The Cold and Aloof Palace Master's Daily Demon-Slaying Life

Deep within the cave at Zixu Peak.

Zuo Qingqiu slowly opened her eyes.

There was no dazzling light, no overwhelming aura, and not even the slightest leakage of spiritual energy. She sat there quietly, her eyes clear like two deep pools, reflecting the sunlight streaming through the "skylight" in the cave ceiling, calm and undisturbed.

However, upon closer inspection, one would discover that deep within those eyes, faint purplish-black lightning flickered, each flash seemingly containing the cycle of birth and death of a world of thunder. Within a three-zhang radius around her, the air exhibited an eerie stillness, and even light passing through it was subtly distorted. This was not intentional, but rather a manifestation of the "Dao Domain" naturally emanating from her life level after its leap, influencing reality.

She looked down at her hands.

Fair-skinned, slender, with distinct knuckles, her skin as smooth as the finest mutton-fat jade. She seemed no different from before.

But only she knew that her hands, her body, and even the primordial spirit within her body had undergone earth-shattering changes.

With a slight thought, the golden pill within his body, the size of a dragon's eye, the color of chaos, and swirling with purple current, trembled gently.

"boom--!!!"

An indescribable, terrifying power surged forth from her golden core, instantly flowing through her limbs and bones. It wasn't spiritual power, but rather a higher, purer, and more fundamental force closer to the Dao—"Immortal Essence." Wherever the Immortal Essence passed, every inch of flesh rejoiced, frantically absorbing and transforming. She could clearly feel that the strength of her physical body, the solidity of her primordial spirit, and her perception and control over the spiritual energy of heaven and earth were dozens of times stronger than when she was at the peak of her Purple Mansion realm!

If she was a surging river when she reached the pinnacle of her Purple Mansion realm, then she is now a vast and boundless ocean.

The nature of power has changed.

Even more mysteriously, she felt her "consciousness" establish an inseparable connection with some unseen entity. That was the [Yin Thunder Fruit], also known as the "Yin Thunder Great Dao," a part of the laws of thunder in the world. Without conscious effort, wisps of Yin Thunder power surged from the void, enveloping her body with effortless ease, as if she were her own limbs. It was as if she herself were the embodiment of thunder, the wielder of the Yin Thunder Great Dao.

This is the power of "fruition".

Having attained the Yin Thunder Fruit status, she became the "representative" of the Yin Thunder Dao in the mortal world. With a mere gesture, she could summon the Yin Thunder of the Nine Heavens, destroying entire regions. She also possessed a natural suppression over cultivators practicing other thunder arts, much like a superior being over an inferior in terms of bloodline.

"So this is... the power of a Golden Core True Monarch...?"

Zuo Qingqiu murmured to herself, her voice echoing in the empty cave, carrying a touch of ethereal quality—the result of her vocal cords being tempered by immortal essence.

More than two hundred years of arduous cultivation, countless days and nights of contemplation, and countless near-death experiences... Today, it has finally blossomed and borne fruit.

From then on, he lived for ten thousand years, roaming freely in the world.

From then on, he took charge of the Dao, and his words became law.

From then on, Zuo Qingqiu became one of the few Golden Core True Monarchs among the hundreds of millions of cultivators on this ancient continent.

However, the joy of becoming a True Lord only lingered in her heart for a brief moment before vanishing without a trace.

Having cultivated for over two hundred years, she had long since attained a clear and enlightened Dao mind, unmoved by external things. The realm of True Lord was merely a stop on the path to immortality, a starting point for climbing even higher peaks, not the end.

Her gaze fell upon the depths of the cave, upon the massive, tightly closed stone door inscribed with countless ancient runes.

It's time to go out.

The elders and the others have probably been waiting for quite some time.

However, before that...

With a slight thought, Zuo Qingqiu's consciousness sank into the ancestral aperture between his eyebrows, into the Purple Mansion that had already transformed into the "Golden Core Space".

The Purple Mansion was no longer a hundred miles wide, but had shrunk to a radius of ten zhang. However, the "quality" of this ten-zhang space was far superior to before. In the center of the space, the Chaos Thunder Golden Pill the size of a dragon's eye floated quietly and slowly rotated. With each rotation, it absorbed and released a massive amount of immortal energy, nourishing the space itself.

Below the Golden Core, at the foundation of the original Purple Mansion, a tiny, almost imperceptible "flaw" caught her attention.

That wasn't a real flaw, but rather an extremely hidden "shackle" that was almost integrated with her very soul.

If she hadn't advanced to the Golden Core stage, undergoing a leap in the essence of her soul and gaining unprecedented insight into herself, there would have been no way she could have discovered this.

A...shackle on the primordial spirit?

Zuo Qingqiu's heart stirred. She had never placed any restrictions on her primordial spirit, nor had she ever cultivated any techniques that required sealing her memories.

Where does this shackle come from?

With a thought, the golden core trembled slightly, and a wisp of condensed immortal essence transformed into purplish-black lightning, striking the shackles.

"Click."

A soft, crisp sound, like glass shattering, echoed deep within the soul.

There was no resistance, no backlash. The shackles were as fragile as paper before the lightning of the Golden Core level, instantly turning to dust.

The moment the shackles shattered, a vast and unfamiliar torrent of memories, sealed away for over two hundred years, surged into Zuo Qingqiu's consciousness.

It was a bizarre and fantastical world.

There are no cultivators who can fly or escape into the earth, no demons who can move mountains and overturn seas, and no elixirs that can prolong life.

There are towering steel forests, endless streams of metal boxes, "cell phones" that allow face-to-face conversations across thousands of miles, "airplanes" that can carry people into the sky, and "nuclear bombs" that can destroy cities...

The people there have short lifespans, no more than a hundred years. They do not cultivate spiritual power or comprehend the Great Dao, but instead use a different method called "technology" to transform the world and explore the stars.

The owner of this memory lived in a city called "Jiangcheng". He was born ordinary, grew up ordinary, attended an ordinary university, found an ordinary job, and lived an ordinary life of working nine to five, often working overtime, and worrying about car loans, mortgages, and future generations.

Until one day, while working late into the night, he was walking home when he was hit by an out-of-control truck...

My last conscious thought was of the blinding headlights, the screech of brakes, and the eerie, almost soul-leaping lightness as my body was lifted into the air.

Then came boundless darkness.

From that moment on, they died.

Zuo Qingqiu, however, survived.

The torrent of memories comes quickly and goes quickly.

For Zuo Qingqiu now, that was merely the brief life of an ordinary mortal of twenty-odd years. She, however, had cultivated in this world for over two hundred years. The sheer volume of their memories, the depth of their emotions, and their anchoring of self-awareness were on completely different levels.

She calmly "watched" his life, as if she were watching a long and real first-person tale of illusion and mirage.

"I see……"

Zuo Qingqiu opened her eyes, the purple lightning in her eyes disappeared, and she regained her deep calm.

"The Transmigrator...The Mystery of the Womb..."

She murmured to herself, her voice revealing little emotion.