I long to return home!

Lei Mengying pondered for a long time, her heart unable to calm down. She swallowed several times, wanting to speak but not knowing how to start. This was a demon beast core with the cultivation of a pseudo-infant, and its price could reach a terrifying price of nearly a million spirit stones.

"Are the benefits at your Star Watching Academy really that good?" Lei Mengying asked after swallowing. Her gaze kept shifting between the beast core and Huai Zhen. She couldn't believe that someone with less than the Golden Core stage cultivation level could kill a near-seventh-tier magical beast.

Looking at the Purple Winged Thunder Eagle King Beast Core in his hands, Huai Zhen felt utterly helpless. Who could have imagined that a near-seventh-tier Purple Winged Thunder Eagle King would suddenly appear out of nowhere, killing several members of the twenty-odd-person team, including four Golden Core cultivators.

"This is a long story, Your Highness. If this item is useful for your Core Formation, you may take it."

Hearing Huai Zhen's words, Lei Mengying still found it hard to accept. After all, this item was too precious. If it were in the Wuji Empire, it would be fine. With a large family and a great business, it wouldn't be a problem. Any Nascent Soul cultivator in the palace could kill a seventh-tier magical beast.

After much deliberation, Lei Mengying slowly reached out and took the beast core of the Purple Winged Thunder Eagle King in front of her. Her gaze sharpened, and a burst of spiritual light appeared within her body as she sensed the rich and vast thunder element within the beast core.

As she experienced this feeling more deeply, her eyes slowly closed, and she felt a world forged by lightning extending from her. This world was constantly flashing with lightning and thunder, with purple lightning roaring wildly, like the end of the world.

Three days later.

Lei Mengying opened her beautiful eyes, her expression one of utter shock. The lightning element within her was far too concentrated, purer than anything she had ever seen before. The lightning element she had comprehended in just three days was far more profound than what she had comprehended over the previous months.

With a look of shock, she looked at Huai Zhen, who was waiting beside her. From the look in his eyes, she could feel a hint of gratitude. Lei Mengying composed herself and said calmly, "I will return the spirit stones needed for this beast core to you when we return to the Wuji Empire."

Hearing this, Lei Mengying felt somewhat at peace. She didn't like owing favors, and now this favor of nearly a million spirit stones was enough to coerce her into doing many things.

“Your Highness, this beast core is actually of little use to me, so there’s no need to repay it,” Huai Zhen declined. But Lei Mengying immediately objected, “No, I don’t like owing favors. There’s no point in saying more. I will definitely repay this. Right now, I need to adjust my spiritual power and focus all my efforts on breaking through to the Core Formation stage.”

Huai Zhen tried to decline again, but Lei Mengying gave him no chance. After taking a pill, she closed her eyes, circulated her spiritual power, and comprehended the domineering lightning element in the beast core to form her core.

Seeing that there was no hope of refusing, Huai Zhen stopped bothering him and sat down a few feet away, pondering his future path and how to achieve Core Formation... As he thought, he recalled the tragic scene in the Ten Thousand Mountains, watching the cultivators unleash all their magical treasures...

"That's it! The magic weapon!" Huai Zhen suddenly realized. Now that he had the spiritual jade pendant given to him by Lei Mengying, he had enough spiritual power to control the magic weapon.

He rummaged through the storage bag, only to find it completely empty except for necessities and a few low-grade pills; there wasn't even a trace of a magical artifact.

Before long, he flicked his sleeve, revealing that apart from the Azure Cloud Flute entrusted to him by his senior brother Xiaoyao before his departure, he possessed no other truly lethal magical treasures.

"Among those who cultivate, there are probably no others as poor and destitute as me when traveling outside," Huai Zhen sighed softly, covering his forehead and chuckling sheepishly.

A month has passed in the blink of an eye.

Lei Mengying was still in seclusion. Perhaps due to the limited spiritual energy in the prison, she had only just made a breakthrough. Her body was extremely relaxed, and her face was calm, completely devoid of her previous tension.

Another month has passed.

Lei Mengying made further progress in forming her core. Her spiritual energy surged continuously towards her dantian, and her entire body was surrounded by wisps of purple electricity.

After half a month.

The purple electric current covering his entire body seemed to be drawing the domineering lightning element from the core of the quasi-seventh-tier Purple Winged Thunder Eagle King into his body.

In addition, Huai Zhen did not slack off. Over the past few days, he has been constantly circulating his divine sense within his body, trying to find the Daoist methods and supernatural powers of the Blood Transformation Divine Art, and to see if he could find a way to form a Golden Core of Power.

After three months.

By now, Lei Mengying had absorbed all the lightning element from the beast core into her body, and the beast core had gradually become dull and lifeless.

Half a month later.

As the lightning element within the beast core was completely absorbed, it lost its luster. At the same time, Lei Mengying's spiritual energy continued to flow endlessly, like a stream of seawater, and the purple electric current surrounding her body ceased to surge and became much milder.

Three days later.

The beast core shattered, and the object inside, resembling a purple-winged thunder eagle infant, was absorbed into Lei Mengying's body. From then on, her body underwent changes to varying degrees every day, and without exception, these changes all occurred around her dantian.

Fifteen days later.

Lei Mengying finally made a move, spreading her hands out and fiddling with them in a proper manner, before finally returning them to her dantian.

Before long, a flash of inspiration appeared, and it was as if all the meridians in his body had been opened up. Dense spiritual energy rushed towards his dantian. Slowly, this spiritual energy began to circulate, and gradually, strands of purple current joined the circulation. Finally, after three days, the circulation ended, and a pill embryo that appeared and disappeared intermittently condensed in his dantian.

On this day, Lei Mengying suddenly opened her eyes, and a vast spiritual power swept out. This spiritual power had undergone a qualitative change and was quite different from the spiritual power that she could use in the Foundation Establishment stage.

Seeing this, Huai Zhen stepped forward excitedly to congratulate him, but he also sensed something was different. He had seen Golden Core cultivators before, and asked in confusion, "Your Highness, has the Golden Core been successfully formed?"

Lei Mengying blinked her beautiful eyes, looking at the palm surrounded by domineering lightning as she raised her hand. After a slight pause, she said, "It's not yet a successful core formation. A core embryo has already formed in my body. To truly form the core, I need to find a place with abundant spiritual energy to achieve the final core formation. If I form the core here, the spiritual energy supply may not be enough, and the core embryo may break."

Upon hearing this, Huai Zhen felt somewhat disappointed. If it weren't for the prison break, Lei Mengying wouldn't have been trapped here. But before he could take responsibility, seemingly intentionally, a figure flashed past in an instant. The newcomer was none other than the Nascent Soul expert.

With a flick of his sleeve, the Nascent Soul expert opened the cell door. He placed one hand behind his back, exuding an air of profound mystery, and said in a deep voice, "You may leave now."

Meanwhile, somewhere inside the Golden Palace.

Shen Xin was reviewing memorials in the imperial study when suddenly a series of hurried footsteps approached, accompanied by an angry shout from outside:

"Shen Sanjin, I told you to release him for so long and you didn't. What do you mean by suddenly releasing him today? Do you want to die?!"

The golden gate was kicked open with a bang, and a woman dressed in a golden phoenix robe floated in like a gust of wind. Her long golden hair fluttered in the wind, and she wore a phoenix crown on her head. She looked to be only in her twenties or thirties, with a hint of anger on her face and hurried steps.