Inside the examination chamber.
Centered on Kong Jiao, white frost had spread outward, covering most of the floor.
The frigid surroundings were nearly as cold as the area outside the Frostmoon Altar, cold enough to freeze water at a touch.
The spiritual power that occasionally drifted out of Kong Jiao's body had become visible to the naked eye, completely transformed into a frosty white.
Almost as soon as his spiritual power finished transforming, a subtle ripple spread through his motionless body.
Two utterly pure auras were drawn out by the Moon Palace Taiyin Scripture he cultivated, drifting down from the crystal above the examination chamber.
One was a snow-white Essence Soul.
The chamber was already bitterly cold.
The instant the snow-white Essence Soul's aura appeared, the entire space froze over.
Only the areas where the puppet and Kong Jiao sat remained dry.
The other aura was even more wondrous.
A moon-white radiance flowed around it, its aura rippling like water.
Where it passed, starlight remained in the space, like a river of stars.
At last, it condensed completely into a single mass.
Hum! In an instant, the snow-white Essence Soul's ice melted away. The entire chamber became a boundless universe ringed with countless stars.
The Essence Soul itself stood at the center of that river of stars like a sovereign, a bright moon hanging high in the sky.
Amid the wondrous vision, which seemed like a river of stars,
the enormous Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi at the far end of the examination chamber—so large that two people could barely encircle it—seemed to sense the aura of the starry river. It swayed from side to side without a breeze, like a graceful woman twisting her body.
The puppet seemed to have known about the two pure auras all along and showed no reaction.
Under its unblinking gaze, both auras eventually drifted toward the crescent-shaped mark between Kong Jiao's brows.
Kong Jiao had noticed nothing of the changes around him, still immersed in cultivation.
The snow-white Essence Soul was the first to enter the crescent mark.
The instant its aura touched the mark,
Hum! A force of extreme frost spread throughout his body from the crescent mark.
The spiritual power that had been circulating steadily through his meridians under Kong Jiao's control seemed to be bound by the frost.
Though it had no physical form, his spiritual power now froze solid like flowing water.
The sudden influx of an unknown force left Kong Jiao stunned with fear.
Just as he was at a loss,
"Focus. Use the Moon Palace Taiyin Scripture to wear it down until it merges with your spiritual power."
The puppet's voice entered his consciousness, and Kong Jiao's heart settled.
He nodded silently, then immediately pushed his Moon Palace Taiyin Scripture to its limit, trying to break through the frost's restraints.
But no matter how hard Kong Jiao struggled, his spiritual power remained motionless. The force of frost was like an immovable mountain.
"What do I do?" Panic seized him. A bead of cold sweat trickled uncontrollably down his forehead.
He refused to give up. After a moment's hesitation, he gritted his teeth and forced his spiritual power to circulate again.
"Move!" he roared inwardly.
The Spirit Wheel floating in his dantian suddenly began to turn.
Rumble! The Spirit Wheel's rotation was anything but silent.
It let out a deafening roar that only Kong Jiao could hear, like a flood surging toward him from all directions.
As the Spirit Wheel turned, the spiritual power frozen solid by the frost finally showed signs of movement, creeping through his meridians at a snail's pace.
"There's a chance!" Kong Jiao's heart leaped at the sight.
He immediately focused and concentrated on circulating the Lunar Scripture.
With the Spirit Wheel's help and Kong Jiao pushing with all his might, his spiritual power gradually returned to its original speed.
But the Spirit Wheel showed no sign of stopping.
It spun faster and faster in his dantian.
Before long, his spiritual power, which had returned to its normal pace, was circulating several times faster than before.
It rushed through his meridians, stretching them until they ached.
Kong Jiao stared dumbfounded at the unbelievable sight in his meridians, unsure what to do.
"Bad! My meridians are injured. At this rate, something's going to happen!"
As Kong Jiao muttered, his heart leaped into his throat.
A moment later, he relaxed again.
Though his spiritual power had run wild, the meridians damaged by the Qi-Bursting Pill showed no sign of further harm.
Instead, the tiny cracks seemed to be healing under the nourishment of his spiritual power.
In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, all his injuries had healed.
At that moment, trailing the snow-white Essence Soul, the moonlike aura drifted above the crescent mark between Kong Jiao's brows, bringing its strange vision with it. It seemed ready to enter his body just as the snow-white Essence Soul had.
The puppet suddenly reached out, intercepting it with two fingers.
Crack! The instant its mechanical index and middle fingers touched the Essence Soul, an inexplicable force coiled around them, and dense cracks appeared between the two fingers.
But the puppet paid it no mind.
It forcibly cut off one-fifth of the Essence Soul.
Holding the essence in its grasp, the puppet turned its head toward the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi and calmly said, "This is excess Lunar Essence. I can give it to you, but think carefully. Kong Jiao drew down this Lunar Essence. If you accept it, you'll have to bear the consequences of his karma."
The examination chamber fell silent at the puppet's words.
The Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi stopped swaying, as though it were thinking.
After a long while, a young girl's childish voice emerged from within the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi, her tone gritted with resentment. "I want it!"
The puppet did not hesitate. It sent the severed fifth of the Lunar Essence toward the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi.
The moment the Lunar Essence entered its already crystalline body, light shimmered all around it.
The puppet held on to the remaining Lunar Essence Soul. Golden beams burst from its eyes and enveloped it, as though it were activating some kind of secret technique.
At last, the Lunar Essence Soul was completely sealed inside a golden cocoon the size of a longan.
When it was done, the gold in the puppet's eyes had dimmed considerably.
It then tossed the golden cocoon into the crescent mark between Kong Jiao's brows.
Perhaps because it had been sealed, the golden cocoon entered his body without causing any disturbance, unlike the snow-white Essence Soul.
Kong Jiao knew nothing of what had happened outside.
Or rather, he had no time to pay attention.
After he wore down the power of the snow-white Essence Soul, his dantian underwent a tremendous transformation.
The spiritual power that had once hung in his dantian like mist had now become a lake blanketed in frost.
The Spirit Wheel floating within it had merged with the icy lake, like the moon's reflection beneath the frozen surface, drifting through his dantian.
His spiritual power had also undergone a transformation.
Each wisp was snow-white and translucent. As it flowed gently, it made a clear, lilting sound, like pieces of profound ice softly striking one another.
His cultivation surged, and in just a moment, it filled the fourth level of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm, bringing him to the brink of a breakthrough.
"I can break through!" Feeling the abundance of spiritual power within him, Kong Jiao's eyes shone as he thought with confidence.
But before he could put the thought into action,
the puppet's voice exploded once more from the depths of his consciousness.
"Wake up!"
Its voice brimmed with authority and brooked no argument.
Kong Jiao was jolted awake by the puppet's voice.
His eyes flew open. He stared blankly at the stiff face before him and the puppet's dark-gold eyes.
The puppet's wooden face was practically pressed against his forehead.
Kong Jiao was startled at first, then leaned back to put some distance between them. With a hint of irritation, he said, "I was just..."
"You can't break through too quickly. Your essence hasn't fully fused with your spiritual power. Breaking through now will bring endless troubles." The puppet seemed to know what Kong Jiao was about to say and cut him off.
"You need to consolidate your cultivation for a while. Only when you've fully refined the essence and can control your spiritual power as easily as your own arm will you be ready to break through."
"What essence? What essence?" Kong Jiao stared at the puppet in confusion.
"In the Wheel-Nourishing Realm, one nourishes the wheel with essence. The essence I mean is naturally the essence that nurtures your Spirit Wheel."
"Now that you've received the essence and cultivated the Moon Palace Wheel-Nurturing Scripture, you can be called a true Wheel-Nourishing Realm cultivator." The puppet spoke casually, brushing the subject aside as though it had something more important to say.
"Once you leave, cultivate diligently. Do not slack off. Perfect the Moon Wheel Seal as soon as possible, and enter the inner sect of the Moon Palace."
Kong Jiao pursed his lips. This was the second time the puppet had mentioned the Moon Palace's inner sect. He wanted to say that the Moon Palace had long since ceased to exist.
But he was afraid of upsetting the intelligent puppet before him.
So he kept quiet and answered stiffly, "This disciple obeys."
The puppet nodded in satisfaction, then turned toward the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi behind it and said slowly, "Once you've perfected the Moon Wheel Seal, come back here and take this fellow with you. It will be a great help to you."
Kong Jiao had already been eyeing the Moonfrost Ice Lingzhi.
He'd even been pondering how to trick it away from the puppet.
At these words, his eyes lit up, and he nodded eagerly. "This disciple obeys."
The puppet's words were clearly a dismissal. Kong Jiao understood that well enough.
But after taking the opportunity this place had offered him, he felt guilty about simply walking away. He hadn't done anything for the sect that had passed its legacy on to him—the Moon Palace.
He would never be able to repay it, either.
"After all, the Moon Palace no longer exists in this world." As Kong Jiao silently thought this, he looked up at the puppet before him. Its wooden, expressionless face seemed somehow less stiff now.
In a sense, the puppet had guarded this chamber for who knew how many years.
It had remained steadfast in guarding the Moon Palace's legacy, devoted and loyal.
"Senior, do you know what's happening in the outside world?" Kong Jiao finally couldn't bear it any longer and asked tentatively.
"Do not call me senior. You are the nine hundred and seventy-second-generation disciple of our sect. In terms of seniority, the matter is far too distant and complicated. You may call me Yi-Twelve." The puppet calmly corrected Kong Jiao's slip.
Then, in its uniquely stiff voice, it slowly answered Kong Jiao's earlier question.
"I know everything that happens in the outside world."
The puppet's answer made Kong Jiao's eyes fly wide open.
He had never imagined it would know everything.
And yet it had still willingly stayed in this chamber, waiting for a disciple who had received the Moon Palace's legacy to arrive.
Thinking of the many wonders the puppet had displayed, Kong Jiao suddenly had another idea.
"Have you never thought about leaving?" Kong Jiao considered his words carefully before asking.
"My duty is to guard this place and await the arrival of a disciple who will receive the Moon Palace's legacy. It was so in the past, and it will remain so in the future." The puppet replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"But what if no one ever comes again?" This time, Kong Jiao was completely serious as he stared into Yi-Twelve's dark-gold eyes.
Since its duty was to guard this place, Kong Jiao had to start there if he wanted to persuade it to leave with him.
This time, he received no answer from Yi-Twelve.
Clang! A blinding beam of light burst from the crystal in the ceiling. Kong Jiao felt the dazzling radiance surround him once more.
Then his body grew light, and the sensation of weightlessness enveloped him.
When he felt his body's weight again, he had returned to the stone chamber where he'd entered the examination space.
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