That evening, Xue Fuyao returned to her own room, closed the door, and carried a basin of water to the table.
She took all the herbs she had purchased today out of her storage bag and laid them aside.
She picked up an herb and immersed its roots in the clear water. Instantly, the previously clean water turned murky.
Xue Fuyao washed them with extreme care, only stopping once the roots of the herbs were washed to a pale white and free of even the slightest speck of dust.
Next came the repetition of meticulously cleaning the root systems of every single herb.
By this point, the water in the basin had long since become turbid and filthy. But that was not all; Xue Fuyao did not even spare the dirt on the table, in the basket that held the herbs, and on the cloth used to place the herbs upon, dumping all of it into the water basin.
Through a process of washing, settling, settling, and washing over and over again, the water in the basin gradually grew clear. Slowly, particles distinct from ordinary soil emerged from the water.
After a few more washes, the basin finally held only those crystal-clear particles along with some tiny grit and sand.
At this point, these grains of sand could be ignored entirely.
Xue Fuyao gathered all of those particles into a small bowl, then slashed her wrist to let out her blood.
Although she could also bleed from her finger, the bleeding speed that way was too slow and could not compare to cutting her wrist.
Soon, the small half-bowl of blood was completely absorbed by the fragments of broken jade inside, and those broken jade particles successfully fused with the broken jade already inside Xue Fuyao's body.
After bustling about for so long, she had ended up collecting only a fingernail-sized piece of broken jade.
Cleaning away any traces left in the room, Xue Fuyao lay down on the bed and drifted into a drowsy sleep.
The next morning, looking at herself in the mirror, Xue Fuyao widened her eyes in astonishment.
Her dazed disguise had vanished, and furthermore, she seemed to have grown even prettier than yesterday, her skin also improving. Could it be because of the broken jade?
After all, from yesterday until now, she had only fused with a single piece of broken jade.
She transformed herself back to her original appearance once more. This time she used the broken jade for the disguise, making herself look as she had before any changes yesterday, and then used a hair ribbon to perform a secondary disguise.
The moment she stepped outside, she saw Gu Nian bustling over to find her. "Little Junior Sister is awake. Do you want to go watch a show?"
"Watch a show?"
Hearing these two words, Xue Fuyao instantly perked up, her eyes looking expectantly toward Gu Nian.
Gu Nian took Xue Fuyao's small hand, walking and speaking in a low voice at the same time, "You should have seen the spiritual root testing from a few days ago. Among them, the daughter of the Wang Household's patriarch's wife was tested and found to have a dual metal-fire spiritual root. Although it is not as difficult to cultivate as a water-fire spiritual root, it is nonetheless a pair of conflicting roots.
Fortunately, the purities of her two spiritual roots differed greatly, with one at eighty-seven percent and the other at thirty-six percent.
Spiritual roots like these require a massive consumption of resources just to cultivate, not to mention that her cultivation speed is about the same as a cultivator with three spiritual roots.
Yet just yesterday, a concubine-born daughter of the Wang Household's patriarch unexpectedly obtained a bottle of top-grade Spirit-Cleansing Pills, cleansing her originally useless five spiritual roots into a single fire spiritual root.
Because the change was too great, she could not conceal it even if she wanted to. This morning, the patriarch's wife called that concubine-born daughter over, demanding that the other party hand over the spirit-cleansing pills."
Xue Fuyao listened through the entire process with her mouth agape. Still, this kind of deceit and rivalry within a great lineage seemed quite normal.
As a princess, she had seen plenty of such things, though...
"Senior Sister, a head wife seizing a concubine-born daughter's resources-this ought to be considered a lineage scandal, so how do you know about it?"
Since this sort of matter was hardly glorious, shouldn't they keep it tightly guarded and prevent even a whisper of news from leaking out?
At these words, Gu Nian gave a chuckle and said that this morning, Wang Mingyue-which was the concubine's daughter's name-and her birth mother had suddenly burst into her courtyard, hoping that she would protect her daughter, and expressing her willingness to use the remaining spirit-cleansing pills as a reward.
"So that was how it was."
Yet, to prefer giving the spirit-cleansing pills to an outsider rather than bringing them out showed how deep Wang Mingyue's resentment toward the Wang Household ran.
When the two of them arrived, Wang Mingyue was kneeling in the courtyard looking utterly frail and weak, directly beneath the blazing sun, flanked by two fierce-looking, solidly built matrons.
Although Wang Mingyue had turned into a single spiritual root at this moment, she had not yet begun cultivating after all, so how could she possibly be a match for these matrons.
Catching sight of a large and a small figure walking toward this side from afar, Wang Mingyue felt her vision go black, and she fainted dead away.
Gu Nian glanced at the collapsed Wang Mingyue, then cast an amused look at Madam Wang sitting inside the room. Standing beside her was a mischievous young girl as well.
Upon seeing Gu Nian, Madam Wang immediately stood up, a hypocritical smile plastered across her face. "Why has Immortal Gu graced this place? The concubine-born daughter of the household is unruly and disobedient, so as her mother I am merely managing the household a bit, yet I never expected it to alarm an Immortal."
Gu Nian ignored Madam Wang's transparent excuse, stating directly, "Since Wang Mingyue is already a disciple of the Yuanji Sect, she is not someone just anyone can casually humiliate."
Faced with the overbearing Gu Nian, Madam Wang wore an expression of humiliation and forbearance, only biting out after a long pause, "Immortal Gu speaks truly. This time I acted rashly. Someone come, escort the Seventeenth Young Miss back to her room, and then invite a doctor to come take a good look at her."
Watching Wang Mingyue being carried away, the young girl beside Madam Wang refused to let the matter rest, crying out somewhat anxiously, "Mother!"
How could they let those little wretches leave? Her spirit-cleansing pills-she still hadn't gotten her hands on her spirit-cleansing pills, and she still wanted to become a genius with a heavenly spiritual root.
Madam Wang ignored her noisy daughter, instead offering Gu Nian a proper, decorous smile, as if to say: Are you satisfied with this arrangement?
Having successfully settled the matter, on the way back, Xue Fuyao said with some emotion, "Senior Sister was truly amazing just now; she resolved the whole affair in just a few sentences."
Gu Nian spoke earnestly in response, "In this world, so long as you possess power and influence, you will discover that many matters do not even require you to personally take action-a single sentence can resolve them."
Xue Fuyao nodded in deep agreement, as she had profound personal experience in this regard.
Because the testing had to be conducted for all the children in the entire city as well as the nearby towns and villages, it was a massive undertaking. Consequently, they still needed to stay in Cloud City for a few more days, and during this period, Xue Fuyao decided to go take a look at the place the herb vendor had mentioned before.
There had been quite a few fragments of broken jade on the roots of those previous herbs; perhaps there were still more in the soil around that area.
Once she entered the Yuanji Sect, she estimated she would not be able to come out for quite a long time, so to avoid any accidents, she decided to make a quick trip there and back.
Before you continue