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Ye Qin gathered up the Cyan Jade Pendant fragments and scattered them over the garden plot.
The garden plot was a mess. When Nan Tianba had released his Fireball Technique, more than a dozen Dew Grass plants had suffered collateral damage. Several had been touched by the flames bursting from the fireballs and burned to ashes.
Ye Qin felt a pang of regret for those innocent Dew Grass plants. They would have provided enough medicinal herbs for a whole day of cultivation, yet they had gone to waste just like that.
As the Cyan Jade Pendant fragments landed on the garden plot, the Dew Grass began absorbing their spiritual energy and growing at a visible rate. In an extremely short time, the dozen or so plants flowered and bore fruit, only stopping once they had absorbed all the energy from the fragments. The dozen or so plants had, in the blink of an eye, multiplied into eighty or ninety.
Using his divine sense, Ye Qin moved one of the plants out of the Purple Mansion and into the real world. He ate it raw, then sat cross-legged with his eyes closed and cultivated, continuously converting the Dew Grass's spiritual power into vital energy. Then his Primordial Spirit devoured it.
The endless void.
No one knew how much time had passed when a speck of yellow light appeared on the distant horizon, flying toward the Floating Island at tremendous speed.
"Hahaha! I, Nan Tianba, am back!" A piercing howl rang across the entire Floating Island. In scarcely more than a few blinks, the Yellow Sphere flashed into view above the island.
Ye Qin, who had been gathering White Glow on the Floating Island, was startled. He immediately flashed into the protective barrier around the Life Primordial Spirit Stele to hide.
Ye Qin stared at the Yellow Sphere that had left and then returned, his feelings a jumble of shock and suspicion. He was so furious he could hardly contain himself. How had the Yellow Sphere avoided getting lost in the void and come back so quickly? If it kept hounding him, he would never be able to cultivate in peace.
The Yellow Sphere had been sent flying once, and now it was even dimmer and weaker than before, its light dull and listless, as though it had lost a great deal of vital energy. But even so, it was still far stronger than Ye Qin.
Nan Tianba laughed sinisterly as he drifted around the great stone stele, like a fox trying to catch a hedgehog, unable to find a way in.
"Kid, that protective treasure of yours is quite impressive. It wasn't even afraid of my Fireball Technique, and it sent me flying! But what a pity. I can tell it's nothing more than a defensive treasure. It doesn't have the slightest offensive ability, so it poses no threat to me at all.
"Even if it knocks me dozens of miles away, I'll be back in the blink of an eye. Hey, kid, tell me what this rotten stone stele actually is. I've roamed Ping Province for decades, and this is the first time I've ever seen anything so strange. Could it be a spirit weapon?"
The Yellow Sphere pressed itself against the protective barrier and peered inside with wide eyes. It saw some archaic writing on the great stone stele, but it couldn't recognize a single character. It was baffled.
That only made it more curious. It decided the great stone stele was no ordinary treasure.
It had tried its strongest attacks and still couldn't break the barrier. After several attempts, it had learned its lesson and stopped attacking, lest the barrier repel it again.
If it had a physical body, it could attack a few more times without worry; that would merely consume its body's magical power. But without a physical body, forcing itself to cast spells consumed its vital energy instead. As a Primordial Spirit that had long since lost its body, it had no way to replenish that energy. Each spell it cast would consume a great deal of it, and once its vital energy was exhausted, its Primordial Spirit would vanish into nothing.
Since it couldn't break the barrier, it wasn't about to waste its vital energy. And as long as it didn't attack, the barrier wouldn't trigger any counterattack. It could simply cling to the barrier and peer inside.
Ye Qin was secretly frantic, but he didn't dare move even half a step away from the Life Primordial Spirit Stele.
Nan Tianba couldn't do anything to Ye Qin inside the barrier, and gradually lost interest in him. It began looking over the Floating Island again. Puzzled, it gazed at the island's sky, where countless streaks of light had appeared—the vital energy Ye Qin called White Glow.
Curious, it drifted over and grabbed at the White Glow to see what it was. When it caught the first strand, its dim light brightened slightly, and a trace of vital energy returned.
Its entire body shuddered, and its light suddenly blazed.
"What... what is this? Without a physical body, it's impossible to cultivate and increase one's vital energy. Why can I increase my vital energy and cultivate even without a body? This is unbelievable! I've never heard of anything like it. It defies the common understanding that a Primordial Spirit without a body cannot cultivate. What kind of place is this? How can it be so wondrous?!"
Nan Tianba cried out in shock, staring at its own light sphere, which had brightened just a little. It was so overjoyed it could hardly contain itself. This astonishing discovery drove all thoughts of Ye Qin inside the Life Primordial Spirit Stele from its mind. It began madly chasing after the White Glow instead.
Before long, it had devoured almost all the White Glow on the Floating Island, recovering some of the vital energy it had lost.
Seeing this, Ye Qin could only groan inwardly. He had painstakingly cultivated a great deal of White Glow after eating a Dew Grass plant, and now the Yellow Sphere had reaped the benefits. If it stole all the White Glow he cultivated from now on, what then? How could he improve his cultivation?
Ye Qin was fuming. He almost wanted to rush out and tear the Yellow Sphere apart. But considering the gap between their strength, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and desperately think of a way out of this crisis. Yet with their strength so far apart, how could he come up with anything?
Nan Tianba was in high spirits. After swallowing all the White Glow in the sky above the island, it was still unsatisfied. It searched every crevice in every rock and every corner of the island, frantically hunting for more White Glow, muttering all the while, "Where are those little things? There are far too few. They must have come from somewhere. They weren't here when I first arrived."
"Hey, Yellow Sphere, don't bother searching. I guarantee you won't find another speck of White Glow on this island. If I don't let them out, they absolutely won't appear."
Hearing it greedily search for more White Glow, Ye Qin couldn't help sneering at it.
Nan Tianba's good mood was instantly ruined by Ye Qin. It snapped angrily, "Hey, kid, stop calling me Yellow Sphere. I am Nan Tianba, lord of the Nan Clan in Ping Province, a fourth-level Qi Refiner. You're just a little brat at the second level of the Qi Refining Stage, yet you dare to mock me? You'll be the death of me!"
Ye Qin only snorted. Protected by the barrier, he wasn't the least bit afraid of Nan Tianba. "Yellow Sphere, so what if I insult you? I don't care if you're at the third or fourth level. You don't call the shots here."
Nan Tianba searched the entire island but couldn't find any more White Glow. Annoyed, it drifted back to argue with Ye Qin. "Hey, kid, don't just rely on that sharp tongue of yours. What kind of place is this? Tell me, and I'll leave your corpse intact."
Ye Qin burst out laughing. "If you've got what it takes, come kill me! If you can get in here and kill me, you won't have to spare my corpse—I'll gladly offer my neck. But if you can't kill me, you're a grandson. Get down on your knees and kowtow to your grandpa!"
Nan Tianba was so furious that smoke seemed to pour from his seven orifices. His brows rose and his eyes bulged. He was a fourth-level Qi Refining Stage Primordial Spirit, yet a low-level second-level Primordial Spirit was mocking and jeering at him like this. It was truly unbearable—and yet he had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure it. After all, Ye Qin's Primordial Spirit was protected by the great stone stele.
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