Chapter 30: Amber Island

Aboard the Thousand Realm Boat.

Li Qing walked toward his room.

His intuition was unlikely to be wrong; that woman named Zi Ling was indeed paying attention to him, though he was unsure of the reason.

"I need to keep a low profile for the time being," Li Qing cautioned himself once more.

The space inside the Thousand Realm Boat was quite vast, containing dozens of rooms, enough to easily accommodate over a dozen outer disciples.

Li Qing chose a room near the edge to settle into.

Through the window on one side of the room, Li Qing looked toward the room opposite his.

The person residing there was his traveling companion—Jiao Yujian, who was also one of Wei Xuan's men.

Li Qing couldn't help but look thoughtful.

If Wei Xuan truly had a scheme in motion, it would undoubtedly involve Jiao Yujian.

Jiao Yujian possessed a respectable cultivation level of the eighth layer of Qi Refinement.

In terms of raw strength, if Li Qing were to reveal his full capabilities, he wouldn't need to fear this man.

Combined with the trump card in his hand—the Golden Essence Sword Talisman—Li Qing possessed a certain degree of confidence.

"Late-stage Qi Refinement... his storage bag will be even more valuable..."

At this thought, a strange glint flashed in Li Qing's eyes.

His last encounter had truly taught him the meaning of the saying: "Killing and arson bring a golden belt" (wealth through illicit means).

"A horse won't get fat without night grass, and a man won't get rich without windfall wealth," Li Qing murmured.

With his mediocre Mid-grade Spiritual Root, his future path would be fraught with difficulties without the support of massive resources.

As it stood, the Sea-Suppressing Pearl only allowed him to barely keep pace with other gifted cultivators.

To obtain more resources and treasures, he would need to rely on his own methods.

"I just wonder if there will be an opportunity," Li Qing muttered.

*Whoosh!*

With a flick of his spiritual power, the window snapped shut instantly.

The surrounding formations were also activated.

Not wanting to waste time, Li Qing began practicing the Water Control Art.

He was no longer picky about his cultivation environment.

The spiritual energy within the Sea-Suppressing Pearl was abundant, and combined with the medicinal pills in his possession, he could undergo bitter cultivation there.

Li Qing waved his hand.

A Profound Water Spirit Fish appeared directly before him.

Strands of spiritual power enveloped the spirit fish.

In an instant, tiny blue specks of light surged out from the body of the Profound Water Spirit Fish and entered Li Qing's body.

The spiritual power, constantly circulating through his meridians, rapidly refined these blue specks, causing his spiritual power to become increasingly pure.

These were the Water Essence contained within the Profound Water Spirit Fish.

This power could continuously enhance the spiritual power within Li Qing's body.

Currently, the density of the spiritual power in his body was far higher than that of other cultivators at the same stage.

There was another reason why Li Qing hadn't planned to consume the Profound Water Spirit Fish entirely.

That was because this Water Essence could slowly improve his physical body's affinity for water-element spiritual energy.

Of course, that would require refining countless Profound Water Spirit Fish.

But for him, that was naturally not an issue.

Li Qing now had the means; regardless, a batch of Profound Water Spirit Fish in the Sea-Suppressing Pearl matured every four months or so.

The only pity was that once the spirit fish in the Sea-Suppressing Pearl reached maturity, they could not reproduce.

The spirit fish were inherently mystical; without their specific natural environment, they could not breed.

With the assistance of the Profound Water Spirit Fish, his foundation would become increasingly stable.

As for the cultivation of the Thunder Spirit Art, he was beginning to hit a bottleneck.

The positions of his internal organs were too fragile.

In the short term, Li Qing had no way to open the twelve spiritual apertures located on his chest and abdomen.

His body required a longer period of tempering before he could slowly open new apertures.

The tempering of the internal organs was an extremely long process.

To take a further step, another method was to find treasures capable of strengthening the internal organs, but such treasures were extremely rare.

The fragility of the internal organs was a matter of great importance to all cultivators, and any related treasures were quickly snatched up by others.

Li Qing had searched the markets on Giant Wood Island previously, but had come up empty-handed.

In truth, even if they existed, it would be difficult for him to access them.

With his mid-stage Qi Refinement strength, he was not yet qualified.

A gap in strength often represented a difference in the social circles one could access.

Furthermore, there was the gap in status; for instance, a disciple with a Heaven-grade Spiritual Root would naturally have access to more secrets.

***

Above the azure sea...

A massive spiritual boat sped through the waves.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

*Screech! Screech!*

Loud sounds reached Li Qing's ears.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The Thousand Realm Boat had ceased its rapid flight; they had arrived at Yellow Jade Island.

"Junior brothers, please step out," Ling Jie's voice echoed across the spiritual boat.

Li Qing walked out of the door, and at that moment, the door opposite his also opened.

A cold-faced, dark-skinned middle-aged man stepped out; this was none other than Jiao Yujian.

After stepping out, Jiao Yujian glanced at Li Qing before turning to leave without much reaction.

Li Qing sneered inwardly and then followed him out of his room.

Looking into the distance, a massive island appeared in his field of vision.

Upon the island, a continuous mountain range lay behind the spiritual island, looking like a massive yellow dragon reclining there.

There were actually other factions existing within Yellow Jade Island.

However, the spiritual mines in the core location were firmly occupied by the Thousand Water Spirit Control Sect; the other areas were where they resided.

Upon closer inspection, one could see that near the mountain range where the spiritual mines were located, white jade-like peaks several yards high appeared at regular intervals.

This was the sect's formation used to protect the spiritual mines: the White Jade Cauldron-Bearing Array.

This was a high-grade second-order array.

Once fully activated, it could not be broken by anyone below the Golden Core stage.

"Junior brothers, ahead lies our sect's spiritual mine."

Ling Jie pointed toward the spiritual peaks by the shore.

"In a moment, come to me to collect your maps. Each group shall follow the routes indicated on them."

"Each group has seven days to complete the mission. If there are any delays, use the issued tokens to send a message in advance."

After Ling Jie finished speaking, everyone present disembarked from the spiritual boat.

Simultaneously, the previously seen Zi Ling appeared.

She rose into the air, landing upon a silk-like red magical artifact.

Once everyone had retreated, the spiritual boat began to shrink, transforming into a beam of light that vanished into Zi Ling's hand.

Having completed this, Zi Ling's figure quickly descended toward the distance.

On the other side, Ling Jie stood at a distance and began distributing the maps for this mission.

When Li Qing followed the crowd to receive his map, he found that Jiao Yujian was already waiting nearby.

Seeing this, Li Qing took the initiative to walk over.

For this mission, Jiao Yujian, with his late-stage Qi Refinement cultivation, would naturally be the lead, and Li Qing could only follow his lead.

"Senior Brother Jiao, when shall we depart?" Li Qing asked proactively.

He did not want to trigger Jiao Yujian's suspicion just yet.

"If Junior Brother has no other business, let us depart now," a somewhat dull voice came from Jiao Yujian.

"Very well."

The moment Li Qing turned away, a cold sneer flashed in Jiao Yujian's eyes.