Journey to the West: Reincarnation as a Woman in the Cleansing Spring (Limited Time)

Chapter 68 Capturing Princess Wansheng

Lu Changgeng ran for a while, and only when he sensed that the auras of the two Dao Integration Realm cultivators behind him were gradually fading into the distance did he slow down his escape speed.

Only Princess Wansheng remained strung on the gun barrel; Ao Qing had been thrown out to shield him from the blade, and now it was unknown whether he was dead or alive.

He wasn't worried about Ao Qing's life, but rather whether Zhen Yuanzi, who was behind Ao Qing, would stand up for a mere novice.

But there's no time to worry about that now. We can't go back to Pansiling. Teng San Niang and Tie Gu are hiding near Cuiyun Town with seven spiders. Only he and Shan Xiao know about this.

The mountain demons are dead, and I have concealed their demonic aura. As long as I am careful, there should be no problem.

The little spiders are part of the pilgrimage; even if they are discovered, there should still be a glimmer of hope.

He thought for a moment, then turned his cloud around and flew westward toward Qijue Mountain, preparing to head to Xianglan Stream.

When we arrived at Xianglanjian, the morning light was still faint, and the mist in the ravine had not yet dissipated. The three ancient characters "Xianglanjian" on the cliff face were faintly visible in the thin mist.

The yellow dog demon Gou Ji was resting in a stone cave in the ravine, idly poking at an unknown wildflower with its paws.

Hearing the noise, she sprang up, about to habitually yell a few intimidating words, when she looked up and saw it was Lu Changgeng. She paused for a moment, then bowed respectfully, her voice high-pitched and thin: "This humble servant respectfully welcomes the Daoist Master!"

Lu Changgeng unloaded Princess Wansheng from the gun barrel, carried her on his shoulder, and strode into the cave.

His gaze swept over the yellow dog demon and saw that although she still looked like a female dog with a pointed snout and erect ears, her complexion was much better than last time, and her originally thin figure had become a bit plumper.

He casually asked, "Has anything changed while I was away?"

"Reporting back to the Daoist Master, all is well, but..." Gou Ji twisted her two paws together, her dog ears unconsciously tucking back again and again, and after stammering for a long time, she finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, "It's just that a few days ago when I went out to pick fruit, I encountered a wolf demon."

He was at the late stage of the Condensation Realm, and was fairly handsome, though not rude. He...he would throw spiritual fruits down into the mountain stream every day, along with flower petals and such, saying he wanted to cultivate immortality with me.

Her voice trailed off, her dog ears drooping down to cover half her face, her paws twisting and turning the hem of her clothes: "My mind is in complete turmoil, I don't know what to do. After all, I used to be male, and I've only been a female demon for a few days. This is the first time I've encountered something like this, and I'm truly..."

Lu Changgeng almost burst out laughing after hearing this.

He went into Xianglengquan first, with Gou Ji following behind.

Lu Changgeng placed Princess Wansheng on the blue stone by the spring, turned around to look at Gou Ji, and laughed, "This is a good thing! Cultivation resources have just been delivered to our doorstep."

See what I told you? Now that you've become female, demons will naturally line up to deliver spiritual fruits to you. Try dating him first; there's no need to rush into agreeing to anything, nor is there a need to rush into rejecting him.

There's only one rule! You mustn't reveal any news about this place or any information about me to any outsider demons. You should understand, right?

Gou Ji nodded earnestly: "This concubine will remember."

Lu Changgeng chatted with her casually for a few more minutes before sending her to her outer cave.

After watching her exit the passageway, he lifted Princess Wansheng off the bluestone, examined her injuries, and finding that she was not in immediate danger of death, threw her into the Fragrant Cold Spring.

The milky white spring water splashed up and enveloped her completely.

Lu Changgeng followed closely behind and stepped into the spring himself.

Of course, it wasn't about taking a bath with Princess Wansheng or anything like that. It was just that the pursuit had greatly depleted his magical power, and he simply wanted to use her to quickly replenish it.

With a thought, the demonic infant in his dantian emitted the true fire energy of the sun, and the yang fire source of the Cleansing Spring surged out from his body, silently merging with the yin fire source of the Fragrant Cold Spring in the spring water.

The originally milky white spring water gradually became clearer, and a faint golden shimmer appeared on the surface.

Princess Wansheng lay slumped in the spring, her wet, bright red silk dress clinging to her body, outlining her slender waist and long legs.

During the chase, her neckline was torn open, revealing a section of her delicate collarbone and the faint curves of her breasts below.

That once beautiful face was now completely bloodless, her phoenix eyes were tightly closed, and fine water droplets clung to her eyelashes. Her bare feet floated listlessly on the water's surface, her five toes gleaming faintly white in the clear spring water.

Lu Changgeng glanced at her and then looked away. The dragon girl was soaking in the spring, but the spring water showed no signs of replenishing her with magical power.

She was unconscious and had not circulated her cultivation technique, so the feedback mechanism of the Cleansing Spring had little effect after being triggered.

Her own unconscious dissipation of that meager spiritual power, even if she soaked in it for a year, would probably not be as effective as his meditation for a single day.

He pondered for a moment, then probed the depths of Princess Wansheng's consciousness with his divine sense and gently touched her.

Princess Wansheng shuddered and suddenly opened her phoenix eyes, only to see a misty haze and Lu Changgeng sitting cross-legged opposite her with a blank face.

She instinctively tried to get up, but the pain in her chest wound was excruciating, causing her to groan and fall back into the spring.

She looked down at her body; the light red dress clung to her skin, and although the spring water had washed away the blood from the gunshot wound on her chest, a shocking dark red gunshot mark still remained.

She looked around again. The milky white spring water was much thicker than ordinary spring water, and it was filled with the same aura as Lu Changgeng.

"You evil Taoist! Where have you brought me? Where is my brother Ao Qing?"

"No comment," Lu Changgeng said calmly, his face expressionless.

"You!" Princess Wansheng's eyebrows shot up, and she was about to use her magic power, but she couldn't sense any magic power at all!

"What did you do to me?"

"It's just a minor blocking tactic."

"Who exactly are you? With such cultivation and such methods, you are definitely not some nobody! Tell me, who are you, which mountain and cave do you live in, and which master did you learn from...?"

"Wait, are you checking my household registration?" Lu Changgeng said, feeling a headache coming on.

"Household registration?" Princess Wansheng didn't know what he was talking about, but at this moment she sensed that the aura of the spring here was exactly the same as that of him, and her heart stirred.

"Are you the spirit of this spring?" Princess Wansheng stared at him, her phoenix eyes filled with both anger and realization. "No wonder you could follow me to the bottom of the Azure Wave Pool and even learn the Ninefold Waves of the Azure Waves! Your true form, you demon, is actually a spring!"

Lu Changgeng thought to himself that she guessed right, but she also guessed wrong. Of course, he didn't argue and let her guess whatever she wanted.

Seeing that Lu Changgeng remained silent, Princess Wansheng sneered, "It seems I guessed right!"

She leaned against the pool wall, draped her arms over the edge, tilted her chin up to reveal her long neck, and stared directly at Lu Changgeng without any hesitation: "Now that I am in your hands, you may kill me or do whatever you want with me. But if you expect me to beg for mercy, you're dreaming."

Lu Changgeng stood up from the spring, and his water-shaped incarnation gradually solidified in the misty water vapor.

Her long, crimson hair cascaded over her shoulders, and her vermilion robe billowed on the water's surface.

He looked down at Princess Wansheng, his tone calm: "Princess, you are mistaken. I have no grudge against you. You were the one who first pressed me aggressively in the Xie Zhi Cave, and then you attacked me while I was undergoing my tribulation in human form. If I did not retaliate, would I simply surrender?"

He paused, then said, "As for the Xuanming Canglan Spear, your Wansheng Dragon Clan has guarded it for countless years. Is there anyone who can lift it? The spear does not recognize your Wansheng lineage. Even if I were to take it, treasures belong to the virtuous. This spear does not belong to your Bibo Pool, so it cannot be called stealing."

A flash of anger crossed Princess Wansheng's phoenix eyes. She opened her mouth to retort, but found herself speechless.

It was indeed she who chased and attacked him first in the Xiezhi Cave, and it was also she who struck first on the nameless peak.

As for that spear, she couldn't even pull it out, and her father couldn't use it either; it was difficult for him to even pick it up. Now that it had been taken away, there was no one to reason with.

"Hmph! No matter how eloquent you are, my Azure Wave Pool Ten Thousand Saints Dragon Clan will fight you to the death!"

"That's your business. Whether you can kill me or not depends on your abilities," Lu Changgeng said indifferently.

He then added, "Next, I will unseal the spirit-sealing spell to help you recover from your injuries."

As Lu Changgeng spoke, he raised his right hand in a gesture, and Princess Wansheng felt the long-bound seven-colored light in her dantian silently dissipate, and the magic power that had been sealed for so long began to flow slowly through her meridians again.

She was stunned for a moment, almost unable to believe that he would let her go so easily.

"Hmm? What do you want to do?"

She instinctively tried to gather her magic power and blast it towards his face, but as soon as she raised a wisp of dragon energy, a tearing pain shot through the gunshot wound in her chest, causing her to groan and fall back into the spring.

"Although the seal on your dantian has been lifted, I have left a trace of the Golden Flame of the Solar True Fire attached to your demon core. If you forcibly activate your magic power to attack me, the True Fire will detonate on its own. It won't kill you; I will save you. But it will be enough to completely destroy your cultivation and dantian meridians." Lu Changgeng's voice remained calm. "If the princess wishes to recuperate, she can cultivate here in peace. The cool air of this spring is perfectly suited to your water-based cultivation techniques. Once your injuries have healed, you may choose to stay or leave as you see fit."

Princess Wansheng remained silent for a long while, realizing she was truly powerless to retaliate, before finally squeezing out two words through gritted teeth: "Hmph!"

She closed her phoenix eyes and stopped speaking. She sat cross-legged in the spring, formed a hand seal, and began to circulate the Azure Waves Technique.

As soon as she activated the technique, she sensed something was wrong.

The cool, refreshing aura of the spring water was naturally compatible with the water-elemental dragon spirit within her body, making each wisp of spiritual energy enter her body several times smoother than during her usual cultivation.

Although she was indignant, she had to admit that the spring was indeed a treasure.

However, if this spring is his true form, then his magical power should also contain a cool and refreshing aura. But the magical power she sensed before was clearly the extremely yang aura, like the blazing sun.

Such contradictory temperaments could not possibly coexist in one person; she had never heard of such a thing before.

After thinking for a long time without figuring it out, he had no choice but to start cultivating.

Lu Changgeng said no more, and the two sat facing each other in the spring, each cultivating their own way.

The yang fire of the Cleansing Spring and the yin fire of the Fragrant Cold Spring intertwined within his body, while the true dragon magic power that Princess Wansheng had dissipated during her cultivation slowly flowed into Lu Changgeng's dantian along with the spring water.

He remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he nodded in agreement.

This dragon girl was indeed exceptionally talented; the amount of magical power she released while recovering from her injuries was equivalent to several days of full-force cultivation by an ordinary cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage.

After a day and a night, the gunshot wound on Princess Wansheng's chest had turned from dark red to light pink, and her newly grown skin was as smooth as jade, with only a very thin, shallow mark remaining.

She slowly opened her eyes, a flash of brilliance in her phoenix eyes, her magical power had recovered to almost its full strength.

She glanced at Lu Changgeng, who was still sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed, and then her gaze swept over the seemingly ordinary spring water beneath her.

As a dragon princess, her perception of water veins and spiritual springs far surpasses that of ordinary demon cultivators.

The scent of the spring water blended perfectly with Lu Changgeng's; when he was in the spring, even his breathing was synchronized with the water's ripples.

This is by no means an ordinary rogue cultivator using the spring for cultivation; rather, the spring is him, and he is the spring.

However, the auras were not entirely the same, which puzzled her greatly.

Without making a sound, she transformed her divine sense into an extremely fine wisp of silk and slowly probed downwards along the spring water.

After passing through layers of water veins, they finally touched a ball of extremely pure primordial power deep within the spring.

It was a white, misty substance that seemed to breathe in and out, as if it were alive.

This thing must be his Achilles' heel!

She didn't believe this evil Taoist would be safe if she destroyed this thing!

She suddenly forced all the Azure Dragon Qi within her body to her dantian, and a turquoise demonic infant emerged from the top of her head. It was a miniature version of Princess Wansheng, with a pair of small dragon horns on its head, making it look charming and cute.

But at that moment, she opened her mouth and unleashed a primordial dragon aura, which transformed into a streak of emerald cold light and blasted fiercely into the depths of the spring.

This attack had been building up for a long time and was delivered with all its might. Wherever the dragon's power passed, even the spring water was frozen into ice crystals.

However, before the emerald light could even touch the white mist, the demonic infant in Lu Changgeng's dantian appeared behind him, opening its mouth to spew out a stream of true solar fire.

Princess Wansheng's demonic infant was startled and hurriedly turned its head.

The Azure Frost Dragon and the True Sun Fire collided violently deep within the spring, their intertwining ice and fire creating a massive cloud of white mist.

A mysterious and profound aura suddenly surged from the intersection of the two forces, and the three-legged chicken in the demon infant's arms, which had always kept its eyes closed, suddenly opened its eyes.

This is the first time I've opened my eyes!

Lu Changgeng was stunned.

The three-legged rooster raised its head, suddenly opened its sharp beak, and let out a short, sharp cry.

The cry pierced through the spring, through the water veins, and into the depths of Princess Wansheng's divine consciousness.

Lu Changgeng felt a strangely familiar heat surge from deep within his dantian—the Golden Crow Evil Fire Qi.

This evil fire was more than ten times more intense than the last time at the Cleansing Spring. It was as if it had been completely awakened after being provoked by Princess Wansheng's primordial dragon aura. With a savage rage that could burn everything, it pounced on Princess Wansheng's demonic infant.

The Azure Frost Demon Infant was as fragile as paper before this evil fire and was instantly swallowed up.

Lu Changgeng's demonic infant, its eyes bloodshot from the evil fire, lunged uncontrollably at Princess Wansheng's demonic infant.

The two demonic infants were entangled deep within the spring, the Golden Crow Evil Fire and the Azure Cold Dragon Fiend eroding and tearing at each other, yet their entanglement grew ever tighter.

The connection between the demon infants was directly reflected in their physical bodies.

Princess Wansheng felt her whole body go limp, as if all her strength had been drained from her limbs, and an abnormal flush rose to her skin.

She opened her eyes, panting heavily, when she suddenly felt a crimson figure pressing down on her!

It's that evil Taoist priest!

"Get out of my way... ugh..."

Her red lips were suddenly covered by a mouth. She tried to push him away by placing her hands on Lu Changgeng's chest, but found that she didn't even have the strength to push him away. She could only watch helplessly as he pressed down on her.

A very soft murmur involuntarily escaped her throat, only to be swallowed up by the sound of the gushing spring water.

The surface of Xianglengquan churned violently for a while, then slowly returned to calm.

In the misty haze, only two blurry figures remained, overlapping and constantly shifting their positions...