The charming young boy had turned into a sickly, twisted character.

She used magic to conjure a golden lotus, which floated in front of the twisted youth and seemed to grow hands and feet.

The golden lotus’s small hand moved and then gave the twisted youth a sharp slap.

Of course, this was just a superficial action.

In reality, the golden lotus was attacking Qi Rong’s soul.

He would feel a burning and piercing pain in his soul for a moment, which would then awaken him.

After a slap from Qin Ruqing, Qi Rong’s face contorted in pain but quickly returned to normal, his wicked gaze shifting to one of innocence.

However, the resentment still hadn’t completely dissipated.

Once Qi Rong regained his composure, he didn’t need any reminders from Qin Ruqing.

He skillfully crouched down and began pounding the ground with his fists, quickly creating a large pit.

After a while, Qi Rong crouched in front of the bones, methodically rearranging the skeletal remains as if playing mahjong, and then piecing them back together.

There was no choice; to avoid going completely mad and maintain his sanity, he needed to find a way to release the pent-up resentment.

This routine was Qin Ruqing’s idea.

Digging pits was like hitting a punching bag to vent excess energy, while rearranging the bones was meant to distract from the madness and also give him a sense of enjoyment, similar to playing with LEGO.

“This life is truly a moment-to-moment struggle,” Qin Ruqing said, casually squeezing the flame in her hand.

The vengeful spirits instantly dissipated, not because she killed them, but because she extracted their cores.

Her flame could temporarily suppress the vengeful spirits’ reformation, but only for a short time.

Qin Ruqing extracted one crystal from the gray ones and wrapped the rest in flames to prevent them from deteriorating.

“Honestly, if I were to eat one of these things, would I die?”

Before she could even consider trying it, she quickly shook her head. “No way, just thinking about those dark things makes me lose my appetite.”

She frowned and became slightly serious. “The key is still to eliminate the resentment. My flames are useful, but I’ve tried refining the crystals, and the result is always the same: the crystals turn to ash quickly because the flame is too harsh for the soul body, and the crystals can’t be preserved.”

“Even if I play with the flames, I can’t drive away the resentment inside.”

“Resentment…” Qin Ruqing pondered the word.

Meanwhile, Qi Rong, who was still piecing together bones, began to feel better and wiped the sweat from his forehead as he sat beside Qin Ruqing.

“I feel better now,” Qi Rong said.

Qin Ruqing nodded. “The two-part method I thought of seems to be working.” She was about to make a playful comment but suddenly stopped.

Wait, her body?

Her flames weren’t effective, but what about her Dao Physique!

Honestly, since the Dao Physique advanced and gained powerful offensive abilities, she had gradually neglected that during the first stage, her Dao Physique was like a mobile healing pack!

It was akin to a fifth-grade pill’s life-saving elixir, capable of detoxifying and healing.

Now that the flames were too powerful to purify the resentment, what about the Dao Physique—her blood!

Qin Ruqing stared at the gray crystal in her hand, her eyes practically burning with determination.

“Qi Rong, I think I’ve come up with a solution. You protect me and prevent the vengeful spirits from disturbing me.”

She moved the flame containing the crystals a bit farther away. “In about fifteen minutes, the flame will lose its effect, and the crystals will turn back into vengeful spirits, so remind me before that happens.”

Qi Rong nodded and went on high alert.

Just as Qin Ruqing was about to use her Dao Physique to make a cut on her wrist, she suddenly hesitated.

Qi Rong saw her action and raised his eyebrows. “What’s wrong?”

Qin Ruqing inexplicably said…

“Qi Rong, do you think someone might be watching us here?”

Qi Rong hadn’t considered this question before. “Even if someone is watching, it’s normal. The examiners need to observe our performance to score and rank us.”

Yikes!

What about her divine woman persona earlier?

Qin Ruqing quickly dismissed the thought.

This wasn’t the time to worry about that.

She instinctively touched her chin, realizing that if someone was watching, it would be bad to reveal her blood’s usefulness—it would be like inviting others to exploit her.

She couldn’t afford that risk!

Qin Ruqing muttered, “Actually, blood is just a medium. I noticed before when attracting monsters with blood that the real key is the green aura in the blood. That’s what really matters.”

“Perhaps I should try to draw out the green aura…”

Having settled on her idea, Qin Ruqing said seriously, “Qi Rong, I’m starting now!”

She then closed her eyes.

Drawing out the green aura was something Qin Ruqing had done before.

Once she grasped the technique, it wasn’t too difficult.

Soon, she opened her eyes again, her hand gestures changing as green light flickered in her eyes.

She brought her index and middle fingers together, as if channeling something into the gray crystal on the ground.

She thought it would work, but Qin Ruqing quickly frowned.

She realized that once the green aura left the blood, it would immediately disappear.

“This is bad. Does separating it require a medium? I didn’t notice this problem before when using blood.”

“Just a medium—what could serve as one? It has to be something related to me and so mysterious; it can’t be just any random stone or dirt!”

Qin Ruqing then looked at the golden lotus fire nearby, her eyes determined as she reached out to bring the flame closer.

She murmured thoughtfully, “Normal heavenly fire might not work, but this fire seems to integrate with my innate divine fire. It could be considered part of my body.”

“If I infuse the green aura into the flame and then use the aura-infused flame to refine the crystal, it might work.”

She smiled slightly at the thought of something else.

Even if there were “observers” watching from the side, they would only think her flames were impressive and her trump card was strong.

Moreover, she might even use this opportunity to show off a bit more…

Qin Ruqing started her operation with a smile.

The red-clad fairy slowly closed her eyes, her raven-like eyelashes casting a small shadow under her eyelids as she used her hands to form a golden lotus…

Qi Rong watched Qin Ruqing.

Initially, he was serious, but as he watched, he suddenly felt something was off.

Here it came, that familiar sensation.

His sister was always beautiful, which Qi Rong knew, but when she was in public, she would adopt a certain persona, exuding a unique aura.

Cool, aloof, pure, and unapproachable…

This was her self-description.

But Qi Rong thought it was like how she used to play the role of the fairy when she was younger—essentially putting on an act.

Qi Rong yawned in boredom, feeling a headache coming on.

He fiddled with his fingers, thinking about making another pit or rearranging the bones… or just going mad.

Qin Ruqing was putting on an act, but she was not delaying the real work.

She successfully managed to perfectly melded into the flames, as if they were naturally compatible, with no hint of rejection.

So, it was easy.

The golden lotus contained a bag of gray crystals, which to others looked like Qin Ruqing was using flames to refine.

In reality, she was using green breath to purify the crystals.

While Qin Ruqing was purifying them, Qi Rong couldn’t help but be cautious.

He went to the side and assembled a skeleton.

As he was about to piece together the first one, he heard Qin Ruqing call out:

“Qi Rong.” She had opened her eyes at some point.

Qi Rong reluctantly discarded the white bones and walked back to his sister, asking, “How’s it going? Is it effective?”

Qin Ruqing smiled but didn’t answer directly.

She simply indicated for Qi Rong to look at the golden lotus in her hand.

As the smoky, illusory golden lotus slowly disappeared, what lay in Qin Ruqing’s hand was a small handful of transparent crystals.

Not gray crystals, but crystal-clear transparent stones!

Qi Rong exclaimed in delight, “Sister, you succeeded!”

Qin Ruqing sighed as she picked up one of the transparent crystals. “The resentment can be purified, but success isn’t guaranteed.”

Qi Rong was momentarily confused.

If the crystals could be purified, it meant they could kill spirits without fear of backlash and stay in the Heart Soul Cave for the full required time.

They could achieve a perfect score in this test.

Wasn’t that a success?

Qin Ruqing, holding the transparent crystal, showed a mysterious expression. “You don’t understand. What matters is not the test but the exploitation!”

She was determined not to let her record of success be tainted by failure!

Qi Rong asked, “…So?”

“I’m going to consume it! I mean, refine it!”

She really didn’t believe that the purified results wouldn’t be useful!

Qi Rong thought for a moment and didn’t object.

He picked a crystal from the pile, saying, “I’ll give it a try!”

He quickly crushed it and refined it with his spiritual power.

Qin Ruqing was taken aback.

She looked at Qi Rong and suddenly felt a shiver.

“Wow, this guy is off. He might be going a bit mad from the resentment accumulating in his brain.”

She hoped to clean up Qi Rong’s mind later.

With that, Qin Ruqing picked up a crystal and began crushing and refining it as well.

After a while, both opened their eyes simultaneously.

Qi Rong hesitated, “Um… Did it work?”

Qin Ruqing looked puzzled, “Not sure… Let’s try again!”

After completely refining the pile of crystals, when they looked at each other again, they saw shock and joy in each other’s eyes.

Qi Rong said, “I think I felt something from the crystals enter my head, and my head doesn’t hurt as much now.” He wasn’t as interested in assembling bones anymore.

Qin Ruqing was more straightforward, her eyes shining, “It’s effective. It seems to really nourish the soul!”

Although it was minimal.

Even though it took crushing many crystals to see a little effect, getting the crystals was much simpler compared to other methods of soul cultivation—just gather enough!

Realizing this, the two looked at the dusty, eerie place around them, especially the dark, ghostly flames flickering from the holes, and suddenly found it quite endearing.

Qi Rong sighed with complex feelings, “Sister, I think I understand your joy a bit more now…”

Qin Ruqing even rolled her eyes.

“You’re just figuring it out now, young man!”

Exploiting resources was truly, incredibly joyful~