White Tiger Divine Medicine

With the Grass Character Sword Art in hand, Jiang Zhu felt like a child who had found a perfectly straight, flawless stick-he would leave every rapeseed flower for miles around headless. He was itching to try it out.

But after looking around, he forced down his urge to test the Grass Character Sword Art's power. This was the immortal valley, after all. Damaging a few flowers and plants would be one thing, but accidentally striking the Immortal Pool would be another matter entirely.

It was just a shame he had failed to unlock the white tiger true spirit totem. The White Tiger Divine Medicine no longer carried the White Tiger Immortal King's bloodline. After countless cycles of nirvana and rebirth, it had truly become a plant.

What a pity. Otherwise, cultivating true spirit transformation would have been much easier for him later on.

Jiang Zhu looked around and returned to human form. Though the nine-leaf sword grass body suited this place, it could not move freely on its own.

A rich fragrance wafted over, and a little white tiger appeared beside him, blinking curiously.

Jiang Zhu caught it by the scruff of its neck, gathered it into his arms, and gave it a vigorous rub.

The little white tiger felt wonderful to pet, and it even came with its own fragrance. Stroking it was so satisfying!

"Do you want to come out with me?" Jiang Zhu asked as he petted it.

To his surprise, the little white tiger gave him a look of disdain, as though saying, "With your strength, you expect me to follow you?"

It had not even followed the empress back then. Perhaps the empress had simply had no need for it, but among the cultivators it had met, there had been one bearing the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda and another carrying a lamp. All of them had been far stronger than Jiang Zhu.

In its eyes, Jiang Zhu was not strong enough. Though they were both plant spirits, it would not follow him merely for a chance to leave.

Jiang Zhu did not mind. He had only asked casually. If he never asked, it certainly would not follow him. But now that he had, there was a chance it might leave with him. What if it was blind enough to do so?

Jiang Zhu kept scratching its chin. Suddenly, an idea struck him: what would happen if the White Tiger Divine Medicine came into contact with white tiger origin blood?

He acted on the thought at once, drawing a drop of white tiger origin blood from the Demon-Refining Pot with a flick of his will.

"I'm not leaving with you, so give up! You might be a good... Hm? What's that?" The little white tiger sprang out of his arms and stared in shock at the drop of blood in Jiang Zhu's hand.

The blood gave it a strange feeling-a sense that they shared the same origin. But it was an Immortal Medicine. How could it possibly share an origin with a drop of blood?

Jiang Zhu placed the drop of white tiger origin blood in the little white tiger's mouth, and it absorbed the blood curiously.

One minute, two minutes. Time ticked by, second after second. Half an hour later, the little white tiger still showed no change. Man and medicine simply stared at each other.

So it really has no effect? Jiang Zhu wondered.

That was perfectly normal. If it had any effect, the ancient emperors and Great Emperors would have discovered it long ago.

Still, perhaps the quality and quantity of this drop of origin blood were insufficient. Though it shared an origin with the White Tiger Immortal King, it could only help Jiang Zhu undergo a transformation. Its essence was worlds apart from that of an Immortal Medicine, and one little drop was far too little.

However.

"I'll leave with you, but I want that kind of blood every day!" The little white tiger conveyed its thoughts. Though nothing had changed, it felt very comfortable.

It was enough to lure the White Tiger Divine Medicine, at least. Jiang Zhu's grin nearly split his face.

This truly was an unexpected windfall. He nodded and took out another small glob of origin blood for the little white tiger. He did not have much white tiger origin blood himself, so he had to use it sparingly.

The little white tiger swallowed the origin blood contentedly, then vanished from Jiang Zhu's arms. When it reappeared, it held several fruits in its mouth.

Those were the fruits it had borne itself. Leaving them here would be a waste; it might as well pack them up and take them along.

Jiang Zhu took the White Tiger Immortal Medicine's fruits and looked around again. Since the little white tiger was coming with him, he needed to give it a good place to live.

He could not create a place like the Immortal Ascension Ground, which seized the fortune of heaven and earth, but he could help himself to what was already here.

There was a peculiar space inside the Demon-Refining Pot that he had never used before. Now was its time to shine.

Jiang Zhu activated the Demon-Refining Pot and collected the topmost layer of soil in which the various medicine kings and Treasure Medicines had taken root. Then he drew in some of the fine, unbroken streams of immortal qi drifting through the valley.

Before long, the world inside the pot had changed completely, becoming a precious plot of land suitable for medicine kings to take root in. Vital essence gushed forth, and immortal qi wreathed the air. All it lacked was water. Later, he would dig up a spring source on the outskirts of the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains. Though it would not compare to the Divine Spring, it would suffice for the time being.

Jiang Zhu brought the little white tiger into this space, and it was very pleased. Though the place fell far short of the Immortal Ascension Ground, it could still count as the bargain-basement version of a bargain-basement version.

It had thought that getting a little origin blood every day would already be good enough. It had never expected to have a decent place to live as well.

After putting everything in order, Jiang Zhu looked at the scenery around him. Though he was reluctant to leave, it was time. He had achieved his goal in entering Kunlun this time, and had even far exceeded it.

He wanted to remain here and cultivate forever, but there was no helping it. He had to leave.

In another world, Jiang Zhu could have hunkered down in a place like this until he became invincible. But this was Shrouding the Heavens! If he kept hiding away, he might eventually fail to survive even his lightning tribulations.

Having cultivated two true spirit transformations to perfection, his current constitution was probably only half a step below a chaos body. It was somewhat stronger than the likes of a sacred body Dao embryo, an immortal medicine transformation, or an Immortal Metal Saint Spirit.

The power of his future lightning tribulations would be beyond imagining.

It's time to leave!

The little white tiger was generally unwilling to stay in the space inside the Demon-Refining Pot. Though the environment was quite good, being all alone there was too lonely.

Jiang Zhu could only put it on his shoulder and head out of the immortal valley.

Not long after leaving the immortal valley, Jiang Zhu saw a grave. It was exceedingly strange, sitting right beside the road and cutting across the formations within the valley.

The Ruthless Great Emperor's methods truly defied heaven. She had forcibly created a grave amid the Slaughter Formation and Source Emperor Formation left behind by Emperor Zun.

Inside the grave were the bloodstained clothes her elder brother had left behind and the Ghost Face Mask, its expression neither quite crying nor quite smiling.

"I just can't stop worrying about my little sister..."

From the shattered Ghost Face Mask, a faint voice actually emerged, laden with endless regret and pleading. It crossed eons of time to echo through the world once more.

Using a heaven-defying Forbidden Divine Art, the Ruthless Great Emperor had reconstructed some of the scenes she wished to know, allowing the final words he had spoken before his death to endure.

"Not to become an immortal, but only to wait in this mortal world for your return."

A woman's voice seemed to descend from beyond the nine heavens, making even the gods tremble. Above heaven and below earth, she alone reigned supreme, having chosen a path the world could not understand.

The empress's words endured through the ages. No stele stood before the grave, nor could any interwoven dao marks be seen, yet it cut across the formations, everlasting and imperishable.

The Ruthless Great Emperor was hailed as the greatest talent of all time. With a mortal body, she had risen against all the heavens; with her obsession, she had pierced through life and death. That obsession even possessed the power to transcend time and space. Yet even standing above the nine heavens and making the gods tremble, she could not change the outcome.

A little girl with ordinary cultivation aptitude had relied on her own obsession to carve a bloody path through the prodigies of her age, astounding all eternity with her peerless splendor.