Venerable Climber

Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao noticed that this person's face was incredibly strange.

One half of his face was deathly pale, while the other half was as pitch-black as ink.

As for the word 'disciple' he had just spoken, neither of them paid it much mind, since neither of them recognized this figure.

While they were still sizing up this strange figure, the old man spoke again.

"A single Wood Spiritual Root... Good, very good..."

He said this while looking directly at Sun Yigao.

Hearing this, Sun Yigao didn't quite understand what he meant, but Lin Xiao was somewhat surprised.

Sun Yigao actually had a single Wood Spiritual Root? With such aptitude, even if he hadn't joined the Lingxian Sect, he would definitely have a bright future in cultivation at any other sect.

Seeing that the old man's phantom was speaking to him, Sun Yigao felt a bit astonished, but out of politeness, he still cupped his hands and said,

"This junior is Sun Yigao. May I ask how to address Senior? My brother and I did not know Senior was cultivating in seclusion here. Please forgive us for our presumptuous intrusion."

The old man's phantom had a kind expression on his pale half, but a bizarre smile on his black half. His aged, hoarse voice sounded like a rusty saw, slowly tearing apart the beautiful scenery of the valley.

"I am the Grand Elder of the Tianluo Sect, Liao Pantu... known to others as Venerable Pantu. Sun Yigao, is it? My self-created mental cultivation method, the Soul Refining Incantation, is a top-tier Earth-rank low-grade technique. Seeing that your aptitude is quite good, I now intend to take you as my disciple. Are you willing to become my apprentice?"

Hearing this, Sun Yigao politely declined.

"Thank you for your kind intentions, Venerable Pantu. This junior appreciates it, but I already have a sect and have no intention of joining another. I hope Senior can forgive me."

Lin Xiao watched their exchange with great interest from the side, silently muttering in his heart:

Pantu... why does this name sound so weird?

Venerable Pantu seemed to have never expected to be rejected. His oddly expressive face froze for a moment, but in the next second, he burst into a sinister cackle.

"I have been trapped here for decades, and I finally met someone who caught my eye, only to be rejected! You are very good! Very good!"

Laughing, he suddenly calmed down, his tone turning somewhat gloomy and chilling.

"Over these decades, one or two people have stumbled into my Spirit Heart Valley every year. Do you know what happened to them?"

Sun Yigao frowned, his intuition telling him that what this person was about to say wouldn't be anything good. He was just about to speak when Lin Xiao, who was beside him, beat him to it.

"Sorry about that, Senior. My brother was just momentarily confused and rejected you entirely because of how you look right now... For inexperienced kids like us, seeing you would definitely be scary, right? If this junior may be so bold to ask, why do you look like this?"

Hearing him say this, Venerable Pantu seemed to realize that his current appearance was indeed a bit frightening, and it was no wonder the boy didn't agree. Thus, he reluctantly reined in his aggressive posture and said,

"You don't need to be afraid. My current state is merely the result of being persecuted by a vile villain. Because that person swore a Heavenly Mandate Oath and could not kill me, he extracted and divided my soul body, having people send the pieces into several different secret realms. Using a Nascent Soul cultivator's seal, he trapped me here, never to escape for all eternity.

That is why I am currently in the form of this soul body."

Lin Xiao processed his words in his mind and extracted a few key pieces of information.

The Heavenly Mandate Oath might be something similar to an Inner Demon Oath. Furthermore, seeing that the other party would rather go through all this trouble to trap Venerable Pantu instead of killing him, this Heavenly Mandate Oath was probably directly tied to their own life.

And what he called a soul body meant that humans had a soul state. Did that mean he might be able to do things like astral projection in the future?

Moreover, this Venerable Pantu didn't say why the other party wanted to divide his soul into several parts and trap them in different secret realms.

Was it because he felt it was unnecessary to explain it to them, or was he unwilling to?

If he was unwilling...

Lin Xiao stroked his well-defined chin and made a bold conjecture.

This Green Wilderness Secret Realm was a place that only those at the Qi Refining stage could enter.

Did that mean the strength of this portion of Venerable Pantu's soul body was currently below the Foundation Establishment stage?

In that case, their situation didn't seem so dangerous after all.

But come to think of it, if this secret realm was fraught with extreme danger, how could the two sects allow hundreds of their own disciples to come in for experiential learning?

Speaking of experiential learning, it seemed like they hadn't encountered a single monster or anything since they came in, right?

Lin Xiao's mind was already wandering beyond the clouds.

After Venerable Pantu finished talking about his own matters, he continued to ask Sun Yigao,

"Well? Kid, being chosen by me is your good fortune."

Hearing his experiences, Sun Yigao was greatly shocked inwardly.

It turned out that in this world of immortal cultivators, there were quite a lot of such persecutions, and the methods used were even more flashy and convoluted than those in the mortal world.

However, without knowing the specific details of the situation, he naturally wouldn't arbitrarily sympathize with this Venerable Pantu. He just looked at Lin Xiao, and seeing that he seemed to be thinking about something else and making no moves, he still refused, saying,

"I am sorry, Senior. This junior is very satisfied with my own sect and has no intention of changing sects. Please find another exceptional disciple, Senior."

Hearing that he had actually rejected him again, Venerable Pantu was extremely furious. But he seemed to suddenly think of something and waved his hand in their direction.

The ground beneath Lin Xiao and Sun Yigao's feet, which was originally a patch of lush green grass, suddenly transformed into a large medicinal field filled with various herbs in the next instant.

Lin Xiao, whose mind had been wandering, was shocked back to reality by this.

He couldn't help but squat down and pluck a small medicinal herb.

He threw it into his private inventory and opened the appraisal function.

[Young Awngrass, a seasonal plant, a good grass for feeding spirit pigs]

He had originally thought this was an illusion, but he didn't expect it to actually be real!

Venerable Pantu was seen stroking his beard lightly and saying proudly,

"If you take me as your master, this entire field of medicinal herbs that I have carefully tended to for decades will belong to you. How about it?"

Sun Yigao sighed; this Venerable was just too stubborn. He was just about to refuse again when Lin Xiao suddenly spoke up.

"Senior, taking him as a disciple is probably out of the question for you. However, perhaps I can help you bring this portion of your trapped soul body out of the secret realm. What do you think?"

Venerable Pantu, feeling that the boy was being far too unappreciative by rejecting him time and time again, was just about to lose his temper. All he wanted was to take a disciple to pass down his legacy—was that so hard?

But he hadn't expected to hear these words from Lin Xiao.

To be honest, his old heart, which had been dead and silent for decades, was moved.

So much so that the hand stroking his beard almost yanked it right off. Fortunately, he was currently in a soul body state.

However, he was still somewhat in disbelief:

"The two of you are nothing but little brats at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Refining. How could you possibly undo a seal set by a Nascent Soul cultivator?"

Lin Xiao was puzzled. How did he know their cultivation levels? Didn't he have a Divine Sense shielding function?

System:

[Apologies, Host. The other party did not use Divine Sense to probe, but directly observed the spiritual energy fluctuations around the two of you to determine your cultivation levels. This ability is possessed exclusively by cultivators at or above the Nascent Soul stage.]