Gathering Strength

The Fourth Realm's night was pitch-black.

Since neither sun, moon, nor stars had ever appeared here, there was no natural light. When night fell, even the beasts held back from hunting.

After laboring for a long time, everyone decided to rest for the night. They camped in Insect Valley, far from the Phoenix Bone.

Many Ouyang Family explorers' skeletons lay scattered around the Phoenix Bone. Most people wouldn't feel comfortable with piles of bones at their sides on such a dark, deep night.

Pang Jian didn't mind.

Without lighting a lamp or starting a fire, he sat cross-legged beside the Phoenix Bone, which had pierced the Giant Beehive.

Luo Hongyan was quick to take the hint. She gave a soft laugh, then turned and walked away with graceful poise.

The two of them had developed this unspoken understanding recently.

Sitting with his back against the Phoenix Bone, Pang Jian saw the people from the Su and He Families making a fire and meditating at the other end of Insect Valley.

Everyone's vision was limited in the darkness. Once he was sure Su Yuntian and He Rong couldn't see him, he took the Bamboo Basket off his back.

After taking a breath, he cleared his mind of distractions and quickly entered a state of cultivation.

This time, as he meditated, he found himself with the strange illusion that his perception had greatly improved.

He could clearly sense that his dantian Spirit Sea, like the world around him, was divided into an upper and a lower layer.

He didn't rush to use the spirit stones in his hand. Instead, he tried absorbing the mixed spiritual energy of heaven and earth in Insect Valley. Gradually, he sensed the energy entering his body settling in the upper layer of his dantian Spirit Sea.

The spiritual energy in the upper layer formed clusters of mist.

As he circulated the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art, he sensed a massive vortex appear between the upper and lower layers.

The vortex was shaped like a funnel, connecting the two layers of his dantian Spirit Sea. It turned slowly, drawing in the mist-like spiritual energy above.

As the vortex turned round after round, it refined the spiritual energy and drew it down toward the bottom of the funnel, gradually extracting... spiritual power.

In the lower layer of his dantian Spirit Sea, wisps of spiritual power slowly gathered until they formed a small pool.

At that moment, a thought stirred in Pang Jian's mind. He immediately understood the full layout of his dantian Spirit Sea and realized that this mysterious little world inside the human body seemed to have always been divided into two layers.

It was called the dantian Spirit Sea because the upper part was the dantian, while the lower part, where spiritual power gathered, was the Spirit Sea.

The dantian and Spirit Sea were connected by a funnel-shaped vortex. The dantian washed and purified the spiritual energy and other energies absorbed from the outside world, condensed them into spiritual power, then sent it down into the Spirit Sea.

With this insight, Pang Jian absorbed the Fourth Realm's mixed spiritual energy in Insect Valley, carefully sensing the wonders of his dantian Spirit Sea.

After a while, he suddenly felt as though countless mosquitoes, insects, and bees were buzzing toward him from every direction, as if they meant to devour him.

Before he could be startled out of his meditation, he saw that those so-called mosquitoes, insects, and bees were actually strange energies hidden within the spiritual energy.

The tiny creatures in Insect Valley had died because of the Phoenix Bone, their blood and vital essence sucked away. Their lingering souls and spirits had merged with the spiritual energy, and the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art had drawn them all into his body.

As he used the vortex to refine and purify the spiritual energy in Insect Valley, he first had to grind away the mosquitoes, insects, and bees.

This step was called eliminating the dross. It took quite a long time, and the spiritual power he extracted this way was scarce.

After hesitating, he took out two spirit stones he'd scavenged from Jin Yang, Xu Rui, and the masked man.

Both stones were shaped like white jade. One had a few scattered impurities, while the other was perfectly pure.

He tried absorbing the impure spirit stone and immediately sensed that the spiritual power drawn from it contained a small amount of tainted energy.

This wasn't mist-like "qi," but spiritual power, like flowing water, matching the power in his Spirit Sea.

However, the spiritual power inside contained some impurities. It had to be purified round after round by the vortex connecting the dantian and Spirit Sea, grinding away and dissolving the impurities within.

Even so, the spiritual power he could gain from a single stone like this far exceeded what he could get from the so-called spiritual energy in Insect Valley.

Its efficiency was more than ten times greater.

Though both contained impurities and taint, spiritual energy and spiritual power were entirely different things. It seemed that ten times as much spiritual energy was needed to refine a single wisp of spiritual power.

But the spiritual power in a spirit stone was already there. He didn't need to refine it over and over; he only had to remove the impurities.

In the darkness, Pang Jian slightly opened his eyes and looked at the spotted spirit stone in his hand.

He finally understood why Jin Yang and the others had carried nothing but the spirit stones of the Fourth Realm, aside from the tools they regularly used.

With these spirit stones, they could quickly restore their strength, far faster than absorbing spiritual energy in the Cenji Mountains.

"What would a pure spirit stone be like?"

Thinking this, he looked at the other spirit stone, pristine and flawless.

This spirit stone had come from Ning Yao's leather pouch. It had belonged to a Blood Moon expert aboard the Indeterminate Ferry, left behind after their death.

He tried absorbing the spiritual power within it, and his eyes suddenly flashed with brilliance.

The spirit stone from the Third Realm contained not a trace of impurity. Once he drew it into the dantian above, it slid straight down the funnel-shaped vortex and flowed into his Spirit Sea!

There was no need to temper and cleanse it of impurities or refine it again. It immediately became part of the spiritual power in his Spirit Sea!

The efficiency and speed of building up his spiritual power were several times greater than when he cultivated with impure spirit stones!

"No wonder she treated this thing like a priceless treasure after finding it aboard the Indeterminate Ferry."

Thanks to his improved perception, Pang Jian could directly sense the state of his dantian Spirit Sea as he cultivated. His understanding was far clearer now than it had been when he was at Blackwater Pool.

He finally understood just how valuable spirit stones were to cultivators.

"With these pure spirit stones, I can gather spiritual power in my Spirit Sea much faster."

Pang Jian now knew that the main goal of the Qi Refining Realm was to keep refining spiritual power until the Spirit Sea was filled to the brim.

Since he had pure spirit stones to use, he had no intention of saving them. He immediately devoted himself to cultivation.

In the shadows.

Some distance away from him, Luo Hongyan sat among the leaves as she usually did, watching Pang Jian from above.

With her cultivation and the refinement of her soul, she could faintly see that as Pang Jian cultivated, the lingering souls and spirits of countless mosquitoes and insects were also swept into his dantian Spirit Sea.

Suddenly, a look of astonishment appeared in her eyes.

One after another, "Spirit Sha" hidden in the darkness, resembling Luo Meng, were drawn toward Pang Jian as he cultivated with the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art. They seemed to be pulled against their will, trying to drift into his dantian.

She was startled and hurriedly intervened with her will, making the Spirit Sha retreat from the edge of Insect Valley.

"What a domineering cultivation art. A cultivation art of this caliber shouldn't be a product of the Fourth Realm."

Her curiosity about the young man's past only deepened.

Time passed swiftly.

Just before dawn, Pang Jian—who had unknowingly absorbed two pure spirit stones—was suddenly startled awake.

He instinctively tightened his grip on the Dragon-Patterned Spear and looked coldly at He Rong, who was approaching.

Seeing Pang Jian wake so suddenly, He Rong stopped at once and said calmly, "I want to know the details of how He Ziren was killed."

"If you have questions, you can ask Ning Yao, or wait until daylight and ask me. Why sneak around like this?"

Pang Jian said, displeased.

"Because Ziren and she were once engaged. She holds a grudge against our He Family and has always been cold toward us. She wouldn't be willing to cooperate with me," He Rong explained helplessly.

Pang Jian thought for a moment, then said, "Among the Dark Ghost members who attacked us, there was one wearing a golden mask. He seemed to have a special status."

"Later, he died at the bottom of Blackwater Pool, and his mask shattered. I saw that his entire face was covered in crisscrossing scars. He was the one who killed your young master."

The clearest thing in Pang Jian's memory was the face beneath the shattered mask, so he used that man as a scapegoat.

He Rong's expression changed slightly after hearing this. He nodded, thanked Pang Jian, then turned and went back.

Among the distant leaves, Luo Hongyan had been watching He Rong. She rose from her seated position to stand. Only when he returned to Su Yuntian's side did the blade-like chill in her eyes recede.

In the darkness high above Pang Jian, Hong Tai, refined into a Spirit Sha, floated like a ghost.

Hong Tai had been at the Xisui Realm. After Luo Hongyan refined him into a Spirit Sha, he could remain hidden in the night without anyone present noticing him, so long as he took care to conceal himself.

That included He Rong and Su Yuntian.

Luo Hongyan watched He Rong. He had only asked about the cause of He Ziren's death, then left with a changed expression. Seeing that, she didn't secretly direct the Spirit Sha to attack him.

"Dong Qianfeng! Dong Qianfeng of the Dong Family actually defected to the Dark Ghost!"

Back beside Su Yuntian, He Rong looked horrified and said in a low voice, "He was also the one who killed Ziren!"

"Back then, the Blazing Sun Sect tortured him brutally. They slashed his face more than a dozen times, leaving scars that would never fade. Then they expelled him from the sect."

"He was the one wearing the mask, conspiring with Hong Tai of the Dark Ghost to hunt down members of our Seven Great Families in the Cenji Mountains!"

Su Yuntian couldn't stay seated either. He cried out, "It was him!"

"Thank goodness he's already dead," He Rong added.

"Dong Qianfeng may be dead, but..." Su Yuntian stroked his chin, his expression growing heavier. "If Dong Qianfeng became a member of the Dark Ghost, then could his adopted son, Dong Tianze, have joined them too?"

He Rong was aghast. "That can't be possible, can it?"

"Father, what are you two talking about in the middle of the night?"

Su Meng woke groggily. Seeing the two of them whispering with grim expressions, she couldn't help asking.

"Nothing."

Su Yuntian tried to smile and comfort her, but found he couldn't manage it. "It's almost dawn. You should get up. We need to prepare to set out again."

"Oh."

Su Meng rubbed her eyes and answered.

Among the leaves, Luo Hongyan watched the two from afar, her pursed lips carrying a chill.

She had pried plenty of secrets about the Dark Ghost out of Hong Tai, so she naturally knew who Dong Tianze was—the man Su Yuntian and He Rong were discussing.

She also knew that he really was in the Cenji Mountains.