Chapter 8: Poisoned? Advancement, Foundation Building!

At the same time, a warm spiritual power flowed from the Life Essence Divine Stone, slowly entering Ye Qingning’s body and circulating through her meridians.

Ye Qingning took a deep breath, feeling a comforting sensation, as if soaking in a hot spring.

To her astonishment, the blocked meridians in her chest began to gradually open up with the constant influx of this spiritual power. The sluggish spiritual energy in her body also started to flow more smoothly, and the sensation of chest tightness began to dissipate.

Even the damaged meridians seemed to stretch like a young seedling yearning for sunlight, growing with each breath as if ready to take root and sprout new vitality.

The pain in her chest subsided, and her breathing became smoother. Soon, she began coughing up blood.

This sudden blood spitting startled the master and disciple nearby.

Jiang Shaoling, seeing his master silent and failing to diagnose the situation, grew anxious and quickly shoved a Blood Spirit Pill into Ye Qingning’s mouth.

Ye Qingning, becoming somewhat addicted to coughing up blood, felt more comfortable the more she coughed. However, the moment the pill was shoved into her mouth, she almost wanted to kill him. Didn’t he know that would choke her? She hadn’t finished spitting blood!

玄阳子 (Xuanyangzi) slapped his thigh and finally spoke, “My mistake! This girl isn’t suffering from a recurring internal injury, she’s been poisoned with a curse. The Blood Spirit Pill won’t help her.”

“Her heart meridian is severely blocked, yet…” he paused, deep in thought. “This is strange. Very strange indeed.”

He placed his hand on her pulse while stroking his beard, giving Jiang Shaoling a sharp glare, “You, stay away from her! Can’t you see she’s absorbing spiritual energy? Don’t get in the way!”

Jiang Shaoling: ?

Was he being told he was unnecessary?

He wasn’t even an official disciple yet!

But he quickly realized that the spiritual energy in the garden was gathering around Ye Qingning.

What was going on? How could she absorb spiritual energy? Wasn’t she supposed to be weak and not have any meridians functioning properly?

Ye Qingning closed her eyes. As her heart meridian continued to open up, she felt the spiritual energy flowing into her body from the Life Essence Divine Stone, and she was overwhelmed with a sense of joy and excitement, as if she were bathing in it.

The moonlight was pure and clear, casting a serene glow. This sensation felt so delightful, she wanted to immerse herself fully in it, like a withered tree suddenly coming to life.

As time passed, Ye Qingning’s sea of consciousness expanded, and her spiritual awareness spread further. The absorbed spiritual energy flowed through her spiritual roots and meridians, opening up all the major acupoints, eventually gathering in her spiritual mansion.

In simple terms, she had broken through to Foundation Establishment.

She had bypassed the Qi Refining stage and directly advanced to Foundation Establishment, entering the path of cultivation.

Foundation Establishment was the process of refining the spiritual power in one’s body from a misty state into a liquid one. During this process, the cultivator had to open up their dantian to create a spiritual mansion to store more liquid spiritual power.

The size of the spiritual mansion varied from person to person. Some had only the size of a room, while others had vast, boundless spaces.

The spiritual mansion Ye Qingning had opened was not vast like an ocean but more like a tranquil lake, rippling with spiritual energy. However, with continued cultivation, it could expand further.

Looking inward at her body, she saw that her blocked heart meridian had been cleared, and though the damage was still healing, it hadn’t fully recovered yet.

Despite this, she couldn’t help but marvel at the process. She had initially thought it would take a long time to heal her heart meridian, but she had reached Foundation Establishment in just a short time.

She had no way to explain this to Xuanyangzi if he asked her. How could she tell him that a divine stone had suddenly appeared and healed her heart meridian?

It would sound utterly absurd.

“Girl, I knew I was right about you! Even though your heart meridian has been repaired, most people would never be able to establish their Foundation so quickly!” Xuanyangzi exclaimed, beaming with pride.

“Impressive! Truly impressive! Even my three disciples could never skip the Qi Refining stage and directly establish their Foundation, let alone do it in just a few hours!”

“Though it’s best to cleanse your marrow before Foundation Establishment, your heart meridian isn’t fully healed. If you’re not careful, your meridians might break,” he added, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “But even without that cleansing, it won’t matter much for you. You have a Thunder Spiritual Root, and in the future, you can refine your body with heavenly lightning. As for the curse in your body… I’ll think of a way to help you with that.”

“Also, I’ve made up my mind. Starting tomorrow, you’ll officially be an outer disciple. You don’t need to take the exam anymore. Just stay here in the spiritual garden.”

“And next month, the outer disciple exam will be held. If you pass, you can join the inner sect and become an inner disciple.”

The system, feeling immensely happy, excitedly hovered above Ye Qingning’s head, almost pecking her bald. In just a few days, her host had already become an outer disciple and could participate in the outer sect trial. How could the system not be pleased?

Meanwhile, Jiang Shaoling wasn’t so happy.

So, she became an outer disciple just to be taken in by the old man and bypassed his exam, huh?

So what if she advanced to Foundation Establishment quickly? She was impressive, but it didn’t change the fact that she still had to call him “Master Uncle”!

He was a peak Golden Core cultivator, and here the old man was fawning over a Foundation Establishment cultivator, helping her remove the curse. It was too embarrassing.

“No, she hasn’t passed my test yet. Don’t think that just because she’s reached Foundation Establishment, she can stay in the spiritual garden. The sect has no shortage of Foundation Establishment disciples.”

“You can’t just spit blood and get away with it, nor can you fail to identify the spiritual herb. She has to leave the spiritual garden today!”

Xuanyangzi was furious, almost grinding his teeth. He almost kicked Jiang Shaoling, “You brat, have you forgotten everything I taught you?!”

He hadn’t seen a good disciple in ages, and now this girl came along—one who would definitely be more obedient than his three disciples combined. But here, this annoying brat had to argue with him. This was just asking for trouble!

Despite all this, Ye Qingning, though advanced to Foundation Establishment and promoted to outer disciple by Xuanyangzi, still wanted to stay in the spiritual garden.

First, because in her previous life, she was a pill cultivator, and she naturally liked to tend to spiritual plants. Even if she had to attend classes as an outer disciple, it wouldn’t affect her work in the spiritual garden.

Second, although her heart meridian was gradually healing, if she wanted to cultivate, she needed a place with rich spiritual energy, and the spiritual garden was the perfect location.

Of course, she also wanted to stay based on her own abilities.

She lowered her gaze, her eyes landing on the green herb Jiang Shaoling had pointed to earlier.

In that instant, she understood what it was.

When the curse acted up and she endured the pain for Ye Hanyue, she clearly remembered that her blood had dripped onto this very herb.

And now, the delicate green leaves of the herb were pristine with no trace of blood.

She lifted her gaze and looked toward the arguing master and disciple. With a calm voice, she spoke, “I’ll answer. This herb is Blood Dew Grass.”

The air seemed to freeze.

Jiang Shaoling stared at Ye Qingning in disbelief, his face full of doubt.

He didn’t believe she could identify this herb.

She must have guessed it! It was all just a guess!