# Chapter 286: Intermediate Inscription
"The underwater dragon palace of the Four-Winged Earth Dragon."
Duanmu Xingling's eyes lit up, and she quickly said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's set off now. The Four-Winged Earth Dragon is comparable to a Saint-level existence, having dominated the Demon Ridge for centuries. The treasures it has accumulated must be absolutely astonishing. If we obtain its treasure hoard, our cultivation will surely advance by leaps and bounds."
"Not yet! We need to wait a little longer."
"The Tongming River is fraught with danger, and the underwater dragon palace has been an unopened forbidden ground for five hundred years. We need at least three months for preliminary preparations," Zhang Ruochen said.
Huang Yanchen also nodded, saying, "My current martial cultivation has reached the Earth Extreme Realm Middle Position. If I'm going to the underwater dragon palace, I need to break through another realm. Three months should be enough!"
Duanmu Xingling sighed, "Fine! We really do need more preparation. I'll also continue to improve my cultivation."
Huang Yanchen said, "There are only three of us now. We still need three more people. Who do you plan to invite?"
Zhang Ruochen narrowed his eyes, saying, "Those who join must have formidable strength, and their martial cultivation cannot exceed the Heavenly Extreme Realm. I already have three candidates in mind. I'll find time to talk to them."
"Alright then. Let's prepare separately. Three months from now, we'll head to the Tongming River and storm the underwater dragon palace," Huang Yanchen said.
The reason Zhang Ruochen planned to wait three months before going to the underwater dragon palace was also to use this time to cultivate the fifth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm to Great Perfection, making himself even stronger.
After parting ways with Huang Yanchen and Duanmu Xingling, Zhang Ruochen first went to the Merit Tower to exchange for four bottles of third-grade healing pills and twenty Body-Tempering Tendon-Strengthening Pills, spending a total of twenty-two thousand merit points.
Then, he went to Tong Sheng Mountain again, entered the Earth-level Gravity Cultivation Chamber, and continued to cultivate "Elephant Force Ninefold," while also tempering his physical body.
During his last cultivation session, he had refined ten Bone-Tempering Tendon-Strengthening Pills, raising his physical body strength from the Heavenly Extreme Realm Initial Stage level to the Heavenly Extreme Realm Middle Stage level.
This time, Zhang Ruochen exchanged for twenty Bone-Tempering Tendon-Strengthening Pills, intending to elevate his physical body strength another notch.
Martial arts were, after all, about cultivating both the physical body and techniques.
Techniques were important, but the physical body was equally important.
After improving his physical body strength, Zhang Ruochen decided to challenge an even harsher cultivation environment. He entered the Earth-level Cultivation Chamber and walked directly to the deepest part.
Under thirty times gravity, he practiced his palm techniques.
With a tenfold increase in gravity, the pressure increased dramatically. An ordinary person could not survive in such an environment.
"Bam bam!"
The sound of palm techniques echoed continuously within the gravity cultivation chamber. A new round of arduous training had begun.
Half a month later, Zhang Ruochen emerged from the cultivation chamber.
His palm techniques had improved again.
He could now unleash eight palms in a single strike, producing eight times the palm technique's power, just one step away from Great Perfection.
At the same time, because he had refined twenty Bone-Tempering Tendon-Strengthening Pills, Zhang Ruochen's physical body had also improved significantly. Of course, it had not yet reached the level of a Heavenly Extreme Realm Late Stage martial artist.
After reaching the Heavenly Extreme Realm, the gap between realms grew larger and larger, and the effect of pills on the physical body diminished.
According to Zhang Ruochen's estimation, he would need to refine at least ten more Bone-Tempering Tendon-Strengthening Pills before his physical body strength could reach the Heavenly Extreme Realm Late Stage level.
After half a month of cultivation, Zhang Ruochen had completely stabilized his breakthrough realm and could control his increased power at will. Even without using the Space Domain, he no longer had to worry about leaking aura.
"Shua!"
Zhang Ruochen's body flickered and vanished directly from Tong Sheng Mountain. Before long, he stood outside the gate of his cultivation estate, as if he had appeared out of thin air.
"My speed seems to have increased a bit. My maximum burst speed has reached two hundred and ninety-three meters per second. Even compared to those ranked in the top ten of the Earth Ranking, I'm probably not far behind!"
Every time he improved through cultivation, there was an indescribable sense of satisfaction. As long as his strength kept advancing, it meant his efforts had not been in vain.
Returning to his cultivation estate, Zhang Ruochen planned to rest for a while before going back to Tong Sheng Mountain to practice his palm techniques.
Anyone who stayed under dozens of times gravity for a long time would suffer. Zhang Ruochen did not want to injure himself from overtraining and leave hidden problems.
Cultivation required gradual progress.
During this time, Zhang Ruochen entered the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal and began studying the *Space-Time Secret Scripture*.
He picked up the silver-paper *Space-Time Secret Scripture* placed on the stone platform and slowly flipped through it. At his current realm, he could already turn to the sixth page.
As for the seventh page, no matter what method Zhang Ruochen used, he could not open it.
According to the *Space-Time Secret Scripture*, Zhang Ruochen could now begin cultivating "Time Imprints."
Time was much harder to control than space, with many uncertain factors. Zhang Ruochen temporarily decided not to cultivate "Time Imprints" and would wait until the Heavenly Extreme Realm, when his cultivation was stronger, before studying them.
For now, his main focus should be on researching Space Inscriptions.
Due to time constraints, Zhang Ruochen had only learned twelve types of Space Inscriptions so far.
Zhang Ruochen planned to begin learning a defensive Intermediate Space Inscription: the Cosmic Form Inscription.
Intermediate Inscriptions were more than ten times harder than Basic Inscriptions, and they were extremely fine and complex. If one's Spiritual Power was even slightly insufficient, the inscription would fail, wasting all effort.
Generally speaking, only martial artists with Spiritual Power reaching the thirtieth rank could successfully inscribe Intermediate Inscriptions.
Space-type Intermediate Inscriptions were even more difficult, requiring at least the thirty-fifth rank of Spiritual Power to have a chance of success.
Of course, the power of Intermediate Inscriptions far exceeded that of Basic Inscriptions.
For example, a Basic "Force" Inscription could only add one hundred jin of weight to a weapon.
An Intermediate "Force" Inscription could add one thousand jin of weight to a weapon.
In the martial world, what was most important?
Survival, of course.
Just like the Black Market Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artists Zhang Ruochen had fought before, almost all of them had protective treasures. When faced with a life-threatening crisis, the protective treasure would form a defense and save the owner's life.
The protective treasures sold in the martial market were almost all crafted by master refiners, extremely rare and expensive.
Buying a protective treasure cost at least ten million silver coins, nearly draining most of the wealth of a Heavenly Extreme Realm Initial Stage martial artist. Moreover, most were single-use protective effects and could not be used a second time.
Zhang Ruochen's study of defensive Intermediate Space Inscriptions was naturally also to refine a protective treasure.
Intermediate Inscriptions were much harder to inscribe than Zhang Ruochen had imagined. It took him half a month and wasted ten thousand sheets of spirit paper before he could fully inscribe that one Intermediate Inscription.
"At least I've completed the first step. I've made great progress toward success."
Besides that Intermediate Space Inscription, Zhang Ruochen also learned three Basic Defensive Space Inscriptions.
With his current Spiritual Power strength, Basic Space Inscriptions came easily to him, and he could inscribe them successfully with ease.
Zhang Ruochen decided to inscribe the defensive inscriptions onto a Space Ring, turning the Space Ring into a defensive treasure.
The first defensive Space Ring was the most critical, so Zhang Ruochen was especially careful.
Even so, Zhang Ruochen wasted seven jade rings before successfully refining the first defensive Space Ring.
This Space Ring was the most perfect Space Treasure Zhang Ruochen could currently refine, with a storage space a hundred times larger than any of his previous Space Rings.
It also had an owner-recognition function. Even if the Space Ring was lost, other martial artists could not open it.
Its most powerful feature was its defensive capability.
Zhang Ruochen had inscribed three Intermediate Defensive Inscriptions and thirty-three Basic Defensive Inscriptions into the Space Ring. The power of the inscriptions alone was comparable to a ninth-rank True Martial Treasure.
According to Zhang Ruochen's calculations, the Space Ring had three defensive uses and could block a full-force attack from a Heavenly Extreme Realm Great Extreme Position martial artist at most.
In other words, as long as he wore the Space Ring, Zhang Ruochen would have at least three chances to escape, provided he did not encounter a Heavenly Extreme Realm Great Perfection expert.
Spending another three days, Zhang Ruochen refined nine Space Treasures in one go: three Space Rings, three Space Bracelets, and three Space Pendants.
Adding the first Space Ring he had refined, that made ten Space Treasures in total.
That was right.
The Space Rings Zhang Ruochen now refined could truly be called Space Treasures. And they were still the lowest grade of Space Treasures.
The ones he had refined before were merely storage tools.
Zhang Ruochen took out the two Space Bracelets and three Space Rings he had refined earlier and threw them on the ground like a pile of waste.
"To me, these Space Bracelets and Space Rings are just waste, but to other martial artists, they are priceless treasures. If I take them to the Heavenly Demon Martial City auction house, they should fetch a considerable price."
To storm the underwater dragon palace, many preparations were needed. Defensive Space Rings alone were far from enough.
Zhang Ruochen planned to go to the auction house to bid on some top-tier defensive and offensive treasures.
Without delay, Zhang Ruochen picked up the two Space Bracelets and three Space Rings from the ground, placed them in his bosom, and then walked out of his cultivation estate.
Before going to the auction house, Zhang Ruochen planned to seek Lei Jing's help first.
So, he went to the Silver Robe Elder Pavilion again.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen, Lei Jing was in an excellent mood, but he still maintained the air of a master, saying somewhat arrogantly, "Zhang Ruochen, what matter brings you to seek your master's help again?"
Zhang Ruochen clasped his hands and bowed, smiling, "Master truly has keen insight. Your disciple does indeed have a matter to request."
Lei Jing raised his eyelids slightly and scolded, "What is it?"
"I would like to ask Master to take a few items to the Heavenly Demon Martial City auction house for auction," Zhang Ruochen said.
Zhang Ruochen absolutely could not let outsiders know that the five Space Treasures were being auctioned by him. Having Lei Jing handle it was the best option, as at least no one would dare to target Lei Jing.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen could also conceal his identity and consign the five Space Treasures to the auction house.
However, the Heavenly Demon Martial City was not like the Yunwu Commandery. Here, experts were as numerous as clouds, including many Heavenly Extreme Realm martial arts legends. If he was careless, Zhang Ruochen's identity would be exposed. That would backfire.
Lei Jing's eyes widened, and he said, "Such a trivial matter, and you come to disturb me? It's just a few items. Can't you send them to the auction house yourself?"
"Master, please take a look at these auction items first before deciding."
Zhang Ruochen took out the three Space Bracelets and two Space Rings and placed them before Lei Jing.