Chapter 621: The Influence of the 'Presence' Aura

Although he was a True Immortal, the Hegemon was, after all, a body cultivator...

Thinking that way wasn't actually wrong!

Hegemon: "If you need it, I can help you improve it a bit. I guarantee the effect will be better than what you have now @Venerable Hong"

Venerable Hong: "That won't be necessary /smile"

Pill Ancestor: "Daoist friend Venerable Hong only wants to improve the sect's atmosphere, not send them to their deaths"

If the 'Body Cultivator Refined Speech' were really brought into play, it wouldn't be as simple as just a 'Taunt Aura'.

Venerable Hong: "/thumbs up"

Hegemon: "..."

So me kindly wanting to help you upgrade your aura makes me the bad guy, huh?

Xiang Jianzong: "By the way, how long does this aura last?"

If it persists constantly, then the holder of the 'Taunt Aura' would probably have to transfer to Longxiang Qingtianzong, facing those thick-skinned body cultivators, just to live and cultivate normally.

Venerable Hong: "It's only a slight punishment. The Taunt Aura will degrade into a Presence Aura after about a week"

Venerable Hong: "And then it will end after another month"

In other words, the two most serious offenders get to enjoy an extra week of 'Taunt Aura' compared to the others.

The others who received 'rewards' only need to enjoy a month of 'Presence' aura.

Mainly because they really slacked off a bit too much this time. Most of them only completed the bare minimum of settlement missions, and some didn't even finish their missions.

That's why it was decided to use this aura to warn them.

For those juniors who wish they could hide themselves until the end of time, a month-long 'Presence' aura is already enough to teach them a lasting lesson.

Venerable Hong: "If similar situations happen again in the future, the aura duration will be directly doubled"

If they still refuse to learn after repeated admonishment, it's not like the 'Body Cultivator Refined Speech' version of the 'Taunt Aura' can't be deployed.

As for the upgrade...

There's no need for the Hegemon either. At the beginning of the Spirit Net's creation, 'traces' left by body cultivators were everywhere online.

It's just that later, because the network environment needed to be purified, most of them were blocked and deleted.

But the Spirit Net itself was created by the Taishang Dao Sect. Going back and retrieving the relevant data at that time wouldn't be troublesome.

Venerable Artifact: "What if they adapt to your aura?"

Venerable Hong: "That would be best. That's exactly what I hope for"

If one day they become able to ignore the influence of the 'Presence' aura, it proves they won't deliberately hide themselves.

If that's the case, naturally it can't be called the 'Way of Concealment' anymore.

Unfortunately...

Judging from their performance after he issued the aura, this point probably won't be achieved anytime soon.

Afterwards, the group chat was seen to drift through several other topics.

Xu Xing watched for a while, lost interest, closed the chat app, and put away his phone.

"Presence Aura..."

He remembered that Yuan Jun had mentioned this matter during the previous 'Xian Sect Grand Competition'. He didn't expect it to be put to use so soon.

Those 'cautious' juniors of the Taishang Dao Sect are really going to suffer now.

Xiang Jianzong Outer Gate Sword Hall.

Deep within, in a cultivation chamber that could draw upon the mineral vein's baleful energy to temper sword intent.

Hiss~!

As the cultivation chamber's great door opened, wisps of blood-colored condensed mist, like steam, surged and spread outward.

Ye Zhiwei wore the black uniform issued by the Sword Hall, with the hair ribbon she had brought with her when she first came to the Xiang Jianzong tied around her forehead.

At this moment, an aura of fierce and murderous energy lingered around her without dispersing, and a blood-like glint seemed to flash in her eyes, sending chills down one's spine.

But the two black-clad Sword Hall stewards standing in the distance only glanced over lightly. After confirming nothing was wrong, they looked away.

Sword cultivators who have just begun attempting to temper their bodies with baleful energy will all show similar conditions; it's nothing unusual.

Ye Zhiwei let out a long breath, calmed the true yuan within her that had been agitated by the baleful energy, and walked to the side of the cultivation chamber.

A line of text appeared on a screen embedded in the wall.

【Your cultivation session lasted 4 hours, 35 minutes, and 25 seconds, totaling 45 contribution points】

The cultivation chamber is priced at ten contribution points per hour, billed every six minutes.

So many people who come here to cultivate will cut it close to the exact time.

Ye Zhiwei took out her identity jade token and swiped it across the sensing area below the screen.

Beep!

Twenty contribution points were instantly deducted from her account.

As the first place of this 'Xian Sect Special Recruitment' and a Fortune Foundation Establishment cultivator, the discount she could get when using such auxiliary cultivation areas was very high.

And she could also receive an additional 500 contribution points every month.

And this!

Was only part of the benefits and treatment she received as the first place of the special recruitment and a Fortune Foundation Establishment cultivator.

This kind of benefit and treatment would last for three years. If she could advance to Jin Dan within three years, the treatment could be further improved.

If she still hadn't reached Jin Dan within three years...

Then there would be no such possibility!

You're already at Fortune Foundation Establishment — three whole years and you still can't form a Jin Dan? Are you even human?

Ye Zhiwei took back her jade token, glanced at her account balance, hung it at her waist, and turned to walk outside.

As she walked, she sensed her own sword intent, which had grown keener through being tempered by baleful qi.

As expected, the Xiang Jianzong suited sword cultivators far better — she'd only been at the Xiang Jianzong a short while, and her overall strength had already leapt up several tiers.

Whether it was sword intent, true essence, or sword arts and divine abilities, all had undergone a qualitative leap.

The her of now could probably take down the her of the past within a hundred moves, easily!

She walked straight past the two black-robed stewards of the Sword-Holding Hall and entered the long corridor.

Ye Zhiwei suppressed the unusually restless emotions stirred up by the baleful qi, took out her phone, and opened her usual chat app.

Ming Dao Ming Xin: "I've got a special mission to carry out recently — I might not be free for a while."

Zhi Lun Jing Wei: "Got it, Brother Ruoming!"

Scrolling upward, Ye Zhiwei's eyes flickered with a trace of complexity as she looked at the dense chat history between them.

Compared to before, the two of them had been chatting far less frequently lately.

The messages Zhao Ruoming sent had also, starting from some point in time, become constrained — even a little cautious…

As for this matter, Zhao Ruoming had actually never given it much thought; he just felt that chatting online with a little Miss…

In any case, after learning the real situation from Ye Zhiwei, he'd felt quite guilty.

As for whether Ye Zhiwei might have planned from the very start just to toy with him…

What a joke!

Although he'd lost narrowly to Chi Jiuyu, he was still among the very best of the Xian Sect's heaven-prides — how could he be that easy to fool!

Just like that, she walked all the way out through the long corridor, and Ye Zhiwei had also just finished reading through the recent chat history, about to put her phone away.

Ding-dong!

A message popped up.

It was from the cultivation discussion forum she browsed most often — a new hot post had appeared on the Xiang Jianzong board—

【Help! The sword I had reinforced and painted at Taishang Dao Sect has gone wrong — does anyone know how to fix it?】

Maybe out of curiosity, or maybe because she'd just looked through the chat history with Zhao Ruoming, Ye Zhiwei still tapped in to take a look.

After seeing the contents of the post, a strange look briefly flashed across Ye Zhiwei's expression.

The poster was a sword cultivator — the kind who cultivated sword arrays.

According to his account, a few months earlier he'd purchased the painting-and-reinforcement service from Taishang Dao Sect.

At first everything was fine, and he was very satisfied with the performance of his flying sword after the painting and reinforcement.

But yesterday, for some unknown reason, it suddenly went wrong.

The post also included a picture of the flying sword.

It was a hilt-less, pale-gold flying sword, crystalline and translucent like crystal all over, its blade painted with winding crimson-red patterns that fit the blade's grain perfectly.

Even through the picture, one could make out the painter's Gao Chao skill.

However…

【Name: Liu Yu】