An Immortal Strokes My Head; I Receive Eternal Life

Su Zhiyan had a dream.

She dreamed that she had gone up the mountain to cultivate. Ten years of hard work had sent her soaring to the heavens.

At last, after informing her master and the sect's patriarch and receiving their approval, she decided to form her Golden Core!

For a prodigy like her, it was no difficult feat.

It was as simple as eating or drinking.

The patriarch had even smiled and said that Heaven had treated her exceedingly well. Others might approach Core Formation trembling and treading on thin ice, but she had nothing to fear. She could proceed boldly, with absolute confidence.

Encouraged by the patriarch's praise, Su Zhiyan was brimming with confidence.

At first, everything went just as her master had said: smooth as walking on level ground. Her Golden Core was almost complete, when suddenly she encountered a terrible crisis.

Qi deviation!

An Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon had invaded the sea of her divine sense!

When Su Zhiyan realized what was happening, she fell into despair.

She couldn't understand. This was a tribulation that only Mysterious Mastery experts and even Mahayana ancestors faced. How had it come upon her so soon?

There was no way she could overcome this ordeal.

Though she was a prodigy, she was still only a young girl, and it was only natural that panic seized her.

The Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon took advantage of her fear. She was on the brink of eternal ruin when a hazy, mysterious figure appeared before her.

The terrifying Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon seemed to have met its natural enemy... No, it was like a tiny ant coming face to face with a god enthroned above the world.

That figure was so mighty.

The spiritual power radiating from him was so warm.

The Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon prostrated itself on the ground and vanished into ash without him even lifting a finger.

Could an immortal have descended to save me?

Su Zhiyan stared, dumbfounded.

She was thrilled, yet flustered, and her heart pounded like a startled fawn's.

"Y-you... are you an immortal?"

She lifted her face, her eyes brimming with gratitude and adoration, and tentatively asked in a small voice.

But the other person didn't answer.

His voice was gentle, yet seemed to carry a trace of indifference and coolness.

"Don't speak."

"Take a deep breath and try to circulate your power again."

"Oh!"

Su Zhiyan nodded obediently.

Only then did she realize that although the Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon had perished, she was still on the verge of qi deviation.

The spiritual power in her dantian and the channels of her body was in complete disarray.

Perhaps she had been so delighted to see the immortal after being saved that she had forgotten how perilous her situation remained.

Hearing the immortal's reminder, she immediately held her breath and focused.

She carefully began circulating her power, trying to calm the chaos.

But soon, the girl's face turned pale, and a mouthful of blood sprayed from her lips. She realized it was too late. The power coursing through her channels had fallen into utter chaos and was turning violent.

There was no turning back!

Even though the Outer-Realm Heavenly Demon was dead, her qi deviation could no longer be reversed.

A wave of sorrow swept over the girl. Great drops of tears were about to fall from her eyes.

"Don't cry!"

Just then, she seemed to hear a sigh.

The immortal, surrounded by a glimmering azure light, came to stand before her.

He gently extended his hand and lightly tapped her.

Then, an unbelievable sight appeared.

The spiritual energy that had just begun to rage out of control suddenly became docile and gentle.

She didn't even need to guide it. Like rivers flowing into the sea, it returned to her dantian.

She had snatched life from the jaws of death!

The immortal had saved her for the second time.

Great drops of tears finally streamed from Su Zhiyan's beautiful eyes.

But this time, they weren't tears of fear!

They were tears of gratitude and joy.

With the immortal's guidance, she had once again escaped disaster!

The crisis had passed, but the power in Su Zhiyan's dantian had grown denser and denser.

Then, a Golden Core the size of a longan appeared in her dantian, as if a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate.

It was called a Golden Core, yet a layer of purplish-gold light shimmered across its surface.

Perhaps it would be more fitting to call it a Purple Core.

"A Purple Core?"

Lin Xiaoyao was a little surprised.

He couldn't help taking another look.

The Purple Core glowed with a gentle radiance. With each turn, the phantom silhouettes of divine birds like the Phoenix and Azure Luan seemed to appear.

Unfortunately, it wasn't perfect.

The Purple Core had a flaw!

This woman was indeed a prodigy, with spiritual roots so exceptional they were rarely seen in ten thousand years.

But rare didn't mean her spiritual roots were perfect.

For example, if perfect spiritual roots were worth one hundred points, this woman's would likely be worth ninety-eight or even ninety-nine.

A rarity in the world!

Yet although the difference seemed to be only one or two points, as the saying went, a hair's breadth at the start could lead to a thousand miles of error.

Legend had it that perfect spiritual roots could not exist in this world.

"Hmph. I refuse to believe that."

Within the glimmering azure light, Lin Xiaoyao's lips curled into a slight smile. He glanced at the peerlessly beautiful girl gazing at him with adoration and gratitude.

In a voice only he could hear, he murmured, "The Way of Heaven takes from those who have too much and gives to those who have too little. Thus, Heaven is flawed, and so are spiritual roots. Perfect spiritual roots should not exist in this world."

"Yet though Heaven forbids it, I have the methods of a Sage. I want to see whether these perfect spiritual roots are anything like what people imagined in the ancient texts..."

He flicked a finger.

A point of azure light flew from his fingertip.

It was the Spirit Root Aptitude Pill he had obtained from a recent sign-in.

A sacred treasure rumored to improve a cultivator's spiritual root aptitude.

A flash of light, and it flew straight into the girl's brow, disappearing from sight.

Su Zhiyan felt an immense medicinal power seep into the depths of her sea of consciousness, like an awl breaking through layers of mist.

It felt as though something important was about to undergo a transformation.

But the sensation came and went in an instant.

Lin Xiaoyao couldn't help letting out a soft laugh.

"Perfect spiritual roots really are forbidden by Heaven. The Spirit Root Aptitude Pill was actually rejected."

By all rights, a treasure like this should have been capable of improving spiritual root aptitude by far more than one or two points. Yet the girl's spiritual roots showed no change at all.

It seemed to defy the laws of the Great Dao.

It seemed that Heaven would not allow anyone to do such a thing.

Lin Xiaoyao laughed. Heaven's will?

Perhaps it truly was unfathomable to others.

But to him, it was nothing more than a joke.

I am a Sage, master of the Great Dao and discerner of its laws.

The myriad worlds, the sun, moon, and stars should obey not the laws of Heaven, but my will.

Heaven may forbid it, but I will do it anyway.

Lin Xiaoyao took a step forward, raised his right hand, and gently laid it on top of the girl's head.

The medicinal power, which had scattered like a routed army, suddenly gathered once more.

With a resolve firmer and a force keener than before, it charged toward some inconceivable bottleneck, pressing onward without hesitation.

The bottleneck shattered!

Though Heaven had forbidden it, the methods of a Sage still brought perfect, full-score spiritual roots into existence.

Su Zhiyan didn't know what had happened, but she seemed to sense that deep within her sea of consciousness, her spiritual roots were undergoing an incredible, earth-shaking transformation.

And that transformation would have far-reaching consequences.

Her beautiful eyes turned toward the figure within the glimmering azure light. Her gratitude and adoration were beyond words.

A line of poetry she had read as a child surfaced in the girl's mind.

"An immortal strokes my head; I receive eternal life."