Chapter 87: Digging Through the Mountain

Although Jiang Ziyi did not believe that Jiang Min was still alive, she could only feel completely at ease after verifying the life tablet.

A life tablet, or a life lamp, is bound to the living soul and can determine whether a cultivator lives or dies.

If the person lives, the tablet remains; the lamp burns.

If the person dies, the tablet shatters; the lamp goes out.

Anything can be forged, but a life tablet or life lamp cannot be falsified at all.

Every disciple of East Spirit Sect had a life tablet kept on record in the Registry Hall, so once the tablet was checked, life or death was known at a glance.

"Yes, Martial Aunt," Jiang Yunzhen said, clasping her hands.

At once, she took a ferry flying boat to the Registry Hall to inquire. An hour later, she returned with a list of the deceased from the third batch of trial disciples. Every dead disciple on that list had already been confirmed by the shattering of their life tablet before their names were recorded.

"Martial Aunt, this is the list you wanted."

Jiang Yunzhen respectfully presented the two lists with both hands.

Jiang Ziyi took them and gave them a cursory glance. Yet the name she had expected to see was nowhere on either list.

"How can Jiang Min's name not be here?"

Jiang Ziyi frowned and looked over the two lists again and again, but still could not find Jiang Min's name. She glanced at Jiang Yunzhen, but asked nothing further, only said in a low voice, "You may leave."

"Yes."

Jiang Yunzhen felt that Jiang Ziyi's mood had grown colder. Not daring to remain any longer before her, she hurried out of the cave dwelling.

After Jiang Yunzhen left, Jiang Ziyi waved her hand and summoned the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird.

"Jixiang, is Jiang Min's soul aura still there?"

At her words, the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird flapped its wings and cried toward the south, "Chirp. Chirp."

"What!"

Jiang Ziyi was startled and shot up from her chair.

"She isn't dead yet?"

"Chirp. Chirp."

Jiang Ziyi could hardly believe it. How could anyone jump into the Burial Soul Gorge and still live? Wasn't that a place of certain death?

Besides, back on the cliff, Jiang Ziyi had repeatedly confirmed with the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird that Jiang Min's soul aura had clearly vanished.

Jiang Ziyi frowned for a long while.

"It should not be a problem with the bird, but with that bizarre Burial Soul Gorge. Perhaps something there blocks the secrets of heaven, causing the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird to fail in its judgment."

"That wretched girl is truly hard to kill."

At this moment, Jiang Ziyi felt shock at both Jiang Min's survival and her speed of cultivation.

Three years. From the fourth level of Qi Refinement to the twelfth. If one had an exceptional spiritual root, that would be ordinary enough. But Jiang Min clearly possessed the most difficult root to cultivate of all, the five-element root!

Moreover, Burial Soul Gorge was infamous for its peril; no one who entered had ever come out alive. Yet Jiang Min fell in, did not die, and after her soul aura vanished, it appeared again. She might even have walked out from within.

"I did not think deeply enough before."

"Now that I consider it, she has neither power nor influence, yet with the talent of a five-element root she has cultivated at such a terrifying speed. She also managed to survive in a place like Burial Soul Gorge. She must have encountered some heaven-defying fortune."

"Before she establishes her foundation, I must eliminate this scourge as quickly as possible. Perhaps I can even obtain the fortune upon her body..."

So Jiang Ziyi thought.

At once, she took the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird with her and walked out of the cave dwelling.

She had to hurry back to the Southern Wasteland Range, find Jiang Min as soon as possible, and eradicate her completely.

This matter could not be delayed.

...

Several days later.

Deep within the Southern Wasteland Range, in a certain mysterious cave dwelling.

Jiang Min sat cross-legged in a stone chamber. In her palm, a second-grade demon core slowly crumbled to powder. The vast demon power within it had already been devoured by the peach branch, transformed into a boundless and pure spiritual energy that fed back into Jiang Min, to be refined by her.

When one second-grade demon core was used up, she took out another.

Again and again.

Within her dantian, five elemental spiritual power as vast as the sea gently surged, still increasing without pause amid day-and-night cultivation.

Jiang Min was wholly immersed in cultivation.

She did not know that outside the cave dwelling, a figure was already circling.

In the mountain forest, Jiang Ziyi stood upon the Sky Net Silk Ribbon. She had already circled the majestic mountain before her several times. Under the tracking of the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird, she had confirmed that Jiang Min was hiding deep within this mountain.

She was not skilled in formations and could not determine where the cave entrance lay. But she was well informed and guessed that within this mountain there might be a cave dwelling or tomb left by some senior figure, which Jiang Min had stumbled upon and was now using as hiding place.

"That wretched girl truly knows how to hide. How am I supposed to find her..."

Jiang Ziyi's expression darkened slightly.

Though she knew full well that Jiang Min was somewhere inside this mountain, she had no idea where to begin, and felt a vexing helplessness, like having strength with nowhere to use it.

To kill her was impossible; to let her go was no option either.

After some thought, a fierce glint surfaced in Jiang Ziyi's eyes, and she said in a low voice, "Since she is hiding in the mountain, then I shall carve my way through it until I force her out."

Jiang Min must die.

Jiang Ziyi then led the Soul-Tracking Profound Bird around the mountain once more, before confirming a certain position. With a sweep of her fingers, she summoned several sharp flying swords and began digging into the cliff face.

Clang, clang!

Countless clods of earth and shattered stone, mixed with weeds and roots, rustled down.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator already possessed the ability to open up a cave dwelling independently, so carving out a mountain passage was only a matter of time.

Soon, the passage had already reached a depth of more than three feet.

Jiang Ziyi's expression remained unchanged as she continued to control several flying swords in unison to dig onward. Suddenly, a vague sense of foreboding gripped her, and her scalp instantly turned numb. In the next moment, hundreds and thousands of sharp blades of spiritual energy burst forth from deep within the passage, carrying a shocking momentum as they surged toward her like a tidal wave.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Jiang Ziyi's face changed drastically.

Inside the mountain, there was actually a powerful spirit array hidden.

Her thoughts moved, and she controlled the Sky Net Silk Ribbon to retreat at high speed while also directing several lengths of silk to seal the space before her without the slightest gap.

Puff, puff, puff!

The sharp blades of spiritual energy struck the Sky Net Silk Ribbon one after another. The faint precious light on the ribbon dimmed abruptly beneath the flood of spiritual blades, and then it was cleaved with chaotic rents.

Seeing this, Jiang Ziyi's heart ached terribly.

This was a mid-grade magical treasure bestowed by her master, capable of blocking attacks from a perfected Foundation Establishment cultivator. She had never expected it would be damaged by an array of unknown origin. Even though she knew artifact refining and the methods of repair, fixing it would cost quite a price.

"Damn it, how could a spirit array be hidden here? Could there really be some powerful cave dwelling within this mountain?"

Jiang Ziyi fled several dozen yards before finally escaping the range of the spiritual blades' attack. Alarmed and uncertain, she looked toward the mountain passage, which had been dug less than three feet deep, and pressed her lips tightly together.

"Let's try another direction."

Jiang Ziyi changed position and dug again into the mountain wall.

This time the excavation went smoothly. She dug several yards deep without encountering any formation. Perhaps she had simply been unlucky before, and that was why...

Ting!

The flying sword suddenly struck something inexplicably hard, producing a clear metallic ring.

Jiang Ziyi frowned and cleared away all the surrounding earth, revealing the hard object hidden within. It was a huge square black boulder. It looked utterly ordinary, yet with her Foundation Establishment spiritual power bolstering the strike, and with an exceptionally sharp treasured sword, she still could not budge it at all.

"This is..."

Jiang Ziyi placed her hand lightly over the stone's surface.

After carefully sensing it for a moment, her face too turned as dark and as ghastly as the stone itself.

"Blackheavy Celestial Meteorite?!"

I was stumped all day, and I truly could not come up with the second chapter... That little Jiang's Foundation Establishment method really defeated me.