After returning to Xuanqing School, they went to visit Lord Daoist Jinghe.
Lord Daoist Jinghe was very satisfied with their return after more than a year. "How was it? How was your harvest?"
This question stunned them for a moment. After thinking about it carefully, it seemed that apart from Xiaofan obtaining Black Tortoise's Breath, they didn't gain anything else … Did they work for nothing?
After they told their experiences, Lord Daoist Jinghe waved his hand. "It's good that you got Black Tortoise's Breath. Wait until you go to the last sacrificial temple and see what's going on."
Mo Tiange pondered for a while and asked doubtfully, "Master, the friend Senior Hu Po mentioned seemed to have a hard time going to the sacrificial temple. Why did it seem easy for us?
If no one fought for it, it would've been a smooth journey without any twists and turns.
But we didn't discover the so-called secret at all. Did we do something wrong? "
Lord Daoist Jinghe said, "I've thought about this a long time ago. It's indeed not right.
However, this is only what Senior Hu Po told us. We don't know the truth.
We don't know enough, so we can't make inferences … "
Mo Tiange sighed. She also knew it was difficult to infer the truth with such little information.
"Okay, you two can go and rest.
We have no clues about the Qilin sacrificial temple. I'm afraid we'll have to slowly inquire about it. Just concentrate on cultivating. "
"Yes, Master." The two of them answered and asked about the sect's situation before leaving Shangqing Palace and returning to the cave in the Extreme Abyss Pool.
* * *
"Grandmaster!"
Upon seeing the two of them, Xiaoguzi and Xiaozui, who were sitting back to back and laughing while reading a book by the pool, were so shocked that they hastily stood up. "Greetings, Grandmasters! Welcome back, Grandmasters!"
Mo Tiange was amused. "Why are you so scared?"
Xiaoguzi looked up and saw that they weren't angry. He smiled and said, "Disciple lost his composure. Grandmasters, please don't blame me."
"Just don't go out and embarrass yourselves." Qin Xi had already gone inside. Mo Tiange said, "Call them here."
"Yes, Grandmaster Qingwei!"
Soon, all the disciples came to greet her.
Yi Wen and Xi Su were still absent. She trained them to serve the sect, so she didn't care. Ye Zhenji and Shui Linbo were both absent. Ye Zhenji had made up his mind to train himself well, so he had been killing enemies on Demonic Mountain in recent years, while Shui Linbo went out to look for opportunities to form her Gold Core.
Sang Yushu, Xie Zhengyi, and Chi Yunshu remained in the cave. Hearing the news, the three of them hurried over to pay their respects.
The two of them carefully asked the disciples about their homework and were quite satisfied.
As expected, it was right for them to not only look at aptitude. Other than aptitude, temperament was even more important. Look at these three people. Where else could they find such worry-free disciples?
"You're very good," Mo Tiange said gently, "However, when it comes to cultivation, you have to have a limit. You can't force yourself.
Your foundation isn't very solid, so you mustn't be too hasty.
You should know that the age at which you form your Gold Core or your Nascent Soul is just an empty title. The most important thing is to walk step by step steadily. "
Thinking about it, she felt that as the youngest Nascent Soul cultivator in the Celestial Pole, it seemed a bit like showing off her age was not important and it was hard to convince others, so she continued to say, "On this point, I have the most experience. If you can make a realm-breakthrough later, when the conditions are right, you'll succeed naturally. Compared to advancing earlier, you'll have fewer hidden dangers and can go further."
Her two disciples and Sang Yushu nodded in agreement.
They had all heard that when Lord Daoist Qingwei built his foundation, he deliberately slowed down his cultivation speed. At that time, they just felt envious, but now they had a different understanding.
After teaching her for a while, she sent her three disciples away. The two of them sat opposite each other and didn't speak for a long time.
After a long time, Qin Xi asked, "What are you thinking about?"
After a while, Mo Tiange answered, "I'm thinking about Yunzhong."
"What's wrong?"
Mo Tiange took some time to think then said, "Say, for this kind of thing to suddenly happen in Yunzhong, is it because of fate?"
Qin Xi was stunned.
She continued to say, "Think about it. What Demon Lord Yue Ying did was too bold. Did he just want to trigger a melee in Yunzhong?
If it were me, since I decided to trap and kill these people, I would make sure no one was left alive. "
Qin Xi paused and asked, "How do you know Demon Lord Yue Ying didn't think that way?"
"But only half of the trapped cultivators were killed or injured …"
Qin Xi shook his head. "We only see the result, but we can't see the process. Maybe Demon Lord Yue Ying originally had a foolproof plan, but it failed."
Mo Tiange tilted her head and thought about it. She nodded slowly. "It seems … En, what you said makes sense."
Qin Xi said, "Of course, it's also possible that there was a problem with their plan, or the strength of the trapped people was beyond their expectations. We're just outsiders and can only see one side of it."
"En."
Mo Tiange was lost in thought for a while and said, "The world changed, and the continents changed positions. We and the demonic cultivators met, which led to a war. Yuan Province lost its good position and was connected to the demonic cultivators' continent, so it faced a life-and-death situation. Now, Yunzhong is in chaos because of the decline of One Leaf Island and North Pole Island … The world changed because of us. In other words, is it all because of us?"
"I don't think so," Qin Xi said faintly.
"We still don't know why the world changed. Even if it's because of us, so what?
Mortals say that everything is predetermined, let alone something that concerns billions of people in the world.
We're just an inducement.
Besides, Senior Hu Po said that the world is in chaos and evil thoughts are everywhere. In my opinion, people's hearts are the root of the chaos.
Look at Demon Lord Yue Ying. If he wasn't greedy, why would he do this?
Old Donkey Ma, Teacher Yu, and the others are even more so. "
Mo Tiange thought for a while and sighed. "Forget it. It happened anyway. It's meaningless to look into the cause."
"Yes, if we want to know the root of all this, we have to solve this mystery. Maybe we'll get the answer when we go to Qilin."
Mo Tiange hesitated. "Senior Martial Brother, do you really think we'll get the answer if we go to Qilin?
We've been to four sacrificial temples, but we didn't get anything. "
Qin Xi smiled. "Even so, we have to go to Qilin.
We know too little and can do too little. There's nothing else we can do except this. "
"En …"
Several days later, news came from Kunzhong City that Jing Xingzhi had returned to Gujian Sect and was called Venerable Swordsman Still Water.
Mo Tiange giggled. He was really called Venerable Swordsman Still Water!
Speaking of which, his return made Gujian Sect overjoyed and Tiandao Sect worried.
In addition to Venerable Swordsman Yuanying, there were two other Nascent Soul sword cultivators in Gujian Sect. They were both in the early stage and seemed to have mediocre aptitudes. Jing Xingzhi's return happened to fill this gap.
He had high aptitudes, strong swordsmanship, young age, and was already in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul realm, so it was very likely that he would advance to the late stage.
As for Venerable Swordsman Yuanying, he was about the same age as Lord Daoist Zhenyang. If there were no accidents, he could live for another six or seven hundred years.
If Jing Xingzhi had enough fated chances, this amount of time would be enough for him to advance to the late stage.
As long as there were cultivators in the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, Gujian Sect could always maintain its transcendent position.
As for Tiandao Sect, they only had five Nascent Soul cultivators. If no more disciples advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, they would be suppressed by Gujian Sect sooner or later.
Jing Xingzhi's return almost made Liu Dingyuan's head turn white from worry.
Compared to Tiandao Sect, Xuanqing School was much calmer.
Gujian Sect had many Nascent Soul cultivators, but were they more than them?
The current Xuanqing School wasn't the Xuanqing School from two hundred years ago. Besides, with that huge amount of resources, would they need to worry about having no successors?
Speaking of which, the disciples attracted by Qin Xi's soul-formation were also about to form their Gold Cores.
The sects in the Celestial Pole grew and declined. Generally speaking, it was still stable, but Yunzhong was a mess.
After the incident in Carefree Valley, Jiuyan Sect had a falling out with Yue Mountain Academy, Danxia Sect, and Five Elements Valley. They united with the small and medium-sized cultivation groups that were killed in Carefree Valley and fought each other to the death.
The cultivation world in Yunzhong had been peaceful for too long. Once this fight broke out, the losses were especially huge. However, no one could stop.
Nearly thirty Nascent Soul cultivators died at the same time — how shocking was that?
How could the sects of those fallen cultivators swallow this anger?
This kind of blood feud would certainly be passed down from generation to generation until one side was defeated or ended by a stronger force.
And all of this had nothing to do with Mo Tiange and the others who left Yunzhong.
* * *
Inside the Virtual Sky World, the spiritual aura was almost tangible. In front of Xiaofan's house, a vast and distant aura gathered the water spiritual aura into a stream.
Xiaofeng came to greet them. "Master, Madam."
Mo Tiange asked, "How is it?"
Xiaofeng reported, "It's almost done. It'll probably happen in one or two days."
Mo Tiange nodded then asked, "What about Feifei and Xiaohuo?"
"If nothing unexpected happens, Xiaohuo will make a realm-breakthrough in three to five years. As for Feifei …" Xiaofeng shrugged. "His situation is unusual. Probably only he knows about it."
"Then … what about Shitou?" Mo Tiange turned her head to look, but she couldn't find Shitou's huge body.
"Madam, what do you want to ask?
If it's cultivation level … "Xiaofeng said with some embarrassment," Please forgive Xiaofeng's ignorance, but I really don't know how to classify it, so … "
On the surface, Shitou looked like a demonic beast, but its flesh and blood had long changed and now looked like Shitou's. Moreover, its aura was mixed … so it really couldn't be classified.
"Forget it." Mo Tiange decided to give up. "Shitou isn't our spiritual beast; he's just Feifei's friend. Don't worry about him, just let him live there."
Xiaofeng nodded. Just as she was about to report the situation of the Virtual Sky World, the stream in front of Xiaofan's house suddenly moved and the water rushed into the house.
With a "splash" sound, the house was suddenly washed away, revealing a huge mass of water.
A person was wrapped in the clear water. As the water swirled rapidly, it slowly became shallow. When the water ran out, that person slowly fell to the ground.
This was a teenager about eighteen or nineteen years old. He looked a bit older than Feifei, but he didn't have Feifei's bewitching handsomeness. He was dressed in low-key cyan-gray clothes, plain and unremarkable.
However, if one took a closer look, they would find that his eyes and brows were clear with a hint of shyness. His whole body was like water, incomparably clean, making people unable to have any filthy thoughts.
"Greetings, Master."
After landing, the teenager stepped forward and saluted Mo Tiange. Seeing Qin Xi beside her, he wanted to salute him too, but he hesitated. He didn't know what to call Qin Xi, so he showed an embarrassed expression.
Seeing this, Mo Tiange smiled and said, "Xiaofan?"
"Yes." Xiaofan regained his composure.
"How was it?
Did the transformation go smoothly? "
"En."
Xiaofan looked happy and said, "I've integrated the Black Tortoise Pearl into my beast core, and all my spiritual aura has been transformed into Black Tortoise's breath. I'm no different from Divine Beast Black Tortoise now."
"That's good."
Mo Tiange felt that his breath was solid, so there shouldn't be any future troubles, so she said, "Get ready. We're going out to cross the tribulation."