Chapter 98: The Price of Salvation

This place, grandly named with an air of immortal elegance, was once a prime spiritual sanctuary of the Qingyun Sect. Its waters were once crystal clear, emanating a biting chill that purified meridians and significantly advanced cultivation.

Yet, this sanctuary had become a massive biohazard leak site. The once emerald pool, which used to reflect one’s image, now bubbled with nauseating black foam. Every wisp of mist rising from its surface carried an insidious malevolence capable of corroding the Divine Soul.

Surrounding plants withered completely, turning into scorched, flying ash. This was the origin of the Soul-Devouring Plague, a venomous array eye set by the Joyful Union Sect.

And Shen Zhaoqing was walking, step by deliberate step, towards the very center of this Azure Water Cold Pool.

Her pace was slow, and her face, usually marked by a hint of indolence and emotional detachment, was now unnervingly serene.

It wasn’t the tragic resolve of someone facing death or the fierce determination of a martyr; rather, it was the calm resignation of an office worker finally deciding to work overtime to finish a project and go home early.

‘At worst, I die. I don’t want to play anymore,’ Shen Zhaoqing thought.

Sizzle—

A pale golden aura, visible to the naked eye, violently expanded from her body. That was the essence of life itself.

It was the core primordial power of a Dao Source Body.

These faint golden motes, like iron filings drawn by a magnet, were frantically siphoned from every part of Shen Zhaoqing’s body. They surged out through her skin, forming countless delicate golden streams, which then bravely merged into the swirling black Demonic Energy around her.

Crackle—

Like hot oil poured onto ice and snow, the two utterly opposing forces erupted into a violent reaction upon contact. The black Demonic Energy, enveloped, neutralized, and purified by the pure life essence, visibly began to lighten.

From a dense, ink-like black, it gradually faded to a grey-black, then a bluish-grey. The effect was remarkable.

The cost, however, was equally significant. Shen Zhaoqing’s face instantly drained of all color. It became a pallor whiter than snow, with a translucent, jade-like quality.

Her originally lustrous black hair, which Gu Chang’an had personally bound, rapidly lost its sheen, turning brittle and dry like wild grass struck by autumn frost.

She felt like a blood pack punctured with countless holes, leaking life from every pore. No, it wasn’t air that was leaking; it was her very life force.

With each step forward, her legs grew heavier. The meager spiritual energy in her dantian had long been depleted; now, what burned was her lifespan, the very foundation of her existence as the individual ‘Shen Zhaoqing.’

Her bones groaned, her flesh withered, and her Divine Soul thinned. Yet, she continued to walk.

On the shore, a pair of eyes watched her. A pair she couldn’t yet fully comprehend, but her intuition told her they belonged to someone even more dangerous than the Demonic Venerable Ling Shuangjue.

****

By the shore, Bai Zhileng clenched her hands tightly. Her knuckles were white from the intense pressure, and in her palm, several Hundred Herbs Divine Needles, gleaming with a chilling light, were almost distorted from her grip.

Inside her mind, two voices waged a cataclysmic war.

One voice belonged to Bai Zhileng, the Holy Maiden of Penglai and the most favored disciple of Holy Master Yaoguang. It calmly stated:

“Stop her, now! Immediately!”

“You’re insane! I truly believe you’ve gone mad. This is a Dao Source Body—the only perfect medicinal primer in existence, the sole hope for activating the Longevity Cauldron and refining the Nine Revolutions Soul-Returning Pill!”

“What is she doing now? She’s using an invaluable treasure, capable of reversing the five declines of heaven and man, to purify worthless trash! This is utter waste, the greatest blasphemy against the Way of Alchemy!”

“One needle, just one needle. Severing her meridians and sealing her acupoints would stop her. Take her back to Penglai; that is her only true destiny.”

Reason told her this was what she should do. This was her mission, her only purpose in coming here.

For this purpose, she could smile in the face of Gu Chang’an’s sword, gently defuse Yuange’s provocations, and ignore Ling Shuangjue’s killing intent. But…

Her feet refused to move a single inch.

Another voice resonated deep within her Divine Soul. It asked, ‘You’re watching her, what are you watching?’

‘What am I watching?’

Bai Zhileng’s pupils constricted slightly. Her gaze uncontrollably traced the slender figure in the cold pool.

She saw the person’s body tremble slightly from the excessive loss of life essence, yet their spine remained as straight as an unyielding sword.

She saw the person’s steps grow increasingly unsteady, their knees nearly collapsing into the murky pool multiple times, only to be held up by a fierce resolve from an unknown source.

She saw those golden motes, symbols of life’s origin, seep from her fair neck, delicate wrists, slender shoulder blades—from every inch of her skin—converging into a magnificent yet tragic golden rain.

It was a beauty she had never witnessed before, a heart-wrenching, almost destructive splendor.

As a top-tier alchemist and healer, Bai Zhileng understood better than anyone what ‘life essence’ truly meant. It was life itself.

It was the foundation upon which cultivators defied heaven, the breath of mortals’ mundane existence, and the very thing Holy Master Yaoguang had exhausted herself to preserve at all costs.

She had witnessed powerful cultivators making fools of themselves to live another day, seen fellow disciples turn against each other for a single longevity-extending spiritual herb. In Penglai Immortal Palace, life essence was quantified, calculated, and carefully stored as a precious treasure.

Yet, this person before her…

This Dao Source Body, whom they regarded as the ultimate ‘treasure,’ was squandering her own life in the most extravagant and reckless manner.

Was it for those Qingyun Sect disciples whom she had never met, who were perhaps no different from ants in her eyes?

“Foolish…”

Bai Zhileng mouthed the words silently. Yet, an unfamiliar and sharp pang inexplicably struck her heart. It seemed to be a shock she couldn’t comprehend or articulate, and a hint of fear she was unwilling to admit even to herself.

Her fear wasn’t about the ‘medicinal primer’ being depleted. It was the realization that her healer’s heart, which had cultivated for centuries and had long been as still as an ancient well, was now uncontrollably pounding because of this ‘foolish’ scene.

Her eyes, accustomed to witnessing life and death, capable of precisely discerning the properties of any spiritual herb, were now somewhat blurred.

Bai Zhileng suddenly recalled how, on her way to the Qingyun Sect, she had countless times mentally rehearsed her encounter with the Dao Source Body. She had imagined their wariness, resistance, or even pleas.

She had prepared perfect rhetoric for every scenario, absolutely confident she could gently lead this lost lamb into the opulent cage she had prepared for them. But she had never once imagined this.

This ‘lamb’ would choose to ignite herself before the hunter, burning herself into a handful of sacrificial ashes.

This feeling was akin to a master hunter setting a Heaven-Earth Net, awaiting the legendary divine bird. But when the bird arrived, it didn’t even glance at the trap; instead, it flew directly into the raging inferno about to consume the entire forest.

“Shen Zhaoqing…”

For the first time, Bai Zhileng uttered the name completely and clearly. It was as if something, a belief she had always held unwavering, was quietly cracking.

And just at that moment!

In the center of the cold pool, the teetering figure finally reached her limit. Shen Zhaoqing’s vision was entirely blood-red. Her ears buzzed, hearing nothing, and her body felt hollow and weightless, as if a gust of wind could scatter her.

‘So annoying,’ was her last coherent thought. The next second, her knees suddenly buckled, her consciousness plunged completely into darkness, and she fell straight into the now much clearer pool.

“Zhaoqing!”

Reason, mission, calculation, and disguise were utterly shattered in that instant. Bai Zhileng didn’t even have time to think; her body reacted before her mind.

A white blur instantly traversed dozens of feet, just barely sweeping the falling body into her embrace the moment before it was swallowed by the pool waters. What met her touch was a chilling coldness and an alarming lightness.

Bai Zhileng lowered her head, looking at the face in her arms, pale as paper, eyes tightly shut. The peach blossom tear mole at the corner of her eye now looked like a frozen drop of blood, stinging her own eyes.

She extended a trembling hand, her fingertips gently resting on Shen Zhaoqing’s neck pulse. There… was a deathly silence.

Bai Zhileng’s mind went blank instantly. Dead? She… died? Just like that… died? Right in front of her!

In front of her, the Holy Maiden of Penglai, who claimed to snatch lives from King Yama himself?! An unprecedented surge of fury and regret instantly broke through all of Bai Zhileng’s defenses.

“I forbid it!!!”

“Such a perfect medicinal primer, who permitted you to die?”

Bai Zhileng embraced the cold body in her arms even tighter, while her other hand swiftly drew a crystalline jade needle from her sleeve. It wasn’t a Hundred Herbs Divine Needle. It was the forbidden art needle of Penglai Immortal Palace—the Severing Decay.

Using a century of the caster’s lifespan as a catalyst, it forcibly severs the target’s chain of decay, seals their Divine Soul, and permanently freezes their life state at the second before ‘death.’ It was known as a forbidden art for saving lives, but also a cage for kidnapping souls.

“This life of yours, I saved it.”

Bai Zhileng held the cold body in her arms. “So, from now on…” A pathological gleam flashed in her eyes, and the Severing Decay needle in her hand unhesitatingly pierced Shen Zhaoqing’s glabella. “…you are mine.”

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