At this moment, Bai Qiao's consciousness had been replaced by a heart demon, her eyes filled with endless ferocity. She glared at Ye Ling hatefully, as if she wanted to devour him alive!
"I'll kill you all!!!"
Bai Qiao suddenly screamed and lunged at Ye Ling, her palm aiming straight for his heart.
Although Bai Qiao had not undergone systematic training, her moves were riddled with openings. However, perhaps due to being consumed by the heart demon, her attacks were extremely fierce, clearly intending to kill.
"This girl's stance actually has some flair to it." Seeing Bai Qiao attack, Ye Ling calmly retreated, easily evading her strike.
Since he had already identified the problem with Bai Qiao, Ye Ling naturally had a solution. He wasn't in a hurry and decided to spar with her for a bit, which would also allow her to learn more.
Bai Qiao, with her mind occupied by the heart demon, was unaware of Ye Ling's intentions. After missing her first attack, she transformed her palm into a claw and lunged forward again, aiming for Ye Ling's chest.
"Plenty of power, but lacking in technique." This time, Ye Ling didn't dodge. He blocked Bai Qiao's attack with his palm and exchanged several more blows with her.
With each palm strike, Ye Ling infused a bit of his spiritual energy into Bai Qiao's body, repairing her damaged meridians. Simultaneously, he used the Law of Annihilation to extract her spiritual energy, suppressing her cultivation realm.
Currently, Bai Qiao's cultivation was at the third rank, achieved through forced growth. While her cultivation had significantly increased in the short term, in the long run, her unstable foundation would only allow her to reach the Red Dust Immortal realm.
Of course, with the cultivation of a Red Dust Immortal, Bai Qiao could roam the world and live a life of luxury. However, she was Ye Ling's disciple.
If Ye Ling were to have a disciple whose cultivation stagnated at the Red Dust Immortal realm, it would be a blow to his reputation.
Thus, Bai Qiao sparred for over ten moves in the confined office. All her spiritual energy was absorbed by Ye Ling, and her damaged meridians were repaired and strengthened.
The moment Bai Qiao's cultivation was completely depleted and she returned to being a mortal, the heart demon that occupied her mind vanished. Bai Qiao, with a fierce expression, lost consciousness and collapsed onto the ground.
Seeing this, Ye Ling quickly moved to catch her and lay her down on the sofa.
"Why is this girl's physique so peculiar? After her cultivation disappeared, the heart demon also vanished..."
Ye Ling carefully examined Bai Qiao's body and soul but found no issues. The suddenly appearing heart demon seemed to have evaporated, leaving no trace.
"Strange... very strange."
After failing to find anything on Bai Qiao, Ye Ling sighed twice and paced back and forth in the office, lost in thought.
He had learned of Bai Qiao's experiences through all her reincarnations from the Primordial Era to the present from the Heavenly Dao. However, the Heavenly Dao's memory never recorded such an anomaly in Bai Qiao!
This meant that Bai Qiao's ability to develop a heart demon at a lower realm was either a mutation in this life or her heart demon could deceive the Heavenly Dao, making it undetectable.
Either way, this was a serious matter!
"Come to think of it, the Shadow Hall mysteriously gained control of my heart demon back then."
"I've never understood how my heart demon was born, nor how it fell into the hands of the Shadow Hall. Now, the Shadow Hall is targeting Bai Qiao, and Bai Qiao herself has a strange heart demon. Could there be a connection between these two?"
Ye Ling muttered to himself as the unconscious Bai Qiao slowly stirred on the sofa.
She sat up, her eyes filled with confusion, unable to recall what had just happened.
She looked at Ye Ling, who was pacing back and forth, and asked, "Master, what happened to me?"
Seeing Bai Qiao awake, Ye Ling collected his thoughts and smiled, "There was a small accident just now, but it's nothing major. Do you still remember the cultivation technique I taught you?"
"Cultivation technique?"
Bai Qiao frowned and tried hard to recall, but her mind was blank; she couldn't remember anything.
Unable to recall the technique, Bai Qiao could only shake her head and say, "Disciple is dull and truly did not remember."
Ye Ling took out another jade slip from his spatial ring and handed it to Bai Qiao, smiling, "It's alright. Everything is difficult at the beginning. Just start anew. Perhaps that cultivation technique wasn't suitable for you. Try another one."
Bai Qiao took the jade slip, and a large amount of information flooded her mind.
Upon learning the cultivation method, Bai Qiao did not hesitate. She sat down again and began to cultivate.
As before, the moment Bai Qiao entered a meditative state, she drew in the surrounding spiritual energy.
Ye Ling once again released his spiritual energy, transforming the office into a small pocket dimension for Bai Qiao to cultivate in.
As the spiritual energy in the space became denser, Bai Qiao once again absorbed the surrounding spiritual energy at an astonishing rate, her cultivation skyrocketing.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Qiao broke through to the first rank and continued to advance towards the second.
Because Ye Ling had helped Bai Qiao consolidate her meridians, allowing them to withstand the impact of spiritual energy better, her cultivation surged even faster this time. She bypassed the second rank and reached the bottleneck of the third rank, on the verge of breaking through to the fourth!
Fortunately, Ye Ling was prepared. As Bai Qiao attempted to break through to the fourth rank, he forcefully suppressed her cultivation realm, making her consolidate her foundation at the first rank.
Even so, Bai Qiao's absorption speed of spiritual energy continued to increase. Before long, the spiritual energy Ye Ling had released into the office was almost completely absorbed by Bai Qiao.
Seeing Bai Qiao drain the surrounding spiritual energy, Ye Ling muttered, "Is this girl a Pixiu? She absorbs spiritual energy so quickly!"
Reluctantly, Ye Ling had to release his spiritual energy again, replenishing the office with spiritual energy.
For Bai Qiao, who had just begun cultivating, consolidating her foundation was paramount. If the surrounding spiritual energy suddenly dried up, it would be detrimental to her future cultivation.
However, after Ye Ling replenished the spiritual energy, Bai Qiao's absorption speed did not slow down; instead, it accelerated. Her aura became unstable once again.
The next moment, Bai Qiao opened her eyes, her pupils filled with ferocity.
The heart demon had once again taken control of Bai Qiao's consciousness.
"Here we go again..."
Seeing Bai Qiao lose control, Ye Ling sighed and stepped forward to subdue her as she lunged at him, pinning her to the ground.
This time, Ye Ling deliberately suppressed Bai Qiao's cultivation to the first rank and did not control the amount of spiritual energy she absorbed. Yet, Bai Qiao still awakened the heart demon and her consciousness was controlled by it.
This meant that the condition for Bai Qiao's heart demon to manifest was unrelated to her cultivation realm.
As long as she cultivated, she would have a heart demon!
Looking at Bai Qiao struggling on the ground, Ye Ling murmured, "It seems that as long as this girl starts cultivating, most of the spiritual energy she absorbs will be taken by her own heart demon, and her own power is too weak to resist it."
"Or perhaps, she doesn't want to resist the heart demon."
"Let go of me!!!" Bai Qiao struggled, trying to bite Ye Ling's arm, her eyes still filled with ferocity.
Seeing Bai Qiao's current state, Ye Ling gently sighed, "Bear with it for a moment."
With that, Ye Ling directly extracted Bai Qiao's soul!