“Boom Boom!”
Zhang Ruochen stepped on his feet and his body was like a phantom, retreating while fending off Lu Han’s attacks.
Within moments, the two exchanged more than twenty moves.
Although Lu Han’s cultivation was not as good as Waveheart’s, it was still very strong, far surpassing the average early Earth Extremity Realm martial artist. The sword technique she executed was a Spirit Grade Middle Grade, extremely powerful, and a few times, she almost stabbed Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen borrowed the power of the Spatial Domain and could only barely block her.
“The top ten ranked cadets of the four academies were originally each and every one of them geniuses among geniuses. Their breakthrough to the Earth Extremity Realm is truly extraordinary, and it’s simply not something that ordinary Earth Extremity Realm martial artists can compare to them.”
Zhang Ruochen glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Yue Linchong rapidly rushing towards this direction.
“With my current cultivation level, even if I were to deal with Lu Han, it would still seem quite a stretch. If I were to face the two of them, I would definitely lose.”
“Heavenly Heart Pointing!”
Zhang Ruochen swung out a seven-metre long sword qi, forcing Lu Han back.
“Come kill me in the Ghost Mist Mountain if you have the ability.”
Zhang Ruochen executed the Wind-Resisting Flying Dragon Shadow, transforming into nine residual shadows, and in a few moments, he had fled a mile away and disappeared into the miasma.
Lu Han was very annoyed and kept stomping her feet.
She had already broken through to the Earth Extremity Realm, and could kill an average early Earth Extremity Realm martial artist with just one move, but to be escaped by a new student, she was naturally furious in her heart.
Lu Huan carried her battle sword and was about to go after Zhang Ruochen.
“Sister Huan, don’t easily intrude into the depths of the Ghost Mist Mountain, according to the map, there are some very powerful unknown creatures in the Ghost Mist Mountain, even an Earth Extreme Realm martial artiste who intrudes into it will have no chance of survival. Zhang Ruochen escaping into the Ghost Mist Mountain is definitely a dead end.”
Yue Linchong stopped Lu Han, very cautious, and added, “Just a mere Zhang Ruochen, he can’t turn over any big waves, we should still collect the Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass first.”
Lu Han’s eyes were a little cloudy, saying, “Although Zhang Ruochen is just a new student, but his fiancée Huang Yichen is a ruthless character, if we let him escape and tell Huang Yichen about what happened here, it will be quite unfavourable for us.”
Yue Lin Chong said, “As long as we collect enough Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass, our cultivation will surely skyrocket, so will we be afraid of Huang Yichen at that time? Besides, we’ll just stand guard outside, and if Zhang Ruochen escapes from inside, we can naturally pack him up slowly.”
“Alright! Let’s collect the Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass first.” Lu Han said.
The Three-Leaf Sacred Qi Grass on the periphery of the Ghost Mist Mountain had already been harvested by Zhang Ruochen, but more Three-Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses were still growing at the bottom of the Ghost Mist Mountain. At the location of the mountainside, there were even more Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass.
Of course, the closer one got to the Ghost Mist Mountain, the more toxic the miasma would be, and the greater the possibility of encountering danger.
Yue Linchong and Lu Han’s Poison Avoidance Pearls could only support them to reach the location at the foot of the mountain. If they dared to travel towards the mountainside, they would definitely die of poisoning.
Even if it was just the foot of the mountain, there were ten times more Triple Leaf Sacred Qi Grass growing than the periphery.
At this moment, Zhang Ruochen had already fled to the foot of the Ghost Mist Mountain, and the spatial domain protecting him had shrunk to five metres in diameter.
“It’s better not to go up the mountain first, just cultivate here and refine those eight Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses.”
Zhang Ruochen found a rather hidden spot at the bottom of the mountain and entered the inner space of the Space-Time Crystal Stone. At the same time, the Space-Time Crystal Stone fell down to the bottom of a stone crevice and disappeared.
Before refining the Three-Leafed Anger Grass, Zhang Ruochen took out that piece of spirit meat and used the Snow Dragon Sword to split it into ten portions, each weighing roughly a kilogram.
Inside that piece of spirit meat, there was surprisingly a huge piece of Fire Attribute Spirit Crystal of excellent quality, more crystalline and translucent than normal Spirit Crystals, and the Spirit Qi was much more dense.
“By exchanging this huge chunk of spirit crystal, one could at least exchange fifty ordinary spirit crystals.”
Spirit crystals also had high and low qualities, and could generally be divided into four grades: ordinary spirit crystals, medium spirit crystals, high-quality spirit crystals, and top-grade spirit crystals.
For each grade of Spirit Crystal, the price difference was ten times.
In other words, one top grade spirit crystal could be exchanged for a thousand ordinary spirit crystals.
The Spirit Crystal in Zhang Ruochen’s hand, if cut apart, could be cut into five medium Spirit Crystals, which was equivalent to the value of fifty ordinary Spirit Crystals.
Ordinary Spirit Crystals were the most widely available, so they became the currency for transactions between martial artists.
Medium Spirit Crystals, High Quality Spirit Crystals, and Top Grade Spirit Crystals were all very rare in quantity, and were hard to see on the market.
Generally speaking, only poor martial artists of low realms would use ordinary spirit crystals to cultivate. Martial artists with high realms would almost always go for medium spirit crystals to use for cultivation.
Zhang Ruochen put the large piece of intermediate spirit crystal aside and cupped a one kilogram piece of spirit meat and quickly ate it.
This was the spirit meat from the body of a third-stage savage beast, even if it was only one catty, it was comparable to twenty catty of spirit meat from the body of a second-stage savage beast, the spirit energy was very thick and it was much more beneficial to the martial artist.
Afterwards, Zhang Ruochen took another Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass and began to refine it.
The Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass was more easily absorbed than the Half Saint True Liquid, and when swallowed into the abdomen, it directly melted into a white medicinal liquid that penetrated towards the blood and the five viscera, drilling into Zhang Ruochen’s body on its own.
It only took half a day for Zhang Ruochen to completely absorb the medicinal power of the first Three Leafed Sacred Qi Grass, and that one catty of spirit flesh was also absorbed by Zhang Ruochen, transforming into power that belonged to Zhang Ruochen himself.
“Worthy of being a Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass, in just half a day, it made the True Qi in my Qi Lake increase by 30%.”
Zhang Ruochen’s heart was slightly delighted as he began to continue refining the remaining seven Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses. At the same time, he also took the remaining nine jin of spirit meat and consumed all of it.
The holy power of the seven Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses and the spiritual power of the nine jin of Spiritual Meat spread out rapidly in Zhang Ruochen’s body, it was almost like sixteen balls of light were suspended in Zhang Ruochen’s body, and even though Zhang Ruochen had opened up thirty-six meridians, he was still a bit unable to absorb them.
Wisps of white true qi escaped from his pores and filled the entire inner space of the Space-Time Crystal Stone.
Zhang Ruochen’s body felt like it was suspended in a cloud, greedily absorbing the surging holy power and spiritual power.
For every large circumference that the thirty-six meridians ran, the True Qi in the Qi Lake would increase by a large amount.
Four whole days had passed, Zhang Ruochen had refined all seven Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses and nine catties of Spirit Meat, and every cell in his body was stuffed with true qi, his cultivation had reached the Perfection Realm of the Xuan Extremity Realm’s Great Extremity Position, and he was just one step away from breaking through to the Great Perfection of the Xuan Extremity Realm.
However, Zhang Ruochen suppressed the realm and did not allow himself to break through.
He had taken a total of eight Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses and ten jin of Spirit Meat, so it was simply impossible for him to absorb all of the Sacred Power and Spirit Power in four days’ time.
He estimated that he should have only absorbed one-fifth of all the holy power and spiritual power, with four-fifths of the holy power and spiritual power still latent in his body and not absorbed.
If he wanted to, he could break through to the Great Perfection of the Xuan Extremity Realm right now, but in that case, it would be impossible for him to reach the Supreme Extremity of the Xuan Extremity Realm.
Instead, if he was able to suppress his realm and absorb all four-fifths of the holy power and spiritual power latent within his body before breaking through his realm, his physique would definitely be able to reach another height, which would be of great benefit to impacting the Supreme Extremity Realm of the Xuan Extremity Realm.
“With my current cultivation, I should have already reached the level of the top 50 of the Xuan Ranking.” Zhang Ruochen felt that his current strength was not weaker than Huang Yichen.
If the two were to fight, it would be hard to tell who would win and who would lose.
Of course, Huang Yichen would most likely have broken through to the Earth Extreme Realm by now, reaching another level. Unless Zhang Ruochen broke through to the Great Perfection of the Xuan Polarity Realm, he would have a chance to defeat her.
“With my current strength, I’m no longer afraid of those two trainees from the North Courtyard.”
Zhang Ruochen released his true qi and triggered the Space-Time Crystal Stone, causing it to fly out from the cracks in the stone and land on the ground.
The white light on the surface of the crystal stone flashed, and Zhang Ruochen once again arrived at the foot of the Ghost Mist Mountain.
Zhang Ruochen used the Space-Time Domain to wrap his body and went forward to look for Yue Linchong and Lu Han.
“The Three Leafed Sacred Qi Grass at the bottom of the mountain was indeed picked up by all of them, and I wonder if they have left yet?” Zhang Ruochen had been cultivating in the Space-Time Crystal Stone for four days, and only a day or so had passed in the outside world.
They shouldn’t have left that quickly.
Just then, Zhang Ruochen saw the figures of Yue Linchong and Lu Han in the distance, they were standing at the entrance of the hiking path and seemed to be arguing.
Zhang Ruochen stood behind a blood-red boulder and mobilised his True Qi, injecting it into his ear chakra to listen carefully to their conversation.
Yue Linchong’s was carrying a bulging bundle containing dozens of Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses and advised, “Sister Huan, we’ve already picked ninety-eight Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses at the bottom of the mountain, which is enough to allow us to soar in cultivation, there’s no need to risk our lives on Ghostly Mist Mountain again.”
Lu Huan’s beautiful eyes rolled slightly, revealing a look of contempt as she said, “Are ninety-eight Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grasses a lot? At most, it will only support us to cultivate to the late stage of the Earthly Extreme Realm, and if we want to reach the Heavenly Extreme Realm and become a martial arts myth, how long will we have to wait? I, Lu Huan, don’t want to marry a loser! In a word, are you going or not? If you don’t go, then I’ll go alone.”
Yue Lin Chong clenched his teeth tightly and pulled Lu Huan’s wrist, and after a constant struggle, he finally made up his mind and said, “Sister Huan, you stay at the bottom of the mountain, Ghost Mist Mountain is too dangerous, it’s better for me to go! When I pick the Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass, I’ll share half of it with you.”
After saying this, Yue Lin Chong resolutely walked towards Ghost Mist Mountain.
Lu Xin looked at Yue Lin Chong’s back, her eyes staring at the top of the bag on Yue Lin Chong’s back, a cold craggy smile appeared on her beautiful face, and she struck out lightning fast, stabbing a sword into Yue Lin Chong’s vest.
“Puh!”
The blood red blade of the sword pierced out from the front of Yue Linchong’s chest.
Drops of hot blood, rolled down from the tip of the sword, and dripped onto the ground.
“For …… why?” Yue Linchong was trembling, his voice carried an indescribable despair and grief.
“Swish!”
Lu Han’s face was very cold as she pulled her sword out and kicked Yue Linchong’s back, knocking him to the ground.
Afterwards, she walked over and removed the bundle from Yue Linchong’s back, opening it up and seeing the dozens of Three Leafed Sacred Qi Grasses inside, a satisfied smile appeared in her eyes.
Lu Han closed the bundle and looked at Yue Linchong in the pool of blood, and let out a cold smile, ”You think I don’t know the ferocity of Ghost Mist Mountain? If you ascend the Ghost Mist Mountain, you will definitely have no return, since it’s all death, why not choose to die under my sword? At least, I can still get your share of the Three Leaf Sacred Qi Grass.”
