188: Chapter 188 The Empress Conquers the Golden Core! You really possess a Heavenly Rank cultivation technique?!

"Fifty thousand Mid-Grade Spirit Stones! Three hundred Supreme Grade Spirit Recovery Pills! One hundred stalks of thousand-year Spirit Medicine!"

"And... a Supreme Grade Magical Artifact, the Qingming Sword?!"

Shadow Pavilion Branch, Mission Handover Area.

Dark Seven stared at the mountain of resources before him, his mouth hanging open wide enough to fit a duck egg.

Even as a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, he couldn't help but swallow hard at this fortune. A fleeting, crazed thought of "maybe I should just kill her and take the loot" even crossed his mind.

"Old Deng Tou, you're not mistaken, are you?" Dark Seven clutched the Storage Pouch tightly and hissed in a low voice.

"Since when did a monthly performance bonus in our Shadow Pavilion match the year-end bonus of a Gold-rank Assassin?! She's only at the Foundation Establishment Stage!"

Old Deng Tou scratched his head, looking just as bewildered. "How should I know! This reward was sent down directly from above via an express teleportation array! Do you remember that top-secret message you sent to headquarters a few days ago? Maybe... that letter worked, and the Pavilion Master personally signed off on this?"

Hearing this, Dark Seven's heart skipped a beat.

If this exaggerated reward truly came from the Pavilion Master, it meant his plan to "offer a treasure" had successfully caught the extreme attention of the higher-ups!

At this thought, the jealousy on Dark Seven's face vanished instantly, replaced by a fatherly sense of pride.

He grinned so hard that the wrinkles on his face bunched together. "Good, good, good! Excellent! If the Pavilion Master has truly taken an interest in her, then my month spent as a nanny wasn't for nothing. I've finally managed to be of some use to the Pavilion Master!"

Dark Seven excitedly grabbed the Storage Pouch and scurried toward the cultivation room.

"Why are you grinning like a ghost?"

Inside the cultivation room, the Empress was chewing on Spirit Recovery Pills like they were candy. As soon as she opened her eyes and saw Dark Seven's wrinkled, beaming smile, her beautiful brows furrowed, and she snapped at him bluntly.

Dark Seven, who had been in a great mood, saw his face darken at the Empress's sharp tongue.

"Can't you say anything nice for once, Little Girl? I must have owed you in my past life! This past month, I've been running around after you every day, paying bills and carrying bags. I might as well call you Captain!!"

Dark Seven irritably tossed the Storage Pouch to the Empress. "Here! See for yourself. Try not to let your jaw hit the floor!"

The Empress, initially indifferent, caught the Storage Pouch and swept her Divine Sense inside.

In the next second, her eyes, usually as calm as an ancient well, couldn't help but flicker with surprise.

If this were a month ago, or during her Peak as the Extreme Dao Great Emperor in her past life, she wouldn't have even spared a glance at this "scrap metal." She would have found it too uncomfortable to even use as floor tiles.

But... times had changed.

This past month, she had braved the elements, working herself to the bone in deep forests to kill devil Cultivators and hunt Yao Beasts. Risking her life for a few Spirit Stones had made this once-lofty Empress truly feel for the first time what it meant to say, "Life is hard; even an Emperor sighs."

It wasn't that she hadn't thought about starting her own team and occupying territory to become a local power.

But given her current body, which had only just reached Foundation Establishment, she lacked the initial capital and influence to develop any power in the short term.

Now it seemed that being a worker in the Shadow Pavilion... no, "doing missions," was a much faster way to earn!

"This is?"

The Empress's gaze suddenly locked onto a longsword emitting a faint green glow in the corner of the Storage Pouch.

With a wave of her hand, she pulled out the Qingming Sword.

Feeling the Supreme Grade formations flowing over the blade, a hint of doubt flashed in her eyes.

This Supreme Grade Magical Artifact, even in the Qianji Realm, would be enough for a Cultivator to use from the Foundation Establishment Stage all the way to the Nascent Soul Stage.

She was currently just a minor Foundation Establishment Cultivator; were the higher-ups of the Shadow Pavilion really this generous?

"This is your performance reward for dominating the top of the Foundation Establishment Killer God Rankings this month! The Pavilion Master personally approved it!" Dark Seven felt a secret thrill seeing the Empress's surprised expression.

"The Pavilion Master?"

A sharp light flashed in the Empress's eyes.

She thought to herself that this Shadow Pavilion Master was indeed a person of great boldness. To be willing to invest so heavily in a low-level Genius showed a breadth of spirit truly worthy of a hero.

It seemed her decision to join the Shadow Pavilion back then was extremely correct.

"The resources are enough. I'm going to form my core."

Tucking her thoughts away, the Empress poured a large handful of Supreme Grade pills from the Storage Pouch and stuffed them into her mouth without a second thought.

She then coldly dropped a sentence to Dark Seven and began to close her eyes to regulate her breathing, ignoring him completely.

"Hey! You want me to be your Protector outside, and you can't even say thank you?!" Dark Seven looked at the Empress, who had instantly entered a meditative state, speechless.

However, despite his complaints, his heart was reeling with shock.

By relying on endless slaughter at the edge of life and death, he had taken three short years to break through to the Golden Core. This cultivation speed had earned him the reputation of a once-in-a-century Genius in the Great Chu Branch of the Shadow Pavilion, and he was publicly acknowledged as the "fastest man"!

But compared to this little monster in front of him...

From a Mortal with no cultivation at all to now preparing for Core Formation, it had only taken her... a damn month!!!

"Comparing people really makes you want to die, and comparing goods makes you want to throw them away!" Dark Seven crouched at the door, munching on a spirit fruit while grumbling wildly in his head.

As time slowly passed, the Devilish Qi in the cultivation room poured into the Empress's petite body like a tornado.

Only half a day later.

"Boom!"

A terrifying wave of Qi, far exceeding that of an ordinary Early Golden Core Stage Cultivator, erupted from the cultivation room. The Empress slowly opened her eyes, which now held a dark golden luster.

For the former Extreme Dao Empress, the "Bottlenecks" of Realms simply did not exist.

As long as there were enough energy and resources, her Divine Soul Realm could guide her Physical Body without any obstacles, allowing her to push all the way back to the Emperor Realm with her eyes closed!

"With these resources as a foundation, if I do a few more major missions, it won't be long before I break through to the Nascent Soul."

The Empress stood up and stretched, her bones letting out a series of crisp pops.

She walked to the door and saw Dark Seven, who had been obediently crouching outside for half a day to act as her Protector.

The Empress pondered for a moment, feeling it was time to reward this loyal "follower."

She casually drew a strand of Divine Sense from between her brows, condensed it into a jade slip, and tossed it to Dark Seven like a piece of trash.

"This is a Heaven-rank Cultivation Technique. Although it's a bit crude, with your mediocre Comprehension Ability, if you are willing to practice hard day and night, you might reach Minor Achievement within a hundred years."

Having said that, the Empress didn't even look at him as she pushed open the door and went back to taking missions to boost her performance.

Dark Seven held the rough jade slip, his mouth twitching.

"This crazy girl, even after forming her core, she still has that same boastful attitude. Does she really think Heaven-rank Cultivation Techniques grow on trees?"

After hesitating, with the intention of "seeing the joke," Dark Seven casually sent his Divine Sense into it.

"BOOM—!!!"

The moment his Divine Sense touched the information in the jade slip, it felt as if ten thousand divine thunders had exploded in his mind simultaneously!

An incredibly overbearing and profound intent of lightning, enough to resonate with the Laws of heaven and earth, forced its way into his Sea of Consciousness like a bursting dam!

[Supreme Heaven-rank Cultivation Technique — "Breath of Thunder"!]

Dark Seven's legs went weak, and he fell to his knees with a "thud."

He held the jade slip tightly with both hands, his entire body petrified on the spot as if struck by lightning.

"Holy shit?!"

"No way..."

"You're damn serious?! You... you really have a Heaven-rank Cultivation Technique!!!"

Recalling how he had mocked her for bragging when they first met outside the Blood Spirit Sect, Dark Seven now felt his face burning with pain.

So, it turned out he was the clown all along?!

After stepping into the Golden Core Stage, the Empress completely let herself go, and her speed in completing missions was more than ten times faster than before!

Only half a month later, the Golden Core Stage missions on the Great Chu Branch's mission wall had been swept clean by her like autumn leaves.

The branch's mission inventory was completely insufficient for this "Grind Queen."

Left with no choice, the Empress could only cross borders to other national branches to continue her sweep.

On the day the Empress's petite figure completely disappeared from the Great Chu Branch, the many assassins of the entire branch collectively breathed a sigh of relief, as if the Mount Tai pressing down on their heads had finally been moved.

During this time, the pressure this Little Girl put on them was simply too great!

As long as she appeared in the mission hall, before anyone else could even finish a cup of tea, the mission tokens would be snatched up by her!

"The heavens have eyes! That overachieving dog is finally gone! If she stayed, she'd have worked us all to death!!!"

An old Golden Core assassin with a white beard only dared to sit on the ground and curse loudly after confirming that the Empress was truly far away.

And Tie Sanshi, who had once kindly introduced the Shadow Pavilion's benefits to the Empress on a Flying Sword, wrote the following in his assassin's diary that night with tears in his eyes:

"Once, looking at her tattered clothes, I naively thought she was like me—just a poor child who wanted to change her fate through hard work."

"It wasn't until she completed three hundred and sixty-seven missions in a single month without batting an eye that I finally understood..."

"In this world, only I am that poor child."

"And she... is that 'other' child."