Where does that wicked woman get her conscience?

The flickering firelight illuminated Dongyang's busy figure in the courtyard.

Guan Xun opened the sack, and a small snake instantly slithered out of the opening. She quickly reached out and pinched its seven-inch mark. White spiritual energy surged from her fingertips, transforming into a rope that tightly wrapped around the snake's body.

She was worried that the demon wolf would wake up soon, but it seems she was overthinking it. She had been a bit too rough with it and it is still unconscious.

"All done?" Guan Xun walked out of the courtyard and saw that Dong Yang had already cleaned the feathers off the Soul-Destroying Rainbow Crane.

She drew the dagger from her waist and walked up, groping the crane's body as if searching for something, then stopped below its long neck and swung the dagger down.

Seventh-tier demonic beasts possess intelligence and also form a beast core. The beast core is equivalent to the spirit-transforming pill in a spirit master's dantian, and is the place with the most abundant spiritual power in the entire demonic beast's body.

If the meat of monsters below the seventh rank is a treasure, then the beast cores of monsters above the seventh rank are a treasure.

Of course, this doesn't mean its flesh is useless; it's definitely better than lower-grade ones, and even its snow-white feathers possess spiritual energy.

"How could there be a bead inside it?" Dongyang asked in surprise when he saw Guan Xun pull out a bloody bead.

"Yes, it's a beast core." Guan Xun washed the beast core clean with water, told Dong Yang to rest early, and then turned and went back into the room.

While the iron is hot, she should seize the time to cultivate.

On the bed, Guan Xun sat cross-legged.

He used his spiritual power to entrust the beast core of the Soul-Destroying Rainbow Crane that he had just taken out, letting it float in front of him.

The dark red flames flickered inside the room, allowing a clear view of the faint white mist surrounding the beast core.

The Soul-Destroying Rainbow Crane is mostly of the ice and water attributes. Although Guan Xun has four attributes, he mainly cultivates ice and fire, followed by darkness, and lastly wood.

Fortunately, this beast core wasn't water-attribute, otherwise it would have been a complete waste for her.

Spiritual energy surged from Guan Xun's palm, slowly enveloping the beast core. The beast core gently stopped at her chest, and then was pushed into her body by the spiritual energy.

As soon as the beast core entered her body, she immediately felt a chill rampaging through her body. Even though she was enveloped in spiritual energy, she could not ignore its domineering nature.

If she hadn't possessed ice attributes, she probably would have been encased in ice on the spot.

As the spiritual energy swirled around the beast core, and Guan Xun attempted to refine it, a slight tremor suddenly appeared in her dantian, causing her tightly closed eyes to furrow.

The beast core trembled as if it had seen something terrifying, and in the next second, it rushed towards that direction!

what? !

Guan Xun was immediately shocked; she had never seen anything like this in all her life! The spiritual energy she was channeling couldn't keep up with the speed at which the beast core was flying, and she was completely unable to stop it.

It didn't seem like the beast core went there voluntarily, but rather as if it was being pulled there by a very powerful force.

What was in her dantian? Her Spirit Transformation Pill? No, she thought it might be the vortex of energy swirling around it that was causing the problem.

She hadn't sensed anything from that thing, so why was it ruining her plans now?

The beast core rushed straight to the dantian without any obstruction, and finally disappeared into the white vortex.

Guan Xun was stunned. Absorbed? The beast core she had worked so hard to obtain was gone just like that!

After the beast core entered, the speed of the vortex slowed down significantly, and thin layers of ice continuously rose around it until it was completely enveloped and turned into an ice ball.

Guan Xun's dantian was also enveloped inside, but she did not feel anything unusual. She only felt a cold aura emanating from her dantian and spreading to her limbs.

The next moment, a faint red light emanated from the inside of the small ice ball. The ice layer melted away and turned into a ball of bright red flame. As it burned fiercely, it absorbed all the spiritual energy circulating in her body!

"!$％^&*(！！！"

Guan Xun couldn't help but curse a string of profanities. This was outrageous! The spiritual energy was already scarce, and it absorbed so much?!

Just as Guan Xun was trying to stop it, the burning flames slowly dissipated, transforming into a light and shadow that resembled a dragon but was not!

The red and white mist shifted and changed, and the light and shadow seemed to have a life of their own, constantly moving around the dantian.

At the same time, an extremely familiar aura emanated from it, and Guan Xun was instantly astonished.

She suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze falling on the window paper, but it was unfocused and she was completely dazed.

That was... a long, long time ago.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

Inside the magnificent palace, the lanterns were bright and the gauze curtains were soft. A man in his fifties, dressed in a wide robe, bent over with his face close to the ground, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time.

Before him, a veiled girl sat back in a chair, holding a thick scroll in her slender, white hands. Her snow-white dress draped over the smooth floor, swaying gently in the breeze.

After a long while, she didn't hear the man below speak again. She sneered, raised her hand, and threw the scroll in her hand downwards. The scroll landed right in front of the man, knocking off his official hat.

The man trembled, his head hanging even lower. Even though what he had come to ask for was right in front of him, he dared not reach out to take it.

"Old man, when did you start stuttering?" The girl chuckled, her disdainful eyes sweeping over him, the air momentarily still, chilling him to the bone: "Who told you the thing was here?"

The man pursed his lips tightly, not daring to utter a single word, his whole body trembling in response.

"Fine, take it back then."

"Ah?! Thank... thank you, Princess!" Upon hearing this, the man hurriedly grabbed the scroll and hat from the ground, almost falling to the ground as he left the hall.

The girl's eyelids drooped slightly, and a cold smile appeared on her lips.

"Chi Rong."

She called out softly, and from behind her, a thick, long tail emerged from the tall screen carved with a blazing phoenix.

It swept straight towards the palace entrance, and with a soft "plop," the gleaming floor was instantly stained crimson.

"Oh dear, this color is really ugly."

As soon as the girl finished speaking, a giant beast, entirely crimson and resembling a python but not quite, crawled out from behind the screen. Its amber-gold eyes stared straight at the doorway, and its two thin, gauze-like bone wings, located seven inches from its head, stood up, making a slight whooshing sound as they cut through the air.

Although no one answered in the main hall, the girl suddenly giggled: "She's always complaining about me, I'll settle the score with her eventually."

The crimson tail slammed heavily on the floor, and the golden eyes looked at the girl.

The girl shook her head: "This is the chief minister newly appointed by Mother. You've dealt with him properly."

After saying that, she vanished from her spot and reappeared at the entrance of the hall. She bent down to pick up the scroll from the ground and then disappeared again.

...

The memory ended with Guan Xun's long sigh. She stared at the moonlight shining through the window paper onto the ground, her eyebrows slightly raised, and murmured softly.

Wow...it's been so long!