This night was filled with pleasant surprises and bountiful harvests.
The first harvest.
A hundred years ago, after spontaneously awakening her Spiritual Root, she had secretly cultivated using some low-level cultivation techniques she found in the Xuantian Sect’s Library Pavilion. As a result, her cultivation was riddled with flaws and deficiencies.
The foundational exercises of the Purple-Gold Mystic Art actually cleansed all the flaws within her body.
The second harvest.
Her dao bone had actually turned purple-gold.
The dao bone is the sole standard for measuring a person’s cultivation talent, visible upon awakening the Spiritual Root.
An ordinary talent cultivator’s dao bone is transparent. Those with better talent have silver ones, and even better ones are gold. Murong Chao’s dao bone was gold when she awakened her Spiritual Root.
A gold dao bone is known among cultivators as perfect talent, meaning one would encounter almost no bottlenecks on the cultivation path.
Otherwise, a hundred years later, she wouldn’t have been able to condense a Nascent Soul at sixteen, becoming another genius in the Xuantian Sect after the prodigy Yun Xiu to break through to the Nascent Soul cultivation level in her teens. Nor could her past self from a century ago have spontaneously awakened her Spiritual Root without any cultivation experience.
But now, her dao bone had actually turned purple-gold. How had she never heard of a purple-gold dao bone?
Yet she could sense that her talent had grown even stronger, indicating that a purple-gold dao bone represents talent superior to the perfect talent of a gold dao bone.
The final harvest.
She had advanced, advanced!
Just moments ago, her cultivation level had risen from the mid Foundation Establishment stage to the high Foundation Establishment stage. Though it was only a small step, Murong Chao felt more exhilarated now than when she condensed her Nascent Soul at sixteen a century later.
Just one night—this speed was so fast she envied and admired herself.
Murong Chao stretched her limbs, her apricot eyes sparkling brightly, in an excellent mood.
Cultivating for just one night had yielded so many pleasant surprises. There were still nine days left before returning to Chiyue—no, it was already the early hours of the next day now, another day had passed, leaving only eight days.
She decided: these eight days would be spent training in the Death Forest—training during the day, and at night, cultivating the Purple-Gold Mystic Art to enter the fundamental palace. At her pace, in just two more days, she could finish learning the foundational techniques, leaving only consolidation afterward. It would be best if she could succeed in Core Formation before returning.
She already had the experience of Core Formation from a century later, and with the support of the Ancient Art, achieving Core Formation was not an unreachable goal.
Although the Core Formation cultivation level was still weak in her eyes, it was better than the Foundation Establishment level.
Otherwise, this level of strength wouldn’t be sufficient upon returning.
Ah, well, no more slacking off.
If she couldn’t be lazy, then so be it. After all, she had never been lazy when it came to cultivation. One could say all her energy in the past had been devoted to cultivation.
Murong Chao got down from the bed, stretched lazily, and glanced out the window—the sky was already quite bright.
Gently pushing the door open, a wave of fresh, moist air greeted her. It seemed it had rained again last night.
Murong Chao walked out and glanced in the direction of the shadow guard stationed outside the courtyard. That glance sent a shiver down the shadow guard’s spine—had he been discovered?
Impossible. She had no cultivation level.
Suppressing the strange thought in his mind, the shadow guard minimized his presence even further, no longer looking at her directly but only tracking her with his spiritual sense.
Murong Chao curled her lips into a smile and walked over to the gracefully swaying bamboo grove, glancing at the rocking chair.
Aside from the rocking chair and its matching small side table, which she had purchased herself, all the other furniture in this small courtyard belonged to Chen Qingyang.
Although there was already a rocking chair in the courtyard of the Purple-Gold Space, her own belongings naturally had to be taken with her. Moreover, this rocking chair was no ordinary piece of wood—it could be said to be the most valuable possession of her past self from a century ago.
She was poor, so she was stingy.
With a thought, the rocking chair and the side table were stored away into the Purple-Gold Space.
She didn’t place them in the courtyard of the space but instead put them together with the pile of belongings she had accumulated over the past century.
Enjoying the feeling of her collection growing larger was only one reason; another was that, for some inexplicable reason, she didn’t want to disrupt the existing arrangement within the courtyard.
It was only then that she remembered: a century ago, to maintain the persona of someone without cultivation, she had no storage magical tools at all. After all, even the lowest-grade Qiankun Bag required spiritual sense or spiritual energy to use.
Thus, all her belongings were stored in a bamboo chest. She turned back into the room, found the chest, and narrowed her apricot-shaped eyes.
The chest was neither eye-catching nor large—two feet long, one foot wide, and one foot tall.
Inside were all the belongings she had saved up over the years. Her clothes and daily necessities were kept in Qingdai’s Qiankun Bag.
In the past, whenever she went out, this chest had also been stored in Qingdai’s Qiankun Bag.
Murong Chao took a key from her sleeve pocket and unlocked the chest.
The items inside were neatly arranged, each stored in separate boxes.
Murong Chao took out the top few boxes and, without even glancing at them, tossed them directly onto the table.
These contained gifts from Chen Qingyang—all worthless trinkets. In her loveless state a century ago, she had treasured them, believing that the sentiment behind the gifts mattered more than their value.
What sentiment? A man willing to spend money on you might not necessarily like you, but a man unwilling to spend money on you definitely doesn’t like you.
Among the elders, uncles, brothers, and sisters of the Xuantian Sect, many had formed Dao companions. Without exception, they all gave their most precious magical tools to their partners.
Chen Qingyang wanted the horse to run without feeding it grass—how beautifully he dreamed. Well, he had enjoyed that beautiful dream for three years.
The boxes below contained her own belongings, all saved up during her time as a servant in the Xuantian Sect. None were particularly valuable, but at least they were earned through her own efforts.
She closed the chest and directly stored it away into the Purple-Gold Space, placing it together with her other belongings.
Her collection had grown a little larger.
After Murong Chao finished washing up, Qingdai arrived, bringing breakfast.
Seeing Qingdai’s barely contained excitement, Murong Chao asked helplessly, “What’s going on? You look like you can hardly hold back your joy.”
Qingdai’s eyes sparkled brightly as she said, “Master, there’s good news.”
Murong Chao glanced up at her. “The eldest prince has been appointed Crown Prince.”
Qingdai’s smile froze. The emperor of Fengyun Kingdom had just posted the proclamation. How could her master, who had just woken up, already know about it?
Seeing Qingdai’s expression, Murong Chao felt helpless. She had orchestrated the whole affair herself—how could she not know?
The emperor of Fengyun Kingdom was no fool. Having already stripped Chen Qingyang of his military authority, he had to strike while the iron was hot. Would he wait for the Protector-General’s Estate to ally with other powerful ministers and force him to appoint Chen Qingyang as Crown Prince?
What better solution was there than directly issuing an imperial edict and proclaiming it to the world? None, of course.
Therefore, after her discussion with Crown Prince’s advisor Jiang Ze yesterday, she knew that the edict appointing the Crown Prince would be issued early this morning, catching all court officials with impure intentions off guard.
“And there’s more good news. Can you guess what it is this time?” Qingdai persisted in keeping the suspense alive.