Chapter 568: The Role of the Purple-Blue Twig, the Power of True Spirit

In the cultivation world, if you wanted to win over a powerhouse, there were only two paths.

One was through marriage alliances built on emotional ties.

The other was through benefits, with resources as the core.

For the first path, Lüqiu Qingfeng thought long and hard but couldn’t find a suitable candidate.

Though the Lüqiu Clan had plenty of female cultivators, numbering in the tens of thousands, when it came to female Nascent Soul cultivators suitable for marriage with Wei Tu, the count was pitifully small—barely enough to fill one hand.

Even among those few, while some were friendly with her, getting one of them to serve as a marriage pawn for her sake was nearly impossible.

After all, what woman who had climbed to the Nascent Soul Realm wasn’t proud and untamed? Who would willingly humble herself to serve another?

Take her, for example—

She had considered offering herself, personally working to build this bond. But after much deliberation, she gave up.

She couldn’t throw herself in just to tie down Wei Tu, this future powerhouse.

She wasn’t that cheap.

As for the second path—resource supply…

That was even harder.

Resources for Nascent Soul mid-stage and late-stage cultivation were already scarce in the Lüqiu Clan. Even their own clansmen didn’t have enough. How could they possibly spare any for an “outsider”?

At best, they could hand over one or two treasures to show goodwill, but long-term supply was impossible.

“Wait—I’ve got it! Little Seventeenth!”

Suddenly, Lüqiu Qingfeng’s eyes lit up, a smile curling on her lips.

Among the clan’s Nascent Soul female cultivators, even with her status, it was hard to control them, let alone order them to smile and flatter Wei Tu.

But if she lowered the bar to Golden Core Realm, then the candidates were plenty. In fact, many would compete for the chance.

Of course, Lüqiu Qingfeng also knew that merely sending a Golden Core female cultivator would hardly qualify. It would be an insult to Wei Tu, a Nascent Soul powerhouse.

Her plan was simple—support her cousin, the Seventeenth Princess, to break through into Nascent Soul, then use her as a marriage candidate to bind Wei Tu.

…

At that moment, Wei Tu, who was temporarily staying in the Spider Heart Sect, had no idea of Lüqiu Qingfeng’s schemes after learning he had slain Lüqiu Jinyuan.

His only goal now was to unravel the connection between the “purple-blue twig” he had taken from Lüqiu Jinyuan’s body and the Golden Purple Destiny within his sea of consciousness.

This was the only spiritual item he had ever seen that could make his Golden Purple Destiny tremble.

But—

When he returned to the Spider Heart Sect, hiding inside a cave residence to study it, he discovered the twig acted like a mundane object, utterly still.

He tried refining it with mana, probing it with divine sense, and even using blood-refinement techniques. None of the three usual refining methods worked.

It was as if the Golden Purple Destiny’s earlier reaction had been nothing but a dream.

“Divine items hide their light! This purple-blue twig must have a method to unlock it.” Wei Tu stayed calm. Failure didn’t discourage him.

He turned to texts, scouring Lüqiu Jinyuan’s life records for clues on how to refine it.

He didn’t believe that something Lüqiu Jinyuan could use was beyond his reach.

During this, he couldn’t help but feel a flicker of regret for not capturing Lüqiu Jinyuan alive instead of killing him outright.

But that thought didn’t linger. He quickly cut it off.

After all, Lüqiu Jinyuan wasn’t like the Earth Spider Matriarch, who had no powerful backing. Behind him stood the vast Lüqiu Clan. If Wei Tu hadn’t killed him immediately, and reinforcements had arrived, the consequences would have been disastrous.

Compared to that, being troubled now by the lack of a refining method for the purple-blue twig was nothing.

“Born ordinary… at seventy-four, his bloodline talent slowly awakened…”

Wei Tu held the jade slip, repeatedly mulling over Lüqiu Jinyuan’s early life.

It seemed normal, nothing remarkable—similar to how many late-blooming prodigies rose up.

Yet, as one who himself bore the Golden Purple Destiny of “Late Bloomer,” Wei Tu felt that Lüqiu Jinyuan’s beginnings were anything but ordinary.

Because he had lived through something almost the same.

“Seventy-four years old… awakening…”

“Awakening… bloodline talent…”

“Could it be…”

Wei Tu’s brows arched slightly. A hazy thread of inspiration flickered in his mind.

It wasn’t clear yet, but he felt close to the truth.

“Bloodline!”

Wei Tu’s eyes shone.

Lüqiu Jinyuan had started out only as a minor branch son of the Lüqiu Clan. His talent was average at best, completely overshadowed by Lüqiu Qingfeng, the Ninth Princess of the main line.

But… as time passed—

His bloodline talent had grown, until it completely crushed Lüqiu Qingfeng’s, rising to the level of a “pure-blood descendant.”

If he hadn’t discovered this “purple-blue twig,” he might have thought Lüqiu Jinyuan’s rise came purely from his own talent. But now, seeing this spiritual object resonating with the Golden Purple Destiny of “Late Bloomer,” even a fool could guess that it was inseparable from this treasure.

Otherwise, why would Lüqiu Jinyuan have clutched it so tightly in his Nascent Soul right up until his death?

Thinking this, Wei Tu wasted no time. He quickly drew some of Lüqiu Jinyuan’s essence blood from his storage bag, placing it in a jade bowl.

Then he placed the “purple-blue twig” inside the bowl and began careful observation.

One day.

Two days.

Three days…

Several days passed in a flash. Yet to his disappointment, the essence blood inside the jade bowl showed no change at all.

Its spiritual nature was exactly the same as before.

This result left Wei Tu somewhat disheartened. He began to think his deduction was wrong.

After all, he had already tried blood-refinement on the twig. If it could react to blood, it should have shown results then.

“Perhaps Lüqiu Jinyuan’s bloodline rank was already too high. This purple-blue twig can no longer push it any further…”

After settling down, a new thought struck Wei Tu. He decided to run more tests, setting up control groups.

He thought briefly, then pulled out Elder Guang’s corpse, extracting a bowlful of essence blood from within.

—A Nascent Soul cultivator, though dead, did not decay.

Whether Lüqiu Jinyuan or Elder Guang, after their deaths, their essence blood retained vitality for a time.

For instance, the “true spirit flesh and blood” Wei Tu once consumed had come from the pure-blood descendant, the Moonshadow Snow Phoenix.

That beast had been slain by the ancestors of the Moon Condensation Palace and Mirror Water Pavilion. Even after ten thousand years, its blood still carried traces of spiritual essence.

Compared to that, essence blood from newly slain Nascent Soul powerhouses like Lüqiu Jinyuan and Elder Guang held far more vitality.

Wei Tu placed the purple-blue twig into Elder Guang’s blood-filled jade bowl and once more waited patiently.

This time, persistence paid off.

After three days, about one-eighth of the blood in the bowl had vanished. Yet the remaining blood showed a faint improvement in its vigor and density.

The improvement was subtle—barely visible even to divine sense.

But this was after only three days…

If extended to years, centuries, or even millennia, such an increase in bloodline rank would become terrifying and unimaginable.

“Of course, there must be an upper limit. For example, Lüqiu Jinyuan’s bloodline had already reached the level of a pure-blood descendant. The twig could hardly elevate it further. Or rather, the further it goes, the slower the progress.”

Wei Tu lifted the purple-blue twig, which gleamed like crystal, from the bowl. Using divine sense, he noticed its inner spirituality had weakened slightly.

It wasn’t hard to deduce that the twig raised bloodline rank by following a rule of exchange.

—Sacrificing its own essence to enhance the cultivator’s bloodline.

Like a living elixir!

“The question is… can it replenish itself by absorbing spiritual energy later?”

“If it’s just a one-use consumable, its value is far less.”

Wei Tu pondered silently.

“But… why does this item have no effect on me? Is it because I lack bloodline?”

Having grasped the twig’s purpose, Wei Tu frowned deeply.

Strictly speaking, he did have blood.

Just not a true-spirit bloodline like Elder Guang or Lüqiu Jinyuan’s.

His bloodline was self-forged—a “mortal bloodline” he cultivated, capable of being passed down to descendants.

If he were a demon beast, his blood would qualify as a “Heaven-tier bloodline.”

After all, at this stage, he was no different from the “Heavenly Demons” among beasts who could take human form, his strength already at the Nascent Soul Realm.

“Then the key lies in those two words—true spirit.”

Wei Tu quickly seized the point.

He boldly guessed that the twig wasn’t raising bloodlines at all. Instead, it was enhancing the “true spirit power,” or “sacred ancestor power,” within Elder Guang and Lüqiu Jinyuan.

Because their true spirit power had been inherited through “true spirit bloodlines,” it outwardly appeared as an elevation in bloodline rank.

“If that’s the case, then this is a true supreme treasure!” Wei Tu’s heart pounded, his gaze burning hot on the twig in his palm.

True spirit power, also called “divine law power,” was a higher force only Void Refinement cultivators and above could wield.

Above Nascent Soul was Divine Transformation.

Above Divine Transformation was Void Refinement.

That alone showed how priceless this treasure was.

A treasure that could enhance true spirit power would spark bloody wars among the great figures of the Spirit Realm.

“This purple-blue twig is already so valuable. Then the Golden Purple Destiny… its rank must be even higher than I imagined.”

Wei Tu sank his mind into his brow, gazing at his Golden Purple Destiny, silently thinking.

He could faintly feel that the twig’s rank was below that of the Golden Purple Destiny.

It seemed… more like a byproduct of it.