On Seven Immortal Island, where spiritual qi was abundant, Mo Caihuan stayed indoors and devoted herself to body tempering. Someone brought her food, but there was no kitchen here, so every meal consisted of fresh fruit and vegetables.
These fruits also contained spiritual qi. Her body had thirsted for sixty years, and now, immersed in such pure spiritual qi for the first time, it craved it from the inside out.
In ten days, she cultivated her Diamond Art to the second layer. If she could keep progressing this quickly, she could reach the ninth layer within twenty years, advancing straight to early Nascent Soul.
Unfortunately, body tempering only grew harder and more painful.
Besides, she had not come here to temper her body, but to obtain a spiritual root. The White-Haired Fairy had made no guarantees, however, so the chances were probably slim. She lowered her expectations accordingly.
A month later, Cui Yi came to the Five-Color Pavilion and said, "Master invites our guest to the Red Beauty Pavilion."
Along the way, she took in the beautiful scenery and beautiful women like someone admiring flowers from horseback.
When they arrived at the Red Beauty Pavilion, she found it completely different from the Colorless Pavilion. The Colorless Pavilion's door curtains and window gauze were all white, while every decoration in the Red Beauty Pavilion was a striking red.
The Deity Transformation expert was already waiting inside, nostalgia in her eyes. The Red Beauty Pavilion had once been Seventh Sister's residence. She had been passionate and exuberant, free of all restraint. Alas, Heaven had envied her beauty, and she had been the first to fall.
Inside the Red Beauty Pavilion stood a cauldron containing the pure spiritual qi Seventh Sister had left behind.
The White-Haired Fairy pointed to the red meditation cushion before the Four-Legged Square Cauldron and said, "Sit down. The cauldron contains pure spiritual qi. In a moment, I will guide it into your body. The process will be extremely painful. You must endure it."
Without any unnecessary words, she went straight to the essentials of the cleansing.
"Yes." Mo Caihuan swallowed and braced herself.
"Begin." The White-Haired Fairy formed hand seals, her lips opening and closing as she murmured an incantation.
A vast surge of spiritual power slowly rose from the cauldron, turning the entire room crimson in an instant. The spiritual qi split into three winding serpents and entered Mo Caihuan's body.
The pain grew worse and worse until she finally lost consciousness.
When she opened her eyes again, she saw Cui Yi tending to her.
"Senior, what happened?" She discovered that she was already back in the Colorless Pavilion.
Cui Yi said expressionlessly, "You couldn't hold on and fainted. Master said to cultivate for ten days before trying again."
Mo Caihuan felt deeply ashamed.
Cui Yi said nothing more and simply took good care of her.
After that came cultivation, cleansing, cleansing, cultivation...
It took a full year before Mo Caihuan passed the Red Beauty Pavilion's cleansing. Her body grew stronger, and she felt she had reached the level of late Foundation Establishment.
Her Diamond Art reached the third layer.
After the Red Beauty Pavilion came the Golden Orange Pavilion, the Dusk Pavilion, the Green Drop Pavilion, the Blue Cloud Pavilion, the Indigo Grass Pavilion, and the Purple Garment Pavilion.
The seven pure spiritual qis. Mo Caihuan remembered that, in the original story, Han Li had entered the Netherworld Land, where he could not use magic power. There, he had met Mei Ning, who possessed spirit communication qi, one of the seven pure spiritual qis. He had recovered his magic power little by little before finally escaping the Netherworld Land.
Each of the Seven Immortal Maidens possessed one kind of pure spiritual qi. The seven qis worked together to raise their cultivation.
If spiritual qi had not been so scarce, all seven fairies could have ascended together, surely leaving behind a tale for the ages. Unfortunately, spiritual qi had been thin, and the seven maidens had died one after another, leaving only Third Sister.
Moon Worshipper had learned of this. According to rumor, uniting the seven pure spiritual qis could produce a miracle, so he had paid the price to satisfy the Third Immortal Maiden's conditions and send Mo Caihuan here.
Mo Caihuan tempered her body while undergoing the cleansing, but she had yet to see any miracle.
Even without a miracle, she was satisfied, because her body would be extremely resilient by the time she left Seven Immortal Island.
She knew she could not stay forever. She had only twenty years and had to make the most of her time. If the deadline arrived before she completed the cleansing with all seven pure qis, she would still have to leave.
Had the White-Haired Fairy not explained this, she would have thought she could stay indefinitely. She inwardly grumbled that Moon Worshipper had not explained things clearly.
With a time limit hanging over her, she worked even harder at her cultivation.
And so, amid pain and pleasure, year after year passed. She, too, experienced what it felt like to be a cultivator: in the mountains, neither sun nor moon marked the days, and time flashed past like a white steed glimpsed through a crack. She did nothing but temper her body and undergo cleansing, and the years were gone.
Dull and tedious. At first, she had been happy, but after ten years, it became mechanical repetition.
Eighteen years passed in the blink of an eye, and she finally reached the last pavilion, the Purple Garment Pavilion. With two years remaining, she did not know whether she could successfully complete all seven cleansings.
In truth, each pavilion took more time than the last. With only two years left for the final pavilion, she had little confidence. Even so, she had to focus on the task, do everything in her power, and leave the rest to Heaven.
The Third Immortal Maiden looked exactly as she had twenty years ago, unchanged, still expressionless and sparing with her words.
The Purple Garment Pavilion had a purple theme. Everything was purple, even the meditation cushion.
"Let's begin."
Her first attempt at the Purple Garment Pavilion began.
Mo Caihuan prepared herself to faint, but this time, the spiritual qi entering her body was not particularly painful. Instead, it felt somewhat comfortable. She froze, puzzled. What was going on? Was it because Eldest Sister was the kindest, gentlest head of the family?
Among the Seven Immortal Maidens, Eldest Sister had been the bond holding her younger sisters together. Their personalities differed wildly, and conflicts constantly arose. Only their gentle eldest sister could soothe their disputes.
Eldest Sister's pure spiritual qi was called clear void qi, the most accommodating of them all.
Red lotus qi, divine sense qi, six yang qi, six yin qi, spirit communication qi, three lives qi, and clear void qi.
The remnants of the first six qis in Mo Caihuan's meridians were gathered together by the clear void qi, gradually forming a new human figure.
Mo Caihuan froze. Although the figure was translucent, she still recognized it. Wasn't this her past self? Why had her past self appeared?
Could gathering the seven pure qis together summon a soul rather than grant a wish?
"A spiritual root?" Mo Caihuan stared, discovering that her other self actually possessed a spiritual root.
Her past self had a spiritual root, yet her current self had none. Alas, what a lamentable state of affairs.
The seven pure qis did not awaken bloodlines. Rather, they brought out hidden potential. The human body held undiscovered potential, and some spiritual roots were buried so deeply that ordinary methods could not detect them. This method could draw them out.
It could not create spiritual roots. Having no spiritual root meant having none.
Mo Caihuan was fortunate, however. She had no spiritual root in this life, but she had possessed one in her past life. Now, the seven powers reconstructed her past-life soul, leaving her with two souls in one body.
She discovered that she could switch her consciousness between the two souls. As long as she switched to her past-life soul, she had a spiritual root. But when she switched to her current-life soul, she became a mortal again, her spiritual qi completely concealed without the slightest trace leaking out.
Changing souls was like becoming another person. That actually worked?
The Third Immortal Maiden could not help frowning. The spiritual root in Mo Caihuan's body kept appearing and disappearing. It was very strange, as though she had a hidden spiritual root, yet also as though she had none.
Was it buried so deeply that even cleansing with the seven pure spiritual qis could not draw it out? She had not noticed that Mo Caihuan had gained another soul. After all, no previous cleansing had ever reconstructed a past-life soul.
The seven spiritual qis finally merged into one. Not only did the soul possess a spiritual root, it also contained the characteristics of all seven qis. It was truly formidable.
"So terrifying!" Mo Caihuan beamed. After eighty years, she finally had a spiritual root. Sure enough, the cultivation world did not disappoint.
Cultivators had explored less than ten percent of the cultivation world.
Although cultivators had already developed three thousand Great Daos, how could there be only three thousand? Countless more had yet to be unearthed.
The unknown meant infinite possibilities.
"Switch." Mo Caihuan switched to her second soul and sensed her spiritual root. Then she opened her eyes, looked at the Third Immortal Maiden, and asked eagerly, "Senior, what attribute does my spiritual root have?"
Seeing Mo Caihuan complete the cleansing on her very first visit to the Purple Garment Pavilion, the Third Immortal Maiden thought, As expected of gentle Eldest Sister. She was so generous to everyone. Seeing that Mo Caihuan had indeed unearthed a spiritual root, she examined it, and her expression froze.
Mo Caihuan was nervous. Could it be a pseudo-spiritual root? Still, even a pseudo-spiritual root would be fine. At worst, cultivation would be a little slower. With her wealth, she could still spend money to buy resources.
In truth, cultivators did not actually know what a "spiritual root" was. They only knew how to use spiritual roots, not the principles behind them or their origins.
Spiritual roots were divided into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Some people possessed only one spiritual root, some possessed a mutated spiritual root formed from the fusion of several kinds, and some possessed several independent spiritual roots.
There were many kinds of mutated spiritual roots, so many that even cultivators could not determine their number. Her past-life spiritual root was a mutated spiritual root that even the Third Immortal Maiden had never seen before.