Cao Yun and Huang Cixi were lead toward Xiao Xuefeng. Right in front of her chamber, Kang Hai and Kang Cai asked Cao Yun to wait outside.

"I'm sorry, Young Master, but our mistress wants to talk with Miss Mei alone."

"I understand." Cao Yun turned toward Huang Cixi. "I'll be waiting here, but I do believe that you can fully trust Grand Master Xiao."

Huang Cixi nodded. She had a vague idea of what the alchemist master wanted to talk about. However, she wasn't ready to have this discussion with Cao Yun yet.

Kang Cai knocked on the door.

"Mistress, Miss Mei is here to see you."

The door slowly opened, showing Xiao Xuefeng sitting in front of a board of Go.

"Come in."

Huang Cixi walked into the room as the doors closed behind her. She naturally took place on the opposite side of the table. As soon as she was comfortable, Xiao Xuefeng took a stone and put it on the board.

"Have you prepared yourself?"

Huang Cixi looked at the board. Go was a game that she was very familiar with. Fighting was not her domain, but as she had studied diplomacy and politics, she had also studied strategy and Go was often used as a way to transpose military principles. Saint Xun Ke even called it 'Learning Through the Stones'. Huang Cixi calmed her mind and put another stone on the board.

"Yes, Grand Master. In fact, Chen Guo helped me a lot. He gave me a great mind cultivation."

Considering the spiritual abilities of Xiao Xuefeng, Huang Cixi was sure that she could see through her lies. Moreover, she had no reason to hide it. Given her level, Xiao Xuefeng would not covet a junior's method.

They both kept talking while playing.

"Indeed, his mind is certainly extraordinary. Apparently, the Feng Yingyue girl also received this method."

Huang Cixi got destabilized when hearing the name of Feng Yingyue, it brought her back to the past. Huang Cixi realized that it had been a bit more than a year now.

"Are you still holding a grudge?"

As she was about to put another stone on the board, Huang Cixi stopped in the middle of her movement. She really looked within herself before answering. Finally, she looked Xiao Xuefeng straight in the eyes.

"No. I finally admitted the truth to myself. Chen Guo was innocent in all this and Feng Yingyue was the victim. The only one who can take the blame now is me. All the others are dead... I should have been more insistent. First Brother Huang Longwei wasn't as competent as I am. I should have been able to convince Father not to listen to him and Second Brother not to obey, no matter what. I'm the only one alive with any blame in this."

"Really?" The sound of the stone on the board was forming some kind of melody as the two women talked. "Aren't you still running away from the truth? You tried to blame Chen Guo and now you blame yourself? But who was really responsible?"

A doubt appeared in Huang Cixi's mind. "What do you mean, Grand Master?"

Xiao Xuefeng had the matter thoroughly investigated and knew almost everything by now.

"Who thought about assassinating Feng Yingyue? Who approved the assassination and gave the order? Who followed the order?"

"Are you saying that my entire family was guilty but me?" Huang Cixi kept her attitude composed but she was beginning to get confused. Unknowingly, her inner demon was slowly growing. It had been born by her desire for vengeance but now it was feeding on her guilt. Huang Cixi could not enter her sea of consciousness, but it was very easy for Xiao Xuefeng to sense this inner demon. Such a parasite was born from human desires and emotions, obsessions and traumas. She wasn't trying to put Huang Cixi in a difficult situation, but she was attempting to make her realize a way to fight off this inner demon.

"Huang Cixi, you blame yourself because you failed to convince your father and your second brother. But they were the ones who acted. You admit that Chen Guo only acted to defend Feng Yingyue. But yet, you fail to admit that your second brother and your father did anything wrong. You blame everything on your first brother, but as he's dead himself, this blame then befalls onto you."

Huang Cixi put another stone on the board. Unconsciously, she was circulating her mind cultivation.

"Look within yourself, sincerely. I know that you don't want to blame the people you love. But you must detach yourself from your guilt. You loved them and yet they acted against morale. Admit that good people can also do heinous crimes. It doesn't mean that your second brother was evil. He just wanted to keep the admiration of his father. Even concerning your father, he was blinded by his fear and his pain. You must admit that good people, people you love, are able to commit heinous crimes when lead by the wrong emotions. The blame is not on you."

The girl was more and more confused about her real feelings. To say the truth, Huang Cixi was very good at thinking and planning but getting in touch with what she felt was not something she excelled at. That was why she had first directed her anger at Cao Yun. Then when she found out that she couldn't hate him, she directed this anger at herself. This was how her inner demon had disturbed her cultivation and caused her injury.

In demonic cultivators, an inner demon could take over the cultivator and turn him insane. But for orthodox cultivators, their minds were more stable. It would usually cause confusion and be nourished by chaotic emotions. In the end, it would generate a Qi deviation or any other deadly problem, either in the Qi, in the mind or even in the flesh. A cultivator who couldn't get rid of his inner demon would simply end up dead because of it. Almost no orthodox cultivator had ever been corrupted or devoured by his inner demon.

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Huang Cixi kept on playing mechanically. And as her mind was losing itself in the game, she thought about the past. Xiao Xuefeng was right, her first brother, her father and even her second brother all had a choice. Her first brother had acted on greed and jealousy. Her father had acted on fear because he thought this could bring him a way to heal himself. Finally, her second brother had acted on the desire to keep his father's approval. Any one of them could have said no. Yes, she could have stopped them as well, but she wasn't carrying all the blame. In the end, she had even tried to convince her father and her second brother. Unfortunately, she had failed. Even though she could blame herself for this failure, this was their decision, their choice.

A change occurred in her sea of consciousness. The Shen character had just reached Perfection. It produced a powerful flame. In a corner of this sea, there was a small shadow. It had the exact same features as Huang Cixi, but it was around half her size and its eyes were still closed. This was her inner demon. With its eyes closed, the inner demon was not fully awake, otherwise Huang Cixi would be dead. But its size was very impressive. The flame from the Shen character engulfed this shadowy figure and it began to shrink to the size of a bean. Eliminating an inner demon could take years, but thanks to her mind cultivation and Xiao Xuefeng, the process had been sped up. Huang Cixi would still need to put in the effort. However, her inner demon was on the right track to being eradicated.

In truth, Xiao Xuefeng had used the game of Go as a kind of hypnotism. She was the cultivator with the most powerful spiritual senses in the kingdom. As such, she was able to help Huang Cixi deal with her inner demon, but she had to realize the cause herself. If Xiao Xuefeng tried to get into her mind to erase it, the inner demon couldn't resist. But Huang Cixi's mind could collapse from her intrusion. That was the reason why Xiao Xuefeng rarely tried to read the memories or even the mind of someone.

A few decades ago, she had tried to help one of her friends who had developed an inner demon as well. Desperate to help this friend, she had used her spiritual senses. She had eradicated the inner demon alright but her friend's mind collapsed and he died a few days later. Xiao Xuefeng herself almost birthed an inner demon due to this failure. And it was by overcoming this tribulation that her spiritual senses became stronger than ever. Director Ge Ling had been extremely helpful at that time, and that was why Xiao Xuefeng was extremely attached to the Golden Flowery Fragrance Institute. However, to this day, she still remembered this deadly mistake of her.

Sensing that the inner demon in Huang Cixi had considerably reduced in size, Xiao Xuefeng could not help but marvel at this mind cultivation. She knew from Hua Fenfei that this mind cultivation had been obtained from an obscure manual in the private library of the city lord of a small town. That really was a fortuitous encounter. Xiao Xuefeng wouldn't dare stealing from a junior, or anyone for that matter, but she was now curious about this method. She would ask Cao Yun later about it, maybe she could get some inspiration from it.

Xiao Xuefeng waited for Huang Cixi to come back to reality. The girl was almost entranced as she was sorting out her emotion. She had finally been able to let go of her own guilt.

"Huang Cixi, I have one final question for you. Do you know who Chen Guo is?"

Huang Cixi immediately knew that Xiao Xuefeng knew. And she wasn't surprised by this.

"Grand Master, I know."

"Then I will ask you this one favor. Never, ever, speak about it!" Xiao Xuefeng still found that the tragedy of the Cao family was peculiar. Right now, the demonic cultivators seemed to be busy with something, so they probably wouldn't send a Spirit Warrior to kill him. But there was a risk if they learned that he was from this family.

"I understand, Grand Master. I won't!"

"Good. Kang Cai will show you to the room I chose for ingesting the pill. Follow her and prepare yourself. I'll try to help you as much as I can, but this is your Lower Dantian. So you must be the one to reform it."

Huang Cixi put one final stone on the board and stood up. She cupped her fists and bowed. "Thank you for everything, Grand Master. I see the world more clearly. In case I fail, I already wrote a letter for my grandfather, I swear that he won't blame anyone but fate."

She then left the room. When Xiao Xuefeng looked at the board again, she realized that the young girl was controlling more than two thirds of the board. Xiao Xuefeng had not really played seriously, but she knew that this girl was probably a future master strategist.

-

After discussing a bit with Cao Yun, Xiao Xuefeng lead him to the chamber she had chosen. There was an array formation to strengthen the room and isolate it from exterior influences. Huang Cixi was sitting cross-legged right in the middle of this array formation.

Satisfied to see that her state of mind was optimal, Xiao Xuefeng took out the Life Boiling Cradle pill from her spatial ring. The pill floated in the air and went toward the young girl.

"Are you ready?"

"I am, Grand Master."

Cao Yun was very nervous. Either she would heal and even become way stronger, or she would die. But he could do nothing and she had made her choice.

The pill entered Huang Cixi's mouth and slowly dissolved in her system. She felt an intense fire spreading through her meridians and vessels, trying to converge in her Lower Dantian. But as it was destroyed, this fiery energy was spilling out. If she let it, her organs would get attacked by this fire and she would die. Using her Yi and Zhi, coordinated by Shen, she took control of this medicinal essence and did everything she could to keep it within. On the other hand, Xiao Xuefeng sent a few strands of Qi around her other organs to protect them. She couldn't interfere too much with the medicinal energy because Huang Cixi needed to reforge her Lower Dantian herself. Otherwise this could cause more problems later as it wouldn't be fully harmonized with her own Qi.

Huang Cixi was sweating profusely. The medicinal essence was extremely Fire in nature. Thankfully, she had mastered Shen the Fire Spirit and it helped her a lot. Moreover, this Fire was balanced out by her Zhi the Water Will. The mind cultivation of Cao Yun was indeed incredible and kept on surprising Xiao Xuefeng.

Finally, Huang Cixi felt as though a ball of magma was formed in her lower abdomen. Then, from within the fire energy, a new kind of medicinal essence appeared, full of Water element. It was time to quench her Lower Dantian to make it stable. If she let this Water energy free, it would collide with the unstable ball of magma and this could cause an explosion within herself. This time, she felt Xiao Xuefeng's Qi forming a sphere around her Lower Dantian, to contain it if the worst came to be.

Huang Cixi did everything she could to hold this Water energy and let it spill bit by bit. Each time she let out a thin strand of this energy, the pain was intense. But she had to maintain her focus. If she let go, she would probably die, no matter the protections from Xiao Xuefeng. Even if her other organs were safe, her lower abdomen where the energies were would be obliterated and she would die on the spot, either from the pain or the subsequent loss of blood.

Cao Yun was unable to see what was going on inside of Huang Cixi but he was able to see her pain. He reduced his own breathing so as not to disturb neither her nor Xiao Xuefeng. There was an eerie silence in the room. Even Huang Cixi was silent despite the pain she was feeling. She was entirely focused on her task.

All of a sudden, she felt something move in her mind and being suppressed by fire. Her inner demon had tried to use this opportunity but was now too weak thanks to Xiao Xuefeng and got suppressed by the fire of Shen. Huang Cixi had the vague sensation that without her discussion earlier, she would have died right now.

Finally, all the Water energy was gone and this ball of magma had completely cooled down. Huang Cixi put her focus on it and realized that she had gained the legendary Pure Golden Dantian.