Storage Ring

In the mountain range.

Su Mo held a map in his hand, weaving through the dense forest according to its directions.

He suppressed his aura to the utmost limit and proceeded with extreme caution.

He was now more than fifty li deep within the Youfeng Mountain Range. The demonic beasts roaming nearby were all Level 1 Tier 4 beasts, with even Level 1 Tier 5 beasts appearing from time to time.

With his current strength, he might not even be able to defeat a Level 1 Tier 4 demonic beast, much less a Level 1 Tier 5 one.

Thus, he was exceedingly careful along the way.

Finally, after advancing for another half an hour, Su Mo arrived safely at a disorderly valley without incident.

This valley was surrounded on three sides by towering cliffs over a hundred zhang high, with only one entrance.

Thorns carpeted the valley, shrubs grew in abundance, and the entire place was desolate.

Su Mo remained highly alert, constantly watching his surroundings. If danger appeared, he would flee at once.

Treasure was important, but without one's life, everything else was but drifting clouds.

Su Mo glanced at the map in his hand. The place marked on it was precisely this valley.

Su Mo carefully surveyed the surroundings. Before long, he discovered a large crack in a rock wall.

It was a horizontal crack, ten zhang long, like the gaping maw of a colossal beast, unfathomably deep.

Weeds grew thickly around the mouth of the crack. Without close inspection, it would have been impossible to discover it.

Standing before the crack, Su Mo frowned deeply.

This crack was unlike the small cave from before. It was dark and cold inside, its depths unfathomable. Who knew what dangers it contained?

After hesitating for a long while, Su Mo gritted his teeth and stepped into the crack.

Since he had come, how could he possibly return empty-handed?

Danger?

When had I, Su Mo, ever feared danger?

As Su Mo ventured deeper, the light inside the crack grew dimmer and dimmer until everything around him became pitch-black.

Su Mo circulated his true qi to his eyes, greatly enhancing his vision, and walked step by step toward the depths of the crack.

After walking for a while, Su Mo realized that the passage in the crack gradually sloped downward.

He estimated that he had already descended about ten meters underground.

After walking a little farther, a cool breeze blew in from ahead, accompanied by the sound of rushing water.

Su Mo's spirits lifted, and he quickened his pace.

Before long, the scene before Su Mo suddenly opened up. Ahead lay a vast space, five or six meters high, seven or eight meters wide, and of unknown length.

This was actually an underground world.

An underground river ran through this space, leading to an unknown destination.

Many fish swam in the dark river, while numerous natural pebbles along the banks emitted a faint glow, allowing Su Mo to take in everything within this underground world at a glance.

Not far ahead of Su Mo stood a dilapidated stone chamber.

Several skeletons lay outside the stone chamber, clearly having been dead for a long time.

"Could the treasure have already been taken?"

Su Mo slowly stepped forward and entered the ruined stone chamber.

The chamber was not large, less than five meters in both length and width, and half of it had already collapsed.

The stone chamber was completely empty. Only two skeletons lay in its center.

Su Mo could not help feeling disappointed. It seemed the treasure had already been taken.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Su Mo froze.

He discovered that one of the skeletons had pale golden bones, without the slightest trace of decay.

"How could there be pale golden bones?"

Su Mo was puzzled.

This was indeed the remains of a human martial artist, yet he had never heard of anyone whose bones were pale gold.

"Eh? This is..."

Su Mo suddenly noticed that on the left finger bone of the golden skeleton was an ancient grayish-white ring.

"Could it be a Storage Ring?"

Su Mo grew excited and hurriedly picked up the ring.

A Storage Ring was a precious treasure capable of storing items, containing its own pocket space. It was exceedingly valuable.

No one in all of Linyang City possessed a Storage Ring. Ordinary martial artists used the inferior Storage Bag to store their belongings.

Taking a deep breath, Su Mo circulated the true qi within his body and poured it into the ring.

The next moment, Su Mo's consciousness entered a gray, misty space.

This space was not large, roughly five meters in length, width, and height.

Several secret manuals, a gleaming longsword, and a pile of milky-white crystals were placed conspicuously in one corner of the space.

With a thought, the longsword appeared in Su Mo's hand. When he infused it with true qi, the sword immediately let out a clear cry.

Sst! Sst!

Sword gleam flickered along the blade and shot into the wall one meter away, actually piercing through the hard stone wall.

"This...!"

Su Mo was greatly startled. He had not expected this sword to be so powerful, releasing Sword Qi on its own and effortlessly piercing the solid stone wall.

Spirit Severing, Third Grade Middle Rank!

Su Mo saw several small words engraved upon the sword's hilt.

It was actually a Third Grade Middle Rank Weapon?

Su Mo was instantly overjoyed.

What did a Third Grade Middle Rank Weapon represent? To put it this way, not even a Second Grade Upper Rank Weapon existed in all of Linyang City. This showed just how precious a Third Grade Middle Rank Weapon was.

And the words "Spirit Severing" were likely the sword's name.

After a moment, Su Mo returned the longsword to the Storage Ring and took out the several secret manuals.

There were four secret manuals in total: "Divine Wind Swordplay," "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art," "Phantom Steps," and "Primordial Unity Qi Art."

Su Mo gently opened the manual for "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art" and focused his gaze on it.

"Myriad Manifestations Divine Art," a Fifth Grade Upper Rank Body Tempering Cultivation Method, was divided into fifteen layers. Once mastered, one's physical body would become as powerful as a Primordial Fierce Beast, wielding Myriad Manifestations Power with every gesture.

First Layer to third layer, Strength Training!

Fourth layer to Sixth Layer, Bone Tempering!

Seventh Layer to Ninth Layer, Body Strengthening!

Tenth Layer to Twelfth Layer, Divine Strength!

Thirteenth Layer to Fifteenth Layer, Myriad Manifestations!

Upon seeing the contents of the book, Su Mo was once again stunned, his face blank with shock.

A level-five high-grade cultivation method?

A Body Tempering Cultivation Method?

Myriad Manifestations Power?

What did Myriad Manifestations Power mean? The strength of over ten thousand colossal elephants!

Moreover, the "elephants" referred to here were not ordinary demonic elephants, but Ancient Barbarian Elephants.

Even without cultivation, an adult Ancient Barbarian Elephant possessed more than ten thousand jin of immense strength.

How great was the power of over ten thousand Ancient Barbarian Elephants?

One hundred million jin?

Several hundred million jin?

Su Mo suddenly felt that his brain was not enough to process it all!

"It's actually a level-five high-grade cultivation method! And a Body Tempering Cultivation Method at that!"

Once he recovered, Su Mo was overcome with wild joy. This treasure hunt had truly been worth it.

As far as Su Mo knew, let alone a level-five cultivation method, not even a Third Grade Cultivation Method existed in all of Linyang City.

As one of the two great Lineages of Linyang City, the Su family's highest-ranked cultivation method was merely Second Grade Middle Rank. It was the Su family's Family's Secret Scripture, and ordinary clan members were not even qualified to cultivate it.

Yet he had now obtained a level-five high-grade cultivation method, and it was even a Body Tempering Cultivation Method.

Body Tempering Cultivation Methods were even more precious than qi cultivation methods of the same grade, because they were simply too rare.

A Body Tempering Cultivation Method was the true way to strengthen one's physical body. The Body Tempering stage before the Qi Refining Realm merely involved honing and forging the body.

The Su family also possessed only two Body Tempering Cultivation Methods, but few young disciples cultivated them because cultivation was relatively slow and wasted too much time.

For the younger disciples of the Su family, striving to raise their cultivation and increase their strength was the foremost goal.

This "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art" was far more precious than even the Spirit Severing Sword.

Huff!

Taking a deep breath, Su Mo looked toward the other three secret manuals.

Compared to the Spirit Severing Sword and "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art," the other three manuals were far more ordinary.

All three were Third Grade Lower Rank, consisting of a swordplay manual, a movement technique, and a cultivation method.

Although these three manuals could not compare to "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art," they were countless times superior to the Su family's manuals.

As it happened, they were exactly what Su Mo needed.

As for the remaining pile of milky-white crystals, Su Mo did not know what they were. However, he could sense the immense spiritual qi within them and concluded that they had to be treasures.

After a while, Su Mo suppressed the excitement in his heart and put away the other manuals, leaving only "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art."

He carefully read through it once, firmly memorizing the incantations and key points within.

There was no danger in this underground world, and it was quiet enough. Su Mo immediately sat cross-legged, released his Martial Soul, and began cultivating.

Myriad Manifestations Divine Art was a technique that used Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, or one's own true qi, to temper the physical body. It was profoundly mysterious.

At this moment, the true qi within Su Mo's body transformed into elephant-shaped runes that continuously burrowed into his flesh and blood, tempering his physical body.

An hour later, Su Mo suddenly opened his eyes, his face filled with astonishment.

"This technique actually consumes so much true qi?"

After merely one hour of cultivation, the true qi in Su Mo's body had been completely exhausted.

Next, Su Mo could only do his utmost to activate his Martial Soul and absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi to temper his body.

All the spiritual qi he absorbed transformed into runes and merged into his body.

Su Mo's physical body was like a bottomless abyss, crazily absorbing the spiritual qi runes.

Time swiftly passed.

This cultivation session lasted eight days. Whenever Su Mo grew hungry, he caught a few fish from the underground river to fill his stomach, so he did not have to worry about food.

On the sixth day, Su Mo successfully cultivated the First Layer of "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art."

After successfully cultivating the First Layer, Su Mo's physical strength surged dramatically. Relying solely on the power of his body, a single punch of his now exceeded Three Tiger Strength, making him stronger than even a martial artist at the third layer of the Qi Refining Realm.

With every increase in cultivation by one tier, a Qi Refining Realm martial artist gained One Tiger Strength.

One Tiger Strength was roughly five hundred jin, so Three Tiger Strength amounted to one thousand five hundred jin.

Su Mo felt that his current strength was approaching two thousand jin, which was Four Tiger Strength. Even if it had not quite reached Four Tiger Strength, it was not far off.

After cultivating for only a few short days, his strength had soared at a breathtaking pace. This only strengthened his resolve to master this technique.

If he could cultivate this technique beyond the Tenth Layer, then let alone the insignificant Linyang City, he would have no rivals even in the entire Tian Yue Kingdom.

However, after cultivating the First Layer, Su Mo clearly felt that cultivating the Second Layer was ten times slower than cultivating the First Layer.

The First Layer had taken only six days, but Su Mo estimated that fully cultivating the Second Layer would require at least two months.

Therefore, after cultivating for another two days, Su Mo stopped.

He had been out for ten days. It was time to return.

After recovering the true qi in his body, Su Mo buried the golden skeleton and left the underground world, racing toward Linyang City.

The Storage Ring of that golden skeleton had bestowed a fortuitous opportunity upon Su Mo, so Su Mo allowed its owner to rest in peace beneath the earth.

As he walked along the road back, Su Mo suddenly thought of a problem.

Cultivating this "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art" required massive amounts of spiritual qi, and the farther he progressed, the more enormous the required amount became.

If he continued cultivating this technique, all the spiritual qi absorbed by his Martial Soul would be consumed completely.

His own true qi would no longer increase in the slightest, and his cultivation would cease to advance.

And if he cultivated both qi and body, the cultivation speed of both would greatly decline.

"Should I give up qi cultivation and focus solely on the physical body?"

The moment this thought surfaced, Su Mo decisively rejected it.

For others, cultivating both qi and body might greatly hinder the growth of their strength, but for him, it was not a problem at all.

His Martial Soul could level up.

As long as he raised the grade of his Martial Soul, the speed at which he absorbed spiritual qi would increase greatly, and his cultivation would naturally rise swiftly as well.

His Devouring Martial Soul had now risen to Human Grade Third Tier, and its speed of absorbing spiritual qi was ten times faster than when it was Human Grade First Tier.

If he could raise his Martial Soul by several more tiers, his cultivation speed would surely soar once more.

Therefore, cultivating both qi and body would only increase his strength. It would not have much effect on the speed at which his cultivation advanced.

"Hehe! It seems I'll have to kill more in the future!"

Su Mo gave a bitter smile. Whether beast souls or Martial Souls, if he wanted to devour them, there was only one way—killing!