Palatial!
This was Lu Yun and Qing Han’s instinctive assessment of Jadeite Manor. The very ambience of the place oozed immortality. Every rock, pebble, leaf, and flower in the garden was intricately sculpted from exotic and expensive ores and spirit herbs.
“I… think this ten billion was well spent!” Qing Han gasped in amazement with every turn she made.
Lu Yun wasn’t as engrossed by the surroundings. Tossing out a few formation disks to cloister off the space, he summarily put his Formation Orb atop the disguised girl’s head.
“We’re doing it here?” Qing Han blinked.
“Yes, here,” Lu Yun nodded. “This manor belonged to someone else, I’m not about to trust it so easily.”
Although there were quiet rooms and cultivation formations elsewhere in the manor, he wasn’t particularly interested in testing their safety or reliability. He hadn’t bought the manor for the environment, but for the protection of the manor’s former owner.
The young man produced a blood-red pill from his pockets.
As soon as the pill was revealed, the air filled with an exotic fragrance. A heady mixture of every herbal essence and floral aroma imaginable, it was strangely free of blood. Aside from its color, the Blood Restoration Pill certainly didn’t look the part.
“Is this the Blood Restoration Pill?” Qing Han was a little hesitant.
When Chen Xiao and Qing Buyi had proposed shoring up her vitality via refining an origin sphere from millions of lives, she’d refused them on threat of suicide. Because the Blood Ganoderma came from similar origins, she wasn’t sure whether this was the right thing to do.
In the end, her desire for good health overcame her reservations. A few seconds later, she took the pill.
Hum—
An aura of crimson light blossomed from her body, then contracted itself into a large cocoon.
The Blood Ganoderma’s real food wasn’t only blood, but its victims’ talents and essence as well. The pill was born out of the condensation and refinement of the Ganoderma’s nutrients. Long ago, the shamanic tribe had cultivated many a Blood Ganoderma for their use in the pill.
Of course, there was another use for them as well. A Blood Ganoderma could be refined into a replica outside one’s body, a second spirit. It would retain its ability to feed off of the essence of others, allowing the cultivator to benefit from its ill-gotten gains.
At least one shamanic expert had perfected their constitution by doing exactly that.
Lu Yun wasn’t interested in that, though. A pure soul had already been born within the spirit herb, a true spirit that had three ethereal and seven corporal soul-parts. If it took physical form, it would directly receive a dao fruit and become a connate dao immortal.
After all, the most crucial component of achieving dao immortal realm was forming a true spirit. Only when spirit and soul coexisted in a body could it harbor dao fruits.
He wasn’t at the point where he could benefit from something like that yet, so using the ganoderma right now would be a waste. Meanwhile, refining the Blood Restoration Pill had only taken a portion of the herb; its core remained intact.
……
Fwoom!
A huge pillar of light erupted into the sky and natural energies rushed in like the eddies of a frenzied vortex. This was a sign of Qing Han’s void realm.
Lu Yun could isolate her aura from the outside world, but heaven and earth were another matter. Because the void realm necessitated fusing oneself with the world in order to perceive the void, there wasn’t much he could do about the commotion.
Qing Han’s nascent spirit was silver—as brilliant as the stars. At her side, Lu Yun looked up to find a pair of clear eyes. They… were Qing Yu’s, from way back then.
……
All of Destiny City began trembling. Countless people looked toward Jadeite Manor in astonishment.
“Someone is breaking through to void realm inside this city. Such powerful pulses… they’re more powerful than the void realm cultivators who received blessings from the Dao Flower. Who could it be?!
“Such an unparalleled human genius… they cannot be allowed to live!” growled an old grey wolf. Its greenish eyes narrowed at the expanse above. “Any genius who is not ours must die! We monster spirits have a great sage now, and he has built a sacred land of our very own. The twenty-four facets should be ours to rule!”
The old wolf was resolute and unyielding; its mane glowed with silvery moonlight in the next moment. A luminous crescent rose from its head into the sky, pouncing in wolfish fashion toward Jadeite Manor.
A Silvermoon Wolfking, an arcane dao immortal!
“The timing of that Qing Yu’s breakthrough… can he have consumed the Blood Ganoderma?! Yes, that must be it! Only the ganoderma’s raw energies could provoke such a natural reaction!” The disciple of the Destiny city lord found his eyes glued on the sky, at the spirit becoming one with the world.
“Dammit, dammit, dammit! A Blood Ganoderma! A legendary spirit root unknown even to the ancients! How dare you ignorant fools waste it like that!” Aside from the fabled Blood Ganoderma, he really couldn’t imagine what could elicit such a dramatic response from heaven and earth.
“Leng Che!” the disciple roared.
“Young lord,” a cold voice sounded at his ear.
“Go to Jadeite Manor and bring me those two bastards right away!” Bitter, the disciple couldn’t obey his master’s orders any more.
“Yes, milord.” The man named Leng Che disappeared in a streak of light.
The Wolfking and Leng Che weren’t the only ones on their way. A number of other experts had come at the momentous sign as well, ones that even the city lord dared not anger. More than themselves, they represented the everlasting factions they hailed from.
A stalwart figure rose up from Jadeite Manor. It was a long-haired, white-robed man, whose gaze was as cold and forbidding as a glacier. He swept the personages assembled with a disapproving look.
“What is the purpose of your visit, fellow daoists?”
“Xi Yingchen!” A lean old man was the first to reply. “Hand over the youth that’s refining the Blood Ganoderma. A treasure so rare as to elude the ancients isn’t something that just anybody deserves.”
“Hand over the Blood Ganoderma and the two youths. Otherwise, prepare for your Jadeite Manor to be turned into history,” a mist-hidden black shadow threatened.
“Do you recall what my master said, only days ago?” Suddenly, Xi Yingchen cracked a savage grin. “Have you all come here to die?” His scholarly appearance was replaced with a bloodthirsty ferocity.
“How dare you!”
“Such impudence!” The senior experts present scoffed in near-unison, but Xi Yingchen paid them no heed. Instead, he grabbed at something inside the manor. His fingers closed around the shape of a man.
“A dog like you, Leng Che? Trespassing on my land? Do you think this seat won’t put you down on the spot?” Xi Yingchen’s eyes grew icier. “Go tell Chu Yingxin this: if he’s not interested in living any longer, I don’t mind cleaning house on master’s behalf!”