From the original owner’s memories, Murong Chao learned that the reason she had been able to hide her cultivation level and remain unnoticed in the Xuantian Sect was all thanks to this pendant. This pendant could conceal one’s cultivation.
She had formed a Soul Contract with the pendant during a life-or-death crisis, while the original owner had simply used it as a tool to mask her cultivation.
Her own pendant did not have the ability to conceal cultivation, and she wasn’t sure if the original owner’s pendant also contained a space within it.
Just then, the pendant in her hand emitted a purple-gold light, flew into her forehead, and vanished along with the glow.
Sensing a tremor in the Purple-Gold Space, Murong Chao quickly turned her attention to the pendant in her consciousness. Originally flat, the pendant had now thickened and become more rounded.
Had the two pendants merged?
Why did she, a hundred years later, possess an identical treasure passed down through the royal family of the Chiyue Kingdom? And why did they automatically merge upon meeting?
Summoning the Purple-Gold Space once more, she found the vast expanse of black soil unchanged, and her accumulated belongings safely stored inside. However, a tall, lush tree now stood on the black soil, alongside a classically styled courtyard.
Amidst the endless black soil, both the flourishing tree and the courtyard appeared small and isolated.
With a thought, Murong Chao entered the space.
As soon as she stepped in, a fragrant aroma greeted her—something the Purple-Gold Space had never had before.
Even with the changes, she couldn’t see any flowers. Could there be flowers inside the courtyard?
Murong Chao walked closer. The nearer she got to the tree, the stronger the fragrance became. Surprisingly, the scent was coming from the tree itself.
Standing beneath the tree, she looked up for a long while, searching through both the original owner’s memories and her own, but found no information about this tree. She had no idea what kind of tree it was.
Previously, she hadn’t given it much thought, and being far from diligent, she had never considered whether the black soil could support plant growth.
But now, with the two pendants merged, the Purple-Gold Space had actually produced a plant.
Though it was just a single tree, it suddenly made her realize that the Purple-Gold Space might not be as simple as it appeared on the surface.
Murong Chao withdrew her gaze and walked to the courtyard gate. What could be inside?
Her eyes fell upon the plaque above the gate, inscribed with the words “Murong Manor.”
Was this a courtyard belonging to the Murong family? How could it be inside the Purple-Gold Space?
She reached out and pushed open the heavy, ancient gate, carved with patterns she had never seen before. Bypassing the screen wall, her eyes were drawn to a large grove of purple bamboo on the left side of the courtyard, with a rocking chair beneath it.
The arrangement suited her perfectly—a truly ideal spot for lazing around.
Recalling that the original owner’s favorite place had been the rocking chair under the bamboo grove in her small courtyard, Murong Chao’s lips twitched slightly.
It seemed they were both inherently lazy at heart.
However, the original owner had at least indulged in laziness, while she herself had never had such an opportunity.
Opposite the bamboo grove, on the right side of the courtyard, stood three peach trees laden with countless fist-sized peaches. Though not yet ripe, they emitted a fresh, fruity scent.
These peaches would likely taste delicious once they ripened.
Aside from this, the courtyard was devoid of even a single weed, let alone any other flowers or plants.
As someone who wasn’t particularly industrious, she found the simplicity of the courtyard’s layout very much to her liking.
Walking along the path between the bamboo grove and peach trees, she arrived before the main room and pushed the door open. Her eyes met a spacious main hall. A square table stood in the center, flanked by two chairs carved from thick tree roots, exuding an ancient and mystical aura.
On the wall hung a landscape painting depicting a waterfall cascading down a cliff into a deep pool below. The scene felt so vivid it seemed to materialize before her eyes. She wondered who had painted it—the skill was truly extraordinary.
On either side of the main hall were rooms with closed doors. At that moment, her gaze fell upon the only object on the table: an ancient brocade box.
The box had no lock but was tightly sealed. She reached out to touch it, curious about how to open it. Yet the moment her fingers made contact, the box sprang open with a soft pop, causing her to instinctively withdraw her hand.
Before she could see what was inside, a distant voice echoed.
“Descendant of Murong, forty-ninth generation, auspicious light paves the way, born without a cry, master of purple-gold, fortune of the clan, born away from the palace, severed from kinship, one person across two lifetimes, sixteen-year death calamity, soul returns and merges, grasps heaven and earth.”
Murong Chao froze. Descendant of Murong? Were these words left behind by an ancestor of the Murong family from the Chiyue Kingdom?
What did it mean?
She suddenly recalled that Murong Chao was indeed the forty-ninth-generation heir of the Murong royal family. At her birth, auspicious purple-gold light had descended, and she had not cried once after being born.
“Master of purple-gold”—could that refer to the Purple-Gold Space? The Chiyue Crown Princess had indeed left the palace on the day of her birth, effectively severing familial ties.
Her focus shifted to the phrase “one person across two lifetimes, soul returns and merges.”
Something exploded in her mind. She had always believed she had died and been reborn into the body of Murong Chao, the Crown Princess of the Chiyue Kingdom.
But these words clearly told her that she was both Murong Chao of the Chiyue Kingdom and Murong Chao of the Xuantian Sect—they were the same person.
One person living across two lifetimes. The sixteen-year death calamity was today. A century ago, Murong Chao had died after being given the Spirit-Destroying Pill. A century later, she had died when Wei Xiangyuan dug out her spiritual root. The soul from a century later had returned to a century earlier, merging with the past self—thus, the death calamity had already passed.
Yet, in the century she knew, the Chiyue Kingdom had long since fallen. According to the information from that future, Murong Chao had never returned to the Chiyue Kingdom.
The Crown Princess of the Chiyue Kingdom was someone else. Rumors said it was precisely because the new Crown Princess, Murong Su, had murdered Murong Chao, violating the ancestral rule that only the legitimate eldest daughter could inherit the throne, that she disrupted the Murong royal family’s feng shui and led to the kingdom’s downfall.
Murong Chao suddenly understood. A sixth-grade pill was an invaluable treasure even in the foremost sect, the Xuantian Sect. Forget Jiang Anya—even her grandfather, the Guardian General, could not obtain a sixth-grade Spirit-Destroying Pill.
Behind Jiang Anya, it must have been Murong Su plotting, and the Spirit-Destroying Pill was likely provided by Murong Su as well.
No wonder no one in the future knew how Murong Su had killed Murong Chao.
This revelation left her bewildered.
There was a significant difference between someone else’s grudge and her own—her mindset shifted instantly.
No wonder her soul fit this body so perfectly, without the slightest discomfort—this was her own body all along.
Murong Chao’s gaze fell into the brocade box. Inside lay three ancient texts, with the topmost one bearing the title “Purple-Gold Mystic Art, Volume One.”
High-level cultivation techniques of the Xuantian Sect were kept on the top floor of the Library Pavilion, protected by powerful formations—they were the sect’s most treasured possessions.
As the personal disciple of the Xuantian Sect’s sect master, she had entered before but had not obtained any predestined cultivation art.
The aura of the Purple-Gold Mystic Art before her was far stronger than those high-level cultivation arts.
Could this be an ancient cultivation art?
Yun Xiu, the legendary genius of the Xuantian Sect and the person she aimed to surpass, cultivated an ancient art.
She had always believed that the only thing separating her from Yun Xiu was an ancient cultivation art. Who would have thought that dying once would actually fulfill this wish?