After pleting the preparations, Tang Xi examined all the gathered items. Carefully, she attempted to store them ie ring. To her surprise, she succeeded effortlessly, even though she still couldn't access its inner space again. Frustrated, she repeated the process several times, pg and removing objects to test the ring's limits. When she realized the vastness of the avaible space, she decided to transfer almost everything from her ste pouch to the ring, leaving only a few items as a decoy to mislead potential looters.

  Satisfied with the anization, she called for Ah Tao, who had been patiently waiting outside. — "Ah Tao, I need you to prepare more spices and ingredients for future travels. Alsaems that enhance my fort during cultivation."

  Ah Tao nodded promptly, reizing the urgen Tang Xi's request.

  With everythiled, Tang Xi headed to the meditation room adjat to her quarters. There, she sat on a fortable futon, adjusted her posture, and finally prepared to practice the teique Winged Phoenix Step before setting out on her adventure.

  Tang Xi opehe manual for the teique and carefully reviewed its instrus. Practig it required spirit stones of specific attributes: fire or wind. These elemental stones, much rarer tharal ones, carried specialized energies essential for elemental teiques.

  From her ring, she retrieved a hundred fire-attribute spirit stohat she and her father had painstakingly collected, as they were inally intended for a wood-and-fire teique she had po practice. The stones glowed with an intense red hue, radiati. Uhe translut, slightly greeral stohese emitted an almost living aura, like pulsing embers.

  Positioning the stones around her in a harmonious circle, Tang Xi closed her eyes and began ting the mantra of the teique:"With wings that tear the firmament,My step is fme and wind.In the Phoenix's dance, I sublime the sky,Speed and power, my trail is a veil…"

  Mentally repeating the words, she felt the fire-attribute energy from the stones flowing into her body. Simultaneously, energy from the Qi-gathering matrix also entered. But suddenly, something ued happened.

  As the fire energy eang Xi's body, it was immediately absorbed by her heart, activating the cycle of the five elements embedded in her stitution. To her astonishment, the energy didn't remain in its inal form. Instead, it transformed, following the elemental logic through their associated ans:

  Fire became earth.Earth transformed into metal.Metal verted into water.Water evolved into wood.Wood returo fire, pleting the cycle.

  This cycle repeated tless times, each repetition refining and strengthening the energy. Tang Xi felt her body enveloped by araordinary lightness, as if she were a leaf dang in the wind. A distant song, like the cry of a phoenix, echoed in her mind, and for a brief moment, her body seemed to igh pure energy.

  As the process tinued, she sensed her cultivation level rising. On the verge of advang to the fourth level of Body Tempering, Tang Xi deliberately suppressed the progress. Advang too quickly could promise the solidity of her foundation—a mistake she wasn't willing to make.

  When the cycle finally stabilized, she emerged from her meditative state, her body still warm with the residual energy of cultivation.

  Tang Xi pohe events. Initially, she believed she would o cultivate each elemental root separately. However, with the Harmonic atrix teique, the cycle seemed to hahis for her, refining all five elements simultaneously and ensuring that no single element became disproportionately powerful.

  — "So this is what it means to possess the root of chaos…" — she thought, amazed. — "Even as an imitation of the perfect cycle, it's already incredibly powerful. Someoh the true root of ust be truly invincible."

  Her heart raced as she pted the depth and plexity of the teique now at her disposal. If this was only the beginning, what more could the Harmonic atrix offer iure? Putting aside her musings, she focused on the immediate results of her training.

  Though she had successfully suppressed her adva, Tang Xi knew she was just a step away from reag the fourth level of Body Tempering. She decided to test the practical effects of the teique.

  trating, she analyzed her body. She felt lighter, more flexible, and agile. To firm, she left the meditation room and headed to her personal training field, where she could push her limits uninterrupted.

  As she began moving, she noticed an immediate difference:

  Her speed had increased by about 25% pared to her previous state.Her movements were mile and fluid, as if she had shed an invisible resistahat had previously strained her.

  Tang Xi decided to test the ability that intrigued her the most: Bzing Trail.

  Fog, she moved swiftly, eling her spiritual energy. As she moved, the teique activated, leaving trails of fming energy behihe fmes burned with far greater iy than she expected—almost four times hotter and more potent than what an ordinary cultivator of the same level could produce.

  Moreover, the trail's color wasn't merely red like ordinary fmes. It shimmered, alternatiween brilliant aones—a characteristic she attributed to the starlight energy permeating her five-element cycle.

  Tang Xi smiled. "This will be a valuable surprise, whether for escape or battle."

  , she attempted the sedary ability: Phoenix Wings.

  Fog intensely, she felt a surge of energy f behind her. Suddenly, two spiritual projes of fming wings appeared, nearly transparent, radiati and light. When fully activated, her speed increased dramatically—almost 50% higher than normal.

  However, the wings weren't just for mobility. When fully activated, they unleashed a shockwave of fmes, repelling anything nearby—something far beyond her level.

  She experimented with short movements and found that, while incredibly useful, the wings ed a signifit amount of fire-attribute energy. — "I only use them three times before pletely depleting my fire energy," — she thought.

  Refleg oeique's limitations, something in her body's energy flow caught her attention. The five-element cycle had beeivated. Now, the fire energy ed was being gradually replehrough the redistribution of the other elements in her body.

  Tang Xi realized something remarkable: the five elements' energies would always bance each other, ensuring none were fully depleted, regardless of individual ption.

  — "This means I use fire-based abilities without w about pletely running out of this attribute," — she cluded, impressed.

  Another detail stood out: the trail left by her Bzing Trail. It wasn't just hotter and more powerful but also had an unusual, mesmerizing glow. The shimmering color and part of its power came from starlight energy, which perfectly plemehe teique.

  The remaining power, however, was a direct result of the Harmonic atrix. "This teique… is on airely different level than I imagined. And this is just the beginning," she thought with determination.

  Tang Xi took a deep breath, feeling more prepared thahough the road ahead was fraught with uainties, with such powerful tools at her disposal, she knew she was ready to fay challenge.

  She prepared herself ao sleep—after all, practice could not yet repce rest.

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