How many people couldn't sleep that night, Gu Chengshu had no way of knowing; she was already completely captivated by the crazed surge of spiritual energy.
Compared to the Cliff of Reflection, her little home in Xiaohe Valley was simply worlds apart.
Gu Chengshu fancied she could hear the rushing sound of blood and spiritual energy flowing together as the Heaven and Earth Formula guided the energy into her meridians.
Every single meridian seemed to sprout countless tributaries. Following the circulation path of the Heaven and Earth Formula, they converged into the Dantian, gushing forth from it once more to broaden the meridians and carve out new tributaries.
A stream turned into a brook, a brook into a mighty river, a mighty river into the Yangtze, and the Yangtze poured onward into the sea...
Gu Chengshu was utterly intoxicated by her own grand imagination.
Xiaohe Valley was truly wonderful; such a splendid place was her home.
Could she just stay right here without ever stepping outside and advance all the way?
Gu Chengshu was utterly in love with the spiritual energy that poured in all by itself without needing to be guided.
It was her foundation for surviving in the world of cultivation, her ultimate backing to truly avenge the original owner!
The Yin Family was merely vomiting up what they had eaten and drunk of hers.
Yin Zhenghai's true goal wasn't just her current wealth.
Besides, after seizing everything, would he really let her live?
Even the original owner had suspected that she would ultimately die by some "accident."
Finishing one full cycle, Gu Chengshu exhaled a breath of stale air and set sail once more!
True Monarch Feng Lan beside her was naturally no slower. She could already feel the joy of the body forming its own universe, where blood and spiritual energy were mutually intertwined—you within me, and I within you.
So... this was the correct way to unlock them?
For all these years, she...
With no time to dwell on regrets, True Monarch Feng Lan began a second cycle once more.
In the quiet, peaceful Xiaohe Valley, two hearts burned with warmth.
Up on Tianxiang Peak, however, Yin Zhenghai—having just sent off the three Yin Family brothers—felt his heart turn cold. Beads of chilling sweat were breaking out across his back.
The sect's attitude toward him... had changed.
Otherwise, where would that little girl Wan Linglong have found the audacity to threaten to drag members of the Yin Family to the Punishment Hall for a chat?
It was merely a matter of unpaid debts, not murder.
Yin Zhenghai sat rigidly in his chair, unable to move for a long, long time.
Thirteen years. For thirteen subtle, imperceptible years—even if that spiritual control seed had not yet fully matured, it still...
A sudden thought struck Yin Zhenghai. He sprang to his feet and bolted straight for the Cliff of Reflection.
Legend had it that this was where the foundational ancestor of the Lingyun Sect had once attained enlightenment.
It was right here that she gained her insight and ascended.
Standing in the exact spot where Gu Chengshu had sat for three straight months, Yin Zhenghai rapidly formed hand seals.
A moment later, he pressed a finger against his very own forehead.
Sure enough, that tethered, controllable seed had vanished right here.
*Gulp!*
Yin Zhenghai swallowed hard, his complexion turning ghastly pale.
Was it Geng Shu's doing?
Had he discovered something and deliberately dumped Chengshu at the Cliff of Reflection?
Yet how could he possibly have known that Chengshu could harness the unique properties of the Cliff of Reflection to dissolve the spiritual control seed he had planted in her sea of consciousness?
To prevent detection, that trace of the spiritual control seed had never been fully formed, but even with just a tiny sliver of it, Chengshu should never have been able to defy him so fiercely.
No!
There had to be something else here—something he failed to understand.
Agitated and flustered, Yin Zhenghai could not help thinking once more of that ledger which had utterly stripped him, his son, and the entire Yin Family of all their dignity.
Logically speaking, such a ledger shouldn't have existed.
Shouldn't a young girl ignored by the sect and spurned by everyone have clung desperately to his coattails, becoming even more dependent and trusting of him?
He was supposed to be her only light...
Yin Zhenghai's pupils abruptly contracted.
Yin Zhengjiang had wailed to him that Yu Sanchong had taken advantage of the situation to completely clean out Baochang Pavilion.
It was Baochang Pavilion.
Eight years ago, a branch of Baochang Pavilion had opened right next door to the little cultivation shop.
It must have been because his cousin Yin Zhengjiang acted too heavy-handedly, alerting that old fox Yu Sanchong to something amiss ahead of time. So when Yu Sanchong set up a separate ledger for Baochang Pavilion, he had also prompted Chengshu to start keeping accounts!
And that very same year, around winter, Chengshu had begun actively taking on sect missions.
*Creeeak—*
Understanding everything at last, Yin Zhenghai wished he could bite those short-sighted fools back home to death.
He had told them long ago not to push things to extremes.
The duck was right there in their family pot, simmering slowly over a low flame where no one would ever notice.
Detestable...
No wonder Chengshu had so easily shattered the seed he planted.
Turns out, as early as eight years ago, before that seed had even stabilized, she had already been guarding against him and the Yin Family under Yu Sanchong's guidance!
It must have been so hard on her, playing along with their act for all these years.
Yin Zhenghai was consumed by anger, fury, and mortification.
Back then, Chengshu was only thirteen years old, yet he had been played for a fool by a thirteen-year-old child.
And the funniest part was that he had been entirely pleased with himself, still...
Yin Zhenghai closed his eyes, unable to bear the sight of what he had become.
When he learned she had to toil for days just to earn two spirit stones, he had dug out two hundred middle-grade spirit stones and handed them to her on the spot.
And what had she said?
She claimed her mother had established a strict rule for her: regardless of what her parents owned, after turning thirteen, she had to rely on herself.
He had actually been fooled by her tear-filled eyes and swallowed her absurd lies.
She was clearly using her own method to signal to those in the know that she was not the spoiled, arrogant brat everyone made her out to be.
And his laughable, foolish son...
Yin Zhenghai stormed back to Tianxiang Peak and kicked open his son's door.
"Father..."
Seeing his son flinch violently all over, Yin Zhenghai paused. Waving a hand to shut the room's restrictive barrier, he cast several more sealing spells. "Sit down!"
He let out a sigh. "It's been a very long time since our father and son sat down for a proper talk. Today, Father has things to tell you. Listen carefully. Once you're done listening, I'm taking you to the Cliff of Reflection to spend a solid three months there."
What?
Yin Cheng's mouth twitched, but in the end, he dared not talk back.
He knew very well why his uncles had rushed over in the middle of the night.
Low-grade spirit rice wasn't worth much, but when over ninety million catties were converted into spirit stones, it amounted to more than nine million spirit stones.
Over nine million!
Just thinking about how heavy the Yin Family's losses were because he called off his engagement with Chengshu, he...
"When Father was your age, times were very hard. My pouch often didn't even hold three hundred low-grade spirit stones."
To get his hands on those paltry assets of the Gu Family, he had utterly ruined his son's upbringing.
Yin Zhenghai felt a deep sense of helplessness. "Father didn't want you to follow my old path, so I had you seek Chengshu's hand in marriage under the guise of repaying a kindness.
She had neither father nor mother; as long as you treated her a little bit better, she would gladly hand over everything she had to you.
Giving it to her was no different than giving it to you.
I figured my reputation would be saved, the kindness repaid, and you would get the tangible benefits.
Yet, Yin Cheng..."
At this, even his mouth tasted bitter. "You hold your nose in the air and treat spirit stones like dirt, yet do you have any idea how your father struggled from the outer sect to the inner sect, when I got injured and couldn't even afford a single low-grade lesser healing pill?
Chengshu has wealth, looks, and is entirely submissive to you—in what way is she inferior to Geng Ruoqi?"
Yin Cheng: "..."
He no longer knew. His mind was an absolute mess.
"The questions I asked, you need to think through carefully. And that Zhang Minglin who caused you all to fight that day is no good either!"
He would never let the mastermind off the hook.
"He stepped on you and Chengshu to successfully apprentice under Geng Shu and enter the Punishment Hall. Such deep cunning... it's utterly terrifying. Yin Cheng, think about it yourself: didn't he sell you out while you were still counting the money for him?"