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The cave she had just changed into during her Foundation Establishment was destroyed during the battle between Xiao Wuheng and Yuan Huan. Now, Ji Yaoge resided in the cave that Ren Zhongping had once occupied. It had been redecorated to her liking, removing all pretentious decorations and making it more spacious and pure.

Entering the cave, she firmly shut the door, walked straight to the stone seat, sat cross-legged, and began cultivating.

When the pressures of Xiao Wuheng and Yuan Huan descended suddenly, almost ruining her efforts, she instead gained an unexpected blessing. The extreme cold and heat pressures reforged her meridians and bones like smelting iron. Pushed to the limits by external force, she purified all the turbidity within her body, making her meridians smooth and true qi in her dantian condensed—achieving an acquired immortal physique referred to as a Heavenly Cultivation Body, the ultimate rebirth.

In 198 years, progressing from Foundation Establishment to the late Foundation Establishment stage was already remarkable. However, Ji Yaoge was not satisfied. Missing one soul, her soul sea absorbed spirit bones from the outside world at ten times the normal speed. Focused as she was on cultivation, this speed was within her expectations. Yet recently, she found her progress slowing significantly, almost stagnating, just a step away from achieving consummate Foundation Establishment and impacting Golden Core.

According to her plan, she intended to stay in Shuangxia Valley until she reached the Golden Core stage, gaining the ability to protect herself before leaving Chixiu Palace to wander as a rogue cultivator, seeking the right opportunity to avenge the robbery and reclaim her original body. Now, this plan had hit a snag.

Reflecting, she retrieved the jade slip of the Art of Beauty Cultivation, channeling her consciousness into it. After a brief moment of void, she met with Meigu, the spiritual form created by this cultivation method within her primordial spirit void. Meigu lacked sufficient spiritual essence these past years, and Ji Yaoge, fearing her disappearance, rarely sought her out. Now there was no choice.

"This phenomenon is normal. As your cultivation increases, the spiritual bones of low-intelligence beings like insects, beasts, and plants can no longer satisfy your soul sea, bringing minimal insights and spiritual effects. That\'s why your cultivation has stalled," Meigu floated in mid-air, her brows and eyes tightly closed.

It was simple logic—with increased cultivation, the soul sea expanded, and low-intelligence spiritual bones became like minute sand grains. How could they fill the sea and bring progress?

"What should I do?" Ji Yaoge asked.

"If low intelligence spiritual bones are insufficient, you must seek high intelligence spiritual bones. For instance, demonic beasts with initial intelligence, divine beasts with awakened intelligence, humans, or even... cultivators. The higher the realm of the cultivator, the more effective the spiritual bone," Meigu\'s eyes suddenly opened, blooming like flowers, with inhuman pupils.

Ji Yaoge was taken aback.

From beasts to humans to immortals, wouldn\'t this path involve mass slaughter?

Troubled by this thought, she struggled throughout the night, setting the jade slip aside and pondering on the stone seat.

At dawn, Bai Yan came looking for her. Ji Yaoge set her worries aside temporarily and joined him on the journey to Shigong Ridge.

————

By late autumn, the mountain chill intensified quickly. After the first snow, the peaks of Wanren Mountain were shrouded in mist and topped with white snow, adding to the desolate gloom. It wasn\'t a cheerful day—early snow foreshadowed the harshness, signaling the bone-chilling cold of the year-end winter.

Bai Yun, once a prominent talent among the younger generation of the Wuxiang Sword Sect, had struggled to recover from her shattered Golden Core 198 years ago. Today marked twenty years since she went into seclusion to reform her Golden Core, yet...

The Golden Core had yet to form.

Reforming a shattered Golden Core was ten times harder than forming it anew.

Even with her extraordinary talent, Bai Yun couldn\'t escape the treacherous path of immortality. Her former glory couldn\'t be restored.

Inside Wuxiang Hall, the sect leader Ye Zhaolan looked at his kneeling senior disciple and, after a moment of contemplation, agreed to his request.

"Alright. Without letting you go to Tiyu State to seek Yuan Huan, you won’t give up. It’s a pity for Bai Yun. Take two fellow disciples and investigate something for me as well."

The kneeling man looked up, "Thank you, Master. Does Master wish me to investigate the events surrounding Xiao Wuheng’s arrival in Tiyu State nearly two hundred years ago?"

"Exactly."

Leaving the hall, Gu Xingzhi was deep in thought. The morning\'s undisturbed snow crunched underfoot, snow powder falling from pine branches, sliding into his hair and neck, awakening his spirit.

A paper umbrella, painted with cranes and ink, suddenly spread over his head. Someone called softly from behind, "Senior Brother."

Gu Xingzhi turned to see Bai Yun standing under the green pines and white snow. She had lost much weight, draped in a white fox cloak—the pelt of the Snow Fox King they had hunted together at Jiangqiu years ago. Back then, Bai Yun was spirited, never like she was now, fearing even the winter’s cold.

Over the years, her stagnating realm disappointed the sect greatly, and the Ancestor gradually gave up on her. Life in the sect had been tough for her. Even after twenty years in seclusion, she had failed to reform her Golden Core, casting doubt on her status among the inner disciples.

"Why are you here?" His expression softened as he took her umbrella and held her hand.

As expected, it was icy cold.

"You asked the Sect Leader to go to Tiyu State to seek Uncle Yuan from the Taichu Sect?" Bai Yun, cloaked in white fox fur, lowered her gaze.

Yuan Huan, the master of the Five Hells Tower of the Taichu Sect, was renowned in the immortal realm for a thousand years—not for his cultivation but for his peculiar mix of righteous and evil Daoism. The Five Hells Tower was where the Taichu Sect experimented with strange forbidden arts and treasures, constantly dealing with poisonous insects and corpses. Every cultivator there was a fanatic of bizarre arts, and Yuan Huan was their unparalleled leader.

When Bai Yun\'s Golden Core shattered, he intended to seek Yuan Huan’s help but was refused due to Yuan Huan’s difficult nature. A century later, not consulting her, he directly asked the Sect Leader, fearing she might obstruct him again.

"Bai Yun, don’t worry. Although Uncle Yuan can be difficult, he won’t harm me. If his demands are too much, I won’t force it. The Sect Leader also tasked me with other investigations in Tiyu State. I must go regardless, so don’t worry about this," holding the umbrella, Gu Xingzhi placed her hands in his, warming them with a soft golden light.

Bai Yun, understanding further persuasion was fruitless, merely reflected on the past century. She had been with him for over two centuries. His kindness, was it for the former Bai Yun, or for her now? Her heart felt a pang of bitterness. She tiptoed, throwing her arms around his neck, her voice soft and tinged with emotion, "Senior Brother, thank you."

Gu Xingzhi was taken aback. The former Bai Yun rarely showed such open affection. She was always reserved and gentle, not prone to girlish charm. Her temperament had changed gradually after her Golden Core shattered; she became more endearing, perhaps due to undergoing severe trials, experiencing the cold warmth of the sect. Considering that he often trained outside and she focused on cultivation, their infrequent meetings explained her change—an understandable reaction.

"Don’t say that. If thanks are due, I should be thanking you first." Gu Xingzhi gently stroked her hair.

A century ago, when the Ancestor bestowed the Phoenix Return Pill to help her form a new Golden Core, she, without hesitation, gave it to him when he returned gravely injured from training. Consequently, she struggled to reform her own Golden Core.

He wasn’t ungrateful. He wouldn’t forget her kindness.

Thinking this, he returned her embrace.

The umbrella fell, and snowflakes settled quietly on him, covering his hair and clothes.

————

As the evening slowly faded, the frosty moonlight reflected off the barren stones at Shigong Ridge, casting a cold glow. Occasionally, distant wolf howls echoed, making the desolate ridge even lonelier. Snowflakes floated down, bringing an early chill of late autumn to early winter.

Knock, knock, knock.

Without the incessant noise, the man carved with concentration. His carving had no fixed form, following his whims. He had replaced his knife with a sharp, thin blade, slicing without hesitation, fine shavings mixing with the snow at his feet.

With the final stroke, he added the eyes to the wooden figure, finally letting out a sigh of relief and straightening his body.

The wooden figure stood four and a half feet high, about the size of a fourteen or fifteen-year-old child. Though not detailed, its features were lively: wide almond eyes and slightly pouty lips, embodying the innocence of a naive girl.

"It\'s done. Enter," he flicked his pinky.

The blue ring transformed into a blue glow and entered the wood figure. In an instant, the wooden figure seemed to come alive. Its dull wood grain turned into human skin, and its facial features became vivid.

The wooden figure turned into a little girl.

"I finally have a body!" The little girl, dressed in red, with an oval face and almond eyes, smiled exuberantly. Her joy made her voice louder than usual.

The man glanced at her, took a sip from a jug of wine, but was interrupted by her distressed scream.

"Why is my chest so flat?" The little girl squeezed her chest, dismayed to find it flat, not the imagined peaks, making her want to cry.

The man almost spit his wine out.

"Why am I a child? Where’s my graceful adult form?" The little girl, face reddened with frustration, glared at the man.

Draining his wine, the man coldly said, "You have a body to serve as my servant. If you’re not pleased, return to being a formless spirit."

The little girl opened her mouth to protest, but he waved her off, "Someone is coming. Go check."

Her eyes darting, she huffed and ran outside in her new body, like a joyful puppy. The man lay back on the stone, letting the snow fall on his face, relieved that he finally had a doorkeeper and some peace.

The peace was short-lived; soon screams echoed from outside.

At the door, Ji Yaoge and Bai Yan stared at each other. After a while, Ji Yaoge asked, "Am I that scary?"

Bai Yan shook his head, "No, Senior Sister is very beautiful."

Ji Yaoge, aware she wasn’t terrifying, wondered why the girl at the door panicked upon seeing her.

As if she had seen a ghost.