63. Burial Dragon Cliff (Part 7)

Yao Qian looked around. Everywhere she turned, there were peach trees covered in grotesque, swollen knots. The trees were completely devoid of leaves, branches, or petals, their limbs growing wildly in every direction. The rising sun pierced through the thick, heavy fog, casting a pale, feeble light upon the ground.

The shadows of the peach trees on the ground intertwined with the white light, resembling a horde of evil ghosts pinned to the earth. The random, bulging mounds of earth looked at first glance like isolated graves, and the rotting, marsh-like floral mud on the ground emitted a sickly green phosphorescence.

Even though this should have been an eerie and terrifying environment, Yao Qian felt an uncanny sense of familiarity with it. This feeling not only kept her from fearing anything around her, but she could even sense a familiar yet calm rhythm pulsing beneath her feet.

It was precisely this rhythm that had unconsciously altered their path and caused her to become separated from her companions. Although Yao Qian appeared relaxed and light-footed as she walked through this place, looking as though she had returned home, her internal vigilance had actually reached its absolute peak.

She had experienced the seizing of the Dao by Heavenly Demons. Although she did not know that what she had encountered were Heavenly Demons seizing the Dao, she already understood that the five senses could deceive one. Even when she felt wonderful at times, it might simply be a personal illusion.

Yet this environment not only made her body feel comfortable, but her normally infallible sixth sense failed to give her any warning. This caused Yao Qian some unease; she might have stumbled upon something truly terrifying.

This sense of helplessness, where she did not even know where her opponent was, filled Yao Qian with fear while simultaneously exciting her mind and sharpening it to an unprecedented degree. She imprinted every single detail within her field of vision into her mind, then analyzed the flaws frame by frame like looking at photographs.

Her formidable spiritual sense had granted her photographic memory in her past life. In this lifetime, her spiritual sense was even stronger, making her memory retention even greater, allowing her to effortlessly remember everything she saw.

The scenery here looked almost identical, but with every step she took, the subtle details differed from before. She was indeed moving forward, not caught in the ghost's maze she had initially assumed.

So, was that mastermind trying to guide her to a certain place? Having roughly guessed the purpose of the entity behind the scenes, her emotions grew calmer. Having a desire was better than facing indiscriminate attacks; having a desire meant having weaknesses. What she feared most was encountering a powerful lunatic driven by indiscriminate aggression.

Yao Qian allowed the soil beneath her feet to lead the way, guiding her deeper into the Dragon Burial Cliff. Through the thick, rotting mud on the ground, she clearly saw dense roots squirming underneath, as if they possessed a life of their own.

After enduring the sight of these squirming roots' shapes, Yao Qian resolved never to use her spiritual sense to peer beneath again. No matter how calm she remained, she could not face such a disgusting and horrific sight. However, these writhing roots gave Yao Qian a vague suspicion regarding the origin of the mastermind.

She looked around and thought to herself, could those Yang God mighty figures have discarded the dragon corpse here on purpose? Her initial thoughts had indeed been too simplistic. Among those who could cultivate to the Yang God realm, who was simple? Perhaps even an inadvertent gesture of theirs carried a profound meaning.

She lowered her gaze slightly. However, that entity merely guided her over without showing its face personally; perhaps there was some restriction upon it? Or perhaps its strength was insufficient? Thinking of this, Yao Qian's nervous heart settled slightly. Perhaps the situation was not as bad as she imagined.

When it came to magical power, Yao Qian could perhaps only contend with those in the Foundation Establishment stage. But when it came to the power of spiritual sense, even ordinary Golden Core cultivators were no match for her; she certainly had a fighting chance.

Without batting an eye, Yao Qian reduced the range of her Golden Light Spell even further, making it cling almost entirely to her skin and even covering her head. The defensive power of the condensed Golden Light Spell was even stronger than before.

However, this operation demanded extreme focus from her spiritual sense, requiring Yao Qian to constantly divide her attention to maintain it. Unlike the previous Golden Light Spell, which she could basically ignore once activated, she now faced an opponent whose motives, strength, and location were all unknown. She would not launch a rash attack and could only strengthen her defense.

If an opportunity arose, she would flee this place without the slightest hesitation! As Yao Qian pondered, she still placed the God-Slaying Talismans and Three Yang Talismans she had accumulated within the Tianyan Monument in the most prominent positions. Whenever she desired, she could hurl all these spells out in a single breath and activate them.

For some unknown reason, Yao Qian had not encountered any evil entities all the way here; the vicinity was filled only with dense, gloomy fog. Sweeping her spiritual sense across the peach trees, she realized it wasn't truly because of good luck that she hadn't encountered malevolent entities, but rather because they had been restrained in advance.

Seeing this, Yao Qian became even more certain of the mastermind's identity. She gripped the Bimu Divine Needle tightly in her hand, feeling somewhat surprised. She had no idea the vitality here was so exuberant, persisting even under the influence of a dragon corpse at least at the True Immortal level.

She did not know how long she had walked, but she finally reached her destination. The peach grove here was denser than anywhere else, the branches of all the peach trees intertwined so thickly that they seemed to have grown into a single massive tree.

Because the area was shrouded in yin energy year-round without strong sunlight, the branches, leaves, and fruits on the trees fell off layer by layer and rotted away layer by layer. The soil, the decaying vegetation, and the corpse-peach trees eroded by the yin energy mixed together to form an indescribable stench.

It carried a hint of rot yet seemed to possess a faint, elusive fragrance of peaches... Yao Qian narrowed her eyes. Wherever her sight reached, there were only corpse-peach trees, their thick branches densely blocking everything in the depths of the peach grove.

Pondering, Yao Qian released corpse-insects to investigate. The corpse-insects, with their slender bodies and fluttering wings, flew up and down into the dense forest. Through the perspective of the corpse-insects, Yao Qian could clearly see every texture of the branches...

After the corpse-insects had flown for quite a while, an open space suddenly appeared, and right in the middle of this clearing grew a normal peach tree! Brown trunk, green leaves, and three pink, tender peach fruits trembled as they hung from the branches.

The elusive, sweet fragrance she had smelled came precisely from those three peach fruits. The moment Yao Qian laid eyes on them, her body felt as though it were acting independently of her will, desperately wanting to pluck those three fruits, while a voice in her mind screamed that she absolutely must harvest them.

Yao Qian narrowed her eyes and raised a hand in a sweeping motion. A verdant beam of light flew like a shuttle into the peach grove. The dense, thick peach branches were effortlessly cleaved apart by the Bimu Divine Needle, opening a path just wide enough for a single person to pass through.

Yao Qian strode rapidly into the forest, her eyes fixed eagerly on the peach fruits, entirely devoid of her previous caution. She did not even look back once. Had she spared a glance backward, she would have seen the peach grove she had just cleaved apart closing back up immediately.

Those branches acted like a cage, opening its door to lure prey, exposing the treasures within to entice them inside. Once the bewriwched prey entered, it slammed the cage door shut and revealed a fraction of its ferocious fangs...

Yao Qian walked up to this peach tree and stared at it unblinkingly. She slowly reached out her hands, appearing ready to pluck the peaches from the tree, but in the blink of an eye, hundreds of brilliant, flowing-gold solar phantom projections suddenly materialized out of thin air around her.

The scorching solar phantoms radiated terrifying heat, warping the surrounding air slightly from the intense warmth. All the surrounding yin energy was burned away by the heat of the solar phantoms, and the entire peach grove, along with the normal peach tree, was instantly ignited.

Simultaneously with the activation of the Three Yang Spell, countless God-Slaying Spells were unleashed. Soundless yet resembling a torrential flood, they slammed ferociously into the peach tree. A shrill shriek seemed to echo in Yao Qian's sea of consciousness. Without even blinking, she instantly grabbed her flying needle and soared into mid-air.

By this time, the peach grove had transformed into a sea of fire. The raging, roaring flames not only swept away the surrounding evil yin energy but also ignited this entire forest of corpse-peach trees. Angered by Yao Qian's actions, the peach grove sent long branches shooting upward, attempting to whip Yao Qian down.

Yet the True Fire unleashed by the Three Yang Spell, which Yao Qian had cast instantly, although not orthodox Primordial Sun True Fire, contained a trace of its aura. Primordial Sun True Fire was the nemesis of all evil and yin forces. If Yao Qian had not released so many Three Yang Spells in one breath, but rather cast them consecutively, the peach grove might still have exerted suppressive power.

Who asked Yao Qian to have such a heaven-defying golden finger as the Tianyan Monument? The space within could store pre-cast Daoist spells for her. Even with heaven-defying cultivation, this peach grove could not withstand hundreds of Three Yang Spells detonating simultaneously.

Having struck true with her first strike, Yao Qian intended to ride her needle and leave, but she suddenly heard a crisp cracking sound. Looking closely, she saw that the normal peach tree had been burned down to a charred log. At the very center of the charcoal lay a piece of green jade resembling a tree heart, but possessing an even deeper, more vibrant hue. The rich vitality emanating from it could be felt even through the roaring flames.

After pondering for a moment, Yao Qian steered her flying needle down rapidly, scooped up the jade stone—which was larger than a millstone—instantly stashed it into her storage bag, and once again drove her needle away. She felt deeply grateful to her master at this moment; had her master not refined the flying needle for her anew, she probably wouldn't have been able to escape so quickly.

She had not yet reached Foundation Establishment and could not traverse the air using vital energy. The only reason she could fly now was entirely because the flying needle her master refined for her inherently possessed the ability of flight. However, Yao Qian's cultivation was still weak, and this place was unsuitable for prolonged flight, so she descended as soon as she cleared the dense forest.

The ignited dense forest had lost its bewitching properties, allowing Yao Qian to clearly see that directly behind that normal peach tree lay a bottomless sinkhole, from the depths of which wave after wave of faint coercion emanated.

Yao Qian's brows twitched. If she guessed correctly, this sinkhole was very likely the burial site of that immortal dragon... Cold sweat broke out all over her body. Fortunately, she had been cautious enough; otherwise, even if she hadn't been devoured by that peach tree, she would have fallen into this sinkhole.

That peach tree possessed at most Golden Core cultivation, and after being worn down for so many years, it might have even dropped to the Qi Refining stage—otherwise, it wouldn't have needed to use soul-bewitching arts on her. But that dragon corpse had been an immortal in its lifetime! Even if it had been struck down and killed, it was still an immortal! With her meager level, the entity probably didn't even deign to act personally; the mere backwash of its raised hand could grind her to dust...

"Senior Brother, what is going on here?"

Just as Yao Qian was rejoicing over escaping death, she suddenly heard a woman's soft, delicate cry of surprise. Looking up, a dazzling sight greeted her eyes: a pair of celestial-looking, jade-like immortal companions were approaching hand-in-hand. Their extraordinary appearances made the surrounding environment seem to brighten.

[Author's Note:]

Let me mention something first. When I started publishing this novel, I didn't have much inspiration for the synopsis and was entirely focused on writing the plot. Consequently, many details—or rather, some readers' minefields—were not noted in the synopsis; I just had the habit of dropping spoilers while interacting with readers in the comments.

Older readers who follow my books are probably used to it, so a portion of readers knew very early on that the female protagonist has been in several romantic relationships, but readers who don't read the comments wouldn't know.

Later, a friend reminded me to state it in the synopsis, saying not everyone likes this kind of female protagonist, so I modified the synopsis. But many readers who followed the book from the very beginning probably didn't pay attention to the synopsis.

Let me reiterate here: this female protagonist has been in several relationships; her first love is not the male protagonist, and neither are the subsequent ones. She has to go through three boyfriends before the final one is the male protagonist. Moreover, Ji Xiaohei has never been in a relationship; he only has the female protagonist. He doesn't mind that the female protagonist has been in many relationships, nor does he mind that she always dates people she is already familiar with.

As everyone knows, most of my works are historical romance, and the ancient environment is far too harsh on women—especially in *Peach Glowing*, which I just finished, where I wrote about oppression to the extreme. Therefore, in this new novel, I wanted to write a liberated female protagonist. A cultivation novel, a demonic sect female protagonist—it would be a huge waste not to let her soar! To a certain degree, Yao Xiaoxian is simply an unrestrained romantic airhead. If the feeling is right, her heart flutters and she wants to date; if there's no feeling, she breaks up decisively.

If everyone feels she isn't this type, it's because she's also a workaholic; to her, dating is just a pastime outside of work, a habit she brought from modern times to ancient times.

Since the female protagonist was already successful enough in her past life, she doesn't need to weigh any material benefits when dating; she cares solely about her feelings, and once the feeling is wrong, she parts ways peacefully.

If you don't like this kind of female protagonist, there are so many male-lead-is-first-love stories on Jinjiang; you can switch to another book, and we can meet again in the next one if it's meant to be! Smooch!

Thanks to the little angels who cast "Bawang" tickets or irrigated nutrient solution between 2022-04-18 22:13:59 and 2022-04-19 10:02:03!

Thanks to the little angels who cast mines: z, 35552844 (1 each).

Thanks to the little angels who irrigated nutrient solution: 35552844 (30 bottles); Why Am I Still a Slag Student (25 bottles); Pingshuixiangfeng, Zuihuaying, Peidan's Mother, Gu Tao (10 bottles); Dongli, Ruan Ling (5 bottles); Yue Zhan Hong Chen Fu Pi Han Shu (3 bottles); Lingzhou (2 bottles); Nuanrongrong, Nanqiao (1 bottle).

Thank you all very much for your support; I will keep working hard!