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

Half an hour later, Zi Ling personally escorted Han Li out of the cave.

The stone door slowly closed, and the protective aura rekindled, separating the inside and outside of the cave into two worlds.

Zi Ling stood behind the door, the corners of her mouth unconsciously turning up, the curve rising higher and higher until her whole face was filled with an indescribable smile.

Wen Siyue peeked half her head out from the other end of the corridor and saw the whole scene.

She tilted her head and stared at her young mistress for several moments before finally speaking.

"Miss, your smile is...so lewd."

She realized it was inappropriate as soon as she said it.

If the word "sleazy" is used to describe a prostitute, her buttocks are probably going to suffer again.

She quickly changed her tune, using another word she'd heard from the young lady: "Uh—it's so insidious! Yes, insidious!"

"Little girl, I think you're asking for a beating!"

Zi Ling's eyebrows shot up, and her smug smile vanished instantly.

She took two steps in one, grabbed Wen Siyue's ear, and gently lifted the delicate pink earlobe with her fingertips.

"Miss! It hurts—it hurts! I know I was wrong!"

Wen Siyue tiptoed, tilting her head to follow Zi Ling's grip, her eyes instantly filling with tears, and she begged for mercy repeatedly.

"Playing the victim? That trick doesn't work anymore."

Zi Ling snorted, her grip tightening instead of loosening: "It's one thing to yell at Han Li, he's a Foundation Establishment cultivator after all, and he knows your father, so he won't bother with you, little girl. But to dare to talk nonsense about your young lady—you must be disciplined tonight, it's time to teach you a lesson."

"Ah—no, miss! I know I was wrong!"

Upon hearing the words "family discipline tonight," Wen Siyue's pretty face flushed red to the roots of her ears.

She didn't know where the strength came from, and disregarding that her ear was still being held by Zi Ling, she suddenly shrank her neck and broke free, lifting her skirt and running away in a flash.

A muffled bang came from the end of the corridor, followed by the buzzing sound of a barrier being activated.

"Silly girl, you think you'll be safe just by hiding in your room?"

Zi Ling rubbed her fingers, and a smile returned to the corners of her mouth.

It's still early; we can deal with this little girl later tonight.

She turned and walked through the corridor back to her boudoir.

The moment the door closed, she raised her hand and cast several spells, and layers of restrictions lit up one after another—soundproofing, blocking divine sense, defense, and early warning. Multiple layers of spiritual light intertwined to form an airtight barrier, completely enveloping the entire boudoir.

After doing all this, Zi Ling sat down in front of the dressing table and took out the items she had just exchanged with Han Li one by one.

The first three jade slips were taken out.

Two of them contain the complete method of the "Qingyuan Sword Manual" from Qi Refining to Spirit Transformation; the other one is the original "Dayan Manual".

Zi Ling's gaze lingered on the three jade slips for a moment before she looked away.

Her gaze fell on the bottles and jars on the side.

Dozens of jade bottles of various sizes were neatly arranged on the dressing table.

Each bottle has a label with the type and level of the monster marked in tiny print.

Level 5 Fiery Vulture, Level 6 Mystic Water Python, Level 6 Crimson Scale Beast, Level 6 Frost Whale—there are more than a dozen jade bottles marked "Level 6," one of which is marked as Level 7 Sea King Beast.

Level 6 is fine.

Even the level seven sea monster Zi Ling didn't know how Han Laomo, a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, managed to kill him.

But these are the things that matter most to her today.

Zi Ling picked up a jade bottle and uncorked it.

A scorching and violent aura surged from the bottle's mouth, carrying a strong, metallic stench. Just one sniff made one feel a subtle stirring of magical power within their body.

The essence blood of a level-five Fiery Vulture, with its fire attribute, is just right to accelerate the ripening of those few Fire Spirit Mushrooms.

She put the cork back in, and the corners of her mouth curled up again.

With so much high-level demon beast blood essence, she could accelerate the growth of her private herb garden several times over.

More importantly, with this batch of essence blood, her cultivation speed of the Azure Origin Sword Technique will far exceed that of before.

The fragments of the pearl are used to accelerate the maturation of spiritual herbs with essence and blood. The spiritual herbs are then refined into pills, and the fragments of the pearl are then used to demonize them, giving the pills three extra layers of medicinal effects out of thin air.

Although this method is tedious, it allows one to maximize their cultivation speed.

Of course, Han Li didn't get nothing at all.

The method of raising gold-eating insects, the key role of the rainbow grass in promoting its egg production and evolution, and Fan Jingmei's contact information.

From now on, no matter how much material he obtains from hunting monsters in the outer sea, the Myriad Sounds Sect can consume it all at once, which is many times more convenient than selling it piecemeal in the market.

Both of them felt they had made a profit from this deal.

Zi Ling rearranged the jade bottles neatly and turned her gaze to the pale blue jade slip.

"However, before we can accelerate the growth of the spiritual herbs, we need to switch our main cultivation technique."

She placed the jade slip between her eyebrows, and with a flash of blue light, the complete incantation of the thirteen layers of the Azure Origin Sword Technique was imprinted in her sea of ​​consciousness.

She closed her eyes, sat cross-legged on the futon, and her internal energy began to flow slowly along the new energy path.

-

Time flies, and sixty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Sixty years.

In the mortal world, this is the entire life of most ordinary people, from birth to death.

The mischievous children who used to catch dragonflies on the ridges of the fields have become hunched old men, and the babies in their swaddling clothes have become old women with white hair. One generation grows old, and another is born. Sixty years is enough to change everything in the world beyond recognition.

In the world of cultivation, sixty years is not even enough for some powerful cultivators to go into seclusion once.

In front of the secret chamber of the Purple Spirit Cave on the thirty-ninth floor of Tianxing City.

Wen Siyue was pacing back and forth anxiously.

Her boots made a series of soft, rapid tapping sounds on the jade floor tiles. Her steps were quick and erratic as she walked from the doorway to the end of the corridor, then turned back and walked on again.

Sixty years have not left any marks on her.

She was still the same pretty maid in her early twenties, only now her cultivation had reached the Foundation Establishment stage.

The reason for this is naturally that when Han Li made the deal with Zi Ling, he felt he was in the wrong, or perhaps he had other intentions, so he gave away a Youth Preservation Pill for free.

Unfortunately, after obtaining Han Li's batch of spiritual herbs, Zi Ling refined a batch herself and consumed it when she was eighteen years old.

The one in seclusion in the secret chamber is naturally Zi Ling.

Wen Siyue stopped and listened intently to the stone door for a long time.

The room was deathly silent, without even a trace of magical energy.

This deathly silence had lasted for months, and every time she heard it, her heart clenched tighter.

Inside the door.

Zi Ling sat cross-legged on the futon, the azure and pale purple spiritual light surrounding her almost tangible, casting a deep blue hue on the walls of the entire secret room.

Her face has hardly changed from sixty years ago; she still looks like she's eighteen or nineteen, with eyebrows like distant mountains and skin like solidified cream.

But at this moment, her willow-leaf eyebrows were slightly furrowed, as if she were making a difficult decision.

Over the past sixty years, thanks to the large amount of demonic beast blood she obtained from Han Li, her cultivation level has increased rapidly.

The fragments of the pearl are used to accelerate the growth of spiritual herbs with the essence of blood. The spiritual herbs are then refined into pills, which are then transformed into demonic pills to nourish cultivation. Although this path is tortuous, its efficiency is astonishingly high.

Forty years ago, she had already cultivated to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

At that time, there were still more than sixty years left before the hundred-year deadline agreed upon with Jin Kui, and there was plenty of time.

She chose to cultivate the "Three Revolutions Rejuvenation Technique" with almost no hesitation.

Each time one disperses their energy, their magical power becomes purer and their foundation becomes more solid.

It lays a more solid foundation for the future and makes it easier to form a Golden Core. No matter how you look at it, it's a sure-fire way to make money.

But she never expected that while losing her inner power was easy, regaining it would be incredibly difficult.

It's not that there's a problem with the Three Revolutions Rejuvenation Technique.

After resuming her cultivation after the initial dissipation, her speed of meditation and breathing exercises did indeed improve significantly, and the flow of spiritual energy was more smooth and efficient than before.

The problem lay with the pills—those pills that had previously been incredibly effective for her became much less effective after her powers were dissipated.

The same kind of pill, if taken before the power dissipates, can be equivalent to several months of arduous cultivation, but if taken after the power dissipates, it can only be equivalent to a month or two of effects.

She later figured out the key to it.

Although her magical power had become more refined through the three cycles of the Chongyuan Gong, there would still be some impurities in the medicine, so the proportion that could be absorbed would naturally decrease significantly.

In addition, long-term and high-dose use has led to the body developing resistance.

-

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