Chapter 150 | Cool, Aloof Fairy Reborn: I’m the One Captured by the Heroine

On the day the Tianshu mystic realm opened, before the morning light could crest the mountain ridge, the disciples who had passed the trial were already lined up at the entrance.

Bai Qingxue stood near the front of the line, slightly to the left, with Lu Xueqing by her side.

The entrance to the mystic realm was wedged between two stone peaks, resembling a torn rip in space. Pale golden light flowed along its edges—not static, but drifting at an agonizingly slow pace, as if time on the other side were several times denser than on this one.

After the elder's brief admonition concluded, the light barrier at the entrance vibrated, and Bai Qingxue took a step forward, entering it.

The world was suddenly stretched, then abruptly compressed.

A dizzying sensation of weightlessness seized Bai Qingxue.

The light and shadow before her eyes swirled like a kaleidoscope. The ice lotus in her dantian reacted instinctively, blooming with a thin layer of frost to protect her meridians.

Bai Qingxue reflexively reached out to grab Lu Xueqing beside her, but her fingertips only brushed empty air.

The laws of space.

The entrance to this mystic realm was more than just a door; it was more like a web.

Everyone who entered was randomly scattered and flung to different corners of the mystic realm.

Bai Qingxue did not even have time to call out Lu Xueqing's name before her body was violently dragged forward by an irresistible force, cutting off the last trace of sound from the outside world.

When she landed, she was welcomed by an overwhelming abundance of spiritual energy.

It was completely different from the thread-like spiritual energy of the outside world.

Within the mystic realm, spiritual energy existed in vast expanses—like mist, like rain, like crushed clouds.

Feeling this spiritual energy, Bai Qingxue's meridians opened automatically, and every inch of her skin greedily absorbed the energy, which was easily five times denser than that of the outside world.

But at the same time, a strange sluggishness spread from her heart to her limbs.

Bai Qingxue's heartbeat slowed, her blood flowed more sluggishly, and even the opening and closing of her eyelids felt as if they were being gently held down by an invisible pair of hands.

At this moment, Bai Qingxue felt as though her entire body had been submerged in a vat of translucent honey.

Feeling the difference in the flow of time with one's own body was far more visceral than any description could ever convey.

Once Bai Qingxue steadied herself, she looked around.

Her surroundings were completely empty. Lu Xueqing was nowhere to be found, and not a single one of her fellow disciples was in sight.

There were only boundless, towering ancient trees standing tall, with vines hanging down like curtains. The roar of a waterfall echoed in the distance, while unfamiliar fireflies fluttered up and down among the blades of grass nearby. Everything looked serene and ancient.

Bai Qingxue did not panic. She quickly determined her direction, chose a path with a higher concentration of spiritual energy, and set off.

But on her fourth breath after entering, a low roar echoed from deep within the dense forest to her left.

Bai Qingxue paused, resting her hand on the Frost Moon Chant at her waist.

The roar was deep and long, carrying the lingering pressure unique to ancient spirit beasts, but upon closer sensing, she could tell.

The pressure was hollow, like a propped-up empty shell. Although the phantom of an ancient spirit beast was not a physical entity, it was still enough to make a Foundation Establishment cultivator suffer immensely within this mystic realm.

With that in mind, Bai Qingxue did not linger, quickening her pace to bypass that area.

The deeper she went, the denser the spiritual energy became, reaching an almost viscous level. Every step felt like wading through shallow water.

On a fallen ancient tree, Bai Qingxue discovered a claw mark.

The claw mark was three inches wide and two inches deep, with a cut as smooth as a mirror, as if carved by some invisible, sharp blade.

Bai Qingxue squatted down and lightly hovered her fingertips over the claw mark. Her finger pad sensed a trace of lingering spiritual power, its sharp edge not yet dissipated.

It was the phantom of a spirit beast of at least the Gold Core rank.

Noting the location of this ancient tree in her mind, she continued forward.

In this manner, Bai Qingxue followed the sound of water and found a spirit spring.

The spring water gushed out from beneath a massive stone resembling green jade, throwing up a mist that refracted a faint rainbow under the sunlight.

Within a ten-zhang radius of the spirit spring, the concentration of spiritual energy was a level higher than in other parts of the mystic realm.

Bai Qingxue sat cross-legged by the spring. Instead of rushing to meditate and breathe, she retrieved the Frost Moon Chant and laid it across her knees.

After defeating Zhao Qian with 《Ice Condensation》 in the arena tournament, a second line of those runes in her mind had lit up.

Compared to the fierce sharpness of 《Ice Condensation》, the name of the second melody was much gentler.

It was called 《Returning to the Source》.

Bai Qingxue brought the flute to her lips and tried to play the first segment.

As the notes blended into the sound of the spring water, ripples spread across the surface of the spirit spring.

Those ripples did not spread outward; they contracted inward, as if something beneath the surface were shrinking.

Immediately after, Bai Qingxue felt the surrounding spiritual energy begin to move. As if drawn by the sound of the flute, the energy gathered toward her.

Bai Qingxue continued to play.

The melody of 《Returning to the Source》 was very slow, at least much slower than 《Ice Condensation》, with long silences between each note.

And those silences happened to be the intervals for absorption.

When a note sounded, the spiritual energy gathered.

When the note faded, the spiritual energy poured in.

Between breaths, the mist above the spirit spring was twisted by the flute music into a slender white ribbon. It rose from the spring's surface, slowly spiraling around her body, before finally pouring into her Baihui point at the crown of her head.

The ice lotus trembled gently deep within her dantian.

It was like a shudder of relief, akin to a long drought finally met with sweet rain.

This 《Returning to the Source》 was not an offensive spell but an auxiliary cultivation technique. It could compress and purify external spiritual energy, pouring it into the meridians at a speed far exceeding normal meditation.

Normal meditation was like scooping water from a river ladle by ladle.

《Returning to the Source》 was like diverting the entire river, then filtering it into a stream ready for direct consumption.

In this manner, Bai Qingxue sat by the spring for a day and a night.

A day and a night inside the mystic realm was only a few hours in the outside world.

When she opened her eyes, the spiritual power in her meridians had recovered from forty percent to ninety percent, and the bottleneck of her mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation showed its first crack.

On the second day, she found a second spirit spring.

This time, the spring water was hidden deep inside a cave. The cave walls were covered in glowing moss, illuminating the entire cavern like broad daylight.

Sitting in the cave, Bai Qingxue continued to play 《Returning to the Source》, this time playing up to the third segment. The surface of the spirit spring bubbled under the vibration of the flute music, and the mist condensed into three white ribbons that poured into her dantian simultaneously.

The petals of the ice lotus unfurled one by one. Nourished by the spiritual energy, the old wound at the edge of the petals—torn by the restriction—healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

By the fourth day, Bai Qingxue found a third spirit spring beneath a cliff.

This spirit spring was the most concealed, hidden behind a waterfall with an extremely narrow entrance.

Had Bai Qingxue not sensed a tiny fluctuation of spiritual energy mixed in with the sound of the waterfall, it would have been impossible to discover.

Bai Qingxue passed through the water curtain, sat down in the grotto behind the waterfall, and raised the Frost Moon Chant to her lips.

This time, she played 《Returning to the Source》 from beginning to end.

The complete Song of Returning to the Source. The melody was neither rushed nor slow, like spring water washing over ice, or fine rain soaking into parched earth.

The surrounding spiritual energy was like countless rivers converging into a single sea.

At this moment, the bottleneck of her mid-stage Foundation Establishment cracked with a crisp sound, like muffled thunder beneath a layer of ice, or colored glaze forming its first fracture from within. The speed of her spiritual power rushing through her meridians doubled. The ice lotus bloomed completely in her dantian, every single petal radiating a lustrous white light.

The barrier to the late stage of Foundation Establishment weakened by several degrees.

Am I finally about to break through...?

Bai Qingxue lowered her flute and exhaled a breath of turbid air.

The breath condensed into a white mist in the air, lingering for a long time before dissipating.

Bai Qingxue looked down at her hands. Her fingertips gleamed with a faint layer of frost. She lightly clenched her hand, and her bones let out a soft, crisp pop.

Just as Bai Qingxue was about to stand up, a very faint, crisp sound suddenly echoed in her ear.

...

At the entrance of the mystic realm.

Ye Qingyao stood ten paces away from the light barrier, her knuckles whitening as she gripped her short sword.

She had failed to secure a spot.

Her cultivation at the ninth level of Qi Refining was not considered weak on Qingyun Peak, but on the arena of the entire sect, she had not even lasted through the second round.