Zhang Ruochen had written two letters, one to Mu Lingshi and one to the Orange Moon Star Envoy. The content of the letter was, of course, for them to help investigate the Qi Family and Qi Fayu.
The two letters, again, were different.
In the case of the letter to Mu Lingshi, Zhang Ruochen didn’t have any special instructions, he just asked Cold Snow to send it over and make sure to personally hand it over to Mu Lingshi.
However, for the letter sent to the Orange Moon Star Envoy, Zhang Ruochen specifically reminded Han Xue to be careful.
Although, the Orange Moon Star Envoy had not proclaimed Zhang Ruochen’s identity to the public, it did not completely prove her loyalty, and in case she intended to harm Cold Snow, with Cold Snow’s experience, it was impossible to be her opponent.
Cold Snow took the two letters and asked, “Master, there is no specific address on the letters, how am I going to find the two sisters?”
“It’s all said to be an adventure, so naturally, you’ll have to rely on your skills to find them.”
On his way out, Zhang Ruochen handed over Sword One and a small gourd containing the Sacred Spring to Han Xue and said, “Don’t slack off even when you’re out on the field, when you come back from the field, I’ll once again assess the results of your cultivation.”
Cold Snow clenched a pair of pink fists and said with incomparable seriousness, “Xue’er will definitely not let Master Zun down.”
Evil Emperor City was a paradise for Evil Dao cultivators, so of course, Zhang Ruochen wouldn’t feel confident in letting Cold Snow go alone, and thus, dispatched Devil Ape and Potentate to accompany her on her journey.
Zhang Ruochen and Little Black, personally sent them out of the Two Yi Sect.
Xiao Hei was still a little worried, his eyes glaring icily at Devil Ape and Pot, saying, “You two, you must remember to take care of Little Xue’er, if anything goes wrong, this Emperor won’t be able to spare you.”
Devil Ape thumped his chest with a fist, and said with a full breath, “Don’t worry, Master Black, unless a half saint steps in, otherwise, whoever dares to touch Xue’er, I’ll blow his head off with one punch.”
Standing on the left shoulder of the Devil Ape, Cold Snow waved to Zhang Ruochen and Little Black, and gradually, disappeared into the horizon.
The Devil Ape and Potty, one violent and the other shrewd, with them protecting Cold Snow, it was almost unlikely that they would encounter too much danger.
Zhang Ruochen also stopped worrying and turned around, returning to the Violet Cloud Spirit Mountain.
There were still eight days to go before the Sword Dao Competition, so of course Zhang Ruochen was going to take this opportunity to continue his cultivation, and a point was a point if his strength could be increased.
Sitting on the bottom of the Heaven Receiving Divine Wood, Zhang Ruochen poured out all the Sacred Spring in his spatial ring and put them into two Ruyi Treasure Bottles.
Holding up the Ruyi Treasure Vase, Zhang Ruochen gently drank a mouthful of the Holy Spring, which probably had to be around ten drops.
Immediately, a cold liquid stream surged into his body, transforming into seven-coloured light at an extremely fast speed, and integrating into the blood and true qi of his entire body.
“Wow!”
At the periphery of Zhang Ruochen’s body, a seven-coloured halo immediately formed as if it was a circular rainbow, showing the colours of red, orange, red, green, green, blue and purple, wrapping his body.
Absorbing the holy water in his body, completely, Zhang Ruochen found that not only had his cultivation level consolidated a lot, his understanding of the Sword Dao had deepened by another point.
“Worthy of being a treasure that everyone wants to obtain, just by taking a sip, it has such a marvellous effect. No wonder Qi Fayu, with her cultivation of the Eighth Transformation of the Fish Dragon, would be so furious even after having a gourd of Sacred Spring stolen from her.”
Zhang Ruochen continued to swallow the Sacred Spring and began to cultivate with all his might.
Spending a month, Zhang Ruochen drank ten gourds of holy water from the first holy spring in a row.
With the power of the Sacred Spring and his diligent study, he finally cultivated the First Sword to the eighth level of the realm.
It was a pity that after drinking ten gourds of the holy springs, Zhang Ruochen’s body reached its limit, and even if he continued to take the holy springs, the effect became minimal.
Zhang Ruochen was unaware that other Sacred Transmission disciples only had significant effects when they drank the first gourd. Those with extremely outstanding natural talent would also only be able to drink four or five gourds at most before reaching their limit.
“The holy water in the first holy spring should be different from the holy water in the second holy spring.”
Zhang Ruochen took out the holy water containing the second holy spring and took a sip of it, and instantly, there was another seven-coloured light that flowed rapidly within his body, rushing straight to the Qi Sea at the centre of his brow, causing his brain to become incomparably empty and clear.
Spending another month and a half, Zhang Ruochen drank roughly ten gourds of holy water from the second holy spring, and all of a sudden, cultivated Sword One to the ninth level of the realm.
Because of the assistance of the Sacred Spring, it caused Zhang Ruochen’s speed of enlightenment to increase by a large margin, saving most of the time.
“If I can fetch the holy water from the third holy spring and drink ten gourds again, I should have a chance to impact the ten layers of the Great Perfection Realm of Sword One.”Zhang Ruochen said to himself.
With his current Sword Dao realm, he already had a good chance of breaking through the first level of the third mountain.
He only needed to wait until the first day of next month, and then he could continue to break through the barrier and collect the holy water from the third holy spring.
Of course, before that, one had to deal with the next Sword Dao Competition.
Zhang Ruochen checked, under the nourishment of the Sacred Spring, his cultivation at the peak of the Fish Dragon’s Fourth Transformation had been completely consolidated, and the true qi in his entire body was quite plentiful and rounded as one, without any repulsion.
If time permitted, he could try to open up a second Sacred Vein right now and impact the Fish Dragon Fifth Transformation.
It was a pity that the time for the Sword Dao Competition was today, and for now, he could only suppress his cultivation for the time being.
Walking out of the Scroll World, Zhang Ruochen, along with Xun Hua Liu and Mu Ji Ji, headed to the Shangqing Palace to participate in the Sword Dao Competition of the Three Palaces and Seventy-two Courts of the Two Dimensions Sect.
Xun Hua Liu and Mu Ji Ji had already refined the Black Water Glazed Crystal, cultivated into the Water Spirit Treasure Body, and broken through to the Fish Dragon Second Transformation, reaching the realm of “Refining Skin into Gold”.
Because their cultivation had improved greatly, they were full of energy and walked with their heads held high and their eyes raised, looking disdainfully at anyone they saw.
Of course, in front of Zhang Ruochen, they did not dare to be too arrogant.
Xun Hua Liu said, “Boss, you must be more careful during the Sword Dao Competition, if you are not defeated, you must admit defeat immediately.”
“Why?”Zhang Ruochen said.
Xun Hua Liu’s eyes chilled a little as she hummed coldly, “Within the clan, there are many people who are jealous of your fortune and charisma. Especially those suitors of Senior Sister Qi, several of them have already let slip that they want to humiliate you on the battle stage of the Sword Dao Competition. Even, I have heard that there are people plotting and wanting to use this opportunity to kill you.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “The Sword Dao Competition should have a Half-Saint Ancestor supervising from the sidelines, so if anyone dares to kill someone intentionally, would the Half-Saint Ancestor not ignore it?”
Mu Jiji sighed, “Although it is said that the clan’s internal competitions have always demanded that no one should be hurt. However, it’s not like you don’t know that in every Outer Sect Grand Competition and Inner Sect Grand Competition, which time has there not been a disciple who killed his opponent due to a mistake? Furthermore, the higher the cultivation level, the greater the possibility of accidents.”
“I see.”
Zhang Ruochen nodded, and although he wasn’t afraid, he secretly wrote down Xun Hua Liu and Mu Ji Ji’s words.
It was better to have an extra hand of defence than no defence at all.
Upon arriving at the Shangqing Palace, the three of them separated and headed to different venues.
The place Zhang Ruochen was going to was naturally the Fish Dragon Eighth Transformation level martial arts battle stage.
Different levels of martial arts battle platforms were built in different places and had different levels of formations set up. There were a total of four battle platforms at the Fish Dragon Eighth Transformation level, located on the Purposeful Imperial Spirit Mountain of the Shangqing Palace.
The four battle platforms appeared to be quite tall, completely piled up by ten thousand jin heavy red blood spirit stones, up to twenty zhang high, thirty zhang in length and width, like four cylindrical stone mountains, exuding a lofty aura.
Not only was the area of the battle platform relatively larger, it was convenient for cultivators of the Eighth Transformation of the Fish Dragon to utilise powerful sword martial arts.
And more importantly, around the battle platform, there was a top-notch defensive array, capable of withstanding the full force of a Half-Saint’s strike.
Therefore, no matter how fiercely the cultivators of the Eighth Transformation of the Fish Dragon exchanged blows on the battle platform, the aftermath of the battle would not pour out.
There were a total of three hundred and sixty-eight cultivators who had signed up for the Eighth Transformation of the Fish Dragon, and in addition to the Sacred Transmission Disciples, there was also a large group of green-clothed elders.
The biggest difference between the green-clothed elders and the Sacred Transmission disciples was that they only broke through to the Fish Dragon Realm after the age of sixty.
Theoretically, because of their limited qualifications, it was difficult for a green-clothed elder to cultivate beyond the seventh change of the Fish Dragon.
However, a green-clothed elder who was able to cultivate to the Fish Dragon Eighth Transformation would definitely be quite a remarkable existence, even more powerful than a Sacred Transmission Disciple in some aspects, only because of some special reasons, that’s why they weren’t able to break through to the Fish Dragon Realm before the age of sixty.
Strong people of the eighth transformation of the Fish Dragon fighting each other was not something that could be seen at all times, and those inner disciples who were unable to participate in the Sword Dao Competition would of course not let go of such a rare opportunity to observe.
When Zhang Ruochen arrived at the lower part of the martial arts battle stage, there were already many inner disciples gathered at the Purposeful Imperial Spirit Mountain, which could be described as a sea of people, a boiling, bustling to the extreme.
Every time a participant of the Fish Dragon Eighth Transformation arrived, it would immediately cause a huge stir.
“Elder Dao Xuanqi has arrived, it’s said that his old man is already a hundred and fifty years old, and has always been the number one green-clothed elder of the Law Enforcement Academy. It’s really unexpected that even he is actually participating in the Sword Dao Competition, with his elder’s profound cultivation, it’s definitely not difficult to enter the top ten.”
“Elder Uncle Xu Changsheng is also here, his cultivation is world-defying, and he is the favourite for the top three.”
“Look, senior sister Qi Fayu appeared, she’s so young to have climbed to the top of the second mountain of the Ancient God Mountain, she definitely has the talent to become a Sword Saint.”
Every cultivator of the Fish Dragon Eighth Transformation was an extraordinary big shot in the Two Element Sect, and normally, all of them were so high up in the sky that it was hard to even think about seeing one.
Only on a big day like today could they be seen appearing at the same time.
Some of them were senior elders who had been famous for nearly a hundred years, while others were young heroes who had shaken the heavens with their fame.
Zhang Ruochen’s arrival, of course, caused quite a stir, although, no one was optimistic about him, but he was after all a number one figure now, and his Sword Dao talent was there, making it impossible for people to be unconvinced.
