Samsara Temple and Sheng Cai'er

Exorcist City, Assassin Temple Headquarters.

The headquarters was built against the mountainside. At the mountaintop stood an exceptionally mysterious structure, known by the Assassin Temple as the Samsara Temple.

The Samsara Temple was entirely dark gold, roughly fifty feet tall, and circular in shape.

There was not a single window inside the hall, yet everything was illuminated with startling clarity by a peculiar dim light, making the place seem extremely eerie.

On the floor was a six-pointed star formed from dark golden patterns. Countless runes extended outward from it, covering the entire hall—floor and walls alike—with their profound designs.

These runes were all Ancient Elvish Script. They glimmered dark blue, filled with an aura of gloom and killing intent.

At the center of the hall, above the center of the six-pointed star, a completely black, lusterless dagger floated silently. It too was filled with an aura of gloom and killing intent.

At that moment, directly beneath the dagger, someone lay motionless: a breathtakingly beautiful young girl.

She had delicate features, violet hair like clouds, and skin so fair it scarcely seemed human. Her lovely, curvaceous body gave off none of the vitality of youth. She did not seem alive at all, but more like a sculpture.

Her eyes were tightly shut, her brows deeply furrowed, and her exquisite face twisted as though she were enduring immense pain.

That was right. This girl was Sheng Cai'er, the girl who had met Long Haochen once in Odin Town.

Cai'er lay silently on the ground, her face contorted, her mind already on the verge of collapse.

By now, she had lost all sense and touch. She was numb to everything around her; her body could feel no response from the outside world. She could not even control her own body and could only lie on the cold floor.

Cai'er looked so helpless, so pitiful, yet no one came to help her or offer her even the slightest trace of warmth.

The ground was cold, but her heart was colder still.

She hated her great-grandfather, hated her father, hated her mother, and even hated everyone else. Why had they abandoned her in this suffocatingly cold place, the Samsara Temple, when she was not even twelve years old?

Utter agony and hatred turned into countless venomous insects gnawing at her young heart. She was nearly mad.

She had remained in this state of lost sensation and touch for half a year already. She still had to endure another two years before she could break free from it.

She no longer had any attachment to this world. Rather than live like a walking corpse, she would rather die.

Having lost all desire to live, Cai'er simply lay there. Her body gradually grew colder, losing its former warmth. Death was not far from her.

Just then, a figure appeared in her mind.

It was the figure of a boy. He was not especially muscular, yet he had stood in front of her. Facing a powerful enemy, he had stepped forward without hesitation to protect her.

At the thought of him, a beam of warm light suddenly shone into Cai'er's frozen heart.

That light became a warm seed, taking root and sprouting within her heart. It brought her faint warmth and made her feel that life was still worth living.

She suddenly did not want to die. She looked forward to the day when she could repay that boy, and to the day when she could meet him again.

Her will to survive pulled Cai'er back from death's edge. Her body temperature returned, and her cold body gradually warmed.

The distortion on Cai'er's face gradually faded. A nearly imperceptible smile appeared on her deathly pale, lovely face.

I'm so foolish. I didn't even ask his name last time. But I remember you. I will find you!

Two months later.

Long Haochen sat quietly, cross-legged, in the meditation chamber of the Monastic Quarters. Gentle spiritual power rippled softly from his body as a faint golden glow spread intermittently from within him.

At the center of his chest, a mass of six-colored light flickered faintly, pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat.

Possessing the Son of Light Constitution, Long Haochen absorbed light elements far faster than ordinary people. As a result, he encountered almost no bottlenecks in cultivation.

Long Haochen focused inward and discovered that the Mysterious Spirit Furnace was quietly floating in his chest. Around it, his Inner Spiritual Power had formed a funnel-shaped vortex that continuously revolved around it.

Ever since the Mysterious Spirit Furnace had devoured the Saint Attraction Spirit Furnace, this spiritual power funnel had begun to take shape. As Long Haochen's cultivation steadily rose, the funnel also became increasingly solid.

Long Haochen used his will to drive his Inner Spiritual Power into constant rotation. Though it was still turning slowly, it was already much faster than usual.

Under Long Haochen's deliberate control, the spiritual power funnel took over two hours to complete one rotation. Without deliberate control, it took four hours. Each time it completed six rotations, Long Haochen's Inner Spiritual Power increased by one point. Even if he did nothing at all each day, he could still raise his spiritual power by at least one point.

One point a day meant three hundred and sixty-five points in a year. In other words, even if Long Haochen lay in the Monastic Quarters for over four years without cultivating, he could still advance to the Fifth Tier.

If some instructor who had been stuck at Fifth Tier, Fifth Level for six years without making the slightest progress in cultivation learned of this, it would probably drive him mad.

Sensing, attracting, absorbing, assimilating, filtering, and condensing—this was the complete process of Long Haochen's cultivation of Inner Spiritual Power.

Time passed second by second, and Long Haochen's spiritual power rose at a visible rate.

Four hundred ninety-seven, four hundred ninety-eight, four hundred ninety-nine, five hundred, five hundred one!

Reaching five hundred and one points of spiritual power meant that Long Haochen had successfully broken through the Fourth Tier and become a Grand Knight.

In just over two months at the Hao Yue Sub-Temple, Long Haochen had broken through from an Eighth-Level Knight to a First-Level Grand Knight. Such speed was nothing short of astonishing.

Once his spiritual power reached five hundred and one, Long Haochen stopped cultivating it.

He had waited a long time for this day. Successfully becoming a Grand Knight meant that he could cultivate the Nine Golden Dragon Techniques Feng Xiu had taught him.

The Nine Golden Dragon Techniques required one to be a Grand Knight to begin cultivating. As the name implied, they consisted of nine techniques.

With Long Haochen's current cultivation, he could only practice the first two techniques. As for the remaining seven, he could only continue learning them after his strength reached a higher level.

The first technique of the Nine Golden Dragon Techniques: Golden Dragon Battle Form.

Activating Golden Dragon Battle Form consumed 200 points of spiritual power and granted immunity to all physical and magical attacks for one second. Each increase in cultivation tier increased the duration by one second and the spiritual power cost by 600 points.

After the immunity period ended, spending another 200 points of spiritual power could increase physical defense by 1,000 points of Outer Spiritual Power for half an hour. Each increase in cultivation tier boosted the defensive effect by 100% and increased the spiritual power cost by 500 points.

Long Haochen had long memorized the incantation and moves of the first technique, and he began practicing it in the meditation chamber.

Three days later, the Hao Yue Sub-Temple training grounds.

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