Miss Fairy, Please Hear Me Out

A full moon hung high in the sky, and the snow-covered mountain forest lay silent beneath it.

“Xu boy, are you saying the Beguiling Divine Sakura’s true strength for a sect lies in helping people comprehend the Dao?”

“Old Luo, how do you know absolutely nothing?”

“What do you mean, absolutely nothing? The Beguiling Divine Sakura hasn’t appeared in the world for so long. Isn’t it perfectly normal that I don’t know?”

Their quiet conversation drifted closer from the distance, accompanied by the soft crunch of two sets of footsteps pressing through the snow, floating through the wintry white forest.

Moonlight fell in peaceful silence.

Xu Yuan glanced sideways at the Sage’s remnant soul drifting in midair and patiently explained.

“Heh, you’re right. The Beguiling Divine Sakura can indeed help people comprehend Dao essence. Even a fourth rank Body Integration cultivator of ordinary talent can use it to grasp the unique Dao essence of the Beguiling Divine Sakura. Back then, after Splendorbloom Sect blood-sacrificed Wang Yuchu and Jing He, they could produce at least one third rank Grandmaster every year. That was the reason they were able to flourish.”

At this point, Xu Yuan grinned in a rather meaningful way.

This world was too vast, so vast that it had never lacked geniuses.

There were plenty of fourth rank Body Integration cultivators under the age of twenty across this enormous world, but among those geniuses, very few could break through to the third rank Grandmaster Realm in a short period of time.

Below the third rank, there were bottlenecks, but those bottlenecks only existed at the level of the body and the soul. As long as one’s meridians were broad enough, as long as one’s soul was solid enough, as long as one’s cultivation method was powerful enough, and as long as the pills kept coming, one could basically cultivate all the way to fourth-rank Body Integration without any real obstacles.

But Dao essence was something mysterious beyond words. Even if someone taught you, if you could not comprehend it, then you would never comprehend it in your entire life. Yet the Beguiling Divine Sakura could directly allow people to study and perceive Dao essence.

With that thought, Xu Yuan gently shook his head. “However, the Beguiling Divine Sakura can only allow one person to comprehend it at a time. If multiple people try to comprehend Dao essence at once, they’ll interfere with each other. Even so, it’s still enough to make everyone in the world chase after it like mad.”

The Sage’s remnant soul fell silent for a moment. Then he suddenly grinned, his eyes full of teasing amusement. “So in other words, you, brat, made Ran Qingmo cut down a treasure of your Chancellor’s Manor. Tsk, tsk. I really want to see the looks on your family’s faces when they find out. At least one Grandmaster every year. Even the Heavenwatch Pavilion back in its prime wouldn’t have dared guarantee that.”

Xu Yuan’s cheek twitched. If this matter got back home, forget Xu Changge. Even that old man of his might not be able to stop himself from coming over personally.

With a soft snort, he kept his expression unchanged and said in a low voice, “Old Luo, how do you think the Splendorbloom Sect, flourishing as it was back then, ended up being destroyed?”

Wanting to hear the information, the Sage’s remnant soul played along very cooperatively. “How?”

Xu Yuan recalled those slightly blurry dream memories in his mind, then suddenly smiled. “Old Luo, there’s one thing you got wrong earlier.”

“What?” The Sage’s remnant soul frowned.

“My Chancellor’s Manor can’t compare to the Splendorbloom Sect,” Xu Yuan said with his eyes lowered.

“Oh?” The Sage’s remnant soul narrowed his eyes.

Ran Qingmo’s dark, bright, watery eyes were also filled with curiosity as she waited for the rest of the story.

Xu Yuan gently shook his head and said softly, “Back then, Wang Yuchu made her move during the Splendorbloom Sect’s thousand-year celebration. After obtaining the Beguiling Divine Sakura and developing for nearly two sixty-year cycles, the Splendorbloom Sect reached the height of its prosperity

“On the day of the thousand-year celebration, all of the Splendorbloom Sect’s experts returned to the Splendorbloom Realm. Great sects like the Grand Purity Dao Palace and the Heavenwatch Pavilion practically all came with their sect masters leading the delegation, several Saints accompanying them, and disciples from every branch coming to offer congratulations. The entire Splendorbloom Realm was celebrating.”

“Wait.” The Sage’s remnant soul frowned and cut him off.

Xu Yuan glanced at him. “What?”

The Sage’s remnant soul looked at Xu Yuan and said, “Even if the Splendorbloom Sect was that powerful, the master of the Heavenwatch Pavilion would never leave the sect so easily. Even if he wanted to show respect, at most he’d send one or two Sage Venerables.”

Xu Yuan shrugged. “I’m very sure that person was the master of the Heavenwatch Pavilion.”

Because that person was Tian Rui. Unlike him and Tian Yan, Jing He had only cut off one of the Saint’s arms back then, the arm wearing the Sumeru Ring. That was also one of the reasons the Splendorbloom Sect had been able to withstand the pressure and protect Jing He.

The Sage’s remnant soul’s eyes flickered uncertainly, but then he sighed and said in a low voice, “All right. Go on.”

Xu Yuan gave a light cough. “In short, the celebration went very smoothly. When that kid Tang Jiuqing... cough, when the sect master of the Splendorbloom Sect announced the start of the thousand-year celebration before the hall, Wang Yuchu made her move.”

At this point, Xu Yuan recalled the scene from back then, and his gaze turned strange and complicated. “The way Wang Yuchu acted was very simple. She used the Beguiling Sakura Flowers.”

“Beguiling Sakura Flowers?” The Sage’s remnant soul’s expression turned a little odd. “There were that many powerful cultivators in the Splendorbloom Realm at the time. How could that possibly work?”

Xu Yuan ignored his words and simply continued. “With her alone, of course it would have been impossible. But the moment she made her move, all those experts who had comprehended the Beguiling Sakura Dao essence instantly became sources releasing the aphrodisiac poison of the Beguiling Sakura Flower.”

The Sage’s remnant soul fell speechless.

Ran Qingmo’s little mouth opened into an O.

Xu Yuan glanced at the two of them. “In almost an instant, the entire Splendorbloom Realm was covered by a sea of Beguiling Sakura Flowers. The hundreds of thousands of cultivators who had come to celebrate all fell into illusions.”

At this point, Xu Yuan paused for a moment, then said, “Old Luo, you should understand how dangerous that sea of sakura blossoms formed by Wang Yuchu’s self-destruction earlier was, right? The sea of blossoms ten thousand years ago was several levels stronger than the effect from that self-destruction.”

“Mhm. Tia Rui, which is to say the master of the Heavenwatch Pavilion at the time, did manage to stay barely conscious and tried to escape. Unfortunately, Wang Yuchu controlled the other Sages and had them beat him to death.”

Hearing this, the Sage’s remnant soul fell silent. His eyes flickered for a moment before his pupils suddenly contracted, and he let out a long sigh. “So that’s how it was...”

“What?” Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow. He had no idea what this Old Luo had suddenly figured out now.

“The great calamity from twenty thousand years ago,” the Sage’s remnant soul said.

Xu Yuan raised his brows. “What great calamity? The wraithfiends?”

“The wraithfiends weren’t the only kind of calamity.” The Sage’s remnant soul shook his head. “No wonder the master of the Heavenwatch Pavilion personally went there back then. He must have wanted to use the celebration as a chance to inform the world and gather their fighting strength.”

As he spoke, the Sage’s remnant soul revealed a playful smile. “And in the end, they were all wiped out together at the celebration.”

Xu Yuan understood at once. He wrapped his palm in source qi, patted the Sage’s remnant soul on the shoulder, and said, “So, the Beguiling Divine Sakura is a double-edged sword. One careless move and it bites back. My father and the others won’t blame me.”

The Sage’s remnant soul shook his head, then suddenly asked, “Then why was the illusion space you mentioned so enormous? That was more than half the world.”

Hearing this, Xu Yuan suddenly stopped in the snow and glanced at the Sage’s remnant soul with a faint smile.

The Sage’s remnant soul fell silent, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Xu boy, I’ve told you everything you wanted to know. Don’t play this game with me.”

“Pfft.” Xu Yuan failed to hold it in and laughed out loud. Once he had laughed enough, he suddenly gave a soft, lingering sigh. “Don’t be nervous. Actually, at first, Tian... mm, I was always very curious about that too. Later, after hearing Wang Yuchu explain it herself, I learned that the illusion was formed by gathering together the soul imprints of those who died at the thousand-year celebration The soul imprints of hundreds of thousands of cultivators, the powerful figures from more than half the world, all converged to create that illusory world.”

The moment his words fell, Xu Yuan had just been about to grin when Ran Qingmo beside him raised a hand and covered his mouth.

The next instant, a vast fluctuation of source qi swept past from the distance, scaring Xu Yuan into shutting up at once.

It was Tian Yan.

They had used the secret teleportation array that Tian Rui had left behind and arrived in the Myriad Ascents Mountain Range four days ago.

Tian Yan’s source qi fluctuations had appeared on the second day.

That washboard Saintess had been tearing through the mountain range like a madwoman these past few days, searching everywhere for people.