Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

The backlash from the fragmented memories continued for several days.

Xuan Kongzi's portrayal of Lord Jinyang Mountain was flawless; not only did the Demon King have no suspicions, but the other guardians of the kingdom also remained unsuspecting.

The main reason is that it was originally the physical body of Lord Jinyang, and the aura was exactly the same.

It was simply turned into a puppet by Xuan Kongzi, and his every move was controlled by Xuan Kongzi.

Most importantly, Xuan Kongzi can still see the memories of the former Lord Jin Yang, and he can always answer probing questions with ease.

Soon, the City of Ten Thousand Demons returned to its former order.

After Gou An became the hall master, he was much more leisurely than before. Every time he did not cultivate, he would try to refine pills for the princess.

In order to find the root cause of the illness, Gou An went to the Sutra Repository of the General Elixir Hall.

There are many alchemical texts and prescriptions here, but most of them are obscure. Gou An had been here a few times before, and he felt dizzy after only a few glances.

Gou An was going to great lengths to become a protector of the country as soon as possible, forcing himself to study alchemical texts for several hours every day.

These alchemical texts mostly discuss the principles of alchemy and are largely theoretical.

Originally collected by Master Cangxuan for alchemists in the Pill Hall to learn and improve their alchemy skills, but usually not many people are willing to come here to learn.

Compared to theory, most people still prefer hands-on experience.

In the past, Gou An's alchemy practice mostly started from hands-on experience. Although this method led to rapid progress, he only knew how to do many steps without understanding why.

After learning the theory, and combining it with his excellent practical skills, his mastery of Daoist alchemy improved significantly without him even realizing it.

In addition, Gou An also discovered many interesting elixir formulas in the library.

One of the pill formulas is called Huayuan Dan.

Its function is to allow ordinary wild beasts to condense a demon core and transform into low-level demon beasts.

This thing may seem useless, but it is very important to Gou An.

Because the Palm Heaven Diagram is full of wild beasts, but there are no demonic beasts.

So much so that Gou An couldn't even use the Transformation Pill to directly increase manpower in the Palm Heaven Diagram.

With this item, all problems were easily solved.

First, use the Transformation Pill to make the beast grow a demon core, and then use the Transformation Pill to transform the beast into human form.

In this way, there is no need to buy slaves from outside, and the number of laborers inside can be increased.

In addition, Gou An also discovered a classic text on alchemy that specifically explains headaches, which includes descriptions of the various causes of headaches.

In this world, there are many causes of headaches.

For example, there may be parasitic worms that erode and infest the soul, causing damage and cracks, erysipelas accumulating in the skull, possession of another's body leading to memory fragments backlash, being haunted by evil spirits, or being caused by deep-seated obsessions.

Seeing these different reasons, Gou An began to eliminate them one by one.

The first thing to rule out is damage to the soul, because the pills that Yun Yao took to repair her soul have no effect on her now.

The possibility of parasitic infestation by Gu worms and erysipelas accumulating in the skull was also ruled out, because Gou An had examined Yun Yao's body and found no such obvious problems.

That leaves only the third reason: possessing another's body leading to a backlash of memory fragments, being haunted by evil spirits, and having too deep an obsession.

Gou An quickly ruled out the possibility of being possessed by evil spirits. Who was Yun Yao? The Demon King's queen. What evil spirit would dare to possess her?

Even if it existed, the Demon King should have been able to detect it given his strength.

Does that mean Yun Yao's current body has been possessed?

Thinking of this, Gou An immediately went to read the alchemical texts that specifically addressed the aftereffects of possession.

It describes how, in many cases, the soul and body cannot perfectly merge during the method of possession, which leads to the soul shifting.

If the physical body has not fully refined the original owner's memories, it will cause the two memories to collide, leading to a qi deviation.

Compared to this, headaches are minor issues.

Many people who successfully possess another's body eventually go insane, their soul and body begin to reject each other, and they may even explode and die.

If Yun Yao's headache is indeed caused by this reason, the Demon King will definitely try to find a way to cure him.

So that reason is also unlikely, leaving only the last remaining obsession.

Obsession is such a mysterious thing; it cannot be touched or seen, and even the person holding it may not be able to detect it.

It was as if something was bothering her, and just thinking about it would give her a headache.

According to descriptions in alchemical texts, headaches caused by this reason cannot be cured by elixirs.

Only by getting rid of this obsession can the headache be cured at its root.

Although the alchemical texts state that it cannot be cured, they do provide several elixirs that can suppress headaches caused by this condition.

After copying down these prescriptions, Gou An left the Scripture Pavilion.

After returning, he began to work on refining the pills he had obtained. Although these pills could only relieve headaches, they could not completely cure them.

It's like numbing the nerves in the head, physically relieving the headache.

In addition, Gou An refined another batch of Huayuan Pills and Huaxing Pills, which he sent into the Palm Heaven Diagram for Liu Dayong to try.

Gou An, on the other hand, opened the Palm Heaven Map and witnessed the entire process.

Liu Dayong acted quickly, catching dozens of common wild animals, from birds to beasts, and even several turtles from the river.

Then they started testing the drugs one by one.

The most obvious change in these ordinary wild beasts after consuming the Transformation Pill is that their size begins to increase, although this process is very slow.

This allowed Gou An to accelerate the process using spirit stones.

After several days of changes in the Heavenly Palm Diagram, the fastest beast successfully condensed its demon core in two days, while the slowest was a carp, which took seven days.

The more intelligent a beast is, the faster it can condense its demon core.

However, Gou An did not rush to feed them the Transformation Pills, because the probability of a first-tier demon beast exploding after consuming a Transformation Pill was very high. So Gou An had Liu Dayong keep them in captivity.

They fed them daily with a special feed made from the spiritual plants and fruits grown in the spiritual field, plus the spiritual residue from the pills refined by Gou An that still contained spiritual energy.

This process is accelerating the process of the Heavenly Diagram. Under such conditions, it would take a month for a first-tier demon beast to break through to the second tier.

It takes three months to go from second-order to third-order.

The transition from third to fourth order takes more than a year.

The transition from fourth to fifth tier takes even longer. Gou An didn't continue testing, but it's estimated to take at least five or six years.

However, ordinary demonic beasts can forcibly transform into human form using the Transformation Pill at the third rank, without needing to advance too many ranks.

So after experimentation, Gou An finally set a unified standard for Liu Dayong: once a monster is cultivated to the third rank, it should be expedited to transform using a Transformation Pill, and then it can be incorporated into the team and used as a laborer.

With more manpower, the probability of finding the spiritual materials needed for the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir will be higher.

After putting away the Heavenly Palm Diagram, Gou An stretched and yawned. It was already daylight outside.

It's time to go and see the Demon King again, offer him new pills, and take the opportunity to diagnose whether Princess Yunyao is truly troubled by some kind of obsession.