Chapter 391: 217, Ruan Baimei’s betrayal, you are not him (seeking subscription)_3
He had guessed that one of these two jade boxes likely contained a Human Yuan Fruit.
Xu Xing casually opened one of the jade boxes. Just as he’d seen at the auction, the treasure inside was indeed the Human Yuan Fruit. A surge of joy filled him. It really is the Human Yuan Fruit!
This Human Yuan Fruit was the size of a baby’s fist, resembled a flat peach, was covered in golden patterns, and emitted a rich fragrance.
Taking a Human Yuan Fruit during Nascent Soul formation could increase the chance of success by five percent. It could truly be called a supreme treasure. Even a First-Rate Dao Pill only offered a thirty percent success rate at best for Nascent Soul formation. The step of Pill Fragment into Nascent Formation—shattering one’s Core to form a Nascent Soul—was truly perilous. No matter how exceptionally talented one was, or how smooth their cultivation path had been, they could still stumble at this crucial step.
As for the other one...
Xu Xing opened the other jade box and examined the treasure inside. This jade box contained a jade bottle and a black jade slip. A yellow talisman with the words "Nan Ling" was affixed to the bottle.
Nan Ling?
Xu Xing frowned. He put the jade bottle down without opening it and instead picked up the black jade slip, pressing it to his forehead.
Child-Mother Ghost Fetus Great Method. As his Divine Sense swept through the contents, surprise filled Xu Xing’s face. He found it hard to believe. It wasn’t that he disbelieved the forbidden technique itself—the Child-Mother Ghost Fetus Great Method—but rather that he couldn’t believe Nan Ling and Nan Lu were actually the same person.
No wonder it was so easy to kill Nan Lu; she had split off half of her soul.
Xu Xing carefully examined the jade slip. After seeing the detailed steps inside, he shook his head and sighed. For a True Lineage disciple of the Higher Teachings, escaping should be extremely easy, even if they couldn’t win a fight. Take Song Knife, for example; he had escaped easily by borrowing the power of the Lingxiao Sword, a Nascent Soul-stage Artifact. Yet, Xu Xing hadn’t found any such ultimate life-saving trump cards on Nan Lu.
"Refine a blood relative, no older than three years... Infuse with Heavenly Ghost Water, Dark Earth, and Blood Devil Pills..."
"Once successful, nurture it with a Secret Technique for eighteen years to cultivate the child fetus."
"The child fetus merges with the mother fetus to form the Nascent Soul, transforming into the Mother-Child Twinning."
Xu Xing read the black jade slip again. Even after finishing, he still found it deeply unsettling. He was astounded by the malevolent ingenuity of the Demonic Way cultivation method. It required the ruthless slaughter of close relatives and was utterly different from the paths of orthodox cultivation methods.
Mother-Child Twinning, both independent and interconnected...
Xu Xing stroked his chin, somewhat tempted by this cultivation method. Cultivating this method would grant two Nascent Souls, making one’s foundation alone stronger than that of other cultivators. Moreover, this technique didn’t interfere with a cultivator’s main cultivation method. The Mother-Child Nascent Soul was more like a Secret Technique.
Crucially, if a great Tribulation occurred, the child Nascent Soul could die in place of the mother Nascent Soul. Even if the mother Nascent Soul perished, the child Nascent Soul could transform back into the mother Nascent Soul, albeit at a certain cost.
Although this technique doesn’t affect my main cultivation method... But I don’t have any blood relatives, and I can’t bring myself to kill my own kin for the sake of practicing a cultivation method.
Xu Xing shook his head. Although he didn’t consider himself a good person and wasn’t bound by conventional morality, slaughtering his own blood relatives to practice a cultivation method was beyond his limits. Moreover, the Mother-Child Twinning would, at best, grant him an extra trump card; it wouldn’t significantly impact his overall strength. In other words, this Mother-Child Twinning was more like a Substitute Puppet personally condensed by the cultivator. For Xu Xing, aside from substituting for death once, the Mother-Child Twinning had no other practical use. His foundation would improve very little by relying on it; the enhancement was extremely limited.
Perhaps the Mingquan Sect has a method to condense the Mother-Child Twinning without killing blood relatives... Nan Lu isn’t truly dead. I can start with her. She definitely wouldn’t want these materials lost, severing her own cultivation path...
Xu Xing’s gaze fell on the jade bottle with the "Nan Ling" yellow talisman. He smiled faintly. If he guessed correctly, the contents of this jade bottle were anything but trivial: Nan Ling’s soul and a portion of Human-face Spider blood. When condensing the Zi Ying for the Child-Mother Ghost Fetus, the soul of the Zi Ying’s original host was indispensable. And Human-face Spider blood had a soul-nurturing effect. As for other resources, Nan Lu, with her identity and status, might have been able to gather them. However, she would never willingly part with these two items.
「Emperor Jin World.」
After leaving Heavenly Abyss, Xu Xing and Yin Shou quickly found out the location of the West Emperor Divine Mansion: in the far west of the Land of Earth Fire.
Six thousand years ago, before his previous death, Xu Xing had gained a general understanding of this world’s layout. It was divided into thirteen major domains. The Land of Earth Fire was one such domain. Each domain spanned tens of millions of miles and was vast and boundless. Yinshui County, where he had lived in his past life, belonged to the Dark Water Region, which was located in the north.
"That Undead Spirit has wiped out the Three Heavens Sect again—nothing but a field of corpses left! We wanted to use their Teleportation Array to reach the Earth Fire Nation... but that’s impossible now..."
Standing by a cliff on a high peak, Xu Xing and Yin Shou gazed at the distant battlefield, their eyes filled with worry. They were currently in the Thunder Marsh Region, separated from the Land of Earth Fire by two other major domains. If they relied solely on their own flight speed, it would take them at least three to four hundred years to reach the Land of Earth Fire.
After her revival, she needs the fresh blood of the living. Slaughtering cultivators is inevitable for her... Xu Xing shook his head.
The Undead Spirit Yin Shou mentioned was none other than the Heavenly Fox King, who had left the West Emperor Palace with them. In her previous life, the Heavenly Fox King’s cultivation had reached the Seven-God Treasure Realm, a level at which she could slaughter almost any sect, barring only the Divine Houses.
"We mustn’t run into her," Xu Xing said. "Let’s go to the nearby Dark Water Region first, and then head to the Land of Earth Fire..." He planned to take a different route to avoid encountering the Heavenly Fox King. After all, his true identity could not be exposed. Once revealed, the consequences would be unpredictable. The Heavenly Fox King had only guaranteed not to attack him and Yin Shou *within* the West Emperor Palace.
"This king has already arrived."
Before Xu Xing could finish speaking, the Heavenly Fox King suddenly materialized before him, her gaze fixed greedily on him. "During our time in the West Emperor Palace, this king was not able to attack you because you had Shi Yuyan’s countermeasures... but now that this king has recovered her cultivation..."
She sneered. Several fluffy white fox tails extended from behind her, snaking towards Xu Xing. Under the crushing pressure of her superior realm, Xu Xing found himself almost powerless to resist.
However, Xu Xing wasn’t flustered. He began to activate the bronze cauldron within his body, preparing to use this Emperor Artifact to suppress the Heavenly Fox King.
But—
The next moment, the Heavenly Fox King’s expression flickered, and she retreated hastily.
"Your blood..."
The Heavenly Fox King’s expression changed again. "Why is his aura in your blood? No, that’s not right. Is this Shi Yuyan’s aura? No, no, it’s his aura..."
Doubt filled her eyes as she looked at Xu Xing. Memories surged into her mind. She clutched her Qiufu and shook her head firmly. "No, you’re not him! How can a person have a past life? You’re definitely not him, not him!"
Her gaze was resolute.