Precious Life Gold, First Meeting with Qian Renxue

"Dong."

The moment Li Qinglian stepped into Spirit Hall's treasury, the metal door behind him slowly closed.

Tens of thousands of ancient texts, dozens of perfectly preserved spirit bones, and all manner of rare treasures whose names Li Qinglian could not even identify flowed with multicolored light beneath the glow of crystal lamps. The entire space was so silent it seemed like a corner forgotten by time.

"As expected of Spirit Hall. There really are plenty of good things here."

"Any one of these spirit bones would be treated as an heirloom in the Lower Four Sects. Yet in Spirit Hall, they're just placed here like this."

Li Qinglian's gaze quickly settled.

He knew.

Spirit Hall had, after all, accumulated treasures for thousands of years. The precious items in its collection were countless.

He slowly walked between the display racks, his gaze sweeping over row after row of spirit bone cases marked with their age and attributes. Soon, he found his target in the third row on the left.

A crimson spirit bone lay quietly inside a transparent display case. The temperature around it was noticeably higher than elsewhere, and the patterns on the spirit bone's surface flickered faintly like embers that had yet to die out.

Li Qinglian reached out and picked it up. It felt warm in his hand, and a dense fire-attribute soul power spread through his palm, producing a faint resonance with the Phoenix flames inside his body.

"This is the one."

Li Qinglian murmured to himself.

Just as he was about to turn and leave...

Whoosh!

A sudden sound of something cutting through the air came from behind him!

Without even looking, Li Qinglian pressed his index and middle fingers together in a sword gesture.

Using his fingers in place of a sword, condensed Sword Intent surged forth.

Swish!

A strand of golden hair drifted down onto Li Qinglian's hand.

"Clap, clap, clap."

"So this is Sword Intent? It really is impressive."

Qian Renxue folded her arms in front of her chest, pressing out a heavy, full curve.

As she looked at the young man before her, a trace of astonishment flashed through her golden eyes.

She had changed into a simple casual outfit. A pale-gold, waist-cinched long dress outlined her waist, making it look slender and straight, while her long hair rested casually over her shoulders.

She tilted her head, the corners of her lips slowly curving into a smile—calm, elegant, and carrying a certainty that made it difficult to refuse her.

"Qian Renxue?"

Li Qinglian said in surprise.

Someone who could freely enter and leave Spirit Hall's treasury, and who had golden hair and golden eyes—who else could it be but Qian Renxue?

"You know me?"

Qian Renxue froze for a moment. She had just been about to introduce herself.

"A prodigy who awakened with innate soul power at rank twenty at six years old. I've heard a little. Besides, there aren't many people who can enter and leave the treasury so casually."

Li Qinglian's eyes flickered.

Qian Renxue was, without question, a true genius.

Her terror was far beyond someone like Ao Tian.

"Li Qinglian. I've been waiting for you here for a long time."

"You may choose one more item here as you please. Consider it my greeting gift to you."

Qian Renxue twirled her golden hair and spoke with a smiling expression.

She wanted to learn Li Qinglian's Sword Intent, and she also wanted to know how his Ultimate Fire had come about. But she did not want to owe Li Qinglian a favor.

"Oh? Then I won't stand on ceremony."

Li Qinglian raised his sword-like brows.

Then he turned and walked back toward the depths of the treasury.

He could not control what Qian Renxue wanted to do. But these benefits were something he could take for himself.

Qian Renxue did not urge him on. She merely leaned quietly against the stone pillar by the entrance, arms folded, her golden eyes studying him with a measure of interest.

Li Qinglian's steps were much slower than before.

His gaze no longer lingered on the spirit bone cases marked with age and attributes. Though those things were precious, to him, they were ultimately only external objects.

What he was truly searching for was a certain intuition.

When he had stepped into the treasury earlier, he had clearly sensed a faint, indistinct aura calling to him from deeper within. It was like some kind of resonance, and also like a life that had been asleep for a very long time, breathing softly.

He passed through the third row of display racks, circled around a huge crystal lamp pillar, then walked past a curved wall embedded with ancient texts, continuing all the way to the very end of the treasury, into its most remote corner.

The light here was much dimmer than elsewhere. The brightness of the lamps had been deliberately lowered, as if the things stored here did not need to be examined too closely.

A few damaged soul tool fragments and several pieces of ore whose original purpose could no longer be identified lay scattered across the stone platform. A thin layer of dust had settled over them, clearly showing they had gone untouched for a long time.

Li Qinglian's gaze fell on one of the pieces of ore.

It was a fist-sized metal chunk, its color somewhere between grayish white and pale green. Its surface was rough and uneven, and at first glance, it looked like scrap that had been casually discarded.

But the instant Li Qinglian reached out and touched it, a warm, vast aura of life surged into his body through his fingertips, like a spring of sweet water slowly spreading across a dried-up riverbed—cool, mellow, and brimming with vitality.

His pupils contracted slightly.

"This is..."

He lowered his head and carefully studied that unremarkable piece of metal, his fingertips rubbing over its surface again and again.

A term sealed deep within his memories surfaced.

Life Gold.

In another timeline, during the era of the Peerless Tang Sect, Huo Yuhao had once obtained a piece of metal like this.

Relying on it, Huo Yuhao had opened the Eye of Life, and his physical strength and recovery ability far surpassed ordinary people's. Even after walking the edge between life and death countless times, he had been able to stand back up again and again.

This thing was a solid condensation formed from life energy under extremely harsh conditions. Across the entire continent, only a few pieces had appeared over several thousand years. And the largest among them lay at the bottom of the Lake of Life in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

"Life Gold? Spirit Hall actually has a treasure like this."

"Life Gold is priceless to any living being. For me, even more so. With this piece of Life Gold, I'll have much more confidence in my Phoenix Nirvana."

Li Qinglian took a deep breath and held that piece of Life Gold in his palm.

He was wild with joy, but outwardly, he remained perfectly calm.

The value of this piece of Life Gold was countless times more legitimate than the external spirit bone he had fought for before. This was definitely something that could save his life at a critical moment!

"What did you pick?"

Qian Renxue's voice came from behind him, carrying a hint of curiosity.

At some point, she had already walked up close. Tilting her head slightly, she sized up the ore remnant in Li Qinglian's hand, which had already lost most of its luster, her golden eyes full of confusion.

"A piece of scrap, that's all. Who knows how many years it's been sitting here. You're using that to trade for the greeting gift I gave you?"

"Scrap? That depends on whose hands it's in."

Li Qinglian put the Life Gold away. The corner of his mouth curved into a meaningful smile as he turned to look at Qian Renxue.

Qian Renxue blinked and looked at him thoughtfully for a while. Then she gave a soft laugh and did not press further. She merely reached out, her long, fair fingertips lightly tapping his shoulder.

"Fine. Looks like I may have misjudged it. But it doesn't matter. I said you could choose freely, so I won't go back on my word. Now it's time to talk about my matter."

Her smile was still calm and elegant, but deep within those golden pupils, a serious light quietly surfaced.

"Li Qinglian, I want to learn Sword Intent from you."

"I also want to learn how to raise flames to the extreme."

"You took my thing, so you have to teach me!"

Qian Renxue proudly lifted her snow-white neck.

She realized that what Li Qinglian had taken might be a supreme treasure she had failed to recognize.

But she did not mind, because what she wanted to obtain from Li Qinglian would only be greater.

"Wait, what? Girl, are you making wishes now?"