She really doesn’t know?!
Gu Congshan stared at Ming Zhu in utter disbelief. After he had been looking at her for quite some time, Ming Zhu finally spoke again: “What are you looking at?”
Only then did Gu Congshan realize that his staring was hardly polite. Their eyes met, and he was once again dazzled by Ming Zhu’s face, awkwardly averting his gaze: “You really don’t know?”
Ming Zhu looked at him and asked in return: “Should I know?”
Gu Congshan was stumped by her question. There really was no such logic to it.
Regardless of the doubts in his mind, seeing that Ming Zhu didn’t seem to be joking, he honestly recounted everything he knew about cultivation.
He could have said nothing, of course, but facing Ming Zhu’s face, Gu Congshan found himself unable to refuse for some reason. However, what he knew was actually limited—just how to ignite the Life Star and enter the Dao, and some basic spells.
“The fire you summoned just now—was that a spell?” Ming Zhu asked again.
Gu Congshan nodded, a hint of pride showing on his face. His Fire Spell was pretty decent, wasn’t it?
“It should be enough to scare off two rabbits,” Ming Zhu evaluated objectively. If it were tigers or wolves, they probably wouldn’t be afraid of such a small flame.
Gu Congshan felt as if an arrow had pierced his heart. But Ming Zhu’s expression was so serious that she did not seem to be mocking him.
That made him feel even more miserable…
“Only three mansions in my star chart have lit up, so my spiritual breath is limited. The spells I can use aren’t very powerful…” Gu Congshan’s voice grew quieter as he spoke.
He didn’t want to be this weak either, but cultivation was truly too difficult—even harder than learning to read.
Ming Zhu tilted her head, listening to him speak. She was just about to ask what “three mansions” meant when she suddenly raised her eyes, focusing intently on something ahead.
Wind brushed past her ears, and the next moment, Gu Congshan, who hadn’t even finished speaking, was kicked away by her.
Wait, why?! Gu Congshan, flying backwards, looked utterly caught off guard.
A white figure brushed past him, bringing with it a whistling sound of air being split. Gu Congshan, too shocked to even feel angry, widened his eyes slightly.
It wasn’t until his rear end hit the ground heavily that he saw clearly—it was a white wolf that had pounced.
The white wolf’s fangs were razor-sharp. If Ming Zhu hadn’t kicked him away in time, he would have been caught in the wolf’s jaws by now.
Gu Congshan broke out in a cold sweat belatedly.
Seeing its attack fail, the white wolf turned its vicious gaze toward Ming Zhu, who had ruined its plans. It immediately changed targets, whipping around to lunge at her.
A short dagger flipped in her hand, clashing against the wolf’s sharp claws and fangs with a piercing screech. In a flash of lightning, Ming Zhu and the white wolf crossed paths, and she was not at a disadvantage.
Gu Congshan stared with wide eyes. This girl, who looked two years younger than him, actually had the strength to fight a wolf—
Even as a cultivator, Gu Congshan would only turn and run at the sight of tigers or wolves in the mountains. His meager cultivation was only enough to save his own life; he truly didn’t have the courage to face them head-on.
When he had entered the Wuyin Forest the day before, he had only planned to look for spiritual treasures on the outskirts, not daring to go deeper. Who would have thought that while he was resting, a fox would steal the pouch containing his Spirit Jade? He chased it for quite a distance, failed to catch the fox, and on top of that, got lost.
If he had known this would happen, he should have just gritted his teeth and let those few pieces of Spirit Jade go. Gu Congshan regretted it deeply.
After Ming Zhu spun and landed, she advanced instead of retreating, taking the initiative to attack the white wolf. She had only brought this short dagger when she left the mountain, so she could only get in close and look for an opportunity.
Amid the rustling sounds, the wind sweeping through the mountain forest suddenly stalled, then transformed into sharp blades, all descending upon Ming Zhu.
A flicker of surprise passed through her eyes, but fortunately her body reacted even faster than her mind—in the span of a rabbit’s leap and a hawk’s dive, she dodged all the seemingly gentle wind blades. Though she escaped uninjured, a corner of her skirt was still unavoidably sliced off.
Wind?
The wind between heaven and earth could actually be wielded by the white wolf before her?
Ming Zhu landed on a tree, staring down at the white wolf. Her face showed no fear, but rather intrigue. Why had the tigers and wolves of Yugu Mountain never displayed such power?
This is truly… far too interesting—
Gu Congshan scrambled to his feet in a fluster, unaware of what she was thinking. Seeing the white wolf command the wind, his heart tightened, and he shouted a warning to Ming Zhu: “This white wolf is a Demonic Beast that can wield spiritual breath—run!”
The white wolf had already awakened its spiritual intelligence, able to absorb the essence of sun and moon to strengthen itself with spiritual breath, its power far surpassing that of ordinary beasts of its kind.
Ming Zhu naturally knew this white wolf would not be easy to deal with, but even if she wanted to flee, the wolf didn’t look like it would easily let go of prey it had set its sights on.
Just as Gu Congshan’s words faded, the white wolf came again, riding the wind.
Ming Zhu sidestepped to dodge, the tree branch beneath her feet severed from a distance by sharp claws, and she narrowly avoided the wind swirling around her.
With the wandering wind between heaven and earth as its support, getting close to the white wolf was no easy matter.
Watching such a perilous scene, Gu Congshan’s throat went dry. If he wanted to escape with his life, the best opportunity was undoubtedly to turn tail and run while Ming Zhu was entangled with the white wolf.
But Ming Zhu had just saved him—Gu Congshan could never bring himself to leave her alone to face the white wolf.
He was a cultivator after all! Gu Congshan mentally pumped himself up, but thinking of facing a Demonic Beast, his legs unconsciously began to go weak.
He trembled as he channeled his spiritual power—what spell was he supposed to use now?!
Several consecutive pounces were evaded by Ming Zhu. The white wolf fixed its gaze on her perched in the tree, crouching slightly. One person and one wolf faced off in silence, like a bowstring pulled taut, the atmosphere exceptionally tense.
What broke the standoff was Gu Congshan, who suddenly charged forward with a series of “ahh” cries. Both Ming Zhu and the white wolf’s attention were drawn to him, and they saw several clusters of flame ignite at his side, which he hurled at the white wolf with a wave of his hand.
The white wolf let out a light snort, clearly dismissing Gu Congshan as beneath notice, and easily sidestepped the flames.
In the blink of an eye, Gu Congshan, whose spiritual power was mostly spent, stared dumbfounded at the white wolf drawing closer and closer to him.
Why wasn’t it running?
Aren’t beasts supposed to fear fire?
His scalp tingled, his steps faltered, and he smoothly pivoted direction.
Run!
The white wolf lunged forward, about to catch up with the fleeing Gu Congshan in an instant. He seemed to feel the fierce wind at his back, and his screams grew even louder, causing Ming Zhu to raise an eyebrow slightly.
But it was also because of his actions that Ming Zhu suddenly remembered—according to his words, since she had lit her Life Star, she should now be able to use so-called spells as well.
How were spells used?
She recalled what she had seen before—raising her hand, a radiant glow illuminated the star chart within her body.
A lustrous white breath traveled through the various constellations, and the spiritual energy between heaven and earth seemed to answer a call, howling as it converged around her.
The white wolf lunged at Gu Congshan, baring its gleaming fangs. In that instant, time seemed to stretch infinitely.
Amidst the wind stirred by the wolf’s charge, a great blaze erupted skyward, forming a ring of fire centered on Gu Congshan’s position, forcibly cutting off the white wolf’s advance.
In the firelight, it twisted midair and landed, facing them across the ring of flames—but its gaze was fixed not on Gu Congshan, but on Ming Zhu.
Man and wolf locked eyes once more, and wariness flickered in its eyes.
Gu Congshan’s legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground, turning his stiff neck to look at Ming Zhu. Did she set this fire?
Even Ming Zhu herself hadn’t expected that the spell she used would be utterly unlike Gu Congshan’s in every way.
But this was hardly the time to dwell on that. She fixed the white wolf with a cold stare, her spiritual breath spreading invisibly outward like a predator poised to strike.
The white wolf lowered its body, as if sensing something, its eyes growing increasingly wary. After a moment, it finally chose to lift a paw and retreat—and in an instant, its form had vanished into the mountain forest.
It seemed there was no need to figure out how to kill the wolf for now. Sensing its spiritual breath fading into the distance with no sign of turning back, Ming Zhu finally withdrew her gaze.
“Quick, quick, put out the fire!” Gu Congshan trembled inside the ring of flames. If this fire kept burning, he wouldn’t die in the wolf’s jaws—he’d be cremated instead.
Ming Zhu jumped down from the tree. “How do I put it out?”
Since this fire had been drawn by her spiritual breath, it could naturally be withdrawn by Ming Zhu as well. Gu Congshan gestured and directed her.
As Ming Zhu withdrew her spiritual breath, the raging flames gradually died down, and Gu Congshan let out a long sigh of relief.
With his life no longer in danger, he finally had room to think of other things. He stole a glance at Ming Zhu, the words circling on his lips before he finally couldn’t hold back: “You… how do you know the Fire Spell?”
Hadn’t she only just lit her Life Star?!
Could he have been mistaken earlier—that it wasn’t the celestial phenomenon that appeared when a Life Star was lit?
“Didn’t you use it?” Ming Zhu answered matter-of-factly. “I saw it.”
“Huh?!”
She could use it just by seeing it?
This… this…
How was that possible?!
Gu Congshan was beginning to question his very existence.
And even if what she said was true, why was the Fire Spell she used so much more powerful than his own?
There was no way she’d only just lit her Life Star and already awakened more constellations on her star chart than he had!
“What did you mean earlier by ‘three mansions’?” Before Gu Congshan could say anything else, Ming Zhu spoke first, cutting off his scattered thoughts.
She really didn’t know? Gu Congshan studied Ming Zhu, unable to guess her origins.
She didn’t seem like someone from the countryside, but if she came from a noble clan or a hidden immortal sect, there was no way she’d be ignorant of even the most basic cultivation knowledge.
Still, no matter how strange he found Ming Zhu, she had just saved him from the wolf’s jaws. Since she’d asked, there was no reason for Gu Congshan to hold back.
He crouched down, picked up a random branch, and began drawing on the ground.
“Have you ever looked at the stars?” Gu Congshan asked Ming Zhu. “A cultivator’s internal star chart corresponds to the constellations in the heavens, divided into the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions.”
But before the Life Star is lit, the many constellations on the star chart lie in darkness and chaos, indistinguishable from one another.
Only when illuminated by the Life Star can one awaken these constellations with spiritual breath, casting off the chaos and darkness, and from then on gain the ability to store spiritual breath.
This meant that the more constellations one could awaken under the Life Star’s light, the more spiritual breath one could command.
All spells require the practitioner to rouse the spiritual power inherent in the stars and guide it along specific trajectories between them. The more powerful and effective a spell is, the more complex it is to perform.
“For instance, the Fire Spell only requires igniting the fire-attributed stars among the twenty-eight constellations in the four directions to summon flames, whether it’s the Eastern Tail Mansion or the Southern Wing Mansion…” Gu Congshan gestured as he explained. The three mansions currently lit in his star chart were the Horn, Tail, and Winnowing Basket Mansions of the Eastern Seven Mansions.
The Horn Mansion corresponds to Fire, the Tail Mansion to Wood, and the Winnowing Basket Mansion to Fire.
Ming Zhu suddenly asked again, “Doesn’t everyone’s star chart have any differences?”
Her star chart seemed somewhat different from Gu Congshan’s.
Perhaps she wasn’t human? Ming Zhu seriously considered this possibility.
Gu Congshan shook his head, puzzled by her question. “Although a person’s star chart is fixed from birth and cannot be altered later, each one is not the same. For example, my Tail Mansion has forty-three mansions within it.”
For other cultivators, the number of stars in the Tail Mansion might be fewer than forty, but for those with more exceptional talent, the Tail Mansion alone could contain nearly a hundred stars, or even more than that.
Ming Zhu gave a quiet “oh,” as if she understood. If that was the case, then she should still count as human?
Gu Congshan couldn’t see that within her body, beneath the hazy radiance of her Life Star, more than two thousand stars shone across the Eastern Seven Mansions.
Stars linked across the Seven Mansions, shining brilliantly into the depths of darkness.
The moment Ming Zhu ignited her Life Star, her spiritual breath awakened the entire Eastern Seven Mansions.