Blue Silver Castle was quiet that night, so quiet that the chirping of insects in the distant Medicine Field could be heard.
Louise was the first to react.
She was leaning against the headboard, leafing through Blue Medicine Hall's ledger, when warmth suddenly surged through her dantian, as though something had gently tapped deep within her soul power.
She set down the ledger and closed her eyes. The medicinal energy spread upward through her meridians, its gentle warmth soaking into their walls layer by layer, expanding and strengthening them wherever it passed.
She settled cross-legged and guided the energy through several complete circuits. Under its relentless washing, the barrier restraining her soul power shattered.
Her soul power climbed from level forty-four to forty-five, forty-seven, and forty-nine, finally coming to a steady halt at the threshold of level fifty.
She opened her eyes and looked down at her hands. The pale golden sheen on her palms was much richer than before.
A level-fifty Soul King. Her gold coin martial soul had taken another great step along the path of financial fortune.
At the same time, in the room next door, Xiao Li's reaction was far more intense than Louise's.
Curled beneath her quilt, she suddenly felt her entire body burning. Her cat ears and tail unfurled uncontrollably, and sharp claws sprang from her fingertips, leaving several fine scratches across the quilt.
She abruptly sat up. Under the medicinal energy's harmonizing influence, her half-beast bloodline churned violently. The feline traits originally scattered throughout her skin and bones seemed to be reorganized by an invisible force, evolving from their "half-human, half-beast" mixture toward something more complete.
She jumped out of bed and ran barefoot from her room, then sat cross-legged in the open space in the Castle's backyard.
Moonlight fell across her. She