Chapter 829: Break Through the Bottleneck, Chase Down

"Alright, no problem…"

He Pingsheng said: "Just give me nine million, and I'll take it all!"

Nine million is an enormous sum; if it's low-grade spirit stones, it could truly pile up into a small hill.

In fact, even an ordinary storage ring couldn't hold it all.

But it didn't matter—He Pingsheng had a magic treasure space.

The space inside the Hongmeng Purple Gold Rod was vast.

"Please follow me!"

Cui the Shopkeeper led He Pingsheng behind the counter on the first floor, then pulled out one storage bag after another: "Each of these bags contains one hundred thousand spirit stones—check for yourself!"

He Pingsheng glanced and saw exactly ninety storage bags.

As for the exact number of low-grade spirit stones inside, a single thought from him could scan them all.

Indeed, each bag held exactly one hundred thousand—no mistake.

Rustle… rustle…

In the following moments, He Pingsheng placed each of the nine million spirit stones one by one into his magic treasure space.

Then he picked up the map and rose to leave.

"Here…" He Pingsheng casually tossed five low-grade spirit stones to the rabbit: "Take me to the city gate!"

He Pingsheng decided—he would leave this city.

Because this city was far too low-tier!

His spiritual sense had scanned and found the highest-cultivation cultivator here was only at Soul Transformation!

In that case, this city didn't even have sixth- or fifth-grade resources, let alone the seventh-grade ones needed for Body Integration!

Hmm…

Better check the map first!

As He Pingsheng rode the rabbit racing forward, he sank his spiritual sense into the map.

It was a complete map of the Divine Thunder Emperor Domain, with detailed markings of all mineral deposits.

After studying this map, He Pingsheng confirmed this was not the Flame Continent.

As for which continent it actually was, he still didn't know.

Because this map only covered the Divine Thunder Emperor Domain—it didn't indicate which continent it belonged to.

"Rabbit!" He Pingsheng asked: "How much do you know about our Divine Thunder Emperor Domain?"

"Divine Thunder Emperor Domain?" The rabbit looked confused: "Not much!"

"Then… how much do you know about this continent?" He Pingsheng asked again.

The rabbit said: "Master, you're joking—I've never left the boundaries of Bamboo Node City since birth. I don't even know how big the Divine Thunder Emperor Domain is, let alone the vast 【Lei Huang Continent】!"

"I dare not even imagine it!"

He Pingsheng's heart leapt with joy.

He hadn't expected to casually extract this geographical information with just two simple questions.

So this was the Lei Huang Continent?

Indeed, he had already left the Flame Continent!

From the 【Spirit World's Thousand Customs】, He Pingsheng learned that the Spirit World was vast beyond measure, with five super-continents.

They were: the Western Extreme Continent, the Lei Huang Continent, the Mystic Ice Continent, the Flame Continent, and the Thick Earth Continent.

These five continents floated atop the Evil Sea, disconnected from one another.

Legend said that even those who reached Mahayana Emperor Realm rarely left their own land to travel to other continents.

He Pingsheng hadn't expected that a single spatial passage had directly transported him from the Flame Continent to the Lei Huang Continent.

The Lei Huang Continent belonged to Thunder, and Thunder belonged to Wood.

So this was the Wood-element continent among the Five Elements.

Just as the Phoenix dominated the Flame Continent, the Qilin Clan ruled the Lei Huang Continent.

The Dragon Clan originally lived on the Mystic Ice Continent, but as it gradually froze over and grew barren, the entire Dragon Clan migrated into the sea, becoming the absolute masters of the Evil Sea.

As for the Divine Shaman Clan of the Thick Earth Continent, they were Earth-elemental.

Legend claimed that in individual combat power, the Divine Shaman Clan could overpower the Dragon, Phoenix, and Qilin Clans.

The Western Extreme Continent belonged to Metal, but no divine clan had claimed it yet.

Not because they didn't want to—but divine clans' growth depended on the Five Elements: Dragons needed Water, Phoenixes needed Fire, and Qilins needed Thunder.

The Western Extreme Continent was Metal, lacking the elements suited for their survival, so to this day, none of the Four Divine Clans had occupied it.

But that didn't mean the Western Extreme Continent lacked powerful beings.

It simply had no divine clans—only various celestial clans still existed there.

Seeing this, He Pingsheng finally felt at ease.

No matter what, after traveling so far, could the Phoenix's great elders possibly come here to cause trouble?

After another half-hour, He Pingsheng, riding the rabbit, finally returned to the city gate.

After stepping out of Bamboo Node City's gate, he didn't leave immediately.

Instead, he wondered: Where should he go?

For him, there were now two choices.

First: head to the core city of the Divine Thunder Emperor Domain—the Divine Thunder Imperial Capital!

Second: find any remote wilderness and begin seclusion to cultivate, while organizing the items he'd recently acquired.

But seclusion wouldn't work.

Because He Pingsheng had hit a bottleneck.

He was currently at Void Refinement Level Ten…

Hmm?

Wait…

Thinking of this, He Pingsheng instinctively scanned his own cultivation base—and suddenly realized, at some point, he had broken through a level.

From Void Refinement Level Ten, he had advanced to Level Eleven.

This…

Stunned speechless!

What happened?

He Pingsheng stood frozen for over a dozen breaths.

After a dozen breaths, he understood.

The breakthrough must have occurred during that moment of life and death.

That is, after being attacked by the Kongkong Demon Emperor, though he used a decoy corpse to escape death, he had truly experienced the taste of life and death.

Perhaps it was precisely in that moment between life and death that his cultivation broke through.

He simply hadn't noticed it—he'd been too busy fleeing!

Hehehe…

Perfect!

But the problem was, though his cultivation had broken through one level, he was still only at Void Refinement Level Eleven.

There was still one more bottleneck ahead!

How would he break through this next one?

At this moment, He Pingsheng had made his decision—he would head to the Divine Thunder Imperial Capital.

In a major city, resources were far more abundant.

What He Pingsheng needed most right now was resources.

He was already at Void Refinement Level Eleven, yet he still hadn't obtained the sixth-grade spiritual liquid to replenish his dantian's depletion.

The 【Taiqing Golden Liquid Scripture】 contained the formula for sixth-grade spiritual liquid.

He also needed to restock various elixirs.

Whoosh…

The next instant, He Pingsheng transformed into a streak of golden light and departed.

At first, he flew slowly, originally planning to find some remote mountain wilderness to recover his magic power, then wait a few days before opening a spatial passage to the Divine Thunder Imperial City.

After all, opening the void wasn't something He Pingsheng could do continuously.

Once opened, he had to wait several days before opening it again!

But the moment he pulled out the Silver River Flying Shuttle, he spotted several shadowy streaks of light flying toward him.

???

What's going on?

He Pingsheng's eyes narrowed slightly: No way… are they following me?

A smile curled on He Pingsheng's lips: Probably when I settled my account at the exchange, someone saw my nine million spirit stones and decided to kill me and steal them.

Hehehe…

Interesting!

He Pingsheng no longer hurried to leave.

He wanted to see who was foolish enough to come after him.