Chen Lingxi returned to the West Courtyard servants' quarters beneath the moonlight.
Once inside, the Concealed Edge Method slowly withdrew within his body. The thin yet resilient barrier wrapped around his spiritual qi loosened inch by inch, and the azure qi in his dantian, like a living thing imprisoned for far too long, finally gained its freedom. It stretched through his meridians and slowly circulated.
He let out a long breath, and his tightly wound nerves finally eased somewhat.
After changing clothes, Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged and went over everything he had seen and heard tonight in East King's Palace at Inlaid Gold Mountain, sorting through it all again and again, word by word, detail by detail.
Wu Mohe's words surfaced in his mind.
"Lin Suri comes from the Pool-Soul Institute of the Dao-Below Academy. His master is Jing Shijue, a True Person of the Golden Grotto, and that True Person possesses a Cauldron Vessel such as the Calamity-Seeing Pool."
Before this, Chen Lingxi could only guess at Lin Suri's origins. Tonight, he had finally received solid confirmation.
"Golden Grotto."
Chen Lingxi silently repeated those two words.
He recalled what Crown Prince Ying Chi had said in the eastern hall during Total Perception's evolution.
"Seek the Dao Foundation, the foundation of the Golden Grotto."
At the time, the words had sounded obscure and strange to him. Now, though, he was gradually beginning to taste their meaning.
Dao Foundation came first. Golden Grotto came after.
He also recalled what Ying Chi had said when mentioning the Academy's Dao Master.
"The Academy's Dao Master is a great Golden Core cultivator who has attained the position of True Lord. He wields the Golden Core Cauldron Vessel, the Heaven-Determining Brush, which can determine a person's heavenly fate. It is said that on the day