After My Rebirth, I Ended Up Happily Ever After with the Saintess - Chapter 56

Returning to her small courtyard on Yun Dan Peak, Ye Li activated the isolation formation personally set up by Resident Mu Yun. Instantly, the courtyard was completely cut off from the outside world, the clamor gone, leaving only a heart-calming tranquility. She knew that this three-month confinement period was her golden opportunity to digest what she gained in the secret realm and enhance her strength.

The courtyard was fragrant with grass and wood, and the stone table was cool. Ye Li did not immediately rush into cultivation but sat quietly for a long time, meticulously reviewing the life-and-death struggles in the secret realm, the shock of the inheritance cave, the danger of being besieged, and the turmoil after returning to the sect, like a scroll unfolding in her mind. Each near-death experience, each exhaustion of spiritual power, each fierce confrontation with a powerful enemy—all were precious resources for tempering her Dao heart.

Her experience from her previous life told her that while the increase in power was crucial, the settling and sublimation of her mental state also determined how far her Dao path could extend.

Three days later, her heart lake was clear and calm. Ye Li finally began her formal seclusion.

She first focused her attention on the breakthrough of her cultivation. The spiritual power at the peak of the Qi Initiation realm had long been immensely full; the extremely cold spiritual power in her Dantian Sea of Qi was misty and only lacked the final refinement and qualitative change.

She did not rush to break through the bottleneck but took out the second drop of Stellar Source Liquid. This object contained the formidable Stellar Source power, which not only possessed immense energy but also nourished the soul and refined the essence of spiritual power, making it an excellent treasure for solidifying the foundation during a realm breakthrough.

Swallowing the ethereal drop of liquid, the familiar vast energy once again swept through her body. But this time, Ye Li guided it in a fundamentally different way. She did not use it to violently impact the realm barrier but manipulated this pure energy like the finest carving knife, repeatedly washing and tempering her meridians, bones, organs, and even every inch of her flesh and blood.

The Profound Imperial Scripture (You Huan Di Jing) was operated to its extreme, and the spiritual power within her body, augmented by the Stellar Source Liquid, became increasingly pure and condensed. Even the extremely cold attribute seemed to have incorporated a trace of the vastness and profundity of the stars. The fragment of the Samsara Mirror also emitted an unprecedented clear brilliance, helping her precisely control this massive energy, preventing any waste.

This was a gradual, painstaking process that took a long time. Ye Li was neither impatient nor arrogant; her mind was completely immersed in the small inner world of her body, guiding this rebirth-like transformation.

Forty-nine days later, the energy of the Stellar Source Liquid was completely absorbed and refined. At this moment, her body was as translucent as colored glass, her meridians wide and resilient like the main channels of a great river, her spiritual power pure and condensed like mercury, and her soul power had grown by a full thirty percent! Her foundation was immensely solid, far exceeding the imaginative limit of ordinary Qi Initiation realm cultivators.

“It’s time.”

With a thought, Ye Li began to guide the vast as a tide, condensed as steel, extremely cold spiritual power to frantically compress toward the core of the Dantian Sea of Qi!

Boom!

Invisible thunder seemed to sound within her body! The vast spiritual power violently churned and collided under high pressure. With each collision, the last trace of impurity was removed, transitioning toward a higher-level state.

This process was incredibly painful, like having all her bones and flesh ground and reassembled. But Ye Li’s Dao heart was as solid as a rock, and her consciousness remained exceptionally clear under the protection of the Samsara Mirror’s brilliance, allowing her to precisely control the force and rhythm of the compression.

After an unknown period, when the compression reached a certain critical point, the spiritual power mist mass, which was dense to the extreme at the center of the Dantian, abruptly collapsed inward!

A drop of crystal clear, liquid spiritual power, radiating extreme coldness and stellar light, quietly condensed!

Immediately followed by the second drop, the third drop…

Like a spark igniting a prairie fire, liquid spiritual power continuously formed, eventually converging into a miniature stream, like a crystalline starry river, slowly flowing within the Dantian—this was the sign of stepping into the Vein Condensation realm, with the initial formation of the Spiritual Vein!

However, Ye Li’s Spiritual Vein was fundamentally different from that of ordinary cultivators. The Spiritual Veins of typical Vein Condensation cultivators were mostly gaseous or barely liquid, with a single color. But her Spiritual Vein was entirely liquid, presenting a deep, secluded blue color, with twinkling stellar lights within, emanating an aura that was intensely Yin and cold yet vast and majestic—its quality far surpassed that of her peers!

The moment the Spiritual Vein formed, Ye Li’s aura suddenly surged! A powerful pressure uncontrollably spread out. If not for the isolation formation, it would have instantly alerted the entire Yun Dan Peak!

She had officially stepped into the Vein Condensation realm! Moreover, she entered this realm with an unprecedentedly solid foundation!

With her cultivation breakthrough, Ye Li did not leave seclusion. Instead, she struck while the iron was hot, dedicating herself to cultivating the two major inheritances she had recently acquired.

The first stage of the Universal Traceless Step (Huan Yu Wu Zong Bu), “Star Flash.” Previously, limited by insufficient spiritual power and her initial grasp, she could only perform short-distance, momentary shifts. Now, with a leap in both the quality and quantity of her spiritual power, and a deeper understanding of space gained from the breakthrough, the effect of using “Star Flash” again was entirely different.

Inside the quiet chamber, her figure sometimes vanished like a wisp of smoke, only to solidify a few meters away the next moment; sometimes multiple afterimages appeared simultaneously, making it hard to distinguish the real from the fake; at other times, she seemed to meld into the surrounding environment, with no aura detectable. Her movement trajectory became increasingly elusive, and the distance covered was greater, genuinely possessing the embryonic form of “tracelessness.” She estimated that with her current full use of “Star Flash,” it would be difficult for any cultivator below the middle stage of the Spirit Mansion realm to capture her movements over short distances.

The first style of the Ice Soul Sealing Heaven Finger (Bing Po Feng Tian Zhi), “Ice Trace.” As her cultivation improved and her understanding of its mysteries deepened, the power of this finger technique underwent a qualitative change. She pointed her fingers like a sword, and without physical contact, a highly condensed, almost transparent, icy finger-force shot out across the air, silent yet swift as lightning. Where the finger-force passed, the air froze, and a deep, bottomless ice trace was left on the rock, with the contained sealing power even stronger, sufficient to instantly freeze the spiritual power circulation of a cultivator at the same level.

She even began to attempt to touch the threshold of the second style, “Spirit Seal.” This style involved a deeper understanding and control of the essence of spiritual power and was extremely difficult. However, with her previous life’s experience and the aid of the Samsara Mirror, she could already preliminarily simulate the “Sealing” intent, though she could not yet use it in practical combat.

Besides the movement and finger techniques, Ye Li also began to systematically organize some basic insights into the laws of space and scattered experiences concerning formations and talismans that came with the Venerable Xuan Huan’s inheritance. Although this knowledge was unsystematic, it was like opening a door to a new world, elevating her understanding of power to a new level. She attempted to optimize the simple Spirit Gathering Formation she had mastered, improving its effectiveness by nearly thirty percent; her understanding of the Dao of Talismans was also deeper, and she believed that the quality of any talismans she created would be higher upon her next attempt.

During this period, she also maintained a single-line contact with Lin Feng through the Shadow Pavilion token to stay updated on outside developments.

The news conveyed by Lin Feng showed that:

• • Gao Sheng and Shi Feng have recovered from their injuries and left the hospital. The entire War Maniac Peak harbors deep hostility toward Ye Li, but they have made no obvious moves yet, seemingly brewing something.

• • The news of the secret realm inheritance is indeed circulating in a small scope within and outside the sect, attracting some scrutiny, but Resident Mu Yun has secretly blocked them.

• • The initial operation of the Shadow Pavilion is smooth. Xia Zhihe provided several effective pill formulas, Sun Xiaohou gathered a few valuable pieces of information about nearby markets and sect missions, and Zhao Xiaoyi kept the internal communication well-organized.

• • Qin Yixuan has returned to the Azure Water Pavilion, and there has been no further news.

Ye Li was not surprised by this. The temporary restraint of War Maniac Peak was to wait for a better time to launch an attack or to investigate her background. The outside covetousness was temporarily not a concern under the sect’s protection. The stable start of the Shadow Pavilion brought her comfort.

In the final month of seclusion, Ye Li stopped deliberately seeking further elevation and focused on “comprehensive integration.” She performed an all-around refinement of her newly improved cultivation, movement technique, finger technique, and combat experience from her previous life. She simulated battles with various types of enemies in her mind, searching for the optimal solutions.

When she woke up from deep meditation, the three-month confinement period had quietly ended.

Slowly opening her eyes, the divine light in her gaze was restrained and profound as an abyss. Her aura was well-rounded and full, no longer possessing the sharpness of a recent breakthrough; instead, it gave people a sense of unfathomable depth.

She stood up and stretched her limbs. The crystalline starry river-like Spiritual Vein within her body flowed slowly, containing immense power.

“Peak early-stage Vein Condensation realm…” Ye Li felt the surging power within her, a faint curve on her lips. The effect of this seclusion far exceeded her expectations. Not only did she successfully break through, but she also thoroughly stabilized her realm and cultivated both major inheritances to the minor completion stage. Her overall combat power had increased by more than tenfold compared to before entering the secret realm!

Now, if she were to face Gao Sheng again, although she wouldn’t dare say she could defeat him, relying on the eccentricity of the Universal Traceless Step and the sharpness of the Ice Soul Sealing Heaven Finger, a safe retreat was absolutely possible, and she even had the chance to make him pay a heavy price.

She removed the formation in the courtyard, and sunlight poured in. Pushing open the courtyard door, the fresh air from outside rushed in.

The end of the confinement meant that she would once again face the turmoil of the sect and the vicissitudes of the outside world. But at this moment, Ye Li had been reborn, with sufficient confidence to handle everything.

She calmly looked in the direction of War Maniac Peak, her expression devoid of sorrow or joy.

“It is time to go out and move.”