Chapter 148: You Obtained a String of Garbled Text

Ruan Xing decided to wait and see how the situation developed before making a move.

Old Man Wen said with a touch of melancholy: "Even if we get out, the Sect will still cause me trouble, especially Fu Yuanzhen. Since we cannot hand over the culprit who harmed his disciple, he will only vent his anger on me. I suspect his proposal to send me into the Juelin Zhidi was his doing. I only hope that from now on, his anger will be appeased and he will no longer blame my Senior Brother."

You're too late! Your Senior Brother is probably already stiff as a board by now! Ruan Xing silently swallowed the words she wanted to say, lest Old Man Wen hear them and his already waning will to live crumble further.

Ruan Xing pulled him along as she forged ahead. When it grew dark, they found a house nearby to rest for the night and continued the next day. Although Old Man Wen found it strange, he had long since cast thoughts of life and death aside, and the person before him had no intention of harming him. Moreover, he still didn't know how this person had entered the Juelin Zhidi... following them was a good way to figure out the situation.

Since they claimed to have come to save him, it was impossible for them to have entered earlier than he did, right? Yet, with three Nascent Soul Stage cultivators guarding the rift outside by joining forces to set up a barrier, how did they break in?

Not until the two reached their destination did Old Man Wen struggle to hide the shock in his eyes. "This is..."

This time was even faster than the last; it only took a little over a day to reach the center of the Juelin Zhidi.

Old Man Wen crouched down to touch the Array Disk on the ground, murmuring: "So the Juelin Zhidi that my Master spoke of is the same place I came to."

"What is it?" Ruan Xing asked.

"Nothing." Old Man Wen shook his head and stood up. "I once saw an object of extraordinary material at my Master's place; only now do I realize it is of the same material as this Array Disk."

Ruan Xing had already figured out how to use the key, and now there was no key left anyway. Seeing Old Man Wen reminiscing about his Master through the past, she spoke up: "Let's go to the very center and take a look."

Ruan Xing didn't know why, but she felt this place was slightly different from when she last came.

Upon reaching the pillar of light at the center, she was shocked to discover that the silvery-white threads inside the pillar of light had actually snapped!

No wonder the light of the pillar was much weaker.

Could other cultivators have come here in the past few days?

But during her last Simulation, it took her three days to reach the pillar of light, and there was nothing unusual here then!? Ruan Xing recalled the missing key and the Magic Art she had suddenly manifested.

... Could it be that she was the one who broke it during her last Simulation? But she no longer remembered what had happened while she was unconscious, nor did she understand why events in the Simulation would map onto reality.

After thinking for a moment, she asked: "Did your Master ever say how to leave the Juelin Zhidi?"

Old Man Wen recalled for a moment, then shook his head: "No. He only told me how to survive in the Juelin Zhidi, and that I only needed to forget..."

"Stop, I know." Ruan Xing interrupted him, and Old Man Wen stopped speaking with some helplessness.

It seemed Guangyou Xianjun believed that one could not leave without reaching the Spirit Severing realm, so there was no need to tell such things to his small Golden Core Stage disciple.

Ruan Xing looked at the broken silvery-white threads inside the pillar of light and opened the box to let Sword Lai out.

Old Man Wen's gaze was filled with astonishment, but Ruan Xing did not explain anything, instead giving orders to Sword Lai through their mental link.

Sword Lai nodded slightly, grabbed Old Man Wen's hand, and they entered the pillar of light together.

"Hey, wait—" The tail end of Old Man Wen's words was swallowed by the pillar of light.

Ruan Xing waited on the spot for a moment before she began calling out to Sword Lai in the mental link.

But after calling for a long time, she received no feedback from Sword Lai at all.

She didn't dare enter the pillar of light herself... fearing that if she went in, 30,000 points would be gone.

Sighing helplessly, Ruan Xing ended the Real-scene Simulation.

Standing at the entrance of Wanbao Tower, she pondered for a few seconds before Ruan Xing opened the Text Simulation with some reluctance.

【Simulating...】

At age seven, you took advantage of the chaos to enter the space-time rift, found Elder Wen, and brought him to the center of the Juelin Zhidi.

You both entered the pillar of light at the center, and immediately, you fell into a deep sleep.

At age eight, you are in a deep sleep.

【Simulation Ended】

Ruan Xing stared at these few lines of text, dumbfounded.

A Text Simulation that cost 1,000 points, and it ended just like that? Such a short experience, it seemed that no matter what she chose, it had no effect.

Ruan Xing frowned and chose a random skill.

【You have obtained %... ￥&'s *&(#!】

A string of garbled text...

But Ruan Xing did not feel any difference in her body.

The character panel still showed no changes.

It seemed these 1,000 points were just wasted.

"Old Man Wen, I'm sorry, I have already tried my best." Ruan Xing whispered with regret.

She had no cause for shame in her heart.

Ruan Xing walked out of the town step by step, stepped onto her Flying Sword, and hurried toward the space-time rift.

After Qingyuan Daojun and the others left, she grabbed the body of the Nanzhou Sect Leader with one hand, while simultaneously having Sword Lai take Little Boy No. 1 to self-destruct.

After a loud, booming explosion, Ruan Xing flew into the crater with the Triangle Flag, and without waiting for Xu Shengping to speak, she waved the Flag and captured his Golden Core.

The Golden Core infant screamed, its face twisted in pain as it struggled inside the Flag. Ruan Xing glanced at it once and ignored it, then bundled up the Flag and put it back into her Storage Bag.

As for Xu Shengping's corpse... she didn't know if it was still of any use, but forget it, she would take it for now.

After taking Xu Shengping's Storage Bag from the ground, Ruan Xing had Sword Lai carry the Nanzhou Sect Leader's corpse, found a mountain forest near a gathering of mortals, dug a hole nearly ten meters deep, and buried him inside.

"This way, at least your final resting place won't be disturbed by wild beasts." Ruan Xing said softly.

Then, she turned and left.

One month later, Jinling City.

Ruan Xing, disguised as a young female cultivator, was drinking tea at a tea house that sold Spirit Tea.

With the financial support from Xu Shengping, she now dared to order some Spirit Tea and Spirit Food to consume.

Although the Spirit Qi contained in this Spirit Tea was negligible for her at the Golden Core Stage, it had the effect of calming the mind and spirit, allowing her to settle her thoughts.

The previous period had been so busy she had nearly lost her mind; she had been in Simulations every single moment, making her head feel like it was developing aftereffects, unable to distinguish between the space-time of the Simulation and reality.

Now that everything had come to an end, she temporarily stopped the Simulations to give herself a vacation and get some good rest for a few days.

However, she was not entirely idle; this past month, besides refining Xu Shengping's corpse and Nascent Soul into Puppet Number Three, she had also become more adept at practicing her Divine Ability. Jinling City was still under the jurisdiction of the Jinxia Sect, and she did not leave, but instead rented a quiet room and stayed here.

The large crater from that explosion had already been investigated by the Jinxia Sect and the Hanhai Sect in cooperation, but because Ruan Xing had masked her cultivation to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, she was unremarkable throughout Jinling City, so she was not disturbed, and what was presented before her remained a scene of peace.

Later, Ruan Xing heard that the Xuanbing Sect had acknowledged the matter, provided the two sects with some compensation, and filled in the pit, and so the matter was turned over.

They seemed to believe that the crater was caused by the Nanzhou Sect Leader, who, in a final burst of energy, self-detonated his Nascent Soul and blasted the cleanup-duty Hall Master Xu into ashes.

The only ones complaining were the mortals whose relatives had accidentally entered the rift, and those whose farmland was destroyed just before the harvest.

Ruan Xing was sipping some calming Spirit Tea when she suddenly noticed a few cultivators nearby discussing something.

"Have you heard about that Secret Realm the Xuanbing Sect snatched from us earlier?"

"It is said they announced they have basically finished exploring it; it is a Secret Realm left behind after a Gui Xu Xianjun fell."

"Why are they publicizing this? Are they deliberately trying to anger our two sects?"

"To recruit new disciples, of course. I heard that they have had consecutive accidents in the Nanzhou Secret Realm and lost over a hundred seedlings. If this batch of disciples can finish exploring the Secret Realm and return safely, I fear that in just a few years, they will have dozens more Golden Core elite disciples. This time, I'm afraid the Xuanbing Sect will have a generational gap of at least ten years!"

"Bah, they have a big family and a grand business; what are a few dozen Golden Cores? They are unremarkable within the sect, and the treatment is nowhere as good as our Jinxia Sect."

The group laughed for a while; seemingly because Jinling City was under their sect's jurisdiction, they were not afraid of others overhearing and mocked them boldly and wantonly.

Ruan Xing silently took a sip of tea and pricked up her ears to listen.

"If you ask me, this matter of recruiting new disciples is still precarious! The Xuanbing Sect is the sole power in the Central Province, and other sects in the Central Province all have to rely on them. Even the Heavenly Dao cannot stand it anymore and is going to send down Heavenly Punishment to destroy Xianyuan City."

"Are you talking about the two islands that suddenly appeared above Xianyuan City?"

"Yes, I heard that too. A month ago, two fog-shrouded islands suddenly appeared above Xianyuan City and are descending at a slow speed. According to this speed, it will only take two hundred years for these two islands to land and destroy Xianyuan City!"

Upon hearing this, the teacup in Ruan Xing's hand suddenly tightened.

The appearance of the islands... the descent... this event had occurred much earlier. In one of her simulations, the islands had not fully descended even after nearly three hundred years.

Did it appear so much earlier because of the butterfly effect she caused during this time?

The only anomaly during this period was that she had somehow snapped the silvery-white threads inside the light pillar of the Juelin Zhidi.

Previously, no one else could see those two islands, only she could. After the threads broke, everyone could see them, and they were constantly descending.

Ruan Xing drank some tea to calm her nerves; she must keep this matter strictly hidden and not let anyone know.

Otherwise, the blame for destroying Xianyuan City would be pinned on her! She could not withstand the wrath of so many True Monarchs and Daojuns of the Xuanbing Sect right now.

The group was still discussing, feeling that with these two islands present, even if someone dared to join the Xuanbing Sect, the number would be much lower. After all, who would want their sect to be destroyed within two hundred years?

Ruan Xing patiently listened for a while longer, but did not hear them mention whether any big shots had flown into the sky to investigate the interior of the islands.

It stood to reason that even if this matter had been investigated, it would be an internal secret of the Xuanbing Sect and would not be brought out for casual chatter.

She drank the last drop of Spirit Tea in her cup, took out two Low-grade Spirit Stones to pay the bill, and then got up and left.

It was time to leave this Jinling City as well.

After checking out of the quiet room and getting her deposit back, Ruan Xing calculated the Spirit Stones she had on her. She had spent quite a bit in Jinling City this month, but perhaps because the public security was quite good, she, a weak female Foundation Establishment cultivator, had not encountered any bullying.

This left her with a small regret; if a few bully cultivators had appeared, she could have robbed them again.

Her remaining points were 51,900, and she still had over eighty thousand Spirit Stones. She exchanged all her High-grade and Mid-grade Spirit Stones into Low-grade Spirit Stones for safekeeping.

Since she began her Cultivation, this was almost the wealthiest she had ever been, Ruan Xing thought with a bit of happiness.

Just as she was taking inventory of the items in her Storage Bag, she sensed a disturbance inside.

Hm? Xu Shengping's Nascent Soul had already been taken out by her and turned into a Puppet using the Soul Summoning Incantation; he no longer had any consciousness and would only obey Ruan Xing's orders. The other puppets were all very well-behaved, so who was moving?

Ruan Xing probed with her Divine Sense and saw a little girl inside turning over while hugging a large piece of Soul Nourishing Wood.

Right... she had originally left two pieces of Soul Nourishing Wood in the Storage Bag and let A Jiao stay beside them to nourish her soul.

Mentioning A Jiao, Ruan Xing thought of Cai Xueshi; she wondered if Cai Xueshi had reached Foundation Establishment and if he had come into contact with any core information in the Six Suns Study.

However, it had only been a few months; presumably, Cai Xueshi had not progressed that quickly.

She released A Jiao, and the little girl hugged a large piece of wood and blinked innocently.

A new voice appeared in Ruan Xing's mental link.

The childish voice seemed not yet accustomed to this new way of speaking.

"Sis... ter..."

"No, you are four years older than me, you cannot call me sister," Ruan Xing corrected.

But A Jiao ignored her, pursing her lips slightly with a pitiful look, "... sister..."

Sure enough, although A Jiao had gained consciousness, she was not yet a normal person; like Sword Lai at the beginning, communication was difficult.

Ruan Xing sighed and gave up on correcting her. Never mind, adding her age from her previous life, A Jiao could call her aunt if she wanted.

Moreover, A Jiao was only six or seven years old when she died; she was tiny, and the way she struggled to hug the Soul Nourishing Wood looked extremely innocent.

"A Jiao," Ruan Xing called her.

A Jiao looked blank, "Nannan..."

Ruan Xing was a bit surprised; she still remembered that she was called Nannan? It seemed her memory was preserved quite well.

Perhaps after raising her for a while longer, her consciousness would catch up to Sword Lai's.

Patting A Jiao's head, Ruan Xing said, "Be good, sleep well inside, and don't move around."

Seeing A Jiao nod obediently, Ruan Xing put A Jiao back into the Storage Bag.

Although she had gained consciousness, she was still a dead object.

Ruan Xing then checked the other puppets in the Storage Bag; Fu Qinghong, Puppet Number Two, and Fatty Number Two were placed far away from the Soul Nourishing Wood and showed no signs of moving around.

After such a long time, and with the Demon Lord's advice back then, Ruan Xing no longer thought about letting them all regain their consciousness. Anyway, she had several Storage Bags now, so she separated the other puppets and put them into another Storage Bag.

Moreover, if Fu Qinghong regained his consciousness, she really wouldn't know how to face him. If he insisted on returning to the Xuanbing Sect to find Qingyuan Daojun, what would she do? She couldn't kill him again.

After taking inventory of the several Storage Bags, Ruan Xing couldn't help but wonder if she should check which nearby town had a Wanbao Tower auction, so she could go spend twenty thousand Spirit Stones to buy a storage ring?

Immediately, she hurriedly shook her head to shake the thought out of her mind.

No, no, she had just saved up a little bit and was already becoming decadent; she couldn't do that! Thanks to book friend 20220918175316618 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20240127064302660 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Lan Guihai for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Slippery Electric Mouse for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to book friend 20181105224043458 for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Tiger Smoking a Cigarette for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Weilan 218 for the monthly ticket~(End of chapter)