Mei Lan stood amidst the quiet wreckage of the canyon. The spiritual shockwave of her Divine Core's birth had subsided, leaving behind not dust, but the heavy, coppery scent of spiritual entropy. The scattered rogues who had survived the chaotic brawl were paralyzed by the terrifying purity of her power.
Her primary focus was the aftermath. She had achieved Core Formation, but the raw, unfiltered spiritual energy released from her furnace—the residual essence of the defeated—was a resource too valuable to leave behind.
She activated her Observer's Eye, not to fight, but to scan the chaotic spiritual field she had created.
[Observer's Eye Activated. Target: Spiritual Battle Field. Resource Scavenge Protocol Initiated. Priority: Purity Refinement.]
Mei Lan began to harvest. She channeled her Purity Core, creating a vast, invisible spiritual net that swept across the canyon floor. She didn't seek the broken weapons; she sought the residual energy clinging to them—the high-purity spiritual essence that her Core had filtered and expelled during the breakthrough.
The net gathered the spiritual remnants, purifying them and absorbing the clean energy back into her Dantian. This post-battle harvest ensured her core was not only forged perfectly but instantly topped up, accelerating her path toward Core Formation Stage 2.
She moved among the defeated, her eyes cold and analytical. She scanned the defeated Black Spear Master, who lay clutching his ruptured core. Mei Lan didn't heal him; she took his Storage Pouch, which contained high-grade elixirs. She scanned the resources, confirming their purity before assimilating them.
[Resource Acquisition: Black Spear Master Storage Pouch secured. Contents: 3x Tier 1 Core Stabilizing Pills. Status: Acquired.]
She then confronted the whimpering Iron Fist Zhang. He was a political asset, useful for spreading the legend of the "Blade of Purity." She would not kill him, but she would refine his purpose.
Mei Lan knelt beside him. She pressed her index finger against his forehead, not implanting a deep Soul Seal—that was reserved for Lin Tian's major puppets—but a simple, deep-seated suggestion designed to override his fear and amplify his testimony.
"You will live," Mei Lan commanded, her voice cutting directly into his psyche. "You will travel to the nearest trading post. You will tell everyone who asks that the Blade of Purity is coming to cleanse the Azure Water Sect of its corruption."
Zhang convulsed, his eyes glazed over, absorbing the command. His testimony would frame the upcoming Imperial action (General Lin Zhao's arrival) as a noble, spiritual crusade, not a political invasion.
As she finished her harvest, a final, minute spiritual tremor rattled the canyon floor. Lower-tier Azure Water Sect pursuers, recovering from the initial chaos, were heading toward the canyon to confirm the destruction of their guards.
Mei Lan smiled faintly. More obstacles. More fuel.
She focused her Purity Core and performed a final, devastating act of cleanup. She channeled her pure Sword Intent down into the Earth Spirit Dragon Vein beneath the canyon, not to steal energy, but to sterilize the area. She cleansed the Vein of all the chaotic, residual energy from the hundred-man brawl, leaving it pristine and inert.
This action had two effects: Shielding and Destruction. It ensured that when the Azure Water Sect survivors arrived, they would find no corrupted Qi signatures, only the clean, terrifying echo of Divine Purity, confirming their deepest fears about the "Artifact." The violent spiritual cleansing also ruptured the foundational stability of the outer canyon walls, causing two massive rockslides that sealed the canyon entrance and annihilated the approaching pursuers.
Mei Lan turned toward the east—the direction of her true, long-term resource targets in the Cloud Heavens. Her chaos was complete, her body was fortified, and the political cleanup was perfectly executed.
She was ready to leave the Mortal Realm behind.