Chapter 136: The Female Cultivator of the Same Name

Feng Ke'er cleaved open a few more Earth Crystals at random.

Every single one of them revealed a five-colored core!

The Earth Crystals had truly mutated. What on earth could have caused such a transformation? Feng Ke'er was utterly bewildered. Fearing she might leave a trace, she had spent these years sealing away the rest of her spiritual energy, strictly practicing only the respiration of Earth spiritual energy. Therefore, it was absolutely impossible that she had "contaminated" this vast pile of the purest Earth Crystals.

In the end, Feng Ke'er decided to conduct a tracking experiment to investigate thoroughly.

She retreated back into her Space Sphere and began her usual breathing and qi-refining exercises. This time, however, she split off five hundred nascent souls to keep a close watch on the grand circulation of Earth spiritual energy.

After two grand cycles, the circulation commenced.

She absorbed the Earth spiritual energy and refined it. As she circulated this refined energy, it seeped out from the acupuncture points across her body—at this stage, the Earth spiritual energy was still perfectly pure.

Then, the Earth spiritual energy exuding from her body dissipated, silently and imperceptibly merging into the Space Sphere. The concentration of Earth spiritual energy within the sphere reached saturation. The spiritual energy closest to the sphere's walls actually adhered to the spiritual filaments formed by the Earth energy on the inner surface, slowly condensing into new filaments. At the same time, the outer filaments vaporized into Earth spiritual energy at the same rate. This was the true reason why Earth spiritual energy could permeate the sphere's walls. Feng Ke'er could see it clearly: the Earth spiritual energy that vaporized outside the sphere's walls was no longer pure. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it mutated Earth spiritual energy. In terms of attributes, they remained Earth spiritual energy, but while the halo of pure Earth spiritual energy was black, these ones were oily black on the outside, yet possessed a faint five-colored core within.

So, the Earth spiritual energy had never truly passed through the sphere's walls. What had been happening all along was an exchange of energy!

The Space Sphere had been baptized by the five-colored auspicious light ten times. Even in the later instances, though Feng Ke'er had used a cloth bag woven from magical power to intercept a portion, most of the five-colored light had transformed into particles and been absorbed by the sphere's walls.

These auspicious light particles were incredibly potent. Over time, they had "reconstructed" the spiritual filaments that made up the walls. This change had been so subtle that Feng Ke'er had never noticed it.

Feng Ke'er pressed two fingers to her brow, held her breath, and peered closely at the sphere's walls. Indeed, the cores of all three types of spiritual filaments were identical—five-colored! The situation was no different from the mutated Earth Crystals outside!

So, this was the primary reason for the Space Sphere's evolution. The changes in energy density and the increased abundance of spiritual qi were all secondary. The main cause was that the sphere's walls had been fitted with a powerful core of auspicious light particles!

What changes, then, had occurred in the properties of the mutated Earth Crystals? Feng Ke'er had previously refined an entire Earth Crystal and knew its properties better than anyone.

With a flick of her mind, she slipped out of the Space Sphere and drew a green-glinting wooden sword. Out of curiosity, she jabbed at an Earth Crystal. She had obtained this wooden sword in the Heart of the Barrier Sea; it was a low-grade wooden treasure. Since the five elements interact through generation and restriction, and wood overcomes earth, the tip of the sword should have caused the crystal's surface to shatter instantly without any effort on her part. That was how she had broken down the Earth Crystals she had found previously.

To her surprise, the wooden sword could not pierce the Earth Crystal.

Feng Ke'er applied force.

*Snap!* Sparks flew, and the wooden sword broke in two! This Earth Crystal was even harder than a nugget of red gold!

Holding the broken sword in one hand, Feng Ke'er felt her heart bleeding.

*Waaaah!* My divine sword!

Ever since she had obtained this wooden sword, she had used it to poke at her furnace every time she refined pills! From now on, where would she find such a handy fire-poker?

Furthermore, what if the entire Earth Crystal mine had turned into impure metal-attribute spiritual ore? If that were the case, she might have inadvertently altered the feng shui of the Kunlun Mountains! She couldn't tell if that would be a blessing or a curse for Kunlun.

By comparison, the loss of a wooden sword was nothing.

Just then, she faintly sensed a weak fluctuation of spiritual power coming from the spiritual vein! It was like a small stone dropped into a calm lake, the ripples of weak energy emanating from deep underground.

Having stayed in this place for nearly nine years, this was the first time she had sensed any spiritual activity!

Feng Ke'er was startled.

*There is someone in the spiritual vein!* The thought flashed through her mind.

She quickly calmed down. Through the fluctuations, she concluded that although there were two people, the one with higher cultivation was only at the Core Formation stage, and the lower one was just a novice who had barely reached Foundation Establishment.

However, she soon realized something was wrong: this was deep beneath the Kunlun Mountains. The Core Formation cultivator coming this deep was plausible, but since when could a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator be so heaven-defying? Even in her own youth, she certainly couldn't have tunneled this deep. Could it be that old saying was true: the waves of the Yangtze River push the ones before them, and the predecessors are left to die on the shore?

*No, I must see for myself to be sure!* To be safe, she retrieved her Phoenix Jade pendant, hung it around her neck, and formed a hand seal with her right hand: "Shift!"

In the next second, she teleported near the source of the fluctuations—a mile away from the two unknown cultivators.

It was too close; she feared alerting them.

In fact, she was already inside the spiritual vein.

A spiritual vein is essentially a massive spiritual ore mine. These mines often span several miles, sometimes dozens or even hundreds, hence the name.

The interior of the vein was hollow. Countless spiritual ores were stacked layer upon layer, translucent and crystalline, either piled on the ground or hanging from the ceiling like a massive karst cave.

Feng Ke'er leaned behind a giant stalactite of spiritual ore, arms crossed over her chest, ready to watch the show.

Yes, it was exactly that—a show.

Five hundred meters away, a man and a woman stood with their backs to her, performing a tragic melodrama.

The male cultivator, the little Foundation Establishment novice, was tugging at the woman's sleeve, pleading in a soft, wheedling voice: "Let's go back."

The female cultivator snorted: "No."

Man: "Can you stop being so selfish and unreasonable?"

Woman: "I am selfish! I want to be unreasonable!"

Man: "You are too selfish, too unreasonable."

Woman: "You are the selfish one! You are the unreasonable one!"

...

Feng Ke'er felt goosebumps rising all over her skin and nearly slapped herself: *Fine. It's me who is selfish and unreasonable. Asking for trouble, coming here to watch this nutritional-void drama.*

Encountering people like this, her curiosity vanished. Shuddering, she prepared to leave.

Just then, the drama escalated.

"Feng Ke'er, you are too selfish, too unreasonable!" The little novice threw off the woman's sleeve and, using a speed-enhancing technique, ran off into the depths of the vein without looking back.

It was a standard, tedious melodrama. However, the name "Feng Ke'er" shouted by the novice acted like a high-energy magnet, pinning her to the spot.

*Uh, did I hear that right?* The Core Formation female cultivator ahead had the same name as her!

Her heart trembled, and Feng Ke'er couldn't help but turn back.

At that moment, the woman seemed to deflate, collapsing softly to the ground, burying her face in her hands and sobbing.

Watching that pitiful sight... Feng Ke'er curled her lip, gripping the giant spiritual stalactite tightly with both hands—otherwise, she feared she might lose control, rush out, and lift the girl's chin to see what she looked like.

Cultivation was a lonely road. It had been a long time since she had heard anyone call her by her full name, "Feng Ke'er." Of course, in this case, they weren't calling her.

The long-forgotten name reminded her of a past event, long since buried—it seemed that the name "Feng Ke'er" was something she had usurped to begin with.

The Goddess Nüwa lived on the peak of the Kunlun Mountains. She had once been the Saintess of the Feng clan.

Deep beneath the Kunlun Mountains, she had encountered a female cultivator also named "Feng Ke'er."

Could there really be no connection? Was it just a coincidence, or was it truly just a coincidence?

Fortunately, female cultivators of this era were relatively thick-skinned. After crying for a while, the woman wiped her tears with her sleeve, stood up, summoned her flying sword, and departed.

Feng Ke'er performed a hand seal for an invisibility spell and followed—she could have used her divine sense to track them, but considering she was under the Kunlun Mountains, a place shielded by Nüwa, she decided to be diligent.

A quarter of an hour later, the woman caught up to the runaway novice.

"You, get on!" The woman, putting aside her grievances, pulled him onto her flying sword.

The novice looked back, his beautiful peach-blossom eyes flashing with two bright sparks of joy, though his face remained deliberately stoic.

*Well, what a pretty boy.* Feng Ke'er followed from a distance, rubbing her nose. The sister ahead might share her name, but her taste was vastly different from her own... This world truly proved that to each their own.

After following for another duration of an incense stick, they seemed to reach the end of the spiritual vein. The woman pushed her hands out, casting a dozen grand seals in succession—Feng clan techniques! Feng Ke'er immediately perked up.

A shimmering barrier appeared.

The two slipped inside and vanished.

What they didn't know was that at the very moment the barrier tore open, Feng Ke'er slipped in right behind them.

Inside the barrier lay another world!

*Oh, so many ghosts...* Well, there were no ghosts yet. They should be called souls, or more accurately, vengeful spirits—when a cultivator falls, they vanish like a snuffed candle. Only when mortals die do their souls remain. Since there was no Underworld in this era, the souls of the deceased often became wandering spirits drifting through the human realm. If the souls carried resentment, they became vengeful spirits. These spirits possessed a certain degree of offensive power, and many cultivators liked to use banners to capture them as weapon spirits to enhance the power of their artifacts.

Before Feng Ke'er's eyes appeared a vast, empty world filled with towering resentment.

At the very top hovered a small wooden hut. The man and woman flew straight into it.

Below, twelve massive stone pillars, each thick enough for three people to embrace and over ten meters tall, were arranged in three rows and four columns. They were carved with various soul-suppressing runes, and each was topped with a fist-sized night-luminescent orb, illuminating the entire area.

Using the pillars as anchor points, countless soul-summoning banners divided the area into six zones.

In each zone, ten thousand translucent vengeful spirits clad in black armor and wielding blades, axes, and halberds were drilling in formation, just like an army.

Clearly, someone was training a nether army! A series of questions flooded Feng Ke'er's mind: How were so many human souls gathered here? Who had the capability to build a nether army of sixty thousand souls? What on earth were they planning...