Ten days later—

The sun peeked out from behind the mountains, and the dawn was just breaking as the first chime of the morning sounded within the Profound Star Sect.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion coming from the direction of the Spirit Gathering Stone Cave.

At the entrance of the cave, the three Profound Star Sect disciples who were on duty were jolted awake by the loud noise, as if they had been kicked out of the mortal realm.

“What’s happening?!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Huh?”

The three of them shook their heads and rushed to the side where hundreds of bamboo plaques were hung on the stone wall.

“The ones with the ‘丙’ character are fine!”

“The ‘乙’ character ones are also fine!”

Upon hearing this, the two who had checked the plaques with ‘乙’ and ‘丙’ characters turned pale, looking at the speaker incredulously.

“Exp– exploded?! How could it explode? Could it be that a senior brother is cultivating their Golden Core here?”

“How could that be?!” The other person scolded him, “Cultivating the Golden Core is done in the Spirit Gathering Stone Cave on Moon Spring Peak. The Spirit Gathering Array here is only used for condensing qi or building foundation.”

“Then how could it explode…”

The man looked puzzled and reached out to touch the fragments of bamboo plaques that had fallen from the wall. However, as soon as his fingers touched the shards, he felt a bone-chilling coldness spreading from his fingertips into his body, causing him to jump back in pain.

It was at this moment that a flying sword descended from the sky.

Qin Ruyi looked at the panicked trio with a furrowed brow and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Did it freeze?”

Qin Ruyi furrowed her brows slightly and quickly went forward to inspect the shattered bamboo plaques on the ground. After touching them, her eyes widened, and without saying a word, she rushed into the Spirit Gathering Stone Cave.

She remembered that it was the Spirit Gathering Array where Pei Lengxue was cultivating. Although she didn’t know what had happened inside, if it could cause the Spirit Gathering Array to become like this, it was definitely not a good sign.

Pei Lengxue was her most satisfied disciple in this generation and even in several generations. If anything unexpected happened that prevented her from continuing on the path of cultivation, not only would Pei Lengxue be devastated, but Qin Ruyi herself would be in an emo mood for several days.

“You three, activate your spiritual defenses!”

Qin Ruyi instructed the three disciples who had followed her and then drew a deep breath. With her index and middle fingers lightly touching the surface of her spirit sword in her right hand, she prepared herself.

BOOM!

With a swing of her sword, several sword shadows appeared on the stone door in front of her and instantly turned into pieces of rubble on the ground. However, as the stone door shattered, a large amount of icy qi gushed out from inside the cave.

The spiritual power contained in this icy qi was extremely pure. Even a Nascent Soul cultivator without water spiritual roots would experience some degree of spiritual energy backlash when inhaling it. Qin Ruyi quickly transferred her own spiritual energy to her three disciples beside her, helping them resist the spreading cold qi. Then she took out a high-quality Fire Crystal from her storage pouch to absorb all the spiritual energy inside the cave.

She was eager to see the situation inside the cave, but the thick white mist prevented her from seeing anything beyond a few feet. After some hesitation, Qin Ruyi anxiously shouted, “Pei Lengxue!”

“Ah- Y-Yes?”

A perplexed voice came from inside the cave, leaving Qin Ruyi momentarily stunned.

She still didn’t know what had happened inside, but judging from Pei Lengxue’s tone, it seemed like she was quite comfortable.

Being so comfortable in the midst of this pure cold qi?

Qin Ruyi raised her eyebrow lines in confusion. She waited for a while in the corridor, realizing that Pei Lengxue hadn’t come out yet. After pondering for a moment, she shouted again, “Pei Lengxue, are you having trouble finding the way out?”

“Ah– right!” Pei Lengxue’s voice came from inside the cave. “The fog is too thick, and I can’t see…”

Bang!

“Ouch!”

It sounded like she had bumped her head against the wall.

Qin Ruyi wasn’t sure how to react. There were other Qi Refining stage disciples around, and she couldn’t use her divine sense to check because it might cause the disciples who were still building their foundations to have their spiritual energy backfire and explode.

After waiting for a while, Pei Lengxue finally walked out of the cave’s entrance. She looked at Elder Qin and the three Foundation Establishment stage senior disciples waiting outside and shrank her neck, asking, “Did I cause trouble?”

Phew…

Seeing that Pei Lengxue was unharmed, Elder Qin heaved a sigh of relief. She quickly took out a beast skin cloak from her storage pouch and wrapped it around Pei Lengxue.

“It’s good that you’re fine, but…”

Elder Qin glanced at the scene inside the cave and recalled Pei Lengxue’s information from the roster. Pei Lengxue had an overall grade of A, with the exception of a grade C for her spiritual root aptitude—she had Trinary Water-Wood-Earth Spirit Roots. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t too bad compared to other cultivators.

“What exactly happened?” Elder Qin asked.

Pei Lengxue hesitated for a moment and then remembered what her senior brother had told her before she entered to build her foundation. She quickly explained, “I accidentally broke the Cold Sky Sand.”

“Cold Sky Sand? Why did you bring that thing with you?”

After recalling for a while, Pei Lengxue answered, “My senior brother said it could save my life. If I encounter any danger, I should break the Cold Sky Sand, and others won’t be able to approach me.”

Hearing this, Elder Qin was speechless. She felt an urge to find Pei Lengxue’s senior brother and give him a good scolding.

“Nonsense! Breaking the Cold Sky Sand not only keeps others away from you but also costs your own life,” Elder Qin scolded. “You were lucky this time. You’ve just built your foundation, and your body is overflowing with spiritual energy. Combined with your resistance to cold, you managed to survive. If it were someone else, they would have died on the spot.”

“Ah– I see,” Pei Lengxue said, nodding shyly.

“Phew, as long as you’re fine. Do you have any pain anywhere now?”

Pei Lengxue quickly shook her head. “No.”

“Alright, then go back and rest for a few days. I’ll take responsibility for damaging the Spirit Gathering Array. Write a self-criticism report and submit it to me the day after tomorrow.”

“Okay!” Pei Lengxue replied energetically.

“You’re still so spirited at a time like this…”

“Hehe~ It’s what my senior brother taught me.”