No matter how things were in the past, when facing Ning Zhishui now, the old man was destined to reveal himself.
“Danxing, let us make a deal. Tell me everything about Shenfeng Valley. In return, I can help you obtain what you desire,” Ning Zhishui said.
At this moment, she was no longer the excited young girl who had faced her second brother and aunt earlier. She was Ning Zhishui, the Tenth Realm powerhouse from three hundred years later.
Her tone, bearing, and expression were fundamentally different.
Danxing had not yet recovered from the shock of this little girl knowing his name when he heard her words.
“Shenfeng Valley? How do you know about Shenfeng Valley?” he exclaimed.
This little old man really asks too many questions.
Forget it. I still need to settle him first if I want to raise my cultivation quickly.
Outside the room, the two looked at each other.
“No way… The senior really showed himself?” Ren Fei was confused.
“Aunt, does this count as eavesdropping?” Ning Chengfeng asked.
They were standing outside the door. Although they could not hear the actual conversation between Ning Zhishui and the old man, they could hear her thoughts.
There was not much difference.
“Fengzi, that is not correct. We are sitting here properly. How is that eavesdropping?” Ren Fei said seriously.
Ning Chengfeng nodded. “Aunt is right… it would just be better without the word Fengzi.”
“Your brother is called Chuanzi, and you are called Fengzi. What is wrong with that?”
“That is very wrong. Why don’t you call Little Sister Shuizi then?”
“Because it does not sound nice.”
“… And Fengzi does?”
“I think it sounds quite nice.”
Inside, Ning Zhishui looked at the wisp of black smoke and remained silent.
“Who exactly are you? Have you been possessed? Who are you really?” Danxing asked, deeply suspicious.
As a spirit bound to the artifact, he had always resided within Ren Fei’s bracelet, so he was not unfamiliar with Ning Zhishui’s existence.
Previously, she had clearly been a mischievous girl who loved slacking off and disliked cultivation. She had never possessed this kind of presence, nor would she have known about Shenfeng Valley.
Even Ren Fei did not know such matters, and he had never mentioned them, carefully maintaining the image of a mysterious senior expert.
But now, facing Ning Zhishui, he felt as if every secret about him was about to be exposed.
“I am one upon whom a god has descended,” Ning Zhishui said.
The black smoke froze.
The notion of one upon whom a god has descended was a legend on the continent, mentioned only in certain strange tales.
It was said that when cultivators attempted to ascend to immortality, some great powers failed and perished. Yet if their divine sense was strong enough, it would not immediately dissipate when the body collapsed, but scatter and drift.
By chance, it might merge with another person. When the two divine senses fused, that person would become one upon whom a god had descended.
An ordinary body containing the soul of a great power.
This was different from possession. Possession meant devouring and erasing another’s soul, a sinful act.
Descent meant fusion and preservation, a stroke of fate.
“Is that true? Then how will you prove that you are a Tenth Realm powerhouse?” Danxing asked, half believing.
He truly dared to believe it.
Ning Zhishui found it amusing.
In the past, she might have believed in such legends. But after personally experiencing ascension, she knew it was pure fabrication, nothing more than cultivators’ fantasies.
The immortal qi was devastating. When she perished, her body and soul had been reduced to nothing. She had felt her warmth, vitality, and consciousness fade away step by step.
If she had not inexplicably returned three hundred years into the past, there would no longer be a Ning Zhishui in this world.
“My strength is gone, so I cannot offer solid proof. But I know of the existence of the Tower of the Dead,” she said.
I need to mention something he knows, but ordinary people do not.
Secrets about immortal qi during ascension might be beyond his reach at his level.
The Tower of the Dead should suffice.
“You even know about that… You say you will help me. Then do you know what I truly want?”
“Of course. You sealed yourself into an artifact and willingly became its spirit in order to accumulate enough power one day to break free from the bracelet. Ideally, you would find a suitable body, seize it, and begin life anew,” Ning Zhishui said leisurely.
Still pretending to be some lofty senior. Do you think I do not know what you want?
Danxing was a Seventh Realm cultivator. He was an alchemist and also an artifact refiner.
He had deliberately concealed the fact that he was an artifact refiner from Ren Fei, claiming only to be an alchemist.
In truth, though he came from the Dan Sect, his artifact refining surpassed his alchemy. The bracelet that housed him had been crafted by his own hand.
As his lifespan neared its end, unwilling to accept death, he used a secret technique. His body perished, but he transformed into the bracelet’s spirit, surviving in another form.
He needed to accumulate power and recuperate slowly. That was why he had deliberately made the bracelet inconspicuous, to avoid attracting powerful figures.
Later, he appeared in a small stall. When he saw Ren Fei passing by and recognized her aptitude, he deliberately caused the bracelet to flicker when she looked over, ensuring she would notice it and bring it home.
“… I have no intention of seizing your aunt’s body,” Danxing said, a hint of guilt in his voice. “I only wish to…”
“The imbalance of yin and yang makes a female cultivator unsuitable for you to seize anyway. You merely intend to use her cultivation to strengthen yourself,” Ning Zhishui said coldly. “Her slow progress is because half of her cultivation flows into your bracelet.”
“I had no choice. Without relying on others, I cannot accumulate sufficient strength on my own. But rest assured, I am measured. I only draw a portion of her spiritual energy at critical times. Otherwise, I am happy to see her grow stronger. The stronger she is, the stronger I become,” Danxing explained.
By now, he believed Ning Zhishui.
The things she spoke of were not knowledge an ordinary cultivator could possess.
Even he, at the Seventh Realm, might not have understood such matters had he not come from Shenfeng Valley and possessed extensive knowledge.
Some matters were inaccessible without reaching a certain level of strength or background, such as sealing oneself into an artifact.
“Your cultivation issue is not urgent. I have other methods that will be far faster than your current approach,” Ning Zhishui said.
She tapped the bracelet lightly with her fingertip. “At most two months will be needed to verify it. During this time, you must not siphon any more of my aunt’s spiritual energy. If I discover it even once, I will tell her the truth and have her throw you into the deep sea.”
“Two months? Agreed,” Danxing replied immediately. “Then I will wait. What do you wish to know about Shenfeng Valley?”
It was only two months. He could afford to wait.
“Its precise location, how to enter it, and how to meet Valley Master Haomiao,” Ning Zhishui said.
She even knows the name of Valley Master Haomiao…
Outsiders did not even know Shenfeng Valley existed, yet she knew this much.
At that moment, Danxing no longer doubted her identity.