Test

As she spoke, she pulled something from her storage pouch.

When everyone took a closer look, they saw that it was a tiny green-jade lotus.

“This green-jade lotus has been passed down through the Qinglian Sect from our ancestors. However, no one in the sect has ever discovered its use. We’ve tried many methods, but we’ve never been able to activate it. As far as we could tell, it was no different from an ordinary jade ornament.”

“It was preserved only because the ancestral records contain a few scattered mentions of it, and because our Qinglian Sect is said to have some connection with the lotus.”

“Since it’s useless, why has Fellow Daoist Jiang brought it out now?” someone asked.

When Jiang Sisi was questioned, she seemed somewhat nervous. After taking a deep breath, she continued explaining, “Before we set out, our sect master secluded herself day and night to comprehend the ancestral inheritance. She emerged after seven days and entrusted this item to me. She said that if we encountered Jishi, we might be able to try using it in a desperate situation. Since I saw that everyone was out of options, I decided to take it out. Whether we use it or not is up to all of you.”

After saying all that in one breath, her face flushed red. She stood there holding the green-jade lotus and fell silent.

She had only come here because she was carrying this item and remembered her sect master’s instructions. When she heard that something had happened at the Jishi mine, she followed everyone over.

Yet after she finished speaking, no one answered her. Clearly, they did not believe her. She herself had no confidence in the idea either, so she did not know what else to say.

Lin Xiao was rather surprised by the sight.

He had never expected to encounter someone with such a socially withdrawn personality among cultivators.

This was the first socially awkward person he had met in all his years in this world.

Everyone stared at the seemingly ordinary green-jade lotus in her hands, and for a moment, no one said a word.

Whether the thing was useful or not, those who were currently helpless would naturally have to give it a try.

But who would do it?

The item had been brought out by the Qinglian Sect. It would be unreasonable—and frankly, too much of a bully—to make them test it themselves.

On the other hand, if the lotus truly was useless, whoever entered to test it would inevitably suffer Jishi’s backlash and sustain damage.

With a formidable enemy before them, no one wanted to weaken themselves. After all, when facing danger, every additional ounce of strength meant a greater chance of survival.

Seeing that no one was reacting, two of the three leading Nascent Soul cultivators were just about to speak when they suddenly heard the young Daoist from the Lingxian Sect of Pushi Kingdom say, “I’ll give it a try.”

Lin Xiao walked up to Fellow Daoist Jiang and held out his hand. At the same time, he explained to everyone present, “Let me try it. All of you are the main force pursuing and eliminating the remnants of Jishi, so you must know them better than I do. If the test fails and I suffer some loss, it won’t affect the main force.”

Hearing this, everyone felt that his words made sense.

Besides, the young man looked exceptionally youthful. He did not seem like those cultivators who used appearance-preservation techniques. Although such people might look young, the finer details still revealed their approximate age.

At the very least, Fellow Daoist Jiang appeared young, but from her eyes, expression, and the bearing she unconsciously revealed through her actions, she was clearly at least two or three hundred years old.

The same could not be said of the youth before them. No matter how they looked at him, everyone felt that he could not be very old.

A young age meant little experience and a lack of composure. Though he possessed a Golden Core cultivation base, perhaps his foundation was shallow, built up with medicinal pills. He might not be of much use.

Therefore, if anything happened later, they probably could not count on him. For the moment, however, it was ideal that he had volunteered for the test.

Only the cultivator from Pushi Kingdom had to suppress the urge to speak for a long while.

He knew that the person standing before them was none other than the Lingxian Sect Master.

But since Lin Xiao had not revealed his identity, he did not say anything.

After all, their imperial family’s current ability to dominate the channels supplying goods to the three great sects depended on this very man. Their ancestor had already told him everything.

This person was Li Yuanze—the only Golden Core cultivator in the imperial family besides Li Zhanying.

He had come out this time because Li Zhanying had sent him to gain experience.

What kind of ability did the Lingxian Sect Master possess?

He was someone who could kill a Nascent Soul cultivator as powerful as Wei Hai while only at the Golden Core stage. Yet now, he had actually volunteered to be the one to conduct this test…

Li Yuanze had no idea what Lin Xiao was planning.

Watching Lin Xiao take the green-jade lotus and walk toward the Jishi mine, he held back for as long as he could before finally forcing out, “Fellow Daoist Lin, be careful!”

It sounded almost like a threat.

Lin Xiao turned and glanced at him.

Li Yuanze was broad and burly, with a somewhat simple, honest expression. He looked nothing like the refined and handsome Li Zhanying or Li Zhouxuan. Instead, he bore a striking resemblance to Tietou.

Knowing that Li Yuanze meant well, Lin Xiao gave him a faint smile. “Don’t worry, Fellow Daoist.”

The others also followed suit, calling out their warnings for Lin Xiao to be careful.

Holding the green-jade lotus, Lin Xiao arrived at the entrance of the Jishi mine. Although he now possessed origin energy and had nothing to fear from Jishi, that only applied to himself.

It was impossible to have everyone figure out a way to transform the spiritual power in their bodies into origin energy on the spot, wasn’t it?

His ability to convert it so quickly and conveniently was due to the cultivation technique he practiced.

Not to mention whether the methods these Daoist friends cultivated could transform spiritual power into origin energy, there simply was not enough time.

It had already been a long while since Yuan Jinsheng went down.

The higher one’s cultivation, the more powerful Jishi’s effects became.

No one knew what kind of condition Yuan Jinsheng was in now.

If this green-jade lotus truly worked, that would be ideal.

The Jishi mine was deep and seemed to have no end.

At the entrance, an invisible membrane seemed to cover the ground, preventing those outside from sensing the effects of the Jishi within.

But Lin Xiao had already entered once before. He knew how ravenously the Jishi inside craved the living—how desperately they thirsted for cultivators.

For some unknown reason, however, the effects of the Jishi in this mine were confined within the cavern.

As long as the Jishi were not carried outside, they would not affect anyone beyond the entrance.

As these thoughts passed through his mind, Lin Xiao did not pause. He stepped straight inside.

To test whether the green-jade lotus truly worked, he did not immediately activate his origin energy to form a defensive shield.

Then something miraculous happened.

The instant Lin Xiao stepped into the Jishi mine, the green-jade lotus—which had remained useless for countless generations in the Qinglian Sect—suddenly burst into brilliant green light after being carried inside by him.

The people outside naturally saw what had happened as well, and they were all immensely excited.

Lin Xiao, however, continued walking deeper inside.

The Jishi’s pull was weakest near the entrance. For everyone’s safety, he still needed to test the deeper sections and see whether the green-jade lotus could withstand them.

At the same time, as he walked, he converted the origin energy in his body back into spiritual power and continuously released it outward.

He was testing the range of the green-jade lotus’s protection.

Only after he had expanded the range of the released spiritual power to an area where ten people could move about normally, or fifteen people could huddle together, did the spiritual power beyond that boundary cease to be protected by the green-jade lotus and begin to be frantically absorbed by the surrounding Jishi.

Moreover, the farther down he went, the more the range protected by the green-jade lotus gradually contracted.

Eventually, it stabilized at a maximum range sufficient for ten people to huddle together.