After a year of cultivation, Du Yanran had reached the third level of Qi Refining. On a planet as spiritually barren as this, her progress was astonishingly fast—yet compared to her past life's achievements, it was nothing more than a toddler's first steps.
This filled her with an inexplicable urgency. Logically, she should have been satisfied—this time, she had seized the initiative, stepping onto the path of immortality before anyone else. Yet an oppressive sense of dread clung to her, driving her to grow stronger at all costs.
Originally, she hadn't planned to use the spiritual plants in her spatial storage so soon. But that gnawing anxiety had forced her hand.
Tonight was the full moon. Dressed in white training clothes, Du Yanran arrived deep in Luoxia Mountain, a place she had scouted for months. She settled in a spot where spiritual energy was slightly denser, slowly guiding her own qi through a full-body circulation before absorbing the scattered spiritual particles drifting through the mountain air.
Her current body possessed water, wood, and fire spiritual roots—far inferior to the dual-rooted purity she had achieved in her past life after consuming the Spirit-Cleansing Fruit. The thought made her grit her teeth. "If only I hadn't cut off Jian Dan's path to immortality… Now who knows who might stumble upon that fruit?"
Shaking off the distracting thoughts, she sat cross-legged on a flat stone, palms upturned, breathing rhythmically as she synchronized her internal energy with the surrounding spiritual currents. Gradually, she entered a meditative trance.
A faint stream of qi gathered in her meridians, circulating through her body, expelling impurities as it steadily battered against the barrier to the fourth level of Qi Refining.
Perched atop a locust tree, Jian Dan merged seamlessly with the branches, her wood spiritual root allowing her to become one with the plant. Even if someone looked directly at her, their gaze would instinctively slide away.
Fate truly is cruel. She hadn't expected to encounter her former best friend the moment she returned.
Watching Du Yanran wholeheartedly breaking through to the next level, Jian Dan made no move to interrupt. Instead, her fingers flickered in a subtle hand seal as she channeled a wisp of fire-attribute true essence—comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator's power—toward the Spirit-Cleansing Fruit hidden beneath a boulder.
The fruit trembled slightly as it greedily absorbed the pure fire energy.
The movement was infinitesimal—yet Du Yanran's senses sharpened instantly. Her cultivation rhythm accelerated as she forcefully rammed against the bottleneck.
"How sharp." Jian Dan couldn't help but acknowledge her enemy's instincts. "No wonder she trampled over me in our past life."
Du Yanran broke through to the fourth level, her spiritual energy stabilizing. The agitated grass and leaves around her stilled as her eyes snapped open, scanning for even the slightest disturbance.
That prickling sense of being watched refused to fade. Instead of consolidating her newfound power, she retracted her aura and unleashed her divine sense, sweeping a three-kilometer radius. Thanks to her past-life memories, her soul strength far surpassed her current cultivation level. It didn't take long for her to detect something amiss—the boulder she had been sitting on.
With a light tap of her toes, she dismounted the stone and pushed it aside with a palm strike.
Beneath it lay a crimson fruit, its thin stem swaying like an undernourished child as it continued to inhale wisps of fire-attributed qi. Two leaves unfurled slowly with each breath it took. Jian Dan had already withdrawn her gaze and divine sense, merging completely with the tree's highest branch, motionless as a leaf in the wind.
Then came Du Yanran's breathless exclamation:
"A Spirit-Cleansing Fruit?!"
Her expression shifted from wariness to triumphant delight. "Heaven truly favors me!" Even her earlier regrets vanished.
Wasting no time, she retrieved a small shovel, carefully uprooted the fruit, and sealed it inside an ancient wooden box before storing it in her jade pendant's spatial storage. Without a backward glance, she sprinted toward the mountain's outskirts.
Jian Dan listened to the fading footsteps but remained still.
Half an hour later, the sound of wind-assisted movement returned.
Du Yanran had doubled back.
She swept the area once more with her spiritual sense, finding nothing unusual. Only then did she finally leave for good.
Jian Dan continued her act as an ordinary tree branch. She knew Du Yanran well—once suspicious, the woman would never stop digging.
For now, she had no intention of confronting her. Instead, she circulated her Primordial Chaos Technique, passively absorbing trace amounts of spiritual energy through the tree's roots, biding her time.
Dawn approached. As the first light painted the horizon, Jian Dan finally opened her eyes.
The rising sun bathed Luoxia Mountain in gold, its warmth coaxing the forest's creatures to greet the new day.
"A mere side character with no opportunities or strength… can never trip up the protagonist."
But this time, things would be different.