The words "pregnant" hit Yu Yi like a thunderbolt, jolting her fully awake. She hurled the white pill from her hand as if it were a hot potato.
The pill rolled across the ground, shattering into several pieces. A golden soul fire leapt out, and within its flames appeared a semi-transparent spirit.
This spirit was over seven feet tall, wearing a jade crown and wide robes - the form of a full-grown man. His narrow eyes looked down with an imposing air, clearly indicating his high status in the Ji family.
His cold gaze swept towards Yu Yi as he sternly rebuked, "How insolent! Who dares to carelessly discard my embryo essence?"
"Embryo essence? You look more like a placenta to me!" Yu Yi had nearly become an unwitting mother, and her anger was at its peak. Blue flames and lightning intertwined on the bamboo sword in her hand as she slashed fiercely at the shattered white pill.
"You think you can trick me into being your mother? This old lady will teach you a good lesson!" Yu Yi raged. The sword light whistled from her hand, and within the blue flames, the faint outline of a celestial crane appeared, wrapped in sparks of lightning as it charged straight at the floating spirit.
Yu Yi hadn't fully summoned the celestial crane sword spirit left by her master, but she had borrowed some of its power. This sword strike was nearly at the Nascent Soul level.
The man in the golden soul fire frowned. If he were still alive, he certainly wouldn't fear a single slash from a small Golden Core sword cultivator. But alas, his physical body was dead, leaving only his spirit. Without the protection of the lotus formation, he dared not directly receive this strike.
"Where are the members of the Ji clan? How can you allow this woman to act so brazenly here?" he shouted sternly, quickly glancing around before a look of astonishment crossed his face.
The Ji family had dominated the cultivation world for thousands of years and naturally had countless methods to preserve their elite descendants. The Nine-Transformation Lotus Rebirth Formation on this Circular Mound Altar was one such method, capable of reforming the soul fire of the deceased into an embryo essence, to be placed in a suitable mother's body for gestation and rebirth.
Because they hadn't gone through reincarnation, the three hun and seven po souls hadn't been cleansed anew. Children born through this method could fully retain the memories of their previous life. Their innate qualities and aptitudes would be identical to their previous life, and as they grew, their previous cultivation would gradually recover, without needing to start from scratch.
The soul fires placed on this Circular Mound Altar were naturally no ordinary beings. Selecting a maternal body for their rebirth should have involved a series of prudent rituals, including burning incense and chanting.
While the ritual wouldn't be as grand as a major sacrifice, it certainly shouldn't have been this rudimentary. There wasn't even a single person guarding the formation.
However, it wasn't entirely deserted - there was still one descendant of the Ji family present.
As the Nine-Transformation Lotus Rebirth Formation halted, Ji Hanyi rushed up from the second level, arriving just in time to block in front of the spirit. He raised his sword to intercept Yu Yi's sword light.
The blue flames clashed against his snow-white sword, emitting a sharp ring. Even Ji Hanyi was forced to retreat three quick steps from her all-out strike, barely managing to stop in front of the spirit.
At that moment, three snake-like lightning bolts suddenly burst forth from the flames. Two streaked out along the circular platform, while one curved around Ji Hanyi and directly pierced through the spirit behind him.
The electric current entered the spirit, branching out into several offshoots. The lightning spread throughout the semi-transparent spirit body, causing the golden soul fire within to violently shake. The spirit body in the flames also convulsed violently, its three hun and seven po souls nearly scattered apart.
The entire top level of the Circular Mound Altar was filled with sparks and lightning. Xue Mingyuan, merely at the Foundation Establishment level and without the protection of magical beasts, was nearly blown away just by the sword wind sweeping past.
He retreated to the edge, his right hand tightly gripping the white stone railing. From behind, he looked at the lightning aura surrounding Yu Yi's body and rubbed his nose.
— Her cultivation level was clearly much higher than theirs.
Yu Yi's sword strike thoroughly angered the deceased Ji family ancestor. He must have employed some other trick, as the ground began to shake again. The three levels of the Circular Mound Altar rotated and interlocked, forming a new formation.
The lanterns on the Circular Mound Altar blazed brightly, transforming into countless arrows of light that shot up into the sky before targeting Yu Yi and raining down. Yu Yi looked up at the shower of arrows rapidly falling from all directions and gripped her bamboo sword tightly.
Suddenly, a clear voice came from behind: "Extinguish the three lamps in the northeast Gen position on the right to break this formation."
Hearing the words "break the formation" and catching a glimpse of the spirit's momentary change in expression, Yu Yi didn't hesitate. She raised her sword and swept it towards the three lamps in the Gen position as instructed.
Just as the sword light extinguished the three lamps in one sweep, the whistling rain of arrows had already pressed down to her head. Yu Yi wanted to raise her sword to defend but it was too late. She looked up, her pupils reflecting nothing but flickering golden light.
At the last moment, the arrow rain disintegrated into ash mere inches from her, leaving only gusts of wind to whip her clothes and hair about.
With one formation failing, the Ji family ancestor rotated the Circular Mound Altar again to form another. Xue Mingyuan's gaze quickly swept over the lamps forming the array, and he said, "Split your sword qi into three, extinguishing in turn the second lamp in the Li position, the first lamp in the Kan position, and the three lamps in the Qian position."
With the experience from the first time, Yu Yi barely paused. As soon as his words fell, her sword light pursued, snuffing out the oil lamps he had indicated.
This time, the formation was broken before it could even activate. The Ji family ancestor was furious, his face dark as water, as if frost could form on his spirit. He demanded loudly, "Who are you? How do you know the inner workings of my Ji family's formations so clearly?"
Xue Mingyuan replied modestly, "Your formations are simply too simple."
The Ji family had dominated the cultivation world for thousands of years, possessing divine methods and supreme techniques. Even the texts and cultivation methods stored by their lesser branches were sought after by other cultivators. How could the formations within this Circular Mound Altar be simple?
The spirit said coldly, "This underground palace can only be entered by members of the Ji clan and the chosen maternal bodies waiting to nurture embryo essences. Are you from the Ji family? Which generation? To be so arrogant and disregard the rules, are you a descendant of Ji Liuyan from Zhaoyang Mountain?"
Xue Mingyuan's eyes flickered slightly, like a light breeze rippling across a lake surface, but quickly returned to calmness. He smiled and said, "My surname is Xue."
The spirit gave three cold laughs. His refusal to admit his identity suited him just fine. "Good. Since you're not from the Ji family, killing you for trespassing in our forbidden grounds is only natural."
He looked down at Ji Hanyi, recognizing this Ji family descendant with whom he shared a relatively close blood relation. He said, "You're the youngest son of Ji Zhongheng's family?"
Ji Hanyi's movements faltered slightly. Just as he was about to inquire, the other party continued, "I am your grand-uncle. Go, kill that Xue boy for your grand-uncle."
Ji Hanyi gripped the sword in his hand but didn't immediately act. There was hesitation on his face. He too had sensed that the existence of this underground palace seemed different from what he had imagined - it clearly wasn't for ancestral worship.
Yu Yi glanced at the lotus platforms on the Circular Mound Altar. Here, each soul fire meant that a woman would be brought to this place, forced to swallow the so-called embryo essence, then become pregnant and give birth, bringing forth an old being unwilling to die.
In the words of this Ji family ancestor, were they only fit to be called "chosen maternal bodies waiting to nurture embryo essences"? What did they take women for?
She retreated to Xue Mingyuan's side and glanced at him. The Xue Mingyuan before her now felt different from before, one could say vastly different. But now wasn't the time to delve into his changes. Just his two previous hints on how to break the formations were enough for Yu Yi to choose to trust him.
Xue Mingyuan's attainments in formations indeed far surpassed hers.
Yu Yi gestured towards the clusters of soul fires on the Circular Mound Altar's lotus platforms, still vainly hoping for rebirth, and asked in a low voice, "How can we completely destroy this place? Send all these ghosts who refuse to die into the Yellow Springs."
The two of them stood close together. Xue Mingyuan's gaze fell on her face, carefully taking in her delicate brows and eyes, her small straight nose, and then her full lips below.
His gaze was excessively lingering, as if wanting to engrave her features into his heart with this one look.
Before Yu Yi could become uncomfortable under his gaze, Xue Mingyuan blinked, his eyes once again becoming gentle. He spoke quickly and clearly, "The formations on this Circular Mound Altar belong to a multi-layered changeable formation system, including the Soul Settling Formation below. To interlock these formations, allowing them to change without interfering with each other, there must be a main lamp."
"No matter how the formations change, this lamp will not move." Xue Mingyuan's lips curved in a slightly apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, there are simply too many lamps here. I still need a bit more time to find that main lamp."
The souls of Ji family ancestors vaguely heard his words and urged Ji Hanyi, "Boy, what are you hesitating for? Do you really want to watch these two outsiders destroy our ancestral shrine?"
Ji Hanyi closed his eyes briefly, and when he reopened them, his expression became determined. He turned to face the souls behind him and asked, "Uncle, your nephew wants to know what exactly this ancestral shrine is for. Are the soul fires on the Circular Mound Altar lotus platform all from our deceased Ji family ancestors?"
The soul hadn't expected him to question rather than act, and scolded, "I told you to protect the ancestral shrine, not to question me."
Ji Hanyi shook his head, "Our Ji family's motto is to slay demons and uphold justice. If our ancestors left their soul fires to defy the natural order and cling to life through unorthodox means, I'm afraid I cannot obey."
Yu Yi gripped her sword, looking admiringly at Ji Hanyi's righteous bearing. His family's ancestors were nearly driven to despair by his words.
Seeing this younger generation as useless, the soul cursed him as an unfilial son and once again set the Circular Mound Altar spinning rapidly.
Yu Yi lowered her center of gravity, standing firmly in place. She turned her head to speak to the person behind her, "This time, don't rush to break it. Let him change the formation a few more times, then you can look for the main lamp."
Xue Mingyuan replied, "Alright, be careful, miss."
Miss? The gentle voice entering her ears suddenly reminded Yu Yi of the young man imprisoned in the mountain temple deep within Xue Chenjing's sea of consciousness.
But before she could think further, the changing formation brought new waves of attacks. Suddenly, the flames of all the oil lamps in the hall shot up, turning into a sea of fire in the blink of an eye. The raging flames swept towards them. Ji Hanyi quickly retreated to Yu Yi's side, standing shoulder to shoulder with her.
Their intersecting sword lights sliced through the flames. Xue Mingyuan peered through the gaps they created, his gaze quickly scanning the lamps on the ground.
The Ji family elder also realized that Xue Mingyuan, who knew how to break the formation, posed the greatest threat. He waved his sleeve, stirring the flames into several fire dragons that lunged at Xue Mingyuan.
Chased by the fire dragons and unable to stand steadily on the rotating ground, Xue Mingyuan stumbled and rolled about awkwardly.
Yu Yi caught sight of this from the corner of her eye. She flew over to help him slash apart a fire dragon that was closing in, and asked in confusion, "Why don't you summon your tentacles to grip the ground?"
Wasn't the giant octopus best at gripping things? When he was in the confined room, he had practically coated the surrounding walls.
Xue Mingyuan, his face stung by scattered sparks, hissed in pain. He looked up at her and said, "I can't. I'm unable to do that."
He was inherently incompatible with demonic creatures; those beings couldn't be used by him.
As he spoke, his eyes suddenly widened, his gaze passing over her shoulder to the back. He cried out, "Watch out!"
In the reflection of his eyes, Yu Yi saw the raging fire pressing down from above, the flames turning his pupils golden. She immediately turned around, her fingertips sliding along the sword blade, sword incantations lighting up in their wake.
The fire dragon pounced, its fierce light almost engulfing them in an instant.
Xue Mingyuan felt only the scorching heat on his face. His vision blurred by the flames, he watched the slender figure shielding him disappear, consumed by the fire.
What if I can't get her out of here? The thought flashed through Xue Mingyuan's mind, but he quickly suppressed it, letting the nascent idea dissipate without a trace.
Suddenly, a green light appeared amidst the surging flames. The green glow grew stronger, eventually forming the outline of a sword, its blade inscribed with a string of sword incantations.
Wrapped in the sword's energy, the flames were like a flood drawn into a vortex, disappearing into the Green Bamboo Sword.
The girl who had been swallowed by the flames reappeared, her long hair flying, her clothes fluttering, like a phoenix reborn from the fire. As the flames completely dissipated, she executed a beautiful sword flourish, sparks still clinging to the blade.
Yu Yi glanced back at the person behind her, her long lashes curling upwards, her eyes reflecting the lingering sparks, and asked, "Did you find it?"
Xue Mingyuan, gazing up at her profile, replied, "I found it. It's the twenty-third lamp to the south, counting from outside the Circular Mound Altar."
Yu Yi immediately turned and rushed in the direction he indicated. The Ji family soul was greatly alarmed and tried to raise the formation to block her, but as he lifted his hand, a long sword suddenly pierced through his soul form from behind.
The blade directly impaled the golden soul fire at the center of the soul's chest, instantly freezing it with frost.
The Ji ancestor's movements abruptly halted. He slowly turned his head to look at Ji Hanyi, who stood behind him holding the sword. Through gritted teeth, he spat out, "Well, well, you've really outdone yourself."
Taking advantage of this moment, Yu Yi flew to the outside of the Circular Mound Altar. She quickly counted over and saw the oil lamp standing motionless amidst the sea of lights.
Compared to the other lamps, it had no special features. Yu Yi didn't dare blink, fearing that in the moment of closing her eyes, it would blend in with the other lamps, forcing her to start counting all over again.
She truly couldn't fathom how Xue Chenjing had managed to find it among this starry sea of lamps.
She stepped firmly in front of the main lamp, gripping her sword hilt with both hands. Channeling all her spiritual power into the blade, she thrust downward with all her might.
Lightning crackled along the Green Bamboo Sword, splitting open a crack in the lamp's halo. At the same time, the old crack on Yu Yi's sword blade began to spread once more.
She noticed the fracturing of her sword but didn't hesitate. Green flames erupted from the blade, mixed with the fire she had absorbed earlier, rushing down along the crack and into the lamp's wick.
The entire underground palace seemed to freeze for a moment. Then, with a "crack," several fissures burst open from the center of the oil lamp.
The lamp shattered into pieces, its oil depleted, and its flame gradually extinguished. As this flame died out, the surrounding lamps followed suit, as if swept by a fierce wind, vast swathes of flames darkening across the ground.
Soon, the once-bright underground palace grew dim. Finally, even the lamps on the Circular Mound Altar went out. Seeing that all was lost, the Ji family ancestor sighed deeply, closed his eyes, and his soul began to dissipate.
"I remember your name now, Ji Hanyi. You were born on a snowy winter day. Your father brought you to me for a name, and I casually picked two characters from a poem about a fierce tiger I was reading," the soul chuckled lightly before his flame dispersed, reciting, "Cold yet not fearing snow, hungry yet not eating men."
"But you've done well, turning around to bite the flesh of your own kin."
As the lamps went out, the soul fires within the Circular Mound Altar's lotus platform began to violently tremble, withering and vanishing one by one. Agonizing screams suddenly filled the dark underground palace.
Ji Hanyi listened to these cries piercing his ears, his brow furrowing in pain.
The entire underground palace began to shake violently, with deafening rumbles. The Circular Mound Altar cracked, and spiritual energy surged out from beneath, whipping up howling gales in the chamber. This soul-settling hall was about to collapse.
Yu Yi saw Xue Chenjing stumbling as he tried to fly through the air. The next moment, he was struck by a gust of wind, falling towards a ground fissure like a butterfly with broken wings.
His eyes met hers from beneath his wildly flying hair, the corners of his eyes curving slightly in a faint smile. Then he closed his eyes, pulled into the chasm by the chaotic winds.
Yu Yi's fingers tightened, finally gripping her spiritual sword. She cleaved through the gale, chasing after the falling figure.
She knew this could very well be another of Xue Chenjing's ploys to gain points, but it was also possible that he truly couldn't escape. If he really couldn't summon those demonic creatures, his Foundation Building realm cultivation would indeed be insufficient to resist such rampant spiritual winds.
Yu Yi had broken the underground palace's formation with his help, so naturally, she couldn't abandon him.
She guided her sword with her fingers, the Green Bamboo Sword's light cutting through the gale. Her figure, like a streak of light, closed in on him. She reached out and grabbed his belt, pulling him into her arms. The Green Bamboo Sword's light traced a beautiful arc, guiding them through the fierce winds and out of the chasm.
Outside, the underground palace completely collapsed, all formations destroyed. Sunlight poured down from above, warm and brilliantly golden.
Xue Mingyuan's entire body was bathed in this real, warm sunlight. He looked down at the girl holding him and said softly, "My name is Mingyuan, Xue Mingyuan. I'm very glad to see you again."
