Xiang Shaoyun left immediately, not giving the Dong Clan a chance to persuade him to stay, not even Dong Ziwan. Dong Qinggu offered to send them off with their teleportation portal, but even that was rejected.
Xiang Shaoyun did not wish to waste any time. His plan was to travel to the Bloodsin City and train on the way there. Only then would he have the ability to establish a footing for himself when he was finally at the Bloodsin City. As for Tai Kang, the King under his control, Xiang Shaoyun had left him behind.
When Dong Ziwan heard about their departure, she cried bitterly.
"Why are you so cruel?" weeped Dong Ziwan as she gazed at Xiang Shaoyun’s departing back in the distant horizon. She considered leaving without saying goodbye as the cruelest thing he could do to her and reached a conclusion that he never saw her as anything more than just a good friend.
Dong Qinggu patted her shoulder and comforted her. "He is not being cruel. Otherwise, he wouldn't have bothered to help us solve our crisis. Perhaps he really has something he needs to do and does not wish for you to be his burden. He is in a sense a character with both ambition and ruthlessness."
"I am already a Skysoar Realm cultivator. How will I be his burden?" Dong Ziwan questioned indignantly.
"Didn't you see how only Emperors are by his side? In other words, one has to at least be an Emperor to be of help to him. If you want to be with him one day, listen to your father. Start working hard in cultivation from now on. Only by possessing enough strength will you be able to prevent him from leaving without saying goodbye like this," Dong Qinggu said.
At that, the tears vanished from Dong Ziwan's eyes, replaced by a bright look of realization. She said, "Ok. From now onward, I will work even harder to become an Empress one day. No, I will become a Sovereign. I will ensure he can't escape me anymore!" She then bowed to Dong Qinggu and said, "Great-grandfather, I beg you to open the clan's forbidden zone for me. I wish to enter."
"What? You want to enter the forbidden zone? Do you even know how bad it is in there?" Dong Qinggu asked in shock.
"I know, but that is the only place that can increase my cultivation speed. I wish to give it a try," Dong Ziwan said resolutely.
"A lot of geniuses from our clan have perished there in the past. Otherwise, our clan wouldn't have stagnated all these years. If it wasn't for the records of the ancestors stating that the forbidden zone is linked to our clan through fate, we would have destroyed that place long ago. I will give you three days to think it through. If you still want to enter after three days, I will allow it," said Dong Qinggu. Fear could be seen in his eyes at his thought of the forbidden zone.
Once again, Dong Ziwan replied resolutely, "No, I don't need that. I will go right now. I'm afraid I will lose the courage if I wait. Even if I end up dying, I won't regret it."
Dong Qinggu gave her one long look before sighing, "Fine. Since you have decided, I will allow you entry. I hope you will become the Dong Clan's miracle."
...
Xiang Shaoyun was naturally unaware of the decision Dong Ziwan had made. Presently, he was seated on Jin Wo's back, constantly absorbing the spiritual energy around him. Even when flying high up in the sky, a certain degree of astral energy concentration could be found.
With the star congregation jade on him, he could increase his energy absorption rate by three times. He was trying to replenish the astral energies in his stars so as to create more nine-colored fog. He had a feeling the nine-colored fog would become his trump card. Thus, he had to take it seriously.
After one day, Xiang Shaoyun finally filled his six stars with energy. In fact, the stars had also grown somewhat. He then started transforming the different energies into the nine-colored fog. Once again, he formed some nine-colored fog, but he was only able to form a thin layer of it before he was drained of energy.
"Maybe I can try cultivating some spiritual plants and see if that will help," Xiang Shaoyun muttered as he placed some soil in his astral cosmos sea before planting some spiritual herbs. He soon found that after the spiritual herbs absorbed the nine-colored fog, they became brimming with vitality, looking much more lively and lustrous.
"I'll check back again after some time. Hopefully there will be a nice surprise waiting for me," muttered Xiang Shaoyun expectantly.
Finally, he had some free time to look at the storage ring he had received from Dong Qinggu. He was stunned when he saw the contents of the ring. Within were three more storage rings. He understood that his actual reward would be in the additional rings.
He impatiently sent his senses into the first ring and found that this was a ring with a space of 100 square meters. It was completely filled with mid-grade spirit crystals. Each square meter could store 500 mid-grade spirit crystals. In other words, after taking into consideration the height as well, there were about five million mid-grade spirit crystals. This was a very generous reward.
In fact, there were more spirit crystals here then what Xiang Shaoyun had found at the Land of Soul Springs.
"Worthy of being a tier-5 organization. They are decently generous," said Xiang Shaoyun in satisfaction.
Along with his growth in strength and the increase of his followers, he needed more and more spirit crystals to support their expenditures. Without spirit crystals, it would be hard for him to do what he wanted. Thus, he was happy to receive such a large sum.
He then checked the second ring.
It only had a storage space of 50 square meters, but it was completely filled with herbs with grades no lower than spirit medicine. The value of these herbs far surpassed the value of the spirit crystals in the first ring.
"Low-grade king medicine, bloodhorn vine, capable of quickly restoring blood.
"Mid-grade king medicine, seven-leaf pointed grass, capable of increasing the gold energy a cultivator had and improving the cultivator's combat prowess.
"Mid-grade king medicine icesnow fruit, capable of greatly increasing one's power of frost, allowing one to grow quickly.
"Emperor medicine time return grass, capable of removing any astral energy in one's body, allowing one to cultivate a new element from scratch."
...
Xiang Shaoyun's gaze was completely locked on the herbs. The more he looked at them, the more joyful he became. Apart from the over 1,000 stalks of different spirit medicines, there were also about 300 stalks of king medicines of differing grades and dozens of low-grade emperor medicines.
Every king medicine was incredibly precious and rare. As for emperor medicines, they were even harder to find. In fact, one could only find emperor medicines in spiritual lands. Since the Dong Clan was being so generous, it was clear they had also obtained quite a lot of wealth from sacking the Tai and Xing Clans. On top of that, they were probably sincere in wanting to form a relationship with him.
After all, a single stalk of emperor medicine was equivalent in value to at least 100,000 mid-grade spirit crystals. Just 10 stalks of the emperor medicines here was already almost equivalent to the value of everything in the first ring.
Xiang Shaoyun suppressed his excitement and checked the third ring. There were numerous items, including weapons, weapon refining materials, demonic beast materials, and so on.
Xiang Shaoyun's gaze was attracted to an object that looked like a chunk of flesh. He took it out of the ring, trying to figure out what it was. The moment he took it out, Devouring Ghost cried out in alarm, "Blood demon race's blood egg!"