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Su Yi glanced at the Profound Snowfiend Python, then said, “Yuan Heng, I’m going to take this Absolute Yin Spirit Vein with me. In the meantime, teach the art of transformation you learned from Tao Qingshan to Bai Wenqing.”
After a brief daze, Yuan Heng smiled. “Yes, Master!”
He turned to face the Profound Snowfiend Python. “Miss Bai, come with me.”
“Fellow Daoist Su, thank you for your generosity!” The Profound Snowfiend Python kowtowed three times before turning and exiting the cave with Yuan Heng.
“I want to watch too!” said Qing Ya excitedly.
She was just about to chase after them when Ling Yunhe pushed her head down. “Girl, what kind of show are you hoping to see?”
Qing Ya didn’t hide it. “I want to watch Big Sister Bai transform!”
Ling Yunhe sighed in exasperation. “Silly, the Dharma is not a public spectacle. If you watch uninvited, you’ll be committing a taboo.”
“Oh,” said Qing Ya. Only then did she behave herself.
Su Yi, meanwhile, stood by the lake and took out a jade bottle. He formed several hand seals, covering the bottle with a profound and mysterious restriction array.
Then, he tossed it into the air and said, “Capture!”
Whoosh~!
The pond was several dozen feet across. A black, icy current surged from within it, streaking into the jade bottle’s interior.
This was Absolute Yin Spirit Liquid, a product of the Absolute Yin Spirit Vein. It was a tier-five spiritual material, and it could be used both for refining medicine and for refining treasures. It was also highly useful for Qing Wan’s cultivation.
Before long, Su Yi finished gathering every last drop of the lake’s Absolute Yin Spirit Liquid, and he put the jade bottle away.
The jade bottle was a storage treasure too. It was one of the spoils he’d acquired from killing Madam Miaohua and the other cultivators of the Great Chu. It held a self-contained space, and it could store numerous spiritual objects.
With the liquid gone, the cold, lustrous black rock at the bottom was now visible. It emanated a piercingly cold baleful Yin energy.
Su Yi evaluated it briefly, then ordered, “Step back at least one hundred feet.”
Ling Yunhe hurriedly led Qing Ya away.
Su Yi didn’t delay any further. He drew the Abstruse God Sword with a clang, turned his wrist, and struck several times in rapid succession.
Kacha! Kacha! Kacha!
Cuts so perfectly straight, they looked as if they’d been made with a ruler appeared on the black stone’s surface. They crisscrossed, cutting about three feet deep.
Su Yi couldn’t help but arch his brow.
With his current cultivation and the power of the Abstruse God Sword, even Gathering Stars Realm cultivators couldn’t block his attacks.
Yet now, he could only cut three-foot slices into the lakebed. It was obvious how durable the rocks were.
Su Yi thought for a moment, then took out Early Grave.
“This is an opportunity to condense a weapon spirit. If you fail to seize it, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.”
Early Grave shook; it seemed it understood. A cold, ferocious aura emanated from the blade, and it seemed ready for action.
Su Yi hesitated no further. He took the cursed sword by the hilt and struck once more.
A streak of sword qi with monstrous murderous intent swept forth, cleaving into the cuts he’d left on the lake bed. A series of cracks and booms rang out.
In the end, when the rift was ninety feet deep, suddenly—
Boom!
There was a strange movement deep within the lakebed, and a terrifying Yin chill burst forth, shattering the ninety feet of black stone into countless pebbles. They flew forth like sharp arrows, scattering in all directions.
Bang bang bang!
Soon, the nearby walls of the cave were covered in eye-catching holes brimming with cold air.
Practically simultaneously, a streak of pale blue light shot out of the hole in the lakebed. In a flash, surging Absolute Yin Chill swept forth like waters at high tide, freezing everything they touched. The air, rocks, and even the dust were instantly frozen solid.
Even Su Yi found himself covered in a faint layer of frost.
Ling Yunhe couldn’t help but feel startled. The sheer cold Yin power could easily freeze a Gathering Stars Realm cultivator into an ice statue!
But before long, the frost covering Su Yi silently disappeared without a trace. How could something like this influence someone who controlled the Dao Charm of Yin?
Whoosh!
With a flash of light, the vicious sword, Early Grave, accurately struck the fleeing faint blue light.
Ssssss!
A piercing hiss rang out.
Upon closer inspection, the faint blue light was a quivering, orblike spiritual body. It was illusory and transparent, and it surged with intimidating, icy blue light.
An Absolute Yin Ice Soul!
This was a spiritual body born of an Absolute Yin Spirit Vein. It contained extreme Yin and extreme chill, and it possessed a certain degree of awareness and instinct. They were extremely rare.
If refined and added to a magic treasure, it could improve the treasure’s quality, helping nourish and create a spiritual entity unique to said treasure!
Earlier, while excavating the bottom of the pool, Su Yi keenly picked up on a trace of the unique presence of an Absolute Yin Ice Soul. This was why he took out Early Grave.
He’d once promised it that, should he have the opportunity, he’d reforge it and remedy the deficiencies in its foundations, granting it the potential to give rise to a sword soul.
Now, the opportunity was right in front of his eye!
The Absolute Yin Ice Soul struggled like mad against Early Grave, hissing and wailing, but it was to no avail. Early Grave’s power thoroughly suppressed it, then relentlessly invaded and devoured it.
In just a few breaths of time, the Absolute Yin Ice Soul let out one final mournful wail before disappearing completely into Early Grave.
Bzzzz!
Early Grave shook, as if whooping for joy, or as if expressing its gratitude to Su Yi.
Su Yi flicked his fingers, and the vicious sword instantly quieted down and let him put it away.
I already gave Lingxue the Celestial Xiezhi Sword. This one
 I can hold onto for Qing Wan, thought Su Yi.
Qing Wan was a ghost cultivator, a former Yin soul who’d proven her Dao. After absorbing the Absolute Yin Ice Soul, the cursed sword Early Grave could give rise to an extreme Yin weapon spirit. In Qing Wan’s hands, a weapon like that could display power beyond imagination.
Su Yi’s gaze then returned to the bottom of the lake bed. He stretched out his hand and grabbed.
Whoosh!
He pulled a ninety-foot black spirit vein towards him.
The spirit vein was radiant and glistening, and it shone with inky light. It was about a foot thick, and from a distance, it looked like a giant black serpent.
This was an Absolute Yin Spirit Vein!
It condensed by absorbing the Yin energies of nature, and it was dark and translucent as black jade. Incomparably pure absolute Yin energy emanated from it.
The world’s spirit stones, regardless of tier, were all obtained from within spirit veins!
This Absolute Yin Spirit Vein was fully ninety feet long, and it was a foot wide. If cut into the universal standard size and shape for spirit stones, it would produce at least ten thousand of them!
Of course, that was no different from desecrating a heavenly treasure. Su Yi wouldn’t do something like that.
The value of a spirit vein was that it could transform the atmosphere of an entire landscape. It could gather the origin power of heaven and earth, transforming a region into a blessed ground for cultivation.
Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.
A rare treasure like the Absolute Yin Spirit Vein also had miraculous applications in other areas, from weapon and pill refining to cultivation.
Its value couldn’t be measured in terms of spirit stones.
Even a Spirit Dao cultivator would surely go red-eyed with greed at the sight of it.
Su Yi thought for a moment, then cut two ten-foot sections off the spirit vein. He then gave these to Ling Yunhe and Qing Ya.
“Many thanks, Fellow Daoist.” Ling Yunhe bowed in gratitude.
Qing Ya was delighted too. “Thanks, Big Brother Su Yi!”
Neither of them would have guessed that Su Yi would share his good fortune with them.
However, to Su Yi, it was a matter of principle. When he worked with other people, it didn’t matter how much they obtained or who had done what. He absolutely couldn’t take everything for himself.
Su Yi waved their gratitude away. “Let’s leave this place for now.”
Outside the cave, Yuan Heng was chatting with a woman in white.
When she saw the woman in white, Qing Ya was briefly dazed, but then, her eyes sparkled. She exclaimed, “Wah! Big Sister Bai really is a beauty!”
When she heard this, the woman couldn’t help but lower her head bashfully.
Beneath the sunlight, her skin was tender and fair as suet, and her features were beautiful and elegant. Her black hair hung loose, and she had a cold, solitary air about her.
This was the human form of the Profound Snowfiend Python after undergoing metamorphosis, and indeed, her beauty far surpassed the masses.
Su Yi looked her over, then instantly understood. Bai Wenqing didn’t encounter a tribulation of metamorphosis due to her vast accumulation. Even before taking on human form, she was worthy of the title “yao cultivator”; after all, she was strong enough to fight Gathering Stars Realm experts.
All she lacked was the metamorphosis itself.
Now that Yuan Heng had taught her the trick, she’d broken through the shackles of her animalistic yao body and become a true yao cultivator in every sense of the word.
Ling Yunhe couldn’t help but feel surprised.
He was keenly aware of how difficult metamorphosis was for yao. Who would have thought that Bai Wenqing would smoothly achieve metamorphosis so soon after learning the art of transformation? Furthermore, her cultivation was already in the Gathering Stars Realm, and her aura was even stronger than that of most others in the same realm!
Looking at this from another angle, this proved how miraculous the art of transformation Yuan Heng taught her was!
Ling Yunhe didn’t even need to think to know that a method so miraculous had come from Su Yi. When Yuan Heng underwent metamorphosis, he must have received pointers too.
For a while, waves of emotion coursed through his heart. Su Yi
 Just who are you?
You don’t just have limitless, terrifying accumulations; even your secret arts and methods are unbelievable. It’s as if there’s no aspect of cultivation you don’t excel in!
Bai Wenqing approached and was just about to kneel and kowtow in gratitude when Su Yi stopped her and said calmly, “No need for that. I’ve always detested convoluted displays of etiquette.”
Yuan Heng hesitated, then stepped up as well. “Master, I asked Miss Bai earlier, and she said she hasn’t left this place in three hundred years. Now, she’s successfully taken on human form, but she doesn’t know where to go next. I was thinking and
 How about we let her travel with us for now?”
He felt tense and uncertain, and he dared not meet Su Yi’s gaze for fear that his suggestion would provoke, displease, or anger Su Yi.
Su Yi glanced at Yuan Heng. Seems the little turtle’s got the hots for Bai Wenqing.
Qing Ya’s eyes darted back and forth, and she giggled, “Big Brother Su Yi, let Big Sister Bai come with us! Otherwise, I’m afraid Big Brother Yuan Heng will be upset.”
Yuan Heng instantly felt awkward, and his coppery face instantly flushed red. “It’s not like that! Don’t talk nonsense, I just
”
Su Yi waved dismissively. “Enough, you don’t need to explain.”
He then turned to Bai Wenqing. “Are you willing to travel with us?”
After all, where she went was ultimately up to her.