After entering the dense forest, Shi Liuchuan felt extremely uncomfortable. Although there wasn't much spiritual energy at his residence in the Divine Origin Sect, the spiritual energy there was pure and not as chaotic as it was here. He felt as if his meridians were being violently disturbed. He had a feeling that if he inhaled too much of this spiritual energy, he might even explode and die.

However, there is one advantage here: instead of cultivators, there are quite a few delusional beasts.

After walking for another three days, they came to a water source, and Shi Liuchuan finally felt better. The spiritual energy here was not as mixed as in the forest, and the Green Spirit Bird also stopped here.

Then Shi Liuchuan saw a piece of black wood fall from the sky. The aura emanating from it was somewhat familiar to him, so he quickly caught it.

"Rukawa, you will stay here and cultivate. I will come back and explain everything to you once my injuries have healed better."

Hearing that voice again, Shi Liuchuan was less resistant, but he was still most worried about his sister's whereabouts.

"What does this piece of wood have to do with the frost branch?"

"Shuangzhi is inside. I need to help her regain her senses first."

Shi Liuchuan's expression changed drastically. It was just a piece of wood no bigger than the palm of his hand. How could his sister be inside? But the aura emanating from the wood was indeed his sister's. No wonder he was so familiar with it.

"I don't have the energy to explain to you. Shuangzhibi must go to another place to recuperate, otherwise she will disappear from this world."

After saying that, the Yin Soul Wood slowly rose up again and moved in another direction of the dense forest, but this time the Green Spirit Bird did not follow.

Shi Liuchuan had made countless guesses in his heart, but because no one in the Divine Origin Sect taught him, and his authority was not enough to browse those precious collections, he did not know that there was such a thing as Yin Soul Wood, or that after death, there was a possibility that the soul could temporarily exist in the world.

Although Shi Liuchuan was extremely anxious, he could only wait—wait for the truth, wait for the day he became strong.

So he began to cultivate day and night. Water fell from the mountain and formed a small pool. There were fish in the pool. When he was hungry, he would catch the fish and eat them. Occasionally, small animals would wander into the pool. When he was in a good mood, he would let them leave. When he was in a bad mood, he would roast them and eat them.

Although the spiritual energy here is not particularly pure, in order to prevent his meridians from being eroded, Shi Liuchuan always tries to filter the spiritual energy himself. Over time, his meridians and bones have become very strong and resilient.

As a result, he found that his cultivation speed was much faster than before. In just one year, he went from the sixth level of Qi Refining to the ninth level of Qi Refining. This speed can be described as terrifying. You should know that in the previous eighteen years, he had never slacked off every day, and he had only managed to cultivate to the sixth level of Qi Refining.

Moreover, the later a cultivator goes, the slower their cultivation speed becomes. Yet he advanced three minor levels in just one year, something he never dared to dream of before. Even Shi Tianning and Shi Tiankui could only manage this much!

"That's because no one here can harm you anymore, and your talent is already quite high."

A sudden female voice rang out, and Shi Liuchuan's eyes flashed like lightning. This time, he saw an almost transparent phantom. The phantom was a young and beautiful woman who was looking at him with loving and heartbroken eyes.

That one glance made Shi Liuchuan's questioning words remain stuck in his throat, and he even felt an urge to cry.

Song Xia slowly floated over and stroked his cheek with her translucent palm: "Liu Chuan, it's your mother. I'm sorry, your mother is late."

"You..." Shi Liuchuan's voice was hoarse. He was surprised that he did not reject the woman's actions. He wanted to ask why people would become like this.

“Sit down and talk slowly. I have the energy to tell you everything now, including the existence of Frostbranch.”

After a moment of contemplation, Song Xia said, "The story begins with my marriage to your father. My marriage to Shi Changqing was orchestrated by the Shenyuan Sect and the Xuanguang Sect. In fact, your father Shi Changqing's lover has always been Fairy Su Mu. It wasn't that my appearance stole Fairy Su Mu's original position, but rather that they wanted to use this to scheme against me."

Looking at the fire, Song Xia slowly said, "Are you wondering why two prestigious sects would scheme against an orphan girl of unknown origin like me?"

Shi Liuchuan nodded silently, "Indeed."

"That's because I possess the bloodline of the True Phoenix. They wanted to strip me of my True Phoenix bloodline and transplant it into Fairy Su Mu. Unfortunately, man proposes, God disposes. They didn't expect that Master Changqing was not a virtuous gentleman. He had you and Shuangzhi with me without my consent. Because I am the only remaining True Phoenix bloodline in this world, after learning that I was pregnant with you, they wondered if I could give birth to another True Phoenix bloodline. So they planned to strip me of my bloodline after you were born."

Shi Liuchuan was shocked: "So you were like that back then..."

“That’s right. After you were born, they began to strip me of my bloodline and give it to Fairy Sumu, but they failed that time. Fairy Sumu did not successfully transplant my bloodline.”

Shi Liuchuan's voice grew even hoarseer: "So, this time, my sister went missing..."

"It is said that the Nine Heavens Palace calculated that the savior would be born in the Divine Origin Sect and the Profound Heaven Sect. Back then, they stripped me of my bloodline in the hopes that Shi Changqing and Fairy Su Mu would give birth to someone born with the bloodlines of a true dragon and a true phoenix. Unexpectedly, my bloodline was not successfully transplanted. Therefore, they wanted to transplant the true phoenix bloodline of Shuangzhi into Shi Tiankui, just like they did back then. In this way, Shi Tianning and Shi Tiankui, the saviors, would have divine bloodlines, which would increase their chances of saving the world."

"How dare they do this!"

"What wouldn't they dare to do? With the Divine Origin Sect and the Profound Light Sect joining forces, what power in the world could stand against them? Even if they acted openly, revealing their intention to save the world, people would probably still praise them for doing a good job."

Shi Liuchuan gritted his teeth: "Then you and Shuangzhi deserve to die?"

He paused, then said, "Since you were stripped of your bloodline and died back then, then now..."

“I am indeed dead. I am now in a soul form. A year ago, my abilities were limited and I was not able to save Shuangzhi’s physical body. So I could only watch helplessly as she was also stripped of her bloodline. Fortunately, I managed to collect her soul, but she is as weak as I was back then. It may take many years for her to regain consciousness.”

With that, Song Xia smiled apologetically: "Over the years, it's not that I didn't want to find you, but I've only just regained consciousness. As you can see, I'm very weak right now, and any cultivator could easily defeat me."

Shi Liuchuan lowered his head and said, "This can't be blamed on you. It's just that those people are too despicable. Can such despicable and evil behavior really save the world?"

Song Xia scoffed: "You've hit the nail on the head. They're not worthy of being saviors, and they can't save this world at all."