After the clan competition ended, Ling Yue followed her mother back to the northern manor.
Ye Huang Yu looked exhausted and didn't say a word. She went straight to her room, leaving Ling Yue alone.
"Is Mother angry with me?" Ling Yue tugged at Granny Liu's sleeve, worried.
"Little Miss, the Third Miss isn't angry. She's just been terribly worried about you," Granny Liu gently explained. "Ever since you entered the mountains, she hasn't eaten or drunk anything properly for an entire month."
Hearing this, Ling Yue's heart warmed. Though she was no longer the same slow-witted girl from before, since regaining her senses, her mother had constantly showered her with love and concern.
Just like this time—Ye Huang Yu standing up to her own brother wasn't just out of anger, but out of a mother's instinct to protect her daughter.
Suddenly, a series of weak, dry coughs came from Ye Huang Yu's room.
Ling Yue immediately understood. Her mother had used her Yuan energy again because of her—now the chronic injury was acting up.
If only she had a fifth-rank medicinal pill! But a single one cost thousands of gold coins. Where would she ever find that kind of money? The very thought made Ling Yue frown.
After handing the wild animals she'd caught in the mountains to Granny Liu, she returned to her room and examined the piece of jade in her hand.
It wasn't large—about the size of a child's palm—with decent carvings. Under the light, it shone emerald green with a faint gray hue mixed in.
"It doesn't look that special," Ling Yue muttered, pouting in disappointment.
The Xuan Yuan Jade was known to speed up a martial artist's absorption of Yuan energy from the heavens and earth, but Ling Yue already had the Vitality Condensing Liquid, which had a similar effect.
Just as she was about to toss the jade aside, the cauldron mark on her right hand suddenly began to vibrate.
Still confused, Ling Yue watched as the cauldron released a thread of fine, white smoke into the air.
"Is this the cauldron's smoke?" Ling Yue recalled the records in the Grand Mist Sky Codex, which said the cauldron was conscious. After years of refining spirit herbs and medicines, it had developed a special form of energy called "spirit smoke."
The white smoke in front of her now was exactly that—cauldron spirit smoke.
As if it had sensed something delicious, the smoke instantly pounced on the Xuan Yuan Jade like a hungry animal.
The moment it touched the jade, a vivid image burst into Ling Yue's mind.
Inside her consciousness, the small jade expanded into a vast emerald field, revealing its inner world!
However, scattered across the green expanse were dozens of black dots—impurities that explained the jade's poor quality.
The white smoke started squirming and slithering around the impurities, devouring each one with precision.
Before long, all the impurities were gone. The jade's green glow became purer and more luminous.
In contrast, the white smoke looked murkier now, as though it had absorbed the contaminants. Satisfied, it drifted back into the cauldron and disappeared.
Ling Yue stared in stunned silence.
When she looked at the Xuan Yuan Jade again, it had completely changed. It was now crystal clear, as if someone had etched beautiful patterns into a calm lake. Even the carvings looked more refined.
What's more, the jade now felt cool and soothing to the touch.
If Ye Qing or his father saw it now, they would never recognize it as the same jade they had lost earlier that day.
Still unaware of its true value, Ling Yue brought the pendant to her mother for appraisal.
As soon as Ye Huang Yu saw it, she froze in shock.
"Where did you get this Xuan Yin Jade?" she asked, eyes wide.
"This is the same Xuan Yuan Jade that Ye Qing dropped," Ling Yue replied, confused.
"That can't be. That was just a Xuan Yuan Jade. How did it become a Xuan Yin Jade?" Ye Huang Yu's sharp eyes had immediately spotted the difference.
Xuan Yuan Jade was a low-grade spirit jade used by martial artists to gather Yuan energy. Xuan Yin Jade, on the other hand, was a mid-grade jade that could help high-level martial artists break through bottlenecks by absorbing the dark Yin energy in the environment.
Despite just one word of difference in name, the two jades were worlds apart in value. A nail-sized piece of Xuan Yuan Jade might cost five hundred silver, but this Xuan Yin Jade would easily sell for over a thousand silver.
If Ye Huang Cheng had known what he'd dropped, there was no way he would've let it go so easily.
A thousand silver! Ling Yue's palm began to sweat just thinking about it. Even so, it wasn't enough to buy the fifth-rank medicinal pill her mother needed.
As for how the jade had transformed, Ye Huang Yu had no idea. All she could do was give her daughter a reminder.
"Sweetie, keep this jade safe. Don't let anyone find out about it. Once you reach the fifth rank, use it to draw out the Yin energy from the Yuan energy around you. It'll help strengthen your muscles and bones. That kind of foundation will be essential when you try to enter the upper celestial realm."
Starting from the fifth stage of body training, cultivators could begin to infuse Yin energy into their bodies. The earlier they began, the greater their future potential.
Ye Huang Yu still believed her daughter was only at the fourth rank. She didn't know Ling Yue had already advanced to the fifth rank.
"I understand, Mother. Oh, by the way—when I was training in the mountains, I happened to stumble upon a kind of wine. I drank some and managed to break through because of it. Maybe it could help your injury too."
Ling Yue pulled a small bottle of Hundred Fruit Wine from beneath her robes, having prepared it in advance for this moment.