Innate Deities

Chapter 20: Innate Divine Spirit

"Fourth Uncle."

At the end of this other passage lay a golden river, a full hundred paces wide, stretching endlessly into the distance. It was the very spiritual vein of Mingyu Mountain.

Beside the spiritual vein sat a young man in his twenties, cross-legged in meditation—none other than the Nangong Family's greatest genius, Nangong Wenyue.

Seeing Nangong Shenyao arrive, he stood up and offered a slight nod, though his demeanor lacked any true sense of respect.

"How goes the refinement?" Nangong Shenyao frowned slightly, clearly displeased with Nangong Wenyue's attitude.

"One-third is complete." Nangong Wenyue ignored the other's tone, musing, "However, there is not just one spiritual entity here, but five. To fully control that object, all five must be refined."

"Five?" Nangong Shenyao froze. In truth, the Nangong Family had risked everything to seize the Mingyu Mountain spiritual vein with the primary goal of refining a single item. They had assumed that refining the spiritual entity birthed within would grant them total control, yet they had never expected four more to appear alongside the one they first discovered.

"My cultivation is only at the Nascent Soul Realm; refining even this one entity is already a struggle. If we are to refine the other four, we must bring in Wenxing, Wenyu, Wenxue, and... Wentian. Otherwise, success is impossible."

Nangong Wenyue's brows furrowed tightly.

So Nangong Wenyue has been hiding here all along. I had assumed the fellow was simply reclusive and preferred a quiet life.

Following behind Nangong Shenyao, Chen Xiao heard their conversation and felt a stir in his heart. It seemed the Nangong Family's arrival here, and even their destruction of the Chen Clan to seize Moon-Gazing City, was part of a grander conspiracy.

Moreover, the name "Nangong Wentian" was one he had never heard before. Chen Xiao was no stranger to the Nangong Family's prominent youths—Nangong Wenyue, Nangong Wenxing, Nangong Wenyu, and Nangong Wenxue.

Of those four, all but Nangong Wenyue were women. Chen Xiao had often mocked the Nangong Family's younger generation for being dominated by women, but it appeared that was not the case at all.

If the Nangong Family could hide a Nangong Wentian, there was no telling how many more outstanding disciples they might be concealing.

Originally, Chen Xiao had believed that his rebirth would allow him to foresee all things and easily shatter the Nangong Family's schemes. He had not expected the family to be like a deep, bottomless pool.

Nevertheless, Chen Xiao secretly steeled his resolve. Since Nangong Wenyue intended to refine something here, he would make it his mission to stop him.

Nangong Wenyue had clearly stopped his refinement to recover his energy at the edge of the vein. Chen Xiao scanned the area and discovered another passage leading deeper underground.

After quietly casting a Detection Talisman and finding no immediate danger, Chen Xiao slipped inside without a sound.

Once inside, relying on the power of his Heaven-Concealing Talisman, Chen Xiao explored with reckless abandon.

He was now beneath the spiritual vein. The golden river flowed overhead, radiating dense spiritual energy. Chen Xiao felt the thin barrier to his cultivation, which had long stood before him, melt away in silence. Even now, a gentle circulation of his true essence would be enough to condense a Golden Core.

A natural condensation, requiring no forced breakthrough.

Chen Xiao forcibly suppressed the urge. This was no time to form a core; if he did so here, the resulting fluctuations in the spiritual vein would leave him directly in the path of the massive, crushing spiritual power.

The space was not large, spanning only a few dozen paces. The marks of manual carving were obvious; clearly, the Nangong Family had excavated this area later.

Before Chen Xiao stood half of a grey-blue stone bridge, pitted and scarred by the passage of time. One half stood before him, while the other was nowhere to be found.

On the bridge sat a little girl in white, looking no more than twelve or thirteen. Her eyes were tightly shut, as if she were bound by some force, and two tear tracks stained her cheeks.

An Innate Divine Spirit!

Chen Xiao's heart skipped a beat. This little girl was neither human nor spirit beast; she was a lifeform birthed directly from the power of heaven and earth—an Innate Divine Spirit, a sprite of nature, a darling of the cosmos!

Yet, to his shock, this delicate, porcelain-like girl was imprisoned upon the stone bridge. She looked withered and frail, her life force already depleted by thirty percent.

In a flash, Chen Xiao recalled what Nangong Wenyue had said.

Refining the spiritual entity—so this is what they meant.

Chen Xiao forcibly swallowed his rising fury and stepped forward slowly.

"Big bad guy, you..."

The little girl had actually detected Chen Xiao despite the Heaven-Concealing Talisman. She struggled to open her large eyes, though they were clouded with a dull, deathly grey.

"You aren't the big bad guy. Who are you?" The girl seemed to sense that Chen Xiao held no malice, yet her wariness remained.

"I am here to save you. Come with me." Chen Xiao reached out and gently lifted the girl from the stone bridge. While the bindings on the bridge could trap a spiritual entity, they had no effect on a true human.

"No, if I leave, they will still capture my younger brothers and sisters."

The girl struggled in Chen Xiao's arms, but her strength was nearly gone; she was powerless to resist.

However, she could feel the pity in Chen Xiao's heart. As a sprite of heaven and earth, she was highly sensitive to human nature. Though she seemed naive, she could distinguish between good and evil.

"Then your brothers and sisters shall come with me as well," Chen Xiao said, his voice resolute.

At that moment, he sensed several faint gazes watching him from the shadows—they must have been the siblings the girl spoke of.

"It's no use..." The girl looked aggrieved. "Except for me, my brothers and sisters lack the cultivation to leave this place. If they go outside, they will vanish into thin air."

Just then, two boys and two girls, appearing to be roughly the same age as the girl in Chen Xiao's arms, emerged from the darkness.

They glanced warily toward the passage, and only upon seeing that no one had followed did they relax.

"Big Brother, please save Xianxian. That bad man comes here every day to torture her, and she's going to die."

A little girl in black blinked her jewel-like eyes, looking at Chen Xiao with a pitiful expression. From her words, Chen Xiao learned that the girl in his arms was named Xianxian.

The other three children tugged at his sleeves, looking utterly wretched.

Chen Xiao felt torn. His original goal in coming here was to disrupt the Nangong Family's plans; if he simply took these five children away, his mission would be a success.

But if he took them, four of them would surely perish. How could he bring himself to do that?

After all, Chen Xiao had not yet reached the point where he would stop at nothing to achieve his ends.