Chapter 67: Emergence

Upon entering the cave, one finds a completely different world. The Mizi Secret Realm creates its own heaven and earth; the sun is not a sun, but an object hanging overhead that radiates warmth and regulates the circulation of spiritual energy within the realm.

The Shanqing Cave was the domain of Zhou Shijin.

Back when she was below the Golden Core stage, she had cultivated in seclusion here. The moment Zora stepped inside, the sound of a waterfall reached her ears. Shanqing Cave enjoyed eternal spring, shrouded throughout the day by ethereal mist and clouds. It was already rich with spiritual energy, but after Zhou Shijin’s arrangements, the energy was even purer, making every breath feel effortless.

Below the waterfall lay a cold pond, bone-chillingly frigid—a place of extreme cold meant to calm a cultivator’s mind. Zora had never gone there before, because she never needed external aid to quiet her heart.

But this time, she couldn't.

With a furrowed brow, she sat atop a mountain cliff, bathed in the natural light of the cave, her eyes tightly shut in meditation. She should have entered a state of clear consciousness quickly, but stray thoughts kept intruding.

Vane’s gaze from earlier left her deeply perplexed, yet it brought an inexplicable sense of security. She didn't understand the specific meaning, but she knew it represented his harmlessness, his submission, his yielding, and his trust.

As that gaze dissipated in her mind, her thoughts turned to her promise to Yiling Ke.

Zora thought:

As expected, she really didn't want to see Yiling Ke’s "corpse." That dull tightness in her chest was still there even now when she recalled it.

...It was even stranger than the sadness of seeing the illusion of Yiling Ke’s death.

Zora’s memories were colorless.

They were straightforward, like plain water splashed into the air—tasteless and shapeless. To her, memories were more like stairs or tools that carried her upward. The skills, techniques, and knowledge she acquired became fragments of memory, constantly alerting her against falling. Even if she did fall, she would have the ability to survive and climb back up.

She had thought the fluctuation in her heart when recalling her mother’s corpse was an exception—even so, those fluctuations only lasted a few months. Recalling it now, the dullness was gone.

Yiling Ke had become the new source of that dullness.

Was it because Yiling Ke was still alive?

Zora felt a bit annoyed.

If Vane were here, she could have him find some fun to divert her attention, but she was alone.

Mhm... she was thinking of Vane again. Strange, he didn't act like a villain.

"..."

Zora snapped her eyes open and walked straight to the cold pond.

The cold of the pond was not the chill described by the mortal world. Its cold pierced a person’s spiritual platform, freezing the limbs and bones, causing the heart to beat slowly. A frozen spiritual platform meant tranquility.

Zora removed her shoes and outer robe and stepped into the pond.

The moment her toes touched the water, an unbearable, piercing cold reached her heart. Her body could not yet adapt, and it reached the point of stinging pain. Zora remained expressionless, going deeper step by step.

The water reached the girl’s calves and knees. The stinging pain moved upward, but her toes had already lost all sensation. Her lips turned pale; her Foundation Establishment cultivation was not enough to resist the encroachment of the cold pond. Strands of icy water pierced deep into her bones, and her body shook uncontrollably. Yet the girl’s movements did not falter for a second as she sat in the pond to meditate, the water reaching her waist and rippling outward.

Everything fell silent within Shanqing Cave. Time seemed to stand still, and it was impossible to tell how many days had passed in the outside world. Only the girl in the center of the cold pond remained, her spiritual power circulating and absorbing in continuous ripples.

Her clothing drifted at the bottom of the pond—blue and white intertwined like flowing ribbons, elegantly tangling. Half of her black hair floated in the water, spreading out. A thin layer of ice clung to the girl’s skin, and frozen droplets of ice hung from her thick lashes. Her soft features displayed the youthful innocence unique to a young girl.

The sun overhead hung in the sky all day, motionless.

Once in meditation, one loses track of fatigue, day, night, and time that flows away like shifting sand.

Until her spiritual energy suddenly vanished, then erupted. The entire secret realm was restrained by the pressure rippling from her power. Trees swayed, green grass bowed low, and the radiance of the sun overhead dimmed abruptly, shrinking into a point to avoid her sharpness.

She opened her eyes. Her amber pupils were crystal clear, indifferent and pure, without a single impurity. The layers of ice covering the girl shattered and melted instantly.

Zora stood up, water cascading down.

She walked ashore, where a woman suddenly appeared on a rock, sitting in a carefree posture with a wine flask hanging from her finger.

Zhou Shijin: "Broken through? I knew it wouldn't be that difficult."

Zora looked at her.

Zhou Shijin asked in surprise, "What? You've broken through and you're still not happy?"

She found her disciple was just like a child. When she had no emotions, she was fine—just a beautiful block of wood. But once she had an emotion, it was exceptionally blunt. Zora didn't know how to hide at all; she wore it right on her face with a kind of childish purity. Happiness was happiness, and sadness was sadness; there were no complex, blended feelings like the mixture of joy and sorrow or painful regret that others possessed.

"Mhm. I've hit a bottleneck."

Cultivators can feel the hindrance to the growth of their spiritual power. Even though Zora had broken through, she simultaneously sensed that her cultivation would grow slowly after the breakthrough.

Zhou Shijin sat up straight: "Oh? Such a thing? Is it a mental obstacle?"

"Probably."

"You haven't reached the Nascent Soul stage yet. While the state of mind is important, it's not

that

important," Zhou Shijin said thoughtfully. "One way is to use opportunities to force a breakthrough. If the mental obstacle is resolved later, it’s fine, but if not, it will accumulate until the Nascent Soul stage, making it exponentially harder to break through to the Great Ascension stage."

"The second way is, naturally, to figure it out yourself and clear your own mind."

Zora touched her chest, her expression indifferent. "But the state of mind is elusive, and the timing is uncertain."

"True," Zhou Shijin said. "It might take a year, it might take a month... maybe even decades. Who can say."

Zora didn't speak.

Zhou Shijin gave a short laugh. She didn't ask which one her disciple chose, only saying: "Opportunities are rare. A secret realm that everyone can enter won't have much effect. Perhaps you’ll have the luck to stumble upon a private secret realm left by a great master, though that usually entails immense risk."

"Resolving a mental obstacle yourself may take an uncertain amount of time, but it is safer."

Zora: "I understand."

"Good that you understand. The choice is yours," Zhou Shijin smiled. "Hurry out. That servant of yours has almost lost contact with the December Sect. He seems to have no sense of belonging to the sect at all, leaving whenever he wants to take missions elsewhere. But he comes to stand outside Shanqing Cave for a moment every single day, through wind and rain."

Once, he was even covered in blood, his face stained with the red spray from some unknown corpse. The youth would stand quietly outside the cave to meditate or settle his mind, clearing the residual baleful aura within him. Vane truly lived up to his name; the sect was not his home, and he could leave at any time.

Yet after killing people, no matter how far away he was, he would rush back to see if Zora had emerged. A dog that has wandered away for a long time will still look back to see if the leash around its neck still exists.

He had killed minor cultivators who oppressed the common people at the border. That day, he cut off their heads in full view of the crowd, blood spraying three feet high. Unfortunately, people were watching, so Vane abandoned his cruel methods and simply took their heads, kicking them away casually. A crowd scrambled to take them to vent their anger; he watched indifferently, thinking about the location of his next mission.

Zora had not emerged then.

He had gone to Drunken Lu Bay, but for now, he couldn't find anyone suspicious.

Zora had not emerged that day; the spiritual energy around the cave hadn't changed.

The demonic cultivators seemed to be increasing. Vane killed a demonic cultivator alone—only after the demon had screamed hoarsely for an hour did he let the creature take its final breath.

His mood was joyful; his twisted, shadowy thoughts had been released.

She still hadn't emerged; there should be no problem with her cultivation.

After killing people and monsters, he would sleep in a tree covered in blood. He was originally recalling the cruel process of the day, but his thoughts unexpectedly drifted to Zora.

—He was certain he preferred torturing others; it gave him a twisted pleasure. But if he imagined Zora torturing him, he felt the same joy, perhaps even deeper.

How much longer until she emerged?

...

The scent of blood always lingered in his nostrils, never ceasing.

His thoughts were released—yet they grew heavier, heavy in a different way. Only half a month had passed, yet why did it feel like years or even longer, to the point where even the drenching of blood could not fill the throbbing void in his heart?

...She hasn't emerged.

...

While piercing a person's heart, he suddenly thought that the person's ribs and flesh were truly ugly. If it were Zora, she would definitely be beautiful, and her organs would be uniquely lovely.

This thought drifted past lightly, leaving no trace of violence—because he was thinking of a living Zora, thinking that her heart and lungs must be the most beautiful precisely because she was alive.

He had no thought of harming her, merely praising her in his heart.

...

One night, after having gone to Shanqing Cave during the day, he was resting in the wilderness after a mission when he suddenly grew uncertain about his deduction from earlier. He opened his eyes and rushed back to the cave entrance. The spiritual energy wasn't rampaging; she shouldn't be in danger. He lingered for a while, carefully checking for potential threats before leaving again.

...

An unknown amount of time passed. Time became blurred to him, feeling only very long. The cultivation world was just as boring as he had imagined. The cultivators and demons he killed most—their screams gradually became a single flavor in his ears, truly nothing new.

And she still hadn't emerged.

Taking missions, cultivating, going to Shanqing Cave. Taking missions, cultivating, going to Shanqing Cave. A cycle, repeating over and over. Taking missions released his baleful aura, but going to Shanqing Cave accumulated restlessness. Gradually, he even found himself spacing out while killing—spacing out during the thing he loved doing most.

—

I wonder if Zora has emerged yet.

Thus, his baleful aura grew heavier—a aimless confusion like a beast that has lost its way, a confusion that even slaughter could not pacify.

...

A month later, Vane arrived outside Shanqing Cave as usual.

The youth’s expression was composed. He took a few steps, then suddenly lifted his eyes.

There was a subtle change in the spiritual energy.

The seal on Shanqing Cave suddenly loosened. The youth was startled and blinked slowly.

Zora walked out of the cave, the spiritual energy around her exceptionally dense.

She looked at Vane, not particularly surprised: "Vane."

Vane snapped back to his senses, instinctively breaking into a smile: "Congratulations on the breakthrough."

He actually couldn't recall for a moment how long they had been apart; he only felt it was very long. Soaked in blood all day, he had lost his perception of time. Upon seeing her, the youth opened his mouth but didn't know what to say. Even his silver-tongued trait had been discarded.

"..." Vane’s lips held a smile, and his limbs and bones were humming deep within, yet his surface remained as calm as still water. Only his gaze remained stuck to her face, not letting go.

Zora didn't pay him much mind. It happened to be night. She first took out a white bird mask, held it up, and looked at the moon through the eyes of the mask.

"Mhm..." Zora reached a conclusion. "Looking at this moon at the Fusion stage is no different."

Strange, that dull feeling was back, even though she had forgotten it.

As her words fell, like a red thread of fate, she was connected to that person who had died. A wind that was originally far away, drifting everywhere, suddenly appeared by her side. A clear breeze brushed her face, circling Zora and gently stroking her features before drifting away again to continue its final journey, finishing the last stretch of its path.

Zora watched the moon.

Vane watched her side profile.

Moonlight spilled down, quiet and gentle.