Translator: Asuka
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
Inside the Divine Trade Association, Liu Quan politely saw Lu Ye off. Apart from the disciples that came from the major Sects, most cultivators in the outer circle were poor. Therefore, it wasn’t easy to come across a transaction of several dozen Spirit Stones. Moreover, Lu Ye appeared to be a straightforward person, which was why Liu Quan was willing to befriend him so that there would be more business deals between them in the future.
After Lu Ye was gone, Liu Quan turned around and caught a whiff of a pleasant scent, only to see a woman standing in front of him. “You freaked me out!” He shot her a glare. “What were you doing behind me instead of welcoming more guests?”
The woman uttered softly, “I missed you.”
Liu Quan looked around in a furtive manner, and upon making sure that no one was paying attention to them, he said in a hushed voice, “I’ll look for you after work in the evening.”
“Alright,” the woman replied with a smile.
As though nothing had happened, Liu Quan shuffled towards the hall and greeted other guests. On the other hand, the woman dispassionately looked in the direction Lu Ye had left and fell into her thoughts.
At night, the man and the woman became one. After the congress, they had a small chat. The woman attempted to make Liu Quan talk about the transaction in the morning. An exhausted Liu Quan replied to her in an intermittent manner, then he nodded off.
The woman snuggled up to him, but she found it difficult to fall asleep. If she wasn’t mistaken, she had served the customer that she saw in the morning half a month ago. At that time, he sold many ores and bought some Spirit Pills.
However, she hadn’t expected that half a month later, he would return to sell even more ores. Judging from his appearance, he seemed to be an amateur cultivator. Without any support, how was he able to amass several dozen Spirit Stones? That was what caught her attention.
She worked in the Divine Trade Association. Including her additional income, she could get twelve to thirteen Spirit Stones at most. Recalling her time as an amateur cultivator, she couldn’t help feeling bitter that she was significantly worse off than that customer. After having some wild thoughts for a long time, she finally felt sleepy, but she couldn’t sleep soundly throughout the night. ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖
At the same time, Lu Ye was cultivating inside the cave in Green Cloud Mountain. After the transaction in the Divine Trade Association in the morning, he traded his remaining Spirit Stones for some food before rushing back to this place eventually managing to return to this cave before the night descended.
With enough Spirit Pills now, he could start swallowing them and cultivating. After consuming many pills, the Spiritual Power in his fifteenth Spiritual Point finally became full as it attempted to break through to the sixteenth Spiritual Point.
…
Twelve days later, Lu Ye sat down with his legs crossed inside the cave as he adjusted his breathing.
This was an important day for him. If everything went well, he would ascend to the Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm on this day. Since he returned to this place twelve days ago, he had consumed more than thirty pills and broken through to the eighteenth Spiritual Point, in which the Spiritual Power was also full.
Recalling the cultivation routes of Golden Liberation Technique, Lu Ye activated his Spiritual Power. Starting from the tenth Spiritual Point, his Spiritual Power streamed through the eleventh point, the twelfth point… until the eighteenth point. He had already done such a thing when he broke through to the First-Order Spirit Creek Realm, so he was familiar with it, and he didn’t come across any difficulties.
His Spiritual Power streamed through the nine major Spiritual Points like a creek. As he progressed, the speed at which the Spiritual Power moved through the nine major points became increasingly rapid, and he repeated the same cycle again and again. When he reached a certain limit, he felt energised all of a sudden as his Spiritual Power started running from the tenth to the eighteenth point on its own. He had reached the Second-Order Spirit Creek Realm!
With a similar experience in the past, he didn’t feel overjoyed or anything as it was bound to happen anyway. Now, he was no longer the weak cultivator with only three unlocked Spiritual Points who was roaming around the Spirit Creek Battlefield.
Reaching the First-Order Spirit Creek Realm had earned him the right to survive in the outer circle of the battlefield, while attaining the Second-Order had earned him the right to move around freely. Certainly, there was still some gap between the stronger cultivators and him, but he was already satisfied with his achievements. It took him a shorter time to ascend to the Second-Order than when he reached the First-Order. He had spent about forty days going from the third point to the Spirit Creek Realm. On the other hand, it took him less than a month to go from the First-Order to the Second-Order.
The main reason was that he had enough resources for cultivation. With that said, the speed at which he improved was indeed inconceivable. In the initial stage of cultivation, it would take a cultivator about ten days to unlock one Spiritual Point. That was because they mainly cultivated by breathing in the Spiritual Qi in the atmosphere. With a weak cultivation, doing so was inefficient, which would slow down a person’s cultivation speed. Things would only improve after the cultivator reached the Fourth-Order Spirit Creek Realm.
In other words, in the initial stage of cultivation, it would take a cultivator three months to reach a new realm. However, Lu Ye managed to do so every month. That was the joy of cultivating with the help of pills. When he was in the First-Order Realm, he only had a Microcosmic Orbit that went from the Source Spiritual Point to the ninth point in his body. However, after he reached the Second-Order Realm, the circulation started from the tenth point to the eighteenth point. Now, there were two circulation systems for his Spiritual Power in his body.
That way, he could activate more Spiritual Power in a short period of time, which enabled his Spiritual Power to be more destructive. When he reached the Third-Order Realm, there would be three such Microcosmic Orbits in his body, and so on. When he reached the Ninth-Order, there would be nine Microcosmic Orbits.
There were thirty pills left. Even though he wanted to continue cultivating, he knew that he shouldn’t rush things. After eating some food, he left the cave and took a bath in a nearby mountain spring. Then, he changed into clean clothes, and as he listened to the sounds of the flowing water, he started reading Golden Liberation Technique.
He was trying to reach the Third-Order Spirit Creek Realm, so he had to find out the locations of the Spiritual Points after the eighteenth one in order to cultivate smoothly. It was serene on the mountain as only the chirping of birds and buzzing of insects were heard. The sunlight filtered through the leaves and cast its glow on the young man’s face, which made the sight look like a scene in a painting.
“Why are you hiding there?” Lu Ye uttered without raising his head.
Just then, a petite head stuck out from a tree branch on the side. Anyone would be shocked by her dishevelled appearance. Yi Yi took a look at the manual in Lu Ye’s hands, and upon making out that it was an entry-level technique, she pressed her lips together with a dismissive look.
Suppressing his urge to give her a punch, Lu Ye tilted his head and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“When are you leaving?” Yi Yi questioned.
It had been a long time since Lu Ye hunted anything on the mountain, but this was the tiger and her territory after all, so they wouldn’t allow him to stay here forever. If it weren’t because they were wary of the talisman papers he possessed, they would’ve chased him away. Nevertheless, she had suffered a setback before, so she wouldn’t dare to flare up now. Moreover, she could see that he had grown stronger than he was two months ago.
After closing his book, Lu Ye got to his feet and stretched his back. “I’m sleepy now. See you!”
“Hey, I’m asking you a question,” Yi Yi bellowed. Getting no reply from him, she clenched her teeth. “What a thug! I’m so angry! Argh!” She forcefully scratched the tree beside her, causing tree chips to scatter everywhere.