“Thank you, clan head!” Qi Ling-er bowed deeply.
With this, she was finally in an advantageous position in the conflict. Once the rest in the Qi Clan heard that she was given the Lucid Lunar Market, they would understand that the winds were changing, and no one would dare to take advantage of her lineage anymore.
The middle-aged man then turned his sights to the man standing behind Qi Ling-er and asked, “This person is…”
The fact that Qi Ling-er was willing to bring this man to the Qi Clan with her likely meant that they had an extraordinary relationship.
More importantly, despite the man’s young age, he was exceptionally composed. Even standing in his face, the man showed no hint of being intimidated.
Putting aside those of the younger generation, most of the high-tier Celestial God elders within the Qi Clan were unable to remain perfectly calm in his presence either.
“I am Zhang Xuan, and I serve as Miss Ling-er’s subordinate. It’s my honor to be able to meet Clan Head Qi in person!”
Before Qi Ling-er could reply. Zhang Xuan had already taken a step forward to make his greeting.
The middle-aged man assessed Zhang Xuan quietly, but the latter simply stood with his head lowered, not flinching in the least at his assessment. He finally nodded in acknowledgement and remarked, “Ling-er, you have found yourself a good subordinate. Anyway, your ability to comprehend the battle technique to this level shows that your talent has indeed improved. If you have some time on hand right now, let’s head over to the Lucid Lunar Lake to see how long you can last in there.”
“Thank you, clan head!” Qi Ling-er heaved a sigh of relief.
“May we come along to observe?” Qi Yue suddenly spoke up at this moment.
The middle-aged man nodded in approval.
Just by how Qi Ling-er interpreted his battle technique earlier, it was clear that she was no longer the same person she used to be. She and Qi Yue were likely to become God Kings in the future, and once that happened, the Qi Clan could very well become the most influential power in the Sky of Drifting Specter!
The Lucid Lunar Lake was located not too far away from the main hall. Looking at it from a distance away, it looked like a mirror embedded in the midst of the mountains.
Before coming close to it, one could already feel the rich spiritual energy coming from the lake. It suffused the air and pulsated with great vigor, making it seem as though it would flee into the heavens.
Zhang Xuan quietly observed the surroundings as he followed behind Qi Ling-er.
He noticed that the Lucid Lunar Lake was the center of the formation shrouding the upside-down floating mountain they were on.
Rich spiritual energy wasn’t the only thing that the Lucid Lunar Lake had. It seemed to be connected with the lava rumbling within the mountain and the lightning of the sky. This meant that the lake harnessed the powers of three elements, water, lightning, and fire.
“There seems to be the blood of innumerable powerful beasts inside too…” Zhang Xuan murmured.
Just the power of three elements wasn’t enough to temper the body of a Celestial God. More than that, the lake harnessed the blood essence of countless powerful beasts too.
With just a swift look, Zhang Xuan could discern the blood essence of several hundred divine and celestial beasts within the lake. The clashes and collisions amongst the blood essences made the energy within the lake extremely violent, such that even a Celestial God-tier weapon would melt swiftly in it.
It must have taken a great deal of effort for the Qi Clan to set up the Lucid Lunar Lake. Most powers wouldn’t even be able to gather that many blood essences of different beasts, let alone set up a formation with all of them.
Based on the books that he had read so far, there was a period of chaos and turmoil after the spiritual energy receded. During that period of time, many rare divine and celestial beasts ended up going extinct.
This meant that Zhang Xuan wouldn’t be able to recreate something similar to the Lucid Lunar Lake even though he knew how to do it.
There’s no choice then. I’ll have to search for an opportunity to enter the waters myself… Zhang Xuan thought with a sigh.
As much as he didn’t want to use the property of another person without permission, his priority at the moment was still to raise his cultivation. At the very most, he would just make sure to properly compensate the Qi Clan in the future.
Soon, they finally arrived at the lake, and the middle-aged man said, “You should head in now.”
“Clan head, please give me a moment. There are a few things which I need to relay to him before entering the lake,” Qi Ling-er said gracefully.
Then, she walked right up to Zhang Xuan, and the composure on her face vanished. With a slightly anxious look on her face, she asked, “Young Master Zhang, what should I do?”
It was true that she said that she wanted to enter the Lucid Lunar Lake, but she didn’t expect to be asked to enter it right away without any preparations. Not to mention, the clan head even came along with her…
That had really taken her aback even though she managed to keep a poker face all this while.
“There’s no need to worry. Swallow this pill and you’ll be fine,” Zhang Xuan said as he passed a middle-tier God Essence Pill over.
Qi Ling-er looked at the middle-tier God Essence Pill hesitantly for a moment before swallowing it decisively, not asking a question at all.
To her disappointment, it didn’t feel like there were any changes with her body after swallowing the pill. Feeling slightly unnerved, she looked at Zhang Xuan in hopes of receiving reassurance.
However, the latter had already lowered his head, indicating that he had already done everything that needed to be done.
Knowing that there was no backing out of this, Qi Ling-er took in a deep breath before leaping into the Lucid Lunar Lake.
Tzzzzz!
As soon as she entered the water, the violent energies within immediately surged in her direction.
Qi Ling-er swiftly channeled the power of her Qi Clan bloodline to form a protective layer on the surface of her skin.
The presence of the protective layer seemed to calm the surrounding violent energies down, thus reducing the burden on her.
“So that’s the reason why the Lucid Lunar Lake is exclusive only to the Qi Clan…” Zhang Xuan nodded contemplatively.
He had been wondering how a high-tier God could ensure the Lucid Lunar Lake when even a Celestial God-tier artifact would face difficulties trying to survive in it. As it turned out, the key lay in the bloodline prowess of the Qi Clan!
In clans descended from powerful cultivators, the purer one’s bloodline was, the stronger one’s talent would be. On top of tempering one’s physical body, the Lucid Lunar Lake also served to assess how powerful the bloodline of an offspring in the Qi Clan was.
Even though Qi Ling-er had managed to hold her own against the lake for the time being, it didn’t stop her heart from beating in trepidation.
She knew that the prowess of her bloodline would slowly be whittled down by the violent energies. And just like what had happened before, she felt her energy starting to run out after fifteen minutes had passed.
Just as she was about to reach her limits, she suddenly felt a new surge of energy rising from her dantian. The middle-tier God Essence Pill she had eaten earlier was releasing great amounts of pure spiritual energy, replenishing her energy and reinvigorating her spirit.
This granted her the energy to continue fending off the violent energies.
“But this flow of energy… It somehow feels similar to the experience I felt when I comprehended the battle technique earlier?” Qi Ling-er widened her eyes in realization.
Once again, she was reminded of how right it was a decision for her to agree to return to the Royal City together with Zhang Xuan.
If she had chosen to remain in Twilight City, she would have really become sidelined in the Qi Clan. And once Qi Yue became a God King, the oppression of their lineage would have worsened even further, such that it would be a huge question whether they would have been able to keep their lives.
But now, the clan head had permitted her return to the Royal City, and she was even given the management rights of one of the major businesses of the Qi Clan in the Royal City. There was no better stepping stone for her to build her own influence in the Royal City than this.
And all of this was due to the young man’s help.
“Her talent has really increased…”
Watching how Qi Ling-er was able to remain unfazed even after entering the Lucid Lunar Lake for fifteen minutes, Qi Xun-er muttered with tightly clenched fists.
She thought that Qi Ling-er had only said those words out of desperation, hoping to somehow wiggle her way out of crisis she was in. Yet, the ridiculous claim she made was actually true!
An hour passed, but she was still inside.
Time ticked over to the two-hour mark, but Qi Ling-er still showed no signs of getting up and leave.
Over this period of time, even Qi Yue’s complexion had turned slightly grave as well.
The purity of one’s bloodline was determined at birth. Considering how Qi Ling-er had only been able to last fifteen minutes in there initially, it was hard to believe that she had already lasted two hours in the Lucid Lunar Lake right now.
Just how much stronger had her bloodline become over the past few years? Could it be that she had reached the same level as him as well?
If that was really the case, they would be in deep trouble!
Hong long!
Just as they were looking at the scene before them in disbelief, a series of cracking sounds suddenly echoed from the lady within the lake. Great power surged from her body as her cultivation rose from that of a high-tier God to low-tier Celestial God.
She had already hit her bottleneck a while back, but she hadn’t been able to find the impetus for her to make a breakthrough so far. However, with the rich spiritual energy in the Lucid Lunar Lake and the nourishment of the blood essences, while her physical body was being tempered, her zhenqi cultivation was rising rapidly as well.
Hu!
She leaped out of the lake and returned back to the shore.
Had she not made a breakthrough, the energy within the middle-tier God Essence Pill would have allowed her to last a little longer inside the water. However, as she had ended up using the energy for her breakthrough to Celestial God realm, she ran out of energy faster than expected.
Nevertheless, she still lasted for more than three hours in there. That was enough to put her amongst the top of the younger generation, second only to Qi Yue.
“Just what did you go through for your bloodline to suddenly get so powerful?” the middle-aged man asked as Qi Ling-er dried herself.
The ability to enhance an individual’s bloodline was invaluable to most clans. It meant that the clan would be able to increase the number of talented experts in their ranks freely as long as they had sufficient resources on hand.
That would really pave the way for Qi Clan’s ascension to the top. Putting aside the Sky of Drifting Specters, they would have no one to fear in the Firmament!
“Clan head, I didn’t go through anything special. I only consumed the Beauty Pill,” Qi Ling-er hesitated for a moment before replying.
She considered hiding the matter, but given the means of the Qi Clan, they should be able to root out the truth soon enough.
“The Beauty Pill?” the middle-aged man asked with a frown.
As a God King, there were very few things in the world that could catch his eye. Clearly, the Beauty Pill wasn’t one of them.
“It’s a particularly powerful pill. It can rid lasting scars and make one’s skin more supple, enhancing one’s appearance. Initially, I thought that its effects are only limited to aesthetic purposes, but I soon realized that the pill has changed my constitution as well, allowing me to cultivate much faster than before. I thought that my talent might have risen due to that, so I returned to the Royal City hoping to challenge the Lucid Lunar Lake once more!” Qi Ling-er replied.
“There’s actually such a medicine in the world?”
“On top of making one beautiful, it can change a person’s constitution?”
Qi Yue and Qi Xun-er were stunned.
This was especially so for the latter. Her eyes were filled with envy.
From the moment she saw Qi Ling-er earlier, she couldn’t help but notice how the latter looked much younger than before. Her skin was suppler than ever, and there were hardly any defects on her face.
She thought that the latter might have been consuming some sort of tonic, but to think that it was the Beauty Pill!
The middle-aged man appeared to be a little skeptical of Qi Ling-er’s words, but he didn’t refute the possibility right away. “Do you have any Beauty Pill with you at the moment?”
“I do,” Qi Ling-er nodded as she passed a jade container over.
It was the exact same packaging she used when she first launched the product at Twilight City.
The middle-aged man opened the container, took out the Beauty Pill, and examined it carefully. The knit between his brows grew tighter the more he examined it.
No matter how he looked at it, the pill in front of him was indubitably an ordinary God Essence Pill… But Qi Ling-er said that it could make one more beautiful and improve one’s constitution?
Why couldn’t he tell at all?
“Clan head, I know that it might be hard to believe, but you can give it a try. The effects might not be too apparent for you due to your superior cultivation, but I believe that it should still be effective to some extent!” Qi Ling-er said.
“Is that so?” the middle-aged man remarked.
He opened his mouth and swallowed the pill.
A moment later, his eyebrows shot up.
Even though it looked no different from an ordinary God Essence Pill, it harnessed a unique kind of energy that repaired his internal traumas ever so slightly as it flowed through his body.
Just as Qi Ling-er had mentioned, the effects were greatly discounted on him because he was a God King, but the very fact that the pill was effective on him meant something.
“Even I was unable to do anything about those internal traumas…” the middle-aged man murmured in disbelief.
Those internal traumas were deeply lodged within his body that there was nothing he tried that worked on them. Never in his wildest dreams would he expect a low-tier God Essence Pills to actually be effective on them…
This so-called Beauty Pill sure was frightening!
“Where did you get this medicine from?” the middle-aged man asked Qi Lng-er anxiously.
The slight quiver in his voice was more than enough to betray his agitation.
