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Even though she had lost her family, cruelly deprived of happiness, and her home was completely destroyed, as long as life persisted, there was meaning in living.

Once dead, life had nothing left, not even a sliver of warm sunlight to be seen.

"You still have tomorrow, and you still have a future. You are the treasure that your dad and mom gave their lives for. If you think like this, their deaths would be so unworthy. Moreover, if you don’t love yourself, your dad and mom would be very angry," Gu Xiaoxi said.

After listening to what Gu Xiaoxi said, the little girl bowed her head and pouted, as if pondering the truth of her words.

Seeing that she was sensible, Gu Xiaoxi reached out to pat her head and comforted her softly, "If you’re tired, take a nap. I’ll hold you."

Then she cradled the little girl in her arms at an angle, finding a comfortable position for her to sleep.

Yun Xiao watched Gu Xiaoxi and felt that she was becoming more and more maternal.

Look how gentle!

Was this still the unruly, somewhat arrogant, and somewhat overbearing woman?

Clearly, she was very different from before.

Looking at the little girl again, comforted by her, a look of gratitude on her face, and the sadness in her eyes seemed to lessen.

"Everyone, take the time to rest. Tomorrow morning, the army will send a plane to take the wounded and the elderly away. The rest of you will follow me on foot to a safe place to stay temporarily," Gu Xiaoxi ordered.

"But, this is our home. Where can we go if we leave here?" an elderly man said with a pained expression.

"You can’t come back here in the short term, and further inspections for aftershocks are needed. The mountaintops here are high and strewn with rocks. If an aftershock occurs, everyone will be in danger. Rebuilding our homes is urgent but cannot be rushed!" Gu Xiaoxi explained to everyone.

The villagers bowed their heads, not looking at each other for a long while before falling silent again.

The members of Gu Xiaoxi’s team, who were behind her, had already fallen asleep on the ground.

After several days of non-stop activity, everyone was truly exhausted.

Once the little girl fell asleep, Gu Xiaoxi placed her inside a temporary tent.

She quietly left the crowded area and found a quiet valley to prepare to practice her cultivation techniques.

With the situation currently so precarious, she only wanted to unlock the second volume of the cultivation technique, hoping to obtain even stronger power.

Without hesitation, she took out the second crystal she had bought from Ya.

Instantly, a purple glow illuminated the valley, rendering it mystical and legendary.

As the crystal lit up, Gu Xiaoxi felt a pulling force from it.

Her consciousness was immediately sucked in.

What appeared before Gu Xiaoxi was a space filled with golden light, as if the distant horizon was bathed in golden sunlight.

She followed an attracting force and walked forward.

A moment later, she still saw a high altar, upon which sat a man with a childlike face and white hair.

Upon seeing her, the man chuckled.

"Weren’t you just fine last time? How did you end up in such a sorry state this time? What happened outside?" the man’s voice was ancient yet clear.

Gu Xiaoxi frowned, somewhat puzzled. In theory, after the person inside the crystal had imparted the cultivation technique, they should have disappeared.

Why did he seem to recognize her?

The previous crystal she had used for cultivation had already turned into an ordinary stone; now he appeared here again—could it be the same person?

"Please master, bestow upon me the next volume of the cultivation technique. I need to become stronger!"

"First tell me what happened outside?"

"An earthquake, a natural disaster!"

"You ended up ragged while trying to save others?" the man said.

"Yes, Master!" Gu Xiaoxi always appeared very sincere.

After a while, the man stroked his grizzled beard and looked at Gu Xiaoxi with a serious expression, "Why do I sense an aura on you that does not match the spiritual energy—a whiff of immortal qi?"

Immortal qi?

Gu Xiaoxi instinctively thought of the Fruit of Immortality and took out two pieces to show her master, "I have a lot of these fruits here. Perhaps it’s they that are emitting this qi."

Seeing the fruits, the man’s snowy eyebrows twitched, his expression grave, "These are no ordinary things. Where did you get them from?"

"Master, what do you mean?"

"These cannot be eaten carelessly. Only immortals are entitled to enjoy them. Humans must not overstep, lest they face utter ruin."

"Master, I understand! I am just storing them, I have not eaten any," Gu Xiaoxi explained respectfully.

The man with a childlike appearance and white hair sized up Gu Xiaoxi for a good while before shaking his head, "No! There is another aura on you, not entirely from the Fruits of Immortality. There’s another energy!"

Gu Xiaoxi carefully recalled whether there was something else besides the Fruit of Immortality and her own cultivated spiritual energy.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck her, and she remembered, "I had been injured before, my sea of qi depleted, unable to recover for a whole year. Later, a friend found an Immortal Herb that cured me. And after that, the spiritual energy within me became even more abundant."

"Immortal Herbs?"

"Yes! An Immortal Herb about ten centimeters tall, white and crystal clear, able to emit a seven-colored halo," Gu Xiaoxi described.

The man with white hair cascading over his shoulders thought for a moment and then nodded, saying, "Divine Tear Grass!

It grows only at the border between the Immortal Realm and the Demon Realm.

Moreover, it is guarded by ferocious monsters, and even ordinary immortals and demons cannot obtain it.

It seems you have a very powerful friend. "

Speaking of this, Gu Xiaoxi’s expression inevitably became solemn.

She thought of Mi Xi!

Last time, she saw that he didn’t look well, and now she was too busy to visit him. Even at the end, she hadn’t had the chance to thank him.

If the item he obtained was so extraordinary, the dangers involved must have been many.

Suddenly, she felt a bit worried for him.

"Now I will pass on the second volume’s content to you; I hope you’ll practice diligently. You are bound to achieve greater things in the future!"

As the words fell, Gu Xiaoxi saw another beam of golden light shoot into her brow, and in an instant, she was pulled back to her Sea of Consciousness, returning to the real world.

Soon, her mind was filled with numerous cultivation techniques.

Without a second thought, she sat down and began to practice her Cultivation Technique.

However, to her disappointment, compared to the spiritual energy she required, the spiritual energy molecules she could absorb from the surroundings were obviously so scarce that they were headache-inducing.

Compared to the abundant spiritual energy of Nether Island, this place was practically a barren Barbaric Wasteland.

After a night of cultivation, her Cultivation Technique had only improved by one percent. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to break through the second volume by the age of one hundred, let alone practice the next volume.

Gu Xiaoxi sighed but didn’t get discouraged; fortunately, a night’s rest had replenished the spiritual energy she had lost.

At her level of cultivation, even with constant consumption, over time, the consumed spiritual energy could return on its own, refilling her sea of qi.

This should be considered another kind of gain.

Early the next day, Gu Xiaoxi led her team to put all the injured on the plane.

The elderly and children were all evacuated sequentially.

The remaining hundreds of able-bodied villagers, after burying their deceased fellow villagers, also prepared to follow Gu Xiaoxi to the temporary relief base.

On the way back, everyone felt much more relaxed.

After a night’s rest, all were full of energy.

Yun Xiao’s complexion wasn’t very good, and Gu Xiaoxi knew that she might have grown up in these mountains.

Liangshan was not far from here.

"Miss, I have something to tell you. Beyond those four mountains lies Liangshan, and at the foot of the mountain, there are still over a hundred households. I don’t know if they’ve been rescued?" a middle-aged man said.

Gu Xiaoxi took out her phone and called headquarters.

The news she received was that the current rescue efforts were focused on densely populated areas, and they hadn’t reached there yet.

Since Gu Xiaoxi and her team would be passing that area, they hoped she could send a few people to check it out and treat any injured immediately.

Headquarters was waiting for her update, and if there were injured, they would arrange a plane for rescue.

Because the disaster area was so vast and there were so many people to rescue, the planes were all busy; every minute was precious.

Without hesitation, Gu Xiaoxi turned to Yun Xiao and said, "Che Junqing, Jing Haoran, Yun Xiao, Ai Xiang, you four take the medicine and go check the village."

"Okay!" Yun Xiao naturally had no objections.

Gu Xiaoxi looked at Ai Xiang and said, "You’re the team leader! Everyone will follow your command."

"Yes!"

Quickly, the team split into two, with a small squad heading towards the village.

Gu Xiaoxi pulled out a map, and she made sure to check on every village they passed through.

Along the way, they rescued a few elderly and children.

Those younger villagers had fled at the first sign of trouble.

Several hours later, the route passed through a vast valley, with two towering mountains pinching a gorge between them, the mountainsides extremely steep.

Gu Xiaoxi glanced at the sun, which was already setting.

"Let’s speed up! We need to leave the valley before dark and rest on the smoother terrain on the other side," she said.

The villagers following behind all nodded in agreement.

A large group of several hundred people orderly followed Gu Xiaoxi’s instructions to leave.

However, just as they were crossing the middle of the valley, the mountains shook violently once again.