State: “It's really unexpected. The Ghost Mother, a well-known Nascent Soul cultivator of Xiyuan Prefecture, has actually been replaced! The original Ghost Mother even fell at the hands of her own younger sister.” Grant Sullivan stood in the center of the grand hall, gazing at the deity statue on the offering table before him, a strange expression appearing on his face as he spoke.

At this moment, half a day had already passed. Under his instructions, the beast-faced girl was taken away by Warren, riding a water crane through the sky, and delivered to a safe place.

According to her account of what happened at the Dongyao Ghost Mansion, it was clear that the original Ghost Mother had been ambushed by her younger sister in collusion with several elders of the mansion. Afterwards, a thorough purge was carried out, and the girl, who had served as the original Ghost Mother’s maid, was demoted to a beast slave. She had to seize an opportunity to escape, enduring countless hardships to flee from Xiyuan Prefecture to the neighboring Tiannan.

“This is no small matter either. Looks like I’ll have to report this to the higher-ups once I return to the clan. But for now, the most important thing is to retrieve that item first.”

Grant Sullivan pondered, his gaze toward the deity statue growing even more fervent.

Just then, familiar footsteps sounded outside the hall, followed by Warren’s cheerful voice: “Young master, I’m not late, am I? I’ve already delivered Sister Mu Wan’er to her destination.”

“The timing is just right for the item to be opened. Take out the magic tool I gave you. If we want to retrieve this item intact within the allotted time, someone must lend a hand. Once this is done, we should return to the clan as well. We’ve been out for quite a while now.” Grant Sullivan didn’t even turn his head, speaking calmly.

“Ah, we’re going back already?” Upon hearing they were returning to the clan, Warren pouted, his face full of reluctance.

Three months later.

Grant Sullivan let out a long breath, slowly bringing his cultivation technique to a halt. He opened his eyes a bit reluctantly, sweeping his indifferent gaze around.

At this moment, he was in a cultivation chamber specially built by the Zhong family. Not only was there a special spirit-gathering array drawn on the floor where he sat cross-legged, but the walls were also inlaid with numerous blue spirit stones the size of fists, making the water-element spiritual energy here more than three times as abundant as outside.

Of course, such excellent conditions naturally brought an equally astonishing threefold increase in cultivation efficiency.

In just over two months of secluded cultivation, Grant Sullivan’s magical power had increased once again, and he had finally broken through the late Foundation Establishment stage, reaching the stage of Foundation Establishment Perfection.

That’s right—his previous cultivation was not at the peak of Foundation Establishment as the horse-faced man and others had imagined, but only at the late Foundation Establishment stage.

But for certain reasons, during the wagered duel, the purity of his magical power was already on par with that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment Perfection cultivator. Now, even the three most outstanding direct descendants in the clan would be hard-pressed to match him.

This was also why he had readily agreed to join forces with the Four Ghosts of Dongyao at the ancient temple.

Now, as long as he polished his cultivation at the Perfection stage for a while longer, he could seek an opportunity to condense his magical power into a core and advance to the Golden Core stage.

On the surface, his speed—reaching Foundation Establishment Perfection before the age of twenty—was enough to place him among the top of the collateral descendants.

Especially since the technique he cultivated was the “Blue Wave Art,” known as the slowest and most stable among the Zhong family’s immortal arts. For a disciple to cultivate the Blue Wave Art from the “Tenth Layer” to the “Thousandth Layer” before the age of twenty was extremely rare in the Zhong family’s history. If word got out, it would surely cause quite a stir within the clan.

As Grant Sullivan pondered this, he took out a palm-sized white jade bottle from his sleeve. After gently stroking it a few times, a peculiar expression appeared on his face.

Others didn’t know, but he was well aware that his own aptitude was not particularly outstanding—in fact, it was even inferior to most collateral disciples. If it weren’t for the item in the bottle he had obtained by chance years ago, given the extremely slow cultivation speed of the Blue Wave Art, he might not even have reached the mid-Foundation Establishment stage by now.

After all, among the disciples of this generation in the Zhong family, only a few hundred had successfully established their foundation, and even fewer had reached the late or Perfection stages.

As Grant Sullivan thought about this, he opened the jade bottle and poured it into his palm.

After a moment, a spiritual light flickered at the mouth of the bottle, and a drop of thick silvery liquid fell out, rolling around in his palm.

The instant the silver liquid touched his skin, Grant Sullivan felt a wave of icy energy flow along his arm’s meridians throughout his body, causing his magical power to circulate involuntarily, and at an ever-increasing speed.

“As expected of refined Taiyin Mysterious Water—the effect it has on purifying and enhancing water-attribute magical power is far beyond that of ordinary Mysterious Water. It seems that taking only half of the Mysterious Water back then, and letting the other half slowly nourish and transform into Taiyin Mysterious Water with the help of the yin vein beneath that temple, was indeed the right choice. My three years of waiting were not in vain. But the greatest benefit of this Taiyin Mysterious Water is that it allows the Blue Wave Art to incorporate icy power, making it far more formidable than before. It’s a pity that after this seclusion, only this one drop remains.” Grant Sullivan looked at the silver liquid in his hand, his face full of regret.

That being said, although the Blue Wave Art was incredibly slow to cultivate, it was one of the easiest techniques to break through bottlenecks during the Foundation Establishment stage. As long as one’s magical power reached a certain level, advancing to the next stage was almost a matter of course.

From the early and middle Foundation Establishment stages all the way to his current Perfection stage, he had indeed, just as the ancient texts described, hardly felt the existence of any bottleneck.