THIP Chapter 30 V1

Taiyan Sect.

Sword Forest.

A young girl was practicing her swordsmanship here. As she moved, her sword created a blur of motion, graceful as drifting clouds and flowing water. Though her techniques seemed soft and fluid, each strike carried a hidden sharpness.

The girl had light-colored eyes, clear and pure like the finest glazed glass. A blood-red cinnabar mark rested between her brows—not seductive, but striking. She looked only eleven or twelve years old, yet it was already easy to see she would grow into a breathtaking beauty.

Suddenly, as if sensing something, her fair wrist twitched slightly. A silver flying sword shot out of her hand toward a large boulder in the southwest, slicing through the air with a flash of cold light.

Two fingers caught the paper-thin silver sword mid-air. Qin Yu stepped out from behind the rock, exaggerating his reaction as he said, “Hey now, little Mingli, were you trying to assassinate your poor martial uncle?”

Mingli’s expression didn’t change. “What brings Martial Uncle here?”

Her tone was cool and distant, her face just as calm. Her demeanor mirrored her senior brother’s cold indifference—completely no fun to tease. Qin Yu pouted. Like master, like disciple, it seemed.

“Come on, Mingli, don’t imitate your senior brother’s icy attitude. If you grow up like that, you’ll never find a cultivation partner.” Qin Yu’s peach blossom eyes were full of sorrow. He couldn’t help lamenting how his senior brother had turned this once-sweet, smiley little girl into an ice cube.

Seeing that Mingli was unmoved, he added, “Just look at your senior brother—he’s already a few hundred years old and still doesn’t have a partner.”

Mingli glanced at him coldly, thinking, It’s not that no one wants him—it’s that no one is worthy of someone as extraordinary as Master.

She replied, “You don’t have a partner either, Martial Uncle.”

“…That’s different!” Qin Yu said smugly. “I choose not to have a cultivation partner. You don’t know how many female cultivators are lining up to be with me.”

Mingli: “Heh.”

Just then, a cold voice drifted through the air. “What are you feeding her head with?”

It was Mu Liuyin’s voice.

“Mingli, come to the main hall.”

Upon hearing her master’s voice, Qin Yu’s expression deflated. Grumbling, he picked up Mingli and flew toward the main hall.

As soon as they arrived, Mingli’s eyes lit up at the sight of her master. She softly called out, “Master,” her tone entirely different from the cool indifference she’d shown Qin Yu.

Mu Liuyin gently patted her head, feeling a rare moment of sentimentality. In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed. The tiny toddler he once held was now a graceful young girl. His gaze softened as he said, “You’re only eleven, but already in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. Tomorrow, the Spiritual Herb Secret Realm will open. All cultivators under the Golden Core stage are allowed to enter. Would you like to go?”

Mingli blinked. Having been raised and trained at her master’s side, she had never left the sect. Though she was naturally reserved, she still felt curious about the outside world. So, she nodded.

Though the secret realm restricted entry to those below the Golden Core level, many of the spiritual herbs inside were coveted even by Nascent Soul cultivators. Besides the inherent dangers of the realm, there were always some higher-level cultivators who forcibly suppressed their cultivation to sneak in, making the realm far from safe.

Mingli stood with a group of Taiyan Sect disciples, waiting for the realm to open. She quietly recalled her master’s instructions from the day before.

Other sects’ cultivators eyed her with mixed feelings. Word had long spread that the Taiyan Sect’s leader had taken in a prodigy. But seeing Mingli in person—only eleven or twelve and already in the Foundation Establishment stage—still left them shocked. Their own sects’ so-called geniuses were mostly in their teens or twenties before reaching this level.

Among those entering the secret realm, Mingli was likely the youngest—but not the weakest.

As the secret realm activated, the disciples began disappearing one by one.

Mingli felt a sudden whirl of motion, and the world shifted around her.

When her vision cleared, she found herself standing atop a giant green python.

Her face remained calm, but she suspected her luck wasn’t great.

The secret realm transported everyone randomly. Now, she was completely alone.

The python had been peacefully sleeping until this small human landed on its head.

Before it could react, Mingli had already thrust her sword down toward its vital spot. Even at her full strength as a mid-Foundation cultivator, her sword barely pierced an inch.

The python hissed furiously, flinging her off with a violent shake of its head. In the next instant, a spray of thick green venom burst from its mouth, flying toward Mingli mid-air.

She twisted her body gracefully and landed with a light step, but not without consequence—her shoulder was splashed with several drops of the venom. It sizzled with intense corrosion. Mingli quickly swallowed an antidote pill, her face paling. She hadn’t expected this python to be in the late Foundation stage.

The python, seeing its poison fail, slithered rapidly across the ground toward her. It wasn’t planning to let her go.

Mingli dodged through the air, but the python’s massive body was difficult to evade entirely. Her spiritual energy drained fast, and she accumulated several wounds. Struck by its tail, she crashed hard to the ground. Seeing her lie still, the python opened its mouth, ready to swallow her whole.

But Mingli was only pretending to be drained of spiritual power.

The moment it neared, she sprang up and drove her sword straight into one of its eyes—lightning flickering along the blade.

The python writhed in agony, thrashing wildly. Mingli downed a Yuan-boosting pill, summoned more lightning energy, and drove her sword once more into its vital point—this time, piercing all the way through.

After slaying the beast, Mingli swayed slightly and used her sword to steady herself. Her expression never changed.

She rested briefly, then cut open the python’s body, retrieved a dark green serpent gall, and stored it in her spatial ring.

Just as Mingli reached for the fifth-grade Snow Ginseng guarded by the giant python, she instinctively sidestepped — an icicle shot right into the spot where she had just stood.

Three Foundation Establishment cultivators surrounded her, their eyes filled with greed as they stared at the Snow Ginseng. Mingli had only just exhausted her spiritual energy to kill the python and now had no confidence in facing three mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Her expression turned even colder. She couldn’t understand why her luck was always this terrible.