Chapter 43: The Secret Passage and the Breakthrough

Song Zhiyou sighed and wiped the black grime off her face.

“It’s me, your senior sister.”

“Song… Song Zhiyou?!”

The one who had just spoken stared in disbelief.

She instinctively wanted to cry out, but forced her voice down low.

The others behind her looked at Song Zhiyou as if they’d seen a ghost.

Some of them were shocked by her terrifying strength.

Back during the spirit root test, Song Zhiyou had become known to everyone.

But it was the wrong kind of known.

She had been pronounced by an elder to have a deformed spirit root, wasting her top-grade wood spirit root, destined to stop cultivating soon and have her cultivation forever stall.

At the time, some felt pity, others gloated.

But…

Could they really believe that the person with such terrifying strength was Song Zhiyou?

Only a few who had seen Song Zhiyou on the training ground and bought things from her weren’t surprised by her strength.

Anyone who had tried to snatch things directly from her had already learned their lesson with swollen faces.

And those present at the time had witnessed it thanks to those people.

What shocked them was how Song Zhiyou had come back.

“But how do you know where the elders are stationed? We were all in the same…”

Someone was about to cry foul, claim something shady was going on, that Song Zhiyou must have known the exam details in advance.

Before she could finish, Song Zhiyou pulled a token from her storage pouch.

This token was different from the ones they used for the exam. Its texture was ancient, carrying an unusual aura.

On it, three characters were clearly engraved: Song Zhiyou.

She flipped the token over.

On the back were the characters for Xuantian Sect.

“Because I’ve already passed and become a disciple of Xuantian Sect. The stationed positions were what I saw in the water mirror after I left. Believe it or not.”

Hearing this, some still found it hard to believe.

“But how can there be an early pass in the sect exam?”

Song Zhiyou found this question a bit hard to answer.

But she didn’t need to.

Other candidates, even more embarrassed, spoke up.

“Don’t… don’t ask. She really passed early because of… strength.”

“Mm… Nangong Hehe and Li Xiaoye also passed early. I was there at the time…”

But when they looked back to where Song Zhiyou had been, she and the other person were gone.

They exchanged glances, speechless.

****

Song Zhiyou ran fast, dragging Song Qingyao along.

Song Qingyao didn’t ask, just followed silently.

After a while, Song Zhiyou stopped.

She activated the Eight Triggers Heaven Covering Array she had bought earlier. Then she led Song Qingyao through the shadows toward a large tree.

She handed the array plate to Song Qingyao and told her to stay under the tree. Then she climbed to the top and looked toward the west.

When she saw the figure lying stiffly on the ground, Song Zhiyou’s heart sank.

Moonlight fell across the scene. She could even vaguely make out the wound piercing the stationed disciple’s brow, a killing blow.

The worst-case scenario she had guessed was happening.

Dead disciples and elders. Useless tokens. This looked like a planned scheme targeting the exam.

The other side likely knew every stationed position of the elders and disciples.

The person was already dead. Song Zhiyou didn’t go closer.

She quickly climbed down, grabbed Song Qingyao, and left through another direction.

Song Zhiyou found a rock face with a narrow, winding entrance that led to a small space big enough for three or four people.

Song Qingyao was amazed.

“Song Xiao Liu, how do you find places like this?”

“Never mind that. Take this. Add spirit stones when they run low. Don’t let the array break. I’ll explain later. I need to break through now. I can’t hold it in!”

Song Zhiyou spoke rapidly, shoving the array plate and some spirit stones into Song Qingyao’s hands. Then she sat down cross-legged and began circulating her spiritual power without pause.

After fighting the Azure Wind Wolf chieftain, Song Zhiyou had gained insights and felt the signs of a breakthrough.

But circumstances didn’t allow it, so she had suppressed it.

Now, she couldn’t suppress it any longer.

Song Qingyao: “???”

Since when did breaking through sound like needing to use the restroom?

Even as she thought this, she moved quickly to a concealed spot near the entrance. She gripped the array plate tightly, occasionally checking outside and sometimes glancing at the spirit stones.

After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Song Zhiyou opened her eyes.

Luckily, she was only at the Qi Refining stage. Even a breakthrough caused no disturbance, and it passed smoothly.

From Qi Refining Layer 6 to Layer 7 seemed like just one layer, but it was actually the critical turning point where a cultivator went from simply training spiritual power to developing spiritual sense.

Starting from Layer 7, a cultivator could see inside their body, observing their meridians and spiritual power flow.

Song Zhiyou vaguely remembered that when she took that Long Aotian pill, she had already seen her own meridians and bones and even modified them.

But she had thought it was an illusion from the pain.

As she pondered, her spiritual sense examined her bones and meridians.

She gasped.

Her bones and meridians shone like stars, exactly as she had modified them before.

Song Zhiyou began to wonder just how overpowered her ability to modify herself was.

But she still hadn’t figured out under what conditions she could enter that state.

Unable to figure it out, she put it aside for now.

Besides spiritual sense, Song Zhiyou also felt that she was no longer limited to turning spiritual power into blank sheets of paper.

She took a deep breath, held it, concentrated, and following her mind’s guidance, solemnly released the most powerful spiritual technique she currently knew: the Electric Spark Technique.

The next moment, a dazzling light appeared at her fingertip.

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