Chapter 25

Xu Yizhuo confessed everything in full detail.

“What you saw was not my memory,” Di Xiang said after a long silence.

Xu Yizhuo rubbed her slightly aching neck and casually said, “Was it Zhuang Yi’s?”

Guessing the answer did not really take much skill. In the past recreated by the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror, Zhuang Yi had always been there. By contrast, in the first scene, Di Xiang had only appeared at the very end.

Xu Yizhuo’s soul had entered the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror. The moment her soul was drawn in, her body had collapsed, and Di Xiang had casually placed it beside the black lotus.

Xu Yizhuo looked into the broken mirror. The lotus flower inside had already returned to its original state.

“Zhuang Yi’s soul entered reincarnation after her death, but because she was closely connected to the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror, a small piece of it remained inside the mirror.” Di Xiang looked at Xu Yizhuo with an indescribable expression. “Strictly speaking, the owner of the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror is still me. Logically, I should be able to see the memories of anyone whose cultivation is lower than mine, but you… clearly had not even drawn qi into your body yet.”

The Fangsheng Lotus Mirror had failed to recreate Xu Yizhuo’s past. Instead, by accident, she had triggered Zhuang Yi’s remnant soul.

Xu Yizhuo pretended she did not understand what Di Xiang was talking about and looked away, acting dumb.

She deliberately changed the subject. “The true reason for Guque’s destruction was actually internal, right?”

Di Xiang had hinted that the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror was the answer to Guque’s destruction. Xu Yizhuo had not understood what she meant at first, but after watching the final part of Zhuang Yi’s memories, she had a guess.

“The Yangshu Desert has been plagued by frequent sandstorms since ancient times. It was not that frequent sandstorms only appeared after Guque’s fall. Rather, it had already been like this before Guque was established.” Di Xiang said, “It was the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror that protected Guque for several hundred years. After me, only Zhuang Yi and her descendants could command the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror. Neither she nor I ever imagined that several hundred years later, the nobles in the city would harbor rebellious intentions and attempt to replace Zhuang Yi’s descendants as the rulers of Guque.”

“They succeeded in forcing the palace, but after the Guque ruler of that time abdicated, they broke their word and burned all twenty-seven members of the royal family to death inside the palace. After Zhuang Yi’s final descendant died, the connection between Guque and the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror was severed. That very night, a sandstorm swept through all five cities of Guque and directly buried them beneath the yellow sand.”

Di Xiang’s tone did not fluctuate much, as if she no longer cared about this matter. But Xu Yizhuo knew that if Di Xiang had truly let it go, Lotus City would not be in its current state.

“On the night Guque was destroyed, my remnant soul also awakened from the mirror.” Di Xiang smiled. “I gathered all the souls of Guque’s dead and used Soul-Detaining Lanterns to keep them here. Every season when sandstorms are frequent, they must experience the day of Guque’s destruction night after night.”

Xu Yizhuo heard a trace of coldness.

Guque had already fallen for two hundred years, which meant Di Xiang had taken revenge on the people of Guque for two hundred years.

“Counting the time,” Di Xiang said leisurely, “Lotus City should have been destroyed around this time.”

Xu Yizhuo instinctively looked outside and saw that the sandstorm was already very close. It had probably already crossed the city walls.

“The royal palace was the only place not invaded by the sandstorm. That day, the nobles in the city all fled toward the royal palace for shelter. However, those who knew where the bridge mechanism was had already been burned to death by them inside the palace. They could only swim across the lake.” Di Xiang reached out and fiddled with the petals of the black lotus. “But they did not know that the lake water existed because of the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror. After the royal family was wiped out, the living water turned into quicksand. Confused by the illusion, they were swallowed by the yellow sand one after another.”

Xu Yizhuo faintly heard the noise of people.

Di Xiang curved her lips. “They are here.”

At the outermost edge of the lotus flowers, Xu Yizhuo saw swaying, crisscrossing firelight.

From here, one could see people surrounding the lake.

Back then, Di Xiang must have sat on the altar just like today, watching indifferently as the nobles who had fled for their lives searched all around the lakeside but failed to find the bridge mechanism, before being driven into the quicksand one by one.

When Di Xiang took revenge, she truly did not show the slightest mercy.

“Since I have the power to take revenge, why should I hold back?” Di Xiang asked in return.

Only then did Xu Yizhuo realize she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

“When dealing with enemies, being softhearted is the most laughable method.” Di Xiang stood up and looked down at Xu Yizhuo from above. “Putting aside the fact that you carry divine artifacts yet have no ability to protect yourself, if you remain this softhearted, one day you probably won’t even know how you died.”

Xu Yizhuo muttered softly in a voice only she could hear, “When it comes to saving my life, I should be able to manage, right?”

Di Xiang suddenly made a sound of surprise.

Xu Yizhuo did not know what had happened and looked at her in confusion.

Di Xiang said, “Earlier, you [stolen content]had not even drawn qi into your body. How did you reach Qi Refining in the blink of an eye?”

Xu Yizhuo let out an “ah.” It turned out that when Di Xiang finished explaining the Soul-Detaining Lanterns, the quest related to Guque had already been completed. The experience that arrived just happened to fill the experience bar needed to advance into Qi Refining.

Xu Yizhuo searched around, but still could not find a skill button. She could not even see a normal attack.

After she transmigrated into this world, skill books had become real cultivation methods. Xu Yizhuo had fumbled for a long time before she figured out how to see the contents inside jade slips. However, the large blocks of text inside made her dizzy, and she widened her eyes at all sorts of unfamiliar acupoints.

Immortal cultivation: from entry to giving up.

Xu Yizhuo hurriedly checked things over and confirmed that she could still only be a little good-for-nothing.

Di Xiang was very puzzled. “Why is all your spiritual power bound inside your body without leaking out at all? Don’t you feel tired?”

It could feel tiring?

Xu Yizhuo was very confused. “I don’t know how to release it!”

Only in certain special situations, such as when she encountered danger, would her spiritual power instinctively release to protect her. After it went out for a while, it would shrink back in. Xu Yizhuo had also thought about actively mobilizing it, but no matter how she explored, she could not find the method. After failing repeatedly, she gave up.

Di Xiang was choked by Xu Yizhuo’s answer.

She had only ever heard of low-level cultivators being unable to restrain their spiritual power. This was the first time she had seen someone who did not know how to release their spiritual power. In Di Xiang’s ​bailiantales.com​view, this was something as simple as eating and drinking. It could be considered a cultivator’s instinct.

“How exactly did you cultivate to Qi Refining?” Di Xiang could not help roasting her.

Xu Yizhuo thought to herself, Of course, the experience bar filled up and I leveled up. How else could game levels increase?

“Come here.” Di Xiang beckoned to her.

Xu Yizhuo did not know what she wanted to do, but she still moved closer.

Di Xiang raised her hand, her fingertip landing between Xu Yizhuo’s brows. Xu Yizhuo felt a strange sensation, as if a warm current was flowing into her body through Di Xiang’s fingertip.

“This is my spiritual power,” Di Xiang said. “I am a fire and lightning dual spiritual root cultivator. My spiritual power may feel a bit hot.”

Xu Yizhuo was a little surprised. She had originally thought that Di Xiang, who used the Fangsheng Lotus Mirror, would have a water spiritual root or wood spiritual root.

Xu Yizhuo could not help asking, “What spiritual root do I have?”

Di Xiang casually examined her, then fell speechless again.

“Five spiritual roots. Your aptitude has truly broadened my horizons.”

Xu Yizhuo said, “I feel like you’re mocking me.”

“No need to feel. I am mocking you.” Di Xiang said, “Generally speaking, the fewer spiritual roots one has, the faster cultivation is. Although I have dual spiritual roots, fire and lightning complement each other, so my cultivation speed is not slower than a single spiritual root’s. It even surpasses them. As for your five spiritual roots, although all of them are very pure, they are evenly matched. After Foundation Establishment, you can only cultivate five main methods at the same time. Let’s see if that doesn’t exhaust you to death.”

Xu Yizhuo thought of those jade slips she could not understand and felt her future go dark.

“Calm your mind and focus.” Di Xiang’s tone became a little more serious. “Feel how my spiritual power moves through your body.”

Because Xu Yizhuo could not remember the route, Di Xiang repeated it several times. By the end, she practically wanted to roll her eyes.

Di Xiang said, “You are the worst aptitude I have ever seen—have you remembered it?”

Xu Yizhuo nodded, not very certain.

Di Xiang no longer wanted to bother with her. “Try it yourself. Feel whether your spiritual power can be released.”

Xu Yizhuo did as she said and said in surprise, “I feel it.”

Di Xiang waved her hand. “Casually strike out a thread of spiritual power.”

Xu Yizhuo could not help thinking about how exactly she should strike out spiritual power.

At this moment, she suddenly thought of the signature move of a certain famous purple sweet potato villain.

Xu Yizhuo carefully snapped her fingers.

Boom—

It was as if a bolt of tribulation lightning had suddenly struck the altar. Sand and dust filled the sky, the stars and moon lost their color, and amid the muffled boom came a clear cracking sound. The illusion covering the entire Lotus City shattered in an instant.

The sounds of collapsing houses came one after another from the distance. In only a few breaths, the ruins of Lotus City suffered a catastrophic disaster. A wave of energy spread outward from the royal palace at the center of the royal city, and wherever it passed, all the Soul-Detaining Lanterns went out. Tens of thousands of wandering souls in the city vanished in the blink of an eye.

Even the four cities dozens of li away that guarded Lotus City were affected.

Xu Yizhuo sat blankly on the altar that had turned into ruins, her fingers still maintaining the posture from after snapping.

The black lotus, which had been blown crooked, stubbornly stood upright again.

It took Xu Yizhuo a long time to come back to herself. When she raised her head, she saw Di Xiang smiling at her with a very kind expression.

“Stay behind and repay your debt.”

＊

The enormous wave of energy came without warning. Even just the aftershock knocked Old Li and the others, who had ​Read on BaiLianTales​been trudging through the desert, to the ground.

Several of them climbed up from the ground, dizzy and disoriented. Sister-in-law Cheng helped Old Li up, while Zhong Meng looked in the direction the energy wave had come from and frowned. “It’s Lotus City—”

Zhong Meng’s voice stopped abruptly.

He stared ahead in stunned disbelief. The Lotus City walls that had only faintly been visible moments ago had actually collapsed!

Sister-in-law Cheng said in fear, “Could it be an earthquake?”

Old Li shook his head.

This was clearly the work of a cultivator.

But… what cultivator would create such a huge disturbance on the Eastern Continent?

Old Li coughed twice. “Keep walking.”

Zhong Meng felt very uneasy, but still obeyed Old Li’s order. The road ahead was somewhat blurry. Yellow sand had been lifted into the air and had not yet fully settled.

“There’s someone ahead!” Cheng San, who had the best eyesight, suddenly shouted. “It looks like Miss Xu!”

Joy rose in everyone’s hearts, and they all quickened their steps.

The figure in the sand and dust gradually became clear as they approached. It was indeed Xu Yizhuo, walking slowly.

Zhong Meng called out loudly, “Miss Xu!” and waved hard.

Xu Yizhuo froze for a moment, then also started running. The two groups quickly reunited.

Xu Yizhuo was surrounded in the middle. Everyone originally had many questions they wanted to ask her, but once they saw Xu Yizhuo’s tired expression, they silently stopped themselves.

“Miss Xu, the carriages are parked in the city ahead. Shall we go there now?” Zhong Meng asked.

Xu Yizhuo nodded listlessly. When Old Li looked over, she barely curved her lips and smiled.

This is too hard for me, Xu Yizhuo thought.

Author’s Note:

Fake teacher: skill books.

Real teacher: Di Xiang.