Chapter 1651: Surprising Discovery
Outer South Yard
There was an old eerie stone house. Moss grew all over the walls and two of the walls had cracks and holes. The bronze door had long since turned into a piece of rusted metal.
Inside the house, the smoky Holy Qi contracted inwardly and poured back into Zhang Ruochen from the 144 apertures.
Phew.
Zhang Ruochen opened his mouth and exhaled a long breath.
Qi condensed into a thin thread and hit the rusted bronze door. It actually penetrated the door with a soft sound.
After eating six different saint fruits, I have 3,700 more Rules of Saintly Way in me. I now have more than 8,200 rules.
Because of his great improvement, his breath could penetrate a thick bronze door within ten feet.
In the Sea of Qi, the Heaven Pass River flowed much faster than before.
After cultivating 8,200 Rules of Saintly Way, Zhang Ruochen was sure that he was a second step Saint King now, even without going through the Nine Steps to the Sky Test.
Feng Yan was right. The God-Naming Platform Conference indeed is an unprecedented opportunity. If I continue searching for saint fruits, I can try to reach the third step here.
With the great improvement, Zhang Ruochen was feeling great and very confident.
Beside him, Mu Lingxi was still refining the saint fruit. The light shining from her grew brighter and brighter. Her pure figure seemed to have been carved from jade.
Zhang Ruochen took out the fruits that he’d collected earlier. Some were preserved in saint wood jars while others were in jade caskets. There were hundreds in total.
Including the Heartmoon Saint Fruit, Zhang Ruochen had eaten all seven types of fruit that could improve cultivation.
Of the remaining 12 types, some could cleanse the Saintly Meridian, some could increase longevity, some could strengthen the saint soul, some could help cultivators learn special techniques and spells…
Anyway, they were all top treasures that were difficult to find outside.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t eat these fruits now. After all, the God-Naming Platform Conference was only three days long. He had to use the time to find other treasures.
Mu Lingxi’s cultivation technique wasn’t like the Emperor Ming Nine-Sky Scripture, so she wasn’t as fast as Zhang Ruochen in refining the fruit.
An hour passed before she woke up. She opened her eyes and looked forward.
She saw Zhang Ruochen hold a broad sword, studying it. He would sometimes wave it or perform a complete sword technique.
Seeing that Mu Lingxi was awake, Zhang Ruochen stabbed the sword into the ground. He turned around and studied her. He nodded and smiled, saying, “Not bad. You should be at the second step Saint King Realm now.”
“Eating the seven fruits helped me gain close to 4,000 Rules of Saintly Way. Isn’t it normal for me to reach the second step now?”
Mu Lingxi stood up slowly and walked out of the stone house. A ball of Extreme Yin Pluto Ice Qi spread from her palm. She waved her arm back.
Crackle, crackle.
The Qi landed in the house. The house was instantly frozen inside a small ice mountain. As Mu Lingxi clenched her fist, the mountain and house both exploded into fist-sized shards.
She studied the sword in the ground with surprised eyes. “That’s a Third Yao sword. The material is very special and it must be extremely heavy.”
Zhang Ruochen picked up the heavy sword with one hand and shrunk it to the size of a dagger. Placing it in his sleeves, he said, “It’s not good to expose your identity at the God-Naming Platform. You could lure over the enemies. I’m using this sword for now to replace Abyss. Earlier, I tamed the sword spirit. I can use it as I wish now.”
After that, Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi continued searching the Outer South Yard. They went to places they didn’t go to before, wanting to pick more fruits.
The Outer South Yard was very wide. They walked around 100 miles in one direction before reaching the edge.
Here, they saw a lot of rubble, canyons, walls, ancient forests… The saint trees grew in very dangerous environments with different types of risks.
However, because so many cultivators joined the conference and many hours had passed, when Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi reached those dangerous places, they discovered that most of the fruits had been picked clean.
This was a competition. Those who were stronger and faster could pick more fruits.
After spending two full hours, they had gained practically nothing.
“Other than the zone above the White Bone Hill, we’ve searched practically the entire Outer South Yard. Even if there are some saint trees hidden inside hallucinations or formations, it’ll take a lot of time to find them.” Mu Lingxi suggested, “How about we go to the Outer East Yard and pick some saint flowers and grass?”
The God-Naming Platform Conference had ten different yards: four outer yards, four inner yards, the Central Royal Yard and Free Trade Yard.
According to the rules, other than the leaders of each world, all other cultivators below 1000 on the Ten Thousand Fields Merit Rank could only stay in the four outer yards.
The cultivators who passed the qualification test could only stay in those yards too.
Of course, the cultivators of fields in the top 1000 of the Ten Thousand Fields Merit Rank could also fight for treasures in the outer yards. This was the advantage of the strong fields. The others could only watch with jealousy.
It was survival of the fittest everywhere else. The God-Naming Platform Conference was no exception.
Even in the four outer yards, they had different treasures.
The Outer South Yard had all sorts of saint trees.
The Outer East Yard had different types of flowers and plants, namely ten-thousand-year-old medicine.
The Outer North Yard had different saint springs.
The Outer West Yard was an ancient mine. One could unearth saint stones and all types of jade.
The Outer South Yard was the only one that they hadn’t investigated. It was above the White Bone Hill and was pitch black. Looking from afar, they could see dark ink swirling. Even Spiritual Power couldn’t penetrate it.
Many cultivators looked on from the outside with hesitant expressions.
Before attending the God-Naming Platform Conference, seniors had warned them that this area was very dangerous. They couldn’t venture in. Every conference, more than one being would die there.
They hesitated because their seniors had told them that the area was very vast. It was bigger than the entire Outer South Yard and some strong and lucky people had come out alive with a great amount of saint fruit. Some of the fruits were even more precious than the treasures in the inner four yards.
Since they couldn’t enter the inner four yards, this was where they would find the best opportunities.
However, they only had one life. No one wanted to take that risk.
When Feng Yan had mentioned this area, his expression had been very serious and fearful. He’d warned Zhang Ruochen many times not to take the risk. A godly disciple in the eighth step Saint King Realm had died there before.
Thus, Zhang Ruochen was curious but he repressed the curiosity. Instead of going in, he went to the Outer East Yard with Mu Lingxi.
There was a 20-meter-wide river between the Outer South and East Yards.
Rather than water, the river was formed by a white saint spring. A layer of faint white mist hovered above the river, making it seem smoky and ethereal.
All types of flora grew along the riverbank. Most were centuries old, but some were thousands of years old.
Of course, this grade of flowers and grass was useless to Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi. They didn’t even look.
Mu Lingxi sighed. “If someone below the Half-Saint Realm discovered this saint spring, they’d probably start collecting it crazily. But it’s useless to us.”
“It’s useless to us, but it can nurture flowers and grass,” Zhang Ruochen said. “If we continue searching upstream, we might be able to find the precious ten-thousand-year-old medicines.”
Some precious ten-thousand-year-old medicines could improve a Saint King’s cultivation too.
Mu Lingxi nodded. She spread her phoenix wings and flew off.
Zhang Ruochen used special foot techniques and walked down the riverbank. He seemed relaxed, but he wasn’t any slower than Mu Lingxi.
Other cultivators had already searched the flowers along the bank multiple times. They couldn’t find ten-thousand-year saint medicines at all. Even those above 3,000 years old were rare.
After walking for around seven or eight miles, Zhang Ruochen suddenly stopped. Seeming to have made some discovery, he stared at the surface of the river.
There were small whirlpools in the center.
Just then, he’d used his strong Spiritual Power and sensed strange ripples under the whirlpools.
The ripple appeared and then disappeared. When he searched with Spiritual Power, he couldn’t sense anything amiss. This made him suspect whether he’d sensed incorrectly.
“What’s wrong?”
Mu Lingxi flew over from the other side and landed beside Zhang Ruochen. She also looked toward the whirlpool.
“Seems to be a great discovery.”
Zhang Ruochen took the Mercury Gourd out and sent it out. It hovered above the river and he uttered, “Collect.”
Extreme attractive force exploded from the gourd, sucking the saint spring in. The river quickly grew shallow. A moment later, the river stopped and revealed the dark purple bed.
Zhang Ruochen focused his eyes and saw a mouth in the riverbed. He didn’t know where it led. It was less than two meters wide.
A shocking medicinal fragrance emanated from the cave.
Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi’s expressions turned joyous at the same time. They were about to go search inside the cave.
But just then, wind sounded in the distance. A familiar voice rang out too. “Such rich medicinal fragrance. Could there be 100-thousand-year-old medicine here?”
The next moment, five figures with white angel wings appeared in Zhang Ruochen and Mu Lingxi’s line of sight. They were all strong Saint Kings. One of them was Lan Sibai, supposedly Shang Ziyan’s cousin.