Jiang Yuebai brought Xie Jingshan to the village of the Qingteng tribe in the Green Vine Country, explaining their intention. The village chief agreed to let them stay on the outermost part of the village, prohibiting entry into the village center.

The village of the Green Vine Country has only a surrounding wall. Inside the wall, trees are dense, and the extraordinary people of the Grass and Wood Clan live on the trees, weaving nests like bird nests with vines.

Under the watch of two Green Vine extraordinary people, Jiang Yuebai activated the White Vine on her body and wove vine nests under the ancient tree.

Xie Jingshan, with nothing to do, stood by with his arms crossed, his pair of dog ears slightly twitching, listening to the two Green Vine extraordinary people chat.

"...Her White Vine is so beautiful, and her cultivation is so high, I’m so envious."

"Recently, all countries are unstable. It would be good if the chief could keep her."

"Are you talking about the Wind Hoof Country incident? That was strange, too. I heard that all the corpses of the Wind Hoof extraordinary people disappeared. The bodies of other extraordinary people remain in their original places, just like the Feather Clan extraordinary people advancing to the Golden Core Stage, devouring their kin..."

"Hush! We shouldn’t talk carelessly about this. It’s a taboo and a secret of the Feather Clan. Moreover, Fufeng Mountain Master also said that devouring kin may not necessarily help one advance; it might lead to falling into demon and dying. Think about it, if advancing to the Golden Core Stage were so easy, what would the Extraordinary People Country become?"

"It is indeed terrifying. If our extraordinary people wish to advance to the Golden Core Stage, we can only rely on the Moonlight Flowing Cup. Unfortunately, we simply can’t compete with the Demon Clan. The Moonlight Flowing Cup, which happens once every sixty years, is approaching, and the Demon Clan is going to hold a divine sacrifice ceremony again. I heard that the troops of the Night Wolf Country are heading towards the Demon Clan already."

"Joining the Demon Clan after passing their test is indeed better than being half-human half-demon here as an extraordinary person."

"How did she weave it so quickly?"

In just a few exchanged words, Jiang Yuebai had already woven two vine nests, hanging them under the thickest branch of the ancient tree, like two silk cocoons.

Jiang Yuebai nodded as a gesture to the two people, transmitting a message to Xie Jingshan.

"I’ll be in closed cultivation for three to five days. If you have nothing to do, go out and explore, see if there are places around Four Feathers Mountain with fewer guards."

Xie Jingshan nodded, and Jiang Yuebai went into her vine nest and sealed the door.

Her "Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill" was about to breakthrough to the second layer of the Golden Core Chapter. Just as the Supreme Elder said, she has a Heavenly Grade Golden Core and a Heavenly Grade Demon Core, and the advancement in her main cultivation technique synchronizes with the advancement of the "Immortal Grass Scripture."

Conversely, the "Immortal Grass Scripture" is also promoting the "Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill."

A couple of days ago, she successfully grafted the Undying Vine, integrating its characteristics into the White Vine, causing the proficiency of the "Immortal Grass Scripture" to suddenly soar, which led to the breakthrough of the "Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill."

Jiang Yuebai roughly estimated through the system panel that when she breaks through to the mid-stage Golden Core, the proficiency of the "Immortal Grass Scripture" will reach its peak.

Right now, cutting the Lingzhi above her head would damage the Golden Core, so she shouldn’t act rashly.

"The two Green Vine extraordinary people just mentioned the Moonlight Flowing Cup and the Demon Clan’s divine sacrifice. Maybe I should reach the Demon Clan before then."

Jiang Yuebai glanced at the Immortal Cultivation Data Panel. The "Smoke Escape" breakthrough to great success, combined with the poisonous miasma in the Night Condensation Smoke Stick, allows her to come and go unnoticed in battle, performing better than the former ’Sky-Breaking Flash.’

The "Thousand Leaves All Things Hand" is also close to a breakthrough, about to grow the fifth pair of leaf hands. It’s harder to cultivate as she progresses, and because she’s getting busier, she gradually sets it aside, only practicing for a while during idle moments.

Wind Net, Heavenly Eye Technique, and Ice Arrow Technique are small spells she uses for practice. Through continuous testing and improvement, they have all become extraordinary.

The calculation and fusion of the "Vajra Furnace Skill" and the "Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique," with Shi Xiaowu’s help before, have now been practiced by her to be very smooth and integrated.

The "Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique" in the Organ Realm can also ignite five furnaces, besides increasing strength fivefold, it also generates a strong yang energy within her body.

However, this energy is too strong and causes an imbalance of yin and yang within her body. Her Five Spirits Body can only sustain it for a quarter of an hour.

Next, she has to rely on herself to improve the complex "Green Dragon Spear Technique," incorporating the feasible parts of the "Burning Hundred Spear Technique" to modify it so that even those in the Upper Realm won’t recognize it.

After learning the calculation method in the "Great Derivation Scripture," Jiang Yuebai had a sudden idea: Can the demon art also be calculated and improved as the human clan’s cultivation technique can?

Unfortunately, her little demon technique was learned through a sudden enlightenment and lacked the learning process, making it impossible to understand the composition of each part and, thus, unable to break it down into numbers.

Jiang Yuebai retracted her thoughts and considered for a while, releasing the Crane Feather Avatar and the Puppet Avatar, along with Jixiang and Little Green.

"After sneaking into the Iron Feather Country, there is a high possibility of a fierce battle. I must prepare in advance."

Jixiang was about to faint from hunger again, so Jiang Yuebai fed it some golden spiritual energy. Whether they could infiltrate the Iron Feather Country smoothly would depend on this little guy.

Little Green watched from the side, with the lantern gradually turning from green to red, the phosphorous flames burning fiercely on both sides.

"Little Green, it will be extremely dangerous during my closed cultivation these few days. I entrust my safety entirely to you."

Upon hearing this, the red light on the Little Green Lantern instantly faded away, returning to a green light.

[Leave it to me]

A flash of talismanic light from the Divine Concealment Talisman on the lantern, Little Green vanished without a trace, floating above Jiang Yuebai’s head, intensely vigilant.

Currently, it only has the Divine Concealment Talisman. The mark of the talisman will gradually fade and vanish with use, requiring continuous deepening of the rune imprint.

Jiang Yuebai already had an idea about what materials to use to make talismanic sand for drawing long-lasting charms.

The Crane Feather Avatar continued to verify and improve the formulas of the Green Dragon Spear Technique, while the Puppet Avatar took out Star Meteorite Iron, slowly cutting it into sixty-four even pieces, preparing for making the array sign in the preliminary stage.

Once everything was ready, Jiang Yuebai’s main body began meditation and internal energy circulation.

[You started cultivating, absorbing nature’s spiritual energy, Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill proficiency +300]

[You started cultivating, passively receiving nature’s spiritual energy, Immortal Grass Scripture proficiency +300]

[...Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill proficiency +300]

[...Immortal Grass Scripture proficiency +300]

*

Five days later.

[Congratulations, your Five Elements Returning to Truth Skill Golden Core Chapter successfully broke through to the Second Layer]

[That girl struck by lightning, her cultivation speed is really fast]

Jiang Yuebai woke up from meditation, seeing the panel’s messages, sometimes she really wanted to dig this thing out to see why it chatted so much every day.

This Immortal Cultivation Panel was currently the most curious yet perplexing existence to her, abstract things like enlightenment could be manifested as an Enlightenment Tree.

But this panel existed for real in her mind, and she couldn’t find a trace of it.

She didn’t think much of it before, but as her cultivation increased and her knowledge broadened, occasionally thinking deeply would leave her breaking out in cold sweat from her own conspiracy theories.

Retracting her avatars, Jiang Yuebai tucked Jixiang into her sleeve and, with the invisible Little Green, went out to find Xie Jingshan.

When she found him, he was on the grass outside the Mole Country’s village, playing cuju with some rat children and pangolin children.

Xie Jingshan dribbled past opponents with flair, executing an overhead kick that shot the vine ball into a tree hollow, causing the surrounding children to cry out and scatter.

Seeing Jiang Yuebai, Xie Jingshan scratched his dog ears and ran over.

"You’re out of seclusion? How did it go?"

Jiang Yuebai nodded, "How did the reconnaissance go?"

Xie Jingshan puffed out his chest, "I took matters into my own hands and naturally made some discoveries. Thanks to those children, they have the nature to roam and play everywhere. They found a place where the Feather Clan guards rarely patrol."

"Let’s go take a look."

Xie Jingshan led the way, the two of them using invisibility to avoid the Extraordinary People from the different villages and the patrolling Feather Clan overhead, making their way around to a sheer cliff on the side of Four Feathers Mountain.

The rugged terrain was indeed challenging for those Extraordinary People with lower cultivation, but for Jiang Yuebai and Xie Jingshan, it posed no problem at all.

The two of them easily climbed to the top of the mountain, where the peak was very thin, just over a zhang wide, and the Great Array protecting the Iron Feather Country’s border was almost touching their faces.

The cold winds howled at high altitudes, and without a bit of cultivation, anyone could easily be blown away by the wind.

Jiang Yuebai stood outside the Great Array, looking inward; she could only see dense forest, with no sign of any buildings.

After a careful inspection, she released Jixiang. Jixiang sniffed around the Great Array’s barrier and then started biting at it.

Xie Jingshan was startled and was about to intervene when he suddenly realized the array hadn’t been triggered. Jixiang was munching on it like it was a vegetable leaf, and in no time, it had gnawed a fist-sized gap in the Great Array’s barrier.

"This rat of yours... name your price!"

Jiang Yuebai glanced at him, "Jixiang’s not for sale. If you want, you can go look for Yun Shang after we return to the sect."

Xie Jingshan suddenly remembered Yun Shang selecting mates for Jixiang before; it turned out it was for breeding such array-breaking spiritual rats. No, he must get involved quickly!

Jixiang could break the array but was slow at biting. Jiang Yuebai sat next to it with a notebook and some charcoal pencils, solving problems, while Xie Jingshan stood with hands in his pockets, watching Jixiang eat.

After a full two incense sticks’ worth of time, Jixiang let out a tired breath, having bitten open a dog-sized hole, though the edges of the dog hole were steadily healing inward.

Through the dog hole, they saw it was no longer a forest inside, but a vast tree city, each building resembling gigantic bird nests distributed sporadically among the ancient forest.

It was like a lost fairyland; at the forest’s center, overlapping high mountains and cascading waterfalls, mist rose to form wind-shaped patterns.

At the top of the visible mountains, a blue-tiled courtyard with winged eaves stood out against the surroundings, completely mismatched with the surrounding tree villages.

Xie Jingshan’s eyes flickered, "That courtyard looks like the Inner Sect Disciple Courtyard I once stayed at in the Heavenly Interence Sect."