Chapter 73 - 46: Ancient Cultivator’s Sacrificial Spirit, Ancient Method Inheritance

Chapter 73: Chapter 46: Ancient Cultivator’s Sacrificial Spirit, Ancient Method Inheritance

However, because the Spirit Beast Egg’s shell isolated the inside from the outside, Li Yinsheng couldn’t smell a thing. The result would have been the same for any other Daoist. Naturally, he had assumed his junior sister’s intense craving for food was causing her to hallucinate.

But looking at it now...

He looked at Mu Xiaoyu with a hint of suspicion. "Junior Sister, are you sure there really is a peach blossom fragrance? You’re not imagining it?"

"Yes! It’s real, I’m not imagining it." Mu Xiaoyu nodded earnestly. "From a distance, I wasn’t entirely sure, but up close, the peach blossom scent is very strong."

Li Yinsheng pondered for a moment before speaking. "In that case, Junior Sister, come with me to a certain place."

A moment later, Li Yinsheng and Mu Xiaoyu descended from the sky above a dense forest.

The vegetation here was far more lush than the place he had taken her to previously; the wild grass already reached Mu Xiaoyu’s waist. This was where the Python had originally been slumbering. It was here that Li Yinsheng had lured it out using his junior sister’s human scent.

The moment her feet touched the ground, Mu Xiaoyu’s nose twitched. "Senior Brother, there’s a peach blossom scent here too. It’s the exact same fragrance as the one on the stone."

"Can you tell where it’s coming from?" Li Yinsheng asked.

Mu Xiaoyu turned around a few times, sniffing the air, and nodded. "The scent is very faint, but it should be coming from that direction." She pointed deeper into the dense forest.

"You lead the way. I’ll follow and clear a path for you," Li Yinsheng said. He summoned his Brass Incense Burner. A plume of yellow smoke billowed out, transforming into whirling blades that orbited Mu Xiaoyu. As she walked toward the peach blossom scent, the smoke blades seamlessly severed the weeds and foliage in her path.

About fifteen minutes later, Mu Xiaoyu led Li Yinsheng to the edge of a small stream.

Beyond the stream drifted a thick, white mist. Within a dozen paces of the mist’s edge lay nothing but barren earth and scattered rocks; not a single blade of grass grew there. Li Yinsheng extended his Divine Sense to probe the area, then used his Magical Power to draw out a wisp of the white mist for closer inspection.

"It’s a poisonous miasma, and an extremely potent one at that." He frowned slightly.

The miasma didn’t cover a large area, and surprisingly, it possessed a slight isolating effect on Divine Sense—much like the Black Stone. Because of this, he hadn’t noticed this place during his previous sweeps of the mountain. Now examining it up close, he realized just how formidable this miasma was. While it posed no threat to a Daoist, anyone without sixty or seventy years of Cultivation would likely find it difficult to resist its corruption for very long. However, the toxic fog was incredibly dense and did not disperse outward. As long as one didn’t enter it or get too close, even mortals would be safe.

"The peach blossom scent is coming from inside. It’s getting stronger now... it smells so good..." Mu Xiaoyu took two steps forward, entering within ten feet of the dense white mist.

Li Yinsheng was just about to warn her not to go any further when he made a startling discovery: as she approached, the closest edge of the poisonous miasma parted on its own.

Mu Xiaoyu noticed the change as well. She had originally intended to stop after just a couple of steps. Seeing the barren landscape devoid of vegetation around the white mist made it look incredibly dangerous. Yet now, she froze in surprise.

Li Yinsheng’s gaze fell onto the Black Stone that Mu Xiaoyu had been tightly clutching in her hand. "Junior Sister, try holding the Black Stone up and pointing it forward," he instructed.

Mu Xiaoyu raised the Black Stone, and the poisonous white mist in front of her parted even wider.

"Just as I thought. This Black Stone has the ability to repel the miasma." After a moment’s thought, Li Yinsheng walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "Let’s go. We’ll head inside together and see what’s there. Keep following the scent of the peach blossoms."

As he spoke, large clouds of yellow smoke surged from the Brass Incense Burner, shrouding both him and his junior sister. Even though the Black Stone could ward off the poison, he decided it was safer to have a backup plan. Fortunately, the accident he was guarding against never happened. As he let his junior sister continue tracking the peach blossom scent deeper into the white mist, the Black Stone proved exceptionally effective at repelling the poisonous vapor. Within a ten-foot radius centered around the stone, not a single trace of the miasma could exist.

After walking for roughly half an hour, Li Yinsheng and Mu Xiaoyu’s vision suddenly cleared as the white mist vanished without warning.

Mu Xiaoyu jumped in fright, while Li Yinsheng’s expression remained calm. Unlike the Black Stone, the white mist couldn’t completely block off Divine Sense. Therefore, he had kept his Divine Sense fully deployed while walking through it. Because of this, he was keenly aware of their surroundings and the path they had taken. But clarity aside, the sight before him still took him by surprise.

He and his junior sister were now standing in a mountain gorge. Sunlight streamed in from the top of the canyon, ensuring the area wasn’t dim. At the far end of the gorge stood a peach tree. Its trunk was thick enough to require two people to encircle it, yet it was less than twenty feet tall. It was in full bloom, adorned with countless peach blossoms. The stream at their feet meandered around its base. From its trunk to its leaves and blossoms, the peach tree emitted a faint, ethereal fluorescence, making it look incredibly extraordinary.

In front of the tree sat a carved stone altar. Just to the side and slightly ahead of the altar stood a stone stele. Li Yinsheng looked up and saw columns of ancient text engraved on the stele—characters he couldn’t comprehend in the slightest. Moreover, both the stone altar and the stele bore the mottled, weathered marks of time.

"There really is a peach tree..." Mu Xiaoyu sensed that something was off. Subconsciously, she took two steps closer to her senior brother and clutched the corner of his robes. "Senior Brother, this place is a bit weird."

Li Yinsheng swept the area with his Divine Sense. Aside from the peach tree, the altar, and the stele, this was just an ordinary gorge with nothing else to note. He carefully combed through the knowledge in his mind, and suddenly, a thought struck him.

In Xuanzhen Temple’s Scripture Pavilion, there were numerous records and travelogues left behind by their predecessors over the centuries. Some were firsthand accounts from their travels, some were acquired through trades with other Daoist Temples, and others were simply hearsay. Over the years, whenever Li Yinsheng grew tired from Cultivation, he would read these records as a way to relax.