sinovels Chapter 170 - 146: The Naked Female Cultivator
Chapter 170 - 146: The Naked Female Cultivator
What lay beneath the Nether Spring? Who could have set up such an exquisite array at the bottom of an unremarkable pool in the middle of the Wilderness Forest?
Fang Qingyuan had no way of knowing. If the three brothers of the Wen Family hadn’t frantically hidden here, and if Jinbao’s powerful Innate Divine Techniques hadn’t allowed him to see through the mystery, he never would have had the chance to discover this hidden cache.
Under Jinbao’s guidance, Fang Qingyuan entered through the array’s weakest point. Jinbao didn’t know how to break arrays, but his Golden Eye of Truth could see through their illusions and reality. With Jinbao leading the way, Fang Qingyuan was able to proceed straight in without any danger.
After passing through the layers of concealment arrays, a bluestone door appeared before Fang Qingyuan. It was covered in a thick layer of moss, a clear sign that no one had been here for many years.
To avoid any hidden mechanisms or traps on the door, Fang Qingyuan summoned dozens of Scorpion-tailed Bees from his Immortal Mansion and had them clean off the moss.
The dozens of Scorpion-tailed Bees bustled about, eventually clearing all the moss from the bluestone door. This revealed two door knockers in the center, but nothing else.
Staring at the knockers, Fang Qingyuan thought for a moment and decided against pulling them himself. Instead, he released the Mutated Iron-Seeking Rat King from his Immortal Mansion and ordered it to pull the knockers.
After being repeatedly infused with Gold Spirit Power by Fang Qingyuan, the Mutated Rat King’s intelligence had grown considerably. It quickly understood Fang Qingyuan’s command. For some time now, it had been waited on by numerous female rats, living a life of luxury without a care in the world. It was completely obedient to Fang Qingyuan, the master of its fate. So, it reached out with its claws, gave a hard pull, and the door opened effortlessly, revealing a deep corridor.
Seeing the door open so easily, Fang Qingyuan breathed a sigh of relief. ’It seems the person who set up this hidden cache was very confident in their arrays and didn’t bother with tricks elsewhere.’
Still, it was better to be cautious. Fang Qingyuan had the Mutated Rat King continue scouting ahead while he and the shrunken Jinbao slowly entered the corridor.
Though the corridor was underwater, the spring water was magically kept out, leaving it merely damp. The stairs were quite steep, extending straight down. Everything was constructed from bluestone, with nothing out of the ordinary. The Mutated Rat King scampered ahead cheerfully, showing no sense of the danger inherent in exploration.
Fang Qingyuan, however, was much more careful. The corridor was pitch-black with no light. Although he could see in the dark, he still took out a Luminous Pearl for illumination.
In addition, Fang Qingyuan released his Divine Sense to probe the area. The Wood Spirit Dragon Form remained hidden in the void; with the Dragon Spirit’s sensitivity to the flesh and blood of living beings, no creature’s aura could possibly escape its notice. Even so, Fang Qingyuan still held a Talisman in his hand and kept his Magical Artifacts at the ready.
He proceeded cautiously in this manner for just over a hundred feet before reaching the bottom. Fang Qingyuan looked around and found himself in a reasonably sized stone chamber.
In the center of the chamber, a Crystal Coffin lay quietly. Other than that, the room was completely bare. It didn’t look like a hidden cache at all.
’That’s it?’
Surprise flickered in Fang Qingyuan’s mind. After such an elaborate setup, he had expected to find a wealth of Spiritual Materials and Magical Artifacts. The current scene left him feeling a little disappointed.
But since he had come this far, he couldn’t just leave empty-handed. Fang Qingyuan directed the Iron-Seeking Rat to scout ahead toward the Crystal Coffin, while he and Jinbao remained where they were to observe.
"SQUEAK!"
The Mutated Iron-Seeking Rat King had only made it halfway when something strange happened. Several gusts of sinister wind suddenly materialized from the ground near the Crystal Coffin, relentlessly pursuing and coiling around the Rat King. In just a few breaths, an illusory Iron-Seeking Rat’s soul was yanked out of its body and devoured by the wind. In the blink of an eye, the Rat King was dead.
Witnessing this, Fang Qingyuan felt no pity for the dead Rat King. If he wanted another one, he could cultivate a few more in a year or so.
He turned his gaze to the sinister winds. After absorbing the Rat King’s soul, they seemed to have been nourished, growing slightly stronger. They let out a whimpering sound like a wailing ghost, which was particularly unsettling to hear.
Seemingly having noticed the two far more "delicious" living beings, Fang Qingyuan and Jinbao, the gusts of wind circled in the air a few times before rolling toward them. They were a type of creature rarely encountered—Ghost Souls.
Before the sinister wind even reached them, an intensely uncomfortable feeling washed over him. But facing this Ghost Soul, Fang Qingyuan showed no sign of panic. On the contrary, in his eyes, the ghost looked more like a delicious meal.
"Halt!"
With a single command, Fang Qingyuan executed a sealing technique from the *Yindu Black Edict Soul-Binding Spell*. The Ghost Soul’s advance was immediately halted.
"Soul Bind!"
As Fang Qingyuan spoke, a series of clanking sounds echoed through the area. A jet-black Dark Lock Chain materialized out of thin air. At the same time, countless intricate magic patterns, like a wildfire, instantly spread across its entire length.
Then, with a WHOOSH, the spiritual light of the magic patterns transformed into sinister black flames that burned along the chain! Every crackling spark was a Talisman designed to attack Yin Souls and malevolent energy!
Once the chain formed, its end simply coiled around the Ghost Soul, locking it tight. The other end of the Dark Lock Chain was held in Fang Qingyuan’s hand. With just a slight tug, he pulled the Ghost Soul over to him.
Gazing at the Ghost Soul struggling fruitlessly within the Dark Lock Chain, Fang Qingyuan had a thought, and the sinister black flames swept over it, searing it through and through in an instant.
Then, Fang Qingyuan’s nostrils flared. With a slight inhale, the Ghost Soul, still smoldering with black flames, was sucked into his body. He circulated his Yindu Soul Path Technique for a moment before letting out a satisfied burp and dismissing the Dark Lock Chain.
After dealing with the Ghost Soul, no other incidents occurred near the Crystal Coffin. Fang Qingyuan picked up the dead Iron-Seeking Rat’s corpse and tossed it into his storage bag. ’Even though the Rat King is dead, its teeth and fur are still worth a good number of Spirit Stones. I can’t let it go to waste.’
Having taken care of that, Fang Qingyuan finally walked up to the Crystal Coffin and peered inside. The entire coffin was made primarily of Tier One Crystal Stone. It was impossible to tell how many years it had sat in this secret chamber beneath the spring, yet it remained spotless, transparent, and clean. An unknown silvery-white metal thread was intricately inlaid across its surface, forming exceedingly complex and beautiful magic patterns. They shimmered faintly amidst the crystal’s glow, exuding a sense of extravagant luxury from beneath a low-key exterior.
Seeing this, Fang Qingyuan figured that the person who arranged all this must have poured a great deal of effort into it, or perhaps they had high hopes for the Crystal Coffin itself. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to adorn its surface.
Peering through the obscuring magic patterns, Fang Qingyuan could faintly make out a human form inside. At this sight, his desire to push open the coffin lid faded considerably.
He recalled countless scenes from his past life where explorers died right after opening a coffin. It was a lesson Fang Qingyuan had to heed.
However, besides the Crystal Coffin, the place was empty. The thought of retreating empty-handed left him feeling unwilling.
So, Fang Qingyuan released his Divine Sense, intending to put the entire Crystal Coffin into his storage bag. However, after trying, he found he couldn’t store it.
It wasn’t because the storage bag lacked space, but because storage bags couldn’t hold living things. This development startled Fang Qingyuan. ’Could it be that a living person is lying in this Crystal Coffin, existing silently in this Hidden Spring Secret Collection built countless years ago?’
’But if it’s a living person, what’s there to be afraid of? Even if it were a Golden Core Cultivator, how much power could they have left after being sealed away for so many years?’
Thus, Fang Qingyuan prepared various countermeasures and had Jinbao press against one side of the Crystal Coffin. With a sudden exertion of force, they pushed the lid open.
The next moment, a bone-chilling cold erupted. Inside the coffin, an extremely cold liquid filled it to the brim, as if the coffin were a vat.
Beneath the clear surface of the liquid, a human body lay peacefully. It was completely naked, without a single hair. The skin was as white as wax. The body’s characteristics indicated it was a young woman with a cold and beautiful face. Only the faint, slow rise and fall of her chest proved that she was, indeed, alive.
It really was a living person in the Crystal Coffin. But judging by her completely senseless state, it was uncertain if she would ever wake up in this lifetime.
’Perhaps this was the ultimate goal of the person who arranged all this.’
Based on his knowledge, after seeing the scene in the coffin, Fang Qingyuan guessed at a possibility—an evil act similar in nature to infant theft: possession.
So-called possession is when a Cultivator forcibly transfers their soul into another Cultivator’s body, seizing it to replace their own physical form and extend their life.
In that case, the Crystal Coffin before him must be the legendary ’Soul-Scattering Coffin’. This was because possession, a Forbidden Technique, had an extremely low success rate. Even when the two bodies were perfectly compatible, success was rare.
By using a Soul-Scattering Coffin, one could scatter the soul of the person inside, slowly drawing it from the body without harming their life force. This would reduce the target’s ability to resist during the possession, thereby increasing the chances of success.
At this point, Fang Qingyuan finally understood why this operation had to be hidden in the Wilderness Forest. The act was a major taboo for the Great Zhou Academy, and if caught, the consequences would be as severe as those for infant theft.
The Cultivator who arranged all this back then was likely also a Female Cultivator, probably at the Golden Core Stage, with a Water Spirit Root.
Fang Qingyuan was able to figure this out because he had tested the aptitude of the Female Cultivator in the coffin. She possessed an Earth-grade Water Spirit Root; among the five elements, her water aptitude was forty-seven, just shy of a Celestial Spirit Root.
A Female Cultivator with such aptitude was only at the First-Layer Qi Cultivation. She must have been targeted shortly after embarking on the path of cultivation, ultimately ending up in this state.
The Cultivator who plotted against her was most likely an acquaintance. ’Perhaps her own master?’
Fang Qingyuan entertained these dark thoughts, pondering events that might have happened decades, or even centuries, ago. But none of it had anything to do with him. Seeing nothing else of value, he closed the coffin lid, expanded his Divine Sense, and moved the entire thing into his Immortal Mansion, finding a suitable place to store it.
Then, after clearing away any remaining traces, Fang Qingyuan quickly made his way up toward the pool. The army he had brought was still waiting for him. ’After I eliminate those two short-sighted Foundation Establishment Clans and establish the might of Yuanling Mountain, I need to take care of my own Foundation Establishment as soon as possible.’