Chapter 224: 【ditation Room: lv2】
"?"
Dong Qian had clearly already considered this matter, so she didn’t hesitate and answered directly.
"This ti I ca out, first was for the tombs here, and second was to find the Six-Tailed Demon Fox. Now that both goals are fulfilled, I’m definitely planning to return to the sect."
"What about you, Junior Brother?"
Ji Yuan put away the sword embryo before him and didn’t rush to reply.
The cultivation technique he focused on was the Li Family’s Sword Manual. In the early Foundation Establishnt stage, two sword embryos must be condensed; in the mid stage, three; and in the late stage, four.
Right now, he had only condensed four sword embryos. By normal standards, he would still need to condense one more sword embryo before he could attempt to break through to the late stage.
But his current situation was sowhat abnormal.
He had acquired Dong Qian’s Heavenly Fox Joy Technique, and had even happily dual cultivated with her once.
His cultivation had advanced bypassing the Sword Manual, and was now only one step away from the late Foundation Establishnt stage.
Ji Yuan could clearly sense that as long as he condensed one more sword embryo, his cultivation would directly break through to the late stage.
Although he had just finished condensing the Blood Slaughter Sword, because his cultivation had already advanced, his comprehension of the Sword Manual had also deepened.
So condensing the next sword embryo wouldn’t be too difficult.
Naturally, Ji Yuan’s thoughts had changed slightly.
Originally, just like Dong Qian, his plan for coming to this ancient battlefield was to condense sword embryos. Now that it was done, he should logically return.
But now, his thoughts had shifted—to go further north.
To take a trip to Mirror Lake within the Beast Taming Sect’s territory, condense the fifth sword embryo there, and then return to the Water Dragon Sect.
Otherwise, if he returned to the Water Dragon Sect first and then traveled to Mirror Lake, the round trip alone would take over half a year—far too much ti wasted.
Better to make a detour to Mirror Lake now, saving a lot of ti.
Moreover, Ji Yuan had already done his research.
Mirror Lake wasn’t like places such as this ancient battlefield, nor like Ice-Fire Island. Its location was a bit like Tianzhu Mountain.
There weren’t any fortuitous encounters inside Mirror Lake. It was simply beautiful, which attracted many cultivators to visit and enjoy the scenery.
It could be considered a famous scenic spot within the Beast Taming Sect’s territory.
The Beast Taming Sect would even hold so events of the Six Immortal Sects at Mirror Lake.
So going there wouldn’t be dangerous at all. The Li Family even had a shop by Mirror Lake, so Ji Yuan would even have a place to stay.
Seeing that Ji Yuan hadn’t responded for a while, Dong Qian had already guessed the reason.
"Junior Brother, do you have sothing else to take care of?"
"Mm, I need to go north to Mirror Lake, to condense another sword embryo."
This wasn’t sothing that needed to be kept secret, so Ji Yuan answered directly.
"Need to co along?"
Dong Qian pressed further.
If Ji Yuan said yes, she would definitely not hesitate.
Ji Yuan paused slightly in thought. Despite having had a relationship with Dong Qian, it hadn’t changed his thinking, so his reply remained:
"No need, I’ll go alone. I’ll make it quick."
"The outside world is dangerous. Senior Sister, you should return to the sect early."
"I knew you’d say that."
Dong Qian rolled her eyes helplessly.
"I thought… thought…"
"What did Senior Sister think?"
"Thought you’d show a bit of change."
Ji Yuan chuckled, "The outside world is dangerous, and you know my strength, Senior Sister—a fragile mid-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivator, hardly enough to protect you..."
Before Ji Yuan could finish, Dong Qian had already taken the Six-Tailed Demon Fox off her shoulder, holding it in her arms and gently stroking its back, cutting him off:
"I have the Six-Tailed Fox. I don’t need your protection. In a critical mont, I could even protect you."
Ji Yuan had no coback.
Because that was indeed the truth.
But even so, he still wanted to go alone. He had always been used to operating solo. If sothing happened, he could escape faster too.
Just like when Feng Zhi Tao offered to escort him here—he didn’t agree then, and he wouldn’t now.
Dong Qian stared at him for a while. Seeing that he wasn’t changing his mind, she had no choice but to say:
"Alright then. I’ll head back first. Junior Brother, be careful."
"Alright."
Since Dong Qian didn’t press him, Ji Yuan also let out a sigh of relief.
"Then Senior Sister, you go on back. I’ll head a bit further north. When I return, I’ll bring you a gift."
Ji Yuan said with a smile.
Mm… mainly because he rembered that he’d promised Feng Zhi Tao a gift before he left. Now adding Dong Qian to the list, and since he was buying one anyway, he could buy another for Du Wanyi.
Hua Yaoyue could have one too.
Although he sent her wine every month, he hadn’t gifted her anything else.
This ti she had helped a lot in upgrading the Spirit Energy Cannon—he couldn’t be stingy.
"Oh?"
Dong Qian’s eyes rolled playfully, and she asked with clear implication, "A gift? Just for ? Or for others too?"
"Of course, just for Senior Sister."
Ji Yuan replied calmly, without the slightest blush or hesitation.
At tis like this, that was always the answer—no matter who asked.
Lying… well, a harmless lie. Everyone loves hearing them.
Sure enough, after hearing this, Dong Qian beca delighted and said with a smile, "Then I’ll be waiting."
Ji Yuan relaxed internally.
"So is Senior Sister leaving now, or waiting a bit longer?"
Dong Qian paused and sensed for a mont, as if probing the situation outside. After a while, she said:
"Earlier, when those remaining Qi Refining disciples from the Wei Family fled, a few Foundation Establishnt cultivators ca to investigate, but found nothing and left."
"Right now, there’s no one outside. Let’s head out first."
"Alright. Once we’re out, let’s split the loot."
Ji Yuan patted his own storage pouch.
He hadn’t forgotten—it contained the storage pouch of a Golden Core cultivator.
Dong Qian glanced at it, "Forget it. Junior Brother, just keep it yourself. Don’t forget—all the storage pouches of those Foundation Establishnt cultivators are with ."
"That won’t do."
"Just take it," Dong Qian said, looking Ji Yuan up and down with a hum, "You served well, consider it a reward."
Ji Yuan: "???"
"Alright, Senior Sister, sounds like you’re asking for a rematch—how about three hundred more rounds?"
"No no, I admit I was wrong, I was wrong!"
"……"
Half a day later.
Outside the ancient battlefield ruins, in Yaofeng Market.
After disguising themselves, Ji Yuan and Dong Qian rented a courtyard. What for?
Of course—to cultivate.
For a man and a woman who had tasted the pleasures of cultivation, how could they easily let it go? Though they were about to part, they naturally took the opportunity to seize a few more handles on each other.
Unfortunately, cultivation pleasures passed quickly.
A few days went by in a flash. The two agreed to resu cultivation together upon returning to the Water Dragon Sect, and reluctantly parted.
One headed south, the other north.
While together, Ji Yuan was reluctant to part, but once they separated, that feeling vanished. He returned to his forr cold and indifferent deanor.
After heading north for a day, Ji Yuan opened up a small Cave Dwelling within the mountains using his flying sword and hid inside.
He hadn’t forgotten—after killing Real Person Heaven Silkworm, a Golden Core cultivator, he could now upgrade another building.
【ditation Room】.
He still rembered when he first saw the requirents for upgrading this level-2 【ditation Room】, he had been troubled for a long ti, wondering how a Foundation Establishnt cultivator could kill a Golden Core.
Back then, he figured that to succeed, he would at least need to reach the peak of Foundation Establishnt.
Or perhaps his last-resort plan: ask Hua Yaoyue to heavily injure a demonic Golden Core cultivator, then let him deal the final blow.
After all, the panel only said the Foundation Establishnt cultivator had to kill a Golden Core.
How it was done—there were no specifics.
Who would have thought it ended up being the Spirit Energy Cannon that landed the fatal strike… and fortunately, Dong Qian had helped restrain Real Person Heaven Silkworm.
Otherwise, even if Ji Yuan had the Spirit Energy Cannon, he wouldn’t have been able to use it.
Just like with Jiang Hong—without the certainty of taking the enemy down in one hit, Ji Yuan wouldn’t have taken it out.
Now things were looking good.
Within his Cave Dwelling, Ji Yuan carved out a small stone chamber.
The 【ditation Room】 didn’t need to be arranged like formation rooms. It could be activated directly with a paper tag.
So when Ji Yuan stuck a strip of paper reading “ditation Room” onto the stone wall, the effects of the 【ditation Room】 were imdiately activated.
Ji Yuan cultivated quietly for a while, calming his mind. Only then did he begin practicing his divine soul cultivation thod:
Ninefold Soul Suppressing Scripture.
As the technique began to operate, the Soul Suppressing Bell within his divine soul sea began to emit a faint golden glow. The sea of consciousness turned peaceful.
Ji Yuan felt as if he were soaking in warm water.
He wished it could last forever.
After a while, Ji Yuan awoke from his ditation and chose to upgrade.
The words above his head shifted slightly, and the surrounding stone walls began to reveal Dao inscriptions.
The panel refreshed accordingly.
But before Ji Yuan could inspect it, he noticed that the Dao scripts which had flashed briefly on the wall seed to have branded themselves deep into his soul.
The imdiate change was that the Soul Suppressing Bell outside his divine soul suddenly radiated an intense golden light.
It was as if it had taken so kind of stimulant—even Ji Yuan’s eyes flashed with a streak of golden brilliance.
"This is…"
Was there really an upgrade bonus?
Ji Yuan waited a mont. First, the Dao scripts on the stone wall faded away, and then his divine soul returned to calm.
Only the previously dimly glowing Soul Suppressing Bell now shone brilliantly.
Unconvinced, Ji Yuan deactivated his technique. When the Soul Suppressing Bell cald down, he resud cultivating the Ninefold Soul Suppressing Scripture.
Imdiately, the bell once again radiated golden light.
The intensity of the glow was indeed identical to before!
It really worked!
Now that Ji Yuan's suspicion was confird, he was naturally overjoyed.
Although he couldn’t find a way to test it—mainly because in Cangluo Continent, there were very few who knew divine soul techniques.
Just like Hua Yaoyue had said, it was rumored that only people in Western Shang practiced divine soul offensive arts.
But Ji Yuan’s intuition told him that the defensive power of this Soul Suppressing Bell had definitely strengthened greatly.
A good thing indeed. It seed waiting a while had really paid off.
Had he upgraded inside that tomb, he likely wouldn’t have received this boon.
Next, he summoned the panel and looked at the spiritual effect and upgrade conditions of the level-3 【ditation Room】.
【ditation Room: lv3 (Cannot be upgraded)】
【Spiritual Effect: ditate to temper divine soul. Can increase current realm's divine sense by 500%.】
【Upgrade Requirent: Golden Core stage kills one Nascent Soul cultivator. (Unfulfilled)】
Ji Yuan scanned it—just as expected.
Level 1 to level 2, level 2 to level 3—it was always the sa: kill an enemy of a higher major realm.
Which ant, before reaching Golden Core, there was no point thinking about upgrading the 【ditation Room】 again.
As for the spiritual effect—it was getting more and more savage.
Level 1 added 80%, level 2 added 200%, and now level 3 added 500%. With this effect, never mind suppressing those in the sa realm—he might even suppress cultivators above his own!
Filled with hope for the future, Ji Yuan closed the panel.
He wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Now that the 【ditation Room】 had been upgraded, he naturally wanted to improve his divine sense first. The stronger his divine sense, the safer his travels would be.
Ji Yuan estimated that, with the buff of this level-2 【ditation Room】, even as a mid-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivator, he could push his divine sense to the peak of Foundation Establishnt.
Then, once he completed the next sword embryo and broke through to the late stage—
His divine sense would be enhanced again… at that point, a Foundation Establishnt cultivator with Golden Core-level divine sense.
This effect alone could be called “terrifying beyond compare,” right?
While nurturing his divine sense inside the 【ditation Room】, Ji Yuan also pulled out another storage pouch from within his own.
This was the first ti Ji Yuan had obtained the full storage pouch of a Golden Core Real Person, and since Real Person Heaven Silkworm had followed soone like Jiang Hong, a Foundation Establishnt cultivator, surely there would be no shortage of good things?
Now that the original owner was dead, the pouch was naturally unclaid.
Ji Yuan's divine sense easily entered it.
And the first impression the pouch gave him was… big!
Unprecedentedly big—Ji Yuan estimated it must have been at least a hundred ters in length, width, and height. Its size was sothing he had never seen before.
Next was the sheer quantity of items inside.
Just a rough scan with his divine sense told Ji Yuan—this ambush had been a huge profit!
Not only had it made up for the talisman losses during the fight with Jiang Hong and the spirit stone consumption when killing Real Person Heaven Silkworm—it had yielded a surplus.
Just the spirit stones in the pouch alone were enough to fire off the Spirit Energy Cannon several more tis.
But that wasn’t the most important part. The most important thing was that Ji Yuan retrieved from within the pouch—Real Person Heaven Silkworm’s... Life-Bound Magic Treasure!
……
One month earlier.
Western Shang.
Deep within an unknown blood-colored mountain range.
Suddenly, the dark clouds above were pierced by a golden beam of light, which fell like a falling star, landing directly into a valley.
The valley was surrounded by four stone pillars, aligned with the cardinal directions.
Each pillar had eight faces, and each face was carved with formation patterns and strange runes.
The stone used for these pillars hadn’t been sourced locally—the valley’s rocks were all blood-red, while the pillars were pure black.
The valley floor was extrely flat, with no jagged rocks.
A closer look revealed that the ground was actually a single solid slab of stone.
Its surface was also densely carved with formation patterns.
Most of these patterns matched those on the surrounding stone pillars.
As the golden light shone down, the patterns on the stone floor gradually lit up.
From within the four stone pillars ca the sound of countless spirit stones shattering.
Spiritual energy filled the entire valley.
Finally, in the center of the formation-covered stone slab, a human figure slowly appeared.
His clothes were in tatters, and blood stained the corners of his mouth.
The mont Jiang Hong appeared, he fell to one knee.
“Pfft—”
He vomited another mouthful of blood, and his face turned pale as a corpse.
"Enough already, what are you pretending for? A tiny injury and you're acting like you’re about to die."
A female figure in a bright red long dress approached from outside the valley.
One blink and she had moved from the valley entrance to right in front of Jiang Hong.
She wore a red dress, her lips were crimson like blood, and even her eye makeup was painted in vivid red.
But her facial features and figure were perfect—curves where there should be curves, slender where there should be slender.
Upon seeing her, Jiang Hong imdiately dropped to both knees, his voice trembling with a hint of sobbing:
“Mother…”
"Alright, get up. Don’t act like your useless father—it’s disgusting to look at."
Blood Lady not only sneered verbally, but her gaze was filled with contempt.
Jiang Hong hurriedly stood up, obediently standing to the side… not even daring to take a healing pill. If he recovered too quickly, his mother wouldn’t feel sorry for him.
Not that she was very sympathetic anyway.
"What, didn’t you brag about conquering a sect before you left?"
"You’ve only been gone a few years, and you're slinking back with your tail between your legs."
Blood Lady crossed her arms beneath her bosom and looked Jiang Hong up and down… the more she looked, the more disgusted she beca.
"Don’t tell you ran into a Nascent Soul old freak? That’d at least be sothing worth ntioning. When we march on Eastern Shang, I’ll have your useless father deal with it."
"No."
Jiang Hong lowered his head.
"Then was it a Golden Core? Even Heaven Silkworm couldn’t protect you—was it a peak-stage Golden Core cultivator? Then running back would still be forgivable."
"…It wasn’t."
Before he even finished, Blood Lady slapped him hard across the face.
The previously contemptuous look turned into pure disgust.
"Trash!"
"Beaten like a stray dog by a Foundation Establishnt cultivator! If I were you, I’d smash my own head in over in Eastern Shang! How do you still have the face to co back?!"
Jiang Hong was sent flying, slamming into the stone wall and only stopping there. Upon hitting the ground, he vomited blood again and again.
…He felt like this slap hurt more than all the wounds Qiu Qianhai had given him.
"That… that guy was a disciple of a Nascent Soul cultivator too. His thods were on par with mine. I was afraid if we kept fighting, I wouldn’t survive to co back and honor you, Mother."
For so reason, the mont the word “honor” left his lips, Blood Lady changed completely. She instantly appeared at his side, gently cradled his upper body, and laid his head on her thigh.
"Good boy, my dear Hong’er. Co now, you’re hurt—take this pill first."
Blood Lady took out a pill that exuded a rich dicinal fragrance and personally fed it to Jiang Hong.
"Th-thank you, Mother."
After swallowing the pill, Jiang Hong’s face regained so color.
"Now tell —who did this to my Hong’er? Say the na. When we reach Eastern Shang, I’ll personally take revenge for you."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Hong gritted his teeth and enunciated every word:
"Qiu—Qian—Hai!"
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