From this point on, Jiangye became the closed-door disciple of Master Miaochang, and also her only disciple.
The Yuqing Sect is a place of pure cultivation. Master Miaochang showered Jiangye with immense love and guidance, personally teaching her supreme Taoist arts and generously providing various spiritual pills and heavenly materials and earthly treasures without the slightest reservation. Jiangye felt great filial affection towards her master and cultivated with utmost diligence and rapid progress to not let down her master's grace.
The master and disciple lived in seclusion at the peak, enjoying the moon and stars, discussing Taoism, and playing the qin, their relationship like that of mother and daughter, causing envy among others.
Jiangye thought that although she had been abandoned by her birth parents, heaven had shown her mercy by granting her the best master in the world.
As Jiangye grew, she became stunningly beautiful, her cultivation growing at an astounding pace.
However, her master, restricted by a bottleneck, gradually became old and frail, transforming from a noble and graceful lady into an elderly woman.
Her master's treatment of her was not only as good as ever but grew increasingly exaggerated, to the point of excess, even beginning to refine elixirs with her own essence blood to aid Jiangye's cultivation.
"I am old, you are still young, with a limitless future ahead. Being able to do something for you before my life's end is a wish of mine."
Jiangye felt deeply indebted.
She failed to notice that every time she broke through, her master's eyes, aside from showing relief, also flashed with an almost fervent urgency.
On this day.
After two hundred years of arduous cultivation, Jiangye was finally about to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Master Miaochang personally protected her and set up an unprecedentedly complex great formation within the cave mansion, claiming it would gather nature's spiritual energy to help her succeed in one fell swoop.
The formation activated, radiance dazzling, spiritual energy surged into Jiangye's body like a tide.
However, just as she immersed herself, preparing to break through the threshold, the inflowing spiritual energy suddenly turned bone-chilling cold, mixed with countless intricate, soul-restricting seals!
Jiangye abruptly opened her eyes, discovering herself bound by invisible shackles, her dantian like an icy cavern, the newly formed primordial spirit showing signs of detachment!
Trembling with fear, she looked toward her master at the array eye.
Only to see Master Miaochang's expression was no longer the kind and gentle one of the past, but one of fervor and greed suppressed for centuries, holding a ghostly green soul lamp with a flame that danced wildly, distorting her features.
"Master..."
Jiangye, having practiced for years, naturally recognized the techniques and divine skills, wouldn't fail to recognize that her master was now casting on her a soul-seizing evil technique!
"Child, don't struggle, lest you suffer more than necessary."
Though Master Miaochang's voice remained soft, its contents were chilling: "You must know, your master has waited too long for this day. Your 'Pure Tao Body' is a rare chance in ten thousand years; the best... vessel for me to restore my peak, perhaps even glimpse the realm of Da Luo!"
"Why... Master... why?!" With her soul in excruciating pain, Jiangye cried out incredulously, eyes full of shattered agony.
Master Miaochang wasted no more words, chanting ancient incantations, the soul lamp's ghostly light intensified as her primordial spirit, turning into a streak of light, lunged toward Jiangye's heavenly spirit with a sinister grin!
Another life ends.
The scene began to repeat itself.
"You really are a pitiful child, from now on follow me..."
...
Two lives!
For two successive lives, Jiangye was used by her closest kin as a tool, a furnace tripod.
Chen Sansi exited the memory, looking at the densely packed memory bubbles in the void, feeling utterly shocked.
Similar experiences...
Who knows how many times Jiangye had gone through this!
This is the method Ding Xiu and others used, hiding congenital spirits to turn them into demon seeds.
Truly vicious!
Chen Sansi took a deep breath and entered the next bubble.
...
Yu Country was a small frontier nation, worshiping the ancient "Rock God".
Legend held that the deity was a spirit of eternal mountains, protecting the land from sand erosion.
In this year, after three years of drought, riverbeds cracked, the ground was scorched for miles, and the people suffered terribly. The Emperor led the citizens in day and night prayers before the temple.
During the ritual, the massive rock divine statue slightly trembled, shooting a soft yet firm earthen yellow beam from its brow, piercing the clouds! Within the light, a faint image of a baby girl descended, landing at the center of the altar.
The baby girl did not cry or fuss, with a naturally formed crimson mark resembling mountain patterns at her brow, holding a warm and peculiar ore in her arms.
The High Priest trembled as he approached to investigate, exclaiming: "A miracle! The Rock God has answered our prayers! Granting us a Holy Daughter to save Yu Country!"
The baby girl thus became Yu Country's Holy Daughter.
From a young age, she could sense nature's spiritual energy, particularly close to the earth and mountains.
At seven, she sincerely prayed for rain in front of the temple and indeed brought forth sweet rain. At ten, when pre-earthquake signs appeared, she warned the populace ahead of time to take refuge in open spaces, averting tremendous casualties.
Thereafter, whenever calamity threatened, as long as the Holy Daughter was there, Yu Country always managed to avert disaster, ensuring favorable weather and national prosperity.
Fifteen years passed like this.
One day, a celestial phenomenon occurred; several enormous fiery meteors ripped through the sky, crashing upon Yu Country's borders, triggering violent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and rampant disease.
This time, no matter how Jiangye practiced magic, prayed, or conducted rituals, nothing worked.
The Emperor and the High Priest gathered again at the temple, praying and beseeching the gods day and night for guidance.
The Rock God statue "manifested" once more, its surface revealing ancient words.
The High Priest deciphered the oracle, his face pale, announcing tremblingly: "The gods are wrathful! Our people have lost ancient virtue, and their faith is impure; thus, divine punishment descends! Only... only by having the Holy Daughter Xuan Ji, with utmost sincerity, sacrifice herself in the godfire, calming the gods' anger, can Yu Country be saved!"
