Breathing heavily, Feng Xianyue ran and ran, hoping they were not following her, but when she looked back, she saw that they were on her tail, chasing after her at a fast speed.
How could Feng Xianyue, with her weak mortal body, outrun cultivators—no matter how weak they were?
Soon, they caught up to her, and Feng Xianyue only then realised that she was at a dead end.
In front of her was a cliff, and gazing down, she could only see the flowing river below.
Laughing, the man who had his hands iced over sneered at her, his eyes filled with malicious intent.
Seeing this, Feng Xianyue knew that if they captured her again, she would only suffer at their hands.
So she made a decision: she would rather die than let herself be violated by the disgusting men in front of her.
“I’m sorry, Grandmother,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face.
“I couldn’t make it back to you.”
She closed her eyes and jumped.
Unluckily—or luckily—for Feng Xianyue, thunder rumbled in the distance, dark clouds gathered overhead, and heavy rain immediately began to fall.
Feng Xianyue was helpless as the current in the river suddenly turned strong.
Soon, she was washed away and fainted thereafter.
Opening her eyes slowly, Feng Xianyue winced in pain.
She felt like her body had taken a good beating.
The place she found herself was completely dark, chilling her to the bone.
Water dripped from somewhere, each drop echoing like a heartbeat.
Quickly, she retrieved a small bamboo fire fold from her sleeve and blew gently into the smoldering tip until a faint flame appeared.
Luckily, what she held was not an ordinary fire fold, but a spirit-crafted one she had borrowed from her grandmother.
It still kindled a flame despite the dive in the river.
Looking around, she saw two fire torches by each side of the wall and quickly lit them up.
Feng Xianyue surmised that she was in a cave, because both the wall and ceiling were all made of stone.
Turning to look back at the entrance, she wondered how she got here.
When she tried stepping out of the entrance, Feng Xianyue gasped, terrified, as she was almost sucked away by a strong current of water.
A sharp crack of thunder split the sky, and Feng Xianyue shivered, goosebumps running down her spine.
Hugging her body, she mumbled, thinking hard, “Am I still in the river?” She didn’t want to believe it, but the part of her that stepped out now was already soaked.
It seemed that something was blocking the river from swallowing up the cave.
Feng Xianyue decided to take a look at the spacious cave, cautiously walking around.
She was shocked at what she saw.
There, lying in the middle of the cave, was the remnant of a large beast stretched for hundreds of meters long.
Only the beast’s bones remained, and Feng Xianyue came to the conclusion that the force protecting the cave was coming from there.
Taking a deep breath, she stood in front of the monster, looking out for any danger.
It was then she saw something glowing faintly in the middle of the beast bones.
It was a stone-like bead large enough to fill a palm.
Feng Xianyue, cautious by nature, was troubled at what to do next.
From all the books she had read in her previous world, she knew danger lay at any ancient dwelling—but also unbelievable opportunities.
That was why she left home, so there was no point in shrinking back.
She was stuck here, and there was no guarantee that she could leave the cave without endangering her already dwindling life.
Feng Xianyue soon stretched out her hand to take the stone bead.
Resting in her palm was a fist-sized stone bead covered in ancient runes.
Though it appeared ordinary, a faint pressure radiated from within it.
Feng Xianyue didn’t believe that this was not a treasure—she just didn’t know how to activate it.
Suddenly, she thought of something and pulled out the pin holding her hair to prick her finger.
Wincing a bit, she directed the little blood from her finger to fall on the surface of the bead and was not disappointed.
The bead absorbed her blood like it was starving.
Then it pulsed—once, twice—before erupting into a blinding white light.
Feng Xianyue fainted when the white bead suddenly entered her body.
She soon woke up to find herself in her sea of consciousness.
“Wow,” she muttered, amazed.
She had read about this vast spiritual world and was very excited to be able to access hers.
Feng Xianyue had always been weak and had no access to spiritual power or qi for many years.
It explained her lack of access to her sea of consciousness.
Now, looking at the endless ocean before her, she smiled, walking on it in wonder.
Looking up, she saw the white bead floating above her sea of consciousness and came back to the matter at hand.
Stretching out her hand, she willed the bead to come to her, and it flew immediately to rest on her palms.
Watching it intently, she rubbed its smooth surface, hoping for more surprises.
Disappointed, she pricked her finger again to feed the stone more blood, which was immediately absorbed by the bead.
In a second, she disappeared from her sea of consciousness and the dragon cave entirely and appeared in an empty space.
“Is this white bead the legendary space?” Feng Xianyue thought, surprised.
She had always thought that she was unluckier than other cannon fodder characters who transmigrated because they always got amazing treasures to boost their power, but looking at this, she wondered if her luck was finally increasing after almost dying for the second time.
Suddenly, her mind was bombarded with information about the origin of the white bead.
It belonged to an ancient ice dragon who got injured during a war millions of years ago.
To protect its child, it settled deep down under a sea, which the river washed Feng Xianyue into.
The dragon had settled her child’s egg in her space for protection.
The stone bead could only be activated by any creature deemed worthy, by the remnant spirit of the ancient ice dragon, to be capable of protecting its only child in the world.
Feng Xianyue was immensely moved by this strong motherly instinct the ice dragon had and resolved herself to protect the cub well, no matter how incapable she felt she was.
However, Feng Xianyue didn’t want to get smug so soon.
She had to take a look at this famous space first.
Walking around, she saw a spiritual spring, and her eyes shone with interest.
The water was crystal clear and so pure that it seemed to glow from within.
Feng Xianyue knelt and scooped a handful, and the moment it touched her lips, something shifted inside her.
She suddenly felt refreshed and somewhat energised, like something cold within her was melting gently.
In the ten years she had lived here, Feng Xianyue had never felt this way.
Smiling faintly, she continued exploring, seeing a vast piece of land with almost two thousand acres of red soil brimming with spiritual energy.
Half of it already had a number of spiritual grasses she couldn’t name.
Its vastness was probably due to the ice dragon’s use of it.
Moving forward, she saw a bamboo hut.
It had a two-story building, and Feng Xianyue wondered if the dragon had a human form—probably, as it had cultivated for a long time.
Feng Xianyue’s thoughts kept drifting back to the dragon cub.
She wanted to find it already.
She surmised that it was probably inside and hurried her steps to enter the hut.