Jian Dan concentrated her mind, sending her divine sense into the white magnolia flower floating within her sea of consciousness. Like a zooming camera lens, she saw that only a hundred square meters of the Immortal Artifact's Space were visible, while the rest was shrouded in white mist. In the middle of the open ground stood a Bamboo House, and beside it was a water well.
Various flowers and plants had been planted around the Bamboo House, but every single one was a Tier 1 to Tier 3 spirit herb, spirit flower, or spirit vine. Clinging to the exterior walls of the Bamboo House in a riot of brilliant colors, they looked quite lovely, completely concealing the outer walls.
To Jian Dan, these spirit plants would remain useful all the way until the Foundation Establishment stage, which was quite good. When her divine sense entered the Bamboo House, the interior space was obviously much larger than it appeared from the outside—a clear indication that a spatial array had been used.
The first thing that caught her eye was an ink wash landscape painting. With just a few strokes, it outlined distant mountains, a forest, an octagonal pavilion, and a stream at the foot of the mountain, creating an atmosphere of utter tranquility and serene detachment, carrying a hint of melancholy. In the lower left corner was the signature: Jian Qingyue of the Jian Clan.
Directly beneath the scroll stood a rectangular altar table made of tranquil-soul wood. It emitted a fragrance into the space that soothed the soul, making Jian Dan feel thoroughly comforted as her divine sense entered.
On the table sat a jade-stone circular disk divided into five sections, corresponding to the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth. Embedded right in the center was a translucent crystal orb. This was a spirit-testing disk from the ancient era, capable of simultaneously testing spiritual root attributes, bone structure, and aptitude.
In front of the altar table were placed three futons woven from Tier 6 soul-condensing grass and spirit-gathering vines. Meditating and cultivating on such futons could enhance one's cultivation while refining the soul, achieving twice the result with half the effort; they were rare and precious treasures indeed.
Aside from these, the other three sides were simply bamboo walls.
Jian Dan withdrew her divine sense from the Space. Since she currently lacked cultivation, she was unable to conduct a full exploration of the Space. Her very first step was to cleanse her marrow and wash away impurities to enhance her physical potential.
Jian Dan grabbed a cup and walked straight into the bathroom, filling the bathtub two-thirds full of water.
Then, reaching her hand into the hot water, she focused her intent and made the well water from the Space seep into it. Only after the water in the bathtub became noticeably clearer did she stop adding water, while also pouring some well water into her cup.
Afterward, Jian Dan stripped off her clothes, sat cross-legged in the water, and drained the cup of water in one gulp. The well water tasted cool, sweet, and crisp upon entering her mouth, instantly jolting her mind awake.
Jian Dan knew this was no ordinary well water; it was actually a remarkably fine top-grade Spirit Spring. She hoped this would lead to a more comprehensive enhancement of her aptitude.
Jian Dan's breathing slowly grew deep and even. Relaxing her body, she closed her eyes and sat cross-legged in the warm water. Mist billowed within the bathroom, casting an ethereal, almost unreal haze over her face, as if she might vanish at any moment.
Immediately, a surge of power burst forth from within her body, wreaking havoc on her physical form from the inside out. Her internal organs, bones, meridians, blood, skin, and hair were subjected to wave after wave of ripples that spread outward like unfurling water rings, growing faster and more intense with each passing wave. Jian Dan felt as though she were a block of ice on the verge of melting.
Her divine sense, which was stronger than that of ordinary people, allowed her to perceive the microscopic changes in her body with absolute clarity, subjecting her to an indescribable agony—or rather, the pain eventually grew so intense that she became somewhat numb to it.
Clenching her teeth, she endured it fiercely, refusing to let a single scream escape her lips.
She even felt as though she could no longer sense her own teeth. Time seemed to stretch and then contract as she weathered wave after wave of cleansing.
Just when Jian Dan felt her soul was about to dissipate, the rippling water waves began to contract from the outside in, like a slow-motion rewind, repairing her battered body from the exterior inward. Her hair, skin, blood vessels, meridians, bones, and internal organs slowly recovered. With a flash of bright light, everything was restored as good as new, as if the ordeal had merely been an illusion.
Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and Jian Dan slowly opened her eyes. She exhaled a breath of stale air, stood up from the muddied, turbid water, and after washing off, returned to her bedroom to find that it was already past midnight.
This time, she tried communicating with the white magnolia flower Immortal Artifact. The moment she made contact, the Space twisted briefly, and her physical form was drawn inside.
Entering the Bamboo House directly this time, she placed her hand upon the spirit-testing disk.
The five-colored spiritual light of the testing disk flashed sequentially. Following that, the five beads representing gold, wood, water, fire, and earth grew brighter and brighter, their shimmering lights seemingly on the verge of overflowing.
This indicated that Jian Dan possessed the Chaos Spiritual Root—a five-element spiritual root whose bone structure and potential had reached over ninety. Although the five spiritual roots were not at maximum value, their numerical values were identical.
The central orb flashed with the seven colors of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple, finally settling on a steady cyan. This signified an aptitude that was slightly below superior. Then, a column of cyan light shot out from the central orb toward the painting hanging before the altar table.
Amidst a churning billow of clouds and mist, the distant mountains and forests in the painting slowly grew blurry before eventually dissolving into nothingness. From within the painting emerged a man dressed in a wide-sleeved cyan robe.
The figure in the painting slowly turned around, his features exquisitely handsome and his expression exceptionally gentle, looking toward Jian Dan with mild and tender eyes.