Bone Tempering Flower

Wang Hao's saber came cleaving through the air with a howling gale. Its momentum was so heavy it seemed capable of crushing the air itself. The True Qi of the Eighth Layer of the Qi Gathering Realm erupted without restraint, forming a suffocating pressure that bore straight toward Ye Feng's face.

This slash not only drew upon all his strength, but also contained a high-level saber technique from the Baiyang Sect. Clearly, he intended to cleave Ye Feng in two with a single strike.

Facing this fatal blow, Ye Feng's expression remained calm.

The True Qi within his body suddenly circulated at full force. The vigorous True Qi driven by the Human-grade Top-tier Cultivation Method, the Azure Origin Art, surged into the Hundred Refinements Fine Steel Sword.

Immediately afterward, twenty percent Sword Intent erupted with a thunderous roar, without the slightest reservation.

Pale azure Sword Intent coiled around the blade, making the originally ordinary fine-steel sword seem almost alive. A faint azure radiance even shimmered across the front of the blade.

"Whoosh!"

Ye Feng's wrist twitched lightly, and the sword traced an arc so fast it reached the utmost limit, slashing toward Wang Hao's saber.

This sword was so fast that it exceeded Wang Hao's reaction limit. He could not even see the trajectory of the sword technique clearly. He only felt an immense force suddenly surge through the saber in his hand. The web between his thumb and forefinger split open from the shock, and the saber flew from his grasp, embedding itself in the distant earth with a buzzing hum.

Before Wang Hao could recover, azure Sword Qi had already reached his chest like lightning.

"Pfft!"

The long sword entered his chest without the slightest obstruction, churning his internal organs to pieces. Blood gurgled down the blade, staining his white martial robes crimson.

Wang Hao's eyes widened, his face filled with disbelief. He lowered his head with difficulty and stared at the wound in his chest, his lips trembling as though he wanted to say something. In the end, he only spat out four words: "Twenty percent... Sword Intent..." Then he crashed to the ground.

He had lost all signs of life.

Ye Feng withdrew his sword and shook the blood from its blade, unable to keep from sighing inwardly.

An Eighth-Layer Qi Gathering Realm cultivator is already this troublesome. It seems the trip to the Earth Sun Secret Realm will be even less simple than I imagined. Still, the power of twenty percent Sword Intent is quite impressive. Even an Eighth-Layer Qi Gathering Realm cultivator cannot react in time.

Ye Feng walked over to Wang Hao's corpse, squatted down, and began searching it.

After all, Wang Hao had been a genius at the Eighth Layer of the Qi Gathering Realm from the Baiyang Sect. Surely he ought to have accumulated something, right?

Yet after searching for quite a while, Ye Feng's brows drew tighter and tighter.

Wang Hao did not even have a storage ring, let alone a single Low-grade Spirit Stone. He only had an ordinary jade pendant hanging from his waist, utterly worthless.

"What the hell? Is a genius of the Baiyang Sect really this poor?" Ye Feng stood up gloomily and kicked Wang Hao's corpse.

"If I'd known he had nothing, I wouldn't have wasted twenty percent Sword Intent just now."

Complaining was one thing, but Ye Feng soon shifted his attention to the damaged Low-grade Spirit Sword he had picked up earlier.

He took the Spirit Sword out of his storage ring and looked at its rotten marks and chipped edge. With a thought, he said, "System, modify this Spirit Sword to one hundred years ago."

Soft white light instantly enveloped the Spirit Sword. The radiance was not dazzling, yet it carried a strange energy fluctuation.

After roughly the time it took half an incense stick to burn, the white light faded. The Spirit Sword in Ye Feng's hand had been completely renewed.

The rotten marks had vanished without a trace, and the chipped edge had been fully restored. A faint silvery-white sheen glimmered across the blade. It was cool and smooth in his hand, and he could even vaguely sense a weak fluctuation of spiritual energy. It was precisely the form of a complete Low-grade Spirit Sword!

Ye Feng tried channeling the True Qi within his body into the Spirit Sword.

"Buzz—"

The Spirit Sword instantly gave off a clear sword hum. The True Qi circulated through it without the slightest obstruction, even more smoothly than it circulated through his own body.

Ye Feng could clearly feel that the gap between this Spirit Sword and the Hundred Refinements Fine Steel Sword was simply the difference between heaven and earth.

"If I had used this Spirit Sword to fight Wang Hao just now, I probably would have needed only ten percent Sword Intent to kill him. There would have been no need to use twenty percent Sword Intent."

Ye Feng nodded in satisfaction. He tossed the Hundred Refinements Fine Steel Sword back into his storage ring and strapped the restored Low-grade Spirit Sword to his waist.

From then on, this Spirit Sword would be his main weapon.

After resolving the issue of his weapon, Ye Feng began exploring the Secret Realm.

Ye Feng had initially thought that opportunities would be everywhere in the Secret Realm. Yet after casually choosing a direction and walking for two hours, he had found nothing at all besides the Spirit Sword he had picked up at the beginning.

There were only ordinary weeds and trees on the ground. He had not even seen a single herb of slightly greater value.

"No way. Is my luck really this bad? Or have all the valuable treasures been picked up by the disciples who entered the Secret Realm first?"

Ye Feng's face was full of speechlessness as he gloomily kicked away the pebble beside his foot.

If he had known this would happen, he might as well have acted together with Zhao Yu and the others. At least then he could see whether anyone else had found an opportunity.

Just then, a fierce clash suddenly rang out from the south, mixed with the roars of a beast.

Ye Feng's eyes lit up.

Only disciples from the Feiyun Sect and the Baiyang Sect had entered the Secret Realm. Such an intense battle was most likely over the scramble for an opportunity!

Perhaps I can go pick up the scraps. Ye Feng calculated inwardly and hurried toward the sound of the battle.

As the sound drew closer, he slowed his steps and quietly circled behind a patch of shrubs. He poked his head out to observe the clearing ahead.

A fierce battle was underway in the clearing.

Several disciples dressed in Baiyang Sect robes were surrounding and attacking a huge black bear.

The giant bear stood a full three zhang tall. Its fur was as hard as steel needles, and its fists could leave deep pits in the ground. It was none other than the Second-tier Beast, the Vajra Bear!

The Vajra Bear's defenses were extraordinarily formidable. Most of the attacks from the Baiyang Sect disciples merely left shallow wounds on its body and could not inflict any fatal damage.

The leading Baiyang Sect disciple wore a distinctive white hat. The aura radiating from him had actually reached the peak of the Ninth Layer of the Qi Gathering Realm. Ye Feng recognized him.

He was Yun Hai, the seventh-ranked prodigy of the Baiyang Sect's Inner Sect!

Even with a powerhouse like Yun Hai leading them, the Baiyang Sect disciples were fighting with great difficulty. They had fallen into a stalemate with the Vajra Bear.

Ye Feng's gaze did not remain on the battle, however. Instead, he noticed a detail.

During the battle, the Vajra Bear would always subconsciously edge toward the rocks behind it, as though it were guarding something.

Following the Vajra Bear's gaze, Ye Feng looked over and saw a flower growing in a crevice between the rocks. Its entire body was golden, and the flower was only palm-sized, with layered petals that gave off a faint fragrance.

Ye Feng's pupils contracted. That was the Bone Tempering Flower!

The Bone Tempering Flower was an extraordinarily rare Treasure Herb. After consuming it, one could not only strengthen the physical body but also improve one's Bone Root Talent. Whether they were cultivators of the Qi Gathering Realm, the True Condensation realm, or the Origin Embracing Realm, all of them would scramble for it.

Ye Feng had always been troubled by the poor talent of this body. The Bone Tempering Flower happened to be able to solve his greatest weakness!

"I have to find a way to get this Bone Tempering Flower!" Ye Feng made up his mind and pondered how he could fish in troubled waters.

Suddenly, a terrifying gale attacked from behind him without warning. It was so fast that it made his scalp prickle!

Ye Feng instinctively threw himself forward, barely dodging the gale.

The shrubs behind him were instantly shredded into fragments by the gale, and even the ground was scraped into a deep trench.

Ye Feng spun around sharply and warily surveyed his surroundings, yet he did not find a single figure.

Who was it?

Other Baiyang Sect disciples, or another danger within the Secret Realm?

Ye Feng's heartbeat involuntarily quickened. He knew that his plan to fish in troubled waters would probably have to be put on hold for the time being.