Lady Cultivator

Chapter 155: Spiritual Aura Fluctuation

Translator: Cenniwdyl Editor: Henyee

The White Silk Handkerchief rose, turning into a beam of light which flashed gloriously across the sky. This method of flight made the low-level cultivators in Ye Clan feel endless admiration. Every other cultivator in Tong’an District also had a change of expression when they felt the spiritual aura pressure belonging to a Foundation Building cultivator. It was only after the spiritual aura pressure had long gone that they dared to raise their heads and look around.

Once she was quite a distance away from Tong’an District, Mo Tiange, who was driving the White Silk Handkerchief, finally stopped emitting spiritual aura pressure from her body. The reason why she deliberately revealed her spiritual aura pressure in Tong’an District was because she wanted to intimidate others. She wanted them to know that Ye Clan was related to a Foundation Building cultivator so they wouldn’t dare bully Ye Clan.

This was the secular world. Most of the individual cultivators in the secular world had no prospects of achieving the Great Dao. Their cultivation realms varied between the first to the third layer of the Aura Refining realm at the most, so a Foundation Building cultivator was enough to intimidate them.

The flight speed of a Foundation Building cultivator wasn’t slow. Furthermore, the White Silk Handkerchief was also an extraordinary flying magic weapon. In just half a day, Mo Tiange had left Wei Country’s territory.

When she was with Ye Clan, Ye Cheng relayed to Mo Tiange all the information Ye Clan had gathered in the past dozens of years. In fact, most of the spirit veins present in the Celestial Pole were located in Kunwu. Even though there were some spirit veins in the secular world, all of them were so weak that even small cultivation groups weren’t interested in them, so there would naturally be no fated chances for her there. Because of that, Mo Tiange didn’t have any intentions of exploring the secret spots Ye Clan told her about. She only planned on going to some unusual places to pick up some spiritual plants or look for spiritual objects.

To the southeast of Wei Country was Jin Country, so Mo Tiange also intended to take a trip back to Mo Family’s Village in Liancheng County while she was at it. She wanted to pay respects to her mother as well as take her mother’s remains with her. If she had the chance in the future, she wanted to bury her mother and her father together.

When her father passed away on Demonic Mountain that year, Qin Shoujing brought back news, saying that he buried her father’s bones right at the spot where he died on Demonic Mountain. Mo Tiange long decided that if she advanced to the Core Formation realm in the future, she would make a trip to Demonic Mountain to find her father’s bones when the restrictions around Demonic Mountain were weak, and bury him and her mother together, fulfilling her mother’s lifelong wish to see him again.

While she was at it, she also wanted to inform the Mo Family of Tianqiao’s death.

When she was a child, she only saw the Mo Family as cold and unfeeling. If Tianqiao wasn’t there, she wouldn’t have even wanted to stay there for a day. Right now, she was no longer that orphan girl who lost both her parents. Right now, she was a cultivator with powerful magical powers.

As she thought about the past, she wanted to sigh. In fact, grandfather, grandmother, and the others weren’t bad people. It was just that from a child’s point of view, they couldn’t give her enough affection. She understood them, but it was still hard for her to get close to them.

Right after she entered Jin Country’s borders, Mo Tiange frowned, changed direction and flew towards the northeast.

She sensed a strange spiritual aura fluctuation. It wasn’t the type of spiritual aura fluctuation emitted during fights of magical powers, and it also wasn’t similar to the spiritual aura pressure of a high-level cultivator.

She only hesitated for a moment before she decided to go and take a look. The spiritual aura fluctuation wasn’t big, but it was quite strange. This was the secular world so presumably, there weren’t any high-level cultivators here. Her cultivation level was quite high these days, and she also had several magic weapons—she shouldn’t be in much danger.

Nevertheless, the closer she got to the source of the spiritual aura fluctuation, the deeper her brows wrinkled. The fluctuating spiritual aura was extremely pure, and she could also hear muffled noises of wind and thunder. Could this be the birth of a unique treasure?

Once this thought crossed her mind, Mo Tiange used an art to maneuver the White Silk Handkerchief to rush forward as fast as possible. Furthermore, she also spread her divine sense. As she expected, there were other cultivators rushing over, although they were all Aura Refining cultivators. The moment they came into contact with her divine sense, they knew there was a Foundation Building senior there and immediately slowed down their speed.

The longer Mo Tiange flew, the more bewildered she became. The source of this spiritual aura wasn’t as close as she originally thought. She’d flown for such a long time, but she felt the distance between her and the spiritual aura wasn’t decreasing.

Gradually, this spiritual aura fluctuation drew the attention of even more cultivators in the secular world. After flying for several hours, Mo Tiange started to sense other Foundation Building cultivators joining the pursuit.

Although most of the individual cultivators in the secular world were low-level Aura Refining cultivators, there were also cultivators in the Foundation Building realm and higher who happened to be passing through. Maybe they were just like her who coincidentally stumbled upon this spiritual aura fluctuation and looked for its source.

The Foundation Building cultivators maintained some distance between each other in tacit understanding, but all of them did their utmost to fly to the source.

After several more hours, the spiritual aura fluctuation finally became a bit more apparent. The Foundation Building cultivators were all ecstatic; everyone started to accelerate.

Mo Tiange’s White Silk Handkerchief was naturally much better than the flying magic tools of the other Foundation Building cultivators. However, the moment she realized there were other Foundation Building cultivators, she no longer used its full strength and instead maintained roughly the same speed as the rest of them. The reason she did this was because she was accustomed to being cautious. This spiritual aura fluctuation was abnormal, so rather than speeding towards it alone ahead of everyone, she thought she should arrive together with the others—it’d be safer for her that way. Besides, she already examined those Foundation Building cultivators and discovered that all of them were in the early stage. If it was indeed a unique treasure, she didn’t need to fear them at all.

As they continued to fly, the spiritual aura fluctuation became even more apparent. Because of that, Mo Tiange knew the source of the spiritual aura fluctuation must be close.

The flight lights of the other cultivators could already be seen with the naked eye. There were quite a few people with the same thoughts as her, but they all avoided her. After all, with her cultivation level in the peak of the middle stage, she was the strongest among them. Furthermore, they still didn’t know whether she was a friend or an enemy; it’d be better for them to keep a distance from her.

At this moment, Aura Refining cultivators were no longer participating in this pursuit. Even if along the way there were Aura Refining cultivators who sensed the spiritual aura fluctuation and flew over, they were oppressed by the spiritual aura pressure of the Foundation Building cultivators and eventually gave up the pursuit.

The spiritual aura pressure became more and more apparent. Mo Tiange’s divine sense could already detect the source of that spiritual aura. At the same time, she also sensed other cultivators divine senses running into hers.

She then saw cultivators rushing over from other directions.

She contemplated for a very brief moment then stomped onto the White Silk Handkerchief. All of a sudden, her speed accelerated, and she flew directly towards the source of this spiritual aura pressure, leaving those Foundation Building cultivators far behind her.

Upon seeing her white-colored flight light disappearing into the horizon, those Foundation Building cultivators, who had been flying for several hours, turned pale with fright. This speed… that person obviously could’ve left us behind a long time ago! Presumably, that brother Daoist was just being courteous to us a moment ago. But now, he suddenly accelerated his speed… did he perhaps realize something?

With these thoughts in mind, several Foundation Building cultivators also accelerated and immediately chased after her.

However, one person mumbled, “The flight light was white. It seems that person isn’t one to be trifled with; I better move a bit slower.”

The color of one’s flight light was always in concordance with their spiritual roots and the main cultivation technique they practiced. If one had metal spiritual roots and practiced a metal element cultivation technique, their flight light would be gold. If they used a wood element technique, the color would be green, water would be blue, fire would be red, and soil would be yellow. There were also people with mixed spiritual roots. Their flight lights were mostly multi-colored and were absolutely never white-colored.

A white-colored flight light meant the person was either a rare Foundation Building cultivator with five spiritual roots or a cultivator who practiced a unique kind of cultivation technique. Foundation Building cultivators with five spiritual roots had certainly experienced much more and much harder tribulations compared to ordinary cultivators, while cultivators who practiced unique cultivation techniques most likely had special tricks. No matter what type of person that was, they were definitely stronger than ordinary cultivators.

Unfortunately, the other Foundation Building cultivators were greedy for the potential of obtaining a treasure, so they didn’t consider this point at all.

Two hours later, Mo Tiange eventually landed on a cliff.

At that moment, a crowd of cultivators had already gathered on the cliff. Among them, there were three Foundation Building cultivators and more than a dozen Aura Refining cultivators. They all looked different, but they were all staring at the valley below the cliff.

Upon seeing her arrival, some of the Foundation Building cultivators looked delighted but others looked worried. On the contrary, the Aura Refining cultivators had indifferent, stiff expressions on their faces.

“Fellow Daoist!” Just as Mo Tiange was about to examine the spiritual-aura-emitting valley, a white-haired, long-bearded Daoist stepped forward from the group of Foundation Building cultivators and cupped his hands towards her as a greeting.

Mo Tiange had long taken note of the people on the cliff. She didn’t need to be concerned with the Aura Refining cultivators because presumably, they were nothing but individual cultivators from the secular world. As for the Foundation Building cultivators, there were three of them. Two were a couple who both looked approximately thirty years old. They looked intimate; they were presumably Dao companions practicing Dual Cultivation. Both were in the early stage of the Foundation Building realm, and there was nothing unusual about their looks or attire. The last one was the Daoist who stepped forward. A moment ago, he was standing with the couple, so he was either friends with them or he reached an agreement with them to work together. He was in the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm. Despite his white hair, he had a youthful appearance and a considerably high cultivation level.

Since this Daoist was acting so courteously, Mo Tiange returned his greeting.

This Daoist already secretly examined her cultivation level. Seeing that she looked so young but had such a high cultivation level, he felt fearful. In the cultivation world, although look-preserving cultivation techniques weren’t rare, they also weren’t common—individual cultivators most likely couldn’t access this kind of cultivation technique. The Daoist surmised that if Mo Tiange looked young because of the look-preserving effects of her cultivation technique, she most likely came from a cultivation group; however, if her youthful appearance wasn’t due to her cultivation technique, achieving such a high cultivation level at such a young age… was even scarier!

Because of these thoughts, his courteous behavior was suffused with some respect. “My Daoist name’s Fangzheng; may I know how I should address Fellow Daoist?”

Mo Tiange looked this Daoist up and down. In the end, she didn’t tell him her real name. “I’m Ye Xiaotian. Nice to meet you.” After she left Mount Taikang, she stopped wearing the school’s uniform and also used an alias. She rarely traveled outside so presumably, there wasn’t anyone who could recognize her.

“So it’s Fellow Daoist Ye.” Daoist Fangzheng once again cupped his hands towards her, but he soon got straight to the point. “Fellow Daoist Ye must’ve also noticed the spiritual aura fluctuation here and rushed over to take a look.”

Mo Tiange nodded. “Correct.” Her gaze once again fell on the valley below the cliff. This cliff obviously wasn’t a spirit vein, and there seemed to be nothing special about the valley, so why was this place emitting spiritual aura?

Daoist Fangzheng smiled and said, “Such a coincidence! These two fellow Daoists and I also came to take a look because of the spiritual aura.”

“Did you?” Mo Tiange replied indifferently. She already guessed this Daoist’s intentions; he probably wanted to go down to the valley with her. However, it didn’t look like there was anything special about it; why didn’t the three Foundation Building cultivators go down themselves?

Upon seeing how indifferent her attitude was, Daoist Fangzheng’s expression became a bit forced. However, Mo Tiange’s cultivation level was slightly higher than his, so he forced himself to endure it. “Fellow Daoist Ye, Brother Yao, his wife and I already examined the valley.”

“Oh?” This time, Mo Tiange finally shifted her gaze from the valley and directed it towards him.

Daoist Fangzheng smiled and said, “Is Fellow Daoist Ye wondering why we stayed here and haven’t gone down to the valley yet?”

Mo Tiange nodded. Indeed, the spiritual aura pressure from the valley couldn’t be considered strong, but the three Foundation Building cultivators hadn’t taken any action; those ten-odd Aura Refining cultivators also did nothing aside from standing on the cliff, whispering to each other—this indeed baffled Mo Tiange.

“I’m going to be honest with Fellow Daoist Ye. Right after Brother Yao, his wife and I rushed over here, we already went down to the valley. We never expected that the miasma and gale in that valley would be so hard to deal with. We were able to block them once, but we couldn’t block them a second time. In the end, we had no other choice but to come up again.”

“Miasma and gale?” Mo Tiange was flabbergasted. If miasma and gale were involved, would the spiritual aura fluctuation be mild like this? Although there were vague storm sounds, the spiritual aura fluctuation had been mild the whole time. According to reason, there shouldn’t be any dangerous miasma or gale.

Daoist Fangzheng saw her expression then smiled bitterly. “If Fellow Daoist Ye doesn’t believe me, Fellow Daoist may try to go down and take a look.”

The astonishment in her expression disappeared as Mo Tiange regained her calm. She said, “No need. I believe Fellow Daoist doesn’t have any reason to lie to me.”

Once Mo Tiange finished talking, the “Brother Yao and his wife” Daoist Fangzheng mentioned walked towards her. The woman smiled at her and said, “Right! Little Sister, that was indeed the truth.”

This woman was dressed like a married woman and looked like she was about twenty-seven to twenty-eight years old. She was both charming and graceful, and her face was full of smiles. She spoke bluntly, but her tone was gentle. All in all, she gave Mo Tiange a very good impression.

Right after the woman spoke, the male cultivator by her side frowned then said rather helplessly, “Little Sister Wan, this young lady’s cultivation level is higher than ours; how could you address her as ‘little sister’ so thoughtlessly? You’re being too rude.” He then turned his attention to Mo Tiange and cupped his hands in apology. “Fellow Daoist Ye, please forgive us. My wife’s outspoken and often talks without thinking. She didn’t mean to offend you.”

Before Mo Tiange could say anything in response, the woman already said with annoyance, “Big Brother Xiu, don’t hastily apologize on my behalf. Let’s make a bet; I bet this little sister is really a little sister!”

The dialogue between this husband and wife had another meaning. The male cultivator reminded his wife that Mo Tiange’s cultivation level was higher than theirs and she might be slightly older than the two of them, so calling her “little sister” would most likely offend her. Nevertheless, talking about a woman’s age in front of her would absolutely offend the said woman, so he gave her a veiled reminder instead of directly rebuking his wife. Because the woman understood what her husband meant, the focus of her answer was “little sister.”

Upon hearing the woman’s answer, her husband asked with bewilderment, “How can you be so sure?”

The woman just smiled. “It’s woman’s intuition.” After she said that, the woman walked over, affectionately pulled Mo Tiange’s hand and asked, “Little Sister, am I correct?”

Mo Tiange also smiled and said, “May I ask how old you two are? If you don’t tell me, I won’t be able to answer your question.”

The woman was stunned. A second later, she covered her mouth and laughed. “Well, look at my brain! I actually forgot such an important thing! My clumsy husband and I are a hundred years old this year.”

Based on the lifespan of Foundation Building cultivators, their appearances now should be their real appearances. A hundred years old… the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm… Mo Tiange pondered inwardly. It seemed that they were either cultivators from a small cultivation group or individual cultivators. Even if they were cultivators from a big cultivation group, they were probably just ordinary disciples.

Most big cultivation groups’ elite disciples built their foundation early. Although not many could advance to the Core Formation realm, cultivating until they reached the late stage of the Foundation Building realm was fairly easy. Very few of them were trapped in the early stage of the Foundation Building realm at that age.

“Big Sister’s guess is correct.” Mo Tiange showed a faint smile. “I’m a little bit younger than the two of you.”

“Oh?” Not only this married couple, but even Daoist Fangcheng widened his eyes. She wasn’t a hundred years old yet, but her cultivation level was already in the peak of the middle stage of the Foundation Building realm…

Mo Tiange didn’t want to elaborate on this matter, so she changed the subject. “How much do you currently know about the situation in this valley?”

Daoist Fangzheng recovered his train of thought and immediately answered, “When Brother Yao, his wife and I discovered that we couldn’t pass through the miasma and gales down there, the three of us worked together, but the end result was still the same… Fellow Daoist, take a look. The spiritual aura isn’t warm, but it’s very pure, so there’s most likely some kind of unique treasure being born here. It’d really be a pity if we missed it!”

“Correct! We were also thinking that.” The one who interrupted was the women. “Little Sister, you’re young, but your cultivation level’s already so high; you’re probably a disciple of a cultivation group, right? The three of us are individual cultivators. It’s truly hard for us to encounter the birth of a unique treasure. If you’re also interested in the treasure, we can think of a strategy together. But if you don’t want to take the risk, we also wouldn’t block your way. Of course, if you think you can get the treasure yourself, you can always pretend you didn’t hear our proposal.”