But the fact that she had been reborn meant the Heavenly Dao had not given up on her yet.
Yu Lin suppressed the resentment and unwillingness in her heart.
Thinking of Chi Jia… thinking of how Xiao Ran had repeatedly tempted her into getting close to Chi Jia, it seemed that the man she once loved most, the so-called first male lead, had already become someone she hated.
This further confirmed her origin speculation.
Thinking of this, Yu Lin quickly went to the mission hall to check Xiao Ran's mission location.
After learning that she had taken Xiao Yi to the Nine Flower Mountain area to carry out a mission and had not returned for three months, she became even more certain.
That place was mentioned in the original story, where the supporting female character Xiao Shou once obtained an opportunity and advanced to the Golden Core stage.
She had once tried to seize this opportunity as well, but unfortunately it was never described in detail in the book.
Nine Flower Mountain was vast and expansive.
Before Xiao Ran entered the sect, Yu Lin had searched it many times but never found the location of the opportunity.
She had assumed she had no fate with it, but she did not expect that it was actually closely related to the Xiao family.
Her expression turned gloomy as she already confirmed her second hypothesis.
The original Xiao Ran would not have been so shameless as to repeatedly snatch opportunities from her clan cousin.
In the original story, Xiao Ran was innocent and kind-hearted.
Aside from occasionally doing good deeds that turned out badly, and being unable to resist male beauty, she was not a bad person.
How could such a Xiao Ran possibly steal her clan cousin's opportunity?
However, the reborn Xiao Ran showed no mercy toward Xiao Shou.
It seemed Xiao Shou must have offended her in the future.
With Xiao Shou's luck and future achievements, he would indeed be a useful helper.
This thought made Yu Lin pause.
She actually started thinking about recruiting helpers.
Was the pressure from knowing that Xiao Ran had been reborn already this great?
Clearly Xiao Ran was only at the early Foundation Establishment stage.
No.
If Xiao Ran had taken Xiao Shou's opportunity and returned, she might already be at the Golden Core stage.
Her cultivation would surpass hers and she still had an elder brother whose cultivation was above hers as well.
And there is also the extremely offensive mutated spiritual root, the ice spiritual root.
No, she also had to quickly increase her cultivation.
She had to enter the Golden Core stage earlier than Xiao Ran, and then… find a way to deal with her.
This sense of crisis and urgency made her quicken her pace.
With an ugly expression, she returned to her cave abode.
She quickly activated a third-grade formation plate qnd enveloping the cave dwelling.
It could prevent outsiders from entering and it could also block divine sense scanning from cultivators below the late Golden Core stage.
Only then did she sit inside.
She took out all the demon cores and carefully sensed them.
She left the smallest one, the one with the lightest dark red color.
She then took out a jade knife and carefully cut it open.
In an instant, a milky white glow leaked out from within the blood-red demon core.
Yu Lin quickly cut deeper, until the knife could no longer go further. Then she used the jade knife to gently pick at it, and indeed she dug out a piece of milky white substance.
After washing it with water, the white light burst forth.
Upon closer inspection, it was exactly as described in the book: neither jade nor wood and emitting a strange aura.
One could tell at a glance that it was no ordinary object.
She carefully touched it and felt a warm current flow into her hand.
It was indeed extraordinary.
She did not know what effect it would have, so she decided to try it.
She took out spiritual water from her storage bag and poured it into a jade bowl where the Divine Tree's Coreflame was placed.
The remaining spiritual water was stored in a jade bottle before being put back into her storage bag.
After about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, she took out the Divine Tree's Coreflame and swallowed the water in one gulp.
Instantly, a warm and gentle flow surged into her dantian, then spread from the dantian throughout her entire body.
Seeing such remarkable effects, she quickly took out many mid-grade spirit stones and a Nascent Golden Pill, placing them around her body.
She also activated a spirit gathering formation.
She focused her mind and sat in meditation, circulating her technique.
As she did so, massive amounts of spiritual energy gathered and poured into her body.
After a few breaths, a layer of faint gray impurities began to seep out of her body.
As time passed, more and more impurities were expelled.
The color gradually changed from light gray to gray, then dark gray, then black, and finally an ink-black color.
Outside the cave abode, dark clouds began to gather.
Thunder cracked through the sky, and faint rumbling roars could be heard.
It was the sign of a Golden Core breakthrough.
...
Not to mention how panicked Xiao Shou was or how his cultivation was advancing.
After he returned to his residence, Xiao Shou immediately sat down in meditation to stabilize his newly advanced cultivation.
After his realm was stabilized, he began to consider the problems he was currently facing.
At this stage, if he had a Foundation Establishment Pill, he could already attempt to break through to Foundation Establishment.
However, Foundation Establishment Pills were controlled by sect monopolies and only the upper levels of major sects, aristocratic families, and the League of Independent Cultivator could obtain them.
The Nine Treasures Pavilion auction holds three Foundation Establishment Pills every year.
Independent cultivators who have no connections to obtain Foundation Establishment Pills either endure hardship for decades and wait to naturally form their foundation upon reaching Qi Refining twelfth layer, or they take the risk of consuming thousand-year spirit herbs to forcefully break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
However, accumulating spiritual energy at Qi Refining eleventh and twelfth layers is extremely difficult and there are also bottlenecks that are hard to overcome.