The Cold Jade Lock was kept by the original owner in a hidden compartment of the carved-wood canopy bed inside her boudoir.
This hidden compartment had been crafted by Ning Mi himself, and only Ning Mi and the original owner knew of it. Its location was extremely secluded, tucked tightly against the corner of the wall.
Following her memory, Leng Zhuxin tapped three times near the corner of the wall, and a hidden compartment sprang out from the bedpost. The compartment was not large—only about the size of a fist. The inside was lined with a layer of soft cloth, holding a longevity lock that looked like ice and jade.
The moment she touched it, a bone-chilling cold pierced her. Leng Zhuxin could barely bear the frostiness after just a single touch, so she had to pull the red cord attached to the Cold Jade Lock to drag it out.
The Cold Jade Lock swayed with her movement. Besides the characters for "Longevity, Fortune, and Longevity" inscribed upon it, there was also a pattern that was vaguely floral yet not quite a flower. Leng Zhuxin did not recognize it, but she felt it might be some sort of clan emblem.
Moreover, Leng Zhuxin could sense the immense spiritual power contained within this lock.
Connecting this to the spiritual blood—which, having been exchanged only halfway, had allowed Leng Yueyao to safely give birth and her cultivation to advance by leaps and bounds—as well as the original owner's Heavenly Water Spiritual Root, Leng Zhuxin guessed that the original owner, or rather her identity, was far from simple.
The original plot did not describe how this lock was used, nor had Ning Mi told the original owner.
Relying on her own more than twenty years of experience in Taoism and the immortal cultivation novels she had read, Leng Zhuxin decided to try making the spiritual object recognize its master. Spiritual objects usually recognized their masters through fingertip blood, tongue-tip blood, or heart's blood.
Leng Zhuxin was reluctant to part with her heart's blood, so she first used a dagger to prick her fingertip. The cut was not large, but it was enough for blood to flow.
Leng Zhuxin swiftly pressed her index finger against the Cold Jade Lock, and the biting cold spread through her entire body from her index finger. The Cold Jade Lock flashed with a cold light and actually began to suck her blood of its own accord, stopping only when the entire lock was dyed a crimson red.
Leng Zhuxin was already stiff with cold, feeling as though every drop of blood in her body was about to freeze. Sensing that the Cold Jade Lock had stopped absorbing blood and that her body was beginning to warm up slightly, she intended to go lie down on the bed to recover.
Unexpectedly, the moment she lifted her foot, the Dimension spun, and she found herself in an unfamiliar environment.
It was a Dimension about the size of one mu, entirely surrounded by mist. On the left was a small pool of water about the size of two bathtubs, and on the right was a small plot of medicinal fields where a dozen or so unknown spiritual herbs grew scattered about.
Right in the middle, slightly behind the medicinal fields and the pool, stood a thatched cottage, with barren land making up the rest.
The spiritual Qi within the Dimension was so dense it seemed almost tangible, making Leng Zhuxin feel slightly dizzy from the spiritual abundance. She felt as though she unconsciously absorbed spiritual Qi with every breath she took.
Looking at the Dimension, which could be taken in at a single glance, Leng Zhuxin walked to the edge and touched the white mist enclosing the place. She discovered that the white mist actually possessed a certain elasticity; pressing against it felt just like touching a balloon, though it could not be punctured.
Peering closely inward through the mist, mountain ranges were faintly visible. This made Leng Zhuxin somewhat happy, as she guessed that the space inside was not just this large; she simply did not know how to break through the white mist barrier for the time being.
After studying the white mist for a while, Leng Zhuxin walked over to the pool. Mist hovered over the water, shadowy and obscure, making the surface difficult to see. Reaching out to touch it, she found it was actually cold mist. The spiritual Qi within the cold mist was even denser than that in the open air. Touching the water beneath the cold mist, she found it exceptionally icy as well.
Leng Zhuxin carefully sensed it, and felt that this pool water seemed to be condensed from spiritual Qi, very likely the Cold Abyss spiritual water that Leng Yueyao had produced. Yet she did not know why Leng Yueyao could only retrieve spiritual water from outside the lock, while she had actually entered the interior of the Dimension.
Still, it was ultimately a good thing. Turning back up and looking toward the thatched cottage, through the half-open wooden window she could see a portrait hanging inside.
The portrait was hung upside down, so its appearance could not be clearly seen, though it vaguely resembled a human figure.
Driven by curiosity, Leng Zhuxin walked up to the thatched cottage, took a deep breath, slammed open the wooden door, and simultaneously formed a hand seal to exterminate ghosts.
The ancestors' notes had recorded that the denser the spiritual Qi of a Dimension, the more the original master of the space could survive within it in a ghostly form, waiting for an opportunity to seize a body.
Full of vigilance, Leng Zhuxin looked around the room, which was about fifteen square meters in size. On the wall directly opposite hung the upside-down portrait she had seen earlier through the window.
Right in the center sat a table, upon which rested a jade-like green bamboo writing brush, with a few sheets of talisman paper placed beside it.
They must be a talisman cultivator, Leng Zhuxin guessed, walking into the room with extreme caution. After finding no abnormalities, she relaxed slightly. Turning around, she saw that on the wall to the left of the door stood a shelf sparsely holding only a few jade slips and jade bottles, while the right side held several stacks of various talismans.
The patterns on the talismans were different from the ghost-catching talismans, peace talismans, and others that Leng Zhuxin had learned, yet they shared the same ingenuity. Both belonged to connecting with the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth to draw them, though these were far more complex.
Aside from these items, there was nothing else within sight.
Only then did Leng Zhuxin walk with utmost caution toward the upside-down portrait, stood on tiptoe, and took the portrait down.
Behind the portrait were a book and a jade bottle. Leng Zhuxin did not rush to take the two items out, but instead laid the portrait flat on the table.
It was a woman dressed in red with wide robes and narrow sleeves, possessing very bold and heroic features. Her stern expression made her seem unapproachable even in a painting. The woman held a brush in her left hand and a sword in her right, with the deep and boundless ocean behind her.
Leng Zhuxin inexplicably felt that the woman's appearance was somewhat familiar. After staring in a daze for a moment, she realized that this woman actually shared a sixty-percent resemblance to both her and the original owner. It was only because their temperaments were different and it was a painting that she had failed to recognize her immediately.
"She must be some ancestor," Leng Zhuxin thought, while noticing that the scroll axis seemed to hold some other mystery.
She carefully unrolled the scroll axis, and after confirming there were no hidden weapons, she took out the item inside. It was a bamboo-joint-shaped jade bottle—different from the big-bellied jade bottles usually used—with three small characters inscribed on the body: "Marrow Cleansing Pill."
Other than that, there was nothing else.
Not daring to take it rashly, Leng Zhuxin first restored the scroll, then took out the book and jade bottle from behind the portrait, hung the portrait back up, and sat on the bamboo chair inside the room to open the book.
A name was written on the flyleaf of the book: "Leng Hua."