With less than a month left until the selection day, she must break through to the Nascent Soul stage within the next two weeks and then use the remaining time to adapt and adjust.

She meditated and regulated her breathing for half a day, and also spent half a day agonizing over her troubles.

The most taboo thing in cultivation is to be deviant and take shortcuts. This is not only because it can easily lead to an unstable foundation that will affect future cultivation, but more importantly, methods to quickly improve strength put great strain on the body and mind, and can easily lead to demonic possession. At best, it can destroy all cultivation; at worst, it can cost one's life.

However, she had been trapped in the Golden Core Realm for a long time. Although the path of cultivation depends on opportunities, she could clearly sense that the cultivation accumulated in her body had long since reached the limit for a breakthrough.

Day after day, year after year, at crucial moments, she couldn't afford to gamble with opportunities.

After examining her dantian, she found that most of the spiritual energy left behind by Wei Zhanjie was still there. When she used and refined it, she could feel that the essence contained within was far beyond what her current cultivation level could compare to.

Therefore, the options before her were already quite clear.

One option is to continue waiting for an opportunity and cultivate step by step to break through; the other is to forcibly refine the unexpectedly obtained spiritual power and forcefully break through.

Two thoughts intertwined in her mind, giving Lu Zhaozhao a splitting headache. At this moment, she desperately wanted someone by her side, not to seek answers, but simply to have someone with her, whether it was Wei Zhanjie, her senior brother, her master, or her junior sister, or even just anyone.

Ultimately, however, you are the only one who can face the problem.

Lu Zhaozhao slowly opened her eyes, her long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings, falling on her eyes and obscuring the emotions within them.

She let out a long sigh, her eyes resolute, as if she had made up her mind.

A powerful surge of spiritual energy flowed around her, vibrating the surrounding air currents and distorting the space in front of her.

Lu Zhaozhao swallowed hard, sniffed, and whispered a pep talk to herself.

"Don't be afraid, Lu Zhaozhao, you're not afraid at all."

The range and intensity of the spiritual energy fluctuations began to gradually expand, causing the wooden doors and windows to creak and groan, and the ground to ripple faintly, as if ten thousand horses were galloping in the distance.

Lu Zhaozhao took a deep breath, closed her eyes, bent her knees and sat cross-legged, forming hand seals. With each breath, vast spiritual energy flowed in and out of her meridians.

She channeled her existing true energy, condensing it into a tangible flame in her dantian, scorching the outer shell of that spiritual energy.

The hourglass ticked in her ears, and she heard the distant sounds of Tu San and Shisan Niang arguing.

"Are they packing up for the day?" Lu Zhaozhao couldn't help but wonder. The long period of stillness had made her extremely sensitive to the sounds of the outside world, and any slight movement could spark her imagination.

The sounds of arguing passed by the window, then faded into the distance, gradually disappearing from my ears.

After an unknown amount of time, a warm sensation began to flow from his dantian.

The outer shell, which was covered by spiritual energy, was burned open.

A continuous stream of spiritual energy overflowed from the small opening, flowing slowly throughout the body like sand in an hourglass.

The eight extraordinary meridians were instantly activated, boiling together with the surrounding blood in the body.

At first, the meridians that were soaked in spiritual energy only felt slightly warm, like in a dry winter with a biting north wind and no moisture in the air. Every breath felt like being cut by a blade, dry and painful.

Fortunately, its own absorption capacity was not weak, and the released spiritual power was converted into its own true energy as it circulated through the meridians throughout the body.

Over time, the spiritual energy accumulated in his dantian went from abundant to overflowing.

There is no place left to store the converted spiritual energy.

Cold sweat streamed down her cheeks, and Lu Zhaozhao's facial muscles trembled uncontrollably. She gritted her teeth, squeezing the spiritual energy in her dantian tightly, not wanting to let any of it leak out.

As time passed, more and more spiritual energy overflowed, but it could not be converted in time and could only accumulate in the meridians, rampaging through the body.

Lu Zhaozhao's skin had an abnormal purplish-red hue, and her slender figure had been filled out, making her appear slightly plump.

This can't go on any longer!

She bit her lower lip tightly with her pearly teeth, the pain of her swollen skin making her ignore the bite mark on her mouth. Blood flowed down the corner of her mouth, dripping onto her sleeve and splashing into small blood flowers that, upon closer inspection, resembled the red spider lilies she wore in her hair.

Lu Zhaozhao tried to stop the rate at which spiritual energy was leaking out. She tried to use her true energy to plug the gaps, but the spiritual energy was too tyrannical. Every time she tried to plug it, it would be violently pushed open.

With one blockage and one release, the leaking spiritual energy and the internal true energy clashed with each other, constantly striking the skin from the inside out, causing excruciating pain that shot straight to the crown of the head.

"puff--"

A mouthful of dark red blood spurted out, and Lu Zhaozhao heard the sound of her meridians breaking.

The spiritual energy, exceeding the body's capacity, continued to flow, which the flesh and blood could hardly withstand.

The veins were breaking at an accelerated rate, the skin was cracked, and tiny drops of blood were seeping out.

Even now, Lu Zhaozhao was still wondering what she would look like now. She imagined it would be quite comical, covered in blood, with swollen skin, truly becoming like a demon by adapting to local customs.

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but laugh out loud, and the laughter seemed to relieve the pain in her body.

But the excruciating pain continued, and even intensified.

Excessive blood loss made Lu Zhaozhao feel dizzy for a while. Just as she was about to collapse, a strange feeling welled up in her heart.

It was as if she had touched a barrier, something indescribable, inexplicable, and impossible to penetrate.

Startled, Lu Zhaozhao instantly became much more alert.

Blood was still gushing from her body, but her mind was exceptionally clear.

This must be the barrier to break through!

If that's the case, then break it!

Spiritual energy gathered at this moment, and the meridians that carried the spiritual energy broke down one after another, leaving only a few. But Lu Zhaozhao didn't care. She kept urging them, regardless of whether they were refined or not.

The sky and earth were unusually colored, with dark clouds covering the ground and specks of silver light shimmering within them.

"What's going on? It's been so long since it rained in the Western Regions!" Thirteen Sister grumbled in dissatisfaction.

"You're all talk and no action!" Tu San sneered from the side. "Didn't you realize this was a tribulation of lightning?"

"Thunder tribulation!" Thirteen Sister covered her mouth in shock. For the first time, she didn't argue with Tu San. After all, only those above the Nascent Soul stage could experience thunder tribulation when undergoing tribulation. Where did they get such a powerful figure?

After thinking for a moment, she seemed to suddenly remember something, and abruptly looked towards Lu Zhaozhao's room, exclaiming in surprise, "Could it be that Nüba!"

Tu San paused for a moment, then nodded. He knew every single one of his neighbors, and he knew their abilities best. The only variable was the female demon who had recently arrived in Ming Palace City.

"This is truly...enviable." Thirteen Sister sighed silently. Which human or demon doesn't want to cultivate? It's just that talent is limited, and sometimes it's hard to come by.

A little further away, near the Ming Palace, a young man who was meditating raised his head.

His face was effeminate, but there was an underlying gloom between his brows and eyes.

He spoke, his voice deep and resonant, inexplicably reminiscent of a snake lurking in a swamp.

"Go investigate and see whose tribulation it is. It's even more terrifying than the thunderclouds of that guy from Changyu Languan."

A dark shadow flashed past him and disappeared into the night.

That night, the three clans within the Ming Palace harbored different thoughts, while outside the Ming Palace, letters from the five clans continued to arrive.

That night, a tall, slender figure sat alone on a high platform inside the Ming Palace, while a figure in green quietly left the palace outside.

That night, Lu Zhaozhao opened her eyes as dawn broke amidst endless torment.