Chapter 168: Collecting the Island

Chapter 168: Collecting the Island

"May I ask if you are Fellow Daoist Liu Ping?"

Chu Ning sized up the middle-aged female cultivator before him, who was also at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement. Although he had his suspicions, he remained cautious and asked, "May I ask what you have brought with you, fellow daoist?"

The woman reached out and took out a talisman, placing it in front of Chu Ning. She asked, "Do you recognize this talisman, fellow daoist?"

"Firewing Talisman!"

Chu Ning's eyes flickered slightly as he recognized the talisman. It was a magical talisman he had crafted using the Firewing Bird after cultivating the Fiery Blaze Art. He was the only one who could create them, so he had given some to Cen Zikin as a token for others to identify her when she needed to collect talismans or pills but couldn't come herself.

Hearing Chu Ning address the talisman by name, the woman's face lit up with joy.

"It really is Fellow Daoist Liu. This humble woman has been coming here every day for half a month now, waiting for you. I'm glad I finally got to meet you today."

As she spoke, the woman took out a storage bag and handed it to Chu Ning. "Please help me deliver this storage bag and convey a message. You'll understand what to say once you look inside."

Chu Ning took the bag and nodded, "I will deliver your message."

"Then, I shall take my leave," the woman said and departed.

Chu Ning immediately left the inn as well and found a secluded spot. He briefly examined the contents of the storage bag and quickly pulled out a piece of talisman paper.

Instead of being crafted into a talisman, this piece of paper had a few sentences written on it.

"I've already gone to the Yao Chi Palace, so don't worry about me. This illusion art has been incredibly helpful. Yao Chi Palace is too far from here, so there's no need to come looking for me. If fate wills it, we will meet again.—Cen Zikin"

Reading the note, Chu Ning heaved a sigh of relief.

Without looking at anything else, he returned directly to his cave abode on Fei Hong Island.

Entering the outermost stone chamber, facing the lake, Chu Ning finally took out the items from the storage bag one by one.

In addition to the piece of talisman paper with the note, there was also a small bag of medium-grade spirit stones, a jade slip, numerous spirit herbs, and a set of array tools.

Cen Zikin had left instructions on each item.

Looking at these things, Chu Ning felt as if Cen Zikin were sitting across from him, a bright smile on her face, her eyes sparkling as she spoke softly.

"These spirit stones are from the sale of your talismans and pills. I didn't give any share to the Cen Workshop."

"I've collected some spirit herbs for pill refining. See if they're of any use to you. And those spirit fruits are for Little White."

"This set of array tools is something I've researched over the past few years. It incorporates many ancient formations, and you can use them directly with the formations you're currently using. Even a Golden Core cultivator would find it difficult to break through after it's set up. The specifics of the array setup and usage are inscribed on the jade slip. There are also some basic array identification techniques and array-breaking methods recorded on the jade slip, which should be useful whether you stay in the Thousand Lakes and Islands or go elsewhere."

...

Chu Ning looked at the empty space across from him, then turned to glance at the shimmering lake outside.

His feelings were complicated.

He felt relieved to know that Cen Zikin was safe, but he also felt a sense of melancholy at her departure.

After a long while, Chu Ning waved his hand, putting everything on the stone table back into the storage bag except for the spirit fruits.

Then, he released Ling Xiao Bai from the spirit beast bag.

"Little White, these spirit fruits are for you."

Hearing Chu Ning's words, Ling Xiao Bai let out a happy "Yip!"

However, the little guy also looked puzzled.

"Why are there so many?"

"Cen Zikin sent them to you. She's left this place and won't be back for a while," Chu Ning explained.

Upon hearing this, Ling Xiao Bai let out another "Yip!" before devouring a spirit fruit.

Seeing the little guy's content expression, Chu Ning couldn't help but smile.

"Come on, little guy. Let's cultivate the Mysterious Fate Technique together and see if we can speed up your recovery. I'm waiting for you to get well so we can go somewhere together."

As he spoke, Chu Ning quickly made intricate hand seals and began chanting obscure incantations.

A channel of spiritual power connected Chu Ning and Ling Xiao Bai.

Immediately, streams of spiritual energy converged towards the little beast.

"It's indeed different after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage!"

After about an hour, Chu Ning stopped, feeling a significant drain on his spiritual power.

However, he didn't look too exhausted.

This was a far cry from his experience in the ancient sect's ruins, where he had to continuously consume pills to replenish his energy.

After sending Ling Xiao Bai back to his spirit beast room, Chu Ning finally calmed down to consider his next steps.

In terms of cultivation, he didn't feel much pressure.

He could continue cultivating the Blazing Divine Wood Art, and he still had plenty of Green Wood Primordial Yang Pills, some of which had already been spirit-refined, and the rest could be refined when needed.

These pills would support his cultivation for a long time to come.

Ever since he learned pill refining, he no longer worried about pill resources.

The challenging part was acquiring the spirit herbs needed for pill refining, especially without Cen Zikin's connections.

Whether it was buying spirit herbs or selling his own items for spirit stones, things would be less convenient now.

However, Chu Ning wasn't too anxious about it.

He had just reached the Foundation Establishment stage, so his focus for this period should be on consolidating his cultivation base rather than rushing to consume large quantities of pills for cultivation.

"There aren't any issues with my Qi Refinement, and as for my body tempering..."

Chu Ning looked at the proficiency levels in his mind:

【Blazing Divine Wood Art (High-grade Grand Art), Second Layer (1667/10000)】

【Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art, First Volume, Undying Soul (0/3000)】

【Refine God Art, Second Layer (2000/2000)】

Chu Ning mused to himself, intrigued by this possibility.

The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that his hypothesis might be correct.

After all, cultivation at the Foundation Establishment stage and beyond had the effect of refining one's divine sense.

Both cultivation paths, whether refining qi or refining the body, ultimately converged, so it was highly probable that cultivating the body could also lead to a stronger divine sense.

"If my deduction is correct, then my divine sense might be able to grow rapidly without me having to cultivate a separate divine sense cultivation technique.

I might as well give it a try during this period."

With that in mind, Chu Ning began cultivating the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art in his cultivation room.

After all, he didn't have access to the advanced stages of his divine sense cultivation technique at the moment.

This would be a good opportunity to see how cultivating the Blazing Divine Wood Art and the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art affected the growth of his divine sense after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

Thus, in the following days, Chu Ning remained in his cave abode.

He didn't step out of his door or even into the outer chamber.

Every day, he cultivated the Mysterious Fate Technique with Ling Xiao Bai to aid in the little beast's recovery.

At the same time, he also cultivated the Blazing Divine Wood Art and the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art.

Since he had just reached the Foundation Establishment stage and had only recently started cultivating the 'Undying Soul' volume of the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art, Chu Ning chose not to rely on pills or spirit fruits for these cultivations.

He also refrained from absorbing the wood essence energy from the Iron Soul Flower.

What brought him great relief was that even after the Iron Soul Flower matured, the abundant wood essence energy it contained would not leak out unless he actively absorbed it.

The flower could remain in bloom for two to three years.

Time flew by, and another month passed in cultivation.

On this day, after completing his daily routine, Chu Ning sat in his cultivation room, contemplating his progress over the past month.

"My cultivation talent is pretty good, but without the aid of external resources, even with access to a second-grade superior spirit vein, my progress is probably as fast as it can get."

【Blazing Divine Wood Art (High-grade Grand Art), Second Layer (1727/10000)】

【Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art, First Volume, Undying Soul (30/3000)】

【Refine God Art, Second Layer (2000/2000)】

During this month, Chu Ning maintained a relatively long daily cultivation time without the assistance of pills or spirit fruits.

The Blazing Divine Wood Art progressed at a rate of about 2 points per day, which was faster than before and likely due to his faster absorption of spiritual energy after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage.

As for the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art, he could only increase by about 1 point per day.

As for his divine sense, Chu Ning could feel that it was indeed expanding, but the speed was not remarkable.

After a month of cultivation, his divine sense had only extended outwards by about one zhang.

If he hadn't been paying close attention, he might not have noticed this subtle change.

"I'll need to start relying on some resources for my future cultivation!"

Chu Ning made up his mind.

In reality, maintaining this rate of progress after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage was already quite impressive.

The system had indeed bestowed him with excellent talent.

However, he knew that the growth of any formidable cultivator relied not only on talent but also on abundant resources.

Chu Ning reached into his storage bag and took out two jade bottles, one containing Green Wood Primordial Yang Pills and the other containing Iron Sun Fruits.

These were the resources he had used during his Qi Refinement and tendon-toughening stages.

He wondered if they would still be effective now that he had reached the Foundation Establishment stage and the 'Undying Soul' realm of the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art.

"The Green Wood Primordial Yang Pills have been refined by me, and the Iron Sun Fruits were effective in breaking through my bottlenecks before.

In theory, they should still be beneficial to my current cultivation, but I'll have to test their effects."

With that, Chu Ning got up and entered the adjacent stone chamber with the hot spring.

He crushed two Iron Sun Fruits and threw them into the large tub, then jumped in and began cultivating the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art.

An hour later, Chu Ning slowly emerged from the stone chamber, muttering to himself.

"As expected, the effect of the Iron Sun Fruits has weakened after I broke through to the 'Undying Soul' stage.

Before, I needed to cultivate the Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art six times to fully activate the fruit's medicinal properties.

Now, I only need to cultivate it four times."

As he mused, Chu Ning checked the proficiency levels in his mind.

He had just tested the effects of the Iron Sun Fruits by cultivating the art twice in succession.

【Nine Transformations Body Tempering Art, First Volume, Undying Soul (33/3000)】

Two Iron Sun Fruits could increase his proficiency by 3 points, which seemed fast and was even more than the 1-point increase during the tendon-toughening stage.

However, Chu Ning knew that this was because he hadn't reached a bottleneck in his body tempering yet.

During the tendon-toughening stage, he could still gain 1 point even at a bottleneck.

Compared to that, the current effectiveness was weaker.

"But it's still good enough. At least I have something to speed up my cultivation."

Chu Ning was generally satisfied with the effects of the Iron Sun Fruits.

Combined with his daily cultivation, he could guarantee a minimum increase of 2 points per day.

After all, he had already entered a higher level of cultivation.

Expecting the rapid breakthroughs of the past was unrealistic.

After a brief rest from cultivating the Refine God Art, Chu Ning picked up a Green Wood Primordial Yang Pill that he had refined and began cultivating the Blazing Divine Wood Art.

Even though he didn't have the third layer cultivation method for the Refine God Art, the technique still helped with the recovery of his divine sense.

Chu Ning wouldn't stop cultivating it just because he lacked the advanced method.

Several hours later, Chu Ning finally concluded his experimental cultivation for the day, a faint smile on his face.

【Blazing Divine Wood Art (High-grade Grand Art), Second Layer (1730/10000)】

The Green Wood Primordial Yang Pills that he had refined himself could increase his proficiency in the Blazing Divine Wood Art by 3 points.

"I can grow the main ingredients for the Primordial Yang Pills myself, and I can buy the rest of the supplementary pill-refining materials. I don't need to be too concerned about cultivation resources for this stage.

For the time being, I can continue cultivating peacefully."

...

Just as Chu Ning was cultivating peacefully, a white light flashed in the transmission array on Qianhong Island, and several figures appeared.

The group wore robes of different colors, but on the sleeves was an embroidered alliance character.

This identified them as members of the Thousand Islands Alliance.

While the Thousand Islands Alliance was controlled by the six major families, the scope of the Thousand Lakes and Islands was simply too vast, and it was impossible to manage it with just the family members.

Thus, over the years, almost every family had absorbed some loose cultivators and smaller families to strengthen their forces.

For example, some enforcement and patrol teams, as well as external liaison affairs, were mostly handled by these people.

This allowed the direct descendants of the six major families to focus on their cultivation.

The group of ten who arrived on Qianhong Island at this moment was one such team.

Although they were not direct descendants of the six major families, they still represented the Thousand Islands Alliance, so Island Master Jiang Hongguang dared not neglect them.

Upon receiving the news, he brought Yu Yuanxiu, Jiang Lan, and a group of disciples to greet them outside the cave abode.

"I am Jiang Hongguang of Feihong Island. Greetings to the seniors and fellow daoists of the Alliance."

Seeing that the leader was a pair of Nascent Soul cultivators, and the rest had cultivation bases at the late Qi Refinement stage, Jiang Hongguang was astonished, but he maintained an even more polite demeanor.

He had originally intended to address them as fellow daoists, but now he added the word "senior" before it.

The leader, a Nascent Soul cultivator in his forties, had a handsome face, a clean-shaven chin, and a slightly arrogant expression.

"You must be Jiang Hongguang. I am Xiao Liebo. I have come here on behalf of the Thousand Islands Alliance to announce a decision."

Hearing Xiao Liebo's unfriendly tone, Jiang Hongguang's heart skipped a beat.

However, he still maintained a smile on his face and said, "Please instruct, Senior Xiao. We will definitely comply."

Seeing Jiang Hongguang's cooperative attitude, Xiao Liebo nodded in satisfaction. Then, he delivered a message that caused Jiang Hongguang's face to change drastically.

"Recently, several second-grade hidden spirit veins have been discovered in the Thousand Lakes and Islands. After discussing it, the Alliance Masters have decided that all islands with second-grade hidden spirit veins that do not have a Nascent Soul cultivator must be relinquished so that the Alliance can redistribute resources more reasonably."

As he spoke, Xiao Liebo's eyes fixed on Jiang Hongguang.

"Didn't you discover a second-grade spirit vein here a few years ago?"

Jiang Hongguang's face turned ashen, and he replied with a hesitant expression, "We did indeed discover a second-grade spirit vein on Feihong Island, but that was after we obtained the right to manage this island.

Now that you're suddenly asking us to give up the island, where are we supposed to cultivate?"

"Rest assured, the Alliance will naturally arrange another first-grade spirit vein island for you, and we will also provide appropriate compensation."

As Xiao Liebo spoke, his expression became slightly impatient.

"Don't even think about arguing. You've been cultivating on this second-grade spirit vein for several years, and you've already profited greatly.

Do you dare to disobey the Alliance Masters' order?"

As he spoke, Xiao Liebo's eyes swept over Jiang Hongguang and the people behind him.

Everyone's faces changed drastically when they heard Xiao Liebo's uncompromising words.

Although the management of the Thousand Islands Alliance was relatively lax, everyone knew that the Alliance Master's order was not something to be taken lightly.

The Alliance Master represented not just a single family, but the collective will of the six major families.

It was said that a Nascent Soul cultivator who had openly defied the Alliance Master's order in the past was jointly annihilated by the six major families, along with his entire clan.

As much as Jiang Hongguang disagreed, he dared not utter such words at this moment.

Seeing this, Xiao Liebo snorted coldly, his eyes filled with arrogance.

"You have one month to vacate this island, or the Thousand Islands Alliance will expel you by force."

Jiang Hongguang nodded dejectedly.

He was always good at reading the room, and that was why he had lowered himself before Chu Ning in the past.

However, he seemed to suddenly remember something.

Gritting his teeth, he raised his head and looked at Xiao Liebo.

"Senior Xiao, I am willing to give up this second-grade spirit vein and cultivate on another island.

However, there is another fellow daoist who has set up his cave abode on this island. May I ask if he can continue cultivating here?"

Xiao Liebo seemed to have already been briefed on the situation on this island before his arrival.

His eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Are you talking about Chu Ning, the one who helped you defend your honor in the Thousand Islands Competition a few years ago?"

Jiang Hongguang nodded, but Xiao Liebo's expression immediately turned stern as he said, "No, this island will be returned to the Alliance for redistribution, so he cannot stay here to cultivate.

I heard that his cave abode is on a place called Yan Peak. There might be another second-grade spirit vein there as well.

Otherwise, how could he have allowed you to cultivate on this spirit vein?"

Hearing this, Jiang Hongguang's face changed once again.

He was grateful to Chu Ning and wanted to plead for him, but he never expected to be rejected outright.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but Xiao Liebo didn't give him a chance and waved his hand dismissively. "Don't say anything more. Lead the way to Yan Peak. A Qi Refinement cultivator doesn't have the qualifications to make such requests."

Under the watchful eyes of the two Nascent Soul cultivators and the group of Qi Refinement cultivators, Jiang Hongguang could do nothing but comply and lead the way to Yan Peak.

Jiang Lan followed behind, and Yu Yuanxiu, after some hesitation, also joined them.

She knew that the fellow daoist Chu was not as meek as her husband, and she thought that as a woman, she might be able to help mediate if a conflict arose.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end