Where does that wicked woman get her conscience?

"How stupid."

Guan Xun clicked his tongue twice, looking at the gold coins that had been used up once again, and sighed.

"I risked my life for you, Master! How dare you call me stupid!" Chi Rong immediately jumped up, her little tail held high, clearly indignant.

"Your flames are not afraid of water, and ice is also formed from water, so why not use flames as a marker?" Guan Xun said calmly.

Chi Rong was stunned for a moment. After thinking for a while, it nodded thoughtfully: "That seems to make sense, but at that time I was only thinking about finding the flower as soon as possible, and I didn't think about it that much."

"That place was already very strange, and coupled with my serious injuries, my willpower was simply unable to resist its erosion. When I regained some consciousness, the flower I was holding in my mouth had somehow melted into my body."

"I lay down in the snowdrift, and standing in front of me was a man in white with silver hair. If it weren't for his icy blue eyes, which stood out so much in the vast white snowfield, I probably wouldn't have noticed him."

"Was he the Imperial Tutor? His eyes weren't bandaged back then?" Guan Xun asked softly.

“No.” Chi Rong shook his head. “The Infant Cicada Flower should have been his, but the petals have already melted into my body, so he can’t take it back.”

Guan Xun suddenly realized, "So that's how it is. No wonder the Imperial Tutor asked her if she had transformed into human form when they met last night. It seems he mistook her for Chi Rong."

"So he let you go?"

"How could that be!" Chi Rong's voice rose a little, looking at his master as if he were a fool. "Just think about how he tried to kill you last night, and you'll understand."

Guan Xun touched the tip of his nose and coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment.

“But he didn’t have such a strong desire to get the petals back then,” Chi Rong said softly, his voice tinged with confusion. “He somehow managed to trap my soul in a dark space, making me unable to sense the movement of my physical body.”

"I don't know how much time has passed, but when I sensed it again..." Chi Rong said, then paused slowly.

"What?" Guan Xun glanced at it.

The snake's head shook slightly, and there was some confusion in Chi Rong's eyes: "There are some things I don't remember very clearly, but I remember that I jumped into the Black Sea by myself."

Seeing Chi Rong's conflicted expression, Guan Xun could roughly guess the reason. It must be that the flower petals protected her soul beneath the Black Sea.

Her eyelids twitched. According to Chi Rong's description, those flower petals didn't seem to be very important to the Imperial Tutor.

Now they're actually asking for her life!

She let out a long breath, her gaze sweeping across the darkened black rock wall before landing on the small snake on her shoulder: "When will you be able to regain your physical body?"

"I don't know." Chi Rong shook his head and looked around. "If I cultivate according to the spiritual energy concentration just now, it shouldn't be long before I have a body."

“Alright, then let’s continue cultivating.” Guan Xun shrugged, took out a gold coin from his storage ring, and tossed it into the small slot once more.

She had asked Ye Fengjing to come here to find her if there was anything important at the academy, and that she could focus on her cultivation now.

 …

Cultivation knows no time limits, especially when one can clearly feel their spiritual power constantly increasing; the passage of time in the outside world is completely imperceptible.

People coming and going from the cultivation level were all curious about the cultivation room inside, which had been closed for seven days.

Some anxious people would press their ears close to the stone door of the cultivation room, trying to hear what was going on inside so they could call for help if someone fainted.

Each time, a slight whooshing sound could be heard from inside, which meant that the person inside was absorbing spiritual energy and that nothing had happened. They could only sigh with emotion.

In the past few days, Guan Xun had been constantly absorbing spiritual energy to cultivate, except for occasionally stopping to eat. When the cultivation continued for eight days, she finally came out of the cultivation state, opened her eyes, and just then saw Chi Rong floating in front of her.

Guan Xun waved his hand at it, and its small body crashed into the stone wall with a thud.

"Master! What are you doing!" it immediately shouted angrily, "Are you trying to kill me?!"

"You scared me."

Chi Rong flicked its tongue, clearly not believing this. Others might not know its master's temperament, but it knew it well enough. Who could scare her?

"Don't you have a physical body yet?" Guan Xun glanced at it, somewhat disdainfully.

"It's not that fast. I'm not like you, who can just find any random body."

Chi Rong flicked its tail and darted back to its original position, only to have its head grabbed by Guan Xun. Seeing the ferocity in its master's eyes, it immediately flicked its tail to appease him and changed the subject: "Master! Your level has increased so fast, it's almost catching up with your previous cultivation speed."

Guan Xun indeed loosened her grip, then clenched her fists tightly again after extending her fingers. She was only at level 20, still far from enough. However, cultivation was something that couldn't be rushed. She had been here for several days, feeling sticky all over. She should go back to her dormitory to wash up before making any plans.

As she was thinking, a surge of heat suddenly rose from the cultivation stone beneath her, and wisps of pale red mist drifted continuously from the rock wall, flowing into her body with her breath, transforming into rich spiritual energy that circulated through her meridians.

At this moment, all four walls turned a bright, fiery red, and extremely dense spiritual energy suddenly surged out!

Guan Xun suddenly stood up and looked around warily. Putting aside the fact that she hadn't put in any gold coins to activate the cultivation room, even if she had, there wouldn't be such a dense spiritual energy.

This force caused the entire training room to tremble slightly. Then, the stone wall cracked open like a caged beast being broken open, revealing countless tiny fissures.

With such a commotion, Guan Xun naturally could no longer stay inside. Chi Rong also plunged into her body and then pushed open the door to leave.

"Is this spiritual energy out of control?" she murmured in surprise, immediately thinking of that mysterious place.

The students outside the training room looked horrified and bewildered. It was clear that this was the first time they had encountered such a situation. Some of the more timid students even fell to the ground, their faces pale as if they were about to faint.

"Do not linger inside the training tower, including all students in the surrounding area! Leave immediately!"

Amidst the chaos, a sharp, aged shout suddenly rang out across the academy, echoing in everyone's ears.

This sound...

Guan Xun's pupils contracted slightly. Before she could think it through, the old man who had been guarding the entrance to the cultivation level rushed in.

"Get out of here!" he shouted as he reached out to pull the student who was slumped on the ground.

"Master, such powerful spiritual energy fluctuations, let's go out first." Chi Rong's voice rang in his mind, and there was even a hint of tension in it.

Nodding slightly, Guan Xun didn't linger any longer and followed the crowd out of the tower.