Plane's Blessing: [Seven Days of Cultivation Experience in the Wind-Lightning Nirvana Scripture]
The reason Feng Qing Er couldn't stop thinking about Xiao Ting and wanted to meet him as soon as possible was precisely because of this sudden Plane's Blessing.
The Heaven Demon Phoenix Tribe was an exceedingly powerful beast race. Their innate Battle Qi attributes were generally wind, with common secondary attributes of lightning or fire. Feng Qing Er herself was born with dual attributes of wind and lightning. Her mother was a Dou Saint, and the clan placed great hopes on her, bestowing upon her the Wind-Lightning Nirvana Scripture early on.
The Wind-Lightning Nirvana Scripture tempered body and bloodline through wind and lightning, increasing her combat strength while enhancing her bloodline. Its ultimate goal was to let her undergo a bloodline reversion to a Ancient Heaven Phoenix.
The one who created this secret technique was a Heavenly Demon Phoenix senior from ten thousand years ago who'd reached seven-star Dou Saint. After becoming a Saint, she successfully completed her reversion.
Clan records stated that this senior, upon just breaking through to one-star Dou Saint, could already defeat two-star Dou Saints and contend with three-star Dou Saints thanks to her Ancient Heaven Phoenix bloodline.
One of Feng Qing Er's reasons for joining the Wind Lightning Pavilion was to use the wind and lightning forces of the mountain range to temper herself and her bloodline, seeking a chance to revert.
But the technique was extremely difficult. Otherwise, after ten thousand years, the Heaven Demon Phoenix Tribe would have produced at least one more Ancient Heaven Phoenix.
After getting the Plane's Blessing, Feng Qing Er keenly noticed her understanding of the scripture had clearly deepened.
"Grains of sand form a tower, drops of water make an ocean."
"If I can use Plane's Blessings to master the Wind-Lightning Nirvana Scripture to perfection, then sooner or later I'll be able to use wind and lightning to fully revert my bloodline."
Her heart pounded wildly as heat filled her gaze.
But though she was proud as a phoenix, she was far from stupid—indeed, she was very clever.
If she approached Xiao Ting with such obvious intent, she would only expose herself.
If Xiao Ting noticed she had an observation copy of the Journal, that would be trouble.
As for harming him, that earlier thought was only a flash of anger, and even without the Journal's warning, she wouldn't have actually done it—after all, Xiao Ting had Gu Xun Er behind him.
The Ancient Clan Patriarch's only daughter, a nine-star Dou Saint's only child. Even the Heaven Demon Phoenix Tribe couldn't afford to offend her.
"He's living off Gu Xun Er's soft rice. I absolutely can't use a hard approach on him."
Feng Qing Er's expression grew serious.
"I can only use softness—but in terms of personality, I can't let her feel anything is off."
Biting her lip and thinking intently, a spark went off in her mind.
She absolutely couldn't harm Xiao Ting—but she could, under the guise of "harming" him, actually be good to him.
Humans loved to take talented beasts as mounts and pour resources into raising them.
She could do the reverse: find some pretext to take Xiao Ting as a "human pet" or as a personal guard, then invest resources into him.
In disguised form, she'd be making him live off her soft rice, keeping him by her side and forcing him to write her name in the Journal every single day.
"Truly, I'm a genius."
The more she thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed.
Next to consider was how to meet Xiao Ting without arousing suspicion.
Feng Qing Er sank into deep contemplation.
…
Xiao Ting, for his part, knew nothing of this at all.
After training on his own for a while, he once again went to seek Yao Lao's instruction.
When one was fully immersed in doing something, time always passed especially quickly.
From sunrise to sunset, it felt like just a blink.
"That's enough for today. Go home, take a good bath, and summarize today's cultivation experience while you cultivate."
With Yao Lao's words, Xiao Ting and Xiao Yan both stopped training and headed back to the Xiao Clan, stepping on the rays of the setting sun.
After lunch together, Xiao Ting returned to the secret room in his courtyard and sat cross-legged on his cushion.
Once he recorded that day's cultivation insights and uploaded them to the Journal, he began cultivating Thunder-Flame Body Tempering Art.
As before, the more he cultivated, the more energized he felt—as if he had inexhaustible strength.
Only when the night was half past the Zi hour (around midnight) did Xiao Ting stop cultivating to await the Plane's Blessing.
Plane's Blessing: [Seven Days of Cultivation Experience in Heavenly Dragon Seal]
"Today's is Heavenly Dragon Seal."
Xiao Ting carefully fused and digested the new memories in his mind.
Again, they felt as if he'd personally experienced every bit of training, but remembered nothing about anything outside cultivation.
Seven days of cultivation experience was more than what he could normally accumulate in a month—and more comprehensive as well.
He'd successfully reached Small Success with this low Earth-rank battle skill.
"Tomorrow, I'll give Yao Lao another little shock."
The corners of his mouth quirked up as he threw himself back into cultivation.
…
The Northwest Continent was vast. Even within just the southwestern region, there were dozens of empires of varying strength.
The Jia Ma Empire sat at the southernmost edge of the southwest, bordering the southern domain of the continent. Its southernmost boundary touched the Black-Corner Region.
The Black-Corner Region was infamous for chaos, where the law of the jungle was taken to its ultimate extreme. To guard against the cultivators of that land, the Jia Ma Empire established three major fortresses along its southern frontier: Town-Inner Pass, Town-Middle Pass, and Ghost-Town Pass.
These three strongholds were the Empire's southern military bulwarks against foreign forces. Their internal defenses were airtight as a heavenly net, and the troops stationed there were all battle-hardened elites. They were also the Empire's final defensive line for those traveling southward out of the country.
But to a peak Dou Emperor like Queen Medusa, who had already begun to comprehend space power, it wasn't difficult to silently cross without causing any damage.
After slipping across the southern border, Queen Medusa turned westward and sped toward the extreme south of the Northwest Continent. Just before dawn, she finally arrived at Blackwater Ravine.
Using the information supplied by her Journal copy, she successfully fished up a charred, lifeless serpent corpse from a particular spot in the ravine.
"Bang!"
With a single palm, she crushed the corpse, then lifted a magic core emitting faint rainbow light—its surface cracked.
"It's real!"
Barely suppressing her excitement, Queen Medusa glanced toward a certain spot.
"Come out nicely."
A seven-colored phantom serpent shadow floated forth, circling Queen Medusa once before docilely falling under her control.
"I must find ways to interact with Xiao Ting more, and best would be if he writes my name in his Journal every single day!"
Her gaze grew feverishly hot, like Himmel staring at Frieren.
She had no idea that everything was being watched by a mysterious black-robed expert.
That person took out a sheet of strange glowing paper, quickly wrote a short line on it, then burned it.
…
"Miss."
In the Xiao Clan of Wu Tan City, a black-robed woman appeared by Xun Er's side as she was just getting out of bed and dropped to one knee.
"Aunt Ling, what news came?"
Xun Er smiled gently.
"We received two messages."
The woman reported:
"Ling Yue says Queen Medusa has left southern Jia Ma and rushed all the way to Blackwater Ravine in the extreme south of the Northwest Continent. With a very clear goal, she located a failed Seven-Colored Heaven-Swallowing Python evolution corpse and obtained its damaged magic core and remnant soul."
"Ling Mei just returned with word that last night Little Fairy Doctor arrived in Wu Tan City with the Thousand Medicinal House caravan from Qingshan Town and checked into an inn without going out. Early this morning, after confirming with the innkeeper, she headed straight to Jade Flower Hall on West Street—your favorite place for breakfast."
Mentioning the second bit of news, the woman's eyes flashed oddly. She didn't think this was mere coincidence.
The young miss's orders were also quite strange.
"The future Seven-Colored Heaven-Swallowing Python, now obtaining the legacy of a failed Seven-Colored Heaven-Swallowing Python."
"And Little Fairy Doctor, who by rights should still be in Qingshan Town, has come to Wu Tan City—and gone straight to my favorite breakfast shop. She must be waiting for Brother Xiao Ting."
Two thoughts crossed Xun Er's mind.
After thinking briefly, she said,
"Aunt Ling, have Old Ling secretly guard Brother Xiao Ting. I won't be having breakfast with him this morning. We're going to Jade Flower Hall."
She had to meet the Little Fairy Doctor who almost certainly had an observation copy of the Journal.
To see what kind of "forever unresolved regret" she was.
…