Chapter 589: Spiritual Power, Forty-Fourth Order
Red Desire Star Envoy’s starry eyes, distinct in black and white, swept over the group of Blood Cloud Sect disciples kneeling in the great hall. She said, “All of you may withdraw for now.”
The Blood Cloud Sect disciples in the hall all cast grateful glances at Red Desire Star Envoy, as if granted a great reprieve, and scrambled to file out.
Fortunately, Red Desire Star Envoy had arrived suddenly, allowing them to escape disaster.
Red Desire Star Envoy stood in midair, took a step forward, flew to the top of the hall, and sat down unceremoniously beside the skull-shaped throne. She lifted her eyelids, glanced at the deformed bronze desk before her, and chuckled, “Sect Leader Xu, what’s going on?”
Xu Hong’s face was extremely cold and gloomy. “I received orders from above. Today, I sent Fang Jie and Cao Ying to assassinate the Moon Worship Cult’s chief commander in Qingyun Commandery. But not only did they fail in the assassination, they also died at the hands of a mysterious person. Truly two wastes.”
Red Desire Star Envoy nodded, a slight curl at the corner of her mouth, indicating she understood the situation.
Fang Jie and Cao Ying were both among the top ten assassins of the Blood Cloud Sect. To have them killed on their own turf was no wonder Xu Hong was so furious. Training an assassin was no easy feat, and cultivating top-tier assassins like Fang Jie and Cao Ying was even harder.
“Handle your own affairs as you see fit.”
Red Desire Star Envoy gently twirled a strand of her jet-black hair and added, “I came here this time to inform you of two matters. First, temporarily halt all operations against the Moon Worship Demon Sect.”
Xu Hong was greatly puzzled and asked, “Why?”
Red Desire Star Envoy said, “The battle at the Eastern Domain Sacred City enraged the Chen Clan and the Martial Market Bank. The Chen Clan, under the banner of the imperial court, has mobilized two million eight hundred thousand elite troops, already assembled on the other side of the Fallen God Mountain Range, ready to attack the Eastern Domain Evil Territory at any time. If the Eastern Domain Evil Territory doesn’t pay some price, the army likely won’t withdraw.”
“At the same time, the Martial Market Bank has dispatched a large number of top-tier experts into the Eastern Domain Evil Territory, aiming to strike back at the Black Market.”
“Therefore, the higher-ups have decided to first suppress the operations against the Demon Sect and concentrate our forces to repel the imperial court and Martial Market Bank’s forces.”
Xu Hong pondered for a moment, then said, “We can temporarily stop dealing with the Demon Sect, but the one who killed Fang Jie and Cao Ying must die.”
“I won’t interfere with who you want to kill, but you must not delay the major matters.”
Red Desire Star Envoy said sternly, “As for the second matter, because of the battle at the Eastern Domain Sacred City, many of the Black Market’s forces hidden in the Eastern Domain Sacred Territory have been exposed. Now they need to be relocated back to the Eastern Domain Evil Territory, and how to settle them is no small issue.”
“My master’s intention is to merge a portion of them into the Blood Cloud Sect, to be governed by you.”
Xu Hong’s face immediately lit up with joy. He quickly bowed again to Red Desire Star Envoy. “Thank you, Huan Saint. Please convey my respects to Lord Huan Saint on behalf of the sect. Another day, I will prepare a generous gift and personally deliver it to Huan Valley.”
Red Desire Star Envoy smiled, rose to her feet, and walked gracefully toward the exit, her voice sweet and alluring, soft and lingering. “Sect Leader Xu, your filial piety will surely be remembered by my master. Of course, if the Blood Cloud Sect ever develops into a third-rate sect in the future, don’t forget who it was that lifted you up today.”
“I won’t forget, I certainly won’t forget.”
Without turning back, Red Desire Star Envoy said, “In the coming period, the twenty-seven commanderies near the Fallen God Mountain Range are bound to see a fierce struggle between dragons and tigers. I’ll be staying in Qingyun Commandery for now. If there are any new developments, you can come to the commandery city to find me at any time.”
Xu Hong watched Red Desire Star Envoy leave the hall, his heart still filled with excitement.
The Black Market forces withdrawing from the Eastern Domain Sacred Territory would surely include a large number to be absorbed into the Blood Cloud Sect, enough to multiply the sect’s strength several times over in a short time.
The goal of developing the Blood Cloud Sect into a third-rate sect was now within reach.
However, the imperial court’s army was a major headache. If the imperial troops crossed the Fallen God Mountain Range, the Blood Cloud Sect would be the first to bear the brunt of the attack.
He just didn’t know how determined the imperial court was this time.
Xu Hong gradually calmed down, but his thoughts returned to the deaths of Fang Jie and Cao Ying. His gaze turned icy once more. He said in a deep voice, “Summon Luo Shi to the hall. I have a task for him.”
“Yes.”
Outside the hall, a black figure immediately withdrew.
Luo Shi was the Blood Cloud Sect’s fourth-ranked assassin, having reached the seventh transformation of the Fish-Dragon Realm. He had once assassinated a cultivator at the eighth transformation of the Fish-Dragon Realm and succeeded in his mission.
Xu Hong had analyzed the strength of the mysterious person who killed Fang Jie and Cao Ying. That person was a spiritual power master.
Spiritual power masters were indeed formidable, but assassins skilled at concealing their aura were their natural nemesis.
Luo Shi’s cultivation wasn’t the strongest among all the Blood Cloud Sect’s assassins, but his aura-concealment technique was the most refined.
As long as an assassin could get close to a spiritual power master, killing them would be a simple matter.
“With Luo Shi making the move, the task will be accomplished.”
Xu Hong let out a cold snort, his old face twisting even more fiercely. His hands clenched involuntarily.
…
Zhang Ruochen left Liyuan City without immediately heading to the commandery city. Instead, he found a secluded, desolate mountain and entered the Scroll World.
He still had three days until his agreed meeting with Duanmu Ya.
He planned to use these three days to elevate his strength by another notch.
If he entered the Scroll World to cultivate, Zhang Ruochen would have ten times the time, amounting to a full month.
“The identity of a spiritual power master is a good way to divert attention. So, I’ll start by enhancing my spiritual power. Can I raise my spiritual power intensity to the forty-fourth order within a month?”
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged beneath the Sky-Connecting Divine Tree, inhaling spiritual qi, and worked hard to adjust his state of mind, striving to reach the realm of forgetting both self and the world.
Currently, his spiritual power intensity was at the peak of the forty-third order, just one step away from breaking through to the forty-fourth order.
If he could raise his spiritual power intensity to the forty-fourth order, his strength would be enough to contend with cultivators at the eighth transformation of the Fish-Dragon Realm.
Cultivating spiritual power was extremely difficult. Sometimes, it seemed like only one step away, but that step was like a heavenly moat, impossible to cross.
Of course, every increase in spiritual power order brought a earth-shattering change in strength.
After adjusting his state of mind, Zhang Ruochen took out a red-crowned fleshy mushroom, nine meters in diameter, and placed it before him.
The red-crowned fleshy mushroom was enormous, four meters tall, like a blooming fire lotus. Zhang Ruochen’s body seemed tiny in comparison.
The red-crowned fleshy mushroom was actually the fleshy crown on the head of a Crimson Cloud Python-Fanged Dragon, a supreme treasure for enhancing spiritual power.
An ordinary Crimson Cloud Python-Fanged Dragon’s fleshy crown certainly couldn’t help Zhang Ruochen raise his spiritual power from the forty-third to the forty-fourth order.
But this particular fleshy mushroom was produced by the Black Skeleton Python King, condensing almost all of its life’s spirit and wisdom.
By refining it and then consuming half-saint python blood, Zhang Ruochen was ninety percent confident he could elevate his spiritual power to the forty-fourth order.
Zhang Ruochen soared into the air, landing at the center of the red-crowned fleshy mushroom. He sat cross-legged and began circulating his true qi according to the cultivation method of the fifth layer of the *Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture*.
“Mysterious Embryo, Pacify the Demon Heaven.”
The true qi in his qi sea surged out through thirty-six meridians, then converged at his navel, forming a vortex.
The navel is called the “root of the innate.”
In infancy, a person is connected to their mother’s bloodline through the umbilical cord, allowing them to survive and grow.
After leaving the mother, although the umbilical cord is cut, the navel’s function doesn’t completely disappear.
By using special methods, a cultivator can open a second qi sea below the navel, called the “Mysterious Embryo.”
By cultivating the fifth layer of the *Nine Heavens Bright Emperor Scripture* to a certain level, one could open this second qi sea and cultivate the Mysterious Embryo.
However, Zhang Ruochen had only just begun cultivating the fifth layer, so he could only form a true qi vortex below his navel.
“Boom!”
The vortex split apart, and the true qi surged out like a pillar of energy from all one hundred thousand pores of his body, transforming into cyan flames that formed a cloud of fire, completely enveloping the nine-meter-diameter red-crowned fleshy mushroom.
Then, the true qi refined the fleshy mushroom into powder, transporting it into his navel and surging through his thirty-six meridians.
After fifteen consecutive days of refinement, Zhang Ruochen fully absorbed the fleshy mushroom into his body, integrating it into his blood, true qi, and bones, making it a part of himself.
At the same time, he consumed large amounts of half-saint python blood to stabilize the impact of the fleshy mushroom’s powerful energy on his physical body.
To his surprise, most of the essence from the fleshy mushroom and half-saint python blood merged into his bones, causing his martial cultivation to break through first, reaching the third transformation of the Fish-Dragon Realm.
The third transformation of the Fish-Dragon Realm is called “Refining Bones into Jade.”
Upon reaching this transformation, the bones inside Zhang Ruochen’s body became like white jade, crystalline and translucent, emitting a faint, gleaming white light.
Even through a layer of skin and flesh, the shape of his bones was visible.
All two hundred and six bones in his body seemed to come alive, actively devouring spiritual qi.
The jade-like bones continuously drew in spiritual qi, repeatedly tempering it, making the bones even tougher. Even the marrow inside seemed to transform into jade essence.
Zhang Ruochen could clearly feel that his physical strength had increased by at least two times.
After another five days of refinement, Zhang Ruochen finally fully absorbed the red-crowned fleshy mushroom within his body. As expected, his spiritual power intensity surged to the forty-fourth order.
Zhang Ruochen stood up and extended a hand. With a crackling sound, a purple electric ball the size of a pigeon’s egg appeared above his palm.
A first-level spell: Spherical Lightning.
Before this, Zhang Ruochen had never cultivated this spell.
But with his current spiritual power intensity, he only needed to recall the principles of first-level spells in his mind to cast them effortlessly.