Chapter 16: Second Crossing

The news that Chiyanzi of the Azure Moon Sect had refined a counterfeit spiritual treasure, the Six Yang Pure Fire Cover, spread throughout the Zhao Kingdom's cultivation world in just a day.

Moreover, it spread to the outside world at an even faster speed.

For a time, the entire Zhao Kingdom's cultivation world was in turmoil; large numbers of Foundation Establishment cultivators brought their outstanding disciples rushing to the Azure Moon Sect.

Those who could become Foundation Establishment cultivators were all seasoned veterans; upon hearing that Chiyanzi still had no disciple, many people's thoughts became active.

The Azure Moon Sect's True Person Lin Tao even issued an order, allowing Chiyanzi to open another lineage within the Azure Moon Sect.

However, these had nothing to do with Wang Ping; at this time he was silently cultivating in a secret mountain crevice, waiting for the energy bar to fill.

Sitting cross-legged on a stone slab he had carved with his Azure Light Sword, Wang Ping made up his mind; after returning from the Spirit Realm this time, he would definitely buy a formation plate to conceal his aura and for his own protection.

As Wang Ping consumed one Bigu Pill after another, three months passed in the blink of an eye.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Inside an unnamed mountain crevice, a blue streak of light shot back and forth through the cave at extreme speed.

Sometimes, when it lightly touched a protruding rock, that rock would immediately fall to the ground, its cut surface smooth as a mirror.

Wang Ping nodded in satisfaction, gestured with both hands, and the stream of light lightly floated down into his hand.

When the azure light faded, its true form was revealed.

It turned out to be Wang Ping's first magical artifact, the Azure Light Sword.

During these three months, aside from his daily cultivation, he spent all his remaining time practicing the Azure Light Sword Technique.

Now, he could wield the Azure Light Sword in his hand as if it were an extension of his arm.

Unfortunately, he could still only produce a single sword beam; a second sword beam showed no sign of appearing.

Greedy, greedy.

Wang Ping couldn't help shaking his head and mocking himself; cultivation must be gradual, and some things cannot be rushed.

He stood up, glanced at the modest cave dwelling around him, and couldn't help sighing, 'The four necessities of cultivation—wealth, partner, method, and place—are indeed true.'

Over the past three months, he cultivated day and night in this mountain cave, yet up to now he had condensed less than three strands of spiritual power.

Indeed, without a spirit vein's support, his cultivation speed was completely exposed.

He did not use spirit stones for cultivation; compared to the Spirit Realm's spiritual energy, the spiritual energy within low-grade spirit stones was undoubtedly somewhat impure.

Furthermore, his spirit stones would likely not be enough in the future.

Thinking of the silver-white block in his mind, he gave a bitter laugh.

Over the past three years or so, he had invested a total of five hundred spirit stones, and the silver-white block finally expanded from one cubic centimeter to 1501 cubic centimeters.

This thing was a money pit; Wang Ping calculated that to expand it to one cubic meter would require nearly three hundred forty thousand low-grade spirit stones.

Just thinking about these numbers made him feel a bit dizzy.

Wang Ping estimated that he would remain a pauper for a long time to come.

But it was worth it; relying solely on the Spirit Realm's pure and thick spiritual energy was already enough to meet his daily cultivation needs.

The spiritual power within his body had become extremely pure and thick; one strand of his spiritual power equaled four strands of someone else's.

This is precisely the benefit of cultivating by inhaling and exhaling the world's spiritual energy without using pills.

Cultivators in the world are not unaware that inhaling and exhaling spiritual power makes it purer and makes breaking through bottlenecks easier.

But in the cultivation world, aside from those with supreme or heavenly spiritual roots, who has the qualification to do so?

Even if upper-grade spiritual roots could condense four strands of spiritual power in a month, they would not dare to be so arrogant, unless they secluded themselves year after year at a third-grade spirit vein.

The benefits of pure spiritual power go beyond this; in cultivators' duels, if your spiritual power is sufficiently pure, your attack power will be absolutely far greater than others'.

The reason Wang Ping's Azure Light Sword Technique could, upon initial practice, pierce a half-meter-thick boulder with a single sword strike is closely related to the purity of his spiritual power.

Ding!

As soon as the sound rang out, Wang Ping's face lit up with joy; the energy bar was full, and the next second, a silver energy bar flew out of his mind.

A familiar scene reappeared; a one-foot-long energy bar began to spin, until it turned into a silver vortex three meters in diameter.

Wang Ping stepped inside, and, familiar with the route, walked along the silver light path to its end.

The light gate engraved with silver symbols still stood there, filled with an air of vicissitude.

Seeing the symbols on it, Wang Ping's heart stirred, recalling the hundred-odd characters of the final section of the Vajra Body.

Wang Ping remembered that last time he had marked a red dot, and his mind suddenly prompted that it seemed to be the Spirit Realm's Azure Mountain Region, the Heavenly Azure Mountain Range.

Spirit Realm, Azure Mountain Region, Heavenly Azure Mountain Range!

According to the map Wang Ping had seen, the two characters 'Spirit Realm' should be the largest font.

Last time he came, he couldn't fly; this time he directly employed the Wind Riding Technique, rising to one and a half meters high, then drifting backward a distance.

Indeed, on the silver light gate were the two largest characters, about the size of a palm.

Wang Ping slowly approached, extending his hand to touch the strange symbol near the left side.

If his guess was correct, this character should be the 'Spirit' character.

Indeed, when his fingertip touched the strange symbol, a 'Spirit' character suddenly appeared in his mind, and this 'Spirit' character was still that of the lower realm.

Moreover, he was not actually teleported away.

Wang Ping guessed that only by pressing a red dot with his finger would one be teleported away.

For the experiment, he again pointed his finger at a smaller symbol, and soon a 'Fire' character appeared in his mind.

After stepping back a little, Wang Ping looked at the symbols covering the entire silver gate and concluded that this was a form of writing, very likely the script of the Spirit Realm.

Although his experience was shallow, he also knew this was a tremendous fortune.

But why would there be a passage of Spirit Realm script after the Vajra Body?

Wang Ping carefully recalled the a hundred-plus symbols at the end of the Vajra Body, then looked for corresponding symbols on the silver light gate.

Soon he found the first character on the silver gate: it was a 'Cause' character.

On the silver gate towering three meters high, Wang Ping moved up and down like a diligent little bee.

Exactly an hour later, he finally finished translating the last 112 symbols of the Diamond Body.

Wang Ping had wanted to study it further, but the silver light gate suddenly flickered.

Then a message appeared in his mind, urging him to leave this place as soon as possible.

Thinking that he had already finished translating everything and wasn't in a hurry, Wang Ping went straight to the spot he had marked before, pointed with his right finger, and in the next instant his figure vanished into the silver light gate.

Spirit Realm, Azure Blue Mountain Range, a canyon unknown to anyone—Wang Ping descended here again.

After landing, Wang Ping saw the scene before him and was startled; the originally uneven stone walls on both sides simultaneously showed two semicircular indentations, and broken stones lay scattered on the ground.

Wang Ping's eyes showed a doubtful expression; his gaze shifted from left to right, as if he had discovered something.

Thus, he walked to the deepest point of the left semicircular indentation, then proceeded toward the deepest point of the right one.

Sure enough, is it ten zhang?

Wang Ping murmured, this phenomenon gave him a hint of speculation.

The ten-zhang space he was in was probably not meant to restrict his movement, but to protect him.

He turned his gaze toward the distance, but still saw nothing.

But he knew that this ten-zhang space must have isolated something terrifying from him.

Such terror, he currently cannot resist.

Wang Ping decided to try a different place next time; the place where he had descended now seemed not very safe.

Upon returning to the Spirit Realm, the rich and pure spiritual energy made one intoxicated.

Time was pressing; Wang Ping sat cross-legged and began circulating the Azure Wood Longevity Technique.

The majestic, pure spiritual energy poured into his body again; the spiritual power entering his body, under the operation of the Azure Wood Longevity Technique, quickly transformed into spiritual power.

In his lower abdomen dantian, it seemed as if a rain of spiritual power was falling, with strands of spiritual power appearing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Strands of spiritual power wandered within his dantian, the originally tiny clumps of spiritual power gradually swelling.

Because Wang Ping's cultivation method is a wood-attribute technique, the spiritual power manifesting in his body is azure wood-attribute spiritual power.

Wood-attribute has always been known for its gentleness, excelling at nourishing the body.

The purer the wood spiritual power, the better its nourishing effect on the body, and the greater the power when casting wood-type spells, far surpassing that of peers of the same rank.

Now, Wang Ping, with his Qi Refining cultivation, absorbs the heaven-and-earth spiritual energy of the Spirit Realm; after being transformed by the Azure Wood Longevity Technique, it forms extremely pure wood spiritual power.

This wood spiritual power is silently nourishing Wang Ping's body.

In his meditative cultivation, Wang Ping did not notice that his face was becoming younger, his skin more lustrous and elastic.

As his body grew younger, Wang Ping's demeanor became increasingly tranquil, full of natural serenity, making people unable to resist drawing close.

This is only the initial change; as his cultivation advances, this temperament will become even more evident.

This time lasted longer than before by as much as one twentieth of a Spirit Realm day.

When Wang Ping received the reminder, the spiritual power within him had already broken through the two-hundred mark; in the span of one Spirit Realm day, he had condensed eighty strands of spiritual power.

This amounts to one month in the lower realm; even a heavenly spiritual root could not reach such a level!

Know that the deepest part of a first-grade spirit vein can increase a cultivator's spiritual power by fifty percent; second-grade doubles it; third-grade two times; fourth-grade four times.

A heavenly spiritual root can condense 16 strands of spiritual power in one month; even if increased fourfold, it could only produce 64 strands.

He can now condense eighty strands of spiritual power in one month, an eightyfold increase, truly heaven-defying.

According to the spirit vein grade bonus, a sixth-grade spirit vein at most increases his cultivation speed eightfold, yet now it has increased eightyfold.

Last time he was merely pleased and hadn't yet had a chance to think carefully about these matters.

This time, not being so excited, he finally realized this problem.

Could such terrifying speed possibly be because it lies above an immortal vein?

Wang Ping suddenly laughed at his own thought.

Suppressing this doubt in his heart, he hurriedly looked toward the silver-white block.

In the span of one Spirit Realm day, spiritual liquid appeared again inside it.

However, this time there wasn't that much; Wang Ping estimated it to be about three cubic centimeters.

A quick calculation showed it was enough for him to break through.

There was still plenty of space left; Wang Ping greedily gazed at these broken stones.

Fill it up, fill it up! Fill everything completely.

The space containing the spiritual liquid was isolated separately; the rest was all placed by Wang Ping into the silver-white space.

Exactly one thousand four hundred ninety-eight cubic centimeters of space was filled to the brim; the silver-white space has a compressing effect.

In Wang Ping's view, the extremely hard stones were easily compressed by the silver-white block.

Everything ready, Wang Ping glanced at this place; next time he comes, he might not be here.

The silver vortex appeared again; Wang Ping stepped into it.