Chapter 57: The Bai Mao Who Can't Leave

Lu Xingzhou silently pushed his wheelchair to the side of the pool, watching the ripples Shen Tang dove into spread and disappear, not knowing what he was thinking.

That moment of impulse, not only was Shen Tang’s heart in chaos, but wasn't he the same?

Previously, he had been suppressing his desires, mainly because almost all his thoughts were on treating his legs, and he really had no other mood.

But now that his legs were healed... it seemed he could consider something else...

In fact, for a man, whether there is someone in his heart is not that important...

And the shadow of that person had also become lighter and lighter these days.

Lu Xingzhou’s mind was empty for a while, but in the end, he shook his head and took out the Ten Thousand Soul Banner to do the right thing.

Everyone had left, what was the point of being dazed here? The Ten Thousand Soul Banner was half-damaged, and he had to repair it.

Magic treasures like the Ten Thousand Soul Banner focused on the soul, and their own materials were relatively fragile, at least when the level was still low. It was a common situation for them to be damaged over the years. This damage was heavier than usual, but the repair wasn't too difficult. Getting a powerful main soul on it could allow it to repair itself, at most a bit slower.

This banner had never had a good main soul. Lu Xingzhou had always used whichever soul he collected that was the strongest to temporarily replace the main soul, but this time he didn't intend to use fourth-rank cultivators like Jin Mingxiu or Bai Jingtian.

Because there was an interesting soul this time... the Flame Demon.

Killing to take a soul meant that the strength of the soul was what it was, and it couldn't be raised. But this Flame Demon was a soul body itself, growing by residing in the Essence of Flame Fire. This was a soul that could continue to grow.

It was just that after being taken into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner and having its consciousness wiped, its attributes had to change.

That kind of scorching yang fire couldn't exist in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner, or the banner itself would be burned... but it could be converted into soul fire, or other attributes similar to nether fire.

Lu Xingzhou once again realized the greatness of the "Yin-Yang Ultimate Art." This kind of turning yang into yin was also within the scope of the technique. A day ago, he couldn't do this operation at all.

Now he could try it, and it was even easier after breaking through to the sixth rank.

Lu Xingzhou stretched out his finger and pointed at the brow of the small Flame Demon in the soul banner. The breath of the fierce fire, which was originally incompatible with the soul banner, slowly transformed and turned into strange black flames.

A pattern of black flames faintly appeared on the white banner, which looked quite cool.

The black flames turned into a ghost face, and the voice was respectful: "Master..."

Lu Xingzhou tested it and was a bit surprised: "This is not soul fire. I don't seem to have seen this... What kind of fire is this?"

He just reversed yin and yang; he couldn't produce any fire himself. What it turned into depended entirely on the Flame Demon itself.

The black flames answered honestly: "This is black flame... The final form should be... Wutian Black Flame."

Lu Xingzhou pointed to the vine by the pool that had once shattered his leg bone: "Burn it and try."

The black flames in the Ten Thousand Soul Banner silently spread over, and the vine disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.

Lu Xingzhou himself secretly gasped.

It wasn't necessarily that this black flame was very strong, but its attributes were extremely strange. Clearly, one couldn't feel any temperature, but it was actually scorching hot. An ordinary person would be killed alive without preparation.

Once it evolved into the "Wutian Black Flame" it claimed, what would it be like then?

Lu Xingzhou silently placed the Ten Thousand Soul Banner in the pool water and gave the Flame Demon an order: "Absorb spiritual energy to repair yourself. How long will it take?"

The Flame Demon answered honestly: "It will take forty-nine days to repair itself. With the help of this pool water, it will take about ten days."

Ten days... Lu Xingzhou sensed his legs, which were still numb and itchy. Besides not being able to exert force, he hadn't adapted to the discomfort of being cold on one side and hot on the other. He didn't know what they would recover to after ten days.

…………

For practitioners, ten days was just a snap of the fingers.

The pills and talismans Lu Xingzhou had accumulated had long been consumed in the various battles these days. In ten days, just refining pills and making talismans to replenish the reserves wasn't enough, and he also needed to set aside time to refine the Snow-Melting Returning Origin Pill for the Profound Heaven Sect to impact the high-end pill market.

After breaking through to the sixth rank, Lu Xingzhou could refine more pills.

The alchemy notes and pill formulas left by the original owner of the cave dwelling were also very valuable materials. Among them were many types of instant-recovery medicines. Lu Xingzhou directly gave up the healing pills and qi-benefiting pills he usually kept, and changed to refining higher-grade instant-recovery pills for backup.

And he had already begun to try refining soul-related pills.

This time his soul was injured and he had no medicine to cure it. Instead, the pills Anuo gave him barely worked. This reminded Lu Xingzhou that future enemies would involve more soul-related matters, so it was better to be prepared.

As for talismans, he wasn't in a hurry for the time being. After all, he could directly buy higher-grade ones from others, and they were easy to use.

In fact, after breaking through to the sixth rank, Lu Xingzhou could already achieve instant casting for lower three-rank techniques. He could reduce the reserve of those low-end talismans and just make a labor-saving reserve.

Lu Xingzhou had always felt that the threshold between the seventh rank and the sixth rank was the threshold of qualitative change. The previous ninth, eighth, and seventh ranks didn't have a very obvious feeling of qualitative change. The "Yin-Yang Ultimate Art" simply didn't mention any ninth-rank classification at all. When mentioning this threshold, it repeatedly used a word called "Qin Xin."

It was hard to understand what this word meant. If it corresponded to the online cultivation novels he had read, it seemed that this threshold was more like corresponding to Foundation Establishment.

So were the upper three ranks considered Golden Core? It was just that there was no clear performance of pill formation, so the concept was gradually diluted.

So a large number of characters like Shen Tang, Jin Mingxiu, Bai Jingtian, Wu Jianchen, and True Person Xuanhe were all stuck at the fourth rank. It seemed very difficult to sprint to the upper three ranks. Dugu Qingli needed to train in the world even more to seek the path to the upper three ranks, which showed that this was a threshold that even the Holy Land had to treat with caution.

The upper three ranks were also the standard for entering the Great Qian Heroes List. No matter how good the fourth rank was, it could only be called a newcomer. When they got old, they were called old guys who were still stuck at the fourth rank.

If the upper three ranks were considered Golden Core, these phenomena could be explained. After all, that was a typical big threshold in any worldview.

One important manifestation of why the super-grade technique was super-grade was that it jumped out of this forced ninth-rank system and pointed to a more correct cultivation core. Under the overlooking of the super-grade technique, the so-called sixth rank was just getting started.

"I'm here to take today's Snow-Melting Returning Origin Pill. Is it refined?" Dugu Qingli’s voice came from afar.

Lu Xingzhou turned his head to look. Dugu Qingli walked all the way, and the pool water on her body automatically turned into ice mist, lingering around her. With her white hair and blue eyes, the scene looked exactly like an ACG scene, really beautiful.

Shen Tang hadn't come again these days. He didn't know if she was really busy with the sect or because of her little temper after being kissed on the face that day. Anuo was responsible for delivering medicinal materials and taking the finished pills. He didn't know why Dugu Qingli came to steal Anuo’s job today.

Lu Xingzhou looked back at the alchemy furnace: "You broke through?"

"Hmm." Dugu Qingli stood by his side, her tone very flat: "I want to resign, but Shen Tang won't let me, and asked me to come to you. I just happened to take the pills for her."

Lu Xingzhou said: "Did Shen Tang tell you that there will be a conflict with the Burning Incense Tower in the near future? The Burning Incense Tower is a third-rank sect with a wide network. If Shen Tang loses you, she will lose without even fighting."

"She told me."

"Then you still want to leave?"

Dugu Qingli was silent for a moment: "This kind of sect dispute will happen all the time in the future. Even if the Profound Heaven Sect rises, it will continue to face other third-rank, second-rank, and even first-rank sects in the future, endlessly. When will it end?"

"Are you sure it's just this factor and has nothing to do with me?"

"...It has nothing to do with you."

"Since it has nothing to do with me, why did you come when Shen Tang asked you to ask me?"

Dugu Qingli’s slender hand holding the sword scabbard tightened.

She didn't know either.

Originally, her mission had nothing to do with Lu Xingzhou. She could just resign to Shen Tang. Why care what Lu Xingzhou said?

But Shen Tang asked her to ask Lu Xingzhou, and she still came.

Lu Xingzhou was still looking at the alchemy fire and said flatly: "Your master asked you to come out for training, saying you want to experience the world?"

"Yes."

"Then you travel alone, what world can you experience? Looking at other people’s grievances and hatreds from afar? Then you might as well find a storybook to read; the effect is about the same."

Dugu Qingli was silent.

She didn't understand why her master wanted her to experience the world anyway. Anyway, she felt it was useless for the past two months.

No... it was a little useful...

At least that day when the wheelchair was overturned and later when she was pressed under him, the two scenes flashed repeatedly in her heart these days, and even the breakthrough almost couldn't maintain a quiet heart.

Did this count?

You know, her cultivation, where her whole person was like the Cold River, having a heart as clear as ice without ripples was the most basic, and there was no need to deliberately operate any heart-clearing technique. Even if it was a great hatred of being stabbed by someone, it wouldn't affect any thoughts in daily life. The fifth rank to the fourth rank was not a special big threshold. Theoretically, her breakthrough didn't need seclusion at all; she would break through by sitting in the room.

But this time she actually had to find the secret room of the Sword Sect, and in the most biting sword intent, she had to get rid of all thoughts to get rid of those messy pictures in her heart.

Lu Xingzhou turned his head to look at her dazed appearance and concluded: "So your training is not here, where is it?"

Dugu Qingli opened her mouth, wanting to say something but didn't say it.

Could it be that Master’s experience of the world meant finding a man? How could it be interpreted like this!

Then why didn't Master find one herself!