Chapter 1391

"Haha, I was too focused on cultivation and forgot about this. Thanks for the trouble."

Liang Qu patted the Dragon Man's shoulder, grabbed the clothes, and draped them over himself without a hint of awkwardness. At one meter ninety, his height was indeed unremarkable among Dragon Men who averaged two meters twenty or thirty — slightly short even — but as a man, he was inferior to no Dragon Man!

So what if he wasn't wearing clothes? Was it because he didn't want to?

"Huh, the size fits perfectly."

"The Queen Consort had us prepare them."

"I've been cultivating for a long time?" Liang Qu froze. From the sound of it, he had been naked for several days?

"Not too long. About three days after the lightning tribulation; today is the fourth day."

Liang Qu nodded and looked around: "Where's Eying?"

"The Queen Consort is entertaining the Great Shun Empress in Yixing."

"What?"

"The Emperor's wife." The Dragon Man who brought the clothes said with a straight face.

Liang Qu immediately released his perception and discovered that, aside from the Old Monk's "River Stone," there was no one else in Pingyang; Zhang Longxiang's group was clearly still in the south.

"Could it be that something changed during my cultivation, so His Majesty sent the Empress to personally visit and comfort me?"

Breaking and then establishing was extremely perilous; Liang Qu had concentrated all his attention on performing "surgery" on himself, so he had no idea what changes had occurred in the outside environment or what had happened.

He pondered briefly.

Time was truly insufficient. The River God Sacrifice, seizing a Position Fruit — in a flash it reached mid-October. The Great Hunt was drawing ever closer, the Yellow Sand River still hadn't been sorted out — Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao — who knew how Si Nan was cursing him behind his back; not to mention Feng Yi, his Chang You also needed to advance; additionally, the Holy Emperor wanted to go see the Immortal Island —

Daring not delay further, Liang Qu hurriedly had the Dragon Man go summon the Third Elder, called A Fei through the link, withdrew the water pillars standing in the Jianghuai one by one, and took the opportunity to further observe the sun in his Lower Dantian, his mood excellent.

"The Grand Steward truly did not deceive me."

If Minor, Medium, and Major correspond to Calamity, Governance, and Control.

A single "Governance" attribute alone is enough to prove that his 【Tianyuan/Jumang】 Position Fruit is a Medium Position Fruit! Consistent with what the former Grand Steward said — Self-Cultivated are mostly Medium Position Fruit compatible!

With a Medium Position Fruit, can a Major Position Fruit be far behind?

The biggest difference between a Self-Cultivated Position Fruit and a Heaven-Born Earth-Nurtured Position Fruit is twofold: one, a Self-Cultivated is refined at birth, raised by oneself — why would it need refining like Chang You or Han Mei? Two, Heaven-Born Earth-Nurtured requires all sorts of inconceivable specific rites to meet conditions before advancing. Self-Cultivated is different; to become a Major Position Fruit, one only needs to continue "nurturing."

Whether it's one's own strength growing or continuing to replenish, both fall under the category of "nurturing." The heights reached are the same, but the process is far simpler than researching rites.

In other words, the 【Tianyuan/Jumang】 Advancement Rite is Liang Qu cultivating and advancing himself.

A Major Position Fruit is not far off, equivalent to the Crucible not being far off, becoming an Immortal not far off. Starting today, he has already set half a foot into the Crucible, and can be called a "Little Immortal"!

The most astonishing thing: even though the Position Fruit's authority is still gestating, vague and unclear, Liang Qu could sense that there seemed to be a clue allowing him to grasp a little —

"Great King!" Long Zong Yin hurried over, his eyes full of joy at Liang Qu emerging from seclusion. Recently there had been too many happy events, so many he could hardly keep up with the joy.

"There's a matter on the Yixing side; the Jianghuai side will need to trouble the Third Elder."

"Great King, please command as you wish."

"It's not a command. Since I've emerged, Shou Ye should have successfully advanced; pick a gift from the treasury and go congratulate him. Also Frog Elder, the previously agreed price, pay it together. And tell Turtle King and Frog King: the previously promised double compensation is changed to triple, the deadline unchanged, still settled within three years."

"Understood!"

Long Zong Yin noted them down one by one and went to arrange them immediately.

A Fei the fish wiggled its buttocks, swimming up and down as it hurried over, raising its head against the folded whiskers.

Liang Qu hopped onto A Fei's head.

"Go, back to Pingyang!"

A Fei froze, sensing the heavy weight atop its head, and instantly its eyes welled with hot tears. So long, too long. It raised its fins, wiped away tears, waved its fins beating its chest, expressing utmost loyalty; its tail curled up and it thrust forward with all its might.

The river wind suddenly grew heavy; waves on both sides flew up into water curtains. Liang Qu's hair streamed into a long dragon. He gazed at the river surface, baffled by this sudden sprint — wasn't it just having A Fei take him to Pingyang so he could experience the changes in his strength on the way?

Incomprehensible.

Liang Qu sat cross-legged, but unexpectedly, before they'd gone far, he felt the riding experience seemed not as good as before.

Strange. Could it be that he hadn't ridden the fish-head carriage for too long and got used to traveling on his own?

"Wait, A Fei, why are you swimming like this?"

Liang Qu suddenly discovered the problem.

He and the Old Toad liked riding A Fei precisely because A Fei's head was large, soft and elastic, and it swam with the normal side-to-side sway of a big fish — stable enough, a premium fish-head carriage. Unlike Roundhead; same kind of touch, but as a Jiang Tun its movement is up-and-down undulation, too bumpy.

Looking now, how come A Fei is also swimming up-and-down?

A Fei was horrified, bitterly berating itself for being too excited and failing the Heavenly God's expectations, while its brain rapidly searched.

Footless Frog, Black Dragon, Shell-less Turtle, Spineless Porpoise, Mutant Orca, Ferocious-Tooth General —

Ding.

Search successful. Heavenly God's Beloved General Mode, activate!

Bumping vanished; stability returned; not a ripple stirred.

Liang Qu nodded in satisfaction and closed his eyes.

A Fei swayed its long whiskers, wiped off sweat, and strove forward. In the Orca clan, it was trembling with fear, walking on thin ice, not daring to relax for a moment. Just once using the wrong Frog clan mode, the strange undulation almost made the Whale General suspicious, nearly costing it two treasure fish. Since then, chastened by the lesson, it bitterly practiced undulation techniques — yet when accepting the Heavenly God's precious buttocks, it forgot to switch.

The Whale King has already nodded approval; next it will immediately enter the Orca clan registry, eat Heavenly Yao offerings. It absolutely must not slip up, hence the bitter practice of undulation skills — yet at the moment of undertaking the Heavenly God's precious buttocks, it forgot to switch.

Truly damned!

Tonight's rations doubled, punish itself with stomach distension for half a double-hour!

"Perception range expanded, strength also increased, Hong Kingdom's size also increased — remarkably hard, this is almost comparable to using a divine ability, right?"

Liang Qu experienced the changes in the body of Grasping River Pulling River.

The shrunken Xuan Weapon Fubo pressed against his palm; he squeezed hard, yet failed to draw a single drop of blood, instead bending the spear shaft into an O.

Fubo, having been nurtured to this point, by sharpness alone is sufficient to wound a low-rank Wu Sheng.

This time using up the Golden Core in the Root Sea, the Root Sea should be around 1,000-something; combined with the lightning tribulation, reached 1,050; now 1,200. One could say there's an increase of 150, all produced after he shed and transformed his martial bones, and furthermore still assisting cultivation now, as if the Ze Spirit were still feeding back — natural cultivation for one month achieving two to three times the level.

Even assisting advancement; without the transformation, this time he would probably be at Stage 5.5; it's precisely because of the transformation, then another fierce surge of one layer later, then sitting the temple once more.

Dao and Qi grew simultaneously!

This was very unusual.

Martial Bones undoubtedly have divine benefits for cultivation, but this benefit is basically limited to below Entering Zhen Xiang, when primarily refining Qi and blood; once one reaches Entering Zhen Xiang, where essence, Qi, and spirit achieve Six Heyi, Martial Bones that can still provide obvious help are already ferocious to an inconceivable degree.

Zhang Longxiang's Martial Bone, the Ding Zhen Shanhe, is renowned as the current world's number one bone, able to accommodate the trends of heaven and earth to hammer and refine itself, letting the Martial Bone continuously strengthen, yet even it has never been heard of as ferocious as my own.

The principle is very simple: 2.5 times a month, thirty times a year; Zhang Longxiang is a forty-year-old Wu Sheng, so by now, even at sixty years, without eating any precious medicines, relying purely on ordinary cultivation, he should have a 1,800-fold Root Sea.

But as far as Liang Qu knows, Zhang Longxiang's Root Sea should not be that large.

The current world's number one is already like this, so what does my Grasp River Drag River Body count for?

Aside from cultivation assistance and hardness, the remaining feeling is mostly just great strength, strength without limit, and beyond that, it is utterly ordinary.

But that great strength seems like — if he had the Grasp River Drag River Body at Entering Zhen Xiang, he could bare-handedly, forcibly hammer an ordinary Wu Sheng to death —

Liang Qu clenched his fist.

In the past, when he crossed borders everywhere in Wolf Smoke and Hunt Tiger, a considerable part relied on his Martial Bone; no one could contend with him. Zhu Zongwang and Huo Hongyuan were directly pressed down and beaten. Unfortunately, later at Entering Zhen Xiang, especially at Yao Long, the advantage was no longer obvious; now it has actually returned to a comfort zone?

Looking at his own palm, Liang Qu really wanted to find a Wu Sheng to fight a battle, to determine his own strength range, but looking around, the Southern Frontier was withered, the Northern Court timid to fight —

He only hoped the upcoming Blood River Realm could give him a little surprise.

"Great harvest!"

Dragon Fubo flicked and fell back into his ear.

Root Sea, Position Fruit, Rank, Martial Bone — nothing was left out.

The only tiny regret was probably that the swallowed Golden Pills lacked Water Marsh Essence, for unknown reasons.

The Golden Pill materials came from the Southern Frontier and Great Shun; inside there should have been some water-attribute precious medicines.

"A technique issue?"

Liang Qu stroked his chin, remembering Fu Shuo had mentioned it once.

Immortals refining "Immortal Pills" differs from normal alchemists refining medicine; they directly extract the medicinal power from precious medicines and fuse them into one piece, hence there are no conflicting influences, only pure growth, belonging to the "Crucible Method"; ordinary people cannot learn it, they can only gaze up in admiration.

The pill Old Yin Whale gave last time belonged to Fu Shuo's secondary fusion, hence it had Essence?

Could it be that the carrier of Water Marsh Essence is the precious medicine itself, unable to be extracted?

Pearls, corals, treasure fish, water beasts, precious medicines —

What exactly is the carrier?

"Forget it, be content and happy."

"A Fei, keep swimming, then sense it."

Liang Qu extended his palm, pressing on A Fei's head.

The fat fish, baffled, still nodded its head; soon, it felt a stream of cool energy surge into its body, like a small sapling taking root and sprouting, connecting to its spine; afterward, its essence, Qi, and spirit surged up a large chunk.

Cool!

Extremely icy cool!

The fat fish widened its fish eyes.

The next moment.

Black ink spread out.

Liang Qu's butt emptied, falling onto the water surface.

The fat fish suddenly mistified, a sky-covering, earth-obscuring mistification.

Gather Scatter Formless!

Only completely different from the usual Gather Scatter Formless; this time, the black mist A Fei transformed into became even more pure, even more exaggerated, vast and mighty, wrapping the entire large marsh of several li in radius.

The fat fish looked left and right, a face full of bewilderment.

Is this still its divine ability?

"As expected —"

Liang Qu stepped on the water surface, looking at his own palm.

His Authority is still a semi-finished product, the effect very crude; to sum up roughly, it is just Sublimation.

He upgraded A Fei's mistification divine ability by one rank.