Instead, she secretly investigated the so-called important person and strongly suspecting it was Xiao Yi and Chi Jia.
The heroine quickly helped Xiao Yi clear himself of suspicion and deliberately grew close to Chi Jia, luring Yu Lin into approaching him.
Chi Jia and Yu Lin gradually became closer.
Yet Yu Lin could not obtain any information about the stone bead from him.
As a result, she developed reservations toward Chi Jia and never fully trusted him.
Later, when the Frozen Moon Secret Realm closed, Yu Lin learned that the original owner had died inside it.
She frowned and sighed, thinking that the original owner had still been useful and that dying so early was troublesome.
She only knew that the item had been obtained in the year Xiao Shou entered the sect, from within the demonic beast cores sold by a stall vendor in the sect marketplace.
Beyond that, she knew nothing.
With so many stalls in the marketplace, was she supposed to buy all the demonic beast cores and break them open one by one?
After that, Xiao Ran successfully transformed her spiritual root into an ice spiritual root and, together with Xiao Yi, went to a Nascent Soul cave dwelling.
She met a demonic cultivator, trained diligently, and rapidly increased her cultivation.
Meanwhile, Yu Lin spent her days wandering around the marketplace.
By the time Xiao Ran returned, Yu Lin had already advanced smoothly from the late stage of Foundation Establishment to the early stage of Golden Core.
She had once again suppressed Xiao Ran by one realm, leaving Xiao Ran with no hope of revenge.
Xiao Ran could only endure in silence and continue cultivating without pause.
It could be said that while in the Heaven Origin Realm, Yu Lin was the driving force behind Xiao Ran's relentless cultivation, always staying one step ahead of her.
It was not until just before Xiao Ran ascended to the Spirit Realm that she finally killed Yu Lin.
Only after killing her did Xiao Ran discover a strange object inside Yu Lin's storage ring.
This object was about the size of a fingernail, milky white in color, neither quite jade nor quite wood, and it emitted a peculiar aura.
At a glance, it was clearly no ordinary item.
Xiao Ran knew it was extraordinary, but she did not know how to use it, so she kept it carefully stored away.
It was not until she ascended from the Spirit Realm to the Immortal Realm that she learned it was a fragment of Divine Tree's Coreflame.
Divine Tree's Coreflame was a divine tree that could only grow in the burial ground of a fallen god, nourished by the god's flesh and blood.
Within it contained fragments of Great Dao laws and divine power.
Its hardness was comparable to divine bones and immortal artifacts.
If immersed in water for a quarter of an hour and then removed, the water could be consumed to enhance one's physique, purify spiritual roots and spiritual energy, remove toxins and impurities from the body, and rapidly increase cultivation without leaving behind any pill toxins.
It was extremely precious.
Coincidentally, before that, the heroine had reunited with her maternal ancestral family and learned a secret transformation technique, a desolate-grade body refinement method.
After learning about the Divine Tree's Coreflame, she naturally refined it using this method.
Not only did her cultivation advance by two realms, but her physical body also reached a new level, comparable to top-grade immortal artifacts.
This laid the foundation for the invincible legend she and her companions would establish in the Immortal Realm.
Could it be that the fragment of Divine Tree's Coreflame came from here?
At the thought of this possibility, Xiao Shou's expression changed.
If it were something ordinary, he would have yielded without hesitation.
He had no intention of clashing with Xiao Ran or Yu Lin and drawing their attention.
But Divine Tree's Coreflame was different.
It was a treasure destined for him or the original owner.
It had already been taken twice before and its effects were heaven-defying.
This time, he absolutely could not give it up.
With this thought, Xiao Shou's expression hardened. Without waiting for Yu Lin to speak, he said, "Senior, I am sorry, but I also urgently need these demonic cores. I cannot give them up. You may wish to look at other stalls. There are many stalls selling demonic cores."
"Cannot give them up?" Yu Lin asked with a faint smile, her tone slow and deliberate.
As she spoke, the oppressive aura of a cultivator at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage pressed down mercilessly upon Xiao Shou. "But I happen to like the quality of these cores."
Xiao Shou suddenly felt his entire body grow heavy as if a massive weight had descended upon him.
His knees weakened, nearly forcing him to kneel.
He clenched his teeth and struggled to remain standing, his body swaying, his face pale as he glared at Yu Lin and spoke word by word.
"Senior is a disciple of the Heavenly Void Sect. Does that mean you intend to knowingly break the law within the marketplace, using your strength to bully the weak and seize another's belongings? What do you take the law enforcement team for?"
"You? Such a sharp tongue."
Seeing the surrounding cultivators gathering because of Xiao Shou's words and the divine sense sweep of the law enforcement team, Yu Lin curled her lips in disdain.
"When did I ever snatch anything? Aren't I just discussing it with you right now? Seniors of the law enforcement team, Senior Brothers, Yu Lin did not make a move to injure anyone."
After saying that, she still completely unleashed her cultivation at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage and pressed it down toward Xiao Shou without holding anything back.
Xiao Shou only felt his entire body's bones creaking and cracking as if they were about to be crushed into pieces.
A terrifying killing intent enveloped above his head as though he would die the next second.