Even so, Zhou Ziliang remained fiercely loyal to Wei Xiangyuan. If she could repair his spiritual root, wouldn’t that loyalty grow even stronger?
After all, Zhou Ziliang was already at the great perfection of the Core Formation stage. If he could condense an infant soul, he would be considered a powerhouse on the Yagu Continent.
Very few could ever reach Spirit Transformation cultivation.
Wei Xiangyuan himself was only at the initial infant soul cultivation stage.
It would be best to make him swear a Soul Oath—she trusted nothing but Soul Oaths.
Murong Chao felt no guilt over scheming against Zhou Ziliang. No matter what, the fact remained that she had saved his life.
Sensing a group approaching, she realized she had been locked onto by a spiritual sense—something only a cultivator with Nascent Soul cultivation could achieve. It must be Wei Xiangyuan leading Xuantian Sect disciples. It was too late to leave now.
No wonder Zhou Ziliang hadn’t encountered any monster beasts or spirit beasts—he had only been unconscious for a moment before running into Wei Xiangyuan.
She immediately sent the still-unconscious Zhou Ziliang into her Purple-Gold Space. She wanted to see what Wei Xiangyuan had been like a century ago.
The moment Zhou Ziliang vanished, Wei Xiangyuan appeared with the Xuantian Sect disciples.
Murong Chao remembered that her cultivation level was concealed by the Purple Gold Pendant. If Wei Xiangyuan saw her like this, he would surely realize she possessed an artifact that concealed cultivation level. An artifact capable of hiding cultivation from a Nascent Soul cultivator was undoubtedly no ordinary treasure—he would never let it go.
What should she do?
But there was no time to think. Fortunately, she was facing away from them. She quickly took out a piece of purple gauze and covered her face, hiding her features. At the same time, she communicated with the Purple Gold Pendant using her spiritual sense, revealing her cultivation level.
If this didn’t work and Wei Xiangyuan truly grew greedy, she would retreat into her space. Without seeing her face, even someone as capable as Wei Xiangyuan wouldn’t be able to identify her in a short time.
All of this happened in an instant. To Wei Xiangyuan and the others, it merely looked like she had turned around after having her back to them.
Seeing Wei Xiangyuan, Murong Chao’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed. A century later, Wei Xiangyuan would become the sect master, but now he was merely the master of a peak. The difference of a single word meant a vast gap in status, and his aura was completely different.
His appearance hadn’t changed much. After reaching Nascent Soul cultivation, one’s looks wouldn’t alter significantly even over a thousand years, let alone a mere century.
In that instant, the agony of having her spiritual root torn out alive flashed through her mind. Murong Chao lowered her gaze, instantly suppressing the barely restrained hatred, then raised her eyes to look at them indifferently.
Wei Xiangyuan’s sharp gaze fell upon Murong Chao, then he frowned at the still-damp bloodstains on the ground and the thoroughly dead man in brown robes.
He had clearly sensed two living auras here—why was there only one person? Could it be that the man on the ground had just died?
Yet, he felt an inexplicable sense of having lost something very important. He disliked this feeling intensely, as if he had missed a great opportunity.
Seeing Wei Xiangyuan’s expression, Murong Chao relaxed inwardly, realizing that the fused Purple Gold Pendant could indeed be controlled by her spiritual sense.
This meant that from now on, whether to conceal her cultivation level or not would be entirely up to her. What a delightful thing.
Feeling reassured, she also observed the disciples Wei Xiangyuan had brought. She recognized several of them, but to her surprise, she actually saw Wei Nanyan among them.
Wei Nanyan was Wei Xiangyuan’s daughter. An accident occurred when she awakened her spiritual root at age five, making cultivation extremely difficult for her, but no one knew exactly what had happened.
Wei Xiangyuan deeply cherished this daughter left to him by his beloved woman. He paid a great price to have her reside at Qingyun Shan, where a Divine Physician treated her body.
A hundred years later, she had only seen Wei Nanyan once, when Wei Xiangyuan brought her out and incidentally went to visit Wei Nanyan.
At that time, Wei Nanyan was already 118 years old, 102 years older than her. Her first impression of Wei Nanyan was not good; she felt Wei Nanyan was gloomy and sullen overall.
The Wei Nanyan now was only eighteen years old, at a blooming, beautiful age, and indeed seemed more vibrant than the Wei Nanyan a century later.
She had thought Wei Nanyan always lived at Qingyun Shan; turns out a hundred years ago she was in the Xuantian Sect.
Yet her cultivation level remained the initial Foundation Establishment of a century later. So her cultivation hadn’t broken through in a hundred years. It seemed the spiritual root awakening injury was severe indeed—where exactly was she injured?
Could it be her spiritual root was injured?
As this thought emerged, Murong Chao’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed sharply, and she suddenly realized something. Could Wei Xiangyuan have dug out his own spiritual root for his daughter Wei Nanyan?
If so, things would make sense.
Her mind now contained the contents of the entire Library Pavilion of the Xuantian Sect. She remembered a book mentioning that during the Ancient Era, someone had successfully replaced a spiritual root.
However, only an All-Element Spirit Root could survive being implanted in another person’s dantian.
If this was truly the case, then Wei Nanyan was also her enemy.
While Murong Chao observed Wei Nanyan, Wei Nanyan was also sizing up Murong Chao.
Seeing the pair of glistening, watery almond eyes revealed, she knew beneath the veil was a stunning beauty she could not compare to, and instinctively felt jealous.
After all, she was known as the number one beauty in the Xuantian Sect.
“May I ask, young lady, what happened here?” Wei Xiangyuan’s tone was cold, tinged with aloof pride.
Murong Chao shrugged, “I just arrived, and then you came.”
The implied meaning was: I saw what you saw; how would I know what happened?
Wei Xiangyuan used his spiritual sense to perceive the lingering battle aura here, knowing the previous combatants had cultivation at the great perfection of the Core Formation stage. The woman before him was only at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment and lacked the capability to kill cultivators whose cultivation was so much higher than hers.
Although Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment cultivation was quite good for her age, it was too weak before his Nascent Soul cultivation.
He did not believe a cultivator who hadn’t even reached Core Formation would dare lie before a strong Nascent Soul cultivator like him.
Two Xuantian Sect disciples stepped forward to examine the deceased. “Peak Master Wei, the person is completely dead.”
Wei Xiangyuan waved dismissively, unconcerned. “We need not bother with unrelated individuals.”
Murong Chao could not reconcile the Wei Xiangyuan before her—aloof, selfish, acting detached and above it all—with the Wei Xiangyuan a century later who proclaimed himself a righteous gentleman, renowned for benevolence and justice, revered by all as the Xuantian Sect’s Sect Leader.
Although she desperately wanted to immediately exact revenge on Wei Xiangyuan for digging out her spiritual root, she clearly understood her current self lacked that capability.
She had already successfully saved Zhou Ziliang before Wei Xiangyuan, but tomorrow there was another great opportunity—the one that allowed Wei Xiangyuan to become a sect’s leader. She must seize it.
The opportunity erupted suddenly and was opportunely encountered by Wei Xiangyuan. She didn’t know where the opportunity was; she must devise a way to follow them.
But she was well aware of the rules of the Xuantian Sect—disciples on training journeys were absolutely forbidden from bringing outsiders along.
In front of so many disciples, Wei Xiangyuan, as the master of a peak, would never make such an obvious mistake.
How could she achieve her goal?
Murong Chao observed Wei Xiangyuan from the corner of her eye, noticing him frowning in thought.
Her almond-shaped eyes suddenly brightened. She had been so focused on Zhou Ziliang and tomorrow’s opportunity that she had forgotten an important piece of information.