Twin Light and Dark
"Where?" Han Tian asked casually.
"And there are those following behind!" Cang Jingqi gestured with his chin towards the back of him.
The little girl hid behind the wall, watching the two's movements from a distance. When she noticed Cang Jingqi turning around to look, she immediately hid herself and focused on listening.
Han Tian shook his head again: "Forget it, she probably thinks we're bad guys. Let's go!"
The old sect leader only had one disciple, Han Tian, who was exceptionally talented. It was obvious that the position of sect leader should be passed down to Han Tian. The old sect leader even gave Han Tian the sect leader's token.
Han Tian was reluctant, mainly because he found it too troublesome.
Cang Jingqi would tease him from time to time, addressing him as "Sect Master Hantian" a few times.
“There’s not much in the village, except for a Spirit Gathering Altar. Let’s go find the Vermilion Bird Pavilion to deal with it,” Cang Jingqi said.
The two searched for dozens of miles around without finding a single location for the Vermilion Bird Pavilion, and eventually found themselves nearing that village again.
Cang Jingqi, who had an extremely strong perception of spiritual energy, immediately sensed that something was wrong.
Before the two even got close to the village, a powerful suction force pulled them forward.
While using his spiritual power to protect himself, Cang Jingqi took out the two pages of paper: "The Spirit Gathering Altar has been activated!"
The Spirit Gathering Altar was initially built because some people wanted to take a shortcut to cultivate spiritual power. The Spirit Gathering Altar is a pair, with two altars set up separately. One of them is often built in nature where spiritual energy is abundant, and then the spiritual energy of plants and animals in nature is gathered and transmitted to the other altar through the Spirit Gathering Altar.
Cultivators can easily obtain a large amount of spiritual energy by sitting in the altar, thereby gathering the energy into their bodies and greatly increasing their spiritual power.
Those around the altar will also receive spiritual nourishment, extending their lifespan by a hundred years.
This method would cause great damage to natural life, depriving it of its vitality and leaving the earth barren.
A century ago, the imperial court ordered the closure of all spirit gathering altars.
Although many people objected, since it meant that ordinary people would find it difficult to reach the Celestial Realm through their own cultivation, they would have to enter one of the two great immortal sects. At that time, the Maple Fire Reflecting Frost Pavilion did not yet exist; there were only the Vermilion Bird Pavilion and the Four Continents Sect. However, after receiving the order, the Vermilion Bird Pavilion destroyed all the Spirit Gathering Altars within a few short years, and the related books and contents were directly listed as forbidden books and stored in the library of the Four Continents Sect.
The spirit-gathering altar in this village has not only not been destroyed, but is still in use!
"Something's wrong! This Spirit Gathering Altar has been opened in reverse!" Han Tian exclaimed alertly. "Our spiritual energy is being gathered and transferred to another location!"
Just as Cang Jingqi was about to say that the two of them were going to die here today, the gathering of spirits suddenly stopped, and the gathering altar erupted with huge spiritual energy, forming flames that rushed out of the altar.
The flames engulfed the entire village in an instant.
A huge surge of spiritual energy rushed over, and the two of them once again used their spiritual power to protect themselves.
Han Tian and Cang Jingqi exchanged a glance before landing to investigate.
They were in the sky, some distance from the village, and protected by spiritual energy, so they didn't lose much of their own spiritual energy. But the villagers were in a different situation. Almost everyone had all their spiritual energy drained away in an instant; losing spiritual energy meant death.
No one survived in the entire village; only flames remained.
No, there seems to be another one.
A woman's voice came from afar: "Ya Ya! Mother!"
Han Tian quickly followed the sound and found a girl of about ten years old, covered in mud.
Neither the gathering of spiritual energy nor such a large fluctuation of spiritual power had any effect on this girl, which was truly strange. Han Tian approached to test her spiritual energy and found that it was extremely weak, but it was firmly locked within her body and completely unaffected by external interference.
Han Tian tried to inject spiritual power into her body, but all the spiritual power dissipated when it touched her body.
He had never encountered this situation before, and it was never recorded in any book. Could it be related to the Spirit Gathering Array?
"Little girl, where are your family?" Han Tian asked several times, but the girl shook her head each time.
"Then come with me, okay? From now on, I'll be your family."
"Little sister..." the girl murmured, "Yaya..."
He seemed to have been mentally shaken and couldn't recover for a while, appearing dazed and stubborn.
"Come with me. From now on, I will be your master and your family."
Cang Jingqi surveyed the village and, confirming there were no traces of spiritual energy, turned to find Han Tian. Han Tian's first words were that he wanted to take the girl as his disciple.
Han Tian even left the sect leader's token in the village.
"Let's wait for the Vermilion Bird Pavilion to come looking for us," Cang Jingqi suggested.
The flames, ignited by spiritual energy, were beyond Han Tian's ability to extinguish. Cang Jingqi used demonic energy to put out the fire and then caught up with Han Tian. He didn't quite understand his friend's thoughts and said on the way, "Didn't you say you didn't accept disciples?"
Did I say that?
Cang Jingqi nudged him with his elbow: That's not what you said before!
Han Tian ignored Cang Jingqi and asked the girl, "What's your name?"
The girl kept her mouth tightly shut.
"The Four Continents Sect will bestow names upon its disciples, and you will then have a new name." Han Tian turned to look at Cang Jingqi, "Aqi, what name do you think I should give her?"
Cang Jing joked, "Let Han Jiang descend—she will suddenly land in front of you."
Upon hearing the word "fall," the girl's dim eyes lit up, and she grabbed Hantian's clothes.
Han Tian assumed the girl liked the name, so he said, "Then let's call her that."
Cang Jing rolled his eyes at Han Tian and said, "Are you even capable? I'm the one who has to come up with the name. If you can't raise it, then let me raise it."
Han Tian: "If you really want it, then raise it."
Cang Jingqi continued jokingly, "Sure!"
Han Tian was reluctant to part with her. He was extremely interested in the village and the girl.
He took the girl back to the Four Continents Sect to test her spiritual power. The old sect master was overjoyed. Upon hearing that Han Tian wanted to take on a disciple, he directly exempted her from the spiritual power test and took her into the Four Continents Sect, bestowing upon her the name "Han Jiang".
Cang Jingqi then contacted the Vermilion Bird Pavilion and headed to the village.
Not only did they fail to find the girl's sister, but they also lost Han Tian's sect leader's token. They found another spirit-gathering altar in the back mountain, which must have been activated, drawing away the spiritual energy of the villagers in the opposite direction.
The Vermilion Bird Pavilion then sent several groups of people to investigate, but they were unable to find the person who activated the formation.
No one has ever tried activating the formation in reverse, and no one has been able to find a solution even after a long search.
The only explanation is that this village violated the law by using the Spirit Gathering Altar for a long time, gathering the spiritual energy of the surrounding creatures into the village to achieve the purpose of prolonging life. In the end, it backfired, and all living things snatched back the spiritual energy that belonged to them.
There were indeed many elderly people in the village who were several hundred years old, so the explanation was valid, and the case was closed soon afterward.
Han Tian and Cang Jingqi remained silent about Han Jiang's survival. Once discovered, Han Jiang would inevitably be taken away by the Vermilion Bird Pavilion.
So Han Tian claimed that he found the Cold Dew by the roadside and that he lost the Sect Master's Token while wandering outside.
The Four Continents Sect was very dissatisfied with this, and Han Tian lost his qualification to succeed as sect leader. However, this suited Han Tian's wishes perfectly, as he never wanted to be the sect leader in the first place.
The memory was interrupted. Han Jiang slowly opened her eyes and saw Han Qi looking weak, leaning against the door.
"Master, Senior Sister..."
Han Tian quickly went to help her up: "Call me when you wake up. I left several voice transmission talismans by your bedside."
Hanqi shook his head: "It's something important, I need to ask Master."
The three sat down around the incense burner, the only one who understood was Han Jiang.
"Let me tell you, Master." Han Jiang explained everything that happened nine years ago from the perspectives of Han Qi and Han Tian.
Hanqi kept her head down the whole time.
"So, you're sisters?" Han Tian asked in surprise.
Han Jiang nodded: "Moreover, it was we who activated the formation back then."
With the help of the incense burner, Han Jiang not only saw what Han Tian had experienced, but she also remembered things that were much older, deeper, and more secret.
Han Qi, standing nearby, trembled violently, almost unable to sit up, and collapsed onto Han Jiang: "Sister, I'm the one who killed everyone... I'm the one who dragged you to the altar..."
"Hanqi, it's not entirely your fault," Hanjiang said calmly.
The villagers had already been using the spirit-gathering altar before they were born, or even longer.
Because the village was so remote, it escaped the seal-off by the Vermilion Bird Pavilion.
The villagers tacitly understood the situation, no one reported it, and no one could resist the allure of longevity.
They did not use the Spirit Gathering Altar for cultivation; they simply desired immortality.
The village chief was several hundred years old, but everyone dies eventually; no one can live forever. So he wanted to become a god, because becoming a god would grant him immortality.
But how can they become gods by stealing the power of all living things?
The village chief racked his brains and came up with a way to "create a god".
They carefully selected two young people who, by absorbing spiritual energy, conceived "spiritual embryos." The village chief said that once the spiritual embryos grew to adulthood, they would become gods and lead the entire village to immortality.
Amidst the watchful eyes of the crowd, twins were born in the center of the altar.
That day, the village was decorated with red lanterns as if it were a festival.
The altar did not disappoint them. A strange phenomenon occurred: spiritual energy far exceeding anything seen before surged from the altar, reportedly illuminating half the night and even lighting lanterns without wicks.
Although they are twins, the two children are completely different. The older sister is extremely insensitive to spiritual energy, while the younger sister has an unusually strong spiritual energy within her.
Just like yin and yang, light and darkness are intertwined.
Everyone in the village treated the two sisters very well. The younger sister was lively and often ran around, so the village chief always told her not to go to the back mountain. The older sister, on the other hand, was relatively calm and much less troublesome than her younger sister.
The two grew up healthy and without illness.
The older sister learned about the "deification" by accident. She overheard her mother's conversation with the village chief and witnessed the village chief taking out a book, and the two of them planning something.
While the village chief was away during the day, the older sister sneaked into his house and stole the book.
She couldn't recognize many words, so she could only copy them down and slowly understand them before returning the book as soon as possible.
It took her quite a while to understand the whole story and the future course of events. Basically, the village chief, in his quest to create a god, had maximized the power of the spirit-gathering altar, leaving the area around the village devoid of spiritual energy. This meant they could no longer obtain spiritual energy, their lifespans could not be extended, and they wouldn't live much longer.
People in the village started dying one after another, and the villagers were terrified, so they hoped to force the twins to become gods.
How can a half-grown child become a god?
"In ancient times, there were dead people who ascended to heaven," an idea that no one knows who came up with, but people who were desperate for a cure chose to adopt it.
The older sister heard her mother agree, and she heard everyone in the village agree. They wanted to sacrifice the older sister first, just in case the younger sister didn't make it.
The older sister didn't want to accept her fate, but she had no choice. Few people had ever left the village, and no outsiders had ever come here. No one would come to save her; she was going to die.
Every day after that, the older sister said goodbye to her younger sister, not knowing when death would come.
"Sister, I've discovered a magical place in the back mountains..."
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