Lin Xue and Zhang Zongnian returned to Xixia Mountain.
Seeing Zhang Zongnian return safely, Hong Yanzhi and Lang Buping were also very happy.
That night, a grand banquet was held in Luoyun Cave to celebrate the successful return of Zhang Zongnian, Lin Xue, Hong Yanzhi, and the group of female demons.
Lang Buping was in high spirits and had already sent Lesser Beasts to bring a large amount of wine and meat from Yellow Wind Mountain.
At the banquet, the wine flowed freely and the dishes were extremely sumptuous.
The Lesser Beasts of the mountain all ate and drank to their hearts’ content, making a massive racket.
Even Elder Huai, who usually never drank, joined in for a few cups.
The dog demon, Laifu, drank so much that he crawled under the table.
Yuan Ding and Yuan Bao drank until they were hugging each other, snoring loudly.
The feast continued until the middle of the night before the demons finally dispersed, satisfied.
That night, Hong Yanzhi and Lang Buping stayed together.
The two had already agreed that once Hong Yanzhi and Lin Xue finished the task they had promised Li Tianzheng, they would return to hold the marriage ceremony.
Lin Xue stayed in Hong Yanzhi’s original dormitory.
Zhang Zongnian was arranged to stay in Hong Huzhi’s old room.
It was late.
Zhang Zongnian had been rushing back and forth for the past two days and was exhausted.
Having drunk quite a bit during the banquet, he should have fallen asleep the moment he hit the soft, warm bed, but he forced himself to stay awake.
He kept thinking about everything that had happened during the day, specifically that wonderful, enchanting sensation when Lin Xue was healing him.
Even now, he felt a strong sense of unreality. He could hardly believe that all of this had actually happened.
‘Do I really deserve such a happy life?’
He was terrified that this was all a dream, and that once he woke up, he would find it was all fake — that he was still a small, ugly mouse huddled in a dark burrow.
Eventually, Zhang Zongnian could no longer hold out and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day, he was startled awake by a Lesser Beast bringing him breakfast.
Zhang Zongnian opened his eyes and saw that he was still lying in the magnificent dormitory rather than a dark hole. He breathed a small sigh of relief.
The Lesser Beast set the food on the table, bowed to him, and prepared to leave.
“Where is my sister?” Zhang Zongnian asked.
The Lesser Beast replied respectfully, “Elder Lin has already finished her breakfast and is currently cultivating at the mountain peak.”
During the banquet the previous night, Lang Buping had announced that Lin Xue, Zhang Zongnian, and the six female demons were now Elders of the cave.
Therefore, the Lesser Beast referred to Lin Xue as Elder Lin.
Zhang Zongnian finally felt completely at ease.
This wasn’t a dream. It was real.
He wolfed down the breakfast on the table in a few bites and walked out of the cave, heading toward the summit.
……
At the mountain peak, Lin Xue sat cross-legged on a smooth rock, summoning the System Panel before her eyes to study it.
Last night, the System had suddenly popped up a notification on its own, stating that it needed to undergo an upgrade which was expected to take four hours.
This morning, she figured the upgrade should be complete, so she came to the peak to check what on earth this new update had added.
The Panel displayed:
[Status Window]
Name: Lin Xue
Race: Snake
Experience: 1,385,400 (Condense and Fine Casting available)
Cultivation Methods:
Changsheng Jue: Early Golden Core Stage (Consummate)
Heavenly Demon Transformation Art: Consummate
Beast Refinement Codex: Consummate
Swiftwind Sword Manual: Consummate
Qian Ji Zhi Meng: Consummate
Paper Substitute Technique: Consummate
Water Control Art: Consummate
Wood Spirit Detoxification Technique: Consummate
Vine Technique: Consummate
Heart Sutra of Beast Taming: Consummate
Yin-Yang Dual Cultivation Secret Manual: Consummate
The System had updated a new feature: Fine Casting!
What kind of function was this?
Lin Xue focused her attention on the words [Fine Casting], and a line of text appeared below: [Can consume 100,000 Experience Points to finely cast one Essence Core.]
She looked at her Experience of over 1.38 million and, without blinking, immediately spent 100,000 to cast an Essence Core.
The Panel changed to:
[Status Window]
Name: Lin Xue
Race: Snake
Experience: 1,285,400
Essence Core: 1
Lin Xue focused on the Essence Core and saw its description: [Can be used to evolve a recorded, complete Cultivation Method (Reusable).]
Evolving a Cultivation Method!
And it could be reused!
Lin Xue was ecstatic.
This new function was absolutely heaven-defying.
No matter the method, as long as she first used a Crystal Stone to condense it into its complete form, she could then use an Essence Core to evolve it infinitely.
This meant she could evolve a Qi Refinement Stage method into the Foundation Establishment Stage, Golden Core Stage, or even the Yuanying and Huashen stages.
For example, the Swiftwind Sword Manual was originally a Qi Refinement sword technique.
With this function, as long as she had enough Experience, she could upgrade this sword manual all the way to a Huashen level technique.
With this feature, she would never have to worry about lacking methods for her current realm again.
Lin Xue applied the Essence Core directly to the Swiftwind Sword Manual.
The manual had previously been upgraded to a Foundation Establishment method after being supplemented by a Crystal Stone.
However, she was currently at the Golden Core Stage.
Using a Foundation Establishment sword manual made it difficult to fully utilize her strength.
Since she currently possessed the spiritual sword Lieyun, she had a suitable weapon.
Thus, her priority was to evolve the Swiftwind Sword Manual.
This way, if she encountered an opponent at the Golden Core Stage, she wouldn’t be at a disadvantage regarding her techniques.
After consuming the Essence Core, the [Consummate] tag behind the Swiftwind Sword Manual disappeared, replaced by a [+].
Lin Xue poured her Experience Points into it in one go.
After investing 5,000 Experience Points, Lin Xue felt her mastery over the sword reach a brand-new level.
This sword style was nimble and ethereal. Combined with her ghost-like movement, she was like a phantom assassin, capable of launching light and agile attacks from any unexpected angle.
If she were to face Hei Pi Yao Wang now, Lin Xue was confident she could put several holes in him within a few moves.
Lin Xue was extremely satisfied with this new feature.
She immediately spent another 100,000 Experience Points to cast a second Essence Core.
This time, she looked at Qian Ji Zhi Meng.
This needle technique was a divine skill for dealing with large crowds of enemies.
Back in the Meishan Secret Realm, facing dozens of living corpses of former Fox Tribe heads at the Condensed Core Realm, it was this Qian Ji Zhi Meng paired with the ice needles from the Water Control Art that allowed her to fight a hundred alone.
She had killed those corpses, escaped safely, and gained over a million Experience Points.
And today, they were heading into the Secret Realm to deal with even more living corpses.
Facing hordes of enemies, an area-of-effect skill like this was more appropriate.
Lin Xue immediately used the second Essence Core on Qian Ji Zhi Meng, then spent another 5,000 Experience Points to reach mastery.
Next, she unhesitatingly cast a third Essence Core and applied it to the Water Control Art, also using 5,000 Experience Points to master it.
With these two skills, she could extract water elements from her surroundings at any time to condense ice needles and fire them at nearby enemies using Qian Ji Zhi Meng.
As Lin Xue was preparing to continue evolving other methods, she saw Zhang Zongnian arrive at the peak and walk toward her.
She closed the Panel, stood up, and gave Zhang Zongnian a smile.
“Brother, you’re awake.”