Chronicles of Heaven's Chosen - Chapter 20

Light imbued with the laws of heaven and earth swirled around the girl.

Before even half a quarter-hour had passed, she shattered the shackles on her cultivation and advanced from the ninth level of Qi Refining to early Foundation Establishment Realm.

Once Yuan Yao stabilized the spiritual power within her, she opened her eyes and found a great many people staring.

“Congratulations on reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm, Fellow Daoist Yuan!”

The congratulation rang out from the crowd while she was still dazed. Many others immediately approached with smiles and offered their own good wishes.

Yuan Yao rose and returned their salutes with cupped hands, smiling openly. “Many thanks. Many thanks.”

“Congratulations!” Weng Mingshu said with genuine happiness. “You finally reached the Foundation Establishment Realm!”

Yuan Yao raised an eyebrow.

After everyone had finished congratulating her, Cang Li pulled her aside.

“I seem to remember that before I left the sect, you were only at the eighth level of Qi Refining. It hasn’t even been a few days, and now you’ve reached Foundation Establishment. Did you take a Breakthrough Pill?”

“No.”

“Then how did you advance so quickly?”

“I told you I was going to cultivate properly, so of course I had to raise my cultivation.”

Cang Li fell silent.

She made it sound so easy.

Only now did he realize how terrifying his Little Junior Sister’s talent was. She was no less gifted than Eldest Senior Brother and the others.

Yuan Yao saw the complicated look on his face and could not resist teasing him.

“Third Senior Brother, are you feeling pressured because I’m too outstanding? After all, if I stop coming last, you’ll be the one at the bottom.”

“Can you practice alchemy?”

“No.”

“I can.”

Cang Li flicked her hard on the forehead.

“Ow…” Yuan Yao covered the spot and glared at him resentfully.

“Wait here,” Cang Li said. “I’ll climb up and see whether the mechanical gate has opened.”

“All right.” Yuan Yao nodded. “Be careful.”

After exchanging a few words with Yan Haonan, Cang Li climbed up alone.

When he reached the top, he looked around and found every passage still sealed by a mechanical gate.

He carefully searched around the doors for a mechanism that might open them. Time trickled past. An hour vanished, yet he found nothing.

He could only return empty-handed.

“Fellow Daoist Cang, what’s the situation above?”

The cultivators had long since grown anxious. The moment he descended, they crowded around and questioned him impatiently.

“Every passage is sealed.” Cang Li shook his head gravely.

“Then what do we do?” someone asked.

Before anyone could answer, a deep, majestic dragon’s roar rolled out of the dark depths below. The earth itself seemed to tremble.

The entire region began shaking violently. Stones rained from overhead.

Everyone’s expression changed. They stared around in terror, uncertain what this sudden upheaval meant.

“What was that sound?!”

“A dragon! That was a dragon’s roar!” one cultivator shouted, eyes blazing with excitement.

“A dragon? There’s actually a dragon here?”

Shock swept the crowd, though every face showed a different emotion.

Before they could recover, a second roar thundered from below.

This time, rage filled the sound.

Someone seemed to have provoked it.

For no reason Yuan Yao could explain, panic gripped her heart.

The qilin jade pendant hanging from her waist suddenly fell with a clear clatter.

Yuan Yao looked down, and her expression changed sharply. She crouched, snatched up the white qilin jade pendant, and clenched it tightly in one hand.

With the other, she grabbed Cang Li’s arm and dragged him toward the darkness at a run.

Caught off guard, Cang Li stumbled and was forced to follow. His expression changed, but before he could speak, Yuan Yao’s urgent voice reached him.

“Third Senior Brother, I want to go!”

His heart tightened.

He turned and saw the gravity in her profile. Without hesitation, he answered, “All right.”

She had never told them outright, but they all knew their Little Junior Sister possessed instincts and senses far sharper than ordinary cultivators—sharper even than those of many powerful cultivators.

“Where are you going?!” Weng Mingshu shouted when she saw Yuan Yao dragging Cang Li away.

The two quickly vanished into the darkness.

Weng Mingshu bit her lip anxiously and turned to Yan Haonan. “We’re going too!”

This time, Yan Haonan offered no objection. He nodded.

They led the remaining Tianyun Sect disciples into the darkened region. The other cultivators naturally followed.

As soon as Yuan Yao and Cang Li entered, the temperature plunged.

It was bitterly cold and so dark that no direction could be distinguished.

Snap.

Yuan Yao snapped her fingers, and a flame sprang to life above her fingertips.

“This way.”

Still gripping Cang Li’s arm, she broke into a run.

Yan Haonan and the others could make out only a faint point of fire ahead. They chased after it.

Soon, they could barely keep up.

“Fellow Daoist Yuan and Fellow Daoist Cang can really run!” someone panted.

Even Cang Li was dumbfounded. Yuan Yao was practically pulling him off his feet.

“Yuan Yao, since when could you run this fast?”

“I’ve always been like this,” she answered without slowing.

Realization struck him. “So you were only pretending to be weak before?”

“I *am* weak.”

“Yuan Yao, I truly want to poison you!”

The rotten girl had deceived him miserably. From the age of five to ten, she had pretended to be frail and delicate, making her senior brothers and sisters take turns carrying her up the Heavenly Stairway every day.

Later, she invented excuse after excuse to avoid Heavenly Stairway Mountain entirely.

Master had simply turned a blind eye.

Yuan Yao sneered. “Third Senior Brother, every time you’re angry, you threaten to poison me. Second Senior Sister says she’ll beat me to death. Fourth Senior Brother says he’ll turn me into a human stump. Fifth Senior Brother says he’ll split me into firewood! Eldest Senior Brother is the only kind one. Even when he’s angry, he still comes to comfort me!”

Cang Li retorted, “Eldest Senior Brother forces you to cultivate. We never did!”

The two bickered as they ran.

Every cultivator trailing behind heard the entire exchange.

Strangely enough, their noisy quarrel made the sinister darkness feel a little less frightening.

Before long, the surroundings gradually brightened. They no longer needed the flame to see.

Yuan Yao stopped and looked up at the passage ahead.

An ancient, imposing plaque hung overhead, four bold characters written across it in strokes that seemed to dance like dragons and phoenixes:

**Tomb of Nie Lie.**

Beneath the plaque, the passage floor was buried under bleached bones. They had clearly lain there for countless years; some had already weathered and crumbled.

Among them lay two fresh corpses.

The bodies of the other two Chixiao Sect disciples.

“ROAR!”

Another dragon’s roar, so loud it seemed ready to deafen the ears, exploded through the passage like a thunderclap. The volume left Yuan Yao’s eardrums ringing.

“Junior Sister Lu, run!”

A weak voice came from the depths.

Yuan Yao’s expression changed abruptly.

“Eldest Senior Brother!” Cang Li recognized the voice at once.