Chapter 55 - An Immortal Saint’s Core

  "Li Ran!"

  When Shen Qingyu turned to see what Li Ran had found, he nearly had a heart attack.

  An Immortal Core was a sacred thing. It was literally the essence of a cultivator's life. But it was also incredibly dangerous if not handled with care—evident from the devastation surrounding them. Based on the debris and the sheer destruction in the stone bed chamber, Shen Qingyu had no doubt that a core explosion had caused it.

  And now, in his hands, Li Ran held an Immortal Core— a Saint’s Immortal Core.

  If it exploded…

  The destruction would be catastrophic. Not only would the entire Baishan City be wiped off the map, but the resulting shockwave could even shake the very fabric of the Human Realm itself.

  Shen Qingyu couldn’t be certain. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

  “Li Ran,” Shen Qingyu lowered his voice, afraid that even the slightest misstep might make Li Ran drop the core. “Please, listen to your Da Shixiong.”

  He stepped toward Li Ran cautiously, arms stretched out as if coaxing a frightened animal.

  “Give me that, please, Li Ran,” Shen Qingyu continued, his tone gentle but firm.

  Lu Jianhong and Xu Yun, understanding the danger, stood in tense silence, watching with trepidation.

  Li Ran frowned. “Da Shixiong, why are you saying it like that? I was just asking if this is Tie Yanfang’s core and if we can use it to save Shizun. I’m not going to drop it.”

  But as he said that, the core seemed to have a mind of its own—it slipped from his grasp.

  Li Ran panicked and scrambled to catch it. Shen Qingyu lunged forward, desperate to prevent it from touching the ground. Lu Jianhong let out a panicked yell.

  The core didn’t hit the floor. It floated.

  Time seemed to freeze.

  The three disciples looked absolutely ridiculous.

  Shen Qingyu lay sprawled on the ground, arms outstretched in the exact position he had lunged forward. Lu Jianhong stood frozen in place, hands covering his eyes—but peeking through his fingers. Li Ran was stuck in an awkward stance, one arm down, the other up, his legs wide apart like a startled frog.

  All three of them watched, dumbfounded, as the core floated gently into Xu Yun’s hand.

  Xu Yun glanced at them, unimpressed. "You do realize that you’re all cultivators, don’t you?"

  Outwardly, Xu Yun appeared calm and collected. But inside, anxiety gnawed at her. She was desperate to rush to the inn, to see Lin Qian with her own eyes. Yet, she hesitated—afraid of what she might find there.

  Her frustration was rising. She didn’t have time to deal with these idiots when every second wasted felt like an eternity. But she also knew she couldn’t leave her Shixiong to handle everything alone.

  Her best option? Take one of the idiots—disciples—with her.

  Preferably Shen Qingyu.

  Yet, she also knew Shen Qingyu would most likely refuse since he was worried about his Shizun and his Er Shidi.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Her next best option was Lu Jianhong.

  Xu Yun decided, “You are right. This is Tie Yanfang’s core. You all know that right now, this is your only way to save your Shizun and Shidi.” She directed her words at Shen Qingyu. “I will give it to you. You can deal with the moral dilemma yourselves, but I need him.” She pointed to Lu Jianhong. “I need him to come with me to check on my friend in the city.”

  “Otherwise, you can forget having this core.” Xu Yun made a gesture as if she were about to put the core inside her space pouch.

  “Wait!” Shen Qingyu called out from the floor. He slowly got up, dusting off his robes, and finally cleared his throat.

  “Although it might be late, an introduction is—”

  “I don’t have time!” Xu Yun cut him off.

  “Okay!” Shen Qingyu agreed quickly. “Okay, I agree. I know you won’t hurt him. His name is Lu Jianhong, and he’s my San Shidi.”

  “I’m Xu Yun.” She tossed the core toward Shen Qingyu, who moved clumsily to catch it. Then she turned to Lu Jianhong. “Let’s go.”

  Lu Jianhong had no choice but to follow Xu Yun. He threw one final look at Shen Qingyu before leaving the stone bed chamber.

  Shen Qingyu watched them leave and sighed. Then he turned to Li Ran.

  “Li Ran, we immortals cannot use other immortals’ cores for ourselves. It would be like eating another human’s flesh. But I also don’t know what else to do.”

  He turned to look at Gu Tianzhu, still lying on the floor. “Shizun’s condition will worsen if I don’t do anything. Zhaoyun’s condition is even worse than Shizun’s. The pills we have cannot help Shizun. We can’t send for help from Ziyu Sect.”

  He gestured toward the two unconscious figures. “They won’t make it.”

  He sighed and looked at the core. “This is our only option right now. But don’t worry, I won’t use all of the spirit energy. I’ll only use enough to keep them out of danger.”

  “Da Shixiong, I don’t care about all that. I just want to save Shizun and Er Shixiong.”

  “I know. I was just trying to convince myself.”

  Shen Qingyu sat down, crossing his legs, and began to extract spirit energy from the core.

  Inside Xuan Tian’s room, Ling Yu sat on a chair near the bed, watching Xuan Tian’s still figure.

  “Zhao Ge, tell me the truth. His condition’s not good, is it?”

  Zhao Zhi stood behind Ling Yu and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Believe in him. You said it yourself—he’s Iron Wall. He’ll be okay. He’ll pull through this.”

  She turned to Zhao Zhi, tears welling in her eyes. “But his face is even paler than before, his hands are colder, his breath is slower and slower.”

  Zhao Zhi nodded. "Yes, everything you said is true. But what I said is also true. Xuan Xiong’s cultivation is extremely high. His recovery will take a very long time. But he will recover. Right now, he’s fighting for his life."

  Ling Yu wiped her tears. "Is there anything we can do to help him?"

  Zhao Zhi sighed. "If we had an abundance of spirit energy, we might be able to help. But even if we did, we wouldn’t be able to help much. The difference in our cultivation levels is too big."

  Ling Yu frowned, looking confused.

  Zhao Zhi exhaled, searching for an explanation. "Imagine two humongous cauldrons—one is full of water to the brim, the other is empty. But the only way to move the water from Cauldron A to Cauldron B is with a tiny spoon. How long do you think that would take? And in the meantime, would that tiny spoonful of water make any difference to the empty cauldron?"

  Ling Yu still refused to let it go. "But it’s better than nothing, right?"

  Zhao Zhi continued, "It might seem better than nothing, but that tiny spoon has limits. The strain would break it before the job is done. In this case, the one transferring energy would suffer internal injuries or even damage their core. That’s suicide. Do you think Xuan Xiong would accept that? Worse, he might not even recover, while the one helping him is already crippled. Wouldn’t that be foolish?"

  Ling Yu’s eyes welled up again. "So there’s nothing we can do?"

  Zhao Zhi patted her shoulder. "We can continue to live well. Xuan Xiong did everything he could to protect us, for us to be safe and sound. We can do that ourselves now, can’t we?"

  Ling Yu nodded weakly. "But it won’t help him."

  Then she suddenly lit up. "We still have Tie Yanfang’s core!”