The Third Cleansing of His Spiritual Root

"If only I'd become Uncle-Master Jiang's disciple back then."

When Ye Fei saw what was inside the Storage Pouch, he could not help sighing.

The woman in the yellow dress had given him more than just a Storage Pouch.

It also contained a thousand Lower-Grade Spirit Stones, a Spirit Artifact Longsword, and two bottles of pills.

Ye Fei examined the two bottles. One held fifteen Precious Flower Jade Dew Pills, used to restore true qi.

The other held Cloud Auspice Pills. Although there were only five, they were far more precious than the Precious Flower Jade Dew Pills, increasing the cultivation of Qi Refining Period cultivators.

For an outer sect disciple, these things were truly far too valuable.

"I'll turn in the tasks first."

Ye Fei sighed again and swept his hand, putting all the Fire Crow claws and beaks, along with his own longsword, into the Storage Pouch.

Fortunately, this Storage Pouch was a little larger than the one he had taken from Liu Yishan. Otherwise, it really would not have held so much.

Finally, he tied the Storage Pouch to his waist and returned to the Free and Easy Gate.

He had obtained this Storage Pouch openly and honestly, so he dared to use it in public.

Along the way, seeing outer sect disciples passing him with longswords strapped to their backs, Ye Fei could not help feeling a sense of superiority.

"I have to say, walking really is much easier without a longsword on my back."

The feeling left him deeply satisfied.

Upon reaching the Mission Pavilion, Ye Fei went straight to the task submission counter.

"I'm turning in Task Number Three and Task Number Thirty-Five."

Ye Fei took out his identity Jade Plaque and handed it to the Inner Sect Disciple seated behind the counter.

"So soon?"

Recognizing Ye Fei, the disciple froze in surprise.

After all, Ye Fei had only been gone for half an hour in total.

Under normal circumstances, he would only have traveled a few dozen li beyond the Sect and, at most, just encountered a Demon Beast.

Yet Ye Fei had already returned to turn in his tasks.

"It was a little quick, but everything's very fresh."

As he spoke, Ye Fei took forty-five pairs of Fire Crow claws and forty-five Fire Crow beaks from his Storage Pouch, piling them on the ground beside the counter.

"Th-these were all freshly obtained by Uncle-Master Ye?"

"Isn't this far too many?"

Staring at the Fire Crow beaks still stained with fresh blood, then at the Storage Pouch at Ye Fei's waist, the disciple was dumbstruck, barely able to get his words out.

He was not the only one. Every disciple in the Mission Pavilion was staring at Ye Fei in shock.

Although Fire Crows were not particularly formidable Demon Beasts, few outer sect disciples could kill them easily.

After all, a first-rank Demon Beast's strength was comparable to that of a cultivator around the Qi Refining fourth layer.

Not a single outer sect disciple could kill so many Fire Crows in such a short time. It was simply impossible.

Yet Ye Fei had done it.

How could they not be shocked?

"What?"

"Can't I turn them in if there are too many?"

Ye Fei looked at the Inner Sect Disciple before him in confusion.

"You can!"

"Of course you can!"

Afraid Ye Fei would misunderstand, the disciple hastily explained.

After explaining, the Inner Sect Disciple swept his broad sleeve and put away all the Fire Crow claws and beaks.

Then he raised his right hand and tossed Ye Fei a hundred and eighty Lower-Grade Spirit Stones.

Finally, he recorded Ye Fei's mission points on a jade slip.

"Martial Nephew, I'll take Task Number Three and Task Number Thirty-Five again."

After turning in his tasks, Ye Fei went straight to the task acceptance counter with his identity Jade Plaque and handed it to the disciple responsible for registration with a smile.

"Please wait a moment, Uncle-Master Ye."

The registration disciple respectfully accepted Ye Fei's Jade Plaque, quickly registered the tasks for him, then returned it.

Taking the Jade Plaque, Ye Fei nodded to the disciple.

Then he descended the mountain again and left the Free and Easy Gate.

What Ye Fei did not know was that, after he left the Mission Pavilion, Li Zaishan had been keeping watch on his movements.

Upon learning that Ye Fei had left the Sect, Li Zaishan took out a Voice Transmission Jade Plaque and spoke a few words softly.

No one knew what he had said.

Meanwhile, after leaving the Free and Easy Gate, Ye Fei took only half an hour to reach a spot sixty li away.

There, he discovered an Earth-Splitting Beast.

"I'll use you to test it."

Ye Fei's eyes lit up, and he crept forward.

"Grr!"

When Ye Fei was still twenty zhang away, the Earth-Splitting Beast spotted him.

It immediately threw back its head, let out a roar, and charged at him.

"Just in time!"

With a thought, Ye Fei summoned his longsword and unleashed the first of the Nine Leaning Luo Swords.

Squelch!

There was no suspense. Ye Fei killed the Earth-Splitting Beast in an instant, severing its head from its body.

After using it twice, Ye Fei found that the Nine Leaning Luo Swords was indeed formidable.

However, he also noticed a problem: the sword technique consumed far too much true qi.

The previous battle had been so tense that he had not noticed.

But after using it this time, Ye Fei discovered that this single strike had consumed nearly twenty percent of his true qi.

"I'll have to use it sparingly."

Ye Fei shook his head helplessly.

If he used this move every time he encountered a Demon Beast, he would soon exhaust his true qi.

Standing before the Earth-Splitting Beast's corpse, Ye Fei extended his Divine Sense to its limit. After confirming that no one was nearby, he entered the Azure Dragon Sword with a thought, taking the corpse with him.

At the same time, the Azure Dragon Sword rapidly shrank into a mote of dust and hovered in the air.

After entering the Azure Dragon Sword, Ye Fei first stripped away the Earth-Splitting Beast's armored hide, then went to the Spirit-Washing Tree and tried letting it absorb the corpse.

"The effect is actually this dramatic!"

To Ye Fei's surprise, just one Earth-Splitting Beast corpse restored the withered Spirit-Washing Tree, and it even sprouted several tender buds.

This made Ye Fei's heart instantly fill with delight.

Then he left the Azure Dragon Sword.

Seeing that Demon Beast corpses worked better than spirit herbs, Ye Fei made his decision.

Over the next twenty-odd days, Ye Fei's figure appeared throughout the area within a hundred li of the Free and Easy Gate.

To avoid arousing suspicion, he returned to the Mission Pavilion every other day to turn in tasks.

After more than twenty days of continuous effort, he had slain a hundred and fifty first-rank Demon Beasts.

In total, he earned four hundred Lower-Grade Spirit Stones and two hundred mission points.

Meanwhile, his frenzied pursuit of tasks caused quite a stir in the outer sect.

Even someone with a five-element mixed spiritual root refused to bow to fate, desperately earning Spirit Stones to cultivate and trying to break through his limits.

How could these so-called cultivation geniuses with three-element and two-element spiritual roots justify not working hard?

For a time, Ye Fei became an example that many outer sect disciples competed to emulate.

Naturally, Ye Fei knew nothing of this.

After turning in his final tasks, he returned to his cave abode and entered the Azure Dragon Sword.

"They're finally ripe."

After absorbing the hundred and fiftieth Demon Beast corpse, the Spirit-Washing Tree's fruits finally ripened.

Looking at the five Spirit-Washing Fruits, so vibrant they seemed ready to drip with color, Ye Fei felt an indescribable excitement.

Once he underwent Spiritual Root Cleansing again, he would be able to continue cultivating.

The thought filled Ye Fei with uncontrollable excitement, and he immediately picked all five Spirit-Washing Fruits.

As the Spirit-Washing Tree withered for the third time, Ye Fei sat cross-legged on the ground and began undergoing the cleansing of his spiritual root.

As the sensation of ten thousand ants gnawing at him arose once more, specks of grime began gathering on the surface of Ye Fei's skin.

Compared with the previous cleansing, this Spiritual Root Cleansing lasted slightly longer, and the pain was a little more intense.

After successfully undergoing Spiritual Root Cleansing, Ye Fei finally broke through the cultivation bottleneck that had plagued him.

Ye Fei immediately took out Spirit Stones and began cultivating.

To his delighted surprise, the more times he underwent Spiritual Root Cleansing, the more noticeably his speed of absorbing spirit power from Spirit Stones improved.

Half a month later, Ye Fei smoothly advanced to the fifth layer of Qi Refining.

His strength increased noticeably, and the reach of his Divine Sense expanded to a radius of ten zhang.

From his previous experience, Ye Fei knew he would encounter another cultivation bottleneck before reaching the Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

Thus, he simply stopped, preparing to focus on Spiritual Root Cleansing.

Having made up his mind, Ye Fei left his cave abode and went to the Mission Pavilion to accept tasks again.

This time, he planned to spend a month hunting two hundred first-rank Demon Beasts.

What Ye Fei did not know was that, just as he stepped beyond the Free and Easy Gate's Mountain-Guarding Formation, an outer sect disciple dressed in gray quietly followed him.

After leaving the formation, the disciple reached into his robes and took out a Yellow Talisman.

Then he silently recited an incantation, and the talisman instantly transformed into a streak of yellow light that flew toward the outskirts of Green Pine Mountain.

A short while later.

On a hillside on the outskirts of Green Pine Mountain, two hundred li from the Free and Easy Gate.

A young man in black robes, seated cross-legged on the ground, slowly opened his eyes.