At this thought, Gong Shaojun felt a faint stir of guilt in her heart.
Her fingertips traced through the air, and a complex rune slowly emerged in the void.
Just as the rune was about to take shape, Gong Shaojun forced out a drop of blood essence from her fingertip.
That drop of blood essence contained dense Immortal Qi.
The moment it entered Gong Qi's body, it erupted with terrifying force, as though it had swallowed an immortal vein in an instant.
Bit by bit, it awakened the power within Gong Qi that belonged to the Ice Phoenix Clan.
Gong Qi's wings trembled slowly, the phoenix markings upon them spreading across her body in every direction, their color deepening by the moment.
They had originally been faint and pale, as though they merely floated atop her skin.
Now, they seemed to have grown from her flesh and blood, strikingly clear as their color continued to darken.
From deep violet, they turned darker still, nearly black.
The phoenix markings continued to increase little by little in silence.
Six, seven, eight.
Every additional phoenix marking was like draining all the blood from Gong Qi's body and refining it once over. The pain was several times worse than Body Tempering and Marrow Cleansing, yet it also seemed to fill the previous gaps, restoring flesh and blood to her shriveled bones.
Once the eight phoenix markings had stabilized, Gong Qi could no longer endure it and fainted.
Yun Run promptly dragged her out.
Gong Shaojun formed seals with both hands and slowly closed the Phoenix Pool, her gaze falling upon the unconscious Gong Qi.
Yun Run said softly, "The Seventh Young Lord possesses eight violet markings at such a young age. Her talent truly is extraordinary. Even compared to the Third Young Lord of