This night, it seemed as if the Sanctum of Eternity was determined to cleanse and enhance the major meridians within her body. As An Fei drifted amongst a turbulent sea of sleeplessness, warmth, and comfort, her body was undergoing a major transformation, the second of five within the Realm of Body Tempering.
The major meridians except for the pericardium, kidney, and gallbladder meridian systems were experiencing a baptism of golden light.
Pure, untainted divine essence filtered into spiritual essence inundated the meridians to full capacity, widening them and disintegrating impurities or blockages centimeter by centimeter.
Fortunately, the girl had long entered sleep before the intensive process occurred, otherwise she would not have suffered from mere bouts of sleeplessness. Perhaps she would have screamed her lungs out from the pain, for the intensity of the golden light far exceeded that of the minor blood vessels of her fingers and toes.
The golden light traveled along the entire length of each major meridian system, purifying not only the major meridian, but also the supplementary branches connected to the main stem.
While the golden light traversed the entire length of the girl's lung, stomach, spleen, bladder, kidney, and other meridians, it did not enclose them with the golden radiance as the blood vessels nearby.
There was far more work to do.
At the foreground, a massive coalesced serpent of silver-colored spiritual essence rested within the girl's dantian and meridians – a target needed to be exterminated before any further progress could be made.
The enormous cluster of spiritual essence naturally possessed the deserving intelligence as a creation by a Mortal Tribulation cultivator, and had not been damaged to a significant degree when the Sanctum had purified An Fei's blood vessels.
Though it would be preferred to progress slowly, the Sanctum was far cognizant of the underlying risks that would befall the girl due to the natural toxicity of mortal cultivation and spiritual essence to the girl's body. Hence, instead of delaying it any further, the Sanctum was determined to fully expel the silver-colored spiritual essence and slaughter it tonight.
An Fei was destined to wake exceptionally late tomorrow morning, perhaps not even until nightfall.
The Sanctum of Eternity rumbled as a massive quantity of divine essence gathered at the seventeenth platform of the Archive of Time. The divine essence observed An Fei's body with an unearthly vigilance as if staring down at prey with a vicious glint.
Approaching the girl and infiltrating the body through the fingertips, a strand of the formless and colorless light traveled through the complex pathways of the meridians, racing towards the dantian.
Once the dantian was breached by the thread of divine essence, the interior was exposed to reveal an enormous serpent with silver scales.
The serpent was several hundred meters long, coiled around itself numerous times to minimize its volume. Within the small dantian of the young girl, the serpent easily consumed the entirety of the available space.
Silver scales, durable and elegant, covered its body from head to tail, and shimmered when light descended onto it.
The serpent had been in a slumber when the divine essence breached the walls of the dantian, the long, forked tongue flickering at a rhythmic pace relaxed and lazy.
Unfortunately, upon detecting the presence of an intruding entity of sentience of a similar scale to its own, the serpent hissed in a provocative manner towards the thread of divine essence.
The thread immediately fled from the dantian, retreating far into the pathways of the meridians.
However, it ensured to remain at the fringes of the serpent's range of perception, constantly taunting the latter simply due to its continuing presence.
The serpent snarled, the large mouth opening to reveal two massive, curved fangs, and a bottomless void daring to consume everything in its path. After a moment's hesitation, the serpent darted forth leave the dantian to hunt the malignant thread of divine essence.
Thus, a rather comical but horrifying game of cat-and-mouse ensued; a tiny thread of divine essence led a several hundred meter long serpent of silver spiritual essence throughout the girl's meridians in a disorderly chase.
If the girl was awake to witness such a debacle, it would be a miracle for An Fei to not receive severe mental trauma. A snake many times larger than herself rampaging throughout her body's meridians to hunt a thread of light no longer than a centimeter… would be downright terrifying to witness.
Racing through the girl's conception vessel, the divine essence suddenly escaped from the body, forcing the serpent to slow to a halt. Its head swaying from side to side as the massive tongue flickered, searching for the pesky little thread.
The tongue stilled, and the entire serpent froze, the pair of callous and brutal eyes narrowing with savage wrath.
The serpent's body pulsed with an unearthly silver light, pressing against the current of golden light streaming down the length of the conception vessel.
With a flash, the serpent followed the trail of the thread, detaching itself from An Fei's meridians. In its haste to conquer and pulverize the annoying cluster of divine essence, the serpent had completely removed itself from the girl's body and most particularly, her dantian – only to deeply regret it moments later.
Once it had left the girl's body, a simple glance was enough to deduce that it had run headlong into a trap.
The thread of divine essence had reunited with the major cluster, and enough had gathered to completely saturate the seventeenth platform of the Archives of Time. Thus, while the serpent of silver-colored spiritual essence was difficult to eradicate when hiding within the girl's delicate body, it was a completely different circumstance when outside.
There was no provocative or fearful hiss.
The serpent did not even receive the opportunity to blink or lash with a powerful strike.
Just as spiritual qi or artefacts imbued with spiritual essence originating from a mortal world was toxic to a living entity reforged in the Realm, the converse was equally true and devastating.
The instant the serpent left the girl's body, it disintegrated into countless particles of silver light.
Furthermore, the miniscule particles were demolished into nihility without any hesitation.
With the serpent removed, the majority of the divine essence saturating the atmosphere of the Sanctum returned to its origin, but a significant quantity remained. Hovering above the girl, the formless and colorless light burrowed deeply into the entangled pathways of the meridians, reigniting the forging process once more.
The golden light stormed down An Fei's major meridians to the fullest length, encapsulating each with a powerful golden radiance. The intensity of the light emitted from the reforged meridians was far superior to that of the blood vessels, yet there wasn't any presence of disharmony.
Spiritual essence of the Sanctum circulated through both systems to inundate the dantian, purging all traces of the serpent formed from spiritual essence. Similarly, the golden light ceased to traverse the girl's meridians, having enhanced all of the major meridians except for a select few.
The golden light dissipated, but the girl remained deeply asleep and blissfully unaware…
-
"Damn!"
A frenzied curse erupted within the Slumbering Dawn Residence, startling the remaining servants keeping guard of the residence's inhabitants, the Third Young Miss and Sheng Miaolan from a good night's rest. The woman gazed at the furious Wei Xuan with a scared gaze, her body trembling from the sudden outburst.
Immediately overwhelmed by guilt, the minister reached forth to clasp the First Madam's shoulder, drawing the woman for a warm embrace.
"Sorry for startling you," Wei Xuan cooed, his experienced hands rubbing Sheng Miaolan's back to calm her down.
"I was a little too surprised, and couldn't contain myself."
"Lord Minister, is something wrong?" the woman whispered upon regaining her rationale. Wei Xuan was far too composed and steady-minded to descend into an outburst in the middle of the night as this…
"This…" Wei Xuan murmured, his countenance darkening within mere seconds upon mentioning the matter. Hastily coaxing the woman who began trembling again in fear, the minister slowly explained carefully, ensuring that his choice of words did not startle the woman.
"Earlier, to ensure that Fei'er did not fall into a chaotic state as last time, I placed my spiritual imprint to guard over her body. Just now… it was removed without a single trace, and in an instant as well."
"Huh?"
The First Madam's mind blanked, her eyes glassy from befuddlement. However, when she placed two and two together, the woman released a shocked and terrified gasp, her mouth covered by her hands.
"Lord Minister," the woman breathed in panic.
"Lord Minister is at the late stages of Core Formation… not even someone of the prowess as that of the emperor can eliminate Lord Minister's spiritual imprint in an instant's amount of time… just who is this person!?"
"I don't know. However, Fei'er is safe at the moment. I'll investigate in the morning when there's a better chance of discovering any hidden clues."
Wei Xuan grimly replied, his eyes narrowing with an uncanny light. After ruling out several conjectures, the minister patted the woman next to him, signaling that they return to sleep.
"Lan'er, be good and return to sleeping, alright? Otherwise, don't blame your Lord Minister from enjoying a little nightly fun…"
Exactly who, and how did that person eliminate his spiritual imprint?
That was an imprint of a cultivator who had withstood eleven Mortal Tribulations, not a mere thumbtack Core Formation practitioner.
No one, even those from the Natural Domains, could possibly remove it without alerting his perception.
So how did it get removed in an instant?