"If not for Zuo Qiu's escape, and your discovery of the deliberately buried records, I might never have noticed this pattern."
A glint of cold light flickered in Hao Yi Zūnzhě's eyes as she spoke to Yun Xi.
"Return to the Hive and continue filtering related records. You may trace further back if needed. As for the rest, I will handle it."
"Yes, Ancestor. You've worked hard."
Yun Xi herself could not yet figure out why Weiyu Realm was being suppressed so severely. With no other answers, she could only return to the Hive and search for even older records, hoping to uncover a clue.
After Yun Xi left, Hao Yi Zūnzhě waved her sleeve and sent out three transmission talismans. Within three breaths, Hao Hui, Hao Qing, and Hao Yan appeared before her.
"Senior Sister, what urgent matter has you summoning us so quickly?" Hao Yan asked with a smile.
Hao Yi Zūnzhě flicked her sleeve, sending three jade slips into their hands. "First, take a look at these messages."
The three exchanged glances, sensing something grave, then extended their divine sense into the jade slips. Moments later, all three of their faces had changed.
On Hao Hui's handsome features, a killing intent flickered, though he remained respectful. "Senior Sister, how did you uncover this? Have you verified its authenticity?"
Hao Yi Zūnzhě nodded gravely. "It was discovered by 'Yu Ling.' He grew uneasy about Yun Xi, so he temporarily took over Hive's operations in her stead.
I have never let go of my doubts over Zuo Qiu's escape. Thus, I ordered him to review all of the Law Enforcement Hall's records during the period Hao Ting interfered, including the discarded ones. From there, he uncovered the trail.
Yu Ling made his own deductions, but fearing his guesses were too subjective, I contacted my Senior Brother in the Spirit Realm to confirm. When his reply came, I learned just how heavily Weiyu Realm is being suppressed.
Barely one in ten who ascend survives in the Spirit Realm. Which means, when we ourselves ascend one day, we too may face the same suppression and pursuit. That is no trivial matter."
Storm clouds gathered in Hao Yan's phoenix eyes, but she managed to say, "Senior Sister, this is not only Haoran Sect's problem. It affects other sects as well. We cannot resolve it alone. I believe we should first inform Mingjian Gate.
If they investigate and confirm our findings, they can take the lead in contacting the Divine Transformation cultivators of the other four domains. Together, the Five Domains could unite to confront this problem."
Hao Qing agreed. "I support Senior Sister Hao Yan's proposal. Each of the Five Domains has late-stage Divine Transformation cultivators awaiting ascension. They will soon face this reality themselves."
Hao Yi Zūnzhě nodded slowly. "You both make sense. I plan to meet with Ming Hong Zūnzhě first. I hear that Ming Xian Zūnzhě gained something within the Baohua Mountain secret realm and has already gone into seclusion to prepare for a minor ascension. If he enters the Spirit Realm, he may be ambushed immediately."
Hao Hui then spoke up. "Also, the sect's elite disciples should each be secretly protected by a high-ranking cultivator. We need not interfere in their training, but we must ensure their lives. They cannot be allowed to perish halfway."
Hao Yi Zūnzhě rubbed her brow. "You're right. We must prevent disaster before it strikes. Have the Hive first screen our elite disciples, then we will assign protectors in secret."
Yun Xi did not yet know that, beginning the very next day, she would receive this new task: to comb through every elite and core disciple of the sect, determining who might become targets of evil cultivators and who could inherit the sect's future.
At that moment, Yun Xi was poring over jade slips from five hundred years past. Fortunately, Haoran Sect had been established early, its cultivators lived long, and its records had been preserved well. And so she found some rather interesting entries.
One such record described the process by which a lower realm evolved into an upper realm. Taking Weiyu Realm as an example: as long as enough cultivators ascended, the realm would receive feedback in the form of greater resources and destiny. Once accumulated to a critical point, and when spiritual qi grew dense enough, Weiyu Realm could itself be promoted into Wei Ling Realm.
After promotion, Weiyu Realm would have sufficient qi to allow cultivators to train to the peak of the Mahayana stage before ascending to the Immortal Realm, at which point they would be assigned their own lower realm. The outstanding cultivators of that lower realm would then be drawn into Weiyu Realm, continuing the cycle.
Over long ages of accumulation, Weiyu Realm itself could even upgrade into an Immortal Realm, though such a process would take millions of years.
From this, Yun Xi reasoned that the hidden hand behind the scenes was deliberately killing Weiyu Realm's most promising disciples to strangle its evolution at the root.
She also found an old prophecy left by Hao Ran Sect's founding Ancestor: that the variable of Weiyu Realm would rest within Haoran Sect. Whether that variable was a person or an object remained unclear, and the sect was simply instructed to keep watch.
So few words, so little detail, yet Yun Xi's grip on the jade slip tightened.
She could not shake the feeling that she herself might be that so-called variable. After all, both the male lead and female lead, as well as herself—the so-called villainess—were all gathered in Haoran Sect. To say her transmigration into this world was without reason, she could never believe it.
What's more, the culling of Weiyu Realm's geniuses had only begun within the last five hundred years. Could it be that the mastermind also knew of the variable's existence, yet not its identity, and thus chose to cast a wide net, killing rather than risk letting it slip away?
Perhaps the same was true for those cultivators who ascended, only to be hunted down in the Spirit Realm.
The more Yun Xi analyzed, the more convinced she became. An entire herd of alpacas thundered across her mind, and the urge to curse became impossible to suppress.
It was as though Weiyu Realm existed solely to torment her. Even its name mocked her. Her surname was Wei—yet here was a realm pressing down on her like a mountain, making even ascension a struggle.
At last, Yun Xi could not hold back. She spat out a vulgar curse, then recorded her discoveries into a new jade slip.
This time, she kept her words measured. Her speculation on realm promotion she detailed clearly, but regarding herself being the "variable," she said nothing.
Instead, she wrote that perhaps the evil cultivators were hunting some unique cultivator they feared, though lacking precise knowledge, they cast their net wide to ensure none escaped.
Once she finished recording, she stretched her back lazily and shifted into body-tempering practice.
Eight years had passed. The wounds along her meridians were completely healed, her bones had been nourished until they gleamed white as jade. Only the gaping hole in her dantian remained. Her small Yuányīng continued to block it, but this was only a stopgap, storing no spiritual qi.
Worse, she noticed the opening was widening. Only then did she understand why Ye Yirui had frozen her younger brother in ice—likely to prevent his dantian from rupturing further.
Just then, a delighted voice rang out within her sea of consciousness.
"Master, Master! The Seven-Colored Lotus has bloomed!"
Yun Xi instantly sank her divine sense into her inner space, where she saw Dian Dian hopping excitedly beside the Seven-Colored Lotus. The little creature's fur bristled with joy as it inhaled deeply of the lotus fragrance, utterly intoxicated.
Yun Xi circled the lotus with her divine sense. Sure enough, it had blossomed. Seven layers of petals unfurled, each a different hue, radiating a soft, ethereal glow.
====
I see… now that the whole picture is clearer, and Yun Xi herself has learned about that prophecy, my opinion has shifted. It's not just the burden of Haoran Sect anymore, it's a problem that involves the entire realm. If that's the case, then aligning myself only with Haoran Sect isn't enough. I would stand with the whole realm to face this problem. Pettiness and personal disputes don't matter here, not when the bigger picture is survival.
This chapter felt really heavy to me. I don't know if you caught that same weight while reading, but if not, maybe try to reread it. You might feel it the second time. It reminds me of earlier moments: like when her uncle Feng almost lost control during his breakthrough because she tried to take Yun Qing's bracelet, or when she resisted going to Haoran Sect. Again and again, destiny keeps cornering her, leaving her no way out. (;´Д｀)
In the previous chapter, it was even mentioned that Yun Xi suspected all of this might be because she belongs to the Witch Tribe. Worse still, her bloodline purity is the highest right now. We already know the Heavenly Dao seeks to exterminate the Witch Tribe, and with Yun Xi's unmatched purity, she has become its primary target.
No wonder the weight on her shoulders feels so suffocating…