As the cave was not big, they reached the end ten minutes later, where a pool suffused with a light green mist came into view.
“Is this the spiritual pool that my senior fellow apprentice mentioned?”
A light flickered through Jin Ying’s eyes. She took a deep breath and felt extremely comfortable as if her body was cleansed by the green pneuma.
“This spiritual pool was built by our headmaster in imitation of the Secret Realm of Shattered Spirits. Hundreds of spiritual flowers had been used to set up the pool so that the nimbus became gentle and pure, which is extremely beneficial to your practice. You should cherish and not waste this opportunity.”
The first elder turned back and instructed, and Su Li and Jin Ying responded in unison. Then they slowly stepped into the pool and sat down.
When the first elder saw this, he felt relieved and turned to leave.
Not long after he left, Su Li quietly opened her eyes and grasped a strand of flower nimbus. Her eyes flashed with contemplation.
“Although the type of flower nimbus increased, it is still the same spiritual pool Hua Yan and I built back then. The pool was divided into two levels. This should be the upper level used to reward disciples in Zhuji Realm. There is a secret path leading to the lower level for disciples in Jindan Realm…”
With this in mind, Su Li took a glance at Jin Ying, who was concentrating on absorbing the nimbus on the side of the pool. She quietly got up and left the spiritual pool. She silently walked to a smooth stone wall at the end of the cave and made a strange imprint of a tactical matrix with both hands. The tightly sealed stone wall broke apart suddenly, and a gap was formed so that one person could pass through. A cool pneuma spread from the stone gap.
Su Li frowned slightly and sneaked into the gap. The stone crack disappeared immediately and returned to its original appearance so that no one could find the slightest flaw.
Neither the darkness of the stone tunnel nor the rugged ground could slow Su Li down.
“The path seemed to be abandoned after its construction. Even with my tactical matrix to keep its form, it has been damaged somehow…”
With these thoughts in her mind, Su Li followed the sloping ground all the way down, and a moment later, she finally saw a glimmer of light. And at the same time, a peal of unfamiliar laughter came from that glimmer.
“Hehehe…”
Under the bright spiritual lamp appeared three figures. Su Li’s long-missing friend, Immortal Hua Yan in a purple robe, was sitting in the water of the spiritual pool, while on the bank of the spiritual pool stood the head of Zhenlou Group in Danxia Mount, Su Zini.
Su Zini was in a red dress, wore a little makeup, and looked radiant. She narrowed her eyes and looked condescendingly at Immortal Hua Yan with her eyes and mouth lightly smiling. Her tone was threatening, “Headmaster Hua, are you still going to keep the stalemate with me?”
While she spoke, an elder with a cold look behind her took a step forward, and his energy was oppressing. He had clearly reached the peak of Jindan Realm and was only a half-step away from Yuanying Realm.
Hua Yan’s face was pale. She suppressed the discomfort in her pubic region and sneered in a cold tone, “I am really flattered that you have invited someone in Quasi-Yuanying Realm to help out, Miss Su …”
While talking tough, Hua Yan sighed in her heart. She had thought that Wang Yu and her followers had prevented Su Zini from getting the treasure, which had been merged into the tactical matrix. She never expected that Su Zini had already succeeded in getting the treasure secretly and sneaked into the lower level of the spiritual pool without being noticed today.
She was so close to breaking through to Yuanying Realm, but unfortunately, nature did not stand on her side. And she was interrupted at the critical moment of her breakthrough so that she was immediately seriously injured. Now, she was no match for Su Zini, let alone the one in Quasi-Yuanying Realm.
The forbidden place was under constant lockdown, so she couldn’t summon the other elders to help. She was a sitting duck now.
Su Zini smiled at the words, “You are too humble, Immortal Hua Yan. You were as famous as Holy Girl Su back then. Although Holy Girl Su has passed away and you have not broken through to Yuanying Realm, you have practiced for more than two thousand years, and your foundation is unfathomable. So, it is never too excessive for me to be careful.”
Su Zini seemed to make a compliment, but she was mocking Hua Yan, actually.
Hua Yan didn’t get angry, but nodded her head, “Not bad, even if I’m destined to fail today, you, a junior of Su Family, cannot win me easily.”
Su Zini’s expression changed slightly. She stopped joking at last and sneered, “Immortal Hua Yan, I admire you as a holy girl! However, why would you risk your life for a useless tactical matrix? Hand over the key for the Star-stacked Matrix, so I won’t put you on the spot. Don’t make me use my last means!”
Hua Yan lowered her head and sighed, “I’d like to hand over the key…”
Su Zini was slightly pleased to hear that Hua Yan might change her mind, but before she spoke, she heard the second half-sentence, “However… I don’t trust Su Family; furthermore, I can’t… give the relic of my best friend to Su Family she hates the most.”
Su Zini looked extremely gloomy at the words and said in an ice-cold voice, “How dare you play tricks on me! Elder Qi, attack!”
Swish!
As the elder with a cold look went forward to blast out a punch, Hua Yan reached out to grab the blood diamond stone in her bosom. A determined light flashed over her eyes, and she was about to crush the diamond.
Suddenly —
Pit-a-pat!
Two stones fell on the ground. The sound was extremely harsh in the quiet forbidden area. The elder’s face changed slightly, and he stopped and turned to look in the direction of the sound. Was there someone over there? Why didn’t he even notice it before?
Hua Yan was also surprised and turned back. The forbidden place was different from the outside world; how could someone enter at this time?
A slight expectation rose in her heart at the same time.
But when she saw that the newcomer was a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl wearing a pink dress only for children with immortal latency, the hope that had just risen was gone at once.
“It’s just a girl of immortal latency, who lost her way.”
Su Zini obviously knew Huajian Sect very well and was relieved to see Su Li. While as she worried that further accidents might happen, she spoke quickly, “Elder Qi, the matter must not be delayed. Kill that girl either!”
The elder with a cold look nodded and gave Su Li a smack. He was accustomed to being a hitman and had no mercy. Bullies always picked soft targets. It was easiest to kill the girl of immortal latency firstly.
“Stop! How dare you attack the disciple of Huajian Sect? I’m not dead yet. Come to kill me first!”
An eerie expression was seen on Hua Yan’s face. As she was speaking, she flew out of the spiritual pool, ignoring the injuries in her pubic region. The blood-colored diamond stone flew out of her bosom. It was covered with cracks in the next moment, and it was about to explode soon.
Sensing the wicked pneuma of the blood-colored diamond stone, Su Zini turned pale and tried to interrupt this with spiritual power. At the very moment —
Swish!
The blood-colored diamond stone covered with cracks suddenly disappeared in the air! Both Hua Yan and Su Zini were startled.
At that moment, a loud sound thumped in the distant place. They looked in unison but found the elder retreating with a horrified look until he could stabilize himself beside Su Zini.
“Elder Qi, what happened?”
Before Su Zini could figure out what was going on, Elder Qi gasped, and his voice was tinged with suspicion, “My strike was stopped by some barrier, and I was almost injured by the counterstrike. That girl… is not ordinary!”
Su Zini’s face changed slightly and looked at Su Li immediately. This look sent her into a complete panic.
When did that stone fall in the girl’s hand?
Su Li frowned and held the blood-colored stone. She was mobilizing the power of the Star-stacked Matrix. A moment later, all the cracks on the blood-colored stone disappeared, and the evil pneuma went either.
Su Li was relieved to see this. Then she raised her head to look at Hua Yan who was full of surprises and doubts, and said helplessly, “I’ve told you before that this object is evil and you’d better discard it earlier. I never expected that you still keep it on you.”
As Hua Yan heard this, her face, which didn’t change for the death threat, suddenly changed. Her eyes were filled with tears, and her voice was trembling, “You… you are…”
With a gentle smile on her face, Su Li nodded slightly, then she put away the blood-colored diamond stone and looked at Su Zini and the other. Her gaze turned cold, and an evil intent flickered over her lips, “A lost child with immortal latency? I didn’t get lost. How dare you attack my best friend? Are you ready to die?”
“A good friend of Immortal Hua Yan? A girl at the age of about thirteen or fourteen? No!”
At any rate, Su Zini was the seventh miss in Su Family, so she immediately related this with somebody, becoming terrified and screaming out, “Holy Girl Su, you’re not dead!!!”
Su Li smiled faintly. As her fingertips caressed the universe ring, a mini dagger appeared, “Since you are the first one to speak my name out after I came back to this world, I’ll give you a quick death in return.”
Phew!
In an instant, that was even shorter than the blink of an eye, a dazzling light, which even Elder Qi could not capture, flashed. A blood mark appeared on Su Zini’s neck, and the light in her eyes quickly dimmed. She fell to the ground.
“Run!”
This scared the hell out of Elder Qi and terrified him. There was only one thought left in his mind. He even did not care about Su Zini’s body and turned around to the breach point of the tactical matrix without saying a word.
Pow!
The same dazzling light penetrated through his heart, and Elder Qi didn’t have the time to say his last words and fell in front of the breach. He stared at the exit with regret in his eyes, while his pneuma quickly dissipated and disappeared eventually.
Su Li stretched out her hand, and the dagger flew back into her hand. She looked relaxed.
When she was at the eighth hurdle of Lianqi Realm, she was able to deal with someone at the peak of Jindan Realm with just her physical body, not to mention that she had already made her way through Chuangxing Path and reached the seventeenth hurdle of Lianqi Realm.
In terms of strength, even Su Li herself didn’t know where her limits stopped at present. However, practitioners in Yuanying Realm, whom she had once regarded as powerful ones, didn’t seem to be invincible.
“Su Li…”
Full of excitement, Hua Yan walked to Su Li, measuring Su Li with eyes. Finally, she took a deep breath and said nothing but compared Su Li’s not yet full-grown height and said thoughtfully, “I’m much taller than you now!”
Su Li couldn’t help but laugh and put a turquoise green spiritual power into the spiritual pool, “Heal your wounds first. I won’t leave in a short time.”
“Great.”
Hua Yan did not hesitate and returned to the spiritual pool to heal her injuries immediately.
There was no need to ask questions between best friends.
After two days, Hua Yan’s injuries were healed, and a pneuma of an impending breakthrough surfaced, and it was even more intensive than that of her last breakthrough.
A hint of guilt flickered over Su Li’s eyes when she saw this.
Back then, when her death was announced, some were glad to hear that, while some were distraught over her. Hua Yan must be among the latter.
The fact that Hua Yan couldn’t break through for so many years was probably related to her death.
Now, since she reappeared, which should untangle the knot in Hua Yan’s heart, it was logical for Hua Yan to sense an opportunity for a breakthrough soon.