"Several decades ago, the Five Elements Divine Sect took us in and gave us a place to shelter."
"Yet back then, things were not as good as they appeared on the surface. Demon beasts wreaked havoc without, while disciples grew estranged and disloyal within... Though time eventually revealed Lingjun's true character, what happened back then undeniably had severe repercussions. Many disciples whose loyalty to the sect was wavering were enticed away by other sects."
"Beset by troubles within and without, those of us from the older generation did everything we could to raise our cultivation, hoping to shield the juniors from the storm."
"At that time, aside from Fu Jiusheng, Chu Kui, and Wang Yuan—who possessed Golden Core combat strength—the only other newly advanced Golden Core cultivators were Xu Huanzhen and a guest elder who had joined our Luotian Sect midway."
"Huiniang and I were both anxious to break through to the Golden Core stage. Right around then, cultivators of the Divine Sect ordered us to the Sanzu River battlefield to reclaim a strategic stronghold."
"Then one day, out of nowhere!"
"An anomaly struck Huiniang's body. Her magic power surged violently, and her cultivation skyrocketed. She crossed into the Golden Core stage in a single stride, and her cultivation kept climbing wildly without stopping!"
"Back then, I didn't even know what had happened to her. I only knew that when the Sanzu River battlefield fell into dire peril and even Wang Yuan was locked in a bitter struggle, she suddenly arrived in person and brought us back alive."
"In that battle, Xu Huanzhen—who had formed his Golden Core with immense difficulty—perished, the guest elder who had joined us deserted, and Wang Yuan entered seclusion again upon our return. Luotian Sect was gravely weakened, yet Huiniang displayed the overwhelming might of a late Golden Core cultivator in that battle, terrifying the world!"
"It was precisely that strength that served as our shield, allowing us to quietly flee to the Fenghua Domain when the demon race assaulted the Five Elements Domain and the Five Elements Divine Sect could barely look after itself."
Across Baili Qingchuan, mountains and waters intertwined.
The mountain was Mount Daqing, and the river was the Heishui River.
Along the banks of the Heishui River, Luo Chen walked up Mount Daqing step by step, with Gu Caiyi accompanying him and meticulously recounting the events of those years.
He had already learned about Qu Lingjun earlier.
Yet the disciples growing estranged or even deserting could not be blamed entirely on him.
At its peak, though the Luotian Sect had boasted thousands of cultivators, nearly ten thousand strong, it was ultimately just a minor force founded less than a century prior.
It possessed no profound foundation, no ancient heritage, and no deep-seated cohesion.
The multitude of members had flocked together for profit, bustling toward self-interest.
When calamity struck, each flying their separate ways was only natural.
On the contrary, in Luo Chen's eyes, being able to retain three hundred people in the end was already quite remarkable!
Among those three hundred, the vast majority were bound to him by ties of friendship or kinship. This meant his century of effort had not been in vain.
Even after he had vanished, people had still been willing to stay because of him.
Of course, the tireless efforts of Wang Yuan, Huiniang, Caiyi, and the others had been indispensable.
What brought him regret was the death of Xu Huanzhen.
Tantai Jin had specifically introduced that beast tamer to him years ago.
Xu Huanzhen had already been at the sixth level of Foundation Establishment upon their first meeting. Later on, he had gradually come to embrace the Luotian Sect, staying on even after his cooperation agreement expired.
Never would Luo Chen have imagined that after finally reaching the long-sought Golden Core stage, Xu Huanzhen would meet his end on the battlefield against the demon beasts.
According to Gu Caiyi, Xu Huanzhen had used his beast-taming techniques to attack the beasts, drawing the attention of a formidable Demon King who overpowered and killed him.
His beast-taming arts had brought him rise, and his beast-taming arts had brought his fall.
When Luo Chen heard of Huiniang's sudden surge in magic power and skyrocketing cultivation, his expression hardened.
After asking Gu Caiyi for the exact date, he found it lined up perfectly with his time in the Land of the Fallen Demon.
*So it truly was the Consonance Gu!* he sighed faintly in his heart.
Then, he asked gently, "Even so, why does Huiniang refuse to see me? Is it because of what happened with her younger brother?"
Gu Caiyi nodded, yet shook her head as well.
"That is partly why, but the main reason lies in her appearance."
"Hmm?" Luo Chen frowned slightly.
Gu Caiyi sighed and spoke of what followed.
Nothing came without a price.
The explosive increase in Sima Huiniang's cultivation had brought calamity along with it.
That colossal magic power matched neither her physical constitution nor her spiritual root attributes, triggering severe rejection from the very start.
Sima Huiniang had forcibly suppressed it!
Yet as time went on, the reaction grew increasingly violent, deteriorating to the point where she was in agony day and night, unable to stop crying out in torment.
Back then, the physicians of the Luotian Sect had treated her, but to no avail.
In the end, Wang Yuan had stepped in, passing the Bright Spirit Fiend Breaking technique to Sima Huiniang so she could temper her will through pain while raising her threshold of endurance.
Sima Huiniang had endured the agony.
However, the involuntary physical transformations were not something sheer willpower could suppress.
"From then on, she grew accustomed to veiling her face with black gauze, refusing to see outsiders."
"The last time I saw her was before the Decisive Duels began. By that point, she no longer wore elegant court robes, donning only a black tunic and skirt, keeping even the skin of her forearms completely concealed."
"I fear..."
Near the end of her words, even Gu Caiyi wore an expression of unbearable pity.
Even though she and Sima Huiniang had never quite seen eye to eye, after spending so many years together, fellow sect camaraderie had formed. Furthermore, both were women, and caring for one's appearance was pure instinct!
Otherwise, why would the cultivation world have "useless" pills like the Face Retaining Pill?
For Sima Huiniang to shut herself away, one could only imagine the horrific extent to which that magic power had ravaged her body.
Before they knew it, the two had arrived outside a cave abode carved out not many years ago on Mount Daqing.
Gu Caiyi chose to leave the time for Sima Huiniang and departed first.
Luo Chen looked around. There were no flowers or grasses, only charred trees.
In the scenic, herb-carpeted expanse of Baili Qingchuan, this was an exceedingly rare sight.
He did not conceal his presence, nor did he lighten his footsteps, walking straight toward the stone door.
With his divine sense, he could easily peer through the formations and restrictions to see within.
A woman walked behind the door with uneasy, hesitant steps.
"Open the door," Luo Chen said.
The woman raised her hand instinctively, yet hesitated.
For the first time in all these years, she hesitated at Luo Chen's command.
"Your brother—I brought him back."
"The Luotian Sect will never be bullied again."
"And I, Luo Chen, have reached the Nascent Soul realm, standing tall across the cultivation world of the Eastern Desolation!"
Upon hearing those words, the woman's hand lowered instead.
It was as if an immense weight had lifted from her shoulders.
Luo Chen frowned and spoke up suddenly: "Madam has never pleased others through beauty; why pity yourself over your appearance now? Could it be you believe your husband to be a shallow man who judges by appearances and cares only for skin and flesh?"
The woman inside the cave felt as if struck by a heavy blow, retreating several steps instinctively.
A bewildered look surfaced in her eyes.
Indeed, from the very beginning, she, Sima Huiniang, had never been renowned for breathtaking beauty. Rising step by step from a rogue cultivator to her lofty standing, and even winning the affection of the man outside, had never been because of her face.
To drown in self-pity now simply because her appearance was ruined was truly laughable.
It denied her own past efforts, and needlessly belittled her husband's broad mind.
Taking a deep breath, Sima Huiniang cast an incantation gesture. The stone door separating inside from outside slowly rose with a rumbling sound.
The figure she had not seen for a century came into view, from feet to body, and then mouth, nose, eyes...
Gathering her sleeves slightly, she bowed gracefully in greeting, her autumn-water eyes brimmed with joy.
"This concubine welcomes Husband home!"
***
"Back when the anomaly struck the Consonance Gu, I thought you... you..."
"It was merely a small mishap. Your husband is blessed with great fortune and a charmed life; how could I fall so easily? You, on the other hand—even knowing the Consonance Gu was destroyed, you still placed such faith in me and told them I was alive."
"To properly protect what you left behind, I naturally had to stabilize morale. But after telling so many lies, I felt ashamed to face those who risked life and limb for the sect, which was why I gradually closed my doors."
"Madam, you truly possess quite the shrewd mind!"
"Didn't I learn it all from you? Must you tease me so?"
After their reunion came gentle tenderness as they reminisced over past events.
However, Sima Huiniang's smile remained somewhat strained.
Looking at Luo Chen, who had his eyes closed across from her, she asked with trembling lips, "Can it be resolved?"
Luo Chen slowly opened his eyes. What met his gaze was a face ruined beyond recognition.
The woman's wrist in his grasp was covered in uneven, blister-like welts that resembled burn marks.
Beneath her clothing, her skin was riddled with gruesome scars, an appalling sight.
Luo Chen grew pensive.
It truly had been caused by his own magic power!
Back in the Land of the Fallen Demon, when his physical body underwent rebirth, his entire pool of magic power had abruptly vanished as his flesh broke down. In truth, it had been transmitted to Sima Huiniang through the flesh-nurtured Consonance Gu.
There was nothing wrong with the method itself.
The problem was that Luo Chen's magic power was simply too overbearing!
At that time, he was at the sixth level of Golden Core, possessing fire-attribute magic power of supreme yang and supreme hardness that few under heaven could match.
In fact, even Luo Chen himself had struggled to endure the day-and-night corrosion of that power, which had left his face flushed red and his manifestations exposed for years.
How could Sima Huiniang, a mere ninth-level Foundation Establishment cultivator, possibly endure it?
Though aided by the Consonance Gu to barely absorb the power, she had been entirely incapable of suppressing it!
She possessed dual Water and Wood spiritual roots and cultivated the *Pavilion Near Water* technique, making it exceedingly difficult to control such magic power.
The Golden Core formed through the Consonance Gu was no orthodox Golden Core either.
Her degree of control over it was terribly low!
Furthermore, not only was Luo Chen's magic power fierce in nature, but it was also immense in volume.
All along, his magic power had been several times greater than that of peers at the same realm. By the time he reached the Golden Core stage, his sixth-level magic power could rival those at the ninth level!
This had propelled Sima Huiniang to ascend to the heavens in a single stride, surging directly to the seventh level of Golden Core.
Massive in quantity and domineering in nature, it had pierced her sea of qi and washed through her body without ceasing, ultimately inflicting indelible damage upon her flesh.
Yet there was one peculiar point.
Had she vented this immense power outward, she would at least not have ended up in her current state—her sea of qi riddled with tears, her meridians scorched and withered, and her body burdened beyond recovery.
This puzzle was instantly resolved the moment Luo Chen recalled the century of hardships the Luotian Sect had endured.
To protect the sect, Wang Yuan had taken shortcuts, practicing a demon-like transformation purely to gain formidable power.
Min Longyu had labored painstakingly over formation arrays to the point of mental exhaustion, his hair turning entirely white, all in pursuit of greater strength.
Qu Lingjun had lacked aptitude and had no choice but to take a roundabout route to save the sect, submitting to Fenghua Palace solely to secure powerful strength, even if external.
Under such circumstances, how could Huiniang—the one who cared most deeply for the Luotian Sect—bring herself to discard the immense magic power inside her?
Luo Chen could not help but stroke her face.
"You have suffered."
Sima Huiniang felt a touch of shame and subconsciously turned her head away.
Yet by her ear, words brought her sudden joy.
"The ailments in your body, your husband can resolve them. Do not worry."
"Truly?"
Sima Huiniang snapped her head back, staring blankly at Luo Chen.
Luo Chen nodded tenderly, ruffling her hair.
"It might hurt a little; you must bear with it."
"Mm, I am not afraid."
Luo Chen smiled faintly and had Sima Huiniang remove all her clothing. Treating that scarred shell as nothing, he sank his divine sense inside.
Instantly!
The vast magic power within the woman's body seemed to sense something, growing restless and eager to move.
"Come back!"
Luo Chen pinched an incantation gesture and began guiding that magic power back toward himself.
After all, this power had been painstakingly cultivated by him. Even if transformed by the Consonance Gu for Sima Huiniang's use, it still recognized its true master.
Luo Chen's treatment plan was not complicated.
Drain all her magic power, shatter her Golden Core, and let Sima Huiniang's cultivation drop back to the Foundation Establishment realm.
That way, the root of the disaster would be eliminated.
Then, using medical arts to mend her body and restore her to normal, she could break through to the Golden Core stage once more!
The only issue was her lifespan.
Sima Huiniang had long passed the two-hundred-and-fifty-year limit of the Foundation Establishment realm. The sole reason she had survived until now was that Golden Core formed by the Consonance Gu.
Even if unorthodox, it was still a Golden Core!
If that core were destroyed, combined with the years of toll taken on her physical body, she might only have a few years left to live.
Yet for this problem, Luo Chen had a solution as well!
He had refined the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion inside the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, obtaining a lifespan-extending spirit medicine from its most hidden compartments!
Its name was the Hundred-Headed Asparagus!
This spirit medicine was of the fourth rank; consuming it directly granted a century of lifespan.
If refined into a corresponding Longevity Pill, it would yield even more.
Its origin was certainly not cultivated by the Penglai Immortal Sect itself, but gathered back then by Penglai disciples in Mutianyuan within the Land of the Fallen Demon.
When Luo Chen had discovered it while refining the Octagonal Pavilion in the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, he had been overjoyed.
He had even felt that losing several decades of lifespan in the grotto-heaven was no longer a major setback.
This was also one of the reasons his attitude toward Fu Chaosheng had softened after emerging.
Now, this Hundred-Headed Asparagus would be used on Huiniang.
Even without refining it into a Longevity Pill, its inherent medicinal efficacy alone was more than enough.
A whole century!
With Luo Chen's full backing, forming a Golden Core would be effortless for Sima Huiniang!
Time trickled by.
Just as Luo Chen extracted all the uncontainable magic power from Huiniang's body and her sea of qi, leaving only that blood-colored Golden Core behind, his movements suddenly froze.
"Eh?"
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
Luo Chen replied softly and began converting his magic power to execute various medical arts he had long mastered to grand perfection.
Five Elements Restoring the Viscera, Bone Mending and Meridian Unblocking, Spring Breeze Transforming into Rain...
Near the end, he retrieved a prepared Vast Sea Pill from his storage ring—one specifically meant to repair the dantian and sea of qi.
Once the pill entered her body, Luo Chen did not slacken in the slightest.
With a gentle breath, a wisp of flame blending azure and white drifted forth.
At a thought, the flame shifted entirely from white to azure!
Unlike the grim, deathly white flame displayed on the fighting arena of Lingtian Pass, the Wither-Bloom True Fire at this moment held no chilling stillness, but was instead brimming with flourishing vitality.
Luo Chen carefully spread the true fire out, draping it over the woman's body like a diaphanous veil of flame, gently searing her flesh.
Under this roasting, the dead skin, lifeless tissue, and dark red blood gradually began to stir with renewed life.
Even her sparse hair visibly grew out, cascading past her shoulders, neck, and waist.
The Vast Sea Pill he had introduced earlier also refined rapidly, turning into a viscous fluid that coated the edges of her sea of qi to mend the tears.
Excess was as bad as deficiency!
With a thought, Luo Chen withdrew the Wither-Bloom True Fire.
"Rest well for now. I will treat you again in a few days. Once your body has fully recovered, you can take the Hundred-Headed Asparagus to restore your origin and extend your years."
As he spoke, Luo Chen pulled a thin blanket over her, concealing her jade-white body.
Sima Huiniang stared blankly at Luo Chen.
"Are you leaving?"
"I am not leaving. Even if I leave, I will take you all with me."
"Mm..."
The woman blinked. A century of accumulated exhaustion and weakness washed over her in an instant.
Cocooned in that long-lost comfort and sense of security, her long eyelashes fluttered, and she gradually drifted off to sleep.
Luo Chen tucked the blanket around her. His originally tender expression gradually turned grim.
At this moment, the woman still retained the cultivation of the mid-stage Golden Core realm!
Within that gradually healing sea of qi, a Golden Core bobbed gently, wrapped tightly in over a hundred restrictions.
*The Consonance has poison; it connects not only hearts, but souls!*
Chapter 783