Princess Jin released a sigh of relief when she finally stepped into the Oasis of Respite.

If she was made to trek through the desert for much longer, the protections her robes offered would have failed. She shuddered at thinking of what would happen to her.

Her royal tutor went into detail about this Shard since she was expected to access it. Of course, nobody thought it would be this early, but the future was never certain unless one received a divination from a master.

The desert was a common obstacle that the visitors of the Shard had to face, and one that the tutor focused on in particular. It hadn’t taken too many lives, but the number of hopeful cultivators it had scarred exceeded hundreds.

The damage the desert does to a cultivator’s skin couldn’t be fixed with a simple pill. However, it needed the expertise of a Master Alchemist, and those were in rare supply in the Tianxia Empire. In fact, the Empire itself only had one that was directly employed.

And that alchemist didn’t care to restore the horrifically deformed skin of the cultivators that were unlucky enough to have low-quality protective clothing, unless they were from the main branch, which was a given.

The two other Master Alchemists in the Tianxia Empire were part of the Jade Healing Sect. Princess Jin knew her grandfather loved her, as much as a Nascent Soul cultivator could love someone, but she knew he would blanch at paying the price to tempt those two to make a move.

Thankfully, this was all hypothetical since she arrived safely at the Oasis of Respite.

Princess Jin ignored the sparse trees that decorated the edge of the oasis and headed straight to the lake at the center, expecting to see Ren Bo sitting idly in the area.

The royal tutor ensured that she knew everything about the desert because of this oasis. While there were other areas of the Shard that the visitors could access, the Oasis of Respite was easily the most beneficial to low-level cultivators.

When Princess Jin reached the central area, it baffled her that Ren Bo was nowhere to be seen. She looked around with sharp eyes to see if he was making camp somewhere else, but the only thing that accomplished was increasing her confusion.

With a frustrated sigh, she decided to think about him after she received her benefits from the oasis.

Princess Jin carefully knelt on one knee a few inches away from the edge of the lake before pulling out a small spoon made of gold.

She tied the sleeves of her robes to ensure they wouldn’t interfere before slowly scooping out a spoonful of water. She immediately moved away from the lake with her prize in hand, or rather, in spoon.

Princess Jin let out the shudder she was holding back due to fear. She had seen the illustrations depicting what had happened to the visitors who had foolishly been careless with their interactions with the lake.

It had later been theorized that all of the Shard’s spiritual energy originated from deep within the lake, so it hadn’t been a surprise that the cultivators directly in contact with the lake had literally exploded from Qi overload.

Princess Jin gulped down her saliva as she held the spoonful of water at eye level. Separating some water from the main body was the only way to use it without harm.

She put the spoon in her mouth, swallowed the precious water, and quickly sat on the soft grass. The Qi in her body was already surging from the boost from the spoonful of water.

Sweat dripped down her face as she struggled to contain the Qi while trying to hold off progressing to the next minor realm before it was ideal. She started to regret swallowing such a large amount of water when she felt her control slipping, but just when she thought Qi poisoning would be her punishment for being cocky, her pathways were finally saturated.

Princess Jin breathed heavily as she slowly opened her eyes, a relieved smile on her lips at having a perfect breakthrough.

That smile dropped when she felt the thick sludge expelled from her body coating her skin. The smell quickly became overpowering when she no longer had cultivation as a distraction.

Cleaning herself up took a good hour without access to usable water. Still, Princess Jin was more than happy to do so since it meant impurities no longer existed in her body.

She eyed the black sludge that had been cleaned off her body, marring the bright green grass, and noticed it slowly absorbed into the land.

The payment for the benefit the oasis gave her could be paid after. Without the payment, leaving the Oasis of Respite wouldn’t be possible.

Princess Jin resolved to find out what happened to Ren Bo before everything was absorbed. She returned to the edge, the only place where a sparse amount of trees existed. Also, the only place where it could be possible for Ren Bo to be without her being able to see him from the center.

With the Oasis of Respite having little ground to cover, the search didn’t last long. A short while later, Princess Jin was back near the lake with a puzzled expression.

No matter how much she disliked Ren Bo, there was a reason that her elders thought of him as a genius. So, he wasn’t likely foolish enough to blindly test the water in the oasis, especially since he was part of the Jade Healing Sect.

It was drilled into the disciples of any sect that it was the height of stupidity to ingest anything that was unknown in secret realms. If a third-rate sect did that, so would the Jade Healing Sect.

Princess Jin didn’t think that Ren Bo killed himself by touching the water, so the only other option was that he discovered how to properly use the water by himself.

“As expected from a genius of the Jade Healing Sect,” Princess Jin muttered resentfully before she sighed.

It looked like she would have to meet him while paying the levy for what she had taken from the oasis.

Princess Jin once again sat on the grass, but this time, she cleared her mind of everything other than her intention to finish using the oasis. She didn’t fight the feeling of being pulled down, knowing it was all happening as it should.

Honestly, she was more anxious about the person she would meet here.

That odd feeling disappeared, and Princess Jin tensed in nervousness at what would happen next.

“Greetings, Visitor. I welcome all cultivators to use the Oasis of Respite, but there is a price to be paid for using its services. Please eliminate the spirit beasts contaminated by the impurity you have shed. This will allow future visitors to benefit from the Oasis and keep the balance.”

Princess Jin’s eyes snapped open the moment the greeting started. She stared at the visage of the famed ancestor of the Tianxia Empire greedily, barely able to pay attention to what was being said when facing her idol.

This was the woman who dominated the world and was able to end civilizations with a flip of her palm. It caused the ancestor to gain the undeserved title of Dread Empress by most of the world.

Princess Jin didn't blame the ancestor, of course. What else could an Empress do when so many civilizations courted death?

When the ancestor was finished speaking, Princess Jin dropped to her knees heavily and kowtowed. “I will do so to the best of my abilities, Ancestor Sophia!”

Princess Jin raised her head, wanting to ask what other orders the honored ancestor had for her. However, seeing a turtle floating in the air between her and the ancestor made her freeze in shock.

It didn’t help when it seemed like the turtle ripped space apart like a Spirit Severing old monster and created a void beneath them.

Princess Jin wanted to scream in shock, but fear caused all sounds to be stuck in her throat. The next thing she knew, the turtle tossed her unceremoniously into the void below.