Emerging from the protective array revealed the scenery of the back mountain, and the disappearance of the gale greatly reduced Shi Xuan's pressure.

She surveyed the terrain; there was a towering cliff near the Spirit Refining Pool, easily recognizable. Shi Xuan headed towards the cliff, stopping at a forest of gray rocks as instructed by her senior brother, and began the second round of breaking the formation.

"It's very easy to follow the steps that someone has already set out," Shi Xuan thought to herself. "If I go through a few more formations like this, I'll think that all formations are this simple."

Before long, Shi Xuan had entered the formation. The entrance that came into view was a stone door. After entering the stone door, the temperature dropped immediately, much lower than that of the Cliff of Contemplation.

Shi Xuan rubbed his arms and increased the speed of the myriad things to continue moving forward.

The stone walls on both sides of the passage were not smooth, as if they had been dug out temporarily.

The spiritual energy here is abundant from the moment you enter the passage, which shows that the sect has invested a lot to properly store the senior brother.

The passageway was circular in shape, with a downward slope, like descending a winding mountain road underground. The deeper you went, the more abundant the spiritual energy became, and at the end was the eldest brother's room.

The room was small, but it greatly impressed Shi Xuan.

The most eye-catching feature was a jade ice bed in the center, upon which lay a tall, slender man in white robes. Faint traces of a ghostly blue array were visible around the ice ice bed, which Shi Xuan guessed might be a spirit-gathering array or something similar.

Apart from the ice jade bed, the small room was almost entirely filled with spirit stones, some of which had already been depleted of their spiritual energy and turned to ash. It was clear that even if the senior brother was just a shell, he was still a spendthrift.

Shi Xuan stepped forward and carefully examined the person on the ice jade bed. The person was exactly the same as the one she had seen in her dream. His complexion and posture were normal, as if he were just asleep.

Ten years have passed, and he has not been abandoned. Shi Xuan's impression of the sect has improved even more.

She took out a plaque carved from soul-nourishing wood that she had prepared beforehand. On it was a simplified version of the Soul-Stabilizing Array, personally selected and taught to her by her senior brother. This array was even more difficult to learn than swordsmanship, since there was no theoretical foundation. It was like teaching Shen Wuyang alchemy; it took a long time for him to finally draw it.

It was just her own perception that she had learned so quickly. In reality, Lu Shenzhi was quite surprised by her learning speed. He only taught her the flow of spiritual energy and the key points of array drawing, and she was able to learn a second-order array within two hours. Although it was only a simplified version, her comprehension was something he had never seen before.

Shi Xuan took out a silver needle, pricked Lu Shenzhi's left middle finger, and dripped a drop of blood into the center of the Soul Nourishing Wood array. At that moment, Shi Xuan seemed to feel something mysterious connecting the wooden tablet and his senior brother's body.

A short while later, a faint light flashed on the wooden sign, then returned to stillness.

The person on the ice jade bed seemed exactly the same as before, but Shi Xuan knew that his soul had left his body.

"Alright, let's go."

The voice that suddenly appeared in his mind startled Shi Xuan, "Senior Brother has neglected his studies for ten years, but I didn't expect him to still be so proficient in using this secret voice transmission technique."

“Heh,” Lu Shenzhi’s voice sounded very pleased. “I’m more proficient at every spell I’ve learned than I was ten years ago.”

Over the course of ten years, he probably replayed everything in his mind over and over again, so it's not easy for him to forget anything.

Shi Xuan didn't move, as if he wasn't in a hurry to go out at all.

She looked at the mountain of spirit stones around her and sighed, "Senior Brother, it wasn't easy for me to get in here and rescue you. This mission is much harder than I expected."

The gaze that fell upon the spirit stone, which shone with a crystalline light, was no longer a hint; it was tantamount to an explicit statement.

Lu Shenzhi was very cooperative: "You can take my storage ring with you, and you can do whatever you want with the contents inside."

"Hmph, no sincerity. If I take your ring today, the people who come to check in a couple of days will find that your things are missing and know that someone has been here. How can this matter be resolved peacefully? If they really find the ring on me, I won't be able to explain myself no matter how many mouths I have."

She's quite cautious.

Lu Shenzhi thought for a moment and suggested, "Then I will take the spirit stone out of the ring and give it to you. If you don't take off the ring, no one will notice."

That's exactly what he was waiting for. Shi Xuan smiled happily: "It has to be Senior Brother! How can ordinary disciples compare to your wisdom! No wonder the entire sect remembers you so fondly. You truly deserve it! I also have the utmost respect for Senior Brother!"

If Lu Shenzhi could materialize, he would definitely roll his eyes at her. This isn't affection for the senior brother; it's clearly affection for the spirit stone!

Nevertheless, he dutifully used his divine sense to retrieve a storage bag from his storage ring.

Shi Xuan took the storage bag, hung the wooden plaque on his waist, turned around and left without a care in the world.

From the moment she silently infiltrated the forbidden area behind the mountain to her return to the Cliff of Repentance, less than half a day had passed. With two and a half days left before she could leave, Shi Xuan sighed resignedly. Since she was already there, she might as well make the best of it. The Cliff of Repentance was for reflecting on one's mistakes; according to the saying "I examine myself three times a day," she could reflect on herself seven times here.

She wanted to reflect on her mistakes, but someone wouldn't allow it.

Lu Shenzhi's voice appeared at the right time: "The gale of the Cliff of Contemplation is a rare and powerful tool for honing sword skills. Since you're here, don't waste this opportunity. Practice your sword here for two days!"

Shi Xuan: ...

Even the donkeys in the farmers' homes don't work as hard as her. She studies swordsmanship during the day and practices it at night. Now, even after entering the Cliff of Contemplation, she is still busy.

“Draw your sword,” Lu Shenzhi said. “Try to make your sword technique unaffected by the strong wind, so that you can wield it freely even in such a strong wind.”

“Senior Brother, do you know,” Shi Xuan tapped his wooden plaque with his finger, “that you’ll have no friends if you keep doing this, you know that?”

Lu Shenzhi chuckled: "Now that you only know me, I believe you are not like those ordinary people and will be able to see the kindness in me."

Shi Xuan had already flown into the gale with his sword in hand, muttering to himself, "I will not be like those ordinary mortals, for I myself am an ordinary mortal!"

The Concealed Edge Sword Technique has twelve forms in total. She had mastered the first seven forms in her dream, but now that she was in the gale, the sword techniques were deformed by the wind, and the sword always deviated slightly from her expectations.

Shi Xuan concentrated his divine sense on the sword's edge, finding it extremely difficult to control. And before long, he felt his strength waning; if he practiced according to the method in the dream, he ultimately couldn't remain unaffected by the fierce winds.

Left with no other choice, she increased her spiritual energy output, using more spiritual energy to enhance her stability and power, thereby balancing the sword technique.

However, this caused the long-lost pain of spiritual root tearing to return, though it was not as severe as before.

Shi Xuan knew that this was because, with the recent increase in her cultivation level, she was able to use more spiritual power within her tolerance range.