At this moment, Fei Xia returned to Yun Xi's shoulder and transmitted a voice: "Master, besides weeds, there are only ten struggling spirit plants here, all below third rank. I also noticed that the light barrier around the floating island has strengthened. Breaking it will take some effort."
"I felt that too," Yun Xi replied.
She looked up at the sky, observing the faster-moving energy in the barrier. Raising her hand, she unleashed a lightning strike. Purple lightning struck the barrier, but only a thin crack appeared. Once the strike's force was exhausted, a flash of light passed over, and the crack healed within a breath.
Dian Dian raised its head and said: "Master, this barrier is powerful. It can repair itself. Does it mean it does not want us to leave?"
Yun Xi tilted her head at forty-five degrees, stroking her chin: "Seems like it. Unless I can shatter it in one strike."
Dian Dian, confident in Yun Xi, immediately said: "Master, let's strike it."
Yun Xi agreed. This barrier could not trap her. Just as she gathered energy for a powerful attack, Xiao Xian suddenly transmitted: "Master, this is only the first floating island. You do not need to waste spiritual power here."
Yun Xi paused and asked: "Xiao Xian, what do you mean?"
"Master, the stone stele says 'Equivalent Exchange,' right? You dug up the Life Force Tree. You could place an equivalent spirit plant from your portable medicinal garden and then move to the next floating island. Wouldn't that be simpler?"
Yun Xi considered this and thought Xiao Xian made sense, but she sensed something odd. She tested carefully: "Xiao Xian, you haven't done anything behind my back, have you?"
"Master, why would you think that? What could I do?"
Though the voice was loud, it carried a strange hint of guilt.
Yun Xi narrowed her eyes: "Xiao Xian, if you did do something, it's better to admit it so I can prepare myself. If your actions bring trouble to me, then… hehe."
Her cold laugh made Xiao Xian even more uneasy. It could only mutter: "I didn't do much. I only absorbed that high-grade spiritual vein when leaving the Wu Tribe. If not for my foresight, you couldn't have endured so long in that spirit-absorbing cocoon.
To ensure your safety, I supplied Dian Dian and Fei Xia with spiritual power, and even that red fox didn't miss out. It benefited from me!"
Xiao Xian's tone grew increasingly self-righteous. Everything it did was for Master.
Yun Xi rubbed her temples. She had not expected Xiao Xian to act so quickly, and clearly it had done similar things before.
She sighed: "Xiao Xian, it's not that I forbid you. You said it yourself, the mirror spirit here has awakened. If you openly took a whole spiritual vein, what if it traps us here?"
She glanced at the light barrier above.
Xiao Xian explained: "Master, that forest was enclosed to exterminate the Wu Tribe and deal with failed evolutionary beasts. The mirror spirit deliberately placed cultivators there with ill intent.
The cultivators entering with you helped eliminate those failed giant beasts, while you removed the Wu people. The last person cultivating Witch power died. The tribe was completely annihilated. In effect, you indirectly helped the mirror spirit complete its task. Taking a spiritual vein as compensation is not excessive."
Yun Xi frowned further. So that was why Xiao Xian had repeatedly stopped her from bringing the Wu people into the space.
"Do you mean the descendants of the Wu Tribe cannot leave this secret realm not entirely because it is sealed, but because the Heavenly Dao uses this new realm to trap them, ensuring their extinction?"
Xiao Xian fell silent for a moment before answering: "…Master, this is the fate of the Wu Tribe. They resisted to survive, but their abilities disrupted the Heavenly Dao. Their decline was inevitable.
If the last elderly woman practicing Witch power survived and you brought her into this space, you would also be implicated. Practicing Witch power is not the same as possessing Wu blood.
The last Holy Maiden of the Wu Tribe sacrificed themselves to send the tribe into different small worlds to preserve them, but do you think the Heavenly Dao would allow it? Perhaps this is exactly what the Heavenly Dao intended. By dispersing the Wu Tribe, the Heavenly Dao gradually trapped them. It is going with the flow."
After Xiao Xian's explanation, Yun Xi realized she had assumed too much. A chill ran down her spine. The extinction of the Wu Tribe was both a natural consequence and intervention of the Heavenly Dao, as if the tribe completed its mission and was then discarded. Only the two sides truly knew the reason.
She also suspected that her Wu blood might be why the Heavenly Dao obstructed her at every turn, even favoring Wei Yunqing in the arena. Yet she refused to accept fate, taking control step by step. Her concept of following Heaven while defying destiny was to comply with natural laws while changing her own fate, not to be manipulated.
Understanding this, a small sprout of the Dao appeared in her heart, symbolizing growth. Her aura calmed, and the erratic feeling from rapid advancement settled.
Xiao Xian sensed it too, shaking its leaves to send blue-green light into Yun Xi, stabilizing her post-enlightenment cultivation.
Dian Dian and Fei Xia, unsure what had happened, quietly maintained their protective formation as they saw Xiao Xian channel power to Master.
Yun Xi's body instinctively circulated the cultivation technique, absorbing the spiritual energy into her meridians. After one circuit, it returned to her dantian. The Golden Core spun faster, and the Dao sprout at her chest turned greener under the refined energy.
An hour later, Yun Xi opened her eyes. Seeing Dian Dian crouched and gazing up at her, she checked her divine sense. Her cultivation had reached the peak of late Golden Core, just one step from Nascent Soul.
She recalled Dian Dian and Fei Xia and transmitted to Xiao Xian: "Xiao Xian, I understand what you said. Some matters I cannot intervene in now, but I believe there is cause and effect. There is gain only through sacrifice.
I activated the Wu Tribe's space plaque, preserving my mother's cultivation resources and my spiritual root. Helping the Wu people leave is a consequence I must bear."
Xiao Xian shook its leaves, understanding Master's intent. Some things it could only remind, not decide. Fortunately, Yun Xi listened and remained principled.
Yun Xi then asked about the spiritual vein: "Xiao Xian, tell me about taking the spiritual vein. When did you do it? How come I didn't notice? After you absorbed it, what happened to the forest space?"
Xiao Xian hesitated before replying: "Master, you said to wait until the Wu people left. I only took it after you sent away that elderly woman of the Wu Tribe. I also left a small portion to maintain the forest's operations."