Mortal: I really didn't want to be reborn as Zi Ling!

Looking at the inner core in her dantian, Zi Ling felt uneasy.

This inner core wasn't something she cultivated herself.

The sources are a jumbled mess, including the blood and inner cores of demonic beasts, as well as the evil cores of cultivators from Jiyin Island and the golden core of the Wood Dragon True Man.

These messy things were roughly kneaded together and stuffed into her dantian, forcibly elevating her to the pseudo-infant realm.

It's like a sapling that's been forcibly pulled from the soil and grafted onto someone else's roots.

It may look lush and leafy, but the roots underneath are not its own at all.

Zi Ling sighed.

What troubled her even more was that layer of blood-red aura.

The light enveloped her entire body, like a tight-fitting garment she couldn't take off. Although it looked incredibly cool—the crimson glow shimmered in the sunlight, making her appear like a fairy stepping out of a painting—this stuff was corrosive.

She can't live with this kind of scrutiny forever, can she?

Moreover, this layer of light was completely uncontrollable; it couldn't be withdrawn or released, it just clung to her like that.

"Feed".

Zi Ling focused her mind on the sea of ​​consciousness and called out to the broken bead.

"How do I store this thing?"

The sea of ​​consciousness was quiet. The bead floated in place, its surface dull and lifeless, with several more cracks than before. It was like a piece of porcelain that could shatter at any moment, floating there motionless.

It looks like it's asleep.

It's like...

Zi Ling stared at the bead for a few moments, her brows furrowing deeper and deeper.

"Hey, stop playing dead."

Seeing that the other party had no reaction, Zi Ling took a deep breath and withdrew from her sea of ​​consciousness.

Far off, Zhou Yuan and Fan Jingmei were flying towards her from the sea.

Zi Ling looked down at the uncontrollable crimson aura on her body, then at her mother who was flying towards her.

A twelve-year-old fake infant monk.

His entire body emanated a corrosive, blood-red glow.

She suddenly felt that the days to come would probably not be very peaceful.

but--

Zi Ling glanced at the bulging thing in front of her and couldn't help but touch it a couple more times.

I must say, it feels really good!

As Zi Ling was wondering about her figure and the inner core inside her body, her whole body suddenly stiffened.

The blood-purple inner core, formed from fragments, dimmed little by little, like a burnt-out ember, before fine cracks appeared on its surface.

"No way—"

Before the words were even finished, the inner elixir collapsed with a crash.

Zi Ling could try to stop it, but the crimson spiritual power was like sand; the tighter she held it, the faster it slipped away, and she couldn't stop it no matter how hard she tried.

At the same time, the crimson aura surrounding her body dimmed, peeling away piece by piece like faded silk, turning into specks of light.

Her body is also getting smaller.

As bones shrink and skin tightens, the delicate curves of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl, which she had just been admiring, recede like the tide going out.

In the blink of an eye, she turned back into that twelve-year-old little girl.

Thin shoulders, slender limbs and—

The sea breeze blew from afar, and Zi Ling felt a chill. Her clothes had been burned to a crisp during her transformation, leaving only shreds to cover her sensitive areas.

She had just taken the clothes out of the storage bag, and before she could even put them on, she let out a strange cry:

"not good!"

Then her body plummeted from a height of hundreds of meters like a kite with a broken string.

The whistling wind in my ears grew increasingly sharp.

The salty, fishy sea breeze relentlessly forced its way into her mouth. Her robes were torn and billowed upwards by the airflow, making them impossible to wear.

She glanced down; the azure sea was rapidly approaching.

The action of taking off her clothes just now consumed the last bit of magical power in her dantian.

Forget about flying with a flying weapon, he can't even use the simplest lightness technique.

"Am I going to... die from the fall?"

Zi Ling's face turned pale instantly.

Falling from a height of several hundred meters makes no difference whether you fall into the sea or onto concrete.

Seawater can become as hard as steel when subjected to high-speed impact.

The wind screamed in my ears.

Zi Ling gritted her teeth and forced herself to calm down.

She straightened her body, pressed her arms tightly against her chest, and kept her legs together.

Her memories from her past life told her that this would reduce the impact when entering the water.

But is that enough?

She doesn't know either.

I hope my mother can make it in time!

The sea level was rapidly expanding—fifty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters—

Zi Ling remembered that when she stopped, she scanned her surroundings with her divine sense and wondered if her mother, who was ten miles away, would make it in time.

"Ning'er!"

Zhou Yuan's screams echoed from the horizon.

Before Zi Ling could look up, she caught a glimpse of a purple streak of light swooping down at an incredible speed.

The light was as fast as a shooting star, leaving a long trail of spiritual light that lingered in the void for a long time.

Zhou Yuan disregarded the cost, pushing the shuttle beneath her feet to its limit, even at the cost of burning her own magical power.

Ten meters, five meters, three meters—

Just as Zi Ling's toes were about to touch the water's surface, she felt a lightness all over her body, and then she bumped into a soft embrace.

The sea breeze swept past me, waves crashed at my feet, and the spray hit my face, icy cold.

"Phew—thank goodness, Mom, you made it in time!"

Zi Ling gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently: "I thought I was going to die..."

"Silly girl."

Zhou Yuan's voice rang out above her, trembling with relief and a hint of inexplicable heartache: "You're my only precious daughter, how could I just watch you fall? Besides, don't forget, you also cultivate your body; if you really fall, at most you'll break an arm or a leg!"

Despite saying that, her hands repeatedly searched Zi Ling's body, from her shoulders to her arms, from her ribs to her leg bones, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were no injuries.

"Madam, my junior sister—"

Fan Jingmei caught up from behind on her flying robe, her gaze sweeping over Zi Ling.

Then she froze.

"Junior sister, what is your cultivation level?"

She realized that she could no longer see through Zi Ling's cultivation level.

Just like an ordinary person.

Zi Ling's lips twitched.

Of course she knew what was going on.

His consciousness sank into his body, and his dantian was completely empty. The blood-purple inner core had completely dissipated, leaving not even a trace.

Instead, a dantian that had been expanded to three times its original size was created.

It's like a bottle that could only hold one liter of water, but someone inflated it to three liters.

The space has become larger, but the water inside has not increased; in fact, it has been completely depleted.

Her cultivation level plummeted from the Nascent Soul stage back to the Qi Refining stage.

Fortunately, his consciousness remained intact.

Not only that.

Zi Ling spread her divine sense outwards—within a radius of three miles, every wave and every drop of water was clearly visible.

Only cultivators in the late Foundation Establishment stage can achieve this range.

"It was an accident, it was an accident, it doesn't matter."

Zi Ling waved her hand casually and struggled out of Zhou Yuan's arms. She wasn't dressed yet!

However, while getting dressed, she felt both happy and worried.

A dantian three times the size of its original size.

This means that she can store three times the magical power of an ordinary cultivator in the future. At the same cultivation level, she can sustain herself for longer than others.

However, this also means that she will need three times the time and resources to fill her dantian.

What others can break through in a year of cultivation, she needs three years to overcome.

Unless, she has a continuous supply of elixirs.

Zi Ling raised her head and looked at her mother.

Zhou Yuan was currently explaining something to Fan Jingmei, her expression more serious than ever.