Qing Yanjing Awakens, but Her Spiritual Energy Is Gone; Though Willing to Protect the Dao, She Cannot Offer Compensation

"Mmm..."

Hearing the soft moan, Meng Chen looked at Qing Yanjing again.

Before long, Qing Yanjing slowly opened her eyes, revealing a pair of pure, amethyst-like beautiful eyes tinged with confusion.

Where am I?

Once her mind cleared, she braced her weak body and shakily rose from the ground.

As she looked at the unfamiliar surroundings, faint confusion filled Qing Yanjing's beautiful eyes.

She remembered that, in her haste to break through to the Immortal-Grade Heavenly Sovereign, something had gone wrong, causing all her spiritual energy to disperse and reducing her to a cripple.

Then, because the commotion from her failed breakthrough had been too great, she had drawn the siege of countless spirit beasts.

She had thought death was certain, but a spatial rift had suddenly appeared and swallowed her whole. After that, she had lost consciousness.

Seeing that she had no injuries beyond the old wounds from her failed breakthrough, Qing Yanjing became even more surprised.

Could someone have saved her?

Qing Yanjing raised her gaze toward Meng Chen.

Seeing that Meng Chen was as refined as jade and possessed an extraordinary bearing, Qing Yanjing parted her lips and asked softly, "Did you save me?"

Meng Chen hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "More or less."

"More or less?" Qing Yanjing's delicate brows furrowed. What did he mean, more or less?

Meng Chen could not exactly explain that Qing Yanjing had been selected as one of four possible Dao protectors, so after organizing his thoughts, he smiled and explained.

"In short, Senior, you are the Dao protector I summoned. I just didn't expect things to turn out like this."

After saying that, Meng Chen revealed a helpless expression.

Qing Yanjing really was incredible. She was a publicly acknowledged Saint-Grade Heavenly Sovereign, and she was still untouched.

But now that all her spiritual energy had dispersed, who knew when she would recover? She simply could not protect his Dao.

Upon hearing this, Qing Yanjing recalled the spatial rift that had appeared so abruptly.

Thinking it over carefully, she was a cripple who had fallen into a spatial rift without even a trace of spiritual energy. There was no way she could have withstood the chaotic spatial currents.

Yet she was completely unharmed now.

By that logic, it truly was possible that, because of the summoning, some force had protected her and brought her before this young man.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you. Not long ago, I rashly attempted a breakthrough. Now that it has failed, my spiritual energy has temporarily dispersed, and I cannot be your Dao protector."

Qing Yanjing looked apologetic.

No matter what, this young man had saved her life. If he had asked her to protect his Dao for a time, she naturally would not have refused.

But now, she was already a cripple. Forget being a Dao protector—she would probably need this young man to protect her instead.

Meng Chen waved his hand, telling Qing Yanjing that there was no need to apologize. "It's fine. Senior, you only lack spiritual energy for the time being. It's not as though you can never recover it. Besides, even without spiritual energy, you still have the strength of your physical body."

"Even so, relying on this meager bit of physical strength alone to travel the Great Thousand World would not be easy."

Qing Yanjing sighed.

Her failed breakthrough had not merely cost her all her spiritual energy. Even the power of her physical body had been reduced to less than one ten-thousandth of its former strength.

Hearing that, Meng Chen recalled that the younger Mu Feng had rescued Qing Yanjing from among numerous spirit beasts. Mu Feng had only reached the Divine Soul Realm in middle age, and Qing Yanjing had guided him during that time.

From this, it was clear that Mu Feng's cultivation when he was young could not have been much to speak of. At most, he had probably been in the Spirit Wheel Realm.

By that reasoning, Qing Yanjing's physical strength alone should only be around the Spirit Wheel Realm now, right?

Meng Chen asked tentatively, "May I ask, Senior, what level of expert would your current physical strength be comparable to?"

After pondering for a long while, Qing Yanjing herself seemed uncertain. "Barely comparable to the Divine Soul Realm."

Although the strength of her body rivaled the Divine Soul Realm, even an elephant could be bitten to death by ants. Thus, when faced with a large number of spirit beasts in the Spirit Movement and Spirit Wheel Realms, she had been powerless and driven into a desperate situation.

If Meng Chen had not "summoned" her, she likely would truly have fallen to the jaws of those spirit beasts.

Meng Chen was enlightened upon hearing this.

So that was it. No wonder Mu Feng had been able to break through Qing Yanjing's defenses in the original novel.

Immediately afterward, he smiled again. "Senior, there's no need to worry too much. Haven't you noticed? We are not in the Great Thousand World right now."

"Not in the Great Thousand World?" Qing Yanjing was stunned.

With her spiritual energy gone, her soul perception had also been weakened to the extreme. She truly had not noticed that she had already left the Great Thousand World and had assumed she was still on the Hundred Spirit Continent.

Meng Chen nodded. "That's right. The continent we are on is called the Dou Qi Continent. It is a lower plane of the Great Thousand World."

"The Dou Qi Continent, a lower plane..."

Qing Yanjing murmured the words, a trace of astonishment appearing in her beautiful eyes.

She had never imagined that she would be "summoned" to a lower plane.

Still, a lower plane was fine. As long as she was not in the Great Thousand World, she did not need to worry about those people in her clan discovering that she had lost all her spiritual energy and become a cripple.

If they found out, given their nature, they would definitely seize her and take her back, extract the Eight Divine Veins from within her body, and perhaps even...

Thinking of this, Qing Yanjing secretly breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Meng Chen.

"From your explanation, you seem to know something about this Dou Qi Continent. Oh, and I still do not know your name. I am Qing Yanjing."

"My name is Meng Chen. As for the Dou Qi Continent, I do know a little about it."

"Unlike the Great Thousand World, cultivators on the Dou Qi Continent are called Dou Practitioners. What they cultivate is not spiritual energy, but dou qi..."

Meng Chen gave his name and, incidentally, introduced the cultivation system of the Dou Qi Continent as well.

Qing Yanjing listened and contemplated as he spoke. In particular, when she heard of the realm known as Battle Emperor, her beautiful eyes froze slightly.

Noticing Qing Yanjing's reaction, Meng Chen asked in confusion, "Senior Qing, have you heard of Battle Emperors?"

"I have heard a little. According to my clan's records, there were once a group of beings from lower planes known as Battle Emperors. Every Battle Emperor was extraordinary and active on the battlefield against the Extraterritorial Evil Clan."

"Unfortunately, over several tens of thousands of years, those Battle Emperors were targeted by the Extraterritorial Evil Clan and fell one after another. As far as I know, the last recorded Battle Emperor was named Tuo She. More than seven thousand years ago, he too fell under the joint siege of two Demon Emperors..."

Meng Chen was deeply shocked after hearing this.

No wonder there had been no information about any Battle Emperors from the Dou Qi Continent after Xiao Yan ascended to the Great Thousand World. They had all fallen!

Before Meng Chen could recover from his shock, Qing Yanjing gave him another surprise.

Qing Yanjing recalled, "Speaking of Battle Emperors, I was quite curious about their deeds when I was young and collected some cultivation techniques they once practiced."

"Unfortunately, they do not cultivate spiritual energy, so those techniques were difficult to practice in the Great Thousand World. Now that we are on the Dou Qi Continent, perhaps they may prove useful."

"Really, Senior Qing?!"

Meng Chen was overjoyed. Cultivation techniques from ancient Battle Emperors had to be at least Heaven-tier, perhaps even Emperor-tier!

Qing Yanjing nodded slightly. "Yes. You saved my life, and since I am currently unable to protect your Dao, I naturally must give you some compensation."

"I just do not know whether, after tens of thousands of years, the cultivation techniques of those ancient emperors can still be practiced on today's Dou Qi Continent."

As she spoke, Qing Yanjing was about to open her Spatial Sacred Artifact, only to remember that she had no spiritual energy and could not retrieve anything from it.

"Alas..." Qing Yanjing sighed softly. "I'm sorry. Without spiritual energy, I cannot even open my Spatial Sacred Artifact now."

Meng Chen felt slightly disappointed. "Is that so? Then when will you be able to recover your spiritual energy, Senior Qing?"

After thinking for a moment, Qing Yanjing's expression turned grave.

"It is hard to say. If I were in the Great Thousand World, I could at most return to the Spirit-Grade Heavenly Sovereign in ten years through cultivation. But on this lower plane, it would already be quite good if I could recover to the Sovereign realm in ten years."

The greatest difference between the Great Thousand World and lower planes lay in their laws and energy.

When experts from the Great Thousand World descended to lower planes, they would not be assimilated by the laws of those lower planes. Conversely, when experts from lower planes ascended to the Great Thousand World, their cultivation would be forcibly converted.

Because the energy level of lower planes was far below that of the Great Thousand World, Qing Yanjing's efficiency in absorbing the vitality of the Dou Qi Continent and converting it into spiritual energy was far lower and slower than absorbing the spiritual qi of the Great Thousand World.