Chapter 32: Anomaly, Where Did You Come From?

Before dawn, the sky was still a bleak, grayish color.

Fang Li stood at the foot of Wangchen Peak, gazing up at the palace suspended in the clouds halfway up the mountain.

Like a huge meteorite falling from the sky, it exudes an eternal silence and heaviness.

The biting wind blew, making her thin disciple's robe cling to her body, and the piercing chill crept up her spine.

The shock to my soul from last night's telepathic message that pierced my consciousness has not yet subsided, and my temples are still throbbing.

She took a deep breath, suppressing the fear and turmoil in her heart, and stepped onto the stone steps leading to the summit.

The moment you step onto the first step, an invisible pressure descends upon you!

It felt as if a thousand-pound boulder had suddenly pressed down on my shoulders, or as if I had sunk into viscous, cold mercury, making every lift of my leg extremely difficult.

The air became stagnant, and even breathing felt like a burning pain in one's lungs.

On either side of the stone steps were bottomless, dark ravines, where howling winds whipped up tiny ice crystals that felt like knives cutting into your face.

Fang Li gritted her teeth, channeled her spiritual energy to its limit to protect her body, and climbed upwards step by step.

Sweat quickly soaked through his inner shirt, then froze in the extreme cold of the summit, sticking to his skin and bringing waves of bone-chilling cold.

She dared not be distracted in the slightest, focusing all her attention on resisting the omnipresent and terrifying pressure.

After an unknown amount of time, she finally stepped onto the last step and stood before the black stone door of the Forgotten Dust Palace.

The stone door slid open silently, revealing the scene inside the hall.

So poor...we have nothing at all," was Fang Li's first impression.

The dome loomed high, disappearing into the flowing, dark mist.

The hall contained no superfluous furnishings, except for a solitary, towering platform at its deepest part.

A figure sat upright on the cloud platform.

The figure was shrouded in a hazy halo, indistinct and only a vague outline could be discerned.

Her long, ink-black hair flowed like the night sky, cascading down her back and seemingly blending into the endless darkness below.

Fang Li didn't even dare to look directly at the blurry figure. Just glancing at it out of the corner of her eye made her eyes sting and her soul tremble. A fear originating from her life instinct seized her heart, almost suffocating her.

She suppressed her surging blood and the urge to kneel down, lowered her head and eyes, and quickly walked into the hall. She stopped a hundred feet away from the cloud platform and bowed deeply in respect.

"Disciple Fang Li greets the Immortal Venerable."

The sound echoed faintly in the empty, deathly silent hall, and was quickly swallowed up by the omnipresent, heavy pressure.

There was no response; time seemed to stand still.

Fang Li maintained her bowed posture, and could clearly hear the sound of her heart pounding wildly in her chest, the blood rushing and washing over her eardrums.

Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, dripping onto the cold, black ground, where it instantly froze into tiny ice beads.

Every breath felt like walking on a knife's edge.

Finally, a gaze fell upon her.

Fang Li's body instantly stiffened, as if she had been nailed to the spot, unable to move even her fingertips, and a needle-like pain came from the depths of her mind.

"An anomaly."

Fang Li's body stiffened abruptly! An anomaly?! This big shot's opening remarks were this explosive?!

"Where do you come from?"

The voice remained indifferent, yet it exploded in Fang Li's mind like a thunderclap!

Where did he come from?! Is that what he's asking?! He...he must have figured something out?!

Fang Li's heart pounded wildly, almost leaping out of her throat! Rebirth! The System! This was her biggest secret! It absolutely could not be revealed!

She forcefully suppressed the surging blood and the scream that almost escaped her lips, her brain working frantically.

Don't panic! Absolutely don't panic! Maybe the expert was just asking casually? Or... testing us?

She took a deep breath (almost choking on the pressure) and tried to make her voice sound calm and respectful: "Reporting to the Immortal Venerable, this disciple... this disciple comes from a village near Qingmu Town at the foot of the mountain. My parents died early, and I was fortunate to be taken in by the sect, which allowed me to embark on the path of immortality." This was the background of the original owner of this body, and it was watertight.

The figure on the cloud platform remained unmoved, and that all-seeing gaze was still fixed on her.

"Time and space are like a long river, flowing endlessly, and your trajectory shows traces of flowing against the current. Why is that?"

Time reversal?! Fang Li's scalp tingled! Was this expert researching the origin of the universe?! This question was way too far off! She felt like her CPU was about to overheat!

"Disciple...disciple is dull and does not know what the Immortal Venerable means." Fang Li lowered her head even further, her voice filled with fear and confusion: "Disciple only knows that cultivation requires being down-to-earth and comprehending the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and dares not presume to discuss the Great Dao of Time and Space."

The hall fell silent once again.

Only the omnipresent pressure, like a tangible tide, relentlessly assaulted her mind.

She could feel that gaze sweeping over her, with a penetrating power that seemed to see through everything, as if it wanted to dig out the deepest secrets of her soul.

"The threads of fate intertwine and repeat." Ye Wuyang's voice remained calm, yet he posed a more pointed question: "Your soul is not of this world. Where does your origin lie?"

Boom!

Fang Li felt as if something had exploded in her mind! A soul not of this world! He even saw through her identity as a transmigrator?! How could this be?! This has already transcended the realm of cultivation!

Overwhelmed by immense fear and a sense of absurdity.

She felt as if all her pretense had been stripped away, leaving her completely exposed to the gaze of this supreme being, with nowhere to hide.

Deep within his consciousness, the dormant system seemed to sense this terrifying probing, emitting a faint electrical buzzing.

Her face turned deathly pale, and her body trembled slightly uncontrollably. She bit her lower lip tightly to keep from losing her composure.

Sweat had soaked through his inner clothes, and the cold sweat clung to his skin.

"Disciple...disciple is terrified!" Her voice trembled slightly. "Disciple was born into this world, grew up in this world, and my soul...my soul is naturally the soul of this world. What the Immortal Venerable said is too profound, disciple...disciple truly does not understand its meaning. Perhaps it is because disciple's aptitude is dull and my soul is flawed that the Immortal Venerable has asked this question?"

She could only insist that she was the soul of this world, blaming everything on her own dullness and flawed soul; this was her last line of defense.

A suffocating silence filled the hall.

Time seemed to stretch out infinitely, each breath feeling like being fried in a pan of oil.

Fang Li could clearly hear the sound of her blood rushing through her veins, and the subtle, crisp sound of sweat dripping onto the ground and freezing into ice.

That penetrating gaze remained fixed on her.

Just as Fang Li felt she was about to be driven mad by the heavy pressure and silent judgment, and the noise in her mind was getting sharper and sharper, the blurry figure on the cloud platform seemed to move slightly.

The indifferent voice rang out again, tinged with a hint of amusement.

"Your spiritual root," Ye Wuyang's voice was as clear and cold as an icy spring gliding over jade, "is very interesting."

Fang Li: "!!!" (⊙⊙)?

Spiritual roots?! What's so interesting about chaotic spiritual roots?