Heavenly South, deep within the Mulan Grassland, Nameless Valley.
Within the cave abode, time seemed to have lost its meaning, flowing silently only through the stillness as spiritual energy gathered continuously like a trickling stream. Han Li remained seated cross-legged on the stone platform at the entrance, like an eternally unchanging guardian deity, his aura faintly resonating with the valley and the world around it.
His spiritual sense formed a vast, intangible net that encompassed everything, closely enveloping hundreds of miles in every direction. Nothing outside escaped his perception, from the low-level demonic beasts occasionally startled deep in the grassland to the campfires and murmured conversations of a small Mulan tribe hundreds of miles away. Yet the central, most finely woven part of this "net" remained wrapped around Zi Ling in the quiet chamber.
Inside the quiet chamber, Zi Ling sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion carved from soul-warming jade. This wondrous jade, obtained from an ore vein deep within the Mulan Grassland, could calm the mind, stabilize the soul, and aid the absorption of spiritual energy, making it especially beneficial for repairing an injured divine soul. Her complexion had improved considerably since her return, but she still bore the pallor of someone recovering from a serious illness. Between her brows, an exceedingly faint wisp of black qi, almost invisible to the naked eye, remained deeply rooted like a stubborn poisonous vine, marking the last hidden injury within her divine soul-and the hardest to remove.
This was the trace left behind when Hu Qinglei's demonic qi combined with the insidious poison of the Spirit-Locking Pill and invaded the source of her sea of consciousness. Ordinary pills and gentle nourishment with spiritual power could not eradicate it.
With a slight stir of Han Li's will, a pale-gold pill the size of