"Are you absolutely certain?" Gu Qingxi asked, a healthy dose of skepticism coloring her mental tone.
"Certain! Absolutely positive! Go! Head to the back mountain now!" The Boundless Spirit Ancestor's voice rattled inside her skull, vibrating with impatient, almost manic, energy.
With a sigh, Gu Qingxi summoned Da-Da. The faithful crane landed gracefully, and she climbed onto its broad back. Urging the crane skyward, they soared toward Verdant Peak's largely unexplored hinterlands. The panorama unfurled beneath them was a breathtaking sea of emerald green – an unbroken expanse of lush, whispering bamboo forest blanketing the slopes.
"East! Fly east! Yes! Perfect course!" The Ancestor practically cheered. "I can feel it! The resonance of my own sealing ward! Getting stronger!"
Under Gu Qingxi's relayed guidance, Da-Da descended, touching down on a surprisingly level clearing nestled deep within the bamboo kingdom. Patting Da-Da's sleek neck and offering a small fish as payment, Gu Qingxi sent the crane off to find its own amusement nearby.
She surveyed the spot, a natural amphitheatre surrounded by towering bamboo culms. "Directly beneath us?" she confirmed, tapping the soft earth with her boot.
"Exactly! Buried deep, but undeniably here!" The Ancestor's tone brooked no argument. A pause followed, heavy with unspoken implication. "…Naturally, retrieval requires excavation."
Gu Qingxi's silence stretched for several heartbeats. She stared pointedly at the verdant ground. "…Excavation," she repeated, her inner voice low and deliberate. "Meaning… we must dig it up?"
The Ancestor faltered. The word seemed starkly inelegant in this context. "Well… technically, yes," he finally admitted, his enthusiasm slightly dampened. "The spatial seal anchors deep. Surface activation is impossible. Besides… the terrain shift over epochs… what was once accessible now lies interred beneath layers of accumulated earth."
Gu Qingxi: "…" A distinct feeling of participating in something decidedly uncouth – like grave robbing – washed over her.
Sensing her profound, judgmental silence, the Ancestor's mental voice became distinctly sheepish. "It… requires some exertion," he conceded weakly. "Predicting this verdant tomb wasn't within my divinations, you understand! As compensation for the… manual labor… one-fifth of the recovered artifacts shall be yours!"
"Let me see what I can manage," Gu Qingxi sighed, her resolve firming despite the absurdity. She would have assisted regardless of the promise; an oath bound her. Yet, her observations of the self-proclaimed Demon Monarch thus far had yielded curious results: no lingering aura of malevolence, no palpable bloodlust, no hint of concealed animosity towards her. This 'Boundless Spirit Ancestor' seemed, for now, a remarkably harmless – albeit eccentric – entity within her Soul Sea, justifying her initial trust.
With pragmatic resolve, her hand dipped into her dimensional bracelet. It emerged clutching… a sturdy, practical farming hoe. Its wooden handle showed wear, the iron blade stained with dried earth from past uses.
"By the Nine Heavens, lass!" the Ancestor exclaimed, momentarily diverted. "What don't you carry? A farming implement?"
"You couldn't see this inside?" Gu Qingxi asked casually, positioning herself to strike the earth. She maintained a meticulously organized bracelet – tools, provisions, components all flawlessly categorized. A necessity honed in a harsher world.
"Perceive? Hah!" The Ancestor's mental tone turned aggrieved. "My current prison manifests as an endless, blinding expanse of purest white! No artifacts, no scrolls, no vistas – only oppressive, featureless luminescence! Utterly tedious!"
Gu Qingxi paused mid-swing, the hoe poised. An isolated pocket? She hadn't consciously created such a space within the bracelet. The implications filed themselves away for later contemplation.
The physical labor quickly proved its formidable nature. Each thrust of the hoe into the packed earth and tangled roots jarred her shoulders. A wave of longing swept over her – modern excavation machinery! A vivid image of Senior Brother Lu Tianyu's earth-rending sword strike during their ghost encounter surfaced. A few such strokes here would transform this arduous dig into effortless efficiency!
But practicality intruded. Such seismic displays would undoubtedly draw unwanted attention. How could she possibly explain quarrying a hole large enough to hide a small hut deep within her Master's private mountain?
Explosive talismans? An option, yes, but guaranteed to sound like thunderclaps echoing across the peaks – announcing her illicit activity to the entire Azure Essence Sect.
The stark reality was unyielding: the hoe was her only stealthy instrument. Progress was soul-crushingly slow. Drops of sweat stung her eyes despite the bamboo grove's cool shade. Her arms began to protest with a familiar, building ache.
After a period marked by blisters forming beneath her gloves and labored breath, Gu Qingxi leaned heavily on the hoe's handle. She lowered herself onto a moss-covered rock, deliberately ignoring the pile of displaced earth nearby.
The Ancestor, sensing her exhaustion and burgeoning frustration, wisely remained silent. He couldn't deny the ridiculousness of the task he'd imposed. Stealth demanded she labor alone. He had no solution… only a profound sense of awkwardness.
"Ancestor," Gu Qingxi began, wiping her brow with her sleeve, a spark of inspiration lighting her eyes. "Would you happen to possess knowledge of an advanced warding array? One capable of completely isolating an area, masking all sound and spiritual fluctuations emanating from within? A ward where we could… unleash our efforts… without detection?"
"A Grand Soundless Seclusion Ward?" The Ancestor's mental voice brightened instantly, "Of course such arrays exist! High-level cultivators use them for secretive breakthroughs or forging forbidden…" He trailed off, a familiar awkwardness returning. "…However… the specific resonance matrices for channeling Spirit Force nodes across the Eight Yin-Yang pillars… the precise sequence for weaving Void-Silencing Runes… the details… seem regrettably… foggy…"
Gu Qingxi simply stared at the earth she'd moved. Her voice was flat. "Your usefulness continues to astound."
"W-Wait!" the Ancestor stammered quickly, "An alternative! Master the theory of such a ward! Then return! This crude dig… at this rate… might span decades!" His desperation fueled the suggestion.
The light of realization dawned in Gu Qingxi's eyes. She smacked her fist into her palm. "Yes! Learn the ward first! Enact it, shield this clearing completely… then… unleash whatever means necessary to breach the depths! Explosives, blasting techniques… unleashed in silence!" Her fatigue seemed momentarily forgotten by the elegance of the solution.
The Ancestor wholeheartedly approved. Neither paused to consider the monumental complexity of such an undertaking. Xianxia's world taught that profound formations weren't mastered casually; they demanded innate talent, years, sometimes lifetimes, of dedicated study – a key reason true masters were revered and rare.
But Gu Qingxi's background offered a different perspective. To her, formations represented complex patterns, governed by immutable underlying principles, much like the ancestral arrays she had mastered in a previous life – structures she could weave with talismanic energy. Grasping this world's equivalent, though challenging, felt achievable. Her confidence was unwavering. The Ancestor, for his part, simply overlooked the difficulty – his focus narrowed solely on the goal.
With a plan in place, the digging ceased. Gu Qingxi rose, stretching stiff muscles. She tilted her face towards the dappled sunlight filtering through the emerald canopy. The breeze rustled the bamboo leaves, a soothing susurrus filling the tranquil clearing. She inhaled deeply, savoring the crisp, earthy-scented air.
Rustle. Thump. Rustle-thump.
A blur of black and white tumbled through the undergrowth near the edge of the clearing. It rolled, stopped abruptly, and righted itself.
Gu Qingxi's head snapped towards the source. Her eyes widened.
Was that…?
It couldn't be…!
Adrenaline surged through her. A Moon-Graced Ironclaw Bear cub!
There, nestled amidst vibrant ferns, sat an impossibly round, fluffy cub. Its fur was a striking mix of purest white and deepest ebony, especially concentrated around its large, dark-rimmed eyes. Currently, the cub was locked in a battle with a stubborn bamboo shoot significantly larger than itself. Its small, sturdy paws batted ineffectually at the tough outer sheaths. Frustration mounted. It let out a plaintive, high-pitched Ee-ee! – a sound of pure, bewildered distress that tugged directly at Gu Qingxi's heartstrings.
Let me! Let me help you! I can peel it for you! Her inner voice screamed with maternal urgency. Yet, instinct prevailed. Any sudden movement risked terrifying the precious creature. She remained frozen, breath caught in her throat, heart hammering against her ribs.
"Hmm? An Ironclaw Bearling?" The Ancestor's voice held curiosity. "Ah! Now it makes sense! Your Master's true lineage! It's only natural his peak harbors these sacred creatures. Though seeing a cub so unaccompanied is unusual."
"Don't you see its adorable charm? That soft, fluted warble!" Gu Qingxi communicated back, her mental voice laced with uncontainable reverence. Every instinct screamed to gently cup that plush, cocoa-dipped fur and lose herself in its softness.
"Charm? Well… they are Divine Realm guardians… But proceed with extreme caution! If a cubling is present, its dam cannot be far! And a mother Ironclaw Bear's fury defending her young is the stuff of immortal legends!" The Ancestor's warning rose in pitch, but Gu Qingxi was already moving.
With the stealth of a seasoned hunter, each footfall carefully placed to avoid snapping even the tiniest twig, Gu Qingxi began edging towards the distressed cub. She moved with glacial patience, every muscle controlled.
Within arm's reach of the struggling dumpling-snouted fluffball, she paused. Her hand slid into her dimensional bracelet's well-organized food storage pocket. It emerged holding a single, perfectly polished red fruit, its skin gleaming waxy in the sunbeams. Ever so gently, without a sound, Gu Qingxi placed the apple on its side and gave it the slightest nudge with her fingertip.
The apple rolled smoothly, stopping right before the bewildered cub's paws.
The cub froze, startled. Its big, dark, liquid eyes fixed on the alien object. It extended a tentative paw, tapping the smooth surface gingerly. A unique, sweet-sour fragrance unlike anything it encountered daily – the scent of fruit ripened far away – wafted up. Captivation replaced distress. Whiskers twitched as its wet, black nose sniffed deeply. With a small chuff of discovery, it managed to scoop the apple into its clumsy embrace.
Gu Qingxi's heart swelled until it felt liable to burst. Utter adoration radiated from her gaze as she watched the precious fluff-dumpling, with intense, almost comical focus, try to coordinate its paws to hold the unfamiliar prize steady. With a final, determined chirrup, it succeeded, bringing the apple to its mouth. A triumphant CRONCH echoed through the bamboo grove as tiny, sharp teeth punctured the crisp flesh. The sound was pure contentment incarnate. The cub's entire being seemed to hum with the ecstasy of discovery.
Gu Qingxi couldn't tear her eyes away, bewitched by the simple, perfect delight of the celestial cub communing with its unexpected bounty.