"The Nascent Soul Phenomenon was only half-formed?" Mo Tiange and Qin Xi exchanged a glance, both wearing expressions of confusion.
Neither of them had given much thought to the Nascent Soul Phenomenon. Mo Tiange had experience forming her Core within the Void Heaven Realm, and Qin Xi had also formed his Nascent Soul there. The Void Heaven Realm was a sealed space, unable to draw upon the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, so it was fundamentally impossible for a Heavenly Phenomenon to occur within it.
As for the outside... the Immortal Palace had been torn out of its original location, similarly forming a sealed space. They hadn't expected a Heavenly Phenomenon to appear there either.
"What happened?" Qin Xi asked.
Jing Xingzhi replied, "You didn't know? Just now, spiritual light appeared around your cave abode, which is how I knew the Nascent Soul Formation should have succeeded. But the wind and thunder never sounded, and the spiritual light dissipated. The entire process didn't even last half a shichen."
Indeed, it had only been about half a shichen since they emerged from the Void Heaven Realm.
Seeing the two of them lost in thought, Jing Xingzhi couldn't hold back and asked again, "What exactly is going on? Tell me!"
Qin Xi said, "Tell me, why does the Nascent Soul Phenomenon occur?"
"Naturally, it's because when advancing to Nascent Soul, one's own power attracts the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy..." Jing Xingzhi answered halfway, then paused, seeming to have a realization.
"You've noticed it too, haven't you? Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy—how much of it can exist in a sealed space? How could it possibly attract a Nascent Soul Phenomenon?"
"..." Jing Xingzhi fell silent, pondering his words.
It was common knowledge in the cultivation world that from Core Formation onward, a cultivator's Advancement would produce a Heavenly Phenomenon. The reason for this phenomenon was also a long-established conclusion.
During Advancement, the heavens and earth sense the cultivator's powerful power, causing fluctuations in the spiritual energy, thus producing the Heavenly Phenomenon. The so-called Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, for cultivators, referred to the spiritual energy that existed between heaven and earth. This energy was different from the spiritual energy produced by spirit veins; it was the primordial energy that originally existed in the world. Therefore, even in places without spirit veins, cultivators could still cultivate.
For a sealed space, this presented a problem. Without spirit veins, there wouldn't be much spiritual energy at all, meaning the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy was extremely scarce—insufficient to trigger a Heavenly Phenomenon.
"So that's it," Jing Xingzhi understood. "The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy within this Immortal Palace is simply not enough to trigger a Nascent Soul Phenomenon, which is why the spiritual light dissipated so quickly?"
"It's not just that," Qin Xi said. "What I want to say is, how big is this entire Immortal Palace? Not counting the spiritual energy from the spirit veins and these high-grade spirit stones, how much Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy could there be? Even a half-formed Heavenly Phenomenon would probably be difficult to sustain, right?"
"This..." Jing Xingzhi reacted quickly and immediately said, "Are you saying this Immortal Palace isn't sealed? Or rather, not completely sealed?"
Qin Xi nodded. "Correct. If a half-formed Heavenly Phenomenon truly appeared, it means the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy isn't scarce. At the very least, it should include the Spirit Mountain outside!"
The significance of this statement was all too clear to Jing Xingzhi. If there were already cracks in the barrier between the Immortal Palace and the Spirit Mountain, then breaking through that barrier would be much easier for them. And the entrance connecting the Spirit Mountain to the outside world was created by the Five Sages using the space-tearing technique obtained from the Immortal Palace—it was very stable and could be used to exit directly.
"If we can find the cracks in the barrier between the Immortal Palace and the Spirit Mountain..."
Seeing the joy on Jing Xingzhi's face, Mo Tiange said, "Fellow Daoist Jing, don't celebrate too early. The restrictions of this Immortal Palace far exceed our cultivation level. Moreover, the Immortal Palace is so vast; how easy do you think it will be to find a crack?"
Jing Xingzhi waved his hand dismissively. "That's true, but isn't it still one more shred of hope than before? That's a good thing."
"...Alright, you're not wrong." If they could truly find that spatial crack, then the chances of the Xuanxu Cloud-Connecting Formation succeeding would be even higher.
The three of them exchanged a few more words before Jing Xingzhi took his leave. The restrictions of the Immortal Palace were so advanced that finding a crack wouldn't be a matter of a day or two.
Afterward, Mo Tiange and Qin Xi returned to the underground palace to see Yang Chengji.
Discovering her successful Advancement to Nascent Soul, Yang Chengji was quite pleased. The four of them were now grasshoppers tied to the same rope. Mo Tiange's successful Nascent Soul Formation brought them one step closer to their goal.
However, this also urged him to hurry. Having only three Nascent Soul cultivators wasn't enough. To activate the Xuanxu Cloud-Connecting Formation, five mediums were required. Even if he advanced to Nascent Soul, that would only add one more; they still needed to figure out how to obtain the fifth.
After leaving the underground palace, just as the two were about to return to their cave abode, Feifei said, "Wait, I'll take you to a place."
"Huh? What place?" Mo Tiange was puzzled. Could there still be some good place in this Immortal Palace that they didn't know about?
"Just follow me," Feifei said, turning and running off.
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi exchanged a glance and followed.
After Yang Chengji cultivated the Origin Demon Great Art, the demonic energy within the Immortal Palace had basically disappeared. The God Transformation Stage Corpse Puppet was trapped in the valley, leaving only some lower-level corpse puppets and demonic beasts in the Immortal Palace, greatly reducing the danger. Although Feifei was just a spirit beast with no offensive spells to speak of, its courage was immense. Presumably, over these twenty years, it had thoroughly explored the entire Immortal Palace.
The two humans and one beast traveled farther and farther from the architectural complex of the Immortal Palace, deep into the back mountains.
The Immortal Palace covered an extremely vast area, even including part of a mountain range. Back then, Fuyaozi had said that deep within these back mountains lay the true interior of the Immortal Palace. In his opinion, it was likely the location of the cave abode of the highest-ranking cultivator of this Cold Ice Palace. However, due to time constraints and differences in cultivation level, he and the other four had been unable to explore it.
When they first entered the Immortal Palace, Mo Tiange hadn't considered venturing into the back mountains. They also had limited time, and their abilities and wisdom fell short of the Five Sages; coming here would have been a waste. Later, trapped within the Immortal Palace, leaving became their primary goal, so of course they didn't focus their attention here.
Since even Fuyaozi didn't recommend she come here to explore, it meant the possibility of her entering was almost nonexistent. Why waste time? Besides, she had already gained immense benefits from the Immortal Palace. Being too greedy wasn't a good thing.
Following Feifei, they arrived at a dense forest. Feifei weaved in and out among the trees, seemingly following a certain pattern.
Mo Tiange grew more and more puzzled as she followed, until she suddenly realized: "This is an array formation?"
Feifei paused, glanced back at her, and said, "Finally, your reaction isn't too slow!"
Ignoring its tone, Mo Tiange asked, "What's going on? This array formation is extremely advanced; I can't see any clues at all. How do you know how to break it?"
"This isn't a method to break it," Feifei said. "This is the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array, which was quite widespread in ancient times. This array has little killing power; its main purpose is to block others from entering. As long as you know the footwork, you can enter. This array is a simplified version of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array. Presumably, by the time it was passed down to the ancient era, many of its mysteries had been lost."
"So that's how it is..." She had wondered why Feifei, who had no interest in array formations, would suddenly understand an ancient array. "Do you know how to set it up?"
Feifei shot her a glance. "I know how to walk through it, not how to set it up."
"..."
As they spoke, the view before them suddenly opened up—they had emerged from the dense forest.
"This is..." Seeing the scene before them, both Mo Tiange and Qin Xi were momentarily stunned.
Before them was a small valley with lush grass, strange rocks standing tall, a cascading waterfall, and a clear, jade-green pool. In terms of scenery, this small valley could be described as secluded and elegant—an excellent place to settle down. But no matter how beautiful the scenery, it was nothing special in the cultivation world. Their sect headquarters were all on immortal mountains, with plenty of scenic spots.
Yet this small valley had an extremely advanced blocking array outside, and Feifei had been so serious about it. Could there be something special here?
Thinking this, the two of them carefully scanned the scenery before them.
After looking for a while, they still hadn't found anything unusual. The spiritual energy... was quite dense, but only slightly denser than the Immortal Palace outside. Compared to the Void Heaven Realm, it was nothing. There were some spirit herbs, but nothing particularly rare. And there didn't seem to be any mineral deposits either.
After looking for a long time and still feeling confused, Mo Tiange simply asked directly, "Feifei, why did you bring us here? Is there some treasure here?"
Feifei was squatting by the pool, washing its paws. After finishing, it began grooming its golden fur.
"The treasure is right before your eyes!" it said lazily.
"Before our eyes?" Qin Xi's gaze shifted. He suddenly walked closer to the pool and crouched down. "Could it be this water?"
Feifei rolled over on a large rock by the pool. "Not bad insight!" Although it was praise, hearing it from Feifei just felt awkward.
However, both of them were used to it and ignored its tone.
Mo Tiange approached, scooped up a handful of pool water, and examined it carefully for a moment. She felt it wasn't much different from ordinary spiritual water; even the spiritual energy within it was very faint, not comparable to those famous spiritual springs in Tianji. As for being special... it seemed just very clean, almost devoid of any impurities, which was quite rare even among spiritual springs.
"This is the Spirit-Tempering Water," Feifei said, not keeping them in suspense for long. "The cleanest water in the world, capable of washing away all impurities."
"Ah!" Mo Tiange was slightly surprised. Back then, she had searched for a method to remove the residual Demonic Qi from the Fusheng Sword but couldn't find a suitable one. Feifei had told her that a secret treasure called Spirit-Tempering Water, which was the bane of Demonic Qi, had once existed in the world. Unfortunately, this item had long since vanished from the world, and there were no clues to find it.
Later, when Fuyaozi awakened, he wasn't afraid of the Demonic Qi on the Fusheng Sword at all, so Mo Tiange hadn't kept this matter in mind. She never expected to actually see the Spirit-Tempering Water here.
"Whether it's pill refining or artifact forging, adding Spirit-Tempering Water can greatly increase the success rate. If you have a way to refine it into a magic treasure, that's even better. This item is the bane of Demonic Qi; dealing with demonic cultivators wouldn't require any effort at all."
Mo Tiange finally understood. No wonder such a strange array was set up outside this valley—there was such a treasure inside. During the great war between the righteous and demonic paths, this Spirit-Tempering Water would have been highly effective.
Without hesitation, she took out the Fusheng Sword from her Qiankun Ring and immersed the blade in the pool.
With a sizzling sound, a wisp of light smoke rose from the Fusheng Sword. The Demonic Qi attached to the blade dissipated at a visible rate, finally vanishing into the air.