Storage Ring

In the mountain range.

Su Mo held the map, following its directions as he moved through the dense forest.

He concealed his presence to the utmost, proceeding with extreme caution.

He was now over fifty miles deep into the Youfeng Mountain Range, where the demonic beasts that roamed were Level 1 Tier 4, and even Level 1 Tier 5.

With his current strength, he wasn't even sure he could defeat a Level 1 Tier 4 demonic beast, let alone a Level 1 Tier 5.

Therefore, he was being very careful.

Finally, after another half hour of travel, Su Mo arrived, safe and sound, in a cluttered mountain valley.

The valley was surrounded on three sides by cliffs hundreds of feet high, with only one entrance.

The valley floor was covered in thorns and overgrown with bushes, appearing desolate.

Su Mo's focus was sharp, constantly vigilant of his surroundings. If any danger appeared, he would flee immediately.

Though the treasure was important, without his life, everything else was meaningless.

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

Su Mo carefully observed his surroundings, and before long, he discovered a large crack in a rock face.

It was a horizontal crack, ten feet long, resembling the gaping maw of a colossal beast, its depths unfathomable.

The crack was overgrown with weeds, making it impossible to spot without a close inspection.

Standing at the mouth of the crack, Su Mo frowned deeply.

This crack was unlike the small cave from before. Inside, it was dark, cold, and immeasurably deep, filled with unknown dangers.

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

Since he had come this far, why would he leave empty-handed?

Danger?

When had Su Mo ever feared danger?

As Su Mo ventured deeper, the light in the crack grew dimmer, and the surroundings became pitch black.

Su Mo channeled his True Qi to his eyes, greatly enhancing his vision, and walked step by step into the depths of the crack.

After walking for a while, Su Mo realized that the passage within the crack was gradually sloping downwards.

He estimated that he had descended about ten meters underground.

After walking for a bit longer, a cool breeze blew from ahead, accompanied by the sound of rushing water.

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

Before long, Su Mo's eyes suddenly brightened. Before him lay a vast space, about five to six meters high, seven to eight meters wide, and of immeasurable length.

It turned out to be an underground world.

An underground river flowed through this space, its destination unknown.

Many fish swam in the river, and along its banks were natural pebbles that emitted a faint fluorescence, allowing Su Mo to see everything in this underground world.

Not far in front of Su Mo stood a dilapidated stone chamber.

Outside the chamber were several withered skeletons, clearly dead for a very long time.

"Could it be that the treasure has already been taken?"

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

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

The chamber was empty, with only two skeletons in the center.

Su Mo couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, thinking the treasure had already been claimed.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Su Mo's expression froze.

He noticed that the bones of one of the skeletons were a pale gold and showed no signs of decay.

"How can there be pale golden bones?"

Su Mo was somewhat puzzled.

These were indeed the remains of a human martial artist, but he had never heard of anyone having pale golden bones.

"Huh? What is this..."

Su Mo suddenly discovered that on the finger bones of the golden skeleton's left hand, there was a simple, gray-white ancient ring.

"Could it be a Storage Ring?"

Su Mo became somewhat excited and quickly picked up the ring.

A Storage Ring was a precious item capable of storing things, possessing its own space, and was extremely valuable.

In all of Linyang City, no one possessed a Storage Ring; ordinary martial artists used the inferior Storage Bags for storage.

Taking a deep breath, Su Mo circulated the True Qi within his body and infused it into the ring.

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

The space wasn't large, measuring about five meters in length, width, and height.

In a corner of the space, several manuals, a gleaming long sword, and a pile of milky white crystals were placed.

With a thought, the long sword appeared in Su Mo's hand. As he infused True Qi into it, the sword immediately let out a hum.

Ching! Ching!

Sword energy flashed from the long sword, striking the wall about a meter away. It actually pierced the hard stone wall.

"This...!"

Su Mo was astonished. He hadn't expected this sword to be so powerful, emitting sword energy on its own and easily piercing the hard stone wall.

Spirit Severing, Third Grade Middle Rank!

Su Mo saw several small characters engraved on the sword's hilt.

It was actually a Third Grade Middle Rank weapon?

Su Mo became incredibly excited.

What did a Third Grade Middle Rank weapon mean? Let's put it this way: the entire Linyang City didn't even have a single Second Grade Upper Rank weapon. This showed how precious a Third Grade Middle Rank weapon was.

And the name 'Spirit Severing' was likely the sword's name.

A moment later, Su Mo put the long sword back into the Storage Ring and took out the manuals.

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

Gently opening the "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art" manual, Su Mo focused his gaze.

"Myriad Manifestations Divine Art," a Fifth Grade Upper Rank Body Tempering Cultivation Method, divided into fifteen layers. Upon completion, the physical body would be as powerful as a Primordial Fierce Beast, possessing Myriad Manifestations Power with every movement.

Layers one to three: Strengthening Power!

Layers four to six: Tempering Bones!

Layers seven to nine: Fortifying the Body!

Layers ten to twelve: Divine Strength!

Layers thirteen to fifteen: Myriad Manifestations!

Seeing the contents of this manual, Su Mo was once again shocked, his face blank with disbelief.

A Fifth Grade Upper Rank Cultivation Method?

A Body Tempering Cultivation Method?

Myriad Manifestations Power?

What was the concept of Myriad Manifestations Power? The strength of ten thousand giant elephants!

Moreover, the 'elephants' referred to here weren't ordinary demonic elephants, but Ancient Barbarian Elephants.

Even without cultivation, an adult Ancient Barbarian Elephant possessed a strength of over ten thousand jin.

How much strength would ten thousand Ancient Barbarian Elephants have?

One hundred million jin?

Several hundred million jin?

Su Mo felt his brain couldn't keep up!

"It's actually a Fifth Grade Upper Rank Cultivation Method! And a Body Tempering Cultivation Method!"

Su Mo, who had finally reacted, was overjoyed. This treasure hunt had truly been worthwhile.

As far as Su Mo knew, let alone Fifth Grade Cultivation Methods, even Third Grade Cultivation Methods were nonexistent in the entire Linyang City.

The Su family, as one of the two major families in Linyang City, had a highest-grade cultivation method that was only Second Grade Middle Rank. This was the Su family's Family's Secret Scripture, and ordinary family members had no right to cultivate it.

Yet, he had now obtained a Fifth Grade Upper Rank Cultivation Method, and it was a Body Tempering Cultivation Method.

Body Tempering Cultivation Methods were even more precious than Qi Cultivation Methods of the same grade because Body Tempering Cultivation Methods were extremely rare.

Body Tempering Cultivation Methods were the true methods for strengthening the physical body. The Body Tempering realm before the Qi Refining Realm was merely about exercising and toughening the body.

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

For the young disciples of the Su family, the primary goal was to diligently improve their cultivation and enhance their strength.

This "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art" was considerably more precious than the Spirit Severing sword.

Hoo!

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

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

All three manuals were Third Grade Lower Rank, consisting of a sword skill, a footwork skill, and a cultivation method.

Although these three manuals were not as good as "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art," they were many times stronger than the Su family's manuals.

Conveniently, these were all things Su Mo needed.

As for the pile of milky white crystals, Su Mo didn't know what they were, but he could sense a vast amount of Spiritual Energy from them, confirming they were treasures.

After a long moment, suppressing his excitement, Su Mo put away the other Manuals, keeping only "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art."

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

This underground world was safe and quiet enough, so Su Mo immediately sat down cross-legged, released his Martial Soul, and began to cultivate.

Myriad Manifestations Divine Art was a cultivation method that tempered the body using Spiritual Energy from heaven and earth, or one's own True Qi; it was extremely profound.

At this moment, the True Qi within Su Mo's body transformed into 'elephant'-shaped Runes, continuously drilling into his flesh and blood, tempering his physical body.

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

"This cultivation method actually consumes so much True Qi?"

In just one hour of cultivation, the True Qi within Su Mo's body had been completely depleted.

From then on, Su Mo could only do his best to activate his Martial Soul, absorbing Spiritual Energy from heaven and earth to temper his body.

All the absorbed Spiritual Energy transformed into Runes and integrated into his body.

Su Mo's physical body was like a bottomless pit, madly absorbing the Spiritual Energy Runes.

Time passed quickly.

He cultivated for eight days. During this time, Su Mo would catch a few fish from the underground river to eat when he was hungry, so he didn't 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. Relying solely on his physical strength, his punch power surpassed that of three tigers, making him stronger than a Third Layer Qi Refining Realm Martial Artist.

For Qi Refining Realm martial artists, each increase in cultivation layer would add one tiger's strength.

One tiger's strength was about 500 jin, so three tigers' strength was 1500 jin.

Su Mo felt that his current strength was close to 2000 jin, which was four tigers' strength. Even if it wasn't quite four tigers' strength, it wasn't far off.

In just a few days of cultivation, his strength had increased so rapidly, which further strengthened his resolve to master this cultivation method.

If he could cultivate this cultivation method to the tenth layer or above, let alone the small Linyang City, he would have no rivals 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.

It only took six days to cultivate the first layer, but to completely cultivate the second layer, Su Mo estimated it would take at least two months.

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

He had been out for ten days, and it was time to go back.

After restoring the True Qi in his body, Su Mo buried the golden skeleton and left the underground world, speeding towards Linyang City.

The Storage Ring of the golden skeleton had given Su Mo an opportunity, so Su Mo decided to give the owner a proper burial.

On the way back, Su Mo suddenly thought of a problem.

Because cultivating "Myriad Manifestations Divine Art" required a large amount of Spiritual Energy, and the amount needed would only increase in later stages.

If he continued to cultivate this cultivation method, all the Spiritual Energy absorbed by his Martial Soul would be consumed.

His own True Qi would not increase at all, and his cultivation would not advance.

And if he cultivated both Qi Cultivation and Body Tempering simultaneously, the cultivation speed in both aspects would be greatly reduced.

"Should I give up Qi Cultivation and focus solely on my body?"

As soon as this thought arose, Su Mo decisively rejected it.

If it were someone else, cultivating both Qi Cultivation and Body Tempering might greatly affect the improvement of their strength, but for him, this was not a problem at all.

His Martial Soul could be upgraded.

As long as he upgraded the level of his Martial Soul, his speed of absorbing Spiritual Energy would greatly increase, and his cultivation would naturally increase rapidly.

Now, his Devouring Martial Soul had been upgraded to Human Grade Third Tier, and its speed of absorbing Spiritual Energy had increased tenfold compared to when it was Human Grade First Tier.

If he could upgrade his Martial Soul by a few more tiers, his cultivation speed would definitely soar again.

Therefore, cultivating both Qi Cultivation and Body Tempering simultaneously would only increase his strength, and the impact on his cultivation speed would not be too great.

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

Su Mo gave a wry smile. Whether it was a Beast Soul or a Martial Soul, the only way to devour them was through killing!