Buzz——!!!
That drop of dragon blood was instantly absorbed, transformed into a golden line of blood, crazily spread across the puppet’s arm to its entire body, finally converging at the center of its forehead!
Roar!
Vaguely, a majestic dragon roar exploded within the Earth Fire Room!
The puppet’s hollow eyes suddenly lit up with two golden ghostly lights, a terrifying pressure burst forth, directly causing the earth fire to reverse!
"What?!"
Chen Ye turned sharply, feeling that familiar aura, his face changed drastically.
He swiftly moved to the front of the furnace.
He saw Qing Jun holding her finger, standing there with a pale face.
"Qing Jun! What are you doing?!"
Chen Ye grabbed Qing Jun’s small hand, looking at the shocking wound on her fingertip, feeling as if his heart was about to stop beating.
"This is your life essence blood! You’ve only just reached Foundation Establishment, your foundation is unstable, how can you recklessly expend your essence blood?! Do you know how dangerous this is? What if it harms your origin?!"
While angrily scolding, he hurriedly mobilized the Life and Death Spiritual Power within him, inputting it into her body, to stop the bleeding and heal her wound.
He was truly angry.
This girl is too reckless!
Even though Chen Ye knew Qing Jun’s physique was extraordinary, he never had any designs on her body, only using some shed scales.
The reason being.
Qing Jun inherently developed slowly, every drop of essence blood, every scale, is extremely precious, requiring a lot of her time in cultivation.
For example, Qing Jun hibernated for four months, eventually only shedding twelve scales.
Seeing her mentor’s darkened complexion and unprecedented stern tone.
Qing Jun’s body trembled, she whispered, "Qing Jun wasn’t fooling around..."
"You, this girl!" Chen Ye was extremely exasperated.
Stubborn little girl!
"It’s Qingzhi! It used Qing Jun’s scales, now it drank Qing Jun’s blood, so it’s Qing Jun’s partner now!"
The little girl’s voice carried a sobbing tone, but she was righteous in her words,
"Mentor is going to fight the bad guys, Qing Jun doesn’t want mentor to get hurt... Qingzhi now has Qing Jun’s blood, it’ll become more powerful and can help mentor in battle! Mentor... why are you scolding Qing Jun..."
Listening to her disciple’s sincere words,
Chen Ye’s reprimand, which was already on the tip of his tongue, got stuck in his throat.
"You..."
Chen Ye sighed deeply, squatted down, and tightly embraced this silly little disciple, his actions unbelievably gentle,
"Mentor isn’t scolding you, mentor is heartbroken... Don’t ever do such foolish things again, understand? No matter how powerful this puppet is, it’s not as important as your finger."
"Hmm... got it..."
Qing Jun snuggled in his embrace, smelled that familiar scent of her mentor, and finally smiled through her tears, showing the bandaged finger to Chen Ye, letting mentor blow on it.
She knew it, mentor can’t bring himself to hurt her!
No matter how extraordinary her body is, mentor wouldn’t harm her in the slightest.
The little girl happily let her mentor blow on her finger, blinking her eyes and asking:
"So... is Qingzhi powerful now?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Ye turned to look at the puppet suspended above the furnace.
Upon seeing this, even he couldn’t help but have his pupils contract slightly.
He saw that the drop of True Dragon life essence blood wasn’t consumed, rather acted like a heart, dormant in the depths of the puppet’s forehead, from which golden veins emerged, traversing the puppet’s entire body.
Buzz——
The puppet opened its eyes.
Within its hollow eye sockets, golden flames flickered.
It slightly bowed its head, gazing at Qing Jun, surprisingly making a hint of human-like intimacy.
The little girl became even happier, waving to the puppet: "Mentor, look, Qingzhi is even thanking me! It’s much smarter than before, aware Qing Jun treats it well!"
Qing Jun didn’t realize the significance behind Qingzhi’s behavior.
But as the mentor, he was greatly astonished.
"This is..."
Chen Ye took a deep breath, his expression shocked,
"Bloodline enlightenment, spirit spontaneously born?!"
Originally, this puppet had only the Nascent Soul remnant soul as its driver, though intelligent, ultimately it was water without a source.
But now, Qing Jun’s drop of life essence blood seemed to have given it true life!
Completely breaking through the limitations of the puppet core!
One must know that only Third Tier Spiritual Artifacts possess spirituality!
Feeling the aura emanating from the puppet, Chen Ye silently judged:
"At least late Foundation Establishment strength! But with the guidance of the Nascent Soul remnant soul, coupled with Qing Jun’s essence blood enlightenment, and this top-tier spiritual material body..."
Even Chen Ye didn’t dare imagine how powerful Qingzhi would be at full force now!
"Mentor, it’s amazing, isn’t it?"
Qing Jun had been sneakily observing her mentor’s expression, seeing him become shocked, she began to forget the pain, boastfully shaking her mentor’s neck,
"Mentor, see! Qing Jun’s blood is really useful!"
"Yes, yes, yes, you are the most amazing."
Chen Ye playfully tapped her nose, then his expression became serious,
"However, this cannot happen again! If you ever dare to harm yourself again, I shall dismantle this puppet and use it for firewood!"
"Ah? No, no!"
Qing Jun quickly stood in front of the puppet, spreading her little hands to shield it,
"Qingzhi is a companion, you can’t burn it! Qing Jun will listen to Master from now on, okay?"
"Alright, just teasing you. Qingzhi needs to recover, and you are also tired. Let’s go back to Cangli Courtyard."
Chen Ye beckoned with his hand.
The floating Qingzhi slowly descended, moving smoothly and naturally.
It landed silently, standing still, its eyes burning with golden flames slightly lowered, as if expressing submission in this manner.
Perhaps it was just an illusion.
Chen Ye noticed that this puppet had a special affinity towards Qing Jun.
But it made sense, after all, it was refined using Qing Jun’s scales and blood essence.
"Mmm... okay."
Qing Jun indeed felt her eyelids droop as a wave of drowsiness washed over her.
Darn it... even after four months of sleep, why was she still so tired?
The little girl was distressed, rubbing her eyes, obediently nodding her head, letting Chen Ye lead her out of the Earth Fire Room.
...
By the time they returned to Cangli Courtyard, it was already dusk.
Zhiwei saw the master and disciple returning, and noticing Qing Jun’s listless appearance, quickly came up to greet them.
Upon learning that Qing Jun had sacrificed her blood essence to strengthen the puppet, the senior sister felt both heartbroken and helpless, quickly taking this reckless Little Dragon Girl back to the room to rest.
Watching the busy figures of his disciples, Chen Ye smiled slightly and returned to his Quiet Chamber.
After closing the door,
Chen Ye sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion.
Recently, on the Tianhua Peak, his spirit was highly strung, and to perfectly merge the 108 materials, he had exhausted his mental strength.
Logically speaking, he should be collapsing into sleep at this moment.
But oddly enough,
when he calmed his mind, not only did he not feel sleepy, he instead felt his spirit extraordinarily clear.
"This is..."
Chen Ye introspected his body, feeling a slight stir in his heart.
Deep within his sea of consciousness, there was an invisible thread, connecting to Qingzhi in the Storage Bag.
That puppet, due to the integration of Qing Jun’s blood essence and the remnant soul of a Nascent Soul, had developed spirituality.
Although it was in slumber for recovery, that newly born spirituality was feeding back to Chen Ye through the connection of the maker.
"Life and death, decay and flourishing..."
Chen Ye murmured to himself.
The Sutra of Life and Death Profound Light that he practiced emphasized the transformation of life and death, decay and flourishing.
And the process of refining a puppet was precisely about endowing life to the lifeless.
This process of birthing spirituality from lifelessness suddenly made Chen Ye gain an insight.
Moreover.
During these four months, though he was refining the puppet, this process was indeed cultivation!
Four months of high-intensity cultivation, combined with newfound insight.
The barrier that had hindered him at the Sixth-Layer Foundation Establishment began to loosen at this moment!
Chen Ye’s face lit up with joy, and he retrieved several Purple Sun Pills from his Storage Bag, swallowing them.
He fully activated his cultivation technique, striking while the iron was hot, aiming to break through to the Sixth-Layer Foundation Establishment in one go!
After an unknown period,
it was as if a crisp sound exploded within him.
Chen Ye’s aura surged instantaneously, spiritual power gushing from the Dantian, spreading throughout his body, enlarging and refining his meridians.
Sixth-Layer Foundation Establishment!
"Phew..."
Chen Ye exhaled a long breath of turbid air, feeling the inner force several times more vigorous than before, a slight smile appearing on his lips.
"I didn’t expect that refining Qingzhi would turn out to be the opportunity for my breakthrough."
"Sixth-Layer Foundation Establishment..."
"Although not yet in the late period, within this Yan Kingdom, among the Foundation Establishment cultivators, few should pose a threat to me. Even an ordinary late-period Foundation Establishment cultivator would not daunt me! Moreover, there is Qingzhi as a guardian..."
Chen Ye clenched his fist.
This feeling of substantial power under his control,
boosted his confidence for the journey to Luoxiao Grotto Heaven.
At that time.
Even if he could not enter Luoxiao Grotto Heaven, he could guard outside for his disciples.
If his disciple offended a disciple of extraordinary status within the Grotto Heaven, once they emerged, Chen Ye could stand up for his disciple, unafraid of the backing masters behind others!