Chapter 116: Average, Average, Third In The World
After bidding farewell to the three people, Ming Zhaoshuang returned to her original room.
She lifted her sleeve, and Xiao Bai immediately climbed from her arm to her palm, its scales snow white.
The dragon thought she was going to ask him for a divine tool and was about to speak when he saw that Ming Zhaoshuang had another Nine-Orifice Lotus Platform Petal in her other hand.
Her eyes were bright and full, like the frost and snow of March, “Xiao Bai, eat quickly, eat quickly.”
She had not forgotten that the System had said Xiao Bai would experience pain like being pierced by ten thousand arrows when his wounds healed. Therefore, when choosing between the lotus seed heart and the lotus platform petal, she chose the lotus platform petal, thinking it would heal Xiao Bai.
The dragon raised his eyes, his golden eyes reflecting Ming Zhaoshuang’s face.
Her appearance was clearly extremely cold, but with her smile, it was as if ice melted and spring wind greened the land.
Especially the beauty mark on her left eye, it carried a delicate charm and liveliness.
The dragon lowered his head and bit the lotus platform petal.
He originally thought that for Ming Zhaoshuang, he was just a being forced into a life-and-death contract.
He could even be considered a burden.
His cultivation was lost, he had no value, and although he was called a dragon and destined for Immortal Crossing, he was actually just a bomb that could put Ming Zhaoshuang in danger at any time.
If anyone discovered him, they would undoubtedly skin and bone him to make a divine tool.
Ming Zhaoshuang was currently only at the Minor Golden Core stage. Let alone protecting him, she didn’t even have the ability to protect herself.
Yet she clearly yearned for a breakthrough, and she was so heavily injured, but she was still willing to leave the Nine-Orifice Lotus Platform Petal for him, not for him to recover his cultivation, but only so he could be spared the lingering pain of the Annihilation Lightning Tribulation.
The dragon didn’t know what to say, only feeling that he had never hated the lightning tribulation so much, or hated his own body that possessed no spiritual power at all.
He silently ate the Nine-Orifice Lotus Platform Petal bit by bit until it was all gone.
Ming Zhaoshuang raised her hand and looked at him, smiling as she asked, “Do all spiritual beasts eat so gracefully?”
There was no trace of reluctance in her eyes; she seemed even happy.
The dragon chuckled and asked, “Then how should I eat?”
Ming Zhaoshuang said, “Eat faster. You’re eating in tiny bites, I suspect you’ve never eaten anything before.”
The dragon thought about it; for tens of thousands of years, he hadn’t really eaten anything besides pills.
He said, “When I hatched, I was already at the Golden Core stage. I didn’t need to eat.”
Ming Zhaoshuang thought to herself that dragons were truly so powerful, directly skipping Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment, hatching as Golden Core. No wonder they were the most powerful race in the cultivation world.
She recalled the scene she saw in Shen Liqian’s illusion and asked:
“What is your Dragon Domain like? Why do you support the Three Great Regions, and why do you have the Saintesses of the regions enter into marriage alliances?”
The dragon swallowed the last piece of the lotus petal and said, “I don’t know the specifics. I only know that this practice has been going on for a very long time. Perhaps it’s because the Dragon Domain has no females, which is why it’s like this.”
“I only know that human women who come to the Dragon Domain, if they have even a bit of beauty, become tools for giving birth. Ordinary-looking women or men who come to the Dragon Domain are either refined into pills or simply eaten alive.”
The world says not to come to the Dragon Domain unless you’ve reached the Mahayana Stage, but in reality, even at the Tribulation Stage, one must be extremely cautious. With the slightest carelessness, you could be torn to shreds.
This was also why the dragon had no desire to leave Beyond the Heavens all these years.
He thought the entire cultivation world was no different from the Dragon Domain, full of bloodshed and slaughter.
He continued, “If possible, I never want to return to the Dragon Domain in this life.”
But this was impossible, because if he wanted to recover his cultivation, he had to go Beyond the Heavens, and Beyond the Heavens was in the Dragon Domain.
Ming Zhaoshuang sighed upon hearing this, thinking that this body would later become the Saintess of Rim of Dusk, but why was Shen Liqian sent to the Dragon Domain, while she was imprisoned in the Ice Palace of Rim of Dusk, with no freedom?
Seeing that Xiao Bai had finished eating, she stroked its head and said:
“Stay by yourself for a while, I’m going to draw.”
The dragon, having finished the lotus platform petal, felt his head grow heavy. Seeing that Ming Zhaoshuang had her own things to do, he nodded, coiled around Ming Zhaoshuang’s arm, and fell asleep.
Ming Zhaoshuang raised her hand, and the painting scroll they had painted together at the Ao Tian Sect appeared on the desk.
When she painted this scroll, she felt that although it was beautiful, it lacked soul.
At the time, she couldn’t figure out what was missing no matter how hard she thought, so she set it aside. Now that Shen Liqian was gone, she finally understood what was missing.
It was her and Shen Liqian.
With brushstrokes painting, dots staining the scroll, on the nearest mountain peak, two figures suddenly appeared.
One green and one white, with black hair.
One held a brush and looked sideways, the other lowered her eyes and smiled, their presence spreading onto the painting scroll, as if it had come to life.
After the final stroke was finished, before the ink had even dried, Ming Zhaoshuang looked up, and it seemed as if she was once again on the peak of Ding Tian Peak, looking down at the undulating green waves below, and up at the clear blue sky with clouds like fans.
And, glancing sideways, she saw a young girl smiling charmingly like a delicate flower.
She and Shen Liqian, within this painting, met again.
Gazing at each other for a long time.
Heaven and earth seemed to glance at her from afar; mountains, rivers, sun, and moon seemed to have become creations under her brush. In her painting scroll, they were hers to wield her brush and ink, hers to create as she pleased.
With a raise of her hand, she could pluck the sun and embrace the moon; with a bow of her head, she could move mountains and fill seas.
Ming Zhaoshuang felt all of this, gazing intently for a long time.
The ink dried, and Ming Zhaoshuang raised her eyelashes. All that remained before her was the painting scroll.
Within the scroll, two young girls smiled at each other.
And within Ming Zhaoshuang’s body, her spiritual power surged, almost instantly reaching the Golden Core Mid-stage.
The System naturally noticed the changes within Ming Zhaoshuang, and it said:
“No, Host, you just drew two little people and broke through? You just casually reached the Golden Core Mid-stage like that?”
Ming Zhaoshuang frowned, condensed a burst of ice and snow energy in her palm, and after confirming, said:
“It seems so.”
Not only had her spiritual power advanced a step, but the intensity of her Ice Element spiritual flow had also increased significantly. She had indeed broken through to the Golden Core Mid-stage.
She had felt the barrier back in the Talisman Saint’s Secret Realm. Now, it seemed that the scene she had just experienced was the last straw for her breakthrough.
She said, “I do seem to have felt the resonance with the mountains, rivers, heaven, and earth that you mentioned.”
Or rather, she had felt it when she drew her first talisman, but it wasn’t as strong or obvious as it was now.
The feeling was very strange, she couldn’t describe it, but she was certain it was the connection between the mountains, rivers, heaven, earth, sun, moon, yin, and yang, and herself, very much like the resonance of mountains, rivers, heaven, and earth that the System had once spoken to her about.
In other words, she was the Acquired Spirit Body of the Talisman Arts Path.
“My gosh, my grandma, my coat, my pants, my brain turned into a date; my dad, my grandpa, my socks, my shoes, my uncle and second uncle.”
The System spoke a string of words in rapid succession, and then calmed down before screaming:
“Holy crap! What the hell is this! The Acquired Spirit Body is so simple in your hands, and you didn’t even need guidance! You are simply the most talented Host I’ve ever had. You are electricity, you are light, you are an unbreakable legend. You’re so strong I don’t even know how to praise you!”
Ming Zhaoshuang: “……”
System, I think you need to calm down.
She coughed lightly and said, “Just average, third in the cultivation world.”
She was indeed third. The first Acquired Spirit Body was Feng He, the second was Feng Budu, and she was the third Acquired Spirit Body.
