Chapter 42: The Ruins Covenant, Matters of the Imperial Court

By the time Zhao Chun returned, the crowds had dispersed and the night was deep and silent. A few scattered stars were embedded in the sky, arranged in a disordered pattern; she could not discern which was the Big Dipper or which was Sirius.

Hu Wanzhi had left a message for Cuicui and packed her things to return to Xuancao Garden, leaving the already quiet residence to fall once more into a silence that was almost maddening.

Zhao Chun had long since grown accustomed to everything. With an expression as calm as usual, she pushed open the door to the inner room, her mind heavy with many thoughts.

As Xu Feng had said, she needed to prioritize advancing her cultivation. Reaching the perfection of the sixth layer was not particularly difficult; after a period of bitter cultivation, it would come naturally. Furthermore, if she could master the "Fire Forging Furnace Technique" afterward, her combat strength would see another significant boost.

Additionally, upon learning of Zhao Chun's visit to Xu Feng, Meng Han had sent a letter, specifically requesting that it be given to her.

The letter stated that while he and Xu Feng were traveling abroad, they had unexpectedly discovered the ruins of an old sect, which was where they had obtained the Rock Jade Stone Root. Consequently, he wished to invite her to join them for further exploration.

He also clarified that the ruins had originally belonged to a minor sect and had been explored multiple times; currently, they only contained items useful for the Qi Refinement stage. While these would be useless to him and Xu Feng, they would be quite beneficial to Zhao Chun. He promised that he would personally escort her, ensuring she would return safe and sound.

Zhao Chun's lip twitched slightly. She was a living anomaly—wherever she went, trouble followed, and every single time, it involved her very life. She had managed to survive until now only by adhering to the spirit of "surviving a great disaster brings great fortune."

Meng Han dared to speak this way, but she did not dare. Heaven only knew what strange thing would happen next.

However, despite her private grumbling, Zhao Chun was determined to go. Having a Foundation Establishment cultivator to protect her was a rare opportunity.

Later, when Xu Feng learned she intended to practice the "Fire Forging Furnace Technique," he advised her to make up her mind sooner, ideally making a trip to the ruins before she began her cultivation. That old sect had originally been a sect of weapon refiners, so there might be leftover methods or secret techniques that Zhao Chun could stumble upon. After all, Meng Han's precedent existed—who knew if there might be another "fish that escaped the net"?

Moreover, the art of weapon refining mentioned something regarding fire control, which would be beneficial to her cultivation of techniques.

Furthermore, there was another major matter that Zhao Chun only learned about when Xu Feng told her.

There were tens of thousands of sects in the Southern Region, their exact number unknown. Some small sects, with only a handful of leaders, elders, and disciples, dared to claim they had founded a sect.

In truth, there were only about a hundred truly prominent sects in the Southern Region. Every ten years, they would gather at the Tunqi Pool to discuss the Dao. The geniuses of every sect would emerge, making it a grand event for the entire region, also known as the Hundred Sects Assembly.

And there were only two years left until the next assembly.

The discussions during the assembly were primarily for cultivators of the Essence Condensation and Foundation Establishment stages, though sects would also bring their junior disciples from the Qi Refinement stage to broaden their horizons and prepare for the next assembly.

As it was a grand event for the entire region where the heroes of the world would gather, a sense of heroic ambition rose in Zhao Chun's heart, and she naturally wanted to go and witness it.

Xu Feng chuckled softly. "Junior Sister, there is no need to rush. You have only recently entered the Dao, and I fear you won't be able to take the stage this time. However, with your talent, give yourself another ten years, and there will surely be a place for you on the Martial Arts Stage."

"Senior Brother, you jest. I am aware of that. It's just that even if I cannot compete, I still wish to go and observe, to see what the heroes of the Southern Region are like." Zhao Chun felt a sense of embarrassment; it was true—no matter how much she fantasized, it was impossible for her to leap into the Foundation Establishment stage within two years.

Xu Feng nodded and, after thinking carefully, said, "That is possible. You are under Elder Li's discipline. During the assembly, each elder can bring five Qi Refinement disciples as attendants. If your spot hasn't been decided by then, you can go and ask the Elder."

Zhao Chun smiled and agreed, but her heart was conflicted. Trying to gain favor with Li Shu would be extremely difficult.

Including herself, there were a total of nineteen disciples under him, all of whom possessed dual spiritual roots. It was clear that in terms of innate talent, Zhao Chun could not compete with those senior brothers and sisters.

It seemed that only by making a breakthrough in combat strength could she make a name for herself before Li Shu and secure a spot for the assembly.

Zhao Chun did some minor investigating into the news of the eighteen fellow disciples above her. Unlike others, the order within Li Shu's lineage was not fixed; one had to fight for a higher position.

The first eleven had already reached Foundation Establishment, with the eldest senior brother even being at the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage, on the verge of entering the Essence Condensation stage. From the twelfth senior brother to the eighteenth senior sister, they were all in the late Qi Refinement stage. Zhao Chun's competitiveness among them was practically negligible.

However, the twelfth and thirteenth disciples were currently searching for spiritual items, presumably preparing for Foundation Establishment. This meant that from the fourteenth to the eighteenth, there were exactly five late-stage Qi Refinement disciples occupying those spots firmly.

If Zhao Chun wanted to displace one of them, she had to advance to the late Qi Refinement stage, and she had only two years to do so.

She took a shallow breath, and after careful consideration, her heart was filled with nothing but confidence. When she first joined the sect, she only thought about how to become a formal disciple within five years; yet in just two short years, she had already entered the inner sect, with her cultivation approaching the sixth layer of Qi Refinement. Although she possessed considerable luck, she could not ignore her bitter cultivation through every season, which was the true foundation of her achievements.

Now, with dual spiritual roots and the "Fire Forging Furnace Technique" in hand, it was not impossible to fight her way up and succeed in two years.

Zhao Chun sat cross-legged on her meditation mat and exhaled a breath of turbid air, entering a state of quiet cultivation.

She slightly closed her eyes, feeling the spiritual energy surrounding her body.

Since her Wood spiritual root had been extracted by Yue Cuan, her cultivation speed had indeed increased significantly. However, without the Wood element to neutralize it, the fusion of Metal and Fire energies had become increasingly violent, occasionally causing her to feel a sense of ferocity during her cultivation.

Fortunately, the "True Consciousness Method" could regulate it somewhat, and combined with her own self-restraint, the remainder would not cause major issues for now.

Zhao Chun curled her lip; she still had to find a way to solve this. If she left it unchecked, she feared it would cause trouble.

The sixth layer of Qi Refinement involved the unification of the upper and lower Dantians, communicating with the meridians and acupoints throughout the body. In essence, it was the integration of everything a cultivator had practiced so far into a single whole.

Her upper and lower Dantians were both full. What she needed to do now was find an opportunity to connect the two Dantians, allowing the spiritual energy to circulate and coexist between them. Once achieved, her flexibility in battle would be higher, and many techniques could be amplified as a result.

Just like the "Swift Sword Technique," where the upper Dantian governs the divine sense and the lower Dantian governs the physical body; when the two are combined, they can unify the mind and the limbs, allowing for movement that follows the will perfectly.

As for how to seize that opportunity, it was Zhao Chun's first time attempting it, and she could not grasp the key. She had heard Xu Feng say that when the mind and body possess a shared intent to move, that is when the opportunity appears.

With this in mind, Zhao Chun thought of a certain place in the sect and intended to head there tomorrow.

*Tomorrow is the exam, so today I'm going to review. The price of slacking off in class every day is having to cram right before the test. Which subject am I not going into blindly? (Shouted)*

(End of Chapter)