Chapter 31: The Carrot Ginseng and the Core Condensation Breakthrough

Bai Jiujiu’s eyes widened instantly. Her mouth fell open in disbelief as she watched Tong Qiu consume the mixed concoction of both soups.

“This medicinal soup was stewed from a blend of various ingredients,” Tong Qiu explained. “I bought quantities suitable for a Soul Refining Realm cultivator. Fearing you might encounter serious issues, I even went to an auction specifically for a thousand-year-old ginseng… See, the one I just sliced.”

“You call that a thousand-year-old ginseng?”

Bai Jiujiu gazed, somewhat astonished, at the red solid floating in the medicinal soup she had just been soaking in. She had seen thousand-year-old ginseng on the mountain before; they were always pristine white and rich with spiritual energy. This, however, was vividly red.

It looked exactly like a carrot.

Not only had Tong Qiu secretly taken her to make snake soup, but she had also added a heinous ingredient like carrots.

Unforgivable!

A menacing glint flashed in Bai Jiujiu’s eyes as she glared at Tong Qiu, her face etched with displeasure.

Tong Qiu offered no rebuttal. Instead, she picked up a piece of the ‘ginseng’ and popped it into her mouth.

“This is Red Radish Ginseng, found only in the Tianshu Mountain Range in the north. It’s a rare medicinal herb in this world, capable of healing souls. Even if not used for direct injury treatment, it can be refined into pills that purify spiritual energy and solidify one’s cultivation.”

“Is that so?”

Bai Jiujiu used her gaze, sensing that the carrot-like chunk truly was rich in spiritual energy.

Well, that particular snake had never left Cloud Come Mountain in eight thousand years. Such an exotic medicinal ingredient was indeed unfamiliar to her.

A sniff

There was even a faint, savory aroma of snake meat.

“You really did stew me into snake soup!”

Bai Jiujiu’s past trauma, the fear of humans cooking her into snake soup, was precisely why she had been evading the soldiers. Yet, after these few days of interacting with humans, she had discovered that they truly coveted her serpentine body!

They had been licking her last night; they had probably already decided what ingredients to use for her stew!

The psychological shadow of waking up seven hundred years ago only to find herself being stewed still haunted Bai Jiujiu’s mind.

Now, that shadow had only deepened.

“The medicinal efficacy of this soup has not diminished from healing you, Senior; in fact, its effects are even more pronounced.”

Tong Qiu ignored Bai Jiujiu’s ‘murderous’ gaze, calmly finishing the softshell turtle and snake soup. Soon, however, she felt a change in her body and, startled, began to circulate her spiritual energy.

This was it!

Tong Qiu discovered a thumb-sized inner core quietly floating and rotating within her dantian. The surrounding spiritual energy flowed in sync with it.

She had broken through?

She had advanced from the Illumination Realm to the Core Condensation Realm!

Tong Qiu’s eyes widened in astonishment, disbelievingly sensing the inner core in her dantian. Though still small, it was undeniably an inner core capable of manipulating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Cultivators’ ‘cores’ were of two types: an external core, or elixir, refined from spiritual materials; and an internal core cultivated within the body, long ago also known as a Golden Core. Cultivators who developed an inner core found their spirit and spiritual roots becoming clearer and more transparent with its aid. Their mental power would significantly increase, and they would perceive the world in a completely new light. Cultivating inner would also yield twice the results with half the effort.

Moreover, the inner core would automatically absorb surrounding spiritual energy like a vortex within the body. There was no longer a need to painstakingly circulate inner to unleash techniques; smaller techniques could be executed almost instantly. This allowed cultivators to learn a broader range of techniques without worrying about insufficient mental power wasting their talent and time, or even leading to lifelong disability from exhaustion.

There was an unwritten rule in the cultivation world: anyone who hadn’t entered the Core Condensation Realm before the age of twenty was generally destined to never reach the Soul Refining Realm, considered mediocre talents. Those who struggled even to touch the Core Condensation Realm were regarded as utter waste by all cultivators.

Breaking through to the Core Condensation Realm relied less on the talent granted by spiritual roots and more on one’s wisdom and comprehension in cultivation. Someone with innate spiritual root talent but lacking the wisdom to grasp insights through cultivation would not progress far on the path.

Tong Qiu was precisely twenty years old this year. Her spiritual root talent was at a genius level, but due to caring for the children at the orphanage, her own cultivation had fallen behind. She had only barely entered the Illumination Realm half a year ago, and even the internal staff of the Demon Suppression Division had already half-assigned her to the ranks of the mediocre. Yet, merely by drinking a bowl of medicinal soup that had been used to boil Bai Jiujiu, she had smoothly broken through to the Core Condensation Realm.

There were no secluded cultivation sessions, no bottlenecks, no overcoming inner demons—none of these processes occurred.

Many cultivators, whose spiritual roots were lauded as genius, were still destined to be stuck in the Core Condensation Realm, becoming mediocre, just like she had been. Tong Qiu felt her decade-plus of cultivation knowledge being challenged. This time, she didn’t add softshell turtle soup to her bowl; she simply scooped a full portion of the medicinal soup that had been used to boil Bai Jiujiu.

“Hey, why are you getting addicted to it?”

Bai Jiujiu was startled; Tong Qiu’s behavior was quite abnormal. The medicinal soup that had ‘boiled’ her was essentially her bathwater. According to the typical human and cultivator mindset, such a thing was considered defiled; no one would even touch it, let alone drink it.

Even if the medicinal ingredients were precious, a dignified Illumination Realm human cultivator and a third-grade constable of the Demon Suppression Division would never abandon their human principles for such a small profit. Moreover, she had already agreed to compensate Tong Qiu, so she wouldn’t be at a loss.

Bai Jiujiu touched her own artistic-looking thigh, where faint snake-scale patterns were still visible. Her hand accidentally brushed against the fragrant sweat that had emerged from her movements within the quilt. How could anyone possibly like to drink her bathwater? Aside from those five wicked disciples…

[Right, how could anyone like it?]

Bai Jiujiu cast a strange look at Tong Qiu, suddenly recalling a certain constable who had been leaning over her last night, seemingly intent on mischief. Tsk, such inhuman behavior was comparable to her own wicked disciples.

Snap!

A golden light erupted from Tong Qiu’s entire body. Her eyes closed, her head tilted back, and spiritual energy surged outwards from within her, so intensely that beams of light seemed to shoot from her eyes and mouth. The outpouring of spiritual energy caused her sleepwear to burst apart, tearing her underwear into countless fragments that fluttered in the air.

This time, it was Bai Jiujiu’s turn to widen her eyes.

Tap, tap, tap

“Jiao Su, have you failed your mission too?”

“Hmph, if not for the appearance of the Azure Water Pearl and Bai Jiu’er together, I would have long since made Master my exclusive possession!”

Beneath a gigantic coiling dragon tree, four hooded figures, their faces obscured, sat around a square stone table. They tacitly embedded a waist chain with a dragon head into a corner of the table. The dragon head held a green pearl in its mouth. The internal patterns of each of the four pearls differed, and from them, six smaller green pearls emerged.

Qingqing removed her hood, letting her green hair cascade out. She smiled faintly at the other three. Two of them shook their heads, while the one on the left revealed their gentle and refined face. It was the common face of a scholar, holding a blood-stained copy of the *Lun Yu*.

“Oh, Jiao Su, your failure has rendered my efforts useless, hasn’t it? And here I even bowed to your Master!”

The scholar used the book to cover their mouth, shaking their head as they complained to Qingqing in a sarcastic tone.

“Ji Su, who permitted you to contact Master without my consent?”

Qingqing maintained her faint smile, but faintly appearing snake scales on her chin indicated her inner turmoil. A palpable killing intent drifted towards the scholar.

“Why must you be like this? If I hadn’t moved in next door to your Master beforehand, setting up a formation to obscure Long Zhi’s senses, and then used the karma from my bow to allow your Master to be actively possessed by vengeful spirits—how else could you have so easily entered their memories through the Water of Forgetfulness?”

“You don’t need to meddle in my affairs!”

“I didn’t want to, but that was Dragon Lord’s command. She said that if anyone’s personal feelings delayed the plan, we could all intervene.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I am but a humble formation master, how could I dare threaten you, one of the Star Gate’s Four Chiefs?”

Seeing the two demons on the verge of a confrontation, the demon sitting opposite Qingqing hastily intervened. She did not want to delay the mission from above.

“Jiao Su, Ji Su, settle your personal grievances in private. We are here today for a more important matter.”

“Wei Su, I will give you this much respect. Other matters are irrelevant, but regarding Master, no one but me shall touch her!”

“Ahaha, rest assured, rest assured.”

“Aha~ Hurry up and tell us. Xin Su still needs to go home to accompany those precious fox clan members…”

“The Star Gate has decreed: Su Ling’er must be killed!”

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