Could This Really Have Happened to Me?

Just as Qing Xuan was about to leave Buzhou Mountain with Nuwa, he suddenly sensed a spatial fluctuation not far away.

He pulled Nuwa away from where she was brushing dirt off the lingzhi and headed straight toward the disturbance.

As they drew closer, Qing Xuan could sense more clearly that there seemed to be a Spatial Entrance there.

But it wasn't fixed in place. It shifted rapidly along an irregular path, never staying in one spot for more than ten breaths.

"Nuwa, do you see that moving Spatial Entrance? When I count to three, charge forward with me."

Nuwa might have been more powerful than Qing Xuan, but she followed his every command without question. It made him wonder what made him so charismatic.

After checking again and again, Qing Xuan finally discerned a faint pattern. He led Nuwa to wait at the next spot where the entrance would appear.

Unfortunately, he misjudged it several times in a row. But persistence paid off, and at last Qing Xuan successfully led Nuwa into the Spatial Entrance.

The instant they entered the spatial rift, the scene before Qing Xuan's eyes changed. Pangu Pressure vanished completely.

That didn't mean the rift was safe, however. As they ventured farther inside, Qing Xuan began to sense an inexplicable danger.

The seemingly gentle breeze stung his face like a blade. "Damn, did we end up in the Northeast? This wind's like a knife scraping the bones."

Nuwa gave him a withering look. "Could you stop embarrassing me? That's no cold wind—it's Chaos Gale!"

"And I advise you to turn back the way we came. The Chaos Gale ahead is even denser. With your cultivation, you probably won't survive it."

When Qing Xuan heard that the wind cutting his face was Chaos Gale, he was stunned. "Chaos Gale? Could we have left the Primordial Wilderness and entered Chaos?"

Nuwa shook her head. "The gales in Chaos aren't this sparse. With your cultivation, you'd have been torn to shreds the moment you set foot in Chaos."

Qing Xuan finally breathed easier, but he still had to decide whether to risk going farther. His life was on the line, after all.

As Qing Xuan hesitated, the Purple-Black Gourd hanging from the Fan Pendant suddenly stirred. A moment later, it began to emanate the aura of a Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure.

Qing Xuan had turned the Seven Gourds into a Fan Pendant, concealing the aura of the Supreme Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure. Otherwise, if anyone saw him using seven Innate Spiritual Treasures as a fan pendant, they'd snatch them from him in a heartbeat.

The Purple-Black Gourd detached from the Fan Pendant and grew from the size of a fingernail to about a foot long.

At last, Qing Xuan remembered: the Purple-Black Gourd was known as the Chaos Gourd. It contained the Chaos Law, so the Chaos Gale was little more than fodder to it.

Qing Xuan took the Purple-Black Gourd in his hand and opened its lid. At once, the Chaos Gale before them began streaming into it.

In less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense, the Purple-Black Gourd had absorbed every bit of Chaos Gale in the space.

What happened next astonished Qing Xuan even more. After absorbing the Chaos Gale, the Purple-Black Gourd converted it into Innate Spiritual Qi and released it again.

In an instant, the Innate Spiritual Qi in the space gathered into tiny streams that flowed around Qing Xuan and Nuwa.

Nuwa's eyes lit up. "Little Gourd Vine..."

Before she could finish, Qing Xuan made a hush gesture and corrected her solemnly.

"How many times have I told you? Call me Qing Xuan. Don't call me Little Gourd Vine again. Or I'll show you just how little I am."

Nuwa blinked at him, then stuck out her tongue before continuing, "Little Gourd Vine..."

Qing Xuan was left speechless, his face dark with exasperation. He'd tried countless times to get Nuwa to change what she called him, but it always ended the same way.

Seeing the despair on Qing Xuan's face, Nuwa was delighted. She continued, "I never imagined the Purple-Black Gourd could convert Chaos Gale into Innate Spiritual Qi. Does that mean anywhere you go with this gourd becomes a top-grade blessed land?"

Qing Xuan also remembered that, according to later accounts, the Purple-Black Gourd had failed to mature because it was too powerful.

The Heavenly Dao couldn't tolerate it, so it never got the chance to mature. It simply withered away.

Qing Xuan murmured to himself, "If we used the Purple-Black Gourd as the core of an array and set up a Conversion Great Array at the boundary between the Primordial Wilderness and Chaos, what do you think would happen?"

Nuwa pondered for a moment, then said, "Do you think that would give the Primordial Wilderness an endless supply of Innate Spiritual Qi?"

"Unfortunately, that's just wishful thinking. The Purple-Black Gourd is too small, and it can only convert a limited amount of Chaos Gale."

Qing Xuan almost unconsciously dismissed Nuwa's point. The Purple-Black Gourd's current capacity was limited, so it wouldn't have much effect on the Primordial Wilderness.

But what about the Dharma-Ending Era? Surely that much Innate Spiritual Qi would be enough to preserve the Human Race's path of cultivation, so they wouldn't be unable to cultivate when spiritual energy ran dry.

Of course, Qing Xuan didn't argue with Nuwa about it. To the Primordial Beings of this era, the Dharma-Ending Era was practically a joke.

He merely nodded perfunctorily and continued deeper into the space. Before long, they reached its end.

There was nothing unusual at the end of the space, just a golden, irregular giant pillar.

After studying it closely, Qing Xuan realized that the Golden Irregular Giant Pillar looked just like a human spine. The two gaps above and below were where the vertebrae joined.

A bold idea suddenly occurred to Qing Xuan. He turned to Nuwa and said, "They say Buzhou Mountain was formed from Pangu's spine. Do you think what we're looking at could be one of Pangu's thoracic vertebrae?"

Nuwa examined it curiously, even reaching out to pinch Qing Xuan's back before nodding at him.

"When Primordial Beings undergo Form Transformation, the most perfect form is the Innate Dao Body. And the Innate Dao Body is modeled after Pangu."

"I just felt your thoracic vertebra. It really is the same shape as what we're looking at. So I'm certain this is one of Pangu's thoracic vertebrae."

Now Qing Xuan understood why Nuwa had pinched his back. On impulse, he reached out and pinched her back in turn.

"Sure enough, they're the same. Looks like we weren't wro—"

Before Qing Xuan could finish, Nuwa slapped him on the back of the head. He pitched forward uncontrollably.

"You little Gourd Vine! I can touch you, but you can't touch me! You'll never learn unless I teach you a lesson."

While Nuwa fumed, Qing Xuan's forehead slammed into the Golden Thorax Bone.

To his surprise, the bone was incredibly sharp. Even that light collision opened a gash in his head.

Blood welled from the cut on his forehead and spilled onto the Golden Thorax Bone, which swiftly absorbed it.

Nuwa hadn't expected that a light smack from her could injure Qing Xuan so badly. She hurriedly pulled him over and used Creation Power to heal the wound.

"Why are you so fragile? I barely hit you!" Nuwa muttered softly as she smoothed over the wound.

But Qing Xuan wasn't paying attention to Nuwa now. His eyes were fixed on the Golden Thorax Bone before him.

Could this really have happened to me?