Chapter 146: Soul-Fixing Bead, Breakthrough to Perfection

Chapter 146: Soul-Fixing Bead, Breakthrough to Perfection

Upon hearing Chu Ning's agreement, Jiang Hongguang was delighted.

With his enthusiastic invitation, Chu Ning spent half a day visiting his cave abode before leaving Rainbow Island.

As for Jiang Hongguang and the others, with Chu Ning's addition to their group, they temporarily refrained from going to Illusion Island.

Both parties agreed to meet at the dojo on Illusion Island in ten days.

After Chu Ning left, Jiang Lan immediately asked, "Brother, this Chu Ning seems to have the cultivation of an eighth-layer Qi Refining cultivator, but he looks a few years younger than me. I wonder if he truly has the skills to be of any help?"

Hearing these words, Jiang Hongguang glared at Jiang Lan and said, "I've told you countless times not to judge a book by its cover. Although this Fellow Daoist Chu is young, his demeanor is quite calm and collected, and I believe he has experienced quite a bit in his life. He's not like you, who has been tucked away on this island cultivating since childhood."

Hearing Jiang Hongguang's words, Jiang Lan retorted with some displeasure, "Hmph, who are you looking down on? When the time comes and someone challenges us, we'll see who's truly formidable."

Listening to Jiang Lan's words, Jiang Hongguang could only shake his head helplessly.

At this moment, Yu Yuanxiu, who was standing beside them, interjected, "Little Lan, your brother invited Fellow Daoist Chu to join us as a precaution. After all, Fellow Daoist Chu has already reached the eighth layer of Qi Refining at such a young age. Having him with us will serve as an invisible deterrent to anyone else who dares to challenge us. This is much more useful than having another seventh-layer Qi Refining cultivator."

Hearing this, Jiang Hongguang smiled and said, "See, your sister-in-law understands me. I'm just being cautious. After all, we have a second-tier spirit vein here, and we've managed to keep it a secret. Logically, no one outside should know about it. I hope no one interferes with our plans, so we can continue cultivating here in peace for a few more years."

...

As the trio from Rainbow Island discussed, Chu Ning had already returned to Illusion Island.

Now that he had found an island to join, Chu Ning no longer needed to visit the dojo.

Thus, he made his way back to the area where the loose cultivators gathered.

The Thousand Islands Competition was about to begin, and the popularity of this place had increased significantly. There were many more people buying and trading than before.

Chu Ning, of course, would not let this opportunity to make money slip by.

He even took out two intermediate-lower tier talismans, and one of them was quickly purchased by someone.

However, the other talisman did not attract any buyers.

At noon, Chu Ning packed up his stall and prepared to return to his stone chamber in the inn.

After taking a few steps, Chu Ning's gaze landed on an item displayed by a loose cultivator.

It was a pitch-black bead.

"Soul-Fixing Bead?"

A hint of surprise flashed in Chu Ning's eyes, but he quickly composed himself and casually walked over to the stall.

Behind the stall stood a tall and thin cultivator in his thirties.

When he saw Chu Ning approaching, he didn't greet him and instead let Chu Ning browse through the items on his own.

Chu Ning picked up a few magical artifacts with great interest. They were all intermediate-level artifacts, and after asking about the prices, he shook his head and put them down.

It was unclear if the prices were higher because there were many loose cultivators around or because there were no major sects in the area.

The intermediate artifacts sold here were priced at seven to eight hundred spirit stones, much more expensive than the artifacts Chu Ning had bought near the Green Canyon Mountains.

At this moment, he curiously picked up the pitch-black bead.

The feel of the bead in his hand was very familiar to Chu Ning, and when he swept it with his spiritual sense, he immediately had a general idea of what it was.

This bead was exactly the same as the Soul-Fixing Bead he had bought from Fengxia Workshop for ten thousand lower-grade spirit stones.

Combined with the introduction by the female cultivator with the surname Zhang, this bead should be one of the components of a magical artifact.

At this moment, Chu Ning casually asked, "Fellow Daoist, what is this bead used for?"

"I don't know!" The tall and thin cultivator was clearly running out of patience after Chu Ning had inquired about several artifacts without making a purchase.

"I obtained it by chance from someone else, and I haven't discovered any special functions."

Hearing this, Chu Ning secretly smiled in his heart.

To use this bead, one must be able to project one's spiritual sense externally.

As an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator, the other party naturally couldn't uncover its mysteries.

"Then how much is this bead?" Chu Ning asked.

"Ten spirit stones. If you want it, take it," the tall and thin man replied.

The next moment, the man's words left Chu Ning's mouth hanging open in shock.

Seeing Chu Ning's expression, the tall and thin man thought that Chu Ning found the price too high.

He frowned slightly and continued, "Although this bead doesn't seem to have any use, its quality is good. It's very hard and can be used as an ornament. Ten spirit stones isn't an expensive price. How about this, if you want it, I can let it go for eight spirit stones."

Hearing this, Chu Ning's heart rejoiced at the prospect of making a huge profit.

However, he pretended to hesitate and said, "Alright then, eight spirit stones it is."

Chu Ning put the bead into his storage bag and handed over eight spirit stones to the cultivator.

After a moment's thought, he asked, "Fellow Daoist, do you have more of these beads? If I'm using it as an ornament, it would be better to have a pair."

"No more," the tall and thin cultivator quickly replied as he snatched the spirit stones from Chu Ning, seemingly afraid that Chu Ning would change his mind.

Chu Ning didn't press further upon hearing this and turned to leave.

Once Chu Ning was out of earshot, the tall and thin cultivator revealed a delighted smile and murmured, "I never expected that a bead I casually picked up by the lake on Water Cloud Island would sell for eight spirit stones. If I had known earlier, I would have looked for more of these beads."

Chu Ning, who was already walking away, didn't stop but whispered to himself, "Water Cloud Island!"

With his current spiritual sense, he had clearly heard every word the tall and thin middle-aged cultivator had said.

Chu Ning committed this information to memory and returned to his stone chamber in the inn with a calm expression.

Instead of immediately starting to cultivate, Chu Ning took out a jade slip and began to examine it.

The issues of instability in his cultivation, caused by consuming too many spirit pills and elixirs, no longer plagued him.

It was time to advance to the perfection of Qi Refining!

In fact, Chu Ning had long since memorized the cultivation method contained within the jade slip, but he took it out once more to review it.

He carefully studied not only the cultivation method for reaching the perfection of Qi Refining but also the Foundation Establishment technique that followed.

After all, achieving perfection in Qi Refining was essentially a preparation for the next step—Foundation Establishment.

To establish one's foundation, a cultivator needed to fulfill several conditions.

First, one's physical body must be robust. Severe injuries, depleted qi and blood, or a lack of vigorous essence and blood would hinder the process.

Thus, the older a cultivator was, the more difficult it became to establish their foundation. Generally, if a cultivator failed to do so before the age of fifty, the task became increasingly challenging.

And if one reached sixty without achieving it, there was essentially no hope left.

Second, one needed abundant spiritual power. Condensing one's spiritual power into a liquid form was essential, and insufficient spiritual power would make it impossible.

Third, a strong divine sense was crucial. Ordinary cultivation methods did enhance one's divine sense to some extent, but the process was rather slow.

Hence, the reason why foundation-establishing pills were so highly sought after in the cultivation world.

These pills served a significant purpose in strengthening one's divine sense and robusting their physical body.

They could also eliminate hidden injuries and purify the body of residual pill toxins accumulated from consuming various elixirs.

Interestingly, when it came to enhancing spiritual power, the role of foundation-establishing pills wasn't as prominent.

As the crucial transitional stage from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, achieving perfection in Qi Refining primarily focused on augmenting one's spiritual power to the utmost limit, filling one's dantian to the brim.

Chu Ning meticulously went over this information once more before putting away the jade slip into his storage bag.

He then casually took out a piece of medium-grade spirit stone and began to examine the state of his dantian's spiritual power through inner sight.

Within his dantian, nine rings of spiritual power were clearly visible, each layer distinct.

"When these nine rings of spiritual power merge as one, transforming into a spherical shape, one will have achieved the perfection of Qi Refining..."

Chu Ning silently recited this knowledge to himself before commencing his cultivation, channeling the Yanhuo Shenmu Art.

Three days of diligent cultivation passed in the stone chamber.

Chu Ning had consumed three medium-grade spirit stones before he finally opened his eyes.

"Perfection of Qi Refining!"

A smile curved Chu Ning's lips as he leaped to his feet.

He abruptly raised his right hand, and three balls of fire appeared, only to instantly merge into one.

With a flick of Chu Ning's wrist, the ball of fire shot out and slammed into the wall.

"Boom!"

A burst of spiritual power reverberated through the stone chamber as the wall cracked from the impact.

Witnessing the effortless fusion of the three fireballs, a task he had struggled with before, Chu Ning felt immensely satisfied.

Indeed, his control over spiritual power had improved significantly upon reaching the perfection of Qi Refining.

At that moment, an idea struck Chu Ning, and he retrieved a long spear from his storage bag.

This weapon had been obtained from Shang Rui, the cultivator at the perfection of Qi Refining whom he had encountered in the Spirit Realm.

Shang Rui had called it the Fire Phoenix Feather Spear, and it was a top-grade spiritual artifact.

Although Chu Ning had experimented with it before, he had been unable to activate it with his wood-attribute spiritual power, so he had kept it stored away.

Upon returning to Qingxi Sect, he had refrained from using it for fear that someone might recognize it as belonging to Shang Rui, whom he had killed.

Now, as he channeled his spiritual power into the spear, it instantly heated up, surrounded by dancing flames.

Chu Ning swung the spear casually, and a sweep of fire blasted out.

The display of power was evidently much stronger than the fireballs he had conjured earlier.

"So this top-grade spiritual artifact can be used after all!"

Chu Ning's eyes lit up with excitement, and the sheer might of the weapon took him by surprise.

He even felt that if he were to exert his full strength, the resulting commotion might exceed what the stone chamber could conceal.

With that thought in mind, Chu Ning naturally refrained from testing his limits.

After putting away the Fire Phoenix Feather Spear, Chu Ning proceeded to search through his storage bag.

With the Thousand Islands Competition drawing near, he needed to prepare himself to represent Feihong Island.

Aside from the array of talismans at his disposal, he also required a suitable spiritual artifact.

The Fire Phoenix Feather Spear wasn't an ideal choice.

Like the black dagger, it was a top-grade spiritual artifact that he wouldn't use unless absolutely necessary.

There was also the Blazing Bracelet, but he wanted another option, mainly because his attempts to utilize his fire-attribute techniques with it had been unsuccessful.

Whether it was the fireball formed by his Chiyan Technique or the fireball created through the Fiery Flame Technique, neither could be channeled through the bracelet.

It seemed that the Blazing Bracelet could only unleash its own inherent attacks.

This meant that he couldn't take advantage of the doubling effect of his Wuhuo Spiritual Body for fire-attribute techniques.

What caused Chu Ning's brows to furrow slightly was the lack of a fire-attribute spiritual artifact among the high-grade artifacts in his possession.

Back in the Spirit Realm, he had acquired several high-grade artifacts from the Yin Demon Sect disciples he had slain, including earth, wood, metal, and water attributes, but not a single fire-attribute artifact.

"Looks like I have no choice but to use this longsword..." Chu Ning picked up the wood-attribute longsword, his brows knitted in a slight frown.

The Cang Wood Sword Art, being a relatively specialized technique, didn't seem like a good fit for the weapon.

As for the body-refining technique, a lifesaving measure for body cultivators, he certainly wouldn't use it.

"Hmm?"

At that moment, Chu Ning pulled out a barbed thorn from his storage bag.

It was a low-grade spiritual artifact he had obtained from the effeminate young man he had killed during the battle in the cave of the Earth Spirit Spring.

Since it was a low-grade artifact, Chu Ning hadn't paid much attention to it until now.

It suddenly occurred to him that the effeminate young man had used fire-attribute techniques during their fight.

Chu Ning held the thorn in his hand, sensing its attributes, and indeed, it was fire-attributed.

But with the boost from his Wuhuo Spiritual Body, the two spells, which were already inherently powerful, became even stronger.

"You're the one!"

Chu Ning held the barbed thorn and smiled faintly.

After three days of secluded cultivation, Chu Ning emerged once more from the stone chamber in the inn.

He headed straight to the area where loose cultivators gathered to sell his talismans and browse for any bargains.

Unfortunately, such opportunities were rare, and after several days of searching, Chu Ning came up empty-handed.

Soon, the day of the Thousand Islands Competition arrived.

That morning, after finishing his cultivation, Chu Ning left the stone chamber and made his way directly to the island's dojo.

Upon reaching the high platform of Feihong Island, he found Jiang Hongguang, his wife, and his sister, Jiang Lan, already waiting.

"You're all here early," Chu Ning said as he stepped onto the platform and bowed to the group. They returned his greeting.

However, Jiang Lan's gaze held a hint of challenge, which surprised Chu Ning slightly.

Noticing his sister's look, Jiang Hongguang glared at her and apologized to Chu Ning, "Fellow Daoist Chu, please don't mind my sister.

She's being impetuous and arrogant because of your young age and your cultivation at the eighth layer of Qi Refining.

She wants to prove herself in a duel with you and show that she's not a frog in a well, but her ambitions are far beyond her abilities."

Chu Ning smiled at Jiang Hongguang's sincerity and replied, "Sister Jiang's concerns are not unfounded. I don't often duel with others, so I am a bit lacking in that regard.

If there is a duel, I would be quite worried."

Hearing Chu Ning's words, Jiang Lan glanced at him proudly.

But instead of worrying, Jiang Hongguang smiled with a deeper meaning, "This young man's concerns are valid, but his modesty is unwarranted.

I deduce that there's more to him than meets the eye."

Then, Jiang Hongguang continued to chat with Chu Ning, mostly sharing information about the other islands and their strengths.

He wanted to give Chu Ning a better understanding of the overall strength of the islands in Thousand Lakes and Thousand Islands.

Among the Thousand Lakes and Thousand Islands, there were approximately fifty islands with second-tier spirit veins.

However, only twenty of those islands possessed substantial second-tier spirit veins.

Each of these twenty islands was home to a Mid Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The remaining thirty islands had, at most, Early Foundation Establishment cultivators.

As for the rest of the islands, none had Foundation Establishment cultivators, but some island masters were at the Perfection of Qi Refining or the ninth layer of Qi Refining.

Many island masters, like Jiang Hongguang, were at the eighth layer of Qi Refining.

Thus, while the Thousand Lakes and Thousand Islands had a large number of cultivators, their overall strength was not exceptionally high.

Just then, several figures appeared on the largest high platform in the front, taking their seats on six chairs.

"These six are the leaders of the Thousand Islands Alliance," Jiang Hongguang introduced. "The position of the main leader of the Thousand Islands Alliance is rotational.

It is held by the family heads of the six leading families, and they are the face of the alliance."

"But these people may not be the most powerful in their families," Jiang Hongguang continued. "It is said that among these families, there are Late Foundation Establishment cultivators.

So, even the islands ranked in the top ten with Mid Foundation Establishment cultivators wouldn't dare to have any ulterior motives toward the alliance.

There's also a saying that the top ten islands have some connection to these six families."

Hearing Jiang Hongguang's words, Chu Ning felt that this possibility was high.

After all, anyone in their position would want to control the islands with superior spirit veins.

"It's the fairy of the Cen family, Cen Xianzi!"

"It really is Cen Xianzi!"

...

At that moment, a wave of noise rose from below, reaching Chu Ning's ears.

The Thousand Islands Competition was a significant event in the Thousand Lakes and Thousand Islands, so in addition to the island masters, many other cultivators had come to watch.

These spectators gathered below the high platforms.

The commotion was coming from them.

The restrictions on the high platforms blocked sound from escaping but didn't prevent outside noise from entering.

Intrigued, Chu Ning looked down.

On the largest high platform, after the six family heads had taken their seats, several others emerged, apparently the younger generation of the families.

Behind the one in the center stood a woman in white, her face veiled, her figure graceful and ethereal, exuding an air of otherworldly charm.

"It really is Cen Xianzi!"

Jiang Lan, standing next to Chu Ning, exclaimed.

Even as a woman herself, she stared intently at the veiled figure, her eyes shining with a mix of admiration and envy. "They say that Cen Xianzi is not only breathtakingly beautiful but also possesses extraordinary talent in cultivation. She has successfully established her foundation and is known as the number one formation master in the Thousand Lakes and Thousand Islands.

She has inherited the essence of the Cen family's formation techniques."

Chu Ning's curiosity about Cen Xianzi grew as he listened to Jiang Lan.

He asked, "How old is this Cen Xianzi?"

Hearing his question, Jiang Lan glanced at him and replied with a complex tone, "If the rumors are true, she's eighteen years old."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end