Chapter 207: CH. 207 | New Problem: The Invasive Cultivators
They kept talking for several more minutes. An Yue didn’t ask much, since Lin Tian’s explanation was already detailed, clean, and well organized.
She listened as he told her about his first fight against a member of the Yuanmo Sect, a battle whose aftermath had wiped out an entire island.
He told her everything, but there was one thing he didn’t dare bring up with An Yue: Golden Jade Palace Island and the inheritance of the Sovereign of the Heavenly Realm.
Lin Tian had a specific reason for holding that part back, and it clearly had nothing to do with not trusting her.
The story wrapped up right after Lin Tian finished telling her about Zhu Xian, Zhu Zirong, Si Lingxi, and the village near the northern wasteland full of feral, cannibalistic people.
An Yue took it all in. She still couldn’t say for certain whether the soul projection that had spoken to her earlier was really Senior Ling Weixi or not.
But once she matched it against Lin Tian’s description, she felt that his account of Ling Weixi lined up closely with what she remembered from the projection.
"Now that the Saintess Spring Valley is fully sealed off, there’s only one way for you to go there and confirm the truth about that soul projection yourself," Lin Tian said.
He drew a spiritual energy orb out from his forehead, and it took the shape of an ice blue rose. He let the ice rose hover above his palm, and it let out a deep, powerful pulse of spiritual energy.
An Yue’s attention was completely pulled to it. Her eyes stayed fixed on the ice rose.
She grew more and more convinced that the flower had to be connected to the soul projection she’d seen, since the two felt identical in power.
"It’s beautiful."
"Where did you get this ice rose, Lin Tian?" An Yue asked.
"Someone gave it to me. They entrusted it to me because they believed I could help find a successor for their Dao and their resolve someday."
Lin Tian drew the ice rose back into his forehead, then replaced it, summoning an orb holding his clone’s Nascent Soul spirit instead.
An Yue looked forward again, watching the spiritual energy orb.
"This will help you break through later on," Lin Tian said.
"Is this... a Nascent Soul spirit? Did you take it from someone else?"
He shook his head and explained that he no longer needed the clone. The clone had known that, and had asked Lin Tian for one request before it went.
He walked her through every detail, making sure she heard the whole thing and understood exactly what his clone had sacrificed.
The woman was visibly shaken. She held the Nascent Soul orb in her hands, staring at the small figure of Lin Tian’s clone inside it, sitting cross legged as if still deep in cultivation.
"Thank you," An Yue said softly.
She glanced briefly at Lin Tian, her heart pounding, not sure how to respond. The whole time he’d been away, he’d been thinking of her, carefully and deliberately.
Now he was back, and he had so many plans laid out for her. An Yue felt genuinely moved by what he’d done.
"I suppose I should ask Mei’er for help refining a pill using this Nascent Soul spirit as the base," An Yue said.
"That’s right."
Outside Mount Taixuan, the red wall encircling the Qin Kingdom had begun to fade.
The borders were becoming passable again. The Qin Kingdom was no longer sealed off by the Yuanmo Sect’s array dome.
Cultivators and sects from other kingdoms started pouring into the Qin Kingdom in droves.
Lin Tian watched it happen, and so did An Yue and the other disciples of the Lingxian Sect.
"The Qin Kingdom is in complete disarray right now. Plenty of sects have been destroyed and left in ruins, but their legacies are still out there."
"Are they coming to help us recover?" An Yue asked.
Lin Tian shook his head. In his view, it was unlikely that cultivators from other kingdoms were showing up out of pure goodwill.
No, they weren’t that kind hearted.
They were obviously coming to loot whatever was left over from the war, whether that was pills, technique scrolls, pill recipes, weapons, artifacts, or even natural spiritual veins.
The cultivators arrived in huge numbers, practically filling the sky with their flying sword qi.
Lin Tian stood up, raised his hand, and dispersed the array dome above their heads, revealing their location.
Wu Yue and the others arrived at the front courtyard of the sect and watched the scene unfold, but took no action.
Plenty of cultivators flew right over the Lingxian Sect, yet not a single one dared disturb the sect’s territory.
Still, among all those cultivators, there were always a few foolish enough to push their luck anyway.
Three cultivators with cultivation bases equivalent to Core Formation showed up, hovering in the sky in front of the Lingxian Sect.
"The Yunxiu Sect has come to help with your sect’s recovery. Are you interested?" the three of them asked.
Right as Wu Yue was about to turn them down, a booming voice thundered out from the Lingxian Sect, ordering the three cultivators to leave. The voice echoed loudly, filling every corner of the sect’s territory.
The three cultivators were struck by the sound. The result was immediate: they coughed up blood and suffered a violent surge of qi turmoil.
"A cultivator above Nascent Soul?" one of them asked.
They raised their hands, bowed their heads, paid their respects to the Lingxian Sect, and left the area.
"I’m worried the Qin Kingdom won’t be able to recover quickly."
Lin Tian went quiet for a moment, his gaze fixed on the sky, occasionally locking eyes with the cultivators passing overhead.
"The Qin Kingdom’s affairs are the Qin Sect Alliance’s business. They’re the ones fully responsible for the current situation."
"Before the Yuanmo Sect’s invasion, they tried to destroy the Lingxian Sect. Now, let’s see if they can handle an invasive threat from sects outside the kingdom."
Just as Lin Tian finished saying that, a cultivator from the Yuntian Sect arrived and knelt respectfully before Wu Yue and Cao Ying.
"Greetings, Master Wu, Master Ying."
"Sect Master Yun Zhan of the Yuntian Sect requests the Lingxian Sect’s help in dealing with the invasive cultivators currently attacking the Qin Kingdom."
Lin Tian watched this unfold. He took An Yue’s hand and led her away from the peak of Mount Taixuan, arriving at the sect’s front courtyard.
The moment Lin Tian and An Yue arrived, Wu Yue and Cao Ying immediately lowered their heads in respect.
"The matter of invasive cultivators from other kingdoms is entirely the Qin Sect Alliance’s responsibility."
"It has nothing to do with us."