Former Photographs of Tu Shan Youyao

The next moment, Gu Changyuan returned to the quiet room on the top floor of the Sky Demon Tower.

Ye Qingxue was sitting cross-legged at the core of the formation. The fierce, sky-piercing sword intent surrounding her was rapidly withdrawing and settling within her.

She slowly opened her eyes. Countless tiny sword shadows seemed to be born and destroyed within them, ultimately returning to a clear and profound calmness.

Seeing Gu Changyuan appear before her, a genuine and bright smile instantly rippled through Ye Qingxue's usually ice-cold eyes.

She immediately stood up and bowed to Gu Changyuan with respect and intimacy:

"Master."

Gu Changyuan nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over her carefully.

At this moment, Ye Qingxue's aura was even more condensed and vast than before. Her cultivation had impressively broken through from the peak of the Eighth Stage of the Half-Immortal Realm to the Ninth Stage in one fell swoop.

The sword intent lingering around her possessed a bit more of a harmonious perfection that blended into the void and existed everywhere. Clearly, her comprehension of the Grand Void Sword Dao and the Laws of the Sword had reached an entirely new level.

"Not bad," Gu Changyuan praised. To be able to initially refine the Holy Bone and make such great progress in such a short time was enough to show Ye Qingxue's solid foundation and outstanding talent.

"It is all thanks to the profundity of the Holy Bone bestowed by Master," Ye Qingxue replied.

Gu Changyuan smiled and didn't exchange any more pleasantries.

He walked to the side of a large bed covered with soft brocade cushions, sat down casually, and then reached out to gently pat the empty space beside him.

Ye Qingxue understood his intention. Without any hesitation, she also walked to the bed and sat down beside Gu Changyuan.

The two sat shoulder to shoulder, their gazes simultaneously turning toward Bai Ling'er, Yue Lingxi, and Tushan Youyao, who were still concentrating on refining within the formation.

Since there was nothing to do for the time being, the master and disciple began their idle chat in this quiet and private space.

The topic naturally turned to Ye Qingxue's experiences over the past thousand years—how she managed the Holy Land, how she dealt with various factions...

Only in front of her Master could Ye Qingxue relax so unreservedly, reverting to the self who could confide, who could rely on someone, and who didn't have to be strong all the time.

The two chatted casually like this, and time quietly slipped away.

About two or three hours later, a second powerful fluctuation of aura came from the direction of the assembly hall on the third floor of the Sky Demon Tower. Its nature was ethereal and dreamlike, as if it could lull people to sleep—it was Lan Caiyou who had finished refining the Holy Bone.

Gu Changyuan and Ye Qingxue exchanged a glance and stood up together.

"Let's go take a look," Gu Changyuan said, bringing Ye Qingxue to the second-floor hall in an instant.

Inside the hall, the massive "Myriad Demon Return to Origin Formation" still glowed brightly, and the vast majority of the nearly four hundred elders were still in the process of refining.

Near the high platform, Lan Caiyou was surrounded by a dreamlike blue halo, and the phantom of the giant spirit butterfly beneath her had become even more solid and resplendent.

Not long after her, a profound and mysterious fluctuation involving the passage of time and fragments of time rippled outward—Zhu Jiuyin awakened closely after.

Immediately following were Lu Jiuyi, Tushan Youyao, Bai Ling'er... and the last to finish was Luo Qingchen.

During this period, some of the elders refining the Supreme Demon Bones below also began to succeed one after another. Their auras surged, and they stood up with faces full of wild joy, yet they did not dare to make a noise. They merely stood respectfully with their hands at their sides, waiting.

Until the last elder also finished absorbing and slowly stood up.

His gaze swept over the elders below, whose mental states were completely renewed and whose eyes were filled with gratitude and fanaticism, as well as the personal disciples beside him whose cultivation had greatly advanced, feeling satisfied in his heart.

"Elders, the initial refinement of the Supreme Demon Bones is complete. Go back and consolidate it well, cultivate diligently, and do not fail this opportunity. The Half-Immortal artifacts also need to be refined with care. That will be all for today. You are dismissed," Gu Changyuan announced in a calm voice.

"Thank you, Pavilion Master, for your generous gift! Your subordinates take their leave!" the elders replied in unison, their voices loud and full of drive.

They bowed respectfully once more before exiting the assembly hall in an orderly manner. Each walked with a spring in their step, anxious to go back and continue their secluded meditation to consolidate their gains or refine their Half-Immortal artifacts.

After the elders dispersed, Gu Changyuan led his personal disciples back to the top floor.

After chatting for about an hour, considering that the disciples had just refined the Holy Bones and also needed time to further consolidate and adapt to their surging power, Gu Changyuan told them to return to their respective pavilions to cultivate in peace.

Once the disciples had left one by one, the quiet room returned to silence.

Gu Changyuan then remembered that Tushan Hanyan was still waiting by the window of the First Pavilion, and Xiaobai was also with her.

His figure flashed, and he appeared on the top floor of the First Pavilion once again.

Tushan Hanyan was still holding Xiaobai, her sitting posture unchanged. However, the shape of the sugar figure in her hand had long disappeared, leaving only a bare, thin wooden stick.

And she was occasionally sticking out her tender pink tongue, earnestly licking the stick for any last trace of sugar that might remain, her small face full of reluctance to let it go.

Seeing this scene, Gu Changyuan was taken aback at first, and then couldn't help but laugh out loud with a mixture of helplessness and doting.

He walked over and sat down beside Tushan Hanyan.

"You don't have to lick it that clean," Gu Changyuan said gently, holding back his laughter.

"Grandmaster still has plenty here."

Saying this, he took out an ordinary-looking spatial ring and handed it to Tushan Hanyan.

Tushan Hanyan took it in confusion and probed it with her divine sense—it was fully packed with all sorts of colorful sugar figures.

Her large white eyes instantly widened into perfect circles, bursting with astonishing radiance.

"Wow! Thank you, Grandmaster!!"

She was so happy she almost jumped up, clutching the ring tightly, the smile on her face sweeter than sugar.

Gu Changyuan looking at her jubilant appearance, his mood also became excellent.

Suddenly, he remembered something and raised his hand to gently pat his forehead.

"Right, let me show you something good."

He raised his right hand, and with a flash of light, a square "picture card" appeared in his palm.

He handed the picture card to Tushan Hanyan.

Tushan Hanyan leaned in curiously to look.

On the picture card, the background seemed to be the edge of a misty, freezing pool.

In the center of the image was a girl.

She had beautiful short purple hair, a pair of fluffy purple fox ears on top of her head, and a purple tail behind her.

However, the appearance of this little purple-haired fox girl at the moment was completely different from the Master in Tushan Hanyan's impression.

She was completely soaked, her purple fur standing on end. Her beautiful purple eyes were wide open as she vigilantly, and even somewhat fiercely, "bared her teeth" and "hissed" toward the direction outside the picture.

She looked exactly like a feral kitten cornered against a wall, trying to protect itself with false bravado.

Gu Changyuan pointed at the bristling little fox girl on the picture card and said to Tushan Hanyan, unable to hold back a smile:

"Here, this is what your Master looked like the first time your Grandmaster met her."

Tushan Hanyan looked at the fiercely adorable purple-haired little fox girl in the picture, and then thought of her Master's usual elegant, majestic, and supremely confident demeanor.

"Pfft—!"

She couldn't hold it back and let out a light laugh. Her shoulders trembled slightly from suppressing her laughter, startling Xiaobai in her arms, who twitched its ears in dissatisfaction.

"Hahaha... M-Master... so this is what she was like when she was little..."

Just as she was laughing heartily, a delicate hand suddenly patted her shoulder, and a familiar, gentle voice sounded by her ear.

"Xiao Yan, what did you see? What has you so happy?"