Roar!
Splash!
Just before the Purpleflame slammed down onto her, Hua Jian narrowly dove into the lake, using the water to extinguish the Spirit Beast’s flames.
As she had expected, soon after entering the Spirit Beast Territory, the beast that had just fought Linglong quickly returned to its territory and pursued her.
As for how the Spirit Beast knew someone had invaded its territory, Hua Jian had yet to find the answer.
But she was certain that the Spirit Beast possessed the ability to sense intrusions in its territory from a distance. If Linglong wanted to sneak into the Spirit Beast Lair to search for treasure, solving this problem was the first priority.
Just like the cultivator from yesterday, Hua Jian stayed in the lake until the Spirit Beast lost interest and left. To be safe, she waited an extra hour in the water before using a teleportation technique to leave the lake and return to her cozy little den.
As soon as she returned to the cave, she took off her black clothes and held the soaking wet garment to her nose, taking a deep sniff.
“Doesn’t seem to have any scent…” Unfortunately, besides the faint fragrance of flowers, Hua Jian couldn’t detect any other smells.
As a cultivator specializing in miasma, her sense of smell was exceptionally sharp—on par with some Spirit Beasts renowned for their olfactory prowess.
If even she couldn’t detect any scent, then the tiger probably couldn’t smell much either.
“This garment’s scent is so strong,” Linglong pinched her nose at this moment. Ever since Hua Jian entered the cave, the entire space had been filled with an overwhelmingly strong, almost nauseating fragrance that made her uncomfortable.
“I’m trying to interfere with the Spirit Beast’s senses, so I have to use strong materials,” Hua Jian didn’t deny the black clothes’ pungent scent, but said it was a necessary measure.
To mask her own scent, the stronger the interference woven into the garment, the better.
Unable to tolerate the smell, Linglong pulled a crystal-clear small orb out of her Storage Pouch and tossed it to Hua Jian.
“This Ling Water Pearl can summon a flow of water. Wash this garment clean for me.”
With that, Linglong strode out of the cave in two quick steps to get some fresh air.
Though the Saintess Daren had a good temper, some things were simply beyond her endurance—like this overwhelming fragrance.
Hua Jian caught the orb Linglong threw. The Ling Water Pearl was a well-known spiritual artifact in the cultivation world, ranging in price from five Spirit Stones to a hundred Spirit Stones.
A five-Spirit Stone Ling Water Pearl could only summon ordinary water flow, while the hundred-Spirit Stone versions could add special effects like purification and detoxification.
It was essentially a must-have survival tool for low-level cultivators.
Of course, Hua Jian hadn’t bought one. She thought spending five Spirit Stones on a pearl that only produced water was a bit extravagant; better to make use of the pure water in the Secret Realm.
But the Ling Water Pearl Linglong gave her was of excellent quality, clearly a precious treasure far better than the most expensive Ling Water Pearl Hua Jian had ever seen.
“No wonder the big sects are loaded—things they toss around casually are the value of my entire lifetime,” Hua Jian scoffed and used her spiritual power to summon a clear stream from the pearl to clean her black clothes.
Sure enough, the water flow from the pearl was different from ordinary water. The fragrant powder Hua Jian had sprinkled on her clothes was effortlessly washed away.
After rinsing once, her black clothes looked as good as new, with no scent left.
“The effect is amazing…” The power granted by Spirit Stones made Hua Jian envious. Without this Ling Water Pearl, she would have had to spend at least half an hour washing by the riverside to remove the scent.
Thanks to the Ling Water Pearl, the cleaning took only a moment—less time than it takes to drink a sip of water.
Sss…
Just as Hua Jian was marveling, the water stream cleaning her black clothes suddenly changed.
The water, which had just washed away all the dirt and absorbed it, began to boil from within—steam rising continuously. This was definitely abnormal!
Hua Jian’s flower powder couldn’t have caused this. She was a wood-element cultivator, not fire!
“Saintess! Saintess Daren! Come quickly and see what this is!” Realizing something was wrong, Hua Jian grabbed the boiling water and dashed out of the cave like a whirlwind.
Though Linglong was a bit slow, she knew there were many things going on, and Hua Jian wouldn’t forget to seek her help at a time like this.
Linglong, taking a breath outside the cave, heard Hua Jian’s frantic shouts and instinctively turned around, only to see Hua Jian still in wet clothes rushing toward her while holding a steaming, boiling mass of water.
Even the experienced Saintess was momentarily stunned by the strange sight.
“What’s going on?” After recovering, she motioned for Hua Jian to stop and explain.
After hearing the whole story, Linglong frowned slightly, finding the matter indeed quite intriguing.
Why had the water suddenly boiled?
It could only mean there was fire-element dirt on the clothes, and the quality of that fire element had to be high enough.
What fire-element thing had Hua Jian come into contact with today? It had to be something with high-quality fire element…
Putting these two conditions together, the answer suddenly became very clear. The only high-quality fire-element thing Hua Jian encountered today was that Spirit King-level Spirit Beast!
The Purpleflame Black Tiger—it used purple flames, so it was naturally fire-elemental.
The flames from a Spirit King-level Spirit Beast were high quality enough to boil water summoned by a Ling Master-level spiritual power. This was entirely plausible.
“No, I’m sure that Spirit Beast didn’t hit me, or I would have been finished already,” Hua Jian shook her head, feeling this guess still had some flaws.
The substance on her clothes couldn’t have come from the Spirit Beast’s attack; it must have been something she accidentally came into contact with inside the Spirit Beast Territory.
“So that means the Spirit Beast’s territory might be full of such substances, and once you get them on you, the Spirit Beasts will hunt you down to the death?”
Hua Jian felt this idea was the correct one. Spirit Beasts had to have some unique means—using this covert fire element to identify who had entered their territory fit perfectly with the capabilities of a Spirit King-level Spirit Beast.
If it weren’t for the accidental intervention of Linglong’s Ling Water Pearl washing away the dirt on her clothes, tomorrow she might have been hunted down just like the cultivator from today.
Of course, she wasn’t so easy to take down.
“If my guess is correct, maybe we can actually find a way to explore the territory without alerting the Spirit Beasts!” Hua Jian pounded her palm excitedly.
This excitement wasn’t just for Linglong’s sake. The Spirit Beast Territory was a perilous place few cultivators dared enter, and the resources there far surpassed other parts of the Secret Realm!
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.