Chapter 126: Fully Cultivated

In the midst of the white smoke, Xu Ning sat cross-legged, breathing steady.

He began to absorb the concentrated aura around him into his body.

‘The Martial Arts Panel did not pop up yet.’

When Xu Ning practiced on his own in the past, he also didn’t receive a prompt when he absorbed aura.

But now, the concentration of aura in the air had increased a lot, but the result was still the same.

But Xu Ning was not discouraged. He decided to condense and compress the aura in his abdominal cavity.

Just like the Thousand Source Bug, he wanted to absorb the aura and then compress them into solid Aura Crystals.

Xu Ning didn’t know whether this method would work, but he still had to boldly try it.

Aura continued to pour into Xu Ning’s body, flowing between Xu Ning’s meridians and into his abdominal cavity.

Xu Ning condensed the aura little by little.

“It seems to have no effect.”

Xu Ning did not give up, as the accumulation of aura in his abdominal cavity was far from reaching his limit.

Xu Ning had enough patience to do this.

Time slowly passed by.

Soon, two hours went by.

Xu Ning felt that the aura in his abdominal cavity could no longer be filled.

Judging from the body capacity of a person in the mold body realm, he had reached his limit.

Even if the aura between his meridians was brought into his abdominal cavity, it would begin to leak and escape.

“Still not working.”

Xu Ning felt a little regretful.

‘Could it be that this aura fountain, a tool for cultivation, is completely useless to me?’

However, just when Xu Ning was getting a little frustrated, the Martial Arts Panel finally sent a prompt.

—

1 unit of discovered energy, absorb?

Yes/No

—

‘It works!’

After seeing the prompt, Xu Ning was a little excited.

‘I can really use the aura fountain!’

‘Although it’s only 1 unit of energy, it’s still something!’

Xu Ning calculated in his mind. ‘There are 24 hours in a day, of which four hours can be set aside to replenish my mental and physical strength. The remaining twenty hours are worth 1 unit every two hours, adding up to 10 units per day and 300 units per month. Taking into account the 150 units of energy I can get from the Thousand Source Bug, I can harvest a total of 450 units of energy per month!’

This was not even including the 300 units of energy provided by the three Pure Source Dans he would receive from the Seven Boxers. Including this, it would total up to 750 units of energy a month. At such a rate, Xu Ning would be able to break through to the true qi realm in one month.

The energy required to advance to the true qi realm was 800 units.

If he broke through to the true qi realm, with Xu Ning’s current foundation, it would not be difficult to deal with Gu Yishang, who was in the void realm third stage.

At that time, the crisis of the Seven Boxers would be solved.

‘However, the Knife Moon Crowd probably won’t give me a month.’

Xu Ning knew very well that in a week or so, the Knife Moon Crowd would come to snatch the aura fountains away from the Seven Boxers.

‘Forget about it, I’ll siphon as much energy as I can. After doing that, I’ll find Le Caiwei and ask if she could provide me with some resources. Although the Seven Boxers is now falling apart and a lot of resources are lost, there must be some remaining wealth.’

After thinking about all this, Xu Ning calmed down and began concentrating on gathering aura.

…

Knife Moon Crowd.

Gu Zhiyin came to find Gu Yishang alone.

“Sis, I’m back from the Seven Boxers.”

Gu Zhiyin said to Gu Yishang in front of him.

Gu Yishang was wearing a light yellow blouse, with her hair rolled up and tied with a delicate wooden hairpin.

She looked to be younger than Gu Zhiyin.

Once a mortal realm martial artist advanced to the void realm, their lives would be changed.

Not only would it delay their rate of aging, but if one was willing to spend more time, one could even become more youthful.

Many people who looked to be in their twenties could actually be in their thirties or even forties.

However, considering the 150-year life span of a void realm martial artist, being in their forties was still considered young.

But even so, in the Yuelan Faction, the age of inner disciples was not allowed to exceed forty years old.

Once they were over forty years old, they would automatically be stripped of their inner disciple status.

If one reached the void realm fourth realm when their status was stripped off, they would be promoted to a deacon. Otherwise, they could only be sent out to do practical missions that would bring real value to the faction.

“Did you snatch their people and resources?”

Gu Yishang asked Gu Zhiyin.

“A lot of people were poached by us and a lot of their resources were brought back.”

Gu Zhiyin held great respect for Gu Yishang. He was even a little scared of his sister.

Gu Zhiyin poached a lot of senior officials from the Seven Boxers. While leaving the Seven Boxers, they also nabbed the material resources and the resource channels of the Seven Boxers.

“However…”

Gu Zhiyin paused for a moment. “None of the four aura fountains were taken away from the Seven Boxers.”

“You didn’t get any of the aura fountains?”

Gu Yishang raised her eyebrows. “There are people at the Seven Boxers that can still stop you? Their only true qi realm martial artist left is Ning Xun, but hasn’t he already left in the faction?”

“Yes, Ning Xun was indeed not there, but there was someone named Xu Ning.”

Gu Zhiyin said, “This person seems to have just advanced to the void realm, but he seems to have mastered a third level punching secret technique. I tested him a bit, but I couldn’t get an advantage over him.”

“Oh?”

Gu Yishang showed a surprised look. “The Seven Boxers has this kind of hidden card. If what you said is true, and he has this kind of strength after advancing to the mold body realm, this indicates that this person has accumulated extremely great power in the mortal realm. This kind of person will advance quickly in the void realm.”

“He’s like He Mingye, our first true legendary disciple of the Yuelan Faction. After breaking through the shackles of the mortal realm, within three months, he advanced to the void realm third stage, and eventually became an elder at the Pimei Faction.”

Gu Yishang spoke with a tone of reverence.

“Senior Brother He Mingye’s existence is not something we can look at.”

Gu Zhiyin answered, “Apparently, when he was in the mortal realm, he was deliberately suppressed by the Faction Master and was forced to swallow countless top-level dans. He had only made a breakthrough after he had established an extremely solid foundation.”

“Xu Ning’s talent is definitely not comparable to Senior Brother He Mingye.”

“But even then, this person must be taken seriously.”

Gu Zhiyin went on to say, “Sister, what if you take action now and snatch the aura fountains away from them. Otherwise, I’m afraid that this kid will stand firm in front of us. At that point, it will not be easy for us to make another move. Besides, other inner sect groups are staring at the remaining resources of the Seven Boxers. I am afraid that if we hinder our pace now, the big pieces of the pie will be eaten first.”

“We don’t need to be in a hurry.”

Gu Yishang seemed very calm. “Recently, the leaders and high-level officials of other inner sect groups are stepping up in their cultivation to prepare for the demon slaying conference that is in two months.”

“During the demon slaying conference, the Faction Master, elders, and many other big figures will show up. They all want to use this opportunity to stand out and impress them. Therefore, they will not spend too much time on the affairs of the Seven Boxers. At most, they will just send some subordinates to devour the scattered resources of the Seven Boxers.”

“And it’s not just them, I have also started to concentrate on preparing for the conference.”

Gu Yishang said, “I have cultivated a secret technique to the third level, but that is still not good enough for the demon slaying conference. I have to hurry up and cultivate two other secret techniques to the third level. With three third level secret techniques, it is very likely that I will be favored by the elders of the faction and be accepted as an in-name disciple!”

Gu Yishang’s eyes flashed with hope.

It was impossible for inner disciples to become true disciples, but if they were good enough, they could be accepted as in-name disciples by the elders of the faction.

Although their status would be below true disciples, it was much better than being inner disciples.

“If that is the case, this is indeed more important.”

Gu Zhiyin agreed with Gu Yishang’s statement. “I will start to gather the scattered resources of the Seven Boxers, so you can practice with peace of mind. Once you cultivate your techniques to the third level, let’s take over the aura fountains of the Seven Boxers.”

“Okay.”

Gu Yishang glanced at her younger brother. “But you also have to remember that strength is the foundation of everything. The acquisition of resources is only for the betterment of your martial arts practice. Your martial arts strength has not improved for a long time, so you have to step up your practice. After all, there is also a chance for you to appear at the demon slaying conference.”

“Understood.”

Gu Zhiyin said humbly.

…

Half a month went by.

Under the foggy moonlight.

A group of more than a dozen people gathered from all directions.

Just now, they had completed another search.

These dozen people were all from the Yuelan Faction.

Prior to this, Xiao Qiyun and the other disciples of the inner sect had disappeared when they went to capture a void realm demon beast in the foggy night. Now the deacon of the inner sect had organized a manhunt to search for them.

Before the accident, Xiao Qiyun was a leader in the inner sect, and he had a good relationship with the deacons.

So after he disappeared, everyone was trying their best to find him.

“No one.”

“No traces here…”

“…”

After searching for so long, everyone still could not find a trace of Xiao Qiyun’s squad.

The atmosphere in the search team was a bit gloomy.

After Xiao Qiyun’s disappearance, they had been searching for him for more than half a month in this deep valley, but they still did not find anything.

“It’s difficult…”

Deacon Yu had a very good relationship with Xiao Qiyun, and he was thus deemed as the leader of this search.

“Deacon Yu, how likely is Senior Brother Xiao to be alive right now?”

Ning Xun was the one who asked this question.

When Deacon Yu decided to set out to search for them, Ning Xun brought two void realm junior brothers and followed alongside him.

But as the search went on, their hopes were diminishing.

“Very small.”

Deacon Yu sighed.

He was optimistic about Xiao Qiyun, and he felt that Xiao Qiyun would definitely advance to the void realm fourth realm in the future. He could even become a deacon of the faction just like him.

He just did not expect that Xiao Qiyun would go missing just because of a void realm demon beast.

“Everyone.”

Deacon Yu looked at everyone. “Return to the faction.”

“Deacon Yu!”

Ning Xun was agitated when he heard this. “Are we giving up on Senior Brother Xiao like this?”

Deacon Yu shook his head helplessly. “There is no other choice. The only thing we can do now is to hope that Qiyun is going on some kind of adventure, and hopefully it is not a dangerous one.”

Ning Xun could not say anything.

Leaving right now meant that they were giving up on Xiao Qiyun.

“Return to the Yuelan Faction.”

Deacon Yu made the final decision.

Although Ning Xun was unwilling, he also knew that Deacon Yu’s decision was correct.

If they continued to search aimlessly like this, they would just be wasting their time.

“Maybe after some time, Qiyun will return to the faction safely.”

Deacon Yu comforted, “There had been similar cases in the faction before. Disciples who had been missing for a long time would return safely after a while. On the bright side, we did not find evidence of his death.”

These words ignited hope in Ning Xun.

But no matter what, it was time to return to the faction.

Ning Xun began to worry about the Seven Boxers again.

Now that he was no longer in the inner sect, the strongest person in the Seven Boxers was nothing but a mold body realm warrior.

Ning Xun only hoped that while he was away, the Seven Boxers could hold on.

…

A few days passed by.

Ning Xun had returned to the Yuelan Faction inner sect with two void realm martial artists.

He went directly to Spring Moon Courtyard Room 6.

He saw Le Caiwei there.

Over the past few days, Le Caiwei had been working day and night. She stabilized people’s moods, planned out their resources, and ran around looking for help.

She was too busy.

“Brother Ning! You are back!”

After realizing Ning Xun had returned, Le Caiwei felt that the burden on Xu Ning’s shoulders had lightened considerably.

“Is there any news from Brother Xiao?”

Le Caiwei stepped forward and asked eagerly.

Ning Xun shook his head, his expression depressed.

“We couldn’t find any trace of Senior Brother Xiao.” Ning Xun said, “But then again, we didn’t find any evidence of Senior Brother Xiao’s death either.”

Le Caiwei was disappointed.

“While I wasn’t here, was the Seven Boxers safe?”

Ning Xun asked.

After hearing this, Le Caiwei carefully told Ning Xun all the things that had happened after he left.

The bullying from the Knife Moon Crowd, the mass departure of the disciples within the group, and the division of various resources.

Of course, she also included Xu Ning’s advancement to the void realm, and him taking action with great righteousness, protecting the most precious resource of the Seven Boxers: the four aura fountains.

“I see…”

After hearing all this, Ning Xun sighed.

Once the Seven Boxers was in a difficult situation, even long term members of the group had just walked away, even joining rival groups.

Unexpectedly, Xu Ning, a newcomer, stood up and came forward.

“Caiwei…”

After thinking about it, Ning Xun said, “Xu Ning is worthy of our focus! We not only want him to use our aura fountains at will, but the remaining resources of the Seven Boxers must now all be directed towards him!”

“Whether it is dan medicine, spirit medicine, or contribution points, as long as Xu Ning needs it, we’ll give him as much as he wants!”

Ning Xun said firmly to Le Caiwei.

Le Caiwei looked at Ning Xun and nodded heavily. “Understood.”

Le Caiwei knew very well that Ning Xun had recognized both Xu Ning’s character and talent.

After listening to Le Caiwei’s account just now, Ning Xun had already figured everything out. With Xu Ning’s current strength, he could replace Xiao Qiyun to a certain extent once he advanced to the true qi realm, becoming the top power of the Seven Boxers.

“Xu Ning, with his solid foundation in the mortal realm, will be able to advance extremely fast for the first three void realm stages! We must help him advance him to the true qi realm as soon as possible, at all costs!”