At the heart of the Qinxia Kingdom, a massive castle sprawled over half of the city, appearing as if a dragon was meandering through, giving off an impression of unparalleled authority and grand majesty.
At the core of this majestic castle, there was a large throne at the centre-front of the hall, and a powerful being sat on this throne with a thin gauze separating him from his subjects.
This figure was the king of the Qinxia Kingdom, and at this point, the various scholarly cultivators had solemn expressions as they were the ones that requested an audience with His Majesty.
From how highly the king regarded them, he called for an emergency meeting in the middle of the night, and although cultivators did not differentiate much between day and night, they did not dare waste his time.
"There were changes in the country's fate today, and after the sunset, these fluctuations had increased in might. After various tries trying to decipher the reason for these instabilities, we could only come up with this vague description: " The scholars began.
"A dragon of extreme yin has appeared in the North;
Greedy, murderous, vicious and forlorn;
Unable to settle for mediocrity;
Wishing to reach the peak of this world;
Planning on breaking through their family's shackles;
Whether it will be an enemy or a friend is unsure;
But it will rapidly grow until its fate concludes. "
The scholars said this in unison as if they were one person talking from multiple bodies, appearing extremely bizarre, but the figure behind the gauze was unperturbed.
He stayed silent, seemingly in deep thought, causing a slightly nervous air to appear between his vassals.
They intently thought of ways to solve this for His Majesty, but they did not fully understand the problem, let alone how to solve it.
This stifling quiet lasted for about the time it took half an incense stick to burn before a young girl stood up amongst the vassals then sincerely bowed to the figure behind the gauze.
Her cold, noble aura and the fact that she could attend such meetings as a youngster and a woman proved how extraordinary she was, but at this moment, she had a subservient expression on her face.
"Your Majesty, may I have permission to head to the North? By your blessings, I'll find and either befriend or kill that dragon of yin, maintaining our country's strength and stability for the next millennium!"
By the end of her short speech, her gaze filled up with so much zeal and ardour that it left the others speechless. Ignoring the fact that her presence alone met with much resistance, they did not expect her to raise her opinion on this matter, but as her words were sound and they could not think of a better proposition, they quietly waited for His Majesty's response.
After a brief moment of silence; and against the hope of his vassals, the king finally replied, "Rest for tonight; you will receive an imperial edict tomorrow." With that, the meeting concluded.
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As the red smog rushed into Qin Yao's body, she felt extreme pain, almost equal to the pain she felt at her execution, causing her to lose consciousness.
The red smog acted like it was aware of Qin Yao's unconsciousness as it jolted her awake before continuing to fuse with her body.
She couldn't help but let out blood-curdling screams, scaring away the beasts to scurry further away. Her skin ripped open and was stitched back into place by the red smog; this process happened multiple times seemingly, strengthening her physique.
Her eyes glowed with a demonic red glow, allowing heightened senses that she could not take advantage of as she was in extreme pain.
Her body released a strong smell of blood, her eyes communicated bloodlust, and as her body flailed around, she seemed more like an asura from hell than a human.
This process lasted for a few more breaths of time, and then the remaining fog condensed to a pearl and stayed in her body. Qin Yao's voice soon turned hoarse; before the extreme pain finally subsided, allowing her to fall unconscious.
When the sun reached the very top of the sky, Qin Yao finally rose, and she hazily looked around her surroundings, unable to figure out what had happened the night before. She looked down onto her clothes and found that she got soaked in sweat and filth.
The smell that came off her resembled that of rotting corpses or of deadly poison. Qin Yao had a sudden realisation as she sat in a crossed length position and allowed her consciousness to sink into her dantian.
The dantian was in her lower abdomen, and there was currently a few narrow golden streams peacefully flowing out and coursing through her body.
A blood-red pearl floated above the minuscule stream system, slowly getting absorbed and refined into forming a new stream.
Qin Yao could not help but admire this mystical sight inside her body, and although she had heard of this before, it was not the same as seeing it in person or experiencing it first-hand.
After looking through Zhong Xian's manual, Qin Yao realised that she was currently considered a 4th-level Qi Refinement cultivator.
She felt that as long as she continuously absorbed the pearl, her cultivation realm would increase accordingly, even if she didn't put much effort.
Qin Yao considered the cultivation system of this world to be simplistic, as the first stage of cultivation was Qi Refinement, cultivators take qi from the surroundings and refine it to various streams, once a cultivator refines the 12th stream, they would enter the 12th Qi Refinement Realm and have the qualifications to attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Qin Yao as a beginner in the cultivation world - did the most exciting thing she could think of - she began to test her strength on her surroundings.
Qin Yao focused her entire qi reserve into her left fist before swinging with all of her power. The rock she had just punched formed a deep fist mark going as far as a few inches deep.
If she had done the same thing before last night, it would be her fist that broke, a feeling of happiness overwhelmed Qin Yao's senses for the first time in a long while.
It was then - for the first time - that Qin Yao wanted to become powerful for no other reason than her own will. This feeling of satisfaction was unlike something she had ever experienced before.
After recovering from her consumption and excitement, Qin Yao walked to a nearby stream and washed off the smelly junk of her body.
These were the impurities that her body expelled after four consecutive breakthroughs.
Only after expelling these impurities eight more times and breaking through the Foundation Establishment Realm; would she fully step into the path of immortality.
So Qin Yao did not plan to relax for long; she wanted to increase her strength as soon as possible, and not passively.
Qin Yao carefully recalled her experience from the previous night and remembered all the sensations she had felt.
After fully allowing the phantom pain to pass through her and carefully reflecting on the feeling of her body strengthening, the piece of information she wanted finally appeared in her mind.