Vol.3-Chapter 44 – Late Stage of the Spirit Core Realm

The night passed in silence, and the fire went out. Only a few strands of white smoke slowly drifted up into the sky.

Through the broken walls, one could see that the sky had slowly brightened. San Wu looked at the two of them with interest and then closed his eyes. Pei Su Su looked at Zhao Jiuge tenderly for a while before closing her eyes to rest.

At this moment, a spirit force fluctuation echoed across Zhao Jiuge’s body. The spirit force around him became more condensed.

Pei Su Su and San Wu were awakened by this fluctuation. Both of them were shocked—they didn’t expect Zhao Jiuge to make a breakthrough.

San Wu stared at Zhao Jiuge. The short moment when Zhao Jiuge leaked his aura, he was able to determine Zhao Jiuge’s cultivation level: late stage of the Spirit Core Realm. However, his spirit force was much more dense, presumably due to his spirit core being a high grade. This would explain why he was able to become the Chief Head Disciple of the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect, given his strength. According to the information he received, when Zhao Jiuge attended the Seven Holy Land Exchange, he was only at the mid stage of the Spirit Core Realm. While others were concerned about Zhao Jiuge’s strength, he paid attention to the details. He had seen in the records at the temple that while having a higher grade spirit core meant you were much stronger, it also meant your strength increased relatively slowly. He had experienced this himself as well.

Pei Su Su didn’t think much about this, she only cared about Zhao Jiuge as a person. As for his breakthrough, she only felt happy for him. She knew how much effort he had spent to improve his strength.

After devouring the inner core, Little Black was even more sleepy than before. He didn’t even wake up from such a big commotion. He just laid on the dried, yellow hay and continued sleeping with his belly up toward the sky.

Zhao Jiuge had naturally noticed his own breakthrough. It had been a long time since he last made a breakthrough, and it had made him anxious. Fortunately, after this fight with the Tiger Flood Dragon, he unintentionally broke through. It looked like the daily accumulations still had some use after all. Now that he had reached the late stage of the Spirit Core Realm, he would face a bottleneck. Zhao Jiuge couldn’t help but feel worried. Just breaking through from the mid stage to the late stage was already so difficult—breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm seemed as difficult as ascending the heavens.

All the top disciples of the other holy lands were at the Nascent Soul Realm, and even Su Su was at the mid stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. How could he not be anxious? The Battle competition in two years was looming closer and closer, which increased his pressure. However, cultivation couldn’t be forced—he could only let it happen naturally. Even though he was anxious, he could do nothing but silently accumulate his cultivation.

The blue and white spirit core in his body had become a bit larger and was surrounded by a soft halo of light. This halo firmly shrouded his grade-8 spirit core.

Perhaps Zhao Jiuge felt that his cultivation was slow, but what he didn’t know was that with a grade-8 spirit core and his talent, if he didn’t have his body reforged by Jian Wuxian, his cultivation speed would be even slower.

Others might cultivate faster and reach the Nascent Soul Realm, but their strength wasn’t as good as his. Although his cultivation was slower, his advantage was that he was stronger than those in the same cultivation realm as him. Coupled with his spells and treasures, he was not afraid of cultivators that had been in the Spirit Core Realm for many years.

His starting point was too high—he had joined a sect with a powerful foundation like the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect. He didn’t have to struggle and crawl like those cultivators below. He also only looked toward those better than him and did not see those below him who couldn’t even form a spirit core due to their poor cultivation methods. Even getting some spirit stones was difficult for them, much less spells.

In cultivation, one’s cultivation method determined the path they would take, and their talent determined how far they would walk on that path. As for treasures and other things, it would depend on the individual to gather them.

To speak bluntly, Zhao Jiuge was currently under a lot of pressure as the Chief Head Disciple of the Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect. As the Battle Competition was approaching, his mental state had become restless.

Zhao Jiuge looked at his spirit core with expectation. He wondered what kind of nascent soul a grade-8 spirit core would create. Once he reached the Nascent Soul Realm, he would be like a fish in the ocean; his strength would undergo an unprecedented change and he would be able to better use his three spirit treasures.

The spirit force inside his body continued to flow through his dantian and nourished his spirit core. Zhao Jiuge knew that once it absorbed enough spirit force, he would only need a chance for it to break free from its limit to form his nascent soul!

In a good mood, Zhao Jiuge slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Pei Su Su looking at him with a look of worry and Little Black sleeping next to him.

San Wu had already gotten up and was moving his body at the temple door while breathing in the fresh, morning air. He had gotten used to living at the temple since he was young and was still not used to life outside.

Pei Su Su smiled at Zhao Jiuge and asked in a gentle voice, “Made a breakthrough?” She was sitting on the praying mat with her two palms supporting her chin. She looked at Zhao Jiuge with a passionate gaze.

“Mhmm.”

Zhao Jiuge nodded and stretched his arms before standing up. He moved his body that had become stiff because he hadn’t moved all night.

He looked at Pei Su Su’s smiling face and saw the care in her eyes. Zhao Jiuge felt a ripple in his heart, and at this moment, he felt very satisfied. Sometimes, he thought that just living with Su Su like this was a pleasant life.

Even if forgot those lingering figures in his mind, even if he couldn’t achieve immortality, he wouldn’t have any regrets.

“Let’s go. We’ll stretch a bit, then we should head out.” Zhao Jiuge grabbed Su Su’s hand and walked toward San Wu.

The three of them observed the scenery before them. Everything was so fresh and natural. Their minds became much more peaceful. The thing that broke the scenery was the body of the Tiger Blood Dragon and the traces of last night’s battle.

Zhao Jiuge told San Wu their route and then asked, “San Wu, are you sure you want to come with us? Are you sure your destination is the same as ours?”

“This Little Monk came out here to train, it doesn’t matter where I go. I came to see the wonders of the world and the different customs of the land. Also, to kill some monsters and demons to help all life.”

San Wu’s expression was serious and his hands were together, and he spoke in a stable but powerful tone. For some reason, whenever Zhao Jiuge saw this bald young man with a slightly pudgy baby face, he found it difficult to associate San Wu with a monk. He couldn’t help but laugh in secret.

After a night of rest, everyone had mostly recovered. Zhao Jiuge excitedly said, “Let’s go. Dawn is about to arrive, so we should head out. I want to experience the local customs of the 13 provinces!”

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

However, when he spoke, he paused for a moment because he remembered the woman he had promised to travel the 13 providence with. He wondered where she was and if she was doing well.

He returned to the dilapidated temple and picked up the sleeping Little Black. He put Little Black in his clothes and then respectfully bowed toward the Buddha statue. Then he left with San Wu and Pei Su Su.

An instant later, everything returned to normal.

Within the luscious forest, the three of them walked toward the direction of the sun. They fell into the brief moment of silence. The only thing that could be heard was them walking through the flowers.

The sunlight scattered down and bathed them. The warmth made them all feel much better.

“Jiuge, let us leave the mountains and follow the official road. Not only is the path here difficult to walk, we might encounter more trouble like before. Most importantly, we need to follow the official road to find people.”

San Wu said in a calm voice as he turned the Buddha beads in his hand. For him, the most important thing during this training trip was to remove demons from this world and help all life. If they remained in the mountains, they wouldn't even see a single person.

Pei Su Su pouted and let out a snort. She playfully said, “Hmph, I don’t believe anyone would dare to cause trouble. Otherwise, their fate will be the same as that Tiger Flood Dragon’s.”

San Wu seemed to be a bit afraid of Pei Su Su. The moment he heard her speak, he quickly sped out and led the way.

Zhao Jiuge revealed a helpless smile. For some reason, whenever San Wu looked at Pei Su Su, it was like a mouse encountering a cat.

“That’s fine. Let us cross the mountain and find the official road. We’ll look for a city along the road. I need to find something at an auction house along the way.” Zhao Jiuge had to interject to prevent Pei Su Su from teasing San Wu.

If it were anyone else, Zhao Jiuge wouldn't have allowed them to follow them. Perhaps it was because San Wu looked quite simple, and the fact that he was also an orphan resonated with Zhao Jiuge. Perhaps it was really fate like San Wu had said. Zhao Jiuge had a good impression of San Wu.

After devouring the Seven-Colored Flowing Light Grass, his Sanskrit Divine Body had become stronger. This allowed Zhao Jiuge to see a path to improve his strength. He wouldn’t be making any breakthroughs anytime soon and the sword art would take time to improve, so he had decided that he was going to strengthen his Sanskrit Divine Body.

According to the records, in order to cultivate a full Sanskrit Golden Body, aside from the Arhat Divine Fruit and Seven-Colored Flowing Light Grass, he also needed herb called the Cold Light Flower.

These three natural treasures would allow him to cultivate the full Sanskrit Golden Body and then improve it step by step to display its full power. Zhao Jiuge wanted to go to an auction house to find clues about the Cold Light Flower, but he didn’t know anything about it beside a picture he had seen in the records.

The three of them were talking, so it took a while for them to get anywhere. Fortunately, with Pei Su Su and San Wu here, Zhao Jiuge didn’t feel lonely.

Although San Wu looked rather simple, he would always say something that would make the two of them laugh. This reminded Zhao Jiuge of the three years he spent cultivating in the outer sect—the laughter was very familiar. He had a brother called Luo Xie, who was like a living treasure; he always did things that would make him and Leng Rufeng feel helpless.

1. To clarify something that might seem confusing to people as to how Zhao Jiuge lacks talent given his grade-8 spirit core. Talent here used by the author is basically how fast you can absorb spiritual energy and also how fast you can learn new spells. Zhao Jiuge managed to reach grade-7 mostly due to his cultivation method, the rank-2 spirit vein, his teacher reforming his body (leaving a lot of medication left in his body during the breakthrough), and he absorbed that spirit vein that he couldn’t fully digest yet. All of these compounded together to allow him to from a really high grade spirit core. Then it was boosted again by external force.