Getting a Sugar Mommy in Cultivation World!!-Chapter 828: The Clue About The Lost Legacy

"You look happy, Sister Jiang."

Chen Xueyan glanced at her junior sister as they walked along the mountain path.

Three days had passed since they left the village, and the imperial forces had arrived just as Jiang Shi promised.

Soldiers, supplies, and even some lower-level cultivators were sent to ensure the Blood Demon Sect wouldn’t return.

Liu Chen and the other orphans had been taken into the care of the empire.

Before leaving, Jiang Shi had personally spoken with the commander, ensuring the boy would be placed in a good orphanage in the capital.

Currently they were galloping through the misty slopes of the Whispering Veil Valley.

The snowy peaks of the northern mountains, which were barely visible from the village, were now clearly in view. The imposing presence of the mountains could be felt from the mist of the valley, despite how far it was.

Jiang Shi smiled slightly, an unusual expression on her typically cold face. "Happy" might be too strong a word. But... satisfied, perhaps."

"You’ve been in a good mood since yesterday," Chen Xueyan observed. "Did something happen?"

They crested a hill, and Jiang Shi paused to look back at the direction they’d come from. The village was long out of sight now, hidden beyond layers of mountains and forests.

"I think it was fate that we came across that village," Jiang Shi said thoughtfully. "sometimes coincidences are too perfect to ignore."

The last words that came out of her mouth were barely a whisper, but Chen Xueyan managed to hear them nonetheless.

"You remember Liu Chen?" Jiang Shi continued. "The boy we saved?"

"Of course," Chen Xueyan nodded. "The one whose mother..."

"Yes." Jiang Shi’s expression grew more thoughtful. "After we helped the villagers and I spoke with him at his mother’s grave, he insisted on repaying me somehow. He said the village owed us their lives."

"That’s sweet of him, but what could a child possibly offer?"

Jiang Shi pulled out a small, worn piece of paper from her sleeve. It was covered in her neat handwriting—notes she’d taken during the conversation. "He told me a story."

The sound of the hooves of the horses striking the ground was drowned by the voices of two sisters.

"A story?"

"A legend, actually. He said it was just a children’s tale, something the village elders told to entertain the young ones during festivals. But the details were... surprisingly specific." Jiang Shi’s eyes gleamed with something between excitement and determination.

Chen Xueyan leaned closer, trying to read the notes. "What kind of legend?"

Jiang Shi’s voice took on a storytelling quality as she recounted what she’d learned. "Long ago, before the current empire was even founded, there was a queen who ruled over the northern territories. They called her the Frost Phoenix Queen, and she was said to be a cultivator who had reached the peak of the Nascent Soul realm—possibly even higher."

"Nascent Soul Realm? Is there even a realm like that?" Chen Xueyan furrowed her brows in confusion. Despite the vastness of her knowledge, she had not heard of a realm like that.

"That is the name of the old realm. When humans had only started cultivating for a few millennia, the nascent soul was a major realm. Now it is the second level of the Budding soul Realm."

"The powerhouses of the Budding Soul Realm are in a league of their own. If someone in the soul formation realm can move a mountain, then those in the budding soul realm can eradicate it without lifting a finger."

Chen Xueyan sucked in a cold breath hearing the words coming out of her mouth. She also could not help but feel a little lacking. Jiang Shi was supposed to be younger than her, but now she knew more than her.

"I need to stop slacking and work even harder." Even though she cultivated hard for more than twelve hours a day, Chen Xueyan felt dissatisfied with her progress.

"To think there was once such a powerful cultivator living in the backwaters of the empire. I think it is just a legend as well."

"The village wasn’t always small," Jiang Shi explained. "According to the legend, it was once part of a great kingdom that spanned the entire northern region. The Frost Phoenix Queen ruled from a palace made entirely of ice that never melted, even under the summer sun."

She paused and glanced at her fellow sister before adding. "There were rumors that she possessed a divine artifact that allowed her to achieve this. Because of this artifact, she gained a deeper understanding of ice laws."

Chen Xueyan immediately caught on to what she was trying to say.

"Could it be...?" She asked, her eyes wide with shock and anticipation.

"Indeed." Jiang Shi confirmed her thoughts with a nod. "It was a crown."

"Its name was... The Lost Crown of Thousand Phoenix," She sighed. There was a hint of admiration and something akin to reverence in her eyes. "The same crown Elder Noah told us about and said we would find in the north."

"Just when you think you have understood what that man is capable of..." Chen Xueyan also took a deep breath before adding, "you can never fathom the depths of what elder Noah is capable of."

Shaking her head, she looked at Jiang Shi and asked, "Did he tell you any other clues regarding its location?"

"He did. But it is not necessarily a good thing." The younger sister replied with a sour look on her face. "The queen had a younger sister who grew jealous of her power. This sister betrayed her, allying with enemies from the south to overthrow the kingdom. During the final battle, the palace was destroyed, the kingdom fell, and the queen disappeared."

"And the crown?"

"Lost. Hence the name." Jiang Shi folded the paper carefully and returned it to her sleeve. Liu Chen said that according to the tale, the queen hid the crown before her death, placing it somewhere only one worthy of inheriting her legacy could find it. She left behind a clue or two, scattered across the lands that were once her kingdom."

"There is more than one?"

"There are, but everything leads to the same point."

Jiang Shi tightened her fingers around the reins of the horse and spoke chillingly,

"Where winter’s breath first kissed the land,

Where ice and stone go hand in hand,

The frozen tears of ancient grief,

Guard the path to find relief."

"A riddle?" Chen Xueyan asked knowingly. She could tell why Jiang Shi’s face soured. She really hates riddles, and here she was, having to solve one just to obtain the legacy she wants.

"These old bastards sure do love their riddles." Jiang Shi finally lost it and cursed so loudly that her sister exploded into laughter.

"Haha!!! You sound like Ma Li. Looks like sister Ma Li influenced her with her brash personality."

Jiang Shi joined in on the laugh after realizing what she had done. "Maybe she truly has. And I am kind of glad."

"Glad?"

"Yeah, thank heaven it was only her free-spirited behavior that rubbed off on me and not her perverted mannerisms."

Chen Xueyan looked at Jiang Shi as if she were looking at her for the first time. "You sure are something sister Jiang. To say something like that about sister Ma."

Jiang Shi’s lips twitched, and the tips of her ears turned red.

"Ahem, I wonder how she is doing." Chen Xueyan chuckled, seeing her reaction, but decided not to press on her embarrassment.

With a cough, Jiang Shi forced herself to calm down and said, "I heard she is chasing a legacy of her own."

"Is she?"

"She’s looking for the inheritance of the barbarian queen." Jiang Shi’s voice trailed away as she looked in the direction of the tallest snow peak. She wondered what the rest of the disciples who set out to pursue their own goals were now doing.