Chapter 164: Return to the Huang family residence

During this whole ordeal, Huang Cixi was riding on Elder Ying's back with four servants and Huang Liyue. They would reach Baziyun City in a few days. The travel had been a bit longer than it should have been because Elder Ying seemed to slow down so as to not disturb Huang Cixi's cultivation. The young girl was cultivating three things at the same time, her mind through 'Sealing the Seven Demons in the Nine Peaks', her Qi through the 'Soaring Blood Bird' method and her blood through 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire'.

'Soaring Blood Bird' was the cultivation method of the Huang family. It could only be practiced by someone with blood from a True Fiery Fenghuang. There was nothing too incredible about it as it mostly derived from the 'Universal Law of Immortality'. However, it was optimized to use the specific bloodline of the Huang family. As such, it allowed them to advance faster and with less risk. As she was now an 8th-grade Mortal, Huang Cixi had to locate and work on her acupoints just like Cao Yun. Thanks to this technique, she could use her blood to achieve these very results. And thanks to her mind cultivation, she was able to locate the acupoints with even more ease.

By the time she would reach her residence, Huang Cixi would have controlled at least a tenth of her acupoints. This speed seemed incredible. This wasn't directly related to the Life Boiling Cradle pill, but more specifically to her blood. The moment it had evolved, she had known that it would give her many benefits, but she had never imagined that it would be so amazing. If she kept on training with such results, she would break through again in less than a year. In fact, she could probably become a Mortal Warrior next year.

On the other hand, 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire' was a special cultivation method solely meant to train one's blood. It derived a lot from the observation of demonic beasts. The Huang family with its heritage was the one family that birthed the most beast tamers. And it was due to the fascination of some members for demonic beasts because of the blood coursing through their veins. While observing and caring for these demonic beasts, beast tamers derived much knowledge and tried to apply it to human cultivators.

The 'Nine Chambers of Life Fire' method was born through this process. While observing the demonic beasts naturally condensing into demonic cores the Qi they absorbed, beast tamers had thought about doing the same with their blood. Through the Huang family's veins, the blood of the True Fiery Fenghuang flowed with more or less vigor. And the purity of one's blood was rather important among the Huang family. This method consisted in emulating the formation of the cores but with blood. By using this method, the cultivator would condense the small traces of True Fiery Fenghuang blood within his bloodstream into a pure drop, simply called True Fiery Drop.

Just like the demonic cores, it was possible to condense nine drops. And all of them were kept within the Chamber of the Mysterious Elixir, right in the center of the heart. Before she went to the Wubei Sect, Huang Cixi only had one True Fiery Drop in her heart. But now, she had formed her second one. The first drop had taken her several years of arduous cultivation but the medicinal essence of the Life Boiling Cradle pill was so powerful that it woke up her bloodline. And with these two drops, she could clearly feel the True Fiery Fenghuang blood in her. Combined with her mind cultivation, forming the other drops wouldn't take years, it would take months.

Going into the Wubei Sect had truly given her many benefits, enough for a lifetime.

On the other side of Elder Ying's back, Huang Liyue was observing the young girl. During the entire trip, she had almost never stopped cultivating unless she needed some sleep or sustenance. Clearly, she had been wrong about her, she was way stronger than she had initially thought. Using her spiritual senses, Huang Liyue kept on being shocked. This girl was really otherworldly.

None of the servants could feel it. For them, she looked like she was resting, as though she was still quite weak. But for Huang Liyue, she appeared to be quite formidable.

Despite being a 6th-grade Spirit Warrior, Huang Liyue herself had only formed five True Fiery Drops in a bit less than a millennium. Of course her bloodline was not as pure as Huang Cixi's but forming two True Fiery Drops at her age was beyond amazing. She had trained since she had been four or five and yet in more than ten years, she had only condensed one True Fiery Drop. But now that she had a Pure Golden Dantian and the mind cultivation from Cao Yun, she had formed another drop in less than a month. With her spiritual senses, Huang Liyue knew that this was mainly due to the remaining medicinal essence that was now in her blood.

However, she could feel something strange about Huang Cixi. For some reason, she felt as though she could exceed the previous records. In the Huang family, only the ancestral matriarch had ever been able to condense all nine of the True Fiery Drops. And she had the real blood from the True Fiery Fenghuang. Huang Liyue was privy to even more details. Their ancestor had talked about a level beyond this one, but even she was never able to reach it, at least not before leaving this planet when she ascended.

And Huang Cixi's cultivation was way above her age. She was 16 year old and had already reached the 8th-grade Mortal realm. Moreover, she would probably be able to become a Mortal Warrior just around her eighteenth birthday. In addition, Huang Liyue sensed that her mind was very powerful even though she wasn't a Spirit Warrior. Yes, it was possible for Mortals to cultivate their mind, but most of them were alchemists or from such occupations and the results weren't that good, except for a select few. Considering that invading someone's mind was inappropriate, even more so when they were from your own family, she didn't try to see through her mind cultivation. However, this travel taught her that her first impressions were wrong. Huang Cixi was not weak or meek. To the contrary, she was fierce but hiding her fangs.

-

Finally, Elder Ying reached the Huang family estate. With a few flaps of his wings, Elder Ying went toward a large courtyard, close to the stables. The majestic Blue Mane Falcon landed with grace under the gaze of Huang Yi. Even though he was several hundred years old, he looked as though he was fifty at most. His hair and facial hair were perfectly white. Unlike Huang Mingze, he had been born in the Huang family and this color was natural.

At the prospect of seeing his granddaughter again after her Qi deviation, Huang Yi had a hard time hiding his joy. Lucky for him, there was almost no one in the stables. His position as family head forced him to stay neutral and impartial. Indeed, the current matriarch was reaching her 2,000th birthday and would soon choose a successor to her title. If he were to show any favoritism, this could be interpreted in a terrible way, even though Huang Cixi was his own granddaughter.

Huang Yi had had only one daughter in his entire life with an outsider who had died not long after. Since her death, he had stayed celibate. Sadly, his dear daughter got seduced by Huang Mingze and she too ended up dying after gifting him with three grandchildren. However, Huang Mingze could not stay at the familial residence and he took the children with him. As he was too busy, Huang Yi had only been able to visit them once in over fifteen years when Huang Cixi was around eight. That day, he immediately saw the traits of his wife in her, both physically and mentally. He knew she would achieve greatness.

And clearly, he had been right. She was the only one for more than fourteen thousand years to receive a Spirit pill. Thanks to this, she had formed a Pure Golden Dantian. The only record of someone officially having one of those was Emperor Nuwa herself. And no one really knew what benefits this would bring Huang Cixi. But to be honest, all this was way in the back of his mind. Right now, he was just a grandfather looking forward to being reunited with his prized granddaughter.

Several servants were with him but they stayed back, afraid to anger Elder Ying. Given his strength, he would probably be on par with their matriarch and he wasn't pleased to be treated as if he were just another demonic beast. However, Huang Yi walked directly to him and patted him on the side of his neck. The scene was surreal for the servants. The family head, the man with the most power in the Huang family beside the matriarch was treating a proud 9-core demonic beast like a pet. And the beast was acting all coy about it. Indeed, the Blue Mane Falcon was shaking his head to show his enjoyment. Both of them knew each other since Huang Yi had been just a little child and their relation had been great.

Finally, the servants got off his back and humbly saluted the family head. He didn't mind them and simply waved them away. And just after them, Huang Liyue was ready to get down. But she heard a voice behind her.

"Senior Huang Liyue, may you help me? I'm too weak to get off myself..."

At first shocked, Huang Liyue understood with a glance. Her spiritual senses clearly showed her that Huang Cixi was in perfect condition. She could have literally jumped from the Blue Mane Falcon when he was still above the ground and been fine. But this courtyard was within the Huang family residence. There was no form of protection and many people could see what was going on. Moreover, there were many servants whose loyalty wasn't clear. Right now, many factions were competing to become the new matriarch. And with all the events around Huang Cixi added to her bloodline that had been tested as the purest in the family, she probably didn't want to attract attention.

"Of course, Young Mistress."

The more she came to know Huang Cixi, the more Huang Liyue thought she was incredible. During the travel, she had shown no sign of all the amazing things happening in her body. Most likely, even the servants who were with them thought she was still weak from her Qi deviation. Apparently, she had been thinking about the succession all along. Seeing her compete with the likes of Huang Si would be quite interesting.

Using her Qi, Huang Liyue lifted Huang Cixi up in the air and put her down on the ground as she herself flew down from the back of the beast with absolute grace.

Immediately, Huang Yi rushed to go to his granddaughter. Seeing her like that, he got afraid that she was still hurt. Thankfully, he received a telepathic message from Huang Liyue. She was the only one after the matriarch he trusted completely. For several hundred years, she had devoted her life to guarding the current matriarch and these last decades, she had pleaded loyalty to him as family head.

When he heard her recount all that she had witnessed during the travel, he got overjoyed within but kept a worried facade as he pampered his granddaughter.

"Xixi, how are you?"

"Grandfather, the travel was exhausting. Could you help me to my room, please?"

"Of course, of course." He then turned around and yelled out some orders.

Just as they were walking away, Elder Ying let out a small and cute sound. Slowly, he lowered his head and got it very close to Huang Cixi. Even her grandfather was amazed. Somehow, Huang Cixi understood what he wanted, as though they already shared a bond. She slowly brought her hand toward his beak and touched it. After staying still for some time, Elder Ying moved his head to have her hand caress him while letting out a pleased sound. Then, he raised his head and went toward the place where he was used to sleeping. Most of the times, Elder Ying didn't really stay in the stables as he loved to roam free, but he always had a place to stay here.

During the travel, Elder Ying had felt Huang Cixi's blood transformation and he too got really interested in her. As a 9-core demonic beast, Elder Ying was almost as intelligent as a human. In fact, he could understand human speech even though he wasn't able to speak himself. But his instincts were intact and he felt that this little girl was special.

Everyone was dumbfounded, even Huang Yi. Knowing his friend, he would never allow anyone but him and the matriarch to touch him in such a way. It was a really good sign for his granddaughter. And all the people around the stables also got surprised by this gesture. Many of them were loyal to different factions within the Huang family. And in the following hours, both the return of Huang Cixi and her strange relation with Elder Ying would be brought up to almost everyone with a semblance of power and ambition. But all of them also received the information that Huang Cixi seemed so weak that she couldn't get off Elder Ying herself.

-

As all this was happening, Huang Yi had brought his granddaughter in her room. It seemed way bigger now, probably because of her time as a servant in a very small room. All of a sudden, she felt like she was a queen returning from living like a beggar.

In the room, Huang Cixi was alone with her grandfather and Huang Liyue. Since he trusted her completely, Huang Cixi decided to do the same. She knew her grandfather wasn't a fool. He might have been too emotional about his grandchildren, but the mere fact that the matriarch had chosen him to lead the family during her seclusion spoke volume about his competence.

This room's walls was lined with some Void Nurtured Platinum. As it was a very expensive metal, there was not much of it, but enough to stop early Spirit Warriors from spying inside. In fact, during her absence, Huang Cixi had asked her grandfather to especially protect her study. Right now, only Huang Yi and Huang Liyue were capable of clearly seeing through the walls of this study. As such, that was where they went to discuss.