Profound Yin

[Title: Shepherd]

[Zither, Go, Calligraphy, and Painting: Third Layer]

[Ten Directions Beast Art: Third Layer (Cannot Be Improved)]

[Profound Yin Soul Control Fragment: Third Layer (Cannot Be Improved)]

[Heavenly Show Points: 3 (5%)]

[Gate of Ten Thousand Doors: Opening (55%)]

"As expected... Young Master Shenxiu gained quite a lot from appearing this time... These Heavenly Show Points are far too easy to obtain. Is it because this is a different world?"

Zhong Shenxiu walked out of the practice grounds, gazing at the Attribute Panel, secretly thrilled.

Aside from that, the progress of the Gate of Ten Thousand Doors also concerned him greatly.

Could it be that once it opens, it'll be time for the next transmigration?

To be honest, he did not really want to leave this world. The environment was excellent, and a world where one could cultivate immortality was not something one could easily encounter.

But the opening progress of the Gate of Ten Thousand Doors proceeded automatically with time, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Now that I've received orders to investigate Young Master Shenxiu, I have to put on a show somehow... Of course, everyone isn't stupid. No one will offend a Divine Ability master. The government's efficiency is truly high..."

"Wait, I saw Daoist Linghe earlier. Perhaps this isn't a government assignment at all, but a private job from the Cloud Mirror Sect..."

"If that's the case, then I'll... slack off."

Zhong Shenxiu had thought it through clearly. Whether this task came from the government or was private work, he intended to drag his feet for a while first.

The world was vast, but his own cultivation came first.

Thus, he pretended to wander around outside the city, returning to town just after noon and going home to enjoy a wonderful nap.

In the afternoon, he instructed Er Ha, Huang Xie, Su Tang, Su Wei, and the others in their cultivation.

In this world, even women could not get by without some strength.

After dinner, he sat cross-legged alone in the quiet room and cultivated.

He was not cultivating any Martial Arts or Magic Incantation. His main focus was exploring the various abilities of the [Shepherd] and sensing the netherworld.

The days passed by, full and uneventful.

Just as Zhong Shenxiu had expected, the identity of Su Daozhi possessed strength and backing, while he himself rarely showed his head and had always kept a low profile. Indeed, no one went out of their way to cause him trouble.

In particular, this was Fufeng City!

It was the seat of the Fufeng Protectorate's central authority, guarded by five thousand Black Wind Army soldiers. No one knew how many Dao cultivators were secretly hidden here. If something capable of affecting Zhong Shenxiu happened even here, the entire Protectorate would probably be finished.

That night.

Zhong Shenxiu sat cross-legged. "There's been no progress in searching for Young Master Shenxiu, and Feng Xi'er isn't in a hurry. Could it really be private work?"

"But that has nothing to do with me! After trying to communicate with the netherworld for so many days, I've finally made some gains..."

His eyes became dark and profound, while the light around him suddenly grew hazy and dim.

A vast, even more mysterious and dusky heaven and earth suddenly appeared before Zhong Shenxiu's eyes.

This was the netherworld!

A strange place that even cultivators found difficult to touch.

During this period, Zhong Shenxiu had secretly collected quite a few books describing the netherworld. They generally said that the underworld's rules were strict, and communication between yin and yang was a grave taboo. Even those Origin Pellet Grandmasters might not be willing to descend into the lands of yin in the flesh.

"I haven't reached the point where I can descend directly either, but I can open a narrow passage..."

Zhong Shenxiu activated the Shepherd's ability. His inspiration spread outward, and within the netherworld, it seemed to open an insignificant fissure.

The fissure was as tiny as a mustard seed; not even a single yin soul could squeeze through it.

But the room immediately filled with gusts of chilling wind. Even the temperature dropped several degrees, and a layer of white frost suddenly formed over the copper basin holding clear water.

"There are quite a few good things in the netherworld, such as certain unique types of Yin Fiend Qi."

Zhong Shenxiu took out a jade bottle he had prepared long ago. Using the Headless Count's spatial divine ability, he drew wisps of fiend qi—pitch-black with a trace of silvery white—from the netherworld and injected them into the bottle.

This was Profound Yin Fiend Qi!

In the Second Yanhan Empire, it was an extraordinarily rare type of primordial qi. Only in certain lands of absolute yin, at the openings of fiend-qi veins, could one or two wisps accumulate over a long period.

But in the netherworld, it was as ubiquitous as air, diffused everywhere.

The amount Zhong Shenxiu collected was like a single drop in the ocean, utterly incapable of attracting the slightest notice.

Once the fiend qi entered the jade bottle, its temperature plummeted. Fortunately, Zhong Shenxiu had bought a high-grade bottle, so it did not immediately crack.

A layer of frost formed inside the jade bottle. As the Profound Yin Fiend Qi continued pouring in, it eventually showed signs of condensing into liquid.

A night passed.

Zhong Shenxiu rose and rubbed his brow. He found that the jade bottle was already nearly half full, and it jingled when shaken.

"After two more nights, I'll have collected one complete strand of Profound Yin Fiend Qi. This astral qi and fiend qi are hard currency among cultivators—no worse than Yellow Emperor Coins."

There were many Dao arts that could be refined together with Profound Yin Fiend Qi, so cultivators greatly favored it, and its value was even slightly higher.

"The netherworld truly contains great treasures."

"I have no use for this strand for now. Trading it away would be fine too."

"I heard that the netherworld also contains extremely precious types of fiend qi, such as Yellow Springs Fiend Qi, Six Yin True Fiend, Underworld King Fiend, and Yin Dragon Fiend. If I could obtain them, I could cultivate several exceptionally formidable spells..."

"Unfortunately, unlike Profound Yin Fiend Qi, these types of fiend qi are precious even in the netherworld. One needs to search for certain special Earth Veins where the qi gathers. Without entering in the flesh or with one's Yin God, it would be very difficult to obtain them..."

Zhong Shenxiu merely sighed over this and did not dwell on it.

His greatest bottleneck at present was still breaking through to the Gang Sha Realm!

Venerable Yellow Sand's method was far too crude. It did not even record the name or formula of the pill needed for the breakthrough.

Otherwise, Zhong Shenxiu would truly have had to rack his brains.

If the Xiantian martial artists of this world knew that there was a pill which could break through a realm after being swallowed, ninety-nine percent of them would want to give it a try.

Even so, Zhong Shenxiu still looked down somewhat on this Rogue Cultivator method.

Not to mention its disordered inheritance, it simply did not seem to offer any hope of advancing to the Divine Ability realm.

Although this kind of Gang Sha Realm was called the proper path of cultivation, its practitioners were inevitably the lowest level among cultivators. Its prospects truly looked grim.

Thus, he still followed his original plan: using the identity of the Divine Ability cultivator Young Master Shenxiu to seek out a more excellent inheritance.

The next Black Mountain Gathering was a good opportunity.

A Divine Ability expert was already a respectable force throughout the Fufeng Protectorate and could safely enter the upper circles.

By then, there would surely be many people coming to win him over.

Perhaps even the government would do so.

Zhong Shenxiu did not reject this. Instead, he was somewhat looking forward to it.

After all, the Ten Directions Beast Art had spread so widely, and it was said to be capable of laying a solid foundation for Entering the Dao. That meant the Magic Incantation inheritance that followed it should not be poor.