From a loser to an immortal sage

Chapter 477 The Ultimate Showdown in the Treasure Chamber

The light at the end of the crevice grew brighter and brighter, casting long shadows of Wen Chen and me onto the bluish-gray stone wall.

The fragrance of plum blossoms, mixed with moisture, filled my nostrils, and I then noticed that the stone wall in front of me had somehow ended—a bronze door, about half a person's height, stood there, its bas-relief patterns gleaming with a faint light, like a sigh worn away by time.

"We've arrived." Wen Chen released my hand, her fingertips gently tracing the engravings on the door frame.

His knuckles were still stained with blood, leaving pale red marks on the bronze. "These patterns... match the fragmented diagram Elder Yun gave me."

My throat feels tight.

Three days ago in the dilapidated temple, when Elder Yun held up half a jade tablet and told us that "a life-changing artifact is hidden in the secret room," I thought it was just the old cultivator's usual cryptic talk.

But at this moment, listening to the faint buzzing behind the door and seeing the six-petaled plum blossoms that were faintly visible above the lintel, the admonition that "only those with a righteous heart can obtain it" suddenly crashed into my mind.

"Yaoyao." Wen Chen turned his head, his gaze falling on the wound on my palm—the jade pendant I had just crushed in the crevice was still embedded with fragments. "Are you scared?"

I shook my head, but my fingers involuntarily tugged at his sleeve.

It's not that I'm afraid of what's behind the door, it's that I'm afraid... that all the blood and tears along the way will ultimately amount to nothing.

"Squeak—"

The bronze door suddenly moved on its own.

Wen Chen and I both took a half step back at the same time.

Amidst the sound of the door hinges turning, I could hear my own heart pounding.

The light leaking through the crack in the door grew stronger and stronger, as if someone had crushed the sun and scattered it inside.

When the door was fully open, I could barely open my eyes—the room was filled with glowing crystals, and the half-person-high statue in the center was so bright it was almost blinding, as if the Milky Way had been frozen into a solid.

"It was here after all!"

A shrill male voice shattered the silence.

I turned my head sharply and saw Mo Feng standing at the mouth of the crevice, leaning against the stone wall.

Half of his face was swollen, and his robes were burned through in several large holes, revealing gruesome wounds underneath. Yet, his eyes shone with a frightening light. "Xiao Yao, Wen Chen, do you think you can shake me off?"

Goosebumps instantly rose on the back of my neck.

Just a moment ago, I thought he was locked in the puppet array, but it turns out that this persistent thing had already taken a shortcut!

Wen Chen stepped in front of me, his sword already drawn: "You've been tracking us?"

“I’ve studied the mechanisms of that puppet array for three hundred years.” Mo Feng staggered forward, each step leaving bloody trails on the ground. “Those little tricks… could they possibly trap me?” He suddenly laughed, his mouth stretching to his ears. “But I must thank you—if you hadn’t distracted the puppets, how would I have found the back door of this secret chamber?”

That's when I noticed the pebbles at his feet—it turned out there was a side path at the other end of the crevice!

I was so focused on running that I didn't notice.

"Get out of the way." Mo Feng's voice suddenly lowered, like a venomous snake. "That crystal statue seals the remnant soul of an ancient immortal. Whoever obtains it can reshape their spiritual roots and defy fate."

Xiao Yao, you're nothing but a piece of trash without even a spiritual root, what right do you have to take it?

My nails dug into my palms.

He's right, I am a good-for-nothing, but I never admitted defeat when I was chased by puppets, trapped by poisonous fog, and schemed against by him.

"Elder Yun said," I said, stepping over Wen Chen's shoulder and looking directly into Mo Feng's reddened eyes, "that this divine artifact has never recognized spiritual roots, but rather the human heart."

"Human hearts?" Mo Feng seemed to have heard a joke and suddenly rushed over.

The short blade at his waist gleamed coldly, but before it could even touch Wen Chen's sword, it was bounced off a golden barrier and slammed against the wall.

"The protective array of the secret chamber." Wen Chen didn't turn his head. "Those who aren't recognized can't even cross the threshold."

Mo Feng fell to the ground, and the short blade clattered to the floor.

He looked up, panting, staring at the crystal statue behind me, his Adam's apple bobbing: "And what about you?"

You think you can?

I didn't answer.

At some point, the light from the crystal statue dimmed, and I could make out the statue's appearance—it was a woman in a moon-white dress, with gentle eyes and a six-petaled plum blossom in her hand.

It is exactly the same as the mark on the top of the rock crevice.

"Yaoyao." Wen Chen gently nudged me.

That's when I realized that I was already standing inside the threshold.

The bluestone slabs under my feet seemed to come alive, carrying me toward the statue.

With each step I took, the fragrance of plum blossoms grew stronger, as if someone was whispering in my ear, "Come back."

"No—!" Mo Feng's roar shook the stone wall, causing dust to fall.

I turned to look at him. He was using the wall as a support to climb up. His face was lacerated, and blood was dripping from his chin onto the ground. "That's mine!"

I've been searching for three hundred years...three hundred years!

“It doesn’t belong to anyone.” I stopped in front of the statue.

The moment my fingertips touched the crystal, a warm current rushed up my arm and into my heart.

Fragments flashed before my eyes: a woman in a moon-white dress brewing tea under a peach tree, she looked up and smiled, saying, "Xiao Yao, I'll keep the key to this plum blossom formation for you"; then, a sky full of red light, she stuffed something into my hand, "Quickly pass through, go where you're meant to be"—

"It's you!" I turned around abruptly.

Wen Chen stood at the door, his sword still pointing at Mo Feng, but his gaze suddenly changed, as if he were looking through me into the distance.

"Xiao Yao!"

Mo Feng's scream pulled me back to reality.

That's when I noticed that there was a crack in the chest of the crystal statue, and inside lay a translucent jade pendant—the pattern of which was exactly the same as the broken jade that was stuck in my palm!

"So...so the jade pendant I was clutching when I traveled through time was left to me by you," I whispered to the statue.

The woman in the moon-white dress suddenly twitched her eyebrows and eyes, as if she were smiling.

"Give it back to me!" Mo Feng had somehow managed to touch the short blade.

He charged forward with his knife in hand, but was bounced off the guard and slammed against the wall just as he reached the threshold, the knife clattering to the ground at my feet.

I bent down and picked up the jade pendant.

The moment I got my hands on it, the light in the entire secret room brightened up a bit.

Mo Feng lay on the ground, his eyes bloodshot. He stared at the jade pendant in my hand and suddenly let out a cold laugh like a wolf's howl: "You think you've won just because you got it?"

What I can't have, no one else can have either—"

"Yao Yao!" Wen Chen suddenly rushed over.

Before I could react, I heard a violent tremor behind me.

The crystal statue's base was cracked with spiderweb-like patterns, and stones were falling from the stone wall above.

Mo Feng lay on the ground laughing, blood splattering from the corner of his mouth: "This secret chamber is connected to the earth's veins!"

I've already tampered with things in the organization. Once you get your stuff... bury it all here!

I gripped the jade pendant tightly.

The phantom of a woman in a moon-white dress suddenly floated out of the crystal. She raised her hand and pointed, and the jade pendant in my palm emitted a dazzling white light.

Wen Chen held me protectively in his arms. I heard him groan, and warm liquid dripped onto my neck—it was his blood.

“Don’t be afraid,” his voice was terribly hoarse, “I’m here.”

Mo Feng's laughter continued, but it grew fainter and fainter.

I looked up at him, and he was being pushed out of the door by an invisible force.

He scratched at the ground desperately, his fingernails filled with blood, but he was still pushed out the door.

"Xiao Yao! Wen Chen!" His voice trembled with sobs, "You will both die a horrible death—"

"boom!"

The bronze door slammed shut.

The secret room suddenly fell silent, with only the muffled thuds of the earth's ley lines remaining.

I looked up at Wen Chen; the wound on his forehead was still bleeding, but his eyes shone like stars.

“The jade pendant…” I looked down and found that it had somehow melted into my palm, leaving only a pale blue plum blossom mark. “It said… it could suppress the earth’s veins.”

Wen Chen wiped the blood from my face and smiled, "Then let's subdue it."

The earth's ley lines suddenly began to tremble violently.

Stones were falling from above with a crackling sound, and Wen Chen pushed me behind the statue.

I steadied myself by holding onto the crystal statue, and suddenly heard a cracking sound from above—

"careful!"

Wen Chen's voice mingled with the roar of falling stones.

I looked up and saw a stone the size of a millstone coming down on me.

When the shadow overhead loomed down, I could even see the watermarks condensed on the surface of the rocks—water that had been shaken down from the rock walls by the earth's tremors.

Wen Chen's arms tightened around my waist, pressing me against the crystal statue. My back was chilled to the bone, while his chest felt like a burning ember, making my eyes sting even through the two layers of clothing.

"boom!"

The moment the rock hit our side, I heard Wen Chen let out a muffled groan.

Warm liquid splashed onto my earlobe. I instinctively touched the back of his neck, and my fingertips touched something sticky—it was blood, blood gushing from the wound on his forehead, flowing down the back of his neck.

"Wen Chen?" My voice trembled violently. I tried to look up at him, but he lowered his voice even further.

His chin rested on the top of my head, his breath hot: "Don't be afraid, protect the jade pendant."

The tremors of the earth veins suddenly changed rhythm, as if a giant beast had rolled over underground.

That's when I realized that Mo Feng's laughter had stopped sometime earlier.

Looking up, the ground before the bronze door cracked with spiderweb-like patterns. The blood-soaked man was leaning against the wall, a dark blue poisonous mist seeping from his palm through the short blade: "Xiao Yao, do you think this broken stone can protect you forever?" His pupils shrank to pinpoints. "I, Mo Feng, have lived for six hundred years, died three times, severed my spiritual roots, been skinned and dismembered—" He suddenly grinned, revealing bloodstained teeth, "But what I hate most is being trampled underfoot by a piece of trash who doesn't even have a spiritual root!"

Before he could finish speaking, his short blade had already pierced through the air.

Wen Chen spun around and drew his sword. With a crisp sound as the sword clashed with the short blade, I saw a new bloody gash appear on his hand.

Mo Feng's attacks were like a black mist, each strike aimed at Wen Chen's heart and throat—he was utterly desperate, each sword strike carrying a ruthless intent to perish together with him.

"Wen Chen!" I wanted to rush over, but the vibration from the crystal statue stopped me in my tracks.

The jade pendant that had just melted into my palm suddenly became hot, and the pale blue plum blossom mark shimmered with a faint light, creeping up my arm along my veins.

The patterns on the hem of the statue's moon-white skirt lit up, and the woman's illusory image reappeared in mid-air. Her fingertips gently touched my forehead, and images flooded in like a tide—

A peach grove, green tiles, and a stone table with half-cooled teacups.

The woman in the moon-white dress smiled and placed the jade pendant into my hand, the six-petaled plum blossom pendant in her hair swaying gently: "Little Yao, this is the core of the Plum Blossom Formation. If one day you get lost..."

Blood splattered into the sky as she was surrounded by men in black. The jade pendant split in two in her palm: "Go!"

Carrying half a jade pendant, I passed through to a place free from strife...

"So I wasn't transported from another time, but sent here by you," I murmured, gazing at the illusory figure.

The woman's lips moved, and I heard her voice echo in my mind: "Silly girl, this jade pendant was never a treasure to change fate; it is a legacy that I sealed inside with half my life."

What is a spiritual root?

When I first entered the Daoist path, wasn't I also called a useless person with five spiritual roots?

The earthquake suddenly became louder, and I staggered as I grabbed the statue for support.

Wen Chen's sword move slowed down for a moment, and Mo Feng's short blade sliced ​​open his left rib, blood splattering onto the bluestone slab at my feet.

I clenched my burning palm, the plum blossom mark suddenly stinging with pain. The woman's illusory image vanished abruptly, but a warm current flowed down my arm and into the statue—

The cracks in the crystal statue's base began to heal, and the rumbling of the earth's tremors subsided somewhat.

Taking advantage of the moment, Wen Chen spun around and drew his sword, pressing the blade against Mo Feng's throat: "Step back."

"Retreat?" Mo Feng suddenly laughed, his fingertips digging into his palm, blood dripping onto the short blade. "I've already sold my life to the earth's veins."

So what if Xiao Yao obtains the inheritance?

Once this secret chamber collapses, her life, and your life, will both be used to line my coffin!

As soon as he finished speaking, a blinding blue light suddenly burst forth from the stone wall above his head—the light of the barrier being forcibly broken through.

I looked up and saw that the golden barrier that had been protecting the secret chamber was crumbling, with countless dark purple cracks crawling all over it like snakes.

Mo Feng's short blade suddenly burst into black flames, and he forcefully pushed Wen Chen's sword away. The black flames actually burned through Wen Chen's sword sheath!

"Wen Chen, watch out!" I lunged forward, but the statue grabbed my wrist.

The illusory image of the woman in the moon-white dress reappeared, her fingertips pressing against my brow. Memories flooded back—it turned out that the protective array of this secret chamber required the blood of the inheritor to activate, and the plum blossom mark on my palm was the key to unlocking the final protection.

“Yaoyao!

"Use the power of the jade pendant!" Wen Chen's voice mingled with the sound of sword energy piercing the air.

I looked down at my palm, where the plum blossom mark was flashing with my heartbeat. With each flash, the earth's tremors weakened.

I gritted my teeth, raised my hand, and pressed it against the crumbling barrier—

Golden light surged from his palm, like a dragon coming to life, instantly entangling the burning dagger.

Mo Feng screamed and released his grip. The short blade clattered to the ground, and the black flames were extinguished by the golden light, leaving only a wisp of green smoke.

Wen Chen seized the opportunity to press his sword against his back: "Do you submit?"

"I refuse to accept this!" Mo Feng suddenly turned his head, his eyes filled with dark veins. "I have one last move—"

His words were interrupted by a sharp sound.

I turned to look at the statue; the crystal statue's chest was completely cracked open, revealing a six-petaled plum blossom pattern carved inside.

The woman's illusory figure knelt in the center of the array, holding a ball of white light in her hands—that was her remnant soul, the core of the inheritance.

"Then," the phantom's lips moved.

A sudden burst of white light shot into my brow, and countless images flashed before my eyes: her holding up the barrier during the tribulation lightning, her rescuing the abandoned young cultivator amidst the insults of thousands, her breaking the jade pendant in two before her death...

"So this is the true inheritance." I touched my burning forehead and finally understood what Elder Yun meant by "changing fate"—it wasn't about reshaping one's spiritual roots, but about inheriting her courage, her perseverance, and her belief in continuing to move forward even when the whole world denied her.

Wen Chen's roar pulled me back to reality.

I looked up and saw that Mo Feng had picked up a short blade at some point. He was stabbing his fingertips into his dantian, and black blood was gushing out from between his fingers—he was burning his life essence!

Wen Chen's sword was withstood by his bare body, the tip of the sword piercing through his left shoulder, but his hand was still reaching towards me, the poisonous mist on the short blade almost touching the hem of my clothes.

The tremors of the earth's veins suddenly stopped.

The light from the crystal statue suddenly surged, and the plum blossom mark on my palm became dazzlingly bright.

Wen Chen seized the opportunity to grab Mo Feng's wrist, but the short blade was only three inches away from me—

The bronze door trembled again.

I heard hurried footsteps outside the door, and it was Elder Yun's voice: "Get out of the way!"

The earth's veins are about to explode—"

But none of that matters anymore.

As I stared at Mo Feng's distorted face, I suddenly realized that beneath the madness in his eyes lay the same resentment I had felt years ago.

But so what?

The cold glint of the short blade reflected in my eyes.

Just as the ink wind rushed towards me—