Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

After confirming that the herbs were correct and that his spiritual energy was abundant, the uncle slowly straightened his slightly aching back and pushed open the door.

In an instant, the rich spiritual energy emanating from the herbs in the bathtub wafted out of the room, forming a faint green mist that spread outwards.

"Oh~" The girl's gaze immediately shifted to the middle-aged man: "All done?"

"Yeah, remember to be careful... You should remember all the points I told you before, right?"

"I remember!"

The girl grinned, revealing two rows of bright teeth, her eyes curving into crescent moons: "I will still try my best to remember such important things."

"Then go ahead. I'll keep watch outside for you. If there are any problems, call me immediately."

The middle-aged man slowly leaned against the wall beside the door and picked up the gourd of wine from his waist—drinking was his way of relieving fatigue.

The girl nodded, then dragged her stiff body and limped into the room.

crunch--

As the door closed, the man slowly closed his eyes.

These past few days, they've been extremely worried about Zhang Ruoxue.

First, Zhang Ruoxue was helped to recover from the life-threatening situation using the method Zhang Xiaohan had described. Then, her physical body was to be tempered. Although the mark of the Buddhist and Taoist judgment had indeed been greatly weakened, tempering the body and improving cultivation were essential for her recovery.

This is also why the uncle pours his spiritual energy into the bathtub.

While soaking in the medicinal bath, Zhang Ruoxue's physical body will receive unprecedented training. With her strange physique, she may be able to absorb the spiritual energy in the herbs more perfectly, and that spiritual energy will also be input into Zhang Ruoxue's body.

A sudden enlightenment—to put it bluntly, this spiritual energy will greatly enhance Zhang Ruoxue's cultivation level; however, given the sheer volume of spiritual energy, Zhang Ruoxue will need to spend some time consuming it.

Now it's up to her...

—The sound of a girl entering the water reached my ears.

A sharp hissing sound suddenly echoed throughout the room—this was the terrifying sound that should have been heard during the final stage of tempering the mortal body, corroding the skin and even the bones.

However, judging from the previous medicinal baths, Zhang Ruoxue seemed to feel no pain at all, and even found it very comfortable—all thanks to her strange constitution, as if she had been smashed and then reassembled.

A constitution that teeters on the brink of life and death...

"What incredible connections..."

That's a network of connections that even an older man has to admire.

Neither the special woman who brought Zhang Ruoxue and Zhang Xiaohan here, nor the person who recommended Zhang Ruoxue here, were easy to deal with.

In addition, the dog that always followed her was actually a celestial demon who was invincible in ancient times.

—Her identity and background are unbelievable. I was really wrong to think she was just an ordinary cultivator.

"She went in?"

A girl's light and slightly childish voice came from beside my ear.

The man lowered his head slightly and noticed a small dog with curly brown fur lying on the wooden fence, curled up and seemingly closing its eyes wearily.

Its ears drooped down to the sides of its cheeks, but this made it impossible to see its expression.

The man was certain he was hearing human language, so he looked at it with some surprise: "You can speak human language in this posture now?"

“My vocal cords have recovered…” Zhang Xiaohan’s voice sounded a bit hoarse, “but not completely. This is all thanks to that beast who chopped off my head earlier…”

"The people from the Ash Demon Alliance are indeed quite irritable."

"More than just irritable." Zhang Xiaohan turned his head, his tone tinged with resentment: "They're simply unreasonable. To be so ruthless towards my current form shows that they have absolutely no compassion. They even kill dogs so cruelly!"

Faced with Zhang Xiaohan's remarks, the uncle shrugged without comment.

Come to think of it, she chose to become a dog herself.

Seeing that the uncle didn't respond, Zhang Xiaohan pouted and then looked at the shadow reflected on the door—the shadow of a girl sitting in the bathtub, undergoing the sublimation of her mortal body.

How is she?

The uncle knew what she was asking, spread his hands, and said, "It's like that. Even with your... help, there will still be some aftereffects. But after this body tempering, it will probably get much better."

"How much spiritual energy did you give her?"

"It should be enough for her to reach the peak of the Transformation Realm. If she puts in more effort, she might be able to step into the threshold of Godhood."

The uncle's words made Zhang Xiaohan open his eyes, his dark dog eyes filled with astonishment: "A god?!"

"What, still think it's too low?" A bitter smile crept onto the uncle's lips: "I've really tried my best."

“No, quite the opposite…” Zhang Xiaohan looked at the uncle with gratitude, then closed her eyes and lowered her head to avoid being noticed by his strange gaze: “It’s a bit beyond my expectations.”

"After all, my daughter seems to really like her."

“I can see that.”

—Even Yunping'er wanted to sleep with Xu Yanliu, that lesbian, let alone Zhang Ruoxue?

However, the uncle denied Zhang Xiaohan's somewhat sordid speculation.

He shook his head at Zhang Xiaohan and smiled, "It's not that kind of liking. Her liking is probably more pure."

"You just want to have physical relations?"

"..."

The uncle rolled his eyes at Zhang Xiaohan and then said, "I guess you could say there's a strange sense of familiarity with her. After all, that girl Liu'er, like Ruoxue, used to deal with demons."

"Demons?" Zhang Xiaohan frowned slightly.

"It's just a rather old-fashioned story." The uncle sighed with a hint of regret: "Back when I first opened the pharmacy, I was very particular about herbs. All the herbs were carefully categorized and placed in different herb warehouses. Even though there weren't many customers back then, I still stocked the herbs that were needed."

"Liu'er was helping me manage the medicine storehouse back then—although she wasn't very willing to do it, she couldn't sit still for a moment, and would run out to drink whenever she had free time; she was incredibly playful."

Zhang Xiaohan completely agreed with this statement. Don't forget that the path in the spirit field of the Jin Yao Dao Alliance was dug by Xu Yanliu.

With her personality, it would be a miracle if she stayed idle.

At this point, the uncle's smile vanished: "Then one day, I noticed that some herbs were missing from the accounts, so I went to ask Liu'er. I'm not always in charge of the medicine storehouse, so my first thought was that Liu'er was causing trouble."

"As a result, Liu'er strongly denied that she did it and believed that a thief had broken into the medicine storehouse."

"It turns out that it was indeed a thief, and moreover, a fox demon."

"A fox demon?" Zhang Xiaohan stuck out his tongue, licked his lips, and looked at the uncle with a strange expression. "A fox demon probably wouldn't like a place like the Netherworld, would it?"

The uncle nodded: "There is no territory for fox demons in the Netherworld. That fox demon came from outside, just like you. Liu'er followed that fox demon to her cave. She originally wanted to kill her, but she found out that the reason why the fox demon stole the herbs was because she and her children were injured by the people of the Ash Demon Alliance. She said that when she rushed there, the fox demon was burying her children who died from their serious injuries."

Zhang Xiaohan turned her head away and snorted coldly: "Then she didn't attack that fox demon—humph, that's really old-fashioned."

The uncle did not refute this. "Yes, it's a very old-fashioned way. Then this girl started taking herbs from the herb storehouse for her regularly. Although she tried to cover it up, she couldn't hide it from me. But I didn't intend to expose her."

"They spent a long time together, well, a very long time... I can't even remember how long, but they seemed to grow closer and closer and find it harder and harder to be apart from each other."

"They raised the fox cubs together, and honestly, they were quite adorable..."

"only……"

Just like many beautiful stories, the ending is often a tragedy.

"Although Liu'er tried to hide her tracks throughout the process, the Jin Yao Alliance eventually found them."

"after……"

Zhang Xiaohan slightly raised her eyelids, and breathed out through her nose: "I can roughly guess what happened next."

Now, Xu Yanliu is not seen with the fox demon, nor are those cute little foxes.

Zhang Xiaohan could guess what their fate would be.

It was as if she could guess her own fate.

Zhang Xiaohan slowly got up from the wooden railing, dragging her slightly tired body, and turned to look at the uncle.

"I'll leave my older sister to you."

Why are you suddenly saying something like that?

"No, it's nothing."

Zhang Xiaohan descended the stairs step by step. Because she was currently in canine form, her posture and speed as she went down the stairs were somewhat strange.

Without turning her head, she said, "I'm going back to rest for a while. Let me know when she wakes up."

"The treatment is about to enter its final stage—"

Finally...?

The middle-aged man looked at Zhang Xiaohan with a complicated expression and asked in a deep voice, "Are you alright?"

"..."

Zhang Xiaohan did not answer the question.

78. That's all there is to it.

As time went by, Zhang Ruoxue did not come out of the room. Instead, she seemed to be immersed in her own world, and she did not make a sound.

She remained immersed in the medicinal bath throughout, and her internal spiritual energy showed no abnormalities whatsoever.

The middle-aged man leaned against the wall—he had been waiting there for about five hours, during which Zhang Ruoxue had not uttered a single word to him.

This certainly doesn't mean that something happened to Zhang Ruoxue; on the contrary, it's exactly the scene that the uncle had in mind.

The final step in body tempering—tempering the temperer's soul and body together to achieve a state where the soul is compatible with the body—is bound to be accompanied by some difficulties, and fainting is perfectly normal.

Zhang Ruoxue's soul was not particularly strong; compared to her unique physical body, her soul appeared somewhat weak.

This is the final medicinal bath for body tempering, and the final process for refining the mortal body. Once she survives it, she will possess a physical body that can grow stronger as her divine soul grows stronger, and can be integrated into the Great Dao.

The ultimate form of the mortal body—

The path leading there will be a road.

Although other Great Daos can usually be infused into Zhang Ruoxue's body, the one with the strongest compatibility is still the one from countless years ago, who also tempered his physique to the extreme and integrated the two words "physical body" into the Great Dao.

Empress Wu, Gu Tianren.

Yes, the first person to think of tempering the mortal body and directly integrating it into the Great Dao was the first immortal of all time who created the martial arts path—the Martial Emperor.

If, just if—if Zhang Ruoxue could one day reach the level of a saint, then her physique would become the embodiment of martial arts, just like the Tongtian Buddha who injured her soul, but she herself is the embodiment of the Great Dao!