Chapter 42 : Spider Sister Acts as Guardian

Chapter 42: Spider Sister Acts as Guardian

Almost at the same time, within the pocket realm of Moon-Washing Peak.

True Person Mingzhu, who had been seated in meditation upon a jade couch, suddenly opened her eyes.

Those eyes—usually cold and tranquil like a frigid pool—now still rippled with faint, lingering waves.

An unnatural flush spread across her cheeks, and from between her lips escaped an extremely light, slightly disordered gasp, as though she had only just struggled free from some unspeakable state.

Fortunately, there was no one else in the room.

She quickly steadied her mind, her fingertips brushing across her slightly furrowed brow as she adjusted her somewhat disheveled robes.

The faintly suggestive aura clinging to her body was swiftly suppressed, and she once more returned to the cool, detached bearing of a Golden Core True Person.

She rose and stepped out onto the open terrace, resting her hands on the railing.

Before her lay the unique scenery of the Moon-Washing Pocket Realm—a tranquil emerald lake mirrored the vault of the heavens, while one real and one fake bright moon hung in the sky, their radiance intertwining as clear light spilled down, beautiful beyond the mortal world.

Yet at this moment, True Person Mingzhu’s thoughts were entirely elsewhere.

“Zhiying, that girl… why would she suddenly run off to that place?” she murmured softly, her heart full of doubt.

Tonight, on a sudden whim, tinged with mischief and amusement, she had quietly let a strand of her divine soul leave her body and once again wander into the dream of that outer sect disciple named Long Tao.

On one hand, she wanted to see what other “astonishing words” that audacious junior might utter in a completely defenseless dream, indulging a bit of vanity that even a Golden Core True Person could not entirely escape.

On the other hand, she had also wanted to find an absolutely safe place to vent a trace of resentment she had accumulated over the years toward Zhiying, that martial niece who had always managed to “press her down a notch.” After all, it was someone else’s dream—she could say whatever she pleased, and before leaving, she could simply give the dream’s owner a light forgetting spell.

Who would have thought! This supposedly foolproof spirit wandering would actually be discovered by Zhiying?!

Although she had withdrawn extremely quickly, that girl had devoted herself to the Sword Intent of Time; her perception was terrifyingly sharp.

It was entirely possible that she had sensed something—and that would be troublesome.

Still… in the instant before her divine soul completely withdrew, she seemed to glimpse a little girl with no cultivation fluctuations at all entering Long Tao’s room.

Who had that been?

Wait!

A flash of insight struck True Person Mingzhu’s mind as several matters suddenly linked together—that little girl… could she be the personally transmitted disciple Zhiying had just taken in, the one rumored earlier today?

Yes! Only that explanation made sense!

Then why had she gone to Long Tao’s room in the dead of night?

True Person Mingzhu recalled the scattered bits of information she had heard during the day from her disciples: Zhiying’s newly accepted disciple came from Qinglin Town and had originally been a maidservant of some household.

Qinglin Town… wait! Wasn’t that Long Tao also from Qinglin Town?

So that was it!

Understanding dawned on her instantly.

That new disciple was most likely Long Tao’s former maid.

In that case, her late-night meeting with her old master could only have two possible reasons.

The first was that she was thinking of old ties, simply going to offer greetings or some measure of care—something that would indeed seem loyal and sentimental.

As for the second… that was likely far less innocent.

An “old master” who knew her past in detail and whose cultivation was low would indeed be a considerable liability for a newly risen prodigy about to enter the sect’s inner circle.

Taking advantage of the stillness of night to employ a secret technique, blurring or altering some crucial memories so that they would henceforth be strangers to one another—clean and final… such things were hardly rare in the cultivation world.

As for which one it truly was…

The exquisitely perfect corner of True Person Mingzhu’s lips quietly curved into a faint yet highly intriguing smile.

Even as a Golden Core True Person, the innate, womanly love of gossip was at this moment thoroughly stirred.

Her feelings toward that boy Long Tao were complicated.

She was annoyed by his unrestrained mouth, yet she rather enjoyed his secret infatuation.

And now, his former maid had leapt in status to become the precious treasure of her rival’s martial niece—this relationship had become exceedingly delicate.

“This is… getting a bit interesting,” she murmured softly while gazing at the twin moon reflections in the lake, an investigative glint flashing in her eyes.

……

As for Long Tao, because of Xiao Ying’s matter, he was completely unable to sleep.

He simply took advantage of his heightened excitement to continue preparing for his next breakthrough.

Sitting cross-legged, he began circulating his qi, coordinating with the Nine-Bend Palace-Stabilizing Pill to keep filling all the meridians of his body with spiritual energy.

By the next morning, Long Tao felt as though his head were stuffed with a lump of paste—heavy and muddled—yet his spirit remained inexplicably exhilarated, a surge of momentum racing through his limbs and bones.

Last night’s bizarre, fantastical spring dream, combined with Xiao Ying’s sudden nocturnal visit, gave him a pressing sense that he absolutely had to do something.

And the most urgent matter at hand was to strike while the iron was hot and seize the breakthrough to the Qi-Refining Sixth Layer!

This next stage was commonly known as “Fog-Sea Stabilization.” Just hearing the name made it clear: it involved thoroughly stabilizing the newly formed, drifting Spiritual Mist within the dantian, shaping it into a genuine prototype of a qi sea capable of circulating and storing spiritual power.

Strictly speaking, the steps of this stage did not involve any particularly profound technical difficulties—nothing more than painstaking effort, guiding spiritual energy to repeatedly scour, compress, and stabilize.

However, the process tolerated no disturbance whatsoever, and if anything went wrong midway—if spiritual energy lost control and backlashed—the lightest consequence would be the collapse of the qi sea and a regression in cultivation, while the worst could mean damage to the meridians and dantian, with extremely dire results.

For this reason, the most critical requirement for breaking through this stage was having a reliable guardian present, someone who could keep watch at one’s side and, if anything happened, immediately disperse the rampaging spiritual energy and administer timely aid!

It was at moments like this that the advantages of being a disciple of a major sect became apparent.

In the Nine-Xia Heavenly Sect, if one had poor connections and could not find familiar fellow disciples or seniors to act as guardians, it was no problem—one could directly apply to the sect for a guardian.

The sect would arrange for a sufficiently cultivated senior to protect the breakthrough.

Of course, this was a sect benefit; in the future, when one’s own cultivation grew high, one would also be forcibly assigned to act as guardian for later Qi-Refining juniors.

Enjoying the rights naturally meant bearing the obligations.

The problem was that this baseline sect service usually involved a long waiting period—normally at least ten days.

Right now, Long Tao was at the peak of his motivation and felt that he was in perfect condition.

He did not want to wait even a single minute longer!

Yet asking a familiar Golden Core elder right away—such as Elder Liu from the workshop, who had treated him well, or Elder Wu, who taught the large lectures—was something he found hard to bring himself to do.

They would most likely help, but favors from Golden Core True Persons were not so easy to repay.

Frowning deeply, he pushed open his door, pondering whether he should go to a few places frequented by outer sect disciples to try his luck and see if he could temporarily find an available senior brother or sister he knew.

The moment he looked up, he happened to see Spider Sister Luo Yusi once again in the courtyard, holding a broom.

Her six legs moved lightly as she silently swept the grounds.

Wait! Long Tao’s eyes lit up.

These spider siblings had been in the sect for quite some time—perhaps they knew some reliable and idle candidates?

“Ah, Daoist Friend Long Tao, good… good morning,” Luo Yusi noticed his gaze and shyly stopped her movements.

“Are you going out again?”

“Well… not exactly going out,” Long Tao scratched his head and decided to ask directly.

“By the way, Daoist Friend Luo, I happen to have something I’d like to ask about. I’m planning to break through to the Qi-Refining Sixth Layer today and need a guardian. Do you… know anyone relatively free who could help guard the breakthrough?”

“A guardian?” Luo Yusi froze for a moment.

Then her fair cheeks flushed slightly as she pointed to her own face with a finger and said in a soft but clear voice, “Um… I… that… I can do it…”

“You?” Long Tao looked her up and down in surprise.

A demon race acting as guardian? It seemed… he had vaguely heard of such precedents before.

But the vast majority of human cultivators never even considered this, always feeling that the demon race’s cultivation systems differed greatly from those of humans, and letting them act as guardians was ultimately unsettling.

“You can act as a guardian?” he confirmed, his tone tinged with astonishment.

“Y-yes,” Luo Yusi nodded firmly, as though trying to increase her persuasiveness by making her voice sound more resolute.

“My brother and I have, over the years in the sect, h-helped quite a few outer sect disciples act as guardians. I can’t guarantee for higher realms, but for breakthroughs below the Qi-Refining Eighth Layer, there’s absolutely no problem!”

For someone as introverted and shy as Luo Yusi to speak with such certainty, it was clear she truly had some confidence.

Still, Long Tao felt a bit uneasy.

“But… your cultivation paths aren’t very similar to those of us humans, right? This… can it really work?”

“In order to cultivate the Transformation Technique,” Luo Yusi explained softly, her six eyes blinking bashfully, “we have to understand human bodily structure and spiritual energy circulation extremely well. So… in terms of guarding breakthroughs, it should… be fine.”

On second thought, Long Tao realized that this did make sense.

It was like studying foreign languages in his past life—non-native speakers might have poorer spoken fluency, but their theoretical understanding of grammar and structure often surpassed that of most native speakers!

The doubts in his heart immediately faded by more than half, replaced by a strong curiosity.

Letting a beautiful spider spirit act as his guardian would probably become quite the conversation piece in the future.

“Then… I’ll have to trouble you, Daoist Friend Luo!” Long Tao made his decision on the spot, smiling as he clasped his hands.

“Is today convenient?”

“It is! It is!” Luo Yusi nodded repeatedly, several of her legs rubbing lightly together from nervousness and happiness.

“I just happen to have nothing else to do today!”