A Lotus Blooms with One Thought to Protect Qingxu

In a quiet corner of Shushan’s library, the young girl Hua Qiangu, about twelve years old, sat with her eyes closed and her palm turned upward. She wasn’t practicing Shushan’s cultivation techniques. Instead, she was sensing the faint vitality flowing through her fingertips. A withered leaf slowly unfurled in her hand, its yellow-brown color fading as a tender hint of green returned. Her “research” was quiet and cautious.

Suddenly, the shrill sound of an alarm bell rang across the mountaintop! The mountain-protecting formation was under an unprecedentedly violent assault, aimed straight at the main peak where Sect Leader Qing Xu was! Had the crisis from the original story arrived early?

Qiangu’s pupils contracted. In an instant, she sensed the killing intent erupting from the main peak, along with Qing Xu’s weakening aura as he struggled to resist. Thoughts raced through her mind: “Three rules: but if Qing Xu dies, Shushan will descend into chaos, and that’s the last thing I want! Power… is meant to protect!”

Ignoring the risk of exposing herself, she focused her thoughts on the power sleeping deep within her. There was no time to reach the main peak! In desperation, she fixed her gaze on a budding green lotus in the clear pond outside the window, a tiny node in Shushan’s spiritual leyline. She sent a pure, boundless force of life and creation into the lotus from afar, infused with her fierce desire to protect!

In the main hall atop the peak, the black-robed man’s fatal attack was already bearing down on Qing Xu’s face! At the critical moment, the ground shook violently. Several thick, emerald-glowing vines burst through the bricks and stone! They did not attack. Instead, they layered over one another, forming an ancient-looking giant shield patterned with lotuses and shimmering with vitality right in front of Qing Xu. “Boom!” The demonic energy, powerful enough to gravely injure the sect leader, slammed into the shield. Green light scattered everywhere, but the shield held!

The black-robed man was stunned, his attack thwarted. The elders and disciples filling the hall were dumbfounded, too! Where had this strange power come from? The lotus pattern