Watching Xiao Xuantong acting so absurdly, Ruan Wei couldn't help a faint smile from surfacing.
"Seeing Xiao Xuantong, how is it? Do you feel even more motivated to save the world now?"
The System spoke up suddenly.
Ruan Wei turned her gaze to the brand-new Mustard Seed Bag and hooked the corners of her lips into a smile, as sharp and biting as spring snow. "Someone like him deserves a rather different ending."
"Ruan Wei, hold out your hand."
Feng Wuya said, then produced a Spirit Stone.
"Hold it, and channel your spiritual qi into it. Once I see your spiritual root, I will choose a suitable cultivation method for you."
A tiny stone hovered before Ruan Wei, its surface flickering with multicolored, shifting radiance.
Ruan Wei did as she was told and grasped it. Though she had been poisoned by the Ruan Family, her Innate Spiritual Body did not affect the natural flow of her own spiritual qi.
The moment the spiritual qi was transmitted into the Spirit Stone, it burst into a brilliant glow.
The entire White Jade Hall was illuminated by the dazzling reflection. Five-colored radiance surged, roiled, and danced, and the hidden five-element spiritual qi of heaven and earth unexpectedly emerged, joyfully wrapping around Ruan Wei at the center of the light.
"An Innate Spiritual Body is truly extraordinary." Feng Wuya was pleasantly surprised. Innate Spiritual Bodies were far too rare; even the ancient records of the entire Tongzhou could not find ten instances, and Ruan Wei was the very first Innate Spiritual Body in the Penglai Immortal Sect.
An Innate Spiritual Body was also hailed as a Dao-Bred Spiritual Body.
It was truly suited for walking this grand path of cultivation.
Ruan Wei was temporarily dazzled; the scene before her was far too splendid, somewhat resembling the molten iron fireworks she had seen in the Modern World. Standing in the center of the radiant light, holding the Spirit Stone, and surrounded by overflowing spiritual qi, her mind and soul trembled.
"Hold your breath, quiet your mind, close your eyes, and follow your spiritual qi to explore."
Seeing Ruan Wei's mind in turmoil, Feng Wuya immediately reminded her.
"Understood."
Ruan Wei closed her eyes, and the originally five-colored, splendid spiritual qi gradually evolved in the darkness into one thread after another, some long and some short.
Suddenly, an extremely lively cyan thread unconsciously brushed against Ruan Wei's fingertips.
As her mind stirred slightly, she instinctively tightened her grip around that thread.
Feng Wuya watched the five-element spiritual qi constantly dissipating within the hall until, finally, only a single kind of spiritual qi remained.
His pupils constricted slightly.
Fate, and destiny.
At that moment, Ruan Wei also opened her eyes. Looking at the thread entwined around her fingertip, she suddenly understood why the Ruan Family was determined to drag her back.
Feng Wuya was standing right in front of Ruan Wei now. He also leaned down, tugged gently on the condensed water-elemental thread in Ruan Wei's hand, and said, "Water spiritual root."
As expected, a water spiritual root.
According to the usual tropes in immortal cultivation novels, a water spiritual root meant no end of trouble.
Ruan Wei frowned slightly.
"Wonderful."
Feng Wuya smiled. His cultivation was so high that no matter from which angle Ruan Wei looked at him, her eyes would actually blur—an unavoidable consequence of an insurmountable gap in cultivation.
Yet at this moment, Ruan Wei could see Feng Wuya clearly. In truth, this Immortal Venerable possessed a serene countenance, as if he could tolerate and encompass all living things and beings under heaven, yet his smile right now appeared utterly unbridled.
"Do not worry." Feng Wuya casually waved that strand of spiritual qi away, a flash of coldness crossing his phoenix eyes. "The path of the Great Dao is long and arduous. Since you possess an Innate Spiritual Body, you are one who belongs to the Dao; there is no logic in this world that says a water spiritual root cannot cultivate. If anyone with eyes blind to your worth provokes you, fight them if you can win, and come home if you cannot. I will fight them for you."
Fighting... fighting can actually involve running home to tell the elders?
Is this the joy of a brat with powerful backing?
Ruan Wei's eyes instantly lit up. She had been well-behaved since childhood, and back in the Modern World, she loathed those parents who brought unruly brats onto high-speed trains.
With that, as if feeling his words were a bit plain, he drifted a few paces outward, his backhand drawing the spirit sword from his waist to casually flick a sword flower. With a shift of flowing light, a crystal flower condensed from water hung at the tip of the sword.
Holy crap, magic!
This was Ruan Wei's first time seeing sword qi manifest into a physical form.
Because several of the junior uncle-masters she would meet in the future could all do this, she assumed—both now and for a long time to come while cultivating in the Penglai Immortal Sect—that this was a very common skill.
Little did she know that manifesting sword qi into physical form required at least reaching the Nascent Soul stage to comprehend.
"Look," Feng Wuya flicked his wrist, extending the tip of his sword forward to place the crystal flower right before Ruan Wei's eyes. "I am also a water spiritual root."
Such a pretty flower.
Her expression went blank for a moment.
Feng Wuya put away his sword and placed the crystal flower into Ruan Wei's palm.
"Water is the origin of all things; water is both the softest and the hardest. You... read fewer vernacular romance novels written by the people of Tongzhou, they rot the brain. It is true that there are some uncivilized savages in this world who regard water spiritual roots as cultivation cauldrons, but—"
Feng Wuya paused, looking down at the child standing below his waist. The child was so remarkably born, and so meticulously raised. Growing up in a grand clan like the Ruan Family, if not for the sudden upheaval, she would never have had to worry about anyone plotting against her for her entire life.
Amidst the billowing white Daoist robes, Ruan Wei, who was lowering her head to examine the water-condensed flower, suddenly felt a warmth on the top of her head.
"You need only determine your Dao, seek your Dao, and validate your Dao."
Feng Wuya ruffled Ruan Wei's two hair buns, his gaze cold and fierce. "Then take your sword and knock some sense into them."
Ooh—
Taking advantage of this body being only eleven years old, Ruan Wei blinked and gossiped, "Master is a man, yet he has also encountered such savages?"
As if this stirred Feng Wuya's memories, the thin corners of his lips curved upward slightly, a cruel and biting smile in his eyes like a freezing wind. "Naturally. Savages do not distinguish between men and women."
"Did Master knock some sense into them, then?"
"Mhm, knocked until they melted away, and knocked until they bloomed."
Ooh—truly worthy of being among the top two in swordsmanship.
"Once you practice your swordsmanship well, you will also be able to knock some sense into them."
"Understood, Master."
Seeing that the girl seemed to need a more refined upbringing, Feng Wuya added, "The Mustard Seed Bag I gave you earlier contains immortal dresses and a spirit sword. Dress prettily, and you can even use a pink spirit sword to beat them."
"...Understood, Master."
Seeing that Ruan Wei still seemed inclined to listen—though this was hardly suitable for a child to hear—Feng Wuya smoothly changed the subject. "Was it because of this that the Ruan Family kept hunting you down?"
"Not just this." Ruan Wei shook her head. Recalling the spirit sword her father had finally handed to Ruan Nanzhi in her memories, she thought for a moment and felt there was no need to conceal it from Feng Wuya. "There is also Chitu. According to the Ruan Family rules, whoever the Chitu Sword acknowledges is the Clan Head."
Feng Wuya recalled the object wrapped in tattered cloth at Ruan Nanzhi's waist, pondering, "No wonder he dared to return alone."
"With that sword to back him up, the Ruan Family would not dare to make a move openly. Though Ruan Nanzhi is young, he has obtained the recognition of the Ruan Family's ancestral spirit sword. Returning to the Ruan Family makes him the legitimate young master."
Ruan Wei nodded. "I am different. Older brother cannot take me back."
"If I go back, I will become a noose around older brother's neck."
Feng Wuya fell silent for a moment.
This second disciple of his was truly too intelligent.
She understood her own predicament, and she also knew why Ruan Nanzhi had brought her to Penglai—yet she was merely an eleven-year-old child.
Quite good, she complemented Xiao Xuantong rather well.
He had taken in a foolish eldest disciple, and now he had made up for it with a clever second disciple.
Ruan Wei continued, "To control older brother, they must control me. But they cannot let me die, which is why they poisoned me."
She held out her wrist. Upon her slender wrist, the mark of the black Yin serpent seemed to have crawled upward by another few inches.
"In the beginning it was just my fingertip, and in ten-odd days it crawled up to my wrist." After showing Feng Wuya, Ruan Wei lowered her sleeve, concealing the mark.
Feng Wuya pondered for a moment, raised his hand, and swept his robe. "Let's go."
Again with this.
Ruan Wei was already somewhat used to the Penglai habit of teleporting without warning.
Opening her eyes once more, she found herself in a courtyard.
The courtyard was heavy with the fresh fragrance of medicinal herbs. The entire room was filled with winnowing baskets, bamboo rain hats, silk threads, and vessels containing numerous unknown medicinal herbs.
"Yanjun, Cui Yanjun."
Feng Wuya called out. A cyan figure emerged at the sound. The newcomer had three thousand strands of white hair, an ornate jade bead headband resting across her forehead, sharp and piercing brows and eyes, and a temperament as serene as snow on pine trees.
"Is this the newly accepted second junior-nephew?"
Cui Yanjun asked. Without waiting for Feng Wuya to reply, she strode over, circled Ruan Wei twice, observed her complexion, and suddenly frowned. "Poisoned?"
"Mhm. Ruan Wei, this is your Third Uncle-Master." As Feng Wuya spoke, he motioned for Ruan Wei to roll up her sleeve. Squatting down, he pointed at the mark and said, "Junior Sister, save her."
Pfft.
The corner of Ruan Wei's mouth twitched; it was a close call that she hadn't burst out laughing.
Accustomed to Feng Wuya's unreliability, Cui Yanjun also bent down and placed her fingers on Ruan Wei's wrist to check her pulse. A moment later, she asked in astonishment, "An Innate Spiritual Body?"
The two of them nodded.
"This poison is somewhat complicated. Whose family's work is it?"
Ruan Wei raised a finger and pointed at herself.
Cui Yanjun was greatly shocked. "Did the Ruan Family consent? An Innate Spiritual Body and they still use her to test medicines in person?"
"Still?"
The scene fell into silence.
She didn't understand this Uncle-Master's train of thought, but she respected it. Ruan Wei twitched the corner of her mouth and explained, "It is Heart-Devouring Powder."
"Heart-Devouring Powder." Cui Yanjun seemed to understand somewhat, her brows furrowing. "A secret poison of the Ruan Family. Those poisoned retain less than ten percent of their spiritual power, and every three years brings a great tribulation. Once the mark surfaces on the heart, there is no cure."
Vicious, truly vicious.
The Ruan Family really had no sense of proportion. An innate spiritual body like the original owner—how formidable would she have been had she grown up? They should have raised her properly instead of trying to poison her to death.
The System popped up uninvited.
[Growing up would be the end of them. They killed your father right before the eyes of you two siblings.]
Ruan Wei thought, "That is true enough."
Since she had taken over this body, the grievances and vengeance belonging to it naturally fell upon her.
This debt of blood, she would definitely repay.
"Retaining less than ten percent of your spiritual power does not apply to your Innate Spiritual Body, however. You can draw the spiritual qi right back in with a single breath. It's just that the Ruan Family's poison is combined with the Miao ethnic sorcery of those days, making it difficult to cure."
"Wait outside."
With that, Cui Yanjun turned and went back into the room to tinker.
"Master, Third Uncle-Master's hair..." Ruan Wei hesitated, still wanting to ask.
A cultivator of Feng Wuya's age would have formed their Golden Core early on, and their appearance would naturally freeze at that time. Aside from some special cultivation methods, white-haired cultivators were exceedingly rare in the Cultivation World.
"Oh, she ate the wrong medicine." Feng Wuya wandered around the small courtyard, stashing herbs drying in the sun into his own Mustard Seed Bag. "She created a new medicinal pill, brewed it, ate it herself, and ended up like this."
At the end, Feng Wuya added gloomily, "And it wasn't just medicinal pills; poisonous pellets weren't in short supply either."
Ah, as expected.
This Third Uncle-Master certainly looked extraordinary.
Shennong tasted a hundred herbs, but Uncle-Master ate a hundred poisons.
Ruan Wei asked sincerely, "Why didn't she refine one to turn her hair back?"
Feng Wuya recalled for a moment. "She ate too much and forgot which ones she had eaten."
Thinking of something, he chuckled. "Our Master—ah, that is, your grand-master—saw Yanjun's white hair back then and thought her lifespan was coming to an end. He was so frightened he dragged her by the collar to the Tianji Pavilion in Tongzhou to divine her remaining years."
"When they came back, he gave Cháojiàn and Yanjun a joint beating."
Ruan Wei wiped away a sweat. "What did Second Uncle-Master have to do with this?"
"Yanjun is a dull one," Feng Wuya recalled his mischievously malicious second junior brother, "and Cháojiàn loves excitement. He was the one who egged Junior Sister on to test the pill herself."
Such... such a pitfall of a senior brother.
He was starting to feel a bit like Xiao Xuantong.