Her delicate brows were tightly furrowed, revealing an obvious look of pain.
The soul power that should have been flowing orderly within her Sea of Consciousness was now violently churning and colliding like boiling water. The chaotic energy fluctuations continuously disrupted her body.
Her originally solid aura was visibly becoming weak and unstable, like a balloon that could deflate at any moment.
This was a typical sign of soul power losing control. It was clear that the woman had forcibly attempted to break through to a higher soul realm, failed, and suffered a severe backlash.
"How reckless!" Xiao Jietian frowned and let out a low cry. His figure appeared before the woman like a ghost. He quickly formed a profound hand seal and tapped her glabella.
When it came to matters of the soul, Xiao Jietian dared not be careless in the slightest.
His soul power entered the woman's Sea of Consciousness through his fingertip.
The moment he entered, Xiao Jietian clearly felt a strong resistance—the soul's instinctive rejection in its uncontrolled state.
He carefully controlled his soul power, gently enveloping the woman's restless, almost collapsing soul.
"Focus your mind and settle your consciousness into your Sea of Consciousness! Follow my guidance and do not resist!" Xiao Jietian's voice was deep and carried an undeniable calming power that penetrated straight into the woman's soul.
The woman seemed to vaguely hear his words. Her violent trembling subsided slightly.
Although her expression was still filled with pain, she had begun to instinctively cooperate with Xiao Jietian's soul power guidance.
Xiao Jietian increased the output of his soul power and carefully dispelled the violent spiritual energy rampaging inside her Sea of Consciousness.
He concentrated fully, leaving no room for carelessness. Otherwise, if anything went wrong, not only would the woman's soul suffer severe damage, but his own soul would also be impacted.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Xiao Jietian's forehead, showing that the task was not easy even for him.
Under his persistent efforts, the riotous soul power within the woman's Sea of Consciousness finally began to calm down gradually.
He controlled his soul power and gathered the scattered soul energy bit by bit toward the core of her soul.
Xiao Jietian spent half an hour before finally gathering all of her soul. Although it was still weak, it had initially returned to a controllable state.
He sensed her soul and realized that although the breakthrough attempt had failed this time, her previous accumulation was already sufficient—she was simply missing that final push.
At this moment, the woman's soul power was in a strangely unstable state: both a crisis and a rare opportunity!
Xiao Jietian's soul body pointed forward and tapped on the woman's soul, directly transmitting the first layer of the Moonlight Soul Refining Art—Moon Guiding Soul Refining—to her.
He then guided her to begin cultivating this technique. Under Xiao Jietian's careful guidance, the woman quickly gained initial mastery of the soul cultivation method.
"Circulate the cultivation technique, guide the Qi to flow, absorb external spiritual energy, and break through the barrier!" Xiao Jietian made a decisive move. His originally gentle soul power suddenly became vast and majestic, carrying absolute control as he began guiding the woman to circulate the Moonlight Soul Refining Art.
Using his pure, ocean-like soul power as support and backing, he pushed the woman's newly calmed soul power to circulate once more along the path to the Spiritual Realm.
This time, with Xiao Jietian's vast soul power and the Moonlight Soul Refining Art as a solid foundation, the woman's soul power circulated incredibly smoothly. The invisible soul barrier that had previously obstructed her and caused backlash actually emitted faint cracking sounds under the combined internal and external assault. It spread like cracking ice before finally collapsing with a boom.
Her entire body suddenly trembled. The weak and unstable aura within her was instantly swept away. A brand new, far more powerful and condensed soul fluctuation erupted from within!
Her soul gradually formed an illusory miniature version of herself, sitting cross-legged at the very center of her Sea of Consciousness.
Finally, her soul fluctuations gradually subsided. Because she had just broken through, her soul was still sleeping with tightly closed eyes, autonomously circulating the first chapter of the Moonlight Soul Refining Art to stabilize her newly achieved soul realm.
Xiao Jietian glanced at her soul one last time. He tapped it again and transmitted the soul attack Dou Techniques—Soul Slash and Soul Shattering Palm—to her.
After doing all this, Xiao Jietian murmured, "I'm really going all out here. You'll have to remember to repay me well in the future. As the saying goes, a drop of kindness should be repaid with a gushing spring. With such a heavy investment from me, I wonder how many gushing springs it will take for you to repay me."
As for whether she would be ungrateful, Xiao Jietian was not worried. First, he was quite familiar with the personality of the woman before him. Second, his things were not so easily taken.
In any world, everything had a clear price. Nothing was taken for free. It would all end up in his bowl eventually.
After confirming there were no issues, Xiao Jietian controlled his soul power and withdrew from her Sea of Consciousness.
Just after Xiao Jietian left, the woman's soul body's eyelids twitched slightly before falling completely silent once more.
After leaving the Pill Tower, Xiao Jietian headed for the spatial wormhole. Relying on his status as an honorary elder, he directly took the SSS VIP passage. It would be foolish not to use the privileges he had.
Two days later, Xiao Jietian arrived at a massive city: Cao City.
Cao City was controlled by the Cao Family and served as their family base. It was a very prosperous city in the Pill Domain. Although it couldn't compare to Holy Pill City, it wasn't far behind.
The Cao Family, one of the five great families of the Pill Domain, could currently be called the head of the five great families without exaggeration.
The five great families of the Pill Domain were the Dan, Cao, Bai, Qiu, and Ye Families. Among them, the Ye Family was the weakest, the Dan Family the most low-key, the Cao Family the strongest, and the other two were neither particularly strong nor weak.
Xiao Jietian walked along the bustling streets, his eyes calmly observing everything around him while incidentally purchasing some useful medicinal ingredients.
After walking for about an hour, Xiao Jietian arrived in front of a massive complex of buildings.
"Stop! This is the Cao Family. Please do not trespass!" At the entrance, a guard holding a long halberd stopped Xiao Jietian.
"I am Xiao Jietian, a friend of your Cao Family's Eldest Young Lady. I've come specifically to visit."
"Visit the Eldest Young Lady? Do you have an invitation?" The guard looked at Xiao Jietian, inexplicably feeling a little familiar, but couldn't quite recall why.
"No." Xiao Jietian hadn't actually planned on entering; he was just setting up a small ploy and inwardly even hoped they would turn him away.
One of the guards approached the captain and used Dou Qi to create a sound barrier, whispering a few words. After listening, the captain scrutinized Xiao Jietian from head to toe.