Chapter 5 | You Said You Only Wanted to Die

Looking at Mu Wenyan appearing before her once again, Li Nanzhu sighed inwardly about how convenient a high cultivation level was, and she gave him a beaming wave.

"Hello, Eldest Senior Brother! Second Senior Brother was blown away by Master again!"

Mu Wenyan rubbed his brow. "Yes, Master does that every time he brings back a new disciple. Little Junior Sister, you don't need to feel guilty about him being sent flying."

He paused, then added, "This single session of yours lasted half a month. If Master hadn't sent me a divine sense message saying you were in a meditative state, I would have thought you'd suffered a cultivation deviation."

Half a month? Li Nanzhu was startled. No wonder people said there was no sense of time in cultivation; it only felt like she had been practicing for a short while. To think so much time had passed when she opened her eyes. No wonder she had felt so weak when she first woke up.

"Little Junior Sister is already at level four of Qi Condensation. Keep working hard, and you'll surely break through to Foundation Establishment soon. Once you do, I'll feel at ease letting you go down the mountain."

Li Nanzhu did the math. Half a month in a deep meditative state and she was only at level four of Qi Condensation. Cultivating and leveling up would only get harder as she progressed. Even if she could enter a deep meditative state every time, it would take about half a year. A conservative estimate would be at least a year to reach peak Qi Condensation, not even including Foundation Establishment. Her desire to go down the mountain felt like a distant dream.

Even trying to seek death was a struggle.

She had to temporarily shelf her death-seeking plan.

"Little Junior Sister, don't worry too much. It took me over a year to reach Foundation Establishment, and the same was true for our other fellow disciples. You're already very impressive."

Mu Wenyan, fearing he might discourage Li Nanzhu's motivation to cultivate, pulled out a bag of high-grade spirit stones and tucked them into her hands.

Eldest Senior Brother really is rich. He hands out high-grade spirit stones like they're nothing. Don't people say sword cultivators are poor? Why is he so wealthy?

"Eldest Senior Brother, what is your current cultivation level?"

Li Nanzhu suddenly thought of this crucial question. In the original novel, it seemed Mu Wenyan was discovered to possess a dark spiritual root when the female lead was at the peak of the Golden Core stage. He was subsequently hunted down and ultimately killed by Cang Dongqing in a secret realm.

"Early Nascent Soul stage. If you work hard, you'll catch up to me sooner or later."

Li Nanzhu hadn't expected Eldest Senior Brother to have already broken through to the Nascent Soul stage by this time. However, a dark spiritual root was different from others. The spiritual energy of a normal cultivation world was almost completely incompatible with it. The best way for someone with a dark spiritual root to break through was to absorb dark qi.

When she was drawing qi into the body, she hadn't seen any motes of light representing dark qi in the spiritual energy vortex. It was clear that the cultivation world lacked dark qi, making it nearly impossible to break through by absorbing normal spiritual energy unless one was in the Demon Realm.

But the Demon Realm was sealed. In that case, it would be difficult for Eldest Senior Brother to advance further. She wondered how he had managed to reach the Nascent Soul stage in the first place.

Li Nanzhu was worried. Why did it have to be a dark spiritual root? Even the equally rare light spiritual root could normally absorb spiritual energy to improve. Right now, she wasn't that close with Eldest Senior Brother.

Furthermore, the topic of how one cultivated was a sensitive one even for ordinary cultivators. She could also sense that Eldest Senior Brother didn't seem to want to mention his dark spiritual root.

She could only take things one step at a time.

Thinking about how kind Eldest Senior Brother was to her, maybe she should wait until after she saved him before seeking death?

Or perhaps she could go down with the enemy while they were hunting him? That way, it wouldn't count as others killing her or her killing herself, and she could save him too.

"These are the Water, Wood, and Fire cultivation manuals Master told me to give you. He doesn't know how to teach us these things, so if there's anything you don't understand, come ask me. During this time, you can also think about what you want to learn in the future. Unlike other sects, the Five Elements Dao Sect doesn't have a specific bias regarding what disciples cultivate. We are quite free. If you don't like these manuals, you can go to the Library Pavilion and choose for yourself."

Li Nanzhu's thoughts were interrupted by Mu Wenyan, but she finally understood why the others were always nowhere to be seen.

It wasn't just because of Second Senior Brother's demonic music; it was mostly because the sect had no restrictions. They just ran around everywhere, scattered to every corner of the cultivation world.

That was why they died alone and without help when facing Cang Dongqing. Sometimes, freedom wasn't necessarily a good thing.

To think that if her wealthy Eldest Senior Brother died, she would lose countless spirit stones... wait, maybe by that time, she would have already succeeded in her quest for death.

Ultimately, she could only sigh silently in her heart and then flash another smile.

"Then I'll go study the techniques now. See you tomorrow, Eldest Senior Brother!" After seeing him off, Li Nanzhu returned to her room to look at the manuals.

Although her Water and Fire roots were incompatible, the five elements were a cycle. She felt that if she could master the balance, she could cultivate even with opposing elements. The fact that Feng Yi gave her the manuals proved her idea was feasible.

The three techniques didn't look difficult. Within the five elements, Water feeds Wood, and Wood feeds Fire. Since she had the Wood element to mediate between them, she would start practicing with the Wood-attribute technique.

She picked up the manual titled Wood Vitality. Although it sounded ordinary, Li Nanzhu only felt its true profoundness when she actually began to study it.

The Wood attribute was naturally more in tune with the source of life. By harboring the vitality dispersed by plants, the technique could be used not only for healing but also converted into spiritual energy for attacks. However, Li Nanzhu felt that the cycle of vitality was more of an alternation between life and death.

But life and death were the highest-level laws. Li Nanzhu couldn't fully comprehend them, yet what little she did grasp allowed her to quickly master the manual.

As she practiced continuously, she didn't notice that the plants in her courtyard had begun to grow slowly.

Amidst Li Nanzhu's constant cultivation and practice of Wood Vitality, another month passed in the blink of an eye.

One day, while Li Nanzhu was still cultivating, she heard a sound like a ghost wailing and a wolf howling from outside.

"Little Junior Sister! Your death was so tragic!!"

???

What kind of deathly noise was that now?

Li Nanzhu was bewildered. Who said she was dead? She intended to go out and see what was happening, only to find that her bedroom door wouldn't open no matter what. Just as she was preparing to use spiritual energy to break it open, the wailing outside started up again.

"Little Junior Sister! I will definitely save you, waah!"

The courtyard gate was kicked open by the newcomer. Seeing that her bedroom door was about to suffer the same fate, Li Nanzhu retreated. Behind the collapsing door appeared a boy in purple clothes with tear-filled eyes. However, this person clearly had poor eyesight; before he even saw her, his legs went weak, and he began pounding the ground with his hands.

"Dammit! Am I still too late? Has Little Junior Sister already been eaten by the vines?!"

...

Judging by the boy's outfit, she knew this was her Seventh Senior Brother. She just hadn't expected him to still be in a delusional teenage phase—the terminal kind.

Why did it feel like everyone in her sect was abnormal?

Still, she held out a handkerchief.

"Seventh Senior Brother, wipe your tears and stop crying."

Hearing her voice, Duan Xianxing didn't stop; instead, he cried even louder.

"Waah, I must be hallucinating! Even after death, Little Junior Sister is still thinking of me, waah!"

Li Nanzhu looked at his face covered in tears and snot. He even looked like he wanted to grab her legs and rub his face on them. She suddenly felt she might have caught Second Senior Brother's germaphobia. She endured and endured, but finally couldn't hold back and gave Duan Xianxing a sharp flick to the forehead.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch!!"

...

Duan Xianxing looked at his Little Junior Sister with a hurt expression. She was cute, sure, but why was she so violent?

Only now did Li Nanzhu have the chance to study Duan Xianxing closely. The boy had a well-defined face, and his high ponytail gave him an air of passionate vibrancy. His eyes were clear and bright, making one feel an instinctive liking for him, but they carried a sense of... pure stupidity.

He looked exactly like a landlord's foolish son.

"Little Junior Sister, Little Junior Sister, I'm your Seventh Senior Brother, Duan Xianxing. Master said long ago he was going to take another disciple, and I've finally waited long enough for you! Now I'm finally not the youngest in the sect anymore! Hehehe, Little Junior Sister, call me 'Senior Brother' one more time!"