Her Greatest Weakness Was That She Cared About Her Image

For the next two months, Lin Hai completely transformed into a "Spirit Research Maniac," burning the midnight oil as he embarked on his path of experimentation.

Aside from personally visiting the Pope's Palace midway through to present his self-created Dust Cleansing Nirvana Technique, he never took another step out of the side hall.

Pope's Palace.

Two distinctly different fragrances drifted through the air.

Ever since practicing the Dust Cleansing Nirvana Technique, Bibi Dong's bothersome headaches had largely ceased.

Yet at this moment, she sat upright in a high-backed chair, her fingertips unconsciously tapping against the cold armrest. A rare trace of recent irritation lingered between her brows.

Her gaze swept over her eldest disciple, who was massaging her temples behind her.

"Nana, what has that little junior brother of yours been up to lately?"

Bibi Dong's voice revealed neither pleasure nor anger, yet carried unquestionable authority.

"I sent people to ask several times, but they could not even get through the door. All he said was, 'Almost done, almost done.' There have also been explosions coming from inside. Do you know anything?"

Hu Liena's hands paused slightly as she cautiously replied.

"Teacher, what I know is... probably just that much."

Her eyes shifted, as though she had suddenly remembered something, and her voice dropped a little.

"Ah, no. Perhaps... I know just a tiny bit more."

Bibi Dong did not turn around, but the invisible pressure around her suddenly intensified.

Though she said nothing, Hu Liena seemed to hear the unspoken message: Speak. Take one second longer, and I'll add another hour.

Little Fox shuddered, her mind racing faster than it ever had as she quickly organized her thoughts.

"Yesterday, this disciple happened to pass by his door. I was curious, so... so I stopped and listened for a moment."

She swallowed, then imitated that excited tone. "Then I heard him shouting inside, 'Ohoho! Got First Blood again! Feels great!'"

The air instantly froze.

Bibi Dong's exquisite face darkened at a visible rate, faintly turning black. She suddenly closed her eyes, her chest rising and falling slightly as she clearly struggled to suppress her surging anger.

Even so, Your Holiness the Pope's command remained clear and icy.

"Use a bit more force."

Hu Liena's scalp went numb. She did not dare say another word and hurriedly turned into the most dedicated little masseuse, diligently continuing her overtime shift.

Two days later.

Lin Hai strolled leisurely into the Pope's Palace and was surprised to find that Hu Liena was not there—hm, at least she still had some proper business to attend to.

On the Pope's Throne, Bibi Dong reclined lazily on her side, one delicate hand curled into a small fist against her temple. Her phoenix eyes looked at him with an amused yet mocking smile, and her red lips parted to deliver words dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh—look who it is. Isn't this our little genius, so busy every day that he's impossible to find?"

She drew out her words. "What wind blew Your Excellency to my humble Pope's Palace today?"

"Could it be... that you came up with some earth-shattering 'thing' again and blew up my side hall?"

Lin Hai knew perfectly well that trying to reason with her now would only invite humiliation. He immediately put on an utterly fawning expression and shuffled forward in tiny steps.

"Oh, my wonderful teacher! Listen to yourself. This disciple has been in Closed-door cultivation for over a month, and I missed you terribly!"

"Didn't I come running straight here to pay my respects the very moment I emerged? I was practically suffocating from holding it in all this way!"

As he spoke, he even pinched his throat and performed an exceptionally proper curtsy in imitation of a maidservant.

"Teacher—good—for—tune—!"

"Pfft—" Even Bibi Dong, who had weathered countless storms, could not keep a straight face before such a shameless performance. She rolled her eyes at him irritably.

"Enough, enough. Stop babbling nonsense! I'll let you off this time, but stay away from Yue Guan in the future."

"Now tell me, did something go wrong with that ridiculous research of yours again? What did you run outside the city for yesterday?"

Seeing Lin Hai act like a shameless scoundrel, Bibi Dong instantly gave up on teasing him further.

It was not that her disciple could not take a joke. It was simply that... she could not out-tease this brat. Her disadvantage was far too obvious: she cared about her image...

Hearing this, Lin Hai habitually raised a hand and tapped his forehead, a trace of frustration appearing on his face.

"The experiment... failed..."

"There's no need to—" Bibi Dong was about to comfort him.

"—But!"

Lin Hai abruptly changed tack. The hint of "frustration" between his brows was instantly replaced by radiant excitement. He raised his chin proudly. "This disciple found another path—a more reliable one!"

"Not only can it solve the issue of the Spirit Ring Absorption limit, it can also help our Spirit Hall recruit outstanding talents from all under heaven..."

Bibi Dong abruptly rose from the throne, a barely perceptible urgency entering her voice.

"What method?!"

How could she not be excited? She yearned too greatly to strengthen Spirit Hall!

Perhaps in the beginning, strengthening Spirit Hall had merely been a means of achieving some ultimate goal.

But over time, that means itself had long become an obsession and pursuit etched deep into her bones.

Moreover, she knew that although this brat appeared unreliable and did whatever he pleased, never taking anything seriously, his words had never been empty boasts!

Lin Hai stopped keeping her in suspense and began explaining animatedly.

"Teacher, this disciple originally wanted to analyze the blood of soul masters and different Spirit Beasts to simulate the Spirit Ring Absorption process..."

He quickly explained how he had repeatedly hit obstacles in his blood-fusion experiments, only to accidentally discover something when he tried directly refining Spirit Beast Blood with the Bu Yuan Cauldron.

It turned out that the Bu Yuan Cauldron could not only refine medicine, poison, and perfume. Its deeper power was actually to analyze and simulate life.

Whether it was humans, animals, plants, or all kinds of Spirit Beasts, as long as it was given a trace of bodily tissue, it could use that as a blueprint to simulate a complete life-form within the cauldron!

Blood and plant sap produced the best results.

Based on this, he had unexpectedly refined two kinds of pills—the Spirit Ring Pill and the Martial Spirit Pill.

First, the Spirit Ring Pill:

Using a drop of blood from a fifty-thousand-year Scaled Beast as a catalyst, Lin Hai used the Bu Yuan Cauldron to simulate a "miniature" life-form of the Scaled Beast, with energy roughly equivalent to that of a thirteen-hundred-year Scaled Beast.

By condensing this "miniature Spirit Beast" into a pill, it would absorb Free Soul Power from its surroundings during the process. Once the finished pill was consumed, one could obtain a Scaled Beast Spirit Ring with an age of nine thousand years!

By simultaneously analyzing and simulating dozens of drops of blood, then merging them into a pill, one could ultimately obtain a fifty-thousand-year Spirit Ring nearly identical in age to that Spirit Beast.

And the age of the blood-donating Spirit Beast was not even the limit of the pill. By fusing several hundred drops of blood, the Spirit Ring Pill's age could be raised to 99,999 years!

As for plant-type Spirit Beasts, sap, roots, stems, and bark could all be used, though sap worked better. Far less was needed than beast blood. Although the total yield was slightly lower, it was absolutely sufficient.

And yesterday, Lin Hai had gone outside the city precisely to refine that ultimate 99,999-year Spirit Ring Pill.

The formation of this pill required it to absorb an enormous amount of Free Soul Power.

He had no choice but to travel dozens of miles away. If he refined it within Spirit City, the soul masters across the entire city probably would not be able to cultivate for two or three days.

Lin Hai had also tried absorbing the energy inside the Bodhi Seed, but he could not draw it out at all.