On the morning of the next day, Lu Xueqing was finally able to sit up.
Lu Xueqing slowly propped herself up from the stone wall she had been leaning against for a whole day.
The bandages on her left shoulder still seeped with a bit of blood, but the edges of the wound had already begun to close, the new flesh tinged with a faint pink.
Bai Qingxue's medicine was very effective.
However, Lu Xueqing felt that perhaps it was because Bai Qingxue's method of applying the medicine was too good—so good that she barely felt any pain each time the dressing was changed.
Thinking of this, Lu Xueqing tried to move her left arm slightly.
A dull pain immediately shot from her shoulder blade. Lu Xueqing frowned slightly, then relaxed her arm again.
“Don't move.”
Bai Qingxue's voice came from the other side of the ledge.
At this moment, Bai Qingxue was sitting cross-legged on the edge of the ledge, her back to the mist-shrouded deep valley, with the Frost Moon Chant resting horizontally across her lap.
The morning light filtered down through the narrow opening of the rift valley above, landing on her light-colored hair and casting a very faint golden sheen over it.
She did not turn around, but the rustle of fabric when Lu Xueqing moved her shoulder just now had clearly not escaped her spiritual sense.
“Rest for one more day,” Bai Qingxue said faintly.
Lu Xueqing smiled and obediently remained still.
Just like that, Lu Xueqing leaned against the stone wall, tilting her head to look at Bai Qingxue's profile.
Bai Qingxue did not look at her.
Her gaze rested on some unseen distance deep within the rift valley, her eyelashes casting light gray shadows in the morning light.
“Junior Sister Bai.”
“I'm really fine.”
Lu Xueqing's tone returned to its usual casualness, as if everything from before had just been an illusion.
With that, Lu Xueqing wiped her blood-stained hand on her robe. Her gaze landed on Bai Qingxue's slightly furrowed brow, and she asked with some concern, “Your complexion doesn't look too good. Was yesterday's exertion too great?”
Hearing this, Bai Qingxue did not deny it.
Yesterday's rendition of 《Ice Condensation》 had nearly drained most of her spiritual power, and the residual effects of the restriction were still throbbing painfully deep within her meridians.
At this moment, Bai Qingxue leaned against the stone wall, her breathing slightly shallower than usual. Strands of her silver-white hair clung to her temples, damp with fine sweat.
Lu Xueqing keenly sensed something.
“Junior Sister Bai,” Lu Xueqing's voice deepened slightly, “is there something else you haven't told me?”
Bai Qingxue fell silent for a moment.
She hadn't wanted to mention the spirit marrow at this moment. The battle just now had already left Lu Xueqing injured, and she did not want to distract her further with her upcoming breakthrough.
But at this moment, her dantian's spiritual power was depleted, and the restriction was beginning to stir again. If she could not recover as quickly as possible, they could encounter danger at any moment in this mystic realm.
Then, Bai Qingxue raised her eyes to look at Lu Xueqing and retrieved the eerie blue spirit marrow from her storage bag.
The moment the spirit marrow appeared in the air, the surrounding temperature plummeted by several degrees.
The mist condensed into fine ice crystals on the surface of the spirit marrow, and the eerie blue glow reflected in Lu Xueqing's pupils, causing her to daze slightly.
“This is...” Lu Xueqing's gaze lingered on the spirit marrow for a moment, and her brow furrowed slightly. “Spirit marrow? When did you get this?”
“Before you arrived,” Bai Qingxue said. “Deep inside the cavern, three people tried to steal it, but I forced them back. I originally planned to find a safe place to refine it, but after the battle just now, my spiritual power is nearly depleted. If I don't recover quickly, it will only cause more trouble later.”
Hearing this, Lu Xueqing did not reply immediately.
She looked at the spirit marrow, then at the very faint weariness in the depths of Bai Qingxue's eyes. Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only said softly:
“So you plan to refine it here?”
“Yes.”
Lu Xueqing took a deep breath.
She did not ask why she hadn't been told earlier, nor did she offer any unnecessary blame.
Lu Xueqing simply propped herself up against the stone wall to stand up slowly. Placing her still-functioning right hand on her sword hilt, she walked to the outer edge of the ledge, facing the churning mist above the rift valley with her back to Bai Qingxue.
“Refine it, Junior Sister Bai,” she said. “I'll guard you.”
Bai Qingxue's fingers tightened slightly, holding the spirit marrow in her palm.
She did not speak, but Lu Xueqing could sense her hesitation. Refining the spirit marrow required absolute concentration in a meditative state and could not be interrupted, yet the owner of that talisman from three days ago was still unaccounted for.
If that person returned while she was refining it, the consequences would be unthinkable.
“I'll protect you,” Lu Xueqing said, propping herself up against the stone wall to stand.
“You haven't fully recovered yet...” Bai Qingxue said.
Lu Xueqing walked to the outer edge of the ledge and stood two steps in front of Bai Qingxue. She glanced back at Bai Qingxue, the corners of her mouth curling slightly upward.
“So you have to be quick.”
Hearing this, Bai Qingxue said nothing more.
She pressed the spirit marrow against her dantian, closed her eyes, and began to circulate the 《Mystic Frost Heavenly Heart Art》.
The moment the spirit marrow entered her body, its energy surged even more violently than when she had first acquired it.
If the spirit marrow had felt like a melting glacial river before, it now felt like a collapsing glacier that had breached its dam.
That power, pure to the point of being elemental, carried the extreme cold of ten-thousand-year-old ice. It poured violently along Bai Qingxue's meridians, stretching them to their absolute limits wherever it passed, bringing a dense, strange tingling sensation.
Bai Qingxue's brow twitched slightly.
The quality of this spirit marrow was even higher than she had anticipated—so high that it bordered on dangerous.
Its power was too pure, pure to the point of being violent, like an untamed wild horse rampaging through her meridians.
If an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator rashly attempted to refine a spirit marrow of this quality, their meridians would likely be shattered by the aura within ten breaths, leaving them a cripple.
But Bai Qingxue was no ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
She possessed the Ice Spirit Physique.
Instead of causing harm, the spiritual energy that was cold enough to freeze and shatter another person's meridians felt like a fish returning to the sea once it entered her body, finding the environment that suited it best.
Within her dantian, the ice lotus slowly bloomed.
The moment the power of the spirit marrow poured into the ice lotus, the entire lotus trembled violently.
The petals of the ice lotus began to unfurl at a pace visible to the naked eye.
The edges of the outermost petals gleamed with an eerie blue cold light, while the inner petals became increasingly translucent, as if transforming from ice into crystal.
Every single petal greedily absorbed the power of the spirit marrow, drawing the massive energy into the lotus core before slowly channeling it back outward, tempering the structure of the entire ice lotus over and over again.
The barrier to late-stage Foundation Establishment began to loosen.
The bottleneck that had blocked her for several years felt as thin as a sheet of rice paper before the power of the spirit marrow, trembling under the hum of the ice lotus.
Bai Qingxue could feel that with just one more push, she would be able to break through the barrier completely.
However, things did not go as she wished; Bai Qingxue's wrist suddenly began to burn.
The dark red restriction flared to life once more.
The restriction emerged on Bai Qingxue's wrist. The dark red patterns resembled red-hot iron wires, wrapping loop by loop around her skin and emitting a scorching glow.
The restriction was suppressing her spiritual power!
The dark red light grew brighter and hotter, burning ring-like patterns onto Bai Qingxue's forearm, as if something were trying to sever her rising spiritual power from its very roots.
Bai Qingxue's brow furrowed.
Her spiritual power was beginning to grow chaotic.
The restriction brought not only pain but also interference with the circulation of her spiritual power.
If her spiritual power became chaotic during a breakthrough, the consequences would be unthinkable.
At best, her cultivation would regress; at worst, her dantian would be damaged. In more severe cases, it could even trigger a backlash of spiritual power, freezing her entire body into an ice sculpture.
As the restriction grew increasingly intense, Bai Qingxue's fingers began to tremble.
At this moment, Bai Qingxue's spiritual power was like a carriage about to derail, rampaging inside her body, while the reins in her hands were being severed one by one by the restriction.
“Junior Sister Bai?”
Lu Xueqing's voice came from ahead, carrying a hint of suppressed anxiety.
At this moment, Lu Xueqing could also feel it—she felt the spiritual power behind her fluctuating violently.
“I'm fine,” Bai Qingxue squeezed the words out from between her teeth.
Then, she opened her eyes.
A cold light flashed in the depths of Bai Qingxue's eyes.
Soon after, the ice lotus in her dantian suddenly bloomed. Every single petal unfurled completely, leaving absolutely nothing held back.
The power of the spirit marrow rushed into the lotus core like a bursting flood, and the entire ice lotus hummed faintly as it was filled to capacity by the energy.
Bai Qingxue's spiritual power erupted like ignited gunpowder, surging wildly and instantly crossing all the thresholds set by the restriction.
The restriction flared up frantically.
The dark red patterns spread from her arm all the way to her shoulder, enveloping her entire right arm in a scorching light.
The patterns brightened to their limit, turning almost blazing white. The incantations writhed and leaped across her skin, as if they were going to burn right through her arm.
But at the same time, the power of the spirit marrow was also frantically feeding back into her dantian.
Nourished by the spirit marrow, the ice lotus underwent a transformation visible to the naked eye.
Its stem grew thicker, and every single pattern on the seedpod was carved anew, becoming deeper and purer.
The cracks along the edges of the petals peeled away layer by layer, like a cicada shedding its skin or a snake shedding its scales.
Then, new petals grew in their place.
It was a brand-new ice lotus petal, more solid and translucent than before. From its edge to its base, it gleamed with an eerie blue cold light, as if condensed from the very first snow at the dawn of creation.
It was completely free of cracks or flaws, as pure as a single block of cold ice tempered by thousands of years of wind and snow.
Then came the second petal.
Then the third.
Bai Qingxue's body was trembling. Beads of sweat seeped from her forehead layer by layer, only to be frozen into tiny ice pellets that rolled down her cheeks.
Her face was as pale as paper, and her lips had lost all color, but her eyes were astonishingly bright.
She was using the power of the spirit marrow to suppress the restriction in reverse.
If the restriction wanted to suppress her spiritual power, she would use her spiritual power to suppress the restriction instead.
Whoever possessed more trump cards and could endure longer would claim the ultimate victory.
The dark red patterns flashed frantically on Bai Qingxue's arm, and then, they actually began to recede.
The restriction retreated from her shoulder to her forearm, and then from her forearm back to her wrist.
In the end, all the dark red light condensed into a single, extremely thin and bright red ring around her wrist.
The red ring vibrated violently, emitting a low hum as if making a final struggle.
Before Bai Qingxue could even react, the ice lotus shuddered once more.
The barrier to late-stage Foundation Establishment burst open in this very instant.
The threshold that Bai Qingxue had attempted to cross countless times without success was finally shattered into dust by the hum of the ice lotus.
And Bai Qingxue's cultivation, like a reservoir filled to the brim finally opening its floodgates, surged wildly upward.
Late-stage Foundation Establishment.
Bai Qingxue could clearly feel her dantian expanding, her meridians reorganizing, and her spiritual power surging and flowing through every corner of her body.
Bai Qingxue slowly exhaled a breath.
That breath condensed into a straight white ribbon in the air, dispersing only after traveling several feet. The surrounding mist was pushed back a ring by her breath, and ice crystals condensed around her like thousands of tiny ice flowers blooming on the gravel beside her knees.
She had broken through.
Bai Qingxue opened her eyes and immediately turned her head.
She saw Lu Xueqing standing in place, her long sword held horizontally in front of her, her spine still perfectly straight.
But there were a few fresh sword gouges at her feet.
Those had been left behind when she cut down a low-level demon beast that had crawled up the edge of the ledge, drawn by the fluctuations of spiritual energy, while she was guarding her.
Lu Xueqing was also looking back at her.
“Did you break through?”
Lu Xueqing's voice was very soft, but her eyes were shining.
That light held no envy or jealousy; it was a pure, heartfelt joy.
It was as though Bai Qingxue breaking through to late-stage Foundation Establishment made her just as happy as if she had broken through herself.
Looking at the light in her eyes, Bai Qingxue suddenly felt something catch in her throat.
She parted her lips, wanting to say something, but in the end, she only turned her head away.
“Junior Sister Bai,” Lu Xueqing sheathed her long sword, walked over to Bai Qingxue, and squatted down to look her in the eye.
“Congratulations on your breakthrough.”
Bai Qingxue turned her head, meeting Lu Xueqing's eyes.
In those light-colored eyes, the sheet of ice remained, but the things that had surged beneath it did not sink completely back down this time. They swirled slowly beneath the frozen surface like an unfathomable undercurrent.
Then, the corners of her mouth curled slightly.
It was not a smile—at least, not the kind of smile Lu Xueqing was used to seeing.
The upward curve of Bai Qingxue's lips was so minuscule, like a single droplet of water melted by the sun on a sheet of ice, that it could barely be called an expression.
Yet Lu Xueqing felt incredibly pleasantly surprised.
Then, Lu Xueqing also curled her lips, and immediately after, she said:
“Junior Sister Bai, I want to eat something.”
Bai Qingxue's eyelashes fluttered. She tilted her head to look at her, a hint of confusion in her eyes.
Meeting her gaze, Lu Xueqing added righteously, “Even a Foundation Establishment cultivator's stomach wants to eat occasionally.”
Foundation Establishment cultivators had long since fasted. From the day they stepped over the threshold of Foundation Establishment, their bodies no longer required ordinary food to function.
Lu Xueqing naturally knew this, and she knew Bai Qingxue knew it too.
But at this moment, she simply wanted to say it. Perhaps she just wanted to act a bit spoiled with Junior Sister Bai...
Bai Qingxue looked at Lu Xueqing for several breaths.
Her light-colored eyes did not press further. She simply lowered her head, opened her storage bag, and rummaged through it.
Watching Bai Qingxue's movements, Lu Xueqing hadn't expected her to actually find anything.
But in the next second, Bai Qingxue retrieved a greasepaper package from her bag and handed it over.
The greasepaper package was small and wrapped very neatly. The opening was folded three times, and the corners were pressed flat, as if it had been placed inside with great care to avoid crushing whatever was within.
Lu Xueqing dazed for a moment, then reached out to take it. Her fingertips peeled back the greasepaper, revealing several neatly stacked pieces of dry rations. Their edges were slightly golden-brown; they were the most ordinary wheat cakes, carrying a hint of sweetness.
Their appearance was ordinary, and their grade was not high, but when the aroma of wheat drifted through the cold, damp air of the rift valley, it brought an exceptionally comforting sensation.
“You actually have them with you?” Lu Xueqing's voice carried a hint of amusement, the end of her sentence rising slightly.
She picked up a wheat cake, tore off a small piece, put it in her mouth, and took a bite—since the dry food had been stored for a long time, the edges were a bit hard, but the wheat flavor was rich, and a subtle sweetness emerged after chewing for a while.
Bai Qingxue watched her eat, saying nothing.
The morning light filtered down through the narrow opening of the rift valley above, falling upon the two of them.
The mist was slightly dispersed by the wind, revealing a silvery, bright stream at the bottom of the valley.
Birds chirped in the distance, and unknown spirit herbs emitted a faint glow from the rock crevices deep within the rift valley.
The ice flowers on the ledge had not yet melted, refracting fine glints of light in the morning sun. Chewing her dry food, Lu Xueqing glanced sideways at Bai Qingxue.
“Junior Sister Bai, aren't you going to eat?”
Bai Qingxue shook her head.
Lu Xueqing did not ask further. She simply held the greasepaper package out, letting it rest in front of Bai Qingxue.
“Then feed me, Junior Sister Bai. My hand is injured, so it's not very convenient.”
Bai Qingxue looked down at the greasepaper package held before her, then glanced at Lu Xueqing's left hand, which was wrapped in bandages and indeed rather stiff.
After a moment of thought,
Bai Qingxue reached out and took the greasepaper package.
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