Qi Rong appeared beside her at some point, and Qing He asked him, "Where did you go just now? You disappeared as soon as I turned around."
Qi Rong's eyes darted around: "The Master of the Manor has arrived, and I went to say a few words to him."
Qinghe didn't notice his strange behavior. Her eyes darted around and she saw the master of Yujing Manor, as well as Elder Feng, with Miao'er and Yuanxiu standing beside them.
This was the first time Qinghe had met the manor lord. He was dressed in black and looked solemn. He had an ordinary appearance but exuded a sharp aura that made people want to keep their distance.
Sensing the scrutinizing gaze, the manor lord suddenly looked in Qinghe's direction, but Qinghe had already looked away.
On the stage, Ding Zhaoshan surveyed the crowd with satisfaction. He seemed to enjoy this feeling of being high above. When the noise reached its peak, he slowly said, "Please be quiet, everyone. Now, please witness the true face of the Divine Pearl."
After speaking, he slowly lifted the brocade cloth with his fingers, and after it was completely lifted, a round and translucent bead appeared before everyone's eyes.
Inside the bead, red threads shimmered with golden light, swirling and moving. It was exceptionally beautiful under the sunlight. The previously noisy crowd immediately fell silent, everyone staring intently at the divine bead, as if trying to memorize every inch of its appearance.
Apart from Qi Rong and Qing He.
Qinghe said softly, "I wonder what material this fake divine bead is made of. It looks exactly like the real one. No wonder it can pass for the real thing."
She turned to look at Qi Rong and saw him deep in thought, so she assumed he had the answer and asked, "Do you know?"
Qi Rong: "It's just a guess."
Qinghe indicated that he was all ears.
Qi Rong leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Qing He's eyes widened suddenly, and her gaze toward the stage became complicated.
After the initial amazement, under everyone's gaze, Ding Zhaoshan raised his hands, using his spiritual power to suspend the divine pearl. A deep blue spiritual wind was slowly sent into the divine pearl, and his two hands floated on either side of the pearl, beginning to absorb its power.
Not far away, Qinghe clearly saw that the golden-red threads inside the bead were disturbed by the spiritual power. After thrashing around inside the bead for a while, they followed the deep blue spiritual power and entered Ding Zhaoshan's palm.
The audience was unusually quiet; even the sound of a gentle breeze could be heard clearly.
After waiting for a long time, long enough that everyone chose to believe that it was a real divine pearl and not a fake, just when they were feeling resentful about it, an unexpected change occurred.
As spiritual energy continuously flowed into Ding Zhaoshan's body, he went from being full of confidence to trembling all over. What seemed like an eternity to everyone else had only taken two incense sticks.
The first to notice something was wrong was Ding Mengchao, who was closest to Ding Zhaoshan. He quickly went to his father's side and tried to wake him up, but no matter what he did, he couldn't wake him up. Instead, he was knocked back several meters by the light waves emitted by the divine pearl.
Looking up again, Ding Zhaoshan was trembling even more violently, with veins bulging on his hands as if they were about to burst. Golden-red threads were visible to the naked eye as they climbed up Ding Zhaoshan's face along with his blood, making his face terrifyingly red, like a vengeful ghost.
Ding Mengchao was startled, but his long-maintained mask prevented him from panicking too much. Just as he was about to go to Ding Zhaoshan's side again, Ding Zhaoshan suddenly opened his blood-red eyes, raised his head to the sky and roared. The sound seemed to pierce his eardrums, and a powerful spiritual force burst out from his body.
Everyone was shocked by the sudden turn of events. Some with lower cultivation levels vomited blood because they couldn't withstand the fluctuations from the spiritual energy, while those with slightly higher cultivation levels chose to flee before the spiritual energy attack could reach them, and the scene immediately descended into chaos.
Qinghe looked at Qirong: "Aren't you going to make a move?"
Qi Rong spoke slowly, "It's not my turn yet."
Qinghe followed his gaze and saw a blur rushing towards Ding Zhaoshan on the stage. The master of Yujing Manor quickly pressed several acupoints on Ding Zhaoshan's body with both hands, and finally pressed a point on his forehead. A black light entered Ding Zhaoshan's body, and Ding Zhaoshan stopped his violent outburst, leaned back, and fainted.
Ding Mengchao caught her father's body, tears welling up in her eyes, and asked the manor lord, "Master, what happened to my father?"
The manor lord said in a deep voice, "The clash of qi and blood has caused him to suffer a qi deviation." His expression was serious. "Take him back to his room, and I will heal him by guiding his meridians later."
Upon hearing this, Ding Mengchao hurriedly picked up Ding Zhaoshan and carried him to the side room, while instructing his servants to see the guest out and close the door.
After the Ding family closed the gates, Qi Rong and Qing He left the residence and strolled on the street.
The street is very short; you can see the end of it at a glance.
Qinghe asked Qirong, "Is what you said about extracting the fire spirit root true?"
Qi Rong nodded: "Some people are born with dual or multiple spiritual roots, making cultivation extremely difficult. Therefore, they spare no expense to remove their spiritual roots and only keep the one most suitable for them, making their cultivation path much easier."
"What happens to someone whose spiritual root is removed?"
Qi Rong looked at her and said, "If a person with multiple spiritual roots has their spiritual root removed, they will at most be weak for a while. If they have a good master and some elixirs, it won't have much of an impact. But if a person with a single spiritual root has their spiritual root forcibly removed," he looked at Qing He with a serious expression, "they will either die or be seriously injured, and they will never have the chance to cultivate again in this lifetime."
Qinghe didn't speak again and fell silent.
Someone strode in from behind, and Qinghe knew without turning around that it was Miao'er and Yuanxiu.
Miao'er and Yuan Xiu rushed to Qi Rong's side, their gloating expressions obvious.
Qi Rong genuinely didn't understand why she disliked the Ding family so much, and couldn't help but ask.
Miao'er glanced cautiously at Yuan Xiu and confessed, "Actually, the reason Yuan Xiu lost to Ding Mengchao in the last sect competition was because..."
Before she could finish speaking, Yuan Xiu coughed coldly, interrupting her.
This time, Miao'er no longer hid it, and her voice couldn't help but rise: "Why don't you say it? A gentleman is upright and honest. That Ding Mengchao won against you by using despicable means. He doesn't deserve the title of 'gentleman'!"
Ignoring Yuan Xiu's increasingly grim expression, Miao'er said to Qi Rong, "That day, Ding Mengchao feinted an attack on Yuan Xiu, but his real target was me. Yuan Xiu lost to him because he was protecting me."
As she spoke, her voice grew softer and softer. Everyone in the Imperial Mirror Manor knew that she liked Yuan Xiu, but she never expected that Ding Mengchao would use this to defeat Yuan Xiu, causing him to suffer humiliation in front of all the disciples and preventing him from entering the Trial of the Mirror of Reincarnation.
She felt sorry for him, so she went to her father to reason with him. But her father said that he didn't care about the process, only the result, and that losing was losing.
She returned home disappointed, and for a long time afterward, she dared not see Yuan Xiu, fearing that he would never pay attention to her again. Even when they met, she was very cautious.
From then on, every time she saw Ding Mengchao, she would make sarcastic remarks, wishing she could pounce on him and tear off his disguise, exposing his dirty face to everyone. As a result, even the entire Ding family disliked her.
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