Secret Realm core, and were competing against other sects.

Only Ruan Xing herself knew that this was a place even Guangyou Xianjun considered extremely dangerous.

Since it was Elder Wen, half of her anxious heart settled down. The two of them had no competitive relationship, and they had met twice before; Elder Wen had even kindly helped her once and did not seem like a bad person.

She put away her Sword and walked over. "So it's you. How is it? Have you found any clues regarding the Secret Realm core?"

Elder Wen shook his head with a wry smile. "Do you still think this is a Secret Realm? In any Secret Realm you've been to before, even if there weren't any rare treasures, there would at least be a large number of Monster Beasts and Spirit Herbs. What is there in here?"

Elder Wen seemed to know something, so Ruan Xing followed his lead and asked in confusion, "Didn't the Sect send us here to investigate the Secret Realm? If this isn't a Secret Realm, what else could it be?"

"This place... is a Juelin Zhidi," Elder Wen said slowly.

Ruan Xing naturally knew of Juelin Zhidi, but she only understood a few fragments about it. Now that she had encountered Elder Wen, it was the perfect time to ask properly what exactly a Juelin Zhidi was.

"You seem to know a lot about Juelin Zhidi," Ruan Xing said. "Why not tell me about it?"

Elder Wen looked at Ruan Xing with a gentle gaze, as if he were looking at someone else through her appearance.

After a long while, he said, "I wouldn't say I know a lot, I've just heard a few things in the past. Since we've ended up here now, I'll tell you about it."

"A Juelin Zhidi is a place left over from ancient legends. It is said to be a place abandoned by the Heavenly Dao, which is why one cannot use Spiritual Power, Magic Arts, or Dharma Artifacts within a Juelin Zhidi. Furthermore, no living thing can grow or survive here; it slowly strips away the most essential things for life, just like a fish without water or a bird without wind. Of course, legends like this have several versions. There is also a rumor that in ancient times, Immortals in the heavens fought and punched a hole in the sky, and the sky fell down, shattering and scattering across the land to become the Juelin Zhidi. Since ancient times, few people have ever been able to leave a Juelin Zhidi alive. Therefore, I only ever treated it as a rumor in the past; I never expected that one day I would actually come to such a place myself."

Ruan Xing pondered after listening. She hadn't expected there to be several versions of what a Juelin Zhidi was, and she didn't know which one was true.

However, that wasn't important. Since Guangyou Xianjun had left behind a key for the Qintai Family to collect the remains of Qintai Gu, there must be a way to leave this place. She just didn't know yet if the method to leave involved the key or if it was hidden within the Xianjun's inheritance. Although she wasn't in a hurry, she still had to put on a grave expression in front of Elder Wen; this old brat definitely hadn't finished speaking yet.

She frowned and said to Elder Wen, "Since no one has ever been able to leave, who spread these rumors? And if we can't get out, won't we all die here? You don't look worried at all, Elder."

"Of course I'm not worried." Elder Wen stroked his white beard and raised an eyebrow. "I don't have many years left to live anyway, so what difference does it make where I am? It's you, on the other hand—you only reached the Golden Core stage a few years ago. It's a real shame to waste the rest of your life here."

"We are fellow sect members; instead of thinking of ways to overcome this difficulty together, you're saying such discouraging things?" Ruan Xing was furious and pointed at Elder Wen. "How could someone like you ever attain the Great Dao? No wonder the Sect threw you to Nanzhou to fend for yourself."

"Heh." Elder Wen chuckled, then straightened his expression. "Your mother was my junior sister, and your master was my senior sister. You should be calling me 'Uncle-Master' instead of pointing at my nose and scolding me."

Ah, he took the bait.

A faint, imperceptible smile curled the corner of Ruan Xing's mouth.

She knew it; this old man had an unusual relationship with Qinghong Zhenjun, otherwise, how could a single bamboo leaf have made Qinghong Zhenjun look after her? Although Qinghong Zhenjun hadn't truly done so because of the fortune-telling, that was Qinghong Zhenjun breaking his word, not the old man's fault.

Moreover, it was undeniable that Elder Wen had lived a long time and was once an elite disciple of the Xuanbing Sect; he must have seen much more than she had.

"I've never heard my master mention you, this 'Uncle-Master'," Ruan Xing said with a cold face, trying to provoke him.

A flash of loneliness crossed Elder Wen's face, but it quickly vanished. He huffed, "Do you still want to keep listening or not?"

After a few seconds of silence, Ruan Xing reluctantly called out, "Uncle-Master."

Elder Wen smiled with satisfaction, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes twisting into ripples. "If you want to get out of this Juelin Zhidi, you must forget that you are a Cultivator and treat yourself as a mortal, or some other species. This is what I heard my master say in the past."

Ruan Xing pondered Elder Wen's words and suddenly felt something was wrong. She spoke up, "That shouldn't be right. Before I met you, I saw two mortals. One was already dead and turned into white bones, and the other was a thirty-year-old woman before she entered; after entering, she turned into an eighty-year-old crone in just nine days. Mortals cannot survive in this place."

"I don't know about that." Elder Wen said bluntly, "I just told you my master's original words. I haven't figured it out myself either, but I don't really care if I can get out or not. You can ponder it slowly yourself."

Elder Wen's self-assured demeanor made Ruan Xing a bit annoyed.

Hmph, if I gave you a Longevity Pill right now, you'd definitely be scratching your head trying to figure out what your master meant, right?

Unfortunately, although Ruan Xing's alchemy had reached the Fifth-Tier and she could refine Longevity Pills, she didn't have the recipe for one; even a clever housewife cannot cook without rice.

Thanks to Xin Tang for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20200627121310166 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20190927135209710 for the monthly ticket~(End of this chapter)