A terrifying Soul Power shockwave erupted from Xiao Xue as the center, surging outwards in all directions.
When it approached the ancient tree, the ripples suddenly trembled, then instantly vanished, bypassing the ancient tree.
Then, the Soul Power that had been subconsciously released was retracted by Xiao Xue in an instant.
The gains Xiao Xue made during this period of seclusion were undeniably significant.
Her Dou Qi cultivation level had risen to a Seven-Star Dou Zong, an increase of two stars in one year.
Because she had been constantly pondering the 'Heart Sword', Xiao Xue had always let her body absorb energy spontaneously.
Therefore, her Rank naturally increased a little less.
But compared to her other gains, this two-star increase in cultivation was nothing at all.
With her 'Comprehension Ability Doubled', she had only taken about a year to Cultivate the Nine Decisions of the 'Control Chapter' to Major Achievement.
After the Nine Decisions of the 'Control Chapter' reached Major Achievement, Xiao Xue could completely exert precise control over her own Soul Power.
Similarly, the power of the Soul attacks she unleashed had now increased by several times over.
Anyone with Soul strength below the Spirit Realm Initial Stage could be slain by Xiao Xue!
Even if she went all out, experts who had just entered the Spirit Realm Initial Stage could not ignore the influence of her Soul Power.
If Xiao Xue exerted her full strength to use the 'Illusion' decision of the Nine Decisions, with the support of her Heavenly Fox Bloodline, even experts at the Spirit Realm Initial Stage could potentially be lost in the illusion she created.
And a Spirit Realm Soul, the level of a Grade 8 Alchemist, could not be found anywhere in the entire Northwest Continent.
Now, even without Ah Li's help, Xiao Xue feared no one in the Northwest Continent.
Ah Li had awakened in the first month of Xiao Xue's seclusion and had also enjoyed the buff benefits of the ancient tree.
In terms of talent alone, Ah Li was much stronger than Medusa.
Therefore, after enjoying the buff benefits for a year, Ah Li had now recovered to the Seven-Star Dou Zong level.
However, this buff could not restore intelligence.
Or rather, it could not heal the trauma to the Soul at the level of sapience.
So, Ah Li was still the same silly fox as before.
The Fire Cat of the Netherworld Poison Flame naturally also enjoyed the special 'care' of the ancient tree.
For an ancient tree at the Dou Zun level, suppressing a Fire Spirit that had lost its memory and most of its strength was simply too easy.
Therefore, while Xiao Xue was in seclusion, the ancient tree found the Fire Spirit sound asleep inside a low-level storage ring.
Fortunately, the ancient tree did not take advantage of its weakness to destroy the Fire Spirit's intelligence.
It merely took back the energy that this cat had previously snatched from it, and by the way, collected some 'interest'.
With the ancient tree's intentional suppression, the Fire Spirit remained in a dormant state, which actually saved Xiao Xue quite a bit of trouble.
After all, the reason Xiao Xue had not put the Netherworld Poison Flame's Fire Spirit into the System space originally was because the System space could not store living things.
Or rather, it could not store foreign things that possessed intelligence.
Because they were very likely to expose the existence of the System, causing a lot of unnecessary trouble.
As for those Pill Beasts and the like produced by the System, they were purely 'System-made' and naturally would not go out and 'talk nonsense'.
Therefore, Xiao Xue could only prepare an empty storage ring to store the Fire Spirit of the Netherworld Poison Flame.
And if the Fire Spirit woke up while Xiao Xue was in seclusion, she would need to divide her attention to the Fire Spirit and pause her cultivation to 'educate' it.
After all, this Fire Spirit currently understood nothing.
But the virulent poison on its body was enough to threaten a Dou Zong.
If it were left to 'roam freely', with the curiosity of a 'newborn', it would be very dangerous.
Furthermore, it would not be conducive to its future refinement.
At the same time, with its currently newborn-like intelligence, it should be easier for it to develop a sense of closeness to the 'first' person it saw.
If she could make Xiao Yi Xian the first person this Fire Spirit saw after waking up, that would be perfect.
Therefore, the ancient tree's action could be considered as invisibly helping Xiao Xue solve some trouble.
Now, Xiao Xue had successfully come out of seclusion.
With her Soul Power, 'hypnotizing' the Fire Spirit to keep it asleep until it met Xiao Yi Xian was easy.
Seeing Xiao Xue come out of seclusion, the ancient tree shook its branches that had sprouted new buds, as if it were greeting her.
Xiao Xue also smiled and responded, "Thank you for your guidance, Senior."
The moment she came out of seclusion, she discovered that Medusa was gone, and she also found the message Medusa had left behind.
However, Xiao Xue did not take it to heart.
She first checked the condition of the Fire Spirit; after all, this was the most unstable factor she had.
Upon discovering that the Fire Spirit was still sleeping soundly, Xiao Xue breathed a sigh of relief and then cast a 'Hypnosis' buff on the Fire Spirit.
Next, Xiao Xue bid farewell to the ancient tree, preparing to leave the underground world.
Having stayed here for over a year, it was time to go home and take a look.
After Xiao Xue indicated to the ancient tree that she was leaving, one of the ancient tree's branches trembled.
Two peaches formed on the branch, then automatically detached and fell into Xiao Xue's hands.
Those two peaches were large and plump, with bright colors, and had faint patterns on them.
Xiao Xue cast 'Detect' on the two peaches in her hands.
How could fruit borne by an Eighth-Rank peach tree be ordinary?
As Xiao Xue expected, these two peaches were no longer ordinary fruit, but spirit fruit.
After consuming these peaches, both Dou Qi cultivation and the Soul could receive a certain amount of nourishment.
The ancient tree gave Xiao Xue two fruits, which should be one for her and one for Medusa.
"Thank you, Senior, then I will accept them."
After thanking it, Xiao Xue put the two peaches into her storage ring.
The ancient tree's intention was for her and Medusa to have one each.
But who this spirit fruit finally went to was up to her.
This spirit fruit didn't have much use for her; it would be better to give it to Ah Li in a while.
With this spirit fruit, Ah Li's strength could increase by another one or two stars, and perhaps she might even become a bit smarter.
As for the one the ancient tree prepared for Medusa, it would be better to save it for Yao Lao.
Giving this spirit fruit to Medusa would, at most, allow her to increase by one or two stars in a short time, with no other effect.
But after eating this spirit fruit, Yao Lao should be able to easily recover to the Dou Zong level and also be able to refine seventh-grade pills.
In this way, the benefits brought to their side would undoubtedly be much greater than giving it to Medusa to eat.
So, Medusa, keep dreaming about the peaches.
After Xiao Xue put the spirit fruit into her storage ring, the ancient tree's leaves rustled, as if it were saying goodbye to Xiao Xue.
After bidding farewell to the ancient tree once more, Xiao Xue summoned her Dou Qi Wings and flew towards the exit of the underground world.
However, she did not leave the underground world directly but instead collected a few Advanced medicinal herbs along the way.
Although Advanced medicinal herbs were guarded by Demonic Beasts, for the current Xiao Xue, it made no difference.
Use Soul Power to hypnotize the Demonic Beast, go in, pick the medicinal herbs, and then just leave.
Xiao Xue had collected most of the auxiliary medicinal herbs for refining the soul cleansing toxin suppressing pill in the underground world.
The soul cleansing toxin suppressing pill, a seventh-grade pill, used the soul-clearing azure orchid as the main material and was refined with other medicinal herbs; it had the effect of delaying the eruption of the Calamity Poison Body.
Although the medicinal herbs in the underground world were basically all poisonous, and the toxins could almost not be removed, they could not be used for refining pills.
But this bit of toxicity was completely not an issue for Xiao Yi Xian.
Therefore, these 'poisonous herbs' became resources that could be utilized.
After collecting the necessary medicinal herbs, Xiao Xue left the underground world directly and returned along the path she had come in.
After returning to the surface, the first thing Xiao Xue did was to report her safety to her family.
This had already formed a habit of hers.
Living a second life on the Fighting Qi Continent, Xiao Xue naturally valued the family affection she had never obtained in her previous life immensely.
Then, while traveling, Xiao Xue chatted with Xiao Yan using the communication jade token.
Xiao Yan had now firmly established himself in the Inner Academy, and his cultivation had also reached the Great Dou Master level.
After chatting for a few sentences with no nutritional value, the two cut off the communication.
Then, Xiao Xue fed one spirit fruit to Ah Li.
For things like spirit fruit, naturally, the earlier it was consumed, the better.
After a long time, the energy within it might dissipate.
After consuming the spirit fruit, Ah Li quickly entered a 'dormant' state and began to refine the energy within it.
It was estimated that after Ah Li woke up, she would at least be able to recover to the eight-star Dou Zong, and nine-star was not impossible.
Plus her Soul Power and the benefits brought by the Ten Thousand Beast Spirit Fire, there were not many who could threaten her below the Dou Zun level.
———
Xiao Xue planned to return to her home in the Jia Ma Empire first to take a look, and then go to the Jia Nan Academy.
She incidentally opened the System interface, preparing to see if anything worth buying had refreshed.
As a result, a red dot in the 'Character Relationships' section attracted Xiao Xue's attention.
This kind of notification generally only appeared after certain relationships were recognized by the System.
For example, after Xiao Xue took Xiao Yi Xian and Qing Lin as Disciples, 'Disciple +1' would naturally have a corresponding notification.
However, Xiao Xue could not remember what new relationship she had recently that could actually be recognized by the System.
She clicked on the 'Character Relationships' column, and after seeing the notification information clearly, she almost fell from the sky.
"What the... hell?!"
Xiao Xue suspected whether she had been poisoned in the underground world, to the point of having hallucinations.
Because that notification message was—
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