Duosheng Danyuan

"Just like Gu Changfeng, if you feel stuffy after entering, you can use the breathing techniques taught in the Refining Heart Hall."

"It's the method of cultivating elixir taught by Elder Huaizhen," I reminded him at the right moment. After speaking, I also looked up at Elder Qingyue.

"Yes, that's the one." Elder Qingyue and I exchanged a glance, her eyes narrowing slightly, but her expression didn't change much.

"Okay." Zeng Yixi nodded and quickly slipped into the "White Crystal Spirit Platform".

Not long after, after experiencing something very similar to what happened to me, Zeng Yixi also completed the test about spiritual roots.

—Zeng Yixi, Class 1 of Qi Refining, Spiritual Root Test—

Spiritual Root Quality: Grade Two

Spiritual Root Attribute: Ice

Innate characteristics of spiritual roots: greatly increased efficiency in converting spiritual power and spiritual energy, greatly increased capacity of the dantian to hold spiritual power, greatly increased efficiency in breathing spiritual energy, and a slight increase in physical strength.

Acquired spiritual root meridians: Three souls govern the borders, seven spirits stabilize water. Demonstrates strong learning ability in swordsmanship, ice magic, water magic, and ice immortal arts.

——Divider——

"Excellent." After pondering for a long time over the parchment scroll in her hand, Elder Qingyue finally gave Zeng Yixi's spiritual root a two-word evaluation.

"Great?" Zeng Yixi asked in surprise as she took the parchment scroll from Elder Qingyue.

"Hmm, among the inner disciples, your talent is considered excellent," Elder Qingyue said with a smile, beginning to explain Zeng Yixi's spiritual root talent. "A second-grade spiritual root is one in a hundred among today's cultivators. If you are destined to be free from calamities in the future, reaching the Nascent Soul realm within a thousand years is just around the corner."

"As for your spiritual root attributes, your ice attribute is quite rare. There are four levels of spiritual root attributes. The five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are the first attributes. All phenomena in the world derived from the five elements can be classified as the second attributes. The spiritual root attributes that return to their original state and become the five elements are the third attributes. And your ice attribute spiritual root is the third attribute."

"Are attributes rarer as you progress?" Zeng Yixi asked.

"Sort of, but it also depends on the purity. If the purity is too low, even if the attributes are rare, it won't be of much use."

"What about the fourth attribute?" I asked.

"The fourth attribute... those are spiritual root attributes that are not systematically classified in the current cultivation world. In other words, they are extremely rare spiritual root attributes. However, rare does not equal powerful. Among the recorded cases of fourth attribute spiritual roots, there are spiritual roots ranging from top-grade to ninth-grade. In the end, the attribute of a spiritual root is just a unit of measurement that reflects the essence of the spiritual root. What truly reflects whether a spiritual root is powerful is ultimately the quality of the spiritual root itself."

"I see, I think I understand now." I nodded and said nothing more.

"It's alright," Elder Qingyue said to me with a smile, then turned to Zeng Yixi and said, "As for your innate characteristics and acquired meridians, you can just understand them literally. I don't think I need to repeat the explanation I just gave to Gu Changfeng, do I?"

"No need, thank you, Elder." Zeng Yixi shook her head and replied with a smile.

"Alright, let's go to the seclusion room now."

With that, Elder Qingyue gently raised her right hand, closed the coffin lid of the "White Crystal Spirit Platform" in front of her, and walked straight towards the stairs.

Zeng Yixi and I exchanged a glance, took each other's hands, and walked towards the stairs one after the other.

When I returned to the ground, I realized that the sky had already darkened. Under the almost completely black sky, only the fireflies in the "Mountain and Water Wonderland" flickered with faint light in the huge Mingling Residence.

"Oh, it's so late already? It's alright. If it's past the appointed time, I can take you back to the Tranquil Abode. Don't worry."

"Thank you, Elder."

"It's nothing." After saying that, Elder Qingyue raised her hand and snapped her fingers crisply.

In an instant, the originally dark corridor of Mingling Residence began to slowly rise with warm yellow and white light from bottom to top and from the inside to the outside.

"Let's go, I'll take you to the seclusion room. Judging from your progress, I think the suitable seclusion room is on the first floor." After scanning the first floor of Mingling Residence, Elder Qingyue led us back to the corridor of Mingling Residence.

Just then, the door to one of the secluded meditation rooms not far in front of us was opened.

"Oh? Someone's coming out. Wait a moment, let me see how this disciple's cultivation is progressing." With that, Elder Qingyue strode towards the opened door.

"Elder Qingyue? Good evening. How long have I been here?" As the door was fully opened, a haggard-looking woman appeared at the entrance of the secluded cultivation room.

She was dressed in the standard robes of a disciple of the Shengdan Academy, her hair disheveled, as if she had been in seclusion for a long time.

"Oh, it's Wen Guanmiao! I haven't seen you in so long. I thought you'd died inside."

"Hehe... Elder Qingyue, you still have that dark humor."

"Your sense of humor is still as high as ever. Let me see... You've been here for almost two months now, and you've done a good job on the mission, achieving a total of thirteen simple objectives. Including the 'stinky lung' you just created, you've already transformed five of the nine cores, and your cultivation progress in the Core Formation stage is more than halfway done. Not bad, not bad."

Nodding, Elder Qingyue placed her hand on the woman's head and stroked it encouragingly.

"I'll take that as a compliment... Where's the stuff?" The haggard woman, her eyes tired, let Elder Qingyue pat her head. She raised her right hand with trembling hands, as if asking Elder Qingyue for something.

"Look, I wouldn't forget something so important." With that, Elder Qingyue took out a pill the size of a thumb from her bosom and handed it to Wen Guanmiao.

Without hesitation, Wen Guanmiao took the pill and immediately put it into her mouth.

"Cough! Cough cough cough! Cough cough cough cough..." Shortly after taking the pill, the violent coughing almost made Wen Guanmiao collapse to the ground. Her face was covered by the robe covering her arms, making it impossible to see her expression. I could only imagine that she was painfully and desperately curling up into a ball, like a shrimp placed on a barbecue grill, her body writhing instinctively.

"Hey, don't move, don't move. This is a normal reaction from your senior sister." Elder Qingyue raised her hand to stop Zeng Yixi, who wanted to help Wen Guanmiao, and turned back to explain to us with a smile.

However, this smile was clearly deliberate; at least his eyes didn't narrow because of the smile, and he stared straight at us. His tone also carried an undeniable resolve as he spoke.

"This...cough cough cough! This, this year's junior brothers and sisters are really considerate, I'm fine..." As Elder Qingyue spoke, Wen Guanmiao, who had been slumped on the ground, gradually stretched out her increasingly curled-up body and staggered to her feet.

"Hiss." I gasped slightly, trying to suppress the sound of my heart racing.

The changes in Wen Guanmiao were not alarming, but they were certainly unexpected.

The woman, who was originally haggard, thin to the point of being sickly, and even showing signs of emaciatedness, after taking the pill given to her by Elder Qingyue, only curled up on the ground in pain for less than a minute before getting up again and looking completely different.

She has the appearance of a healthy, beautiful, sunny, and cheerful young girl.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have found it hard to connect the middle-aged woman with deep wrinkles with the youthful girl with flawless skin in front of me.

"Of course you're fine. Soul Essence Pill took care of everything for you." Elder Qingyue rolled her eyes and said irritably.

"Hmph, so what? I'm leaving first, Elder Qingyue." The lively and clever Wen Guanmiao gave Elder Qingyue a mischievous smile, then turned around and skipped away from Mingling Residence.

However, after taking a few steps towards the gate of Mingling Residence, Wen Guanmiao seemed to remember something, turned back, and waved to Elder Qingyue, saying, "If my cultivation at Mingling Residence goes smoothly, how about choosing you as the guardian elder when selecting the Golden Core Transcending Tribulation Elder? Would you be happy?"

"Then I would be flattered."

"Hmph, you're just pretending." With a sniffle, Wen Guanmiao left without looking back this time.

When she arrived at the gate of Mingling Residence, the tightly closed gate opened automatically inward, and closed automatically again after Wen Guanmiao walked out.

"Elder Qingyue, why can Senior Sister go out directly, but we can't?" Zeng Yixi asked Elder Qingyue as she watched Wen Guanmiao run out.

"The restrictions I set up allow disciples who come out of the seclusion room to leave automatically. At that time, you had just entered the Mingling Residence and had not yet gone into seclusion, so naturally you could not leave."

"So that's how it is..."

"Alright, let's continue. Although there's a secluded meditation room available here, it's not suitable for the two of you."

"Yes."

The three of us walked silently along the corridor. It wasn't until we had walked halfway around the corridor that Elder Qingyue stopped.

"This room is nice; I think it would suit you well," Elder Qingyue said to us, gently stroking the doorway in front of her with her right hand.

"..."

In our silence, the door before us slowly opened. We stood outside and looked inside, seeing only chaos. The same chaos as back in the Refining Heart Hall.

"Go in. You can come out after completing the two objectives. I'll wait at the entrance to escort you back to your retreat. I hope your seclusion goes smoothly."

"Yes." I nodded in response to Elder Qingyue, tightened my grip on Zeng Yixi's hand, and stepped into the secluded cultivation room first.

"Actually, I'm quite surprised that neither of you asked me anything about Su Wanqing. Oh dear, I thought you would be more concerned about her, even though her situation is so awkward."

"What?" Zeng Yixi, who had just entered the seclusion room, suddenly turned around and looked at Elder Qingyue, whose eyes were turning purple, with a look of surprise.

"It's nothing. If you're curious, we can talk after you come out." With a wave of her hand, Elder Qingyue closed the door to the secluded chamber. Only Zeng Yixi's bewildered surprise and my cautious shock remained.

Su Wanqing's situation is awkward? What does that mean? Why is it awkward? What does awkwardness represent? Is it dangerous? Or...?

Suddenly, a series of questions surged into my mind, and I even briefly forgot where I was. It wasn't until I felt Zeng Yixi pulling on my hand that I came back to my senses and looked around the seclusion room in front of me.

Although visibility was still poor, I could still make out the basic layout of the room from the perspective of someone in seclusion: a double bed, a double table, two chairs, and a platform whose purpose I couldn't quite make out.

The so-called solitary confinement room was nothing more than a simple, even somewhat rudimentary, room. To me, it felt more like a guard cell in a detention center or a prison cell.

"Can we let go now?" Zeng Yixi's soft voice came from beside me.

I don't know when it started, but we went from holding each other's wrists to holding hands tightly.

"It should be fine." I nodded and released my grip on Zeng Yixi's hand.