Absorbing the Trileaf Berries increased Tang Jie’s cultivation once more, but not by much.
In the end, the Parting Classic was primarily for tempering the body. If Tang Jie didn’t have the perfect body, which linked his spirit and body, it would have been impossible for all this to increase his cultivation as well. Even with their connection, his constitution still received a greater boost than his spiritual power. He roughly estimated that the split was around thirty percent to seventy percent, thirty percent being his spiritual power.
But this was for the better. He couldn’t hide his cultivation increase from the Violet Palace True Lords, so showing them thirty percent was enough. This was also why Tang Jie dared to show off this ability. Otherwise, the fact that the Parting Classic allowed for complete absorption of a spirit plant’s power would make them go crazy.
After this was done, the second-floor hall opened up, and two lower-grade Transformation fiends charged out, followed by double the number of Mind Opening fiends compared to the previous floor.
Tang Jie immediately got what was going on. It seemed that doubling the rewards also meant doubling the strength of the fiends.
It wasn’t just the number of fiends that had been increased. They were also able to work together, coordinating their attack and defense.
Alas, they were still lacking compared to Tang Jie.
As the fiends charged, Tang Jie formed a hand sign and waved at the fire basin, upon which the flames burst out of the basin and swept over the fiends. The fiends howled in unison, the sonic waves they unleashed clashing with the flames.
A few minutes later, the battle was over, and Tang Jie was once more the victor.
Just like the second, there was a small table on the third floor, upon which were placed three Heavenly King Pills.
The Heavenly King Pill was an extremely rare cultivation pill ideal for Celestial Heart True Persons to increase their cultivation level. Three Heavenly King Pills were truly more valuable than an upper-grade art relic.
Tang Jie thought that the rewards would all be art relics, with the number increasing, but it appeared that they could also change in quality and type. This meant that as he reached higher floors, there was a chance of seeing a divine treasure, which gave Tang Jie an idea.
Without a word, he consumed one of the Heavenly King Pills.
One pill could grant a Spirit Ring True Person one hundred days of cultivation, so three were worth three hundred days, neither too much nor too little.
Moreover, the Heavenly King Pill was a law cultivator spiritual medicine, so it didn’t increase his blood energy. Thus, when he consumed the three, his cultivation level experienced a visible increase.
Any other person would have needed half a day to absorb a single one of these pills, but thanks to his body, Tang Jie digested all three in the blink of an eye.
This flabbergasted the spectating Violet Palace True Lords, and they wondered what sort of art this kid cultivated. While he didn’t seem to have any other abilities, he seemed to be able to absorb medicinal power quite quickly.
“He’ll be able to sustain his fight by just continuing to fight if this keeps up,” a white-bearded elder commented as he gazed into the flames.
This man was Meng Qihong, the sect master of the Unbounded Sect. Like Yuan Tianzhong, he was at the peak of Soul Projection, but he was two generations older than him, perhaps the oldest person in all of the Flame Yang Domain.
Yuan Tianzhong smiled. “Let him. This child is not weak, and he came for the sake of humanity’s survival. Whether he can do it or not, this trial can be considered his reward.”
“Sect Master Yuan is quite generous, and it seems that child wants to take full advantage of it.” A red-clothed old lady grasping a cane spoke up. This granny was called Fairy Hong Luan. She was the former master of the Crimson Lotus Gate and now served as its Grand Elder. She had been a most fiery woman in her youth, and she was now a fiery woman in her old age. In her view, this kid was just boasting and not worth seriously considering, so she disagreed with Yuan Tianzhong’s generosity.
Yuan Tianzhong chuckled. “There’s no such thing as being too generous at this moment of crisis. We all need to be united. If we don’t take out our treasure now, then once the ghosts exterminate us all, we won’t even have the chance to use them.”
These words silenced everybody.
Yes, if they didn’t use their resources now, then when?
It was no wonder Yuan Tianzhong was being so generous. For him, raising up a cultivator that had already proved his strength was clearly better than investing those resources in those who didn’t have much potential.
Tang Jie had already begun to fight with the fiends of the third floor. As he had guessed, there were three Transformation great fiends and fifteen Mind Opening fiends.
This force was no longer something a Spirit Ring cultivator could deal with, requiring Heart Demon cultivation. But here, it was only the trial for the third floor.
Fortunately, it was no insurmountable barrier for Tang Jie, and he once more smoothly overcame it.
Surprisingly, the reward for the third trial was the Great Sun Mantra.
This was one of the core secret arts of the Great Sun Sect, and it possessed immense power. But cultivating an art took time, and Tang Jie could only instantly absorb medicines and herbs. What he needed was instantaneous boosts in power, and he didn’t much care about long-term improvement at the moment. Moreover, he already had Divine Connections and spell arts he could learn that were stronger than the Great Sun Mantra, so he had no need for it. Finally, this Great Sun Mantra was incomplete, only containing the Celestial Heart level cultivation and nothing for Violet Palace Realm cultivation.
Thus, Tang Jie immediately said, “Please trade this for… four Heavenly King Pills.”
There was a small price for trading, so Tang Jie could only ask for four pills.
He didn’t realize that his decision triggered another discussion up above.
“He gave up the Great Sun Mantra without a second thought. Is this guy looking down on my Great Sun Sect’s arts?” Wu Xiuqian angrily said. Putting the Great Sun Mantra as a reward had been another test from Yuan Tianzhong to see if this was some spy from a rival sect who wanted to use this opportunity to steal the secret arts of the Great Sun Sect. Since Tang Jie had given it up, this was clearly no longer a possibility, but the swiftness with which he had done so hurt Wu Xiuqian’s pride.
Another elder of the Great Sun Sect laughed. “Didn’t this Tang Jie say he came from another domain? He might not know of the power of the Great Sun Mantra.”
“Or perhaps he really does have some Immortal Art stronger than the Great Sun Mantra,” Yuan Tianzhong coolly said. “At least, I hope that’s the case.”
Everyone turned pensive.
Meng Qihong was the first to react, smiling as he said, “As expected of the master of my Flame Yang’s number one sect, considering things from all angles. Yes, yes, if this kid has even stronger secret arts, this can only benefit humanity and the Great Sun Sect.”
He gave Yuan Tianzhong a profound look.
Yuan Tianzhong calmly replied, “I’m simply saying that the stronger our allies are, the better.”
Fairy Hong Luan said, “One strong ally ultimately can’t resolve anything. The Nether Domain’s strength lies in the number of ghosts, and the only way to deal with that is more combatants on our side. This kid’s secret art that can let him quickly absorb pills and plants is good, and if it can be passed on, it will greatly boost the strength of humanity.”
A black-robed swordsman frowned and said, “It’s only thirty percent. It wastes too much.”
This man was Chang Xiran, the sect master of the Celestial Sword Gate.
The four great sects of the Flame Yang Domain were the Great Sun Sect, the Unbounded Sect, the Crimson Lotus Gate, and the Celestial Sword Gate.
The Celestial Sword Gate was a sect of sword cultivators, and it possessed countless sword techniques.
This Chang Xiran possessed sharp eyes, so he noticed that Tang Jie was only able to absorb thirty percent of the power in a spirit plant.
Fairy Hong Luan tersely said, “What do you understand? At critical moments like these, every bit of strength counts.”
The Crimson Lotus Gate and Celestial Sword Gate had always been rather hostile to each other, hence the tone.
Chang Xiran glared at Fairy Hong Luan. “You old granny…”
Ahem! Yuan Tianzhong coughed, stopping the argument. “There’s no need to rush with regards to that art. Even if we wanted it, he would have to be willing to hand it over. Let’s keep watching for now.”
Tang Jie had finished the trial of the third floor, and after resting, he moved on to the fourth floor.
(TN: Note that the author has seemingly forgotten that Tang Jie had already completed the third floor trial, so the Great Sun Mantra should have been the reward he received on the fourth floor, which was traded in for four Heavenly King Pills.)
On the fourth floor, he found six Heavenly King Pills, which he took immediately. These six together with the seven he had already consumed equated to a boost of four years of cultivation. Tang Jie felt himself brimming with energy, and this wasn’t even considering all the fiend pellets he had absorbed.
The fourth floor’s challenge no longer simply added to the number of fiends.
To his surprise, the number of fiends had shrunk. There were only five, all of them lower-grade Transformation.
This should have been no big deal, but to his shock, Tang Jie found a Violet Fire Salamander and a Goldmane Lion among the fiends.
These two were naturally powerful fiends. The salamander’s Extraviolet Flames were extremely powerful, while the Goldmane Lion had a tough hide comparable to Wang Juemie’s.
It was akin to the difference among cultivators of the same tier, with these two fiends representing the upper echelon of their peers, an adult Goldmane Lion even being able to contend against a Heart Demon cultivator.
For two to appear at once, along with three somewhat weaker followers, gave Tang Jie a small heart attack, and he could fully sense the hostility coming from the top of the tower.
To be honest, any Spirit Ring cultivator who could overcome this trial could even boast that they were “invincible among their peers”.
But Tang Jie clearly couldn’t make this place his stopping point.