Chapter 157: Nascent Soul! Let the Seed Raise the Child

Qintai He sighed, took out a Storage Bag, and said, "I don't know how much you need... but I prepared some for you beforehand. Inside are five thousand Spirit Stones and ten bottles of Spirit-Nourishing Pills. Use these for now, and tell me if it's not enough."

Ruan Xing's eyes lit up instantly, and she said happily, "Thank you, Brother!"

This brother was worth acknowledging!

Spirit-Nourishing Pills were auxiliary cultivation pills used by those at the Nascent Soul and Spirit Severing stages; their value was extraordinary. Giving them to a Golden Core cultivator like her was a bit of an overkill, but since Qintai He was giving them, Ruan Xing wouldn't say they were too precious to accept.

People need to constantly ask for things to increase the other party's sense of being needed and to deepen their bond; one-sided giving only makes others take things for granted.

Therefore, although she had only truly known and spent time with Qintai He for a few months, they had escaped death together, killed people together, she had nearly defected from her Sect for his sake, and she had found the Nascent Soul volume of the Tongxuan Scripture for him. In Qintai He's heart, her status was already akin to that of his own younger sister.

At dusk, the cook finished preparing the Spirit Food and brought it into the small flower hall one after another.

A bowl of lotus root and pork rib soup, a plate of steamed fish, and a plate of crispy stir-fried fresh bamboo shoots.

The soup, stewed from a Golden Core stage Monster Beast, had meat that was soft, tender, and slippery, falling off the bone with a light bite and melting in the mouth. Even the broth was full of Spirit Qi. After drinking three large bowls, Ruan Xing had a round belly.

The fish and bamboo shoots were also ingredients containing Spirit Qi, but Ruan Xing had only taken a few bites before her stomach was filled by the rib soup, so she had to give them up with tears in her eyes.

After finishing this Spirit Food, Ruan Xing made an excuse about needing to refine the Spirit Qi from the meal and returned to her room, where Qintai He had already arranged her lodging.

In her room, Ruan Xing took out the Storage Bag Qintai He had given her, emptied the contents onto the table, checked her own points and Spirit Stones, and stroked her chin, wondering what she should upgrade first. Puppetry could not be upgraded through Simulation proficiency; according to previous experience, feedback was only given through innovation.

However, the current Self-destruct Puppet had already greatly enhanced her combat power, so she hadn't been focusing on that aspect lately and didn't need to ponder new puppets for the time being.

Divine Ability did not appear on the interface at all; even if proficiency could be increased, she couldn't see it.

As for artifact refining, alchemy, or talisman making, the Qintai Family didn't have the conditions to provide her with better pill formulas or talisman patterns.

After thinking it over, there was nothing better to learn than improving her cultivation.

However, she had a premonition that the Golden Core stage was the last period where she could exchange relatively low effort for high returns. A text Simulation cost only one hundred Spirit Stones for one thousand points; once she reached the Nascent Soul stage, one Simulation would cost ten thousand points, and she wouldn't have the chance to spend money so lavishly.

After some thought, Ruan Xing decided to learn a few more Magic Arts; there were still quite a few in her memory worth learning.

Depositing all five thousand Spirit Stones into the Simulator, Ruan Xing began the Text Simulation.

【Simulation in progress】

……

【Simulation ended】

【You have obtained the Magic Art: Breaking Source Technique】

【You have obtained some experience in the Magic Art: Breaking Source Technique】

【You have obtained the Magic Art: ……】

【You have obtained the Magic Art: ……】

In the Simulator, she had become numb to the sounds of the start and the end.

With ninety thousand points, she had learned five Magic Arts by the end and raised them to about the fourth or fifth level, with thirty thousand remaining. Ruan Xing thought for a moment and decided to simulate thirty more times to gain experience for the Illusion Technique.

Her Illusion Technique was already at the fourth level, allowing her to maintain an illusion for eight hours a day. Presumably, the next level would remove the time limit. Reaching the sixth level was the realm Xie Huai had once mentioned, where one could cast illusions of appearance and form on others, or even on the dead!

This was a legendary realm; according to him, almost no cultivator could reach it.

Then she would be the first person in history.

Rubbing her hands together, Ruan Xing quickly pressed the simulation options in her mind. Soon, the thirty simulation attempts were used up, and her Illusion Technique reached the max level—the sixth level! Goodness, it really was hard to level up.

One had to know that thirty simulations meant she had spent at least three thousand years in the simulations practicing this art; sometimes, if she lived long enough, a single simulation could last three or four hundred years.

A cultivator's lifespan was snatched from the heavens; who would spend so much time practicing a Magic Art with zero offensive capability?

Summoning Sword Lai, Ruan Xing had him sit obediently to the side and, using his face as a reference, cast a new appearance for him.

His pale skin turned into a rosy, healthy complexion, his eyes became clear and distinct, and his long hair and eyelashes turned black.

This was how he looked when he was alive.

It was just that Ruan Xing had been looking at his pure white form for so long that she wasn't used to him suddenly becoming normal.

However, for the sake of democracy, Ruan Xing still sought his opinion, "Sword Lai, do you want to use your previous appearance, or this one?"

Sword Lai looked up at her blankly, then conveyed his fragmented thoughts, "Either is fine... whichever you think is better... that one..."

"Then let's go with this for now. Now that you look like a normal person and the Yin Qi on you is well-concealed, you can go out and stroll around. I don't know when this Illusion Technique will wear off, so let's just see for now," Ruan Xing decided.

Sword Lai just nodded blankly.

Seeing this, Ruan Xing simply pulled Cai Jiao out as well, gave her a normal appearance, and had Sword Lai help her conceal her Yin Qi.

"You two play in the courtyard for now. I'll take you out once I finish my cultivation," Ruan Xing nodded with satisfaction.

"Eh?" Cai Jiao watched blankly as Ruan Xing entered the room and closed the door, then looked blankly at Sword Lai, who was standing motionless beside her.

After a moment of daze, she handed the green seed in her hand to him, inviting him to play with her precious toy.

Sword Lai hesitated for a moment, then slowly squatted down.

The two small children squatted face-to-face, with the Soul Nourishing Wood—which was missing a corner—between them. On its flat surface, the two of them rolled the round green seed back and forth like a spinning top.

After Ruan Xing entered the room, she deposited fifty thousand of the remaining eighty thousand Spirit Stones into the Simulator and began the second round of simulations.

Because in at least seven years, Qintai He would die for various inexplicable reasons, and she would no longer be able to use the Qintai Family's resources to cultivate, becoming a Loose Cultivator with an exceptionally slow speed.

She had thought of ways to help Qintai He escape his predicament of death, but every time, shortly after escaping, the next crisis would arrive.

Ruan Xing gave up; her main task in the simulations was cultivation. She couldn't put the cart before the horse by focusing solely on saving Qintai He. Moreover, there were still seven years until his death, and any number of variables could occur in reality during those seven years. Even if the simulation found the most suitable route to save him, a tiny butterfly effect in reality might change everything seven years later, rendering the simulation useless as a reference.

After nine simulations, Ruan Xing's cultivation finally reached the Golden Core Late Stage.

Before accepting the Simulator's rewards, she first set up an Array Disk around the room to conceal her aura.

This was to prevent Cang Lin or some senior among the neighbors from discovering the change in her aura.

Only then did she safely advance to the Golden Core Late Stage.

After seven more simulations, she reached Golden Core Consummation.

After that, Ruan Xing slowed down her cultivation speed and spent half her time searching for the Infant Transformation Pill.

Because she lacked the formula for the Infant Transformation Pill, and Xizhou was filled with clans and sects where ordinary people had no path to cultivation, those who could reach the Nascent Soul stage were basically disciples of some clan.

In the simulations, she had tried several times to have Qintai He help her obtain an Infant Transformation Pill from the Qintai Family, but not only did she fail, she instead brought a fatal disaster upon herself prematurely.

In the dark, she felt she should have known the truth of Qintai He's death; seven years later, he would likely have reached the Golden Core Late Stage, and the Nascent Soul Stage was the threshold for competing as a Clan Leader successor, so someone worried he would become a stumbling block for other Clan Leader successors and dealt with him in advance.

If Qintai He had been cultivating the clan's technique, he might have been able to save his life; the Clan Leader did not want him to reach Nascent Soul, so just withholding the technique would have been enough.

But he was not cultivating the clan technique, and the people of the clan did not know if he had subsequent techniques, so to be safe, they had no choice but to send him on his way. Thus, she had to abandon this route and, with the help of the Illusion Technique, transform into a direct descendant or important figure of another family to scout for information.

She finally managed to find a way out.

Some small clans do not support alchemists themselves; they can only purchase from the large families they are affiliated with, but the large families also control the outflow of these Pills so that the small families do not have too many high-level Cultivators beyond their control.

It takes decades of affiliation and tribute to earn the qualification to purchase one Infant Transformation Pill.

So Ruan Xing found a good opportunity, first teaming up with Sword Lai to ambush a small clan's Clan Leader, then transforming into his appearance to go to the large family he was affiliated with to purchase the Infant Transformation Pill.

But the price of the Infant Transformation Pill was too expensive; she did not have that many Spirit Stones on hand, so she had to go back to the small clan and manage family affairs for a few days, using the clan's funds to exchange for an Infant Transformation Pill. Fortunately, after her Illusion Technique reached max level, there was no time limit, otherwise, if she had stayed there for several consecutive days, she would have been exposed sooner or later.

Although she still did not reach the Nascent Soul Stage in this Simulation, she still gained a lot; at least the source of the Infant Transformation Pill was stabilized. Next, she only needed to control the time of obtaining the Infant Transformation Pill and break through to Nascent Soul before being discovered dead.

Finally, after the eleventh Simulation, breakthrough to Nascent Soul!

Ruan Xing was extremely excited, because Nascent Soul does not require undergoing a tribulation, so she chose to improve her cultivation realm with the reward without hesitation.

Instantly, a fantastic power enveloped Ruan Xing's entire body, as if she were soaking in a sleepy hot spring pool; her clothes and the Dharma Sword and Storage Bag she wore all fell off automatically, and like an allergic reaction, the milky white bubble halo surrounding her body was expelled.

It fell to the ground with a *plop*.

And at this moment, Ruan Xing had no heart to care about the things on her body.

Because her entire mind was focused on her dantian.

The body on the outside was gradually dissolving and melting, while the Golden Core in the dantian was constantly changing like plasticine.

Soon, the Golden Core stretched out small hands and feet, and the head also separated from the belly; the platinum-colored skin and ice-blue patterns on the entire Golden Core all sank into the small figure's body.

The small figure emitted a glowing blue-white light.

This was her Nascent Soul.

Just as Ruan Xing was still suppressing her excited mood, a sudden pulling force embedded her consciousness into the small figure.

With a moment of dizziness, her field of vision became the small figure's vision.

Looking up and down, she realized that her body had completely melted away.

This was the feeling of putting all of one's Divine Sense and soul into the Nascent Soul, except that because she had to reshape her physical body, she experienced the fusion of the Divine Soul in advance.

Inside the halo bubble, only a thin, curved Spirit Bone remained.

A normal Spirit Bone should be a three-inch-long main bone and two auxiliary bones half the size of a palm, but hers was obtained from a Luoqi Pill, so it only had the main bone and no auxiliary bones; however, this single Spirit Bone was much more beautiful, crystal clear and radiant.

Next was the process of reshaping the physical body.

She tried to drive the fantastic power in the halo bubble together, wrapping her Spirit Bone into a human shape.

Stretching the height a little, she wanted to shape the body of a young girl.

Then she began to fill it in, shaping the spine along the position of the Spirit Bone, then extending up and down, appearing the collarbone, skull, teeth, mandible, shoulder blades, humerus, ribs, pelvis, leg bones, and ankle bones.

Large pieces of bone grew and combined like parts.

Ruan Xing did not know how others reshaped their physical bodies.

But she... perhaps because she had read too much popular science in her past life, in her heart, she believed that a person is composed of bones, internal organs, meridians, blood vessels, muscles, fat, subcutaneous tissue, epidermis, etc.

So she decisively reshaped it in the way she thought.

She did not change her appearance much, so the young girl's image was almost a proportional enlargement of little Ruan Xing; a small face with slightly furrowed brows, and with the blessing of her cultivation, she had a bit of an ethereal, immortal temperament that made people forget the mundane upon seeing her.

When the strange power inside the bubble was exhausted, Ruan Xing's body reshaping ended.

She landed slowly, her slender fingers beckoned downward, the fallen Storage Bag flew toward her, she took out a black cloak from it to drape over herself, and summoned a water mirror.

Blinking at the mirror, the fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl inside looked lively, charming, and cute.

"I really am beautiful." Ruan Xing held her face in intoxication and admired her new body.

But looking like this now, a seven-year-old girl turned into a big girl in a second.

I'm afraid others wouldn't even recognize her now, and she still had to hide her cultivation, so she could only reluctantly remove the water mirror and use the Illusion Technique to change back into the appearance of a seven-year-old girl.

After a few years, she would slowly change her image.

Using the Mask Artifact to cover her cultivation to the Golden Core Mid-stage, Ruan Xing put on her Dharma robe, took the Storage Bag and Dharma Sword, and removed the Array Disk that concealed her aura.

Only then did she step out of the room.

The two little ones at the door were almost growing mushrooms.

Seeing her come out, they looked at her eagerly.

It was her negligence; even if these two were immature in mind, they were not ordinary children, and letting them play in the courtyard by themselves wouldn't lead to any tricks.

However, she looked at the fallen leaves under the tree in the courtyard and asked, "How long have I been in seclusion this time?"

Sword Lai tilted his head, seemingly counting something, then made a fist with one hand and opened the other.

Fifteen days...

No wonder, she felt it was impossible for a tree to have all its leaves fall off overnight.

"It's going to be winter again." Ruan Xing sighed and asked Sword Lai, "Did Qintai He send anyone to look for me? What did you say?"

Sword Lai nodded, then shook his head.

They looked, but he didn't say anything.

Ruan Xing smiled, rubbed Sword Lai's head, and seeing Cai Jiao looking on eagerly from the side, she rubbed her too; Cai Jiao became visibly happy.

She would go find Qintai He herself later to explain, and just arrange some identity for the two of them.

She asked with interest, "What did you two play?"

Cai Jiao tugged at her sleeve, signaling her to follow, "Sister... look..."

The two walked to the withered tree, pushed aside the layers of fallen leaves, and Cai Jiao pointed to the middle and let out an "ah" with some pride.

A cyan seed was staying there listlessly.

Although its appearance had not changed, Ruan Xing could strangely perceive its emotions...

She couldn't help but burst into a giggle, "It's useless to plant it; it won't sprout."

It is already a seed of the Golden Core Stage; sprouting would instead consume its Spiritual Power to allow it to grow, and unless it is in an extremely suitable spiritual mountain treasure land, its own consciousness will not let it sprout.

(End of this chapter)