Northern Sea Treasure Hunt

The Grotto-Heaven World and the Spirit Bamboo Mountain Dao Field were both running smoothly, and Jiang Yun had no other pressing matters to attend to for the time being.

Over the years, he had established two offices, continuously recruited personnel, and mobilized the beings within his sphere of influence to participate in various construction projects. Through these efforts, he now had tens of millions of beings working for him.

He only needed to provide the right to use knowledge of formations and divine abilities, and a large number of people would help him earn Merit and Fortune. Although the Merit each person contributed was small, only a few wisps, the accumulated amount from so many people was not insignificant.

With his current work manageable, Jiang Yun began to focus on his own cultivation.

The last time he attended the lecture at Purple Heaven Palace, in order to keep pace with the others, he had raised his realm several times in a short period before listening to the Dao. This had caused his previously stable foundation to become somewhat unstable.

For his future development, he spent a long time refining his physical body, condensing his Mana and Nascent Soul. Coupled with several lectures in between, he reviewed and consolidated his understanding, and sorted out his own Dao. Now, his foundation had been solidified to the extreme.

His Mana had become more refined and pure, and it was as easy to control as his own arm. Compared to before the refinement, a single wisp of Mana now could easily break through ten wisps from before.

His Nascent Soul was like an overinflated balloon, large but filled with flab. It was as difficult to control as a motorcycle without oil, and it couldn't exert its full strength at critical moments. After a long period of refinement, his Nascent Soul gradually solidified, and its strength greatly increased. Although its size seemed to have shrunk, the power when casting divine abilities or controlling Spiritual Treasures through his Nascent Soul had greatly improved.

His physical body was the same. At the time, he had crudely used three Spirit Pearls to achieve perfection in three of the Five Qi within his body in a short period. The Five Qi then spurred each other on, greatly improving his physical body. However, this also led to a significant decrease in his control over his entire body, and his ability to control force was not as good as before.

He spent a lot of time meticulously refining his control over his physical body, while also not forgetting to continue nourishing his body with the Five Qi. Although the Five Qi were not yet perfect, he could still use Star Power to cultivate the Star Body Refinement Method and continue to strengthen his body.

Now, all the previous problems had been resolved through continuous cultivation over the years. His physical body had been tempered by Star Power and reached the Golden Immortal Perfection realm. Jiang Yun also decided to search for the whereabouts of the other two Spirit Pearls.

After making arrangements for the work at Pengxuan Grotto-Heaven and Spirit Bamboo Mountain for the upcoming period, he embarked on the journey to find the Spirit Pearls alone.

According to the divination that Jieyin had helped him with back then, the Wood Spirit Pearl was in the Northern Sea, and the Fire Spirit Pearl was near the Immortal Volcano in the south.

Spirit Bamboo Mountain was located northwest of Mount Sumeru. Geographically, it was closer to the West Sea and the Northern Sea. However, the southern volcano was on the other side of the continent, requiring him to travel through the entire West to reach it. Therefore, he decided to go to the Northern Sea first to find the Wood Spirit Pearl.

The northern lands were originally the base camp of the Fierce Beasts.

Later, during the Fierce Beast Tribulation, the Hundred Races of Primordial Desolation annihilated the Fierce Beasts, protected the Primordial Desolation World, and advanced into the north.

The battle between the two sides left the northern lands in ruins. Moreover, after the deaths of many Fierce Beasts, the grudges and miasma from their corpses polluted the heavens and earth, making the land dangerous and desolate. Coupled with the hidden remnants of Fierce Beasts, this land had become a place abandoned by both Divine Demons and gods, with no living beings venturing there except for refugees.

Jiang Yun needed to pass through the northern lands to reach the Northern Sea to search for treasure, as it was the shortest route. For him, the miasma and grudges along the way were nothing. He possessed the Twelve-grade Pure World White Lotus, which could purify the miasma and grudges along the way, restoring clarity to the heavens and earth!

Thus, after leaving Spirit Bamboo Mountain, he continued as before, cultivating Earth Veins, purifying filth, and eliminating Fierce Beasts. His own Merit and Fortune grew ever deeper.

He did not venture deep into the northern lands but traveled along the northwestern border region, arriving at the Northern Sea.

Fortunately, he passed through the northern edge. He did not encounter any particularly powerful Fierce Beasts along the way, and the journey was relatively smooth. He estimated this was also due to the protection of Fortune in the unseen realms!

As soon as he reached the Northern Sea territory, Jiang Yun took out the three Spirit Pearls and used the Dao Derivation Disk to deduce their location. Following the connection of the Spirit Pearls' auras, he calculated the direction to proceed.

Following the indicated direction, he turned northeast and traveled deeper into the heart of the Northern Sea.

The further he went, the more living beings he discovered, including many dragon-like creatures. This was likely the outer area of the Northern Sea Dragon Palace.

After the war between the Three Innate Races, the Dragon Race retreated to the Four Seas, with most of their elites guarding the Eyes of the Four Seas to prevent aquatic disturbances. The Eyes of the Four Seas were in the outer sea, far from the Primordial Desolation Continent. To maintain contact with the mainland, the Dragon Race established the Four Great Dragon Palaces in the inner sea. They selected a few individuals from the Golden Dragon Race to serve as Dragon Kings of the Dragon Palaces, managing the aquatic life in the inner sea and gathering information from the Primordial Desolation.

At this time, the Dragon King of the Northern Sea Dragon Palace was Ao Shun of the Golden Dragon Race. Due to the Heavenly Karma generated by the war between the Three Innate Races, the Dragon Race bloodline had a shackle, making the cultivation of the new generation of dragons slow, and their cultivation bottlenecks more solid and difficult to break.

Ao Shun had been at Golden Immortal Perfection for over a hundred thousand years, constantly trapped by the bloodline shackle and unable to break through to the Grand Unity Realm.

In his youth, he naively believed he was destined for greatness and that he could surely break through the mere bloodline shackle. However, after so many years of stagnation in the Golden Immortal Realm with no progress, his youthful ambitions had been worn away to almost nothing!

One day, Ao Shun was in the Dragon Palace, enjoying delicacies, drinking Nectar and Jade Dew, and admiring the graceful dances of the Snail Maidens and Clam Maidens. A Crab General entered from outside and reported that a cultivator with great divine abilities had arrived outside the Dragon Palace and requested an audience with the Dragon King.

The visitor was none other than Jiang Yun, who had come to the Northern Sea to search for the Wood Spirit Pearl. He had previously followed the deduced direction, venturing deep into the Northern Sea, only to discover that his path led directly through the territory of the Northern Sea Dragon Palace.

There was no other way, so he had to pay a visit to the Dragon King of the Northern Sea and then act according to the situation.

He arrived at the Northern Sea Dragon Palace and announced himself as Yun Yazhi. The Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals went to inform the Dragon King. Soon, Dragon King Ao Shun came to the entrance to welcome him.

Ao Shun sized up Jiang Yun, sensing the powerful aura far exceeding his own cultivation. He was somewhat surprised but not flustered. As a member of the Dragon Race, one of the Three Innate Races, who cultivated the Nine Transformations of the True Dragon founded by the Ancestral Dragon, his physical body was extremely powerful. Although his cultivation was only at Golden Immortal Perfection, with his powerful physique that surpassed his cultivation and his trump card Spiritual Treasures, he could completely contend with ordinary Taiyi Golden Immortal cultivators.

"Dragon King, this humble Daoist Yun Yazhi greets you!"

After they exchanged greetings, Ao Shun saw that Jiang Yun's manners were proper and his attitude was friendly, indicating he was not here to cause trouble. He then invited him into the Dragon Palace.

After they were seated, Ao Shun asked, "May I ask which immortal mountain fellow Daoist hails from, and what brings you to my Northern Sea Dragon Palace?"

"I am the chief disciple of Daoist Jieyin, the master of Mount Sumeru in the Western World. I have been traveling in the Northern Sea recently and happened to pass by the Dragon Palace, so I thought I would come and pay my respects to the Dragon King."

Jiang Yun did not reveal his purpose immediately but engaged in casual conversation with Ao Shun, first probing each other and establishing some rapport.