The netherworld shrouded by a pitch-black sky.
The fifth floor of Tianling Tower.
Her attire had changed. Luo Hongyan, now wearing a dress with intricate patterns, stood in the center of the Xuanyin Stone with her slender figure.
A faint fluorescence was released through the Xuanyin Stone, making her skin as white as snow, like a graceful and beautiful white lotus.
Her inquiring eyes stopped at the direction where Pang Jian disappeared, and she frowned and murmured, "Could it be that I really broke through the defense of that greedy boy?"
With a slight smile, she found the real Ning Yao in that empty sea of consciousness.
"Did you see that? That boy has been protecting me everywhere. I used your body to contact him, and just slightly changed the way we interacted, and I got his approval."
Luo Hongyan, dressed in a bright red dress, is so beautiful in this empty and quiet world that it is intoxicating.
After absorbing a wave of power from the Xuanyin Stone, her soul form became much more solid and the lines in her skin became clearer.
Only a spirit like her can use the power of the Xuanyin Stone to cleanse the impurities in her soul.
Seeing the smug witch showing off again, Ning Yao, who was imprisoned in her own sea of consciousness, had to admit that the witch was truly born with natural beauty, a beauty she had never seen before.
After absorbing the "Xuanyin Power", the demon woman's spirit became more and more beautiful, making her feel ashamed of herself.
If this was really the witch's former form, then I wonder how many great people in the world she must have amazed.
Compared with the beauty of the enchantress in front of her, the deceased Shangguan Qin is not even worthy of carrying her shoes.
The more Ning Yao looked at him, the less confident she became. So she turned her head away and stopped looking at her. She responded in a cold voice, "When Pang Jian and I were exploring the first phoenix bone, we saw a broken gray-white rock in his bamboo basket. It was a rock mixed with spiritual power and Xuanyin power."
Luo Hongyan hesitated and said, "You mean, he knows that I use the Xuanyin Stone to refine my spirit body?"
"I think so. He has been here before, and more than once. The soul formation collapsed because of him and broke into many Xuanyin stones. The Xuanyin stones that had their Xuanyin power absorbed by you have all turned into ordinary stones. He may have noticed something."
As a bystander, Ning Yao has been observing through her own eyes recently and has been reflecting on her own behavior.
She had to admit that she had indeed missed it at first.
Even if Pang Jian had not embarked on the path of cultivation and was just a hunter in the mountains, he still had many good qualities.
What's more, Pang Jian was full of mystery, but she didn't notice it at the time.
“Knowing that I can practice with Xuanyin Stone, he still gave these precious stones to me? Haha, he really cares about me.” Luo Hongyan chuckled and practiced the magic spell among the many Xuanyin Stones.
“Hoo! Hoo!”
Strands of cold and gloomy "Xuanyin Power" suddenly disappeared towards her brows, flowed into the empty sea of consciousness, and were then swallowed by Luo Hongyan, whose skirt was fluttering.
The crystal clearness and translucence inside each piece of Xuanyin Stone no longer exist.
…
As night falls, everything becomes quiet.
On the top of a mountain about ten feet away from the White Pagoda, Pang Jian and Zhou Qingchen gathered around a campfire, eating the dry food and cured meat prepared by the Su and He families, and talking by the campfire.
Zhou Qingchen also took out a few cans of spicy liquor from his storage bracelet and threw one to Pang Jian.
Pang Jian put down the bamboo basket on his back, threw the dragon-patterned spear aside, took the porcelain jar of wine and frowned slightly.
"Try this jar of wine!"
Zhou Qingchen didn't even say his name. He tore open the sealing paper and drank it down heroically.
"Wine is a good thing!"
Han Duping screamed in surprise, and he also drank heartily like Zhou Qingchen.
After hesitating for a while, Pang Jian imitated the two of them and started drinking.
After taking a few sips of the spicy wine, he choked and coughed violently a few times. Although he was not used to the taste of the wine, he gradually adapted to it.
"Brother Zhou, give me a jar too."
Su Meng begged in a low voice.
Seeing her crystal clear eyes filled with sorrow, Zhou Qingchen knew that she had not yet gotten over the shadow of Su Yuntian's death, so he handed her a jar of wine and said softly, "When my father died, I was just beginning to understand things. I was not as strong as you at the time, and I cried for a long time before I recovered."
Su Meng held the porcelain jar in both hands and drank in small sips. She didn't eat or answer.
Zhou Qingchen immediately started talking about other things with Pang Jian.
He told Pang Jian that after he and Han Duping escaped from the Black Water Pond, they quickly got in touch using their secret symbols.
After they met again, they thought that everyone except Shangguan Qin had been killed by the dark ghost Hong Tai and others.
In order to prevent the dark ghost from guessing their itinerary, they did not leave in a hurry, but continued to move deeper into the most dangerous north.
They both believed that the hunting team of the Dark Ghost Organization would never set foot in the Far North where the "strange fog" existed.
On the way, they also found several phoenix bones. Unfortunately, those phoenix bones were not rooted in any vital foreign objects, so no wonders like phoenix marrow were produced.
Until they reached Wulan Lake, they did not encounter any other people, but only saw many corpses of wild animals.
Pang Jian omitted many details and only told about his experience in the Black Water Pond, saying that he escaped from Hong Tai's clutches with the help of the "Black and White King Python".
After both sides finished talking about their experiences, the drunken Han Duping couldn't help but ask, "Did you really open up four meridians in one go?"
The drunken Zhou Qingchen also looked at him.
Pang Jian, who felt a little dizzy, nodded and said "hmm" softly.
"Only if the spiritual sea is wide enough and the spiritual power stored is far beyond that of ordinary people can one accomplish such a feat like you!"
"You kid..."
He glared at Pang Jian fiercely and cursed, "You still say that your cultivation talent is poor!"
When Shidui was recruiting Pang Jian to join Zhou's family, Pang Jian once said that his talent for cultivation was too poor. He also comforted Pang Jian not to worry too much, as talent was not the only indicator of a cultivator's future.
“If Pang Jian’s talent is still poor, the young people of the seven major families in the fourth realm are probably all waste.”
Han Duping shook his head and sighed, "Take you for example, Zhou. When you entered the Tongmai realm, you only opened up one and a half meridians, and the spiritual power in your body dried up."
"Among the seven great families in the Fourth Realm, you are the only one who deserves to be called outstanding. You have a first-class talent for cultivation!"
"People like Ning Yao and He Ziren, when they first advanced to the Tongmai realm, couldn't even open up a single meridian!"
He had a very good relationship with Zhou Qingchen, and he kept calling him "boy Zhou". Zhou Qingchen just smiled and didn't get angry at all.
Su Meng, who was drinking with her head down, suddenly raised her head and looked at Pang Jian in a silly way.
Only then did she realize that Luo Hongyan's praise of Pang Jian might still be too conservative.
Luo Hongyan said that only Pang Jian was qualified to challenge Dong Tianze at the same level. Except for Pang Jian, no one else in the Fourth Realm had this qualification.
—Including Zhou Qingchen from the Zhou family.
Su Meng had heard about Dong Tianze's condition from her family and knew that when Dong Tianze was promoted to Tongmai realm, the expansion of his meridians was far less than that of Pang Jian.
"The Dantian Spiritual Sea will often be redeveloped after a major breakthrough in realm. Pang Jian, your Spiritual Sea is so vast in your current realm, which means that when you reach a higher realm in the future, it will become even more vast!" Zhou Qingchen was amazed and envious, and he also boasted shamelessly: "I really didn't make a mistake about you!"
Pang Jian silently took another sip of wine.
Only he himself knew that the four meridians were not his limit, and that there was actually some spiritual power left in his spiritual sea at that time.
He did not proceed with the subsequent meridian reclamation because he wanted to destroy the soul formation as soon as possible and save some energy for fighting.
"I heard that only some geniuses in the upper realm, because of their outstanding talents and the unique spiritual techniques they practiced, can open up multiple meridians like Pang Jian when they are just promoted to the Tongmai realm." Han Duping stared at the dark sky and said, "The upper realm I'm talking about is not the third realm."
…
Bottom of the island.
One of the thick and broad stone pillars wrapped in black rock had a cave dug out at the bottom of the pillar that could be used for people to hide.
The cave is located at the sole of one of the black turtle's feet.
The seriously injured Dong Tianze curled up in the cave at the bottom of the turtle's foot, with the conspicuous phoenix mark on his forehead shining brightly.
He was breathing heavily and using the black tortoise's blood essence that he had intended to use to temper his internal organs to repair the wounds that were pierced by the dragon-patterned spear.
His extremely tenacious vitality, combined with his amazing self-healing ability, is slowly healing his wounds.
However, his mental will, which had been consumed by the spontaneous combustion of one "spiritual evil" after another, was on the brink of collapse.
Extreme mental fatigue, for a practitioner at his level, cannot be cured by practice, but only by deep and long sleep.
He eventually fell into a deep sleep, but the gorgeous phoenix between his eyebrows was still bright in the dark cave.
In a daze, Dong Tianze felt the presence of his master.
In his perception, the master who had previously granted him a trace of power was somewhere in the extremely distant upper realm, watching him through a divine artifact.
Dong Tianze was slightly shocked.
When that drop of phoenix marrow formed and merged into his heart, he knew that he was enduring a rare catastrophe.
If he cannot survive the catastrophe, he will be devoured by the Phoenix Marrow like Ouyang Duanhai and become a puppet without self.
After surviving this catastrophe, the phoenix marrow will move from the heart to the brain, merge with his soul and become a brand.
The moment the Sacred Phoenix Mark was formed, Dong Tianze breathed a sigh of relief and knew that he had a master.
The master is mysterious and powerful, far above the top of this world, holding a divine weapon that can determine the life and death of the "Tianfeng Divine Guards".
At this moment, his master was using that divine weapon to observe his actions as if from the top of the world.
He endured the pain and knelt down in the small cave, hoping that his master would see his piety and humility.
He felt that his master possessed great power and supreme majesty that must not be violated. He had to constantly demonstrate his ability and loyalty in order to gain his master's occasional scrutiny.
The purpose of Dong Tianze's existence is to be summoned by his master one day and go to the top of this world to protect his master.
This time he was favored by his master and was granted a little strength to save his life, seemingly because his master had a special preference for this quiet mountain range that was poor in spiritual materials.
"The person who saved my life last time was my adoptive father Dong Qianfeng, and this time it's my master."
Dong Tianze, unaware that even his soul had been distorted by the Phoenix Seal, silently strengthened his faith in his heart, thinking only about how to win the trust of his master and how to please his master in the future.
In Dong Tianze's mind, his master's majesty and glory surpassed everything and even his own life.
Protecting the master is the lifelong pursuit of every "Tianfeng Divine Guard".
…
(End of this chapter)