Chapter 219: Claiming the Star-Gazing Tower

Chapter 219: Taking the Star-Gazing Tower

Jiang Yingxue said flatly, "Calm down. Your face can still be fixed."

"Fixed? How? How is that possible! You're lying to me! Are you mocking me for being disfigured?" Sun Najuan was extremely agitated, and Jiang Yingxue's stunning beauty just rubbed it in.

As luck would have it, there were two dead venomous scorpions right next to her, which Jiang Yingxue had grabbed after stowing her incense tool and hadn't yet put in her storage pouch.

In her rage, Sun Najuan didn't feel the fear or disgust anymore when first seeing the scorpions. She grabbed the dead scorpions and chucked them at Jiang Yingxue.

She glared at Jiang Yingxue, full of hate. "You saved me in the desert? Everyone's in the desert, so why didn't the scorpions bite you?!"

Sun Najuan's mind had warped. "Why! Why is your face perfectly fine?!"

"You're hopeless." Jiang Yingxue snorted coldly, gave a little wave. The scorpions Sun Najuan had thrown turned to black sand and blew away.

With that, she turned and left, but before departing, she put a little spell on Sun Najuan.

It was a memory-blurring spell, harmless to Sun Najuan, but it would mess up her memory of Jiang Yingxue's face. Even if Sun Najuan ever saw Jiang Yingxue again, she wouldn't recognize her.

Saving her was just a casual thing. Sure, it was understandable that Sun Najuan couldn't handle being disfigured, but Jiang Yingxue didn't have to deal with her mood or put up with her crap.

Since she bit the hand that fed her, she'd leave her to rot here.

Like the nine-tiered Golden Tower, the eleven-tiered Star-Gazing Tower also sent cultivators to different floors based on their cultivation level. After suppressing her cultivation to early Nascent Soul, Jiang Yingxue got sent straight to the 11th floor.

The 11th floor required beating your current self to pass, meaning you had to break through fast. Since Jiang Yingxue was holding back her cultivation to take the challenge, she breezed through this level.

After passing, the place quickly turned into a quiet, old-school courtyard.

She was now at the top of the Star-Gazing Tower and met the tower's spirit—Star-Gazer.

Star-Gazer's flat, robotic voice rang out, "Congrats on clearing the tower. There are three prizes here; you can take them all."

"And this door."

Jiang Yingxue didn't grab the rewards right away. Instead, she pointed at the door behind Star-Gazer and asked, "What is this door?"

The door behind it was covered in space runes, clearly not your average door.

Star-Gazer said, "This is a door to another, higher-level world. People who clear the tower can choose to go through the space door and leave this world, or choose not to leave."

"Oh~" Just like she figured, it was a door to a higher realm.

Jiang Yingxue pushed the door open, revealing a path paved with immortal essence stones. On both sides were bottomless pits, with storm winds howling.

This was a space path!

After walking a bit, Jiang Yingxue turned around.

Star-Gazer watched her come back, frowning in surprise.

Its look clearly said, why did this chick come back?

Jiang Yingxue said, "What about my rewards for clearing the tower?"

So she came back for the prizes. Star-Gazer waved its hand, and the prizes for clearing the tower dropped into Jiang Yingxue's hands.

After stashing the prizes in her storage ring, Jiang Yingxue said, "Do you want to leave with me?"

Star-Gazer paused for a few seconds, giving her a once-over. This chick's cultivation was only at early Nascent Soul, but based on how she did on the 11th floor, she was definitely more than that.

Jiang Yingxue repeated, "Do you want to leave with me, get out of the Five-Colored Pond Secret Realm?"

Star-Gazer said, "What if I'm unwilling?"

Jiang Yingxue replied, "What's your reason for not wanting to? If your reason doesn't fly with me, I don't mind the Star-Gazing Tower having no spirit or getting a new one."

Star-Gazer: "..."

This was a blatant threat, and Star-Gazer understood it. Its eyes widened as it looked at Jiang Yingxue, who didn't seem to be joking, and knew she was truly capable of it.

In truth, Star-Gazer's reason for being unwilling was simple: it was used to life in the secret realm, accustomed to a routine of working for a month and resting for fifty years. But when faced with the threat to its life, that reason became insignificant.

In the end, Jiang Yingxue stored the Star-Gazing Tower, along with its spirit, into her space.

*

Four cultivators crossed the forest and arrived at the original site of the Star-Gazing Tower. They fell silent when they saw the vast empty space.

Sun Xu looked down at the map in his hand, then up at the empty ground ahead, repeating this action several times. "Where's the Star-Gazing Tower? How is it gone?"

Sun Bojia snatched the map. "This is right, isn't it? We didn't go the wrong way. Where's the tower?"

Sun Mingjian let out a light sigh. "This map is ten thousand years old. Times change; maybe the Star-Gazing Tower has shifted location."

Sun Bojia said, "Uncle Mingjian, if the Star-Gazing Tower isn't here, how is this oasis still around?"

"How would I know?" Sun Mingjian also wanted to know why. Suddenly, his expression changed. "There's someone ahead!"

They approached and saw a woman with a disfigured face.

Surrounded by desert, this woman was in the oasis. The well-traveled Sun Mingjian immediately recognized that she had been poisoned by a scorpion—the signs matched exactly with descriptions in books.

As soon as Sun Najuan saw these familiar Daoists, she ran over with tears in her eyes. She grabbed the sleeve of the foremost Daoist and said, "It's you! Take me out of here, quickly!"

Sun Xu pulled his sleeve back, startled. "You know us? Who are you? How did you get in?"

Thinking of how she had entered and its consequences, Sun Najuan was furious. "It was me—that female Daoist threw me in! It's all because of her!"

"A female Daoist?"

"Your accomplice! The one with the surname Sun!" Sun Najuan's surname was Sun, and her half-sister should also be surnamed Sun.

The Daoists present fell silent. They were all surnamed Sun. After a few more questions, they realized the one who had thrown her in was Sun Jiaying.

Sun Bojia looked her up and down. She was wearing a pink casual outfit—it did look familiar. It should be that woman, same attire, and upon closer thought, the voice was the same. "You're the girl who wanted to follow us on the mountain? How did you get here?"

An ordinary person poisoned by a scorpion shouldn't, logically, still be alive and kicking.

"A woman brought me here."

"A woman? What did she look like?"

"She was very beautiful, but... I can't remember..." Sun Najuan's mental state was terrible. She clutched her head and crouched in pain, unable to recall Jiang Yingxue's face.

The next second, she suddenly stood up, grabbed Sun Bojia's hand, and pressed it to her face, speaking urgently, "You can fix my face, right? You're Daoists, you must be able to!"

Sun Bojia quickly pulled his hand away. "I can't do anything about that."

Sun Najuan slumped to the ground in despair, repeating the same phrase, "How can this be, how can this be..."

Since the Star-Gazing Tower was no longer at its original site, they decided to head to another location on the map—the cave dwelling of True Lord Ruizhen.

Legend had it that after True Lord Ruizhen ascended, his cave dwelling sealed away his lifetime collection, awaiting the arrival of a destined person.