Phoenix Destiny
chapter-360-30041322

After understanding the winter-summer stone more, she immediately told Xie Lianzhen, who was busy learning alchemy, about what she knew about it. He didn't even bother to look over at her and waved his hand. "Just use the spell formation if you need power."

Lu Mingshu stared at him blankly. ~Makes sense!~

Magicians have a saying. "There's nothing a spell formation can't solve. If there is, it will take two spell formations to solve."

A spell formation can perform acts that an average person was unable to. For example, creating a fake space with the desired environment to achieve specific goals was like creating a superhero.

Anyway, there were so many valuable items here. ~If I can't take the Yuan crystals out with me, why not spend them? They aren't mine anyway.~

She contacted the magician once more. Upon hearing her situation, he just gave her a spell formation that had already been constructed. "Just hatching an egg, take this."

He even gave her a discount due to the numerous trades they had previously done.

And now, there was a different spell formation in the cave.

There was Little daze in a coma on one side, while the winter-summer stone was on the other side.

There was nothing else Lu Mingshu could do other than recuperating and spending her time in the heavenly wheel. She even took this chance to learn about spells. ~Since I have nothing better to do, it makes things simpler for me with my calculation speed.~

Time flew, and soon enough, a whole year has passed.

As she did every day, Lu Mingshu went to check up on little daze and the winter-summer stone after cultivating. When she got back, the scene in front of her rooted her to the ground.

A ray of light was shooting out of the house they built with Yuan crystals.

The energy wave surrounded the house and got stronger as time passes by. Finally, the energy grew so strong that it went out of control.

The energy wave was so strong that it turned into another ray of light and shot up into the sky. Before it landed, it turned into a talisman and shot back into the house.

"Boom---" she could hear an explosion.

The energy waves started to slow down, and there wasn't any more light to be seen.

Not long after, Xie Lianzhen came out of the house and brushed his clothes, looking proud of himself.

He smiled happily at Lu Mingshu. He waited for a while, but she didn't say anything. Xie Lianzhen sighed and pointed at himself. "Aren't you going to congratulate me for breaking through successfully?"

"Uhhhh, congrats?" Lu Mingshu faked a smile.

".....you sound like I forced you into this. Isn't this supposed to be a happy occasion?"

"It was expected." Lu Mingshu laughed. ~Why should I feel happy if I had already expected this outcome?~

Hearing this, Xie Lianzhen beamed and nodded. "True."

After Xie Lianzhen had successfully broken through, he was more even obsessed with alchemy.

So, not only did Lu Mingshu have the Yuan crystal mine to help her, there were strengthening pills to help Lu Minhshu with her cultivation.

Lu Mingshu and Xie Lianzhen believed that they would get to leave after three years. But now it had been so long, yet there was still no change.

Lu Mingshu furrowed her eyebrows. ~Has the sea of cloud debate been canceled?~

"I think something happened outside." XIe Lianzhen mumbled.

"Why?"

"The sea of cloud debate is an important event that occurs every four years. It's like our Qilin festival. It's not likely to ever be canceled. See, that time when the previous king of Zhongzhou died, they only postponed it, but didn't cancel it."

"So has it been delayed?"

"Who knows?" Xie Lianzhen looked at his jade piece and fiddled with it. "No matter what, something bad must have occurred. During the year where we were trapped, the rebel's chief and the emperor were both injured in their fight. By right, it should be peaceful as both of them need time to heal."

Lu Mingshu furrowed her eyebrows. Comparing to Xie Lianzhen, she knew nothing about governance. "So how is it possible that something had happened?"

"Well, peace was just a prediction," Xie Lianzhen laughed. "Both us and the rebels would love for the emperor to be injured, as well as some others who might wish to take over his position."

"Do you mean internal conflict?"

Xie Lianzhen nodded. "Maybe? Many clues show that the emperor is seriously injured. He left the winter-summer stone here, and he did not even bother to come and see if we are dead or not."

Xie Lianzhen stood up and tidied his clothes. "I thought it was because he didn't think we would survive, but now I understand that it may be because he is afraid that this secret realm would be exposed! This shows that there are many threats around him, and it isn't feasible for him to come. We are lucky to be still alive. If the emperor was in a better situation, he would be here by now."

Lu Mingshi heaved a sigh of relief.

"But when will he…."

"Three more years?" Xie Lianzhen cut her off. "Focus on breaking through first; when you do, we will be able to escape. But only as long as you are fast enough."

"...okay."

For the rest of the year, Lu Mingshu focused on cultivating and earning accumulated points from the heavenly wheel by taking requests. After three years, she had already improved her spells. Even though she was no match for the magician she always went to, Sir Zhu, she was still better than average compared to newbie magicians.

And Xie Lianzhen's words woke her up. ~I cannot rely on luck. I need more accumulated points. So if we don't escape, we can just escape through the heavenly wheel.~

After a year, Lu Mingshu finally saved enough accumulated points.

~Finally.~

This was an optimal spot for cultivating. Unlimited Yuan crystals and fresh herbs available.~ It would be a waste if I don't use it wisely.~

Five years quickly passed. One day, Lu Mingshu felt that her body could not contain all her energy, and there was no way to further improve.

~Oh, I've finally hit my bottleneck.~

...

"Miss, we have arrived." A horse cart stopped outside the gate of Yun Jing.

A slender figure stepped out of the cart. She wasn't extremely beautiful, but her sharp nose and milky white skin paired with her long black flowing hair that hung down over her shoulder. It made one unable to take their eyes off her. she looked over at the coachman and threw a few soul pearls at him. "It's fine."

"Thank You so much miss, have a great day!" The coachman grabbed the pearls and thanked her profusely.

The woman tilted her head to get a better look at the gate and strolled in slowly.

If Qin Jun or Chu Zhengyan were to see her, they would immediately recognize her as the "Prince Jiang" who went missing years ago.

Six years had passed, and she had returned as Jiang Wan. Even though she was standing in the busy streets of Yun Jing, nobody could recognize her anymore.

The four Princes of Yun Jing remained a story that every Yun Jing citizen heard of. Back then, during the sea of clouds debate, both the floating cloud gentleman and Prince Jiang lost their lives. This caused the Jiang family to wane and the Nie family to succeed.

As for the Qin family, even though they still held power, they had been slowly overtaken by the Nie's and were losing their status too. On the other hand, the Chu family got stronger thanks to the emperor not caring about them and Chu Zhengyan's master. Now, they were the second-largest aristocratic family right behind the Nies.

~Life is so unpredictable, huh?~

Jiang Wan sighed and stepped into Yun Jing.