While heading back to her own new place, Mu Zixi silently watched as Zhou Tianshen ran for the Outer Yard.

Her only impression of Xu Xiaoshou...

​​

Was hateful. He stunk!

"Hmph, whatever," she thought. "None of my business."

Her pigtails danced about as she hopped her way out of the group. The little girl, who was wearing a pale green dress, looked like a fairy, and she mouthed a song as she took out a pill and bit and chewed it like it was some kind of candy.

A thick fragrance emanated from her mouth and nose, which was inevitable, as none could actually perfectly absorb the power of the pills.

The fauna swayed in her direction, looking like they wanted to touch that mystical power they could only dream of.

"That's a Life Generating Pill indeed." A sigh was heard all of a sudden.

"Who goes there!" Mu Zixi kept her eyes peeled and dusted her hands. Dust was kicking up all around her. All the surrounding fauna was turned to her eyes and ears, allowing her to immediately sense everything in her surroundings.

She then turned to the side.

An old guy and a young guy…

Ptuih, two old guys!

"Dean, vice dean?" She suppressed the urge to make a move, her eyes full of curiosity. "It's getting late. Can I be of service in any way?"

Elder Sang lifted his hat, letting the moon shine on the amicable smile on his face. "What kind of spiritual physique are you?"

Mu Zixi peered further around the fauna, a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean?"

Elder Sang then appeared right before her and took her wrist. She tried to resist, yet quickly found herself unable to shake free.

"Huh?

"This is weird. When did you become so average? You didn't feel like this at the library."

Elder Sang thought back to when he found her stealing books in the library and she'd been so shocked by his appearance that she'd passed out. Back then, there'd been an extremely massive life force inside her.

However, that wasn't the terrifying thing here. What was more terrifying was how her wood elemental trait had allowed her to consume that lifeforce, allowing her to evolve further.

Throughout all the decades he'd lived, that was the first time he'd met with someone with a spiritual physique.

He'd let her be back then because he'd been worried about Xu Xiaoshou.

However, despite all the information he'd read afterward, he'd been unable to find any information regarding such a physique.

Yet, if a spiritual physique of any kind could keep evolving on its own, then, theoretically speaking, with the right conditions met such a physique would completely possess the potential to become a sacred physique.

Mu Zixi's spiritual physique needed to consume lifeforce, which was why she was munching on a Life Generating Pill.

If her lifeforce wasn't kept at an adequately high level, her wood elemental powers would then gradually engage in autophagy, which would eventually lead to her powers' demise.

"You just consumed a Life Generating Pill, so your body should've seen an exponential spike in your lifeforce, but you ended up suppressing that lifeforce in you instead because you were so tense...

"I'm right, am I not?" Elder Sang chuckled. The massive bags under his eyes made him look frightening under the moonlight. Seeing that Mu Zixi still looked confused, he slowly shook his head. "There's no need to lie to me, because your goal can never be reached."

"I have no idea what physique I actually am, but I know that if I were to not eat this thing, I'd die." Mu Zixi became rather panicked. "If it's lifeforce you're looking for, you can look elsewhere instead!"

"There's a guy whose lifeforce is over 100 times stronger than mine!" she thought.

But she kept this last sentence to herself.

"Oh? You mean Xu Xiaoshou?" Elder Sang said, looking as if he knew everything there was to know.

Mu Zixi was completely flustered. She didn't know what else to do.

"Life-devouring Wood Physique?" Ye Xiaotian later appeared, frowning as he pondered, "Such a physique is rare, and I vaguely remember that there is one such name."

Mu Zixi took hold of her pigtails and backed away several steps. "What are you two up to? I'm not just going to take it lying down."

Ye Xiaotian was stunned and realized that the old fart by his side was actually emanating quite a bit of pressure.

The conversation should've been a casual one, but the presence of the old man was giving it a different feel.

"No need to worry. You're a disciple of the spirit palace, which means you're a junior of ours. No need to overthink things." Ye Xiaotian, who was hovering in the air, patted her head to comfort her.

Elder Sang was about to say something when Ye Xiaotian shot him a look, signaling that he would do the talking.

"So, here's the deal. We have a massive opportunity here for you, but it might result in death. Are you willing to take it?"

Mu Zixi instinctually shook her head, yet she soon stopped herself and pondered this.

"What opportunity?"

Ye Xiaotian shook his head and said nothing.

There was no way he would just blurt it out like that. He'd seen that the juniors needed a bit of challenge, after all.

If one didn't have the courage to face death, then one need not even think of embarking on the true path of spiritual cultivation and go out on one's own adventure out of the spirit palace.

The Inner Yard itself would be enough to kill a person, after all.

Elder Sang frantically rubbed his hands together, figuring that Ye Xiaotian had too much time on his hands because the latter kept wanting to plan everything out in detail.

"Do you think that's how everything in the world works, huh?" he thought.

"If it were me, I'd have gotten it done already!

"Plant the seed first, then give her the story. The opportunity is here for you, and it's up to you to take it or not.

"There're so many geniuses out there. You think we have time to wait for every one of them like that?

"D*mn it, the Tiansang Spirit Palace really is snuffing out the youngsters' road to supremacy. Idleness breeds complacency and death indeed. Only Xiao Qixiu will still be of any use."

Mu Zixi didn't reply right away, and looked at Ye Xiaotian. "Could you give me some time to think about it?"

Elder Sang was just about to say something when Ye Xiaotian immediately interjected,

"You have one day to think about it."

…

Huff!

Xu Xiaoshou breathed a sigh of relief after walking out of Rao Yinyin's place.

With Su Qianqian standing between them, both of them had mostly just vented their frustrations and didn't end up actually fighting.

When the time came, Su Qianqian had taken Rao Yinyin outside, and he'd left, not daring to stand around for long.

"Well, although that Yinyin witch did say she'd give me the entire mountain if I could get just one Sovereign Pill for her.

"But, the pill…

"Heh, I don't even know if I could actually get one," Xu Xiaoshou sighed.

The mountain back there was huge, and there were many vacant places to be found.

However, Xu Xiaoshou had later learned from Su Qianqian that the entire place had basically been taken up Rao Yinyin alone, as the others were either incapable of finding their way there or wouldn't dare to show up.

That was because all of them would basically be blasted out of the place as soon as they reached there.

Su Qianqian had then learned that her Brother Xiaoshou was about to find a place in the Inner Yard and was naturally so overjoyed that she wouldn't just let him go.

As such, Xu Xiaoshou had been forced to stay around instead.

He'd picked a place that was closer to Su Qianqian's place, which was quite a ways away from Rao Yinyin's.

He came to his new place and opened the door with the token in his hand.

The place was indeed vacant. With the exception of two huge houses, there was hardly anything else—even weeds—to be found around.

"Well, this does look like a house with no one staying in it," he thought.

Quite the opposite, Rao Yinyin's place had looked like a sea of red flowers when he'd entered, immediately looking out of place. How could he have been so stupid to just head inside like that?

D*mn it.

There was the main house and the guest house, as well as a small hill and a pond. He was left with the rest of the huge section of the field to mold to his liking.

He had no time to do so at the moment. He entered the main house, found an array, and put the plaque up before finally considering himself as settled down.

Crack.

He immediately slumped onto the bed. There was no mattress or blankets to be had, only a huge piece of wooden board.

He was utterly exhausted and slowly closed his eyes, figuring to get a good night's sleep.

"…"

He abruptly opened his eyes before shaking his head and closing his eyes again.

The scene played again.

"Sh**!

"Looks like I won't be getting any sleep tonight…"