Another day passed during which Huang Cixi made sure that everything was going smoothly with Ye Zhiyun and Hall Master Fang. She also received news about the sudden change of Huang Lü. Obviously, she was well aware of the reason behind this. And all day long, she got several letters from various people, among whom a few elders. Most of them were still a bit hesitant in their support. Huang Cixi knew that the coming week and then her duel would shape their opinion.

One support she received secretly was from Elder Huang Jian. Once more, he refused to take part in the actual competition for the role of matriarch. However, he wrote her a very sincere letter. At no point did he mention his relationship with Huang Lü, but she could see through his words. He thanked her for appeasing the young woman he cared about. Such a letter moved Huang Cixi a lot as she saw the love her father had had for her and her brothers in his words. To be honest, she felt a bit bad for using their relationship against Huang Lü, but politics was politics. And at the end of the day, they were all from the same family.

Clearly, Huang Lü was not cut out to be a politician. Hence, she would never have been able to become the matriarch anyway. Her defeat was just a matter of time. What consoled Huang Cixi was that once she became matriarch, she could reward Huang Lü for her choice. Now, she only had two problems. The first one was very clear and simple, it was Gui Bei. The other one was a bit more tricky as it was Huang Si.

As of now, Huang Cixi had never met that woman but she knew that she was behind Huang Lü's failed attempt to cause trouble during the poetry gathering. Of course, Huang Cixi had turned it around fairly easily, but she knew that by the end of the week there would be a great event. That would be the moment to really show who was leading the competition. If Huang Cixi failed during the event, she would lose all potential support. But if she was correct, she would instead become almost sure of her victory.

For now though, Huang Cixi was satisfied that everything seemed to be going exactly as she intended it to. As such, she could relax a little and train. Her mind cultivation had just increased a few days earlier and she would need at least a couple of months before she could condense another Five Echoes Pearl. Furthermore, she was also advancing very slowly in her blood cultivation. The similarities between 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks' and 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire' allowed her to be faster at both. But extracting the blood essence of the True Fiery Fenghuang in her own blood did not depend on her talent alone. Obviously, the more she extracted blood essence, the harder it was to extract more of it.

Thankfully, Huang Cixi had a very pure blood to begin with. And with time, the True Fiery Drops she had already condensed would imbue her blood with their properties. As such, the reserve of blood essence in her veins would very slowly increase until she could extract a bit more. To try and accelerate the process, Huang Cixi used her mind cultivation. In order to condense a Five Echoes Pearl, she had to rotate the Five Agents to focus their properties in their center. By mimicking this, Huang Cixi realized that by activating the two True Fiery Drops in her Chamber of the Mysterious Elixir, she could speed up her blood cultivation.

Some members of the Huang family could stay stuck at a certain level for decades, such as Huang Liyue. In fact, even Matriarch Huang Yufeng was stuck at eight True Fiery Drops. In history, only the ancestral matriarch had achieved all nine True Fiery Drops. But this new way of cultivating, combined with a powerful mind and an incredible intent, made Huang Cixi almost certain that she would reach great heights in her blood cultivation. Condensing all nine True Fiery Drops may be impossible, but she was sure to at least forge eight of them.

In addition to both her blood and mind cultivation, Huang Cixi also took care of her Qi cultivation and her martial arts. Blood cultivation was not unique to the Huang family but very few people practiced it. Indeed, only a handful of families and individuals had access to powerful bloodlines. Thanks to the blood of the True Fiery Fenghuang, blood cultivation was an obvious advantage of the Huang family. But that alone would not be sufficient for her upcoming duel with Gui Bei. Moreover, she knew that he would probably increase his strength. As a matter of fact, Huang Cixi was even prepared to fight a Mortal Warrior.

But she had not scheduled this duel without a plan. Her mind cultivation would increase her control over her own body, Qi and blood. It would also increase her cultivation speed a little and her comprehension of martial arts. Her blood cultivation would increase her physique as well as her reputation within the Huang family. But to significantly increase her fighting ability, she needed to focus on her Qi cultivation of course, but also on her very martial arts.

The best option for Huang Cixi right now was to go out into the wild in order to fight against demonic beasts. Only in real battles could she really progress. Huang Cixi was not a fighter. But by combining all of her cards together, she was not too nervous about the upcoming duel. There were still many things she had not tried yet and she would prefer it to remain secret until the duel as a way to surprise everyone and gain even more fame. Among them were ways to use her True Fiery Drops she had uncovered recently during her meditations.

One of these usages could be used in battle while another could help her speed up her Qi cultivation even more. Using her mind cultivation, she could focus specifically on her True Fiery Drops. After she had energized her Chamber of Ultimate Truth and thanks to all the manuals she had read, combined with her own experience, she had a brilliant idea. Using her mind, she tried to change the shape of one of her True Fiery Drops into the Yi character.

It took her a lot of time, but after that, she was able to control her blood even more finely. As she was now in need of opening her acupoints, this kind of help from within would be very beneficial. But more than that, she had the idea of using the Hun character as it was related to Jing and hence close to blood essence. And she had been right, when she finally shaped her True Fiery Drops into the Hun character, they had an even higher impact on her blood. Amidst all this testing, Huang Cixi discovered more and more secrets of the True Fiery Drops.

But as the end of the week was drawing close, she wanted to try out her ideas in real life.

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As such, she went to ask permission from Family Head Huang Yi.

Considering that Huang Liyue was still following Huang Cixi as her bodyguard, Huang Yi had no problem accepting her request. But there was another problem. The hunting grounds Huang Cixi wanted to visit were deep in the Nine Peaks. Just going there and coming back would take her five days at the very least, even with Huang Liyue to carry her.

"Xixi, did you forget about the tea ceremony?! If you're not there, Huang Si will definitely gather even more followers while you'll lose all your momentum."

"Grandfather, do not worry. I did not forget at all. Quite the opposite in fact, I'm well prepared for the occasion."

"Then, you intend to only train a day?!"

"No. I'm not just here to ask for your permission to use the hunting grounds. I am also formally requesting permission to mount Elder Ying there."

With a Blue Mane Falcon, the travel would take less than a day in both directions.

"What?!" Seeing his granddaughter staying perfectly calm, Huang Yi also calmed his surprise. "Even with my authority and my relationship with Elder Ying, I cannot order him to take you there if he doesn't want to."

"This isn't a problem. I already asked him and he agreed."

This time, Huang Yi contained his surprise. The truth was that he had heard about his granddaughter visiting Elder Ying and getting closer and closer to him. But he didn't know that they were already this close. Huang Yi was the only one in the Huang family who had an intimate relationship with Elder Ying. The Blue Mane Falcon had literally seen him grow from baby to adult.

"Considering that Elder Ying is a bird who can manipulate fire, I figured having him by my side while training our family's martial art would be a good idea."

Indeed, the martial art of the Huang family had been created by the ancestral matriarch after observing the True Fiery Fenghuang whose essence blood she later obtained. As such, it was heavily related to both the Fire element and birds. Even though a Blue Mane Falcon was not as powerful or noble as a True Fiery Fenhuang, he was one of the closest demonic beasts to such a legend in the Hongchen Kingdom. Hearing this, Huang Yi was even more convinced by his granddaughter. He had himself benefited from Elder Ying's advice when he was younger. And thanks to his help, his mastery of the martial arts had soared. In a way, if he had progressed so fast and so high in the Huang family was in part thanks to his relationship with Elder Ying by more than one aspect.

"Thus, I only need your permission for Elder Ying to leave the Huang residence for nearly a week."

"There is no issue about this. Elder Ying is free to come and go as he pleases unless there is a crisis. Right now, we have no reason to ask him to remain. Moreover, the hunting grounds you want to go to are still very close to Baziyun City. As long as Elder Ying agrees, you may go."

"Thank you, Family Head."

Huang Cixi left the room and immediately went into the stables where Elder Ying was waiting for her. Before asking for permission, she had obviously made sure that Elder Ying would agree and told him to wait for her. The majestic bird was already out in the open. The stables were rather large with a lot of open space, but most demonic beasts and animals would not be allowed to freely walk around without supervision. Elder Ying was the exception. Not only was he way more powerful than almost everyone here, he had also been recognized as an honorary member of the Huang family. Over the years, he had always protected the family. Moreover, he was close both to Matriarch Huang Yufeng and even more so to Family Head Huang Yi.

Trying to coerce him to do anything would be akin to treating an actual elder like a beast. As such, the people working in the stables always treated him with the utmost respect and let him do as he pleased so long as he didn't cause trouble. But, obviously, Elder Ying was too smart to cause any trouble. A Blue Mane Falcon was a 9-core demonic beast with an intelligence as close as a human mind as possible. The only thing he lacked was speech, but he could understand the meaning behind human words.

As soon as Huang Cixi entered into the stables, Elder Ying who was lying on the ground stood up. As he let out a small shriek of excitement, the bright feathers of his blue mane stood on end. Very lightly, he shook his head to show his contentment and walked toward Huang Cixi. The girl had spent a bit of time with the demonic beast almost every day since she had decided to finally leave her chambers. As time had gone by, they had come to understand each other a bit more. Huang Cixi was not too sure of the reason why this beast had taken a liking to her. But she found him both charming and interesting.

As her blood was infused with a very pure blood essence of True Fiery Fenghuang, there was maybe a link. Or perhaps, it was due to her blood in another way, thanks to the relationship between her grandfather and Elder Ying. It was possible that he had recognized that in her. Regardless of the reason, it was very good for Huang Cixi's claim to the position of matriarch. And having such a powerful demonic beast as an ally would always be a good thing anyway.

Very slowly and respectfully, Huang Cixi caressed the beak of this beautiful falcon. Sensing her intent, he lowered his head and let her do so while letting out small yelps of pleasure. Everyone around was dumbfounded by the scene. Many people were working in the stables and most of them had not seen her interact with Elder Ying yet. Usually, he was proud and distant. But he acted all cute with this very young girl.

Suddenly, they got taken out of their stupor by this very girl's voice.

"Get away. We're leaving."

The moment she spoke these words, she jumped directly on the back of the beast. And without any equipment, she simply took a hold of his feathers. The workers were surprised but they were knowledgeable enough to act swiftly. Considering a Blue Mane Falcon's strength, it was better to stay away when he departed. Some also went to calm down other beasts and some horses. Others also took care of equipments that were still lying on the ground to prevent them from being blown away.

The moment Elder Ying opened his wings, his image of pride and beauty returned completely. This bird was really a king among other aerial demonic beasts. Flapping his wings a few times, Elder Ying rose into the air. The moment he was high enough so that no one could see what was going on on his back, another figure appeared beside Huang Cixi. She was Huang Liyue of course. Despite her cultivation, she had no way of being able to pursue this noble beast through the air. As such, she also took place on his broad back to accompany Huang Cixi.

Gradually, a bluish hue surrounded Elder Ying. It was his Wei Qi. Even if Huang Cixi were to grab him with all her strength, she could never bear the impact of the wind on her. By expanding his Wei Qi, Elder Ying made sure that she would be alright. This blue Qi flowed over his wings, expanding them. With this Qi, he almost was twice as large. And with a powerful move, his wings flapped. Leaving a faint blue trail behind him, he soared through the sky as a shock wave reached the ground.