The spiritual energy within Lin Qi's body continued to compress and condense, swirling around her dantian.
Before long, she broke through from Qi Induction to Qi Refining Layer One.
Lin Qi slowly opened her eyes and exhaled a breath of stale air.
Suppressing the doubts in her heart, she glanced at the impurities expelled from her body and first drew a basin of water to wash herself.
After washing up, Lin Qi felt incomparably light all over.
She clenched her little fists, feeling them brimming with strength.
It was a pity Luo Ci was not around. Otherwise, she truly wanted to test just how much her strength had increased.
With doubts in her heart, Lin Qi hugged her books and ran to Qingyun Palace.
True Monarch Qingyun saw at a glance that Lin Qi had already achieved Qi Induction and was not surprised by her arrival.
A gentle smile rested on her face. "Little Qi, do you have any doubts you need your master to answer?"
Lin Qi obediently and respectfully bowed. "Master, I just achieved Qi Induction, but it feels different from what the cultivation manual described."
"The book says that once one enters meditation, dots of light in every color will appear in the consciousness space, with each color representing an attribute. But what I saw were two curtains of light, one white and one blue..."
Lin Qi had never tested her spiritual roots before, so her mind was a complete muddle.
No sooner had she finished speaking than True Monarch Qingyun produced an exquisite, transparent sphere the size of a palm from nowhere.
"Place your hand on it and try."
Lin Qi did as she was told.
Inside the transparent sphere, dark blue light and white light battled just as they had when she achieved Qi Induction.
In the final second before Lin Qi withdrew her hand, a crack suddenly appeared in the transparent sphere, spreading in all directions in an instant.
Within the time of a breath, the Spirit Testing Orb split in two.
With a sweep of her hand, True Monarch Qingyun made the Spirit Testing Orb vanish instantly.
"Little Qi, you possess the Ice-Lightning Spiritual Root. Both spiritual roots are at full capacity, but your Ice Spiritual Root is stronger and suppresses your Lightning Spiritual Root. In the future, you may focus on ice and use lightning as support."
Lin Qi blinked blankly.
True Monarch Qingyun stroked her head, her voice warm and gentle. "What is it? Were you stunned silly with happiness?"
Lin Qi could not hide the excitement on her face. "I think I'm kind of amazing!"
Lin Qi had never dreamed that, after being unable to cultivate in her previous life, she would possess a Supreme Dual Spiritual Root in this life.
It gave her complete confidence that she could change her fate.
True Monarch Qingyun's smile was bright, as if she were humoring a child. "Yes, Little Qi truly is amazing."
Lin Qi scratched her head shyly.
Since she was already at Qingyun Palace, Lin Qi took the opportunity to ask a few more questions about cultivation.
True Monarch Qingyun was exceedingly patient, turning complexity into simplicity. A sentence or two was enough to resolve Lin Qi's confusion, and she also taught her small details of cultivation.
After talking with her for a while, Lin Qi felt as though enlightenment had been poured over her head, leaving her thoughts clear and nimble.
Just as she was preparing to leave, True Monarch Qingyun gave her a scroll.
With a smile, she instructed, "Little Qi, this is the Upper Volume of the Cultivation Manual I practice. Take it back and study it carefully. If there is anything you do not understand, you may ask me, or ask your Senior Sister."
Lin Qi hurriedly bowed in thanks.
As she lowered her head, a whispered message suddenly reached her ears.
"You inherited your mother's Ice Spiritual Root. Among those two Phoenix Feathers, there should be a Cultivation Technique Core left behind by your mother."
Lin Qi raised her head in startled uncertainty and met True Monarch Qingyun's smiling, silent gaze.
She had never expected Gong Shaojun to have arranged things so thoroughly and thoughtfully for little Lin Qi!
If she had known her daughter would meet such a miserable end, would she still have chosen to enter closed-door seclusion, never taking half a step out of her dwelling for the rest of her life?
Lin Qi returned to her courtyard in a daze.
Holding the two Phoenix Feathers, she examined them carefully. She first tested them with spiritual energy, then dripped two drops of blood onto them, but there was not the slightest reaction.
Night had fallen. Lin Qi rubbed her somewhat weary temples.
Did these two Phoenix Feathers truly contain the Cultivation Technique Core Gong Shaojun had left behind?
Ice Phoenix Essence Blood!
An idea flashed through Lin Qi's mind, and she suddenly remembered the Ice Phoenix Essence Blood she had picked up in Gong Shaojun's cultivation chamber.
Eagerly, she took out the Ice Phoenix Essence Blood, which radiated chill, and placed it atop the Phoenix Feathers.
Before she could do anything else, the two Phoenix Feathers emitted a pale blue glow and began to fuse.
The Ice Phoenix Essence Blood also gave off a faint glow, no longer remaining in a solidified state.
When the two Phoenix Feathers completely merged into one, the Ice Phoenix Essence Blood suddenly flew into Lin Qi's glabella.
An icy chill instantly pierced through Lin Qi's entire body.
It reminded Lin Qi of the chill that had fallen from the heavens when she had been thrown into an Alchemy Furnace and roasted in her previous life.
Her transmigration had happened too abruptly, leaving her no time to think many matters through.
Yet at this moment, Lin Qi's premonition had never been stronger.
The female cultivator who ascended in the cultivation chamber, and the female voice that had killed Daoist Jinwu with a single rebuke, were both inextricably connected to Lin Qi's birth mother, Gong Shaojun.
Just who was Gong Shaojun?!
Her relationship with Lin Jue had been so cold that they met only once every few years. How could she possibly have been so disheartened by Lin Jue keeping an outside woman that she entered closed-door seclusion?
Before Lin Qi could ponder it carefully, she suddenly felt her glabella grow scorching hot.
The mark of the Ice Phoenix Essence Blood flickered in and out of sight upon her glabella.
Chill seeped through Lin Qi's entire body, leaving her too stiff to move. Even the breath she exhaled froze into ice in an instant.
In the blink of an eye, the entire small courtyard was frozen over.
Lin Qi blinked, and the world spun around her. She suddenly appeared in an ancient, deep Underground Palace.
A massive formation array had been drawn in cinnabar upon the floor of the Underground Palace, exactly the same as the formation beneath the female cultivator who had transformed into an Ice Phoenix and ascended that day.
Five rotating doors hung suspended at the center of the formation array, each inscribed respectively with the characters virtue, righteousness, benevolence, trustworthiness, and propriety.
If Lin Qi remembered correctly, those same characters had been carved upon the mighty Ice Phoenix's body.
This body of Lin Qi's possessed the bloodline of an Ancient Ice Phoenix. Could this space be an inheritance left behind by some ancestor?
Lin Qi lifted her foot and cautiously stepped into the center of the formation array.
The door inscribed with the character virtue, hanging high in the air, suddenly appeared before her.
Lin Qi reached out and touched it, and the door opened on its own.
The surrounding scenery shifted in the blink of an eye, and five doors appeared before her once more, respectively labeled Talisman Crafting, alchemy, Formation Array, Beast Taming, and Artifact Refining.
Lin Qi tried pushing open the nearest door to the alchemy chamber, but it would not budge.
She changed targets and went to push the door of the neighboring Talisman Crafting chamber.
With a single exertion of force, she entered.
Five rows of steps greeted her eyes. A desk, stone stools, and the four treasures of the study were arranged within the room, making it look like a study.
The five rows of steps were filled with scrolls encased in spheres of light. Lin Qi gave them a rough glance and saw that they were all related to Talisman Crafting.
Suppressing the excitement in her chest, she slowly surveyed the entire Talisman Crafting chamber.
She could not read the scrolls wrapped in spheres of light.
The only things Lin Qi could touch were the two introductory Talisman Crafting scrolls placed at the very edge. She estimated that she would have to finish reading those two before she could continue with the ones behind them.
The desk in the center of the room also held hidden wonders.
A yellowed scroll was set into the desk, brimming with spiritual energy.
Lin Qi took the brush hanging beside it and drew a stroke across it. Before the short stroke could even be finished, the spiritual energy in Lin Qi's body was drained dry in an instant.
She had been taught a harsh lesson.
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