Nuwa silently repeated the name in her heart, a complex light flickering in her eyes.
Ignoring all propriety, she bowed deeply to the thick, heavy curtain of light surrounding the formation, offering the formal salute of one fellow Daoist to another.
"Fellow Daoist Changsheng."
Nuwa's clear, ethereal voice traveled along the fluctuations of spiritual energy in the formation, reaching the depths of the cave at an unhurried pace.
"For the past eight hundred years, I have been in seclusion here, meditating on the Dao."
"Thanks to those words of yours back then, which rang like a thunderclap and poured enlightenment into my mind, I was able to break through my confusion and finally glimpse the threshold of the Great Luo realm."
"I will always remember your kindness in teaching me the Dao."
Inside the cave.
Lu Changsheng was lounging on the White Jade Cloud Bed with one leg crossed over the other, munching on a Red Sun Fruit. When he heard the transmission from outside, he nearly choked to death on the pit.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
He jerked upright, patted his chest, and stared wide-eyed at Nuwa, who was bowing to him in the water mirror.
"Halfway to Great Luo?!"
Lu Changsheng felt as though his brain had stopped working.
"What the heck? Back then, I was only trying to scare her. I made up a bunch of nonsense about the Dao of Cowardice off the top of my head, and not only did she not think I was afraid of death, she actually had an epiphany from it?"
"Are the experts of the Primordial Land all this good at reading things into a situation?"
After his brief shock, Lu Changsheng was overjoyed.
However she had come up with that interpretation, the result was good.
She had broken through, and she was crediting him with the achievement.
This was a tremendous karmic debt!
In the Primordial Land, karma was a most mysterious thing.
If one failed to repay a karmic debt, at best, one's cultivation would stagnate; at worst, a heart demon would take root, ending in death and the destruction of one's Dao.
"Heh, looks like I have no choice but to squeeze her for all she's worth today."
Lu Changsheng immediately cleared his throat, dropped his slovenly air, and sat upright on the White Jade Cloud Bed. He formed a Taiji seal with his hands, putting on the airs of a transcendent sage.
He leaned toward the Sound Transmission Array Eye and spoke in a calm voice, as if everything were under his control.
"You're too kind, Fellow Daoist Nuwa."
"The three thousand Great Daos all lead to the same destination. Your insight and your crossing the threshold of Great Luo are the result of your own fortune and exceptional comprehension."
"I merely offered a few casual pointers. I hardly deserve such a grand gesture from you."
Though he said that, his tone clearly carried the shameless implication: That's right, I was the one who enlightened you.
Outside the formation.
Nuwa understood what he meant but did not call him out. She simply smiled warmly.
"Fellow Daoist, your virtue is admirable: you give without seeking repayment. But as one who cultivates the Dao, I cannot disregard the karma between Heaven and Earth."
As she spoke, she gently raised her slender hand.
In her palm, a clod of yellow soil appeared, slowly floating in the air. It radiated an immensely heavy aura, as if it could bear an entire world.
The clod was only about the size of a fist, but the moment it appeared, the Earth Veins within a radius of ten thousand li seemed to resonate with it, producing a series of deep, rumbling hums.
"This is the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil."
Nuwa's voice carried a note of solemnity.
"It was a supreme treasure of the earth, born from chaos when Great God Pangu created Heaven and Earth. A single grain can become a range of divine mountains, containing boundless life force and the power of the earth to defend against all things."
"I observed that your mountain-protecting formation is built upon the Earth Veins, but it seems to lack something to suppress its array eye, making the flow of spiritual energy somewhat sluggish."
"I offer you this scrap of Breathing Soil to stabilize the formation. Consider it a token of my gratitude for the eight hundred years of instruction. I hope you won't refuse."
Deep inside the cave.
"Crash!"
The cup of spiritual spring water Lu Changsheng had just picked up smashed against the White Jade Platform, shattering into pieces.
His eyes blazed with boundless greed as he stared fixedly at the yellow soil in the water mirror, practically drooling.
"The Nine Heavens Breathing Soil!"
"It's actually the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil!"
Lu Changsheng roared wildly in his heart.
Of course he knew what this stuff was! It was the supreme innate divine treasure Nuwa would one day use to mold humans from clay—and even Yu the Great would use it to control the floods!
This was the cream of the crop among earth-type spiritual materials!
If the Earth Dragon Pearl was a river, then the Nine Heavens Breathing Soil was a boundless ocean!
If he merged this clod of Breathing Soil into his formation, the defenses of his three thousand tortoise-shell layers would increase at least tenfold!
Even a true Daluo Golden Immortal would have to wear through a layer of skin trying to break through the defenses built from the Breathing Soil!
"Fellow Daoist?"
Outside the formation, seeing that Lu Changsheng had not replied for a long while, Nuwa raised her voice slightly and called out.
"Ahem... I'm here. I'm here."
Lu Changsheng hurriedly came back to his senses and wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, doing his best to keep his voice from sounding too eager.
"Fellow Daoist Nuwa, this karmic debt you've incurred is truly substantial."
"Since you insist on giving it to me, refusing would only seem affected and might disturb your state of mind."
Lu Changsheng's eyes shifted. The instinct for the Dao of Cowardice, drilled deep into his bones, took over once more.
Even if it was a treasure from Nuwa, even if it was meant to settle their karma—
He absolutely could not take it directly in his hands!
"Same procedure as always."
Lu Changsheng's voice drifted lazily from deep within the formation.
"I'll send out the box. Sorry for the trouble, Fellow Daoist, but please place the Breathing Soil inside and then step back three paces."
Hearing this familiar request, Nuwa couldn't help feeling deeply helpless.
Eight hundred years had passed. She had even broken through to halfway to Great Luo, and he knew she was only repaying him for his kindness in teaching her the Dao.
Yet his wariness had not diminished in the slightest.
"Rumble..."
It was still the same fist-sized opening in the formation, and still the same coarse vine, without the slightest fluctuation of magic power.
The shabby wooden box plastered with cheap talismans against evil swayed as it was pushed out on the breeze.
Nuwa sighed, too lazy to argue with this cowardly fellow.
She gently placed the clod of Nine Heavens Breathing Soil inside the wooden box.
Then, after a moment's thought, she took a jade slip glowing with a faint green light from her sleeve and placed it beside the Breathing Soil.
"What is that?"
Inside the cave, Lu Changsheng keenly noticed Nuwa's unnecessary extra move and immediately asked warily.
"Don't be alarmed, Fellow Daoist."
Nuwa stepped back three paces and patiently explained.
"This is a Sound Transmission Jade Slip I condensed using the Law of Creation."
"I've spent eight hundred years in seclusion in front of this nameless mountain. Our karma is settled, and it is time for me to leave and continue traveling through the Primordial Land."
"There are no tracking or attack formations in this jade slip. If you ever grow tired of staying inside your formation, or encounter some intractable problem, you can crush it, and I will sense it."
Nuwa paused, her tone growing especially earnest.
"Additionally, the jade slip records a hidden place I discovered by chance during my travels."
"Eighty thousand li east of here lies a perilous place called Phoenix Fall Valley."
"It was once an ancient battlefield where experts of the Dragon Phoenix Clans fought. The battle shattered the local Xiantian Micro Spiritual Cave and split the Earth Veins, leaving the place filled with baleful energy."
"The environment there is harsh, and ordinary cultivators wouldn't dare approach. But when I observed it from afar, I saw what seemed to be the glimmer of a damaged Innate Spirit Treasure deep within the shattered spiritual cave."
As she said this, a hint of amusement flickered in Nuwa's eyes.
Before you continue