Alert! The Dragon Lord has emerged from seclusion!

Zi Suan handed Lin Chen a jade talisman: "This is a 'Heavenly Secret Talisman' that I made. Crush it when you encounter a life-or-death crisis."

"I will sense something and try my best to deduce a glimmer of hope."

Xuanzhen silently gave Lin Chen a set of array flags: "For self-protection."

Hua Yu gave him a sachet: "Inside is my 'Heart-Cleansing Incense,' which you can light during cultivation to ward off inner demons."

Xuejian then handed him a large bag of snacks: "Eat these on the way!"

Lin Chen accepted them one by one and carefully put them away.

Finally, Bai Bingli walked up to him.

She reached out, and in her palm lay an ice-blue jade pendant, shaped like a blooming ice lotus.

"This is my 'Ice Heart Pendant,' which I've nurtured with its essence for a hundred years. It can protect your soul and suppress your inner demons." She tied the jade pendant around Lin Chen's neck. "Wearing it is like... me being by your side."

The jade pendant felt cool to the touch, and Lin Chen could sense the pure and profound Yin energy contained within it, exactly the same as his master's aura.

"Thank you, Master... Bingli."

Bai Bingli gave him a deep look, then turned to face the direction where the sun was rising.

"Let's go."

Seven figures transformed into seven-colored streaks of light, soaring towards the horizon.

The red of Hongluan, the green of Qingshu, the purple of Zisuan, the black of Xuanzhen, the yellow of Huayu, the white of Xuejian, and the icy blue of Bai Bingli when she looked back for the last time.

They didn't say goodbye.

Because there's no need to say it.

Lin Chen looked up at the sky until the seven streaks of light completely disappeared into the distance.

The Ice Heart Pendant around her neck felt slightly cool, as if it still retained the warmth of her master's body.

"They're gone," Su Qingxue said softly.

"Hmm." Lin Chen withdrew his gaze, turned to look at the six women, and said, "We should also prepare for our seclusion."

The temporary cave dwelling by the ice pool has been set up—it is a complex array of spirit gathering and protection personally set up by Xuanzhen before he left.

Lin Chen needs to fully digest the information from the Heavenly Dao fragments and stabilize his Chaos Dao Body within the next one to three months.

The six women will use the pure spiritual energy of this place, as well as the energy dissipated from the Heavenly Dao Crystal, to accelerate the recovery of their original essence, while comprehending the symbiotic way of their original essence with Lin Chen.

The cave dwelling is divided into several small rooms, with a shared cultivation hall in the middle.

Lin Chen chose the deepest room and began his seclusion.

The sapling of chaos slowly rotated within the dantian, each leaf flowing with a chaotic halo.

Those fragments of memories and rules from the ancient Heavenly Dao are being absorbed, analyzed, and transformed by the little tree bit by bit.

This process was slow, but with each bit he absorbed, Lin Chen's understanding of "Tao" deepened.

He saw how ancient cultivators drew upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he saw the most primitive form of rules, and he saw the essence of balance and cycle...

These insights not only improved his self-cultivation but also gave him a clearer plan for his future.

Cultivation makes one oblivious to the passage of time.

In the blink of an eye, a month has passed.

On this day, Lin Chen was comprehending a fragment of a rule about "spatial folding" when suddenly an idea struck him.

He opened his eyes and walked out of the seclusion room.

Inside the cultivation hall, Su Qingxue and Shen Qingqiu were discussing something, with the books left behind by Qing Shu spread out in front of them.

"What's wrong?" Su Qingxue looked up.

"I sense..." Lin Chen looked towards the ice pool, "Yun Yi's spiritual light has changed."

The three quickly arrived at the edge of the ice pool.

On the jade platform where the Heavenly Dao Crystal was placed, the jade bottle was emitting a soft silver light.

The light within the bottle was no longer a single point, but rather subtly outlined the silhouette of a curled-up girl.

Her outline was faint, but her features were already vaguely recognizable—it was Luo Yunyi.

"She's condensing her soul!" Shen Qingqiu quickly checked. "It's faster than expected. The nurturing effect of the Heavenly Dao Crystal is beyond imagination."

Lin Chen gently stroked the jade bottle, and could feel the faint but clear fluctuations of consciousness emanating from it—a sign that Luo Yunyi was awakening.

"How much longer?" he asked.

"At this rate, it will take at most another month," Shen Qingqiu judged.

"Once the soul is formed, it can be moved into a specially made 'soul-nourishing wood' to continue to be nurtured. After the soul is stabilized, a suitable physical body can be found or the physical body can be reshaped."

Lin Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, some good news.

For the next month, Lin Chen continued his seclusion, with the six women taking turns guarding him while he cultivated on his own.

Ye Qingcheng completely refined the Killing Heart Crystal, further advancing her Frost Yin Body and breaking through to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm.

Su Qingxue's Xuan Yin Body has become even purer, and she has mastered the Ice Heart Technique to perfection, just one step away from reaching the Nascent Soul stage.

After analyzing the radiation of the Heavenly Dao, Shen Qingqiu's medicinal spirit body achieved a new level of control over the vitality of plants and trees, and could even briefly give life to inanimate objects.

Qin Yurou's cold yin energy resonated most gently with Lin Chen's chaotic energy, and her cultivation steadily improved to the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage.

Under the influence of the Heavenly Dao Crystal, Chu Ling'er's spiritual power expanded its perception range threefold, and she could vaguely predict short-term fortune and misfortune.

Mu Qingyao's Gu Spirit Light established a unique connection with the newly sprouted Ice Soul Grass by the pond, enabling her to sense all movements within a ten-mile radius through the plant network.

The progress of the six women, in turn, nourished Lin Chen's nascent chaotic tree.

The way of symbiosis is truly wonderful.

When the second month was over, the jade bottle by the ice pool suddenly shone brightly with silver light!

Lin Chen and the other six gathered by the pool.

With a "crack," a crack appeared on the surface of the jade bottle.

In the soft silver light, a translucent girl's soul slowly emerged. She was curled up, like an infant in the womb, but her features were clear; it was Luo Yunyi.

The soul slowly opened its eyes.

Those eyes were initially somewhat blank, but then they focused and saw the seven faces surrounding them.

"Lin...Chen?" Her voice rang out directly in everyone's minds, very soft and weak.

"It's me." Lin Chen reached out his hand, and the chaotic energy gently enveloped her soul. "Welcome back, Yunyi."

Luo Yunyi's soul trembled slightly, as if she wanted to cry, but her soul had no tears. She simply tried to solidify her physical form, stretched out her transparent hand, and gently touched Lin Chen's cheek.

"I thought... I would never see you again."

"No, we won't." Su Qingxue's icy eyes softened. "We're all here."

Shen Qingqiu had prepared a specially made soul-nourishing wood—a female doll carved from a piece of thousand-year-old warm jade wood, with arrays inside engraved to nourish the soul.

"Yunyi, first enter the Soul-Nourishing Wood to nurture your soul. Once your soul is stable, we will find a way to reshape your physical body."

Luo Yunyi nodded, and her soul transformed into a silver light, disappearing into the Soul-Nourishing Wood.

The puppet's surface gleamed with a warm, silvery light, and its facial features were identical to Luo Yunyi's.

Lin Chen carefully placed the Soul-Nourishing Wood into a specially made storage bag and carried it close to his body.

At this point, all seven individuals with the Nine Yin Body have been found.

Although Luo Yunyi still needs time to recover, at least hope is in sight.

"We should leave." Lin Chen looked out of the cave. "Our masters have been gone for two months. We don't know what's happening outside. The remnants of the Heavenly Dao Alliance need to be dealt with, and the major sects also need an explanation."

Su Qingxue nodded: "A message came from Xiaoyao Valley that Zhang Tianshi and others have joined forces with various factions and have basically wiped out the Heavenly Dao Alliance's overt forces on the mainland."