Chapter 622: Crimson Flame

"Junior Brother Xu!"

"Brother Xu!"

Xu Yang walked all the way to the dining hall, and people kept greeting him along the way.

There were quite a few people in the dining hall, with over a dozen or twenty seated.

Xu Yang got a portion of food and drink, then found an empty table and sat down.

"It is said that Qi Qi Xuancheng and Zhang Zhang Hanzhou both failed to break through to the Heavenly Origin Realm."

"How could the Heavenly Origin Realm be that easy? Even Yan Yan Guiyun failed on his first breakthrough attempt, let alone them."

"Did you get injured?"

"It is said his vital energy was damaged, but not severely."

Listening to these disciples' conversation, Xu Yang finally learned that during his seclusion, both Qi Qi Xuancheng and Zhang Zhang Hanzhou, who were attempting to break through to the Heavenly Origin Realm, had failed.

Although he succeeded at once, the difficulty of breaking through to the Heavenly Origin Realm is such that many people will never succeed in their entire lives.

Even a figure like Elder Elder Huoyun, it is said, spent nearly two years after completing marrow cleansing before breaking through to the Heavenly Origin Realm.

"Junior Brother Xu, after many days of seclusion, your cultivation base must have made great progress." Zhu Yuan and several disciples from Elder Elder Huoyun's sect walked over with smiles.

"Greetings, Senior Brothers. It was only a small seclusion of a few days; how could there be any breakthrough?" Xu Yang smiled.

He felt a gaze fall upon him several times, carrying scrutiny.

Xu Yang turned his head and found it was someone he did not recognize.

Seeming to notice his gaze, this person quickly stood up and left the dining hall.

"Does Senior Brother Zhu know that person?" Xu Yang pointed at the person's retreating back.

Zhu Yuan looked at Xu Yang in confusion and said, "He is a disciple under Elder Yue Zhong, named Song Song Wending, a member of the Song family, one of the ten great families of Qingyang City."

Song Song Wending?

A person from the Song family?

Light flickered in Xu Yang's eyes; was the Song family the one monitoring him at Li Huo Peak? No wonder his five senses detected that the way this person looked at him was somewhat different.

Although he had killed several people from the Song family multiple times without revealing any flaws, the Song family still wanted to kill him.

After chatting with Zhu Yuan and others for a while, and finishing his meal, he returned to his quiet room to continue consolidating his cultivation base and cultivating the Li Huo Gong.

The Li Huo Gong is indeed extraordinary and domineering; the Gang Yuan cultivated from it can even increase the strength of his body, which has reached the great success of the Immovable Bright King Body.

Of course, what is truly domineering is its ability to absorb and influence the power of heaven and earth.

Once the Li Huo Gong is activated, the power of heaven and earth within a radius of several dozen zhang will be drawn, swarming towards his body.

【Li Huo Gong, First Level (102/10000)】

In the quiet room, Xu Yang's brows were tightly furrowed.

He knew that cultivating in the Heavenly Origin Realm was difficult, but he did not expect it to be so hard; for seven consecutive days, the progress of the Li Huo Gong had increased by only a few dozen points.

At this speed, it would take him three or four years to break through to the second level of Heavenly Origin.

And as far as he knew, the entire Heavenly Origin Realm consists of nine levels.

This was even with his perfect bone structure and comprehension; in seven days, he could only increase progress by this much. For others, it would probably be even less.

"I must obtain an elixir or spiritual herb for the Heavenly Origin Realm."

With an elixir or spiritual herb, the cultivation speed would naturally be faster.

As for elixirs, as far as he knew, even someone of Elder Elder Huoyun's status mostly cultivated using the Long Hu Great Jin Dan; the Ziyang Sect might not have any elixirs for the Heavenly Origin Realm.

Perhaps they do, but they might be so scarce that even Elders can only occasionally receive a few; disciples like him should not even dream of it.

If he cannot get an elixir or spiritual herb, the best method is to find a place with more abundant spiritual energy.

However, in the last few days he had already tried; the spiritual energy at Li Huo Peak was somewhat better, while the spiritual energy in the outer sect was even thinner than at Li Huo Peak.

"Tiance Academy!" Xu Yang pondered!

This should be another reason why everyone wants to enter Tiance Academy; besides powerful inheritances, there should be resources there.

Spiritual herbs and elixirs cannot be had every day; to improve one's cultivation base, one must ultimately rely on absorbing and refining spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

Yunqishanzhuang is located ten li outside Qingyang City; it is one of the Song family's most important assets, the Song family's main base outside the city, and has always been guarded by at least two martial artists who have reached great success in marrow cleansing.

However, recently the Song family has lost quite a few great success marrow cleansing experts, and the number of great success marrow cleansing guardians stationed here has dropped from two to one.

Yunqishanzhuang is primarily a place where the Song family cultivates spiritual herbs and raises strange beasts; its importance can be imagined, as any problem arising here could affect the development of the entire family.

Xu Yang lay in ambush in the forest, gazing from afar at Yunqishanzhuang, with the spiritual weapon Bishui Dao wrapped in black cloth on his back.

The Song family had attacked him several times and colluded with Elder Liu Liu Qingyuan, once even trying to lure him away from the Ziyang Sect to kill him.

Before breaking through to the Heavenly Origin Realm, he could only endure and lie low.

Now that his cultivation base has broken through to the Heavenly Origin Realm, he cannot wait for the Song family to make the first move before retaliating; the initiative cannot be in the enemy's hands.

With less than two years remaining until the second Dragon Ascension, he must ascend the dragon and leave.

Before leaving, he must eliminate all enemies; otherwise, he cannot rest easy leaving Xu Qing alone in the Ziyang Sect.

Surrounded by high mountains on three sides, the vast manor covering seven or eight mu occasionally emitted roars of beasts.

In patches of medicinal gardens, Song family members wandered among them, infusing the planted herbs with vital essence and scattering fertilizer made from strange beast bone powder and flesh.

Song family martial artists clad in armor patrolled constantly around the manor, showing no slackness whatsoever.

Although the Song family still has Song Song Yushao as their anchor, the Heavenly Origin Ancestor cannot be stationed here at all times.

"Spiritual herbs!"

After a sweep of his gaze, Xu Yang discovered three medicinal herbs emitting a faint glow; one of them, a spiritual herb of unknown age, shone brightly like a small sun, wrapped in dense spiritual energy.

This was a small tree no more than three chi tall, with a trunk as thick as a child's arm; the cracked bark resembled scales, and at the top of the small tree, a fruit entirely blood-red hung quietly, like a burning flame.

"Could this be the Zhu Yanguo?"

He recalled descriptions of the Zhu Yanguo he had seen before, feeling that this fruit closely resembled it.

The Zhu Yanguo is a supreme treasure coveted by martial artists cultivating Yang Xing Gong Fa; it is said that if such practitioners consume it, their Gang Yuan will further refine and transform, becoming intensely scorching, making melting gold and burning iron an easy task.

The older the Zhu Yanguo, the more terrifying its effects.

His Li Huo Gong happens to be a Yang Xing Gong Fa.

"This object shares affinity with me!" Xu Yang's heart stirred.

He continued observing the entire layout of Yunqishanzhuang.

If his only goal were to snatch the spiritual herb, he naturally would not need such caution; with his Heavenly Origin Realm cultivation base, entering Yunqishanzhuang would be as easy as walking into his own backyard; his primary objective was still to lure Song Song Yushao here for an ambush.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, a low beastly roar entered Xu Yang's ears, a sound filled with brutality and rage.

Even though his current location was hundreds of zhang away from Yunqishanzhuang, he felt the vegetation around him tremble from the shockwaves of that roar.

Xu Yang's gaze tightened slightly; a creature capable of such imposing power must possess strength not far inferior to a Heavenly Origin expert, even if it did not quite match them.

He crept forward a bit further, then extended his Xin Shen Yi Jing and all five senses outward to locate the beast emitting the roar.

Soon, within his Xin Shen Yi Jing, he saw inside a pitch-black cave a formidable strange beast resembling a fierce tiger but larger, its body covered in flame-like patterns.

A scorching aura emanated from this beast, filling the cave with waves of heat, as if flames were about to erupt from its body.

The beast stood nearly two meters tall, its limbs thicker than a human's thighs, its appearance somewhat horrifying.

Several thick chains radiating spiritual nature tightly bound the beast's limbs and head, leaving it unable to move even an inch.

The beast's eyes burned red, emitting overwhelming hatred and brutal aura; as it struggled, the forces of heaven and earth around it fluctuated in response.

"A Heavenly Origin-level strange beast—the Chiyan Tiger!" Xu Yang was greatly shocked.

The Song family, within this Yunqishanzhuang, had actually raised a Chiyan Tiger, a strange beast comparable to a Heavenly Origin martial artist.

This was undoubtedly a massive fortune; for martial artists below the Heavenly Origin realm, even a single drop of blood from such a beast would be a rare treasure encountered only by chance, capable of rapidly advancing one's physical refinement when used for tempering the body.

The huge head of the Chiyan Tiger was larger than a millstone, its features ferocious, yet it had lost any trace of the dominance it once held while roaming the mountains and forests.

The claws on its four limbs had been severed, and the fangs in its mouth were gone.

Across its abdomen lay a wound that appeared somewhat aged, still stained with blood, as if someone had just drained blood from that spot.

Indeed, someone had just drained its blood; at this moment, Xu Yang's Xin Shen Yi Jing perceived a man carrying a bucket filled with Chiyan Tiger blood, striding toward that Zhu Yanguo plant.

"Is this Chiyan Tiger blood being used to cultivate that Zhu Yanguo plant?" Xu Yang's heart stirred, and he quietly crept toward the cave where the Chiyan Tiger was imprisoned.

Song Song Yuhua, carrying a bucket of Chiyan Tiger blood, strode toward the Zhu Yanguo.

As an Elder of the Song family and a Xisui Grand Completion expert stationed at Yunqishanzhuang, his primary task was to drain blood from the Chiyan Tiger daily, using its spiritual energy-infused blood to irrigate this nearly ten-year-old spiritual herb, the Zhu Yanguo.