Chapter 235: Rapid Improvement

At another spiritbeast lair on the Eastern Sea, by the time Xiao Nanfeng and his group arrived, there were still a few scattered sect disciples from other Immortal sects cleaning up and claiming their spoils. Xiao Nanfeng ignored them and commanded the Taiqing disciples to quickly establish a formation and manifest thick fog all around them.

"Sir Xiao, two other Immortal sects have raided this spiritbeast lair, and they've taken care of all the sea spirits in the vicinity. Both sects spent a great deal of treasure in an attempt to excavate a draconic vein, but unfortunately, they both failed.

Xiao Nanfeng smiled. "They were searching in the wrong place. Who can they blame but themselves?"

He activated the Immortal's Destruction and sent Immortal-binding chains deep into the sea. The ground quaked, and a tsunami formed in the region. Another nine-hundred-meter draconic vein was unearthed from the ground. The dragon keened; the disturbance could be heard all over the region.

"Croak, Warble, this time, you'll be responsible for guarding me," Xiao Nanfeng said.

"Understood!" the two toad spirits replied.

"You Jiu, we'll share this draconic vein. Everyone else will await the next one," Xiao Nanfeng said.

"Got it!" everyone replied.

Xiao Nanfeng and You Jiu immediately began to absorb the draconic vein.

The draconic vein was particularly large, and despite Xiao Nanfeng and You Jiu's best efforts, they had only managed to absorb four-fifths of it before they simply couldn't hold any more of the aether. The remaining fifth was divided among the rest of the cultivators.

Draconic aether surged into Xiao Nanfeng's body and was immediately distilled into pure yang origin qi. All that qi was channeled into the second sun in his dantian as he prepared to gestate his second nascent spirit.

The huge commotion attracted the attention of quite a few cultivators around. They came to investigate what was going on, but with Croak and Warble releasing their Wingform-realm aura, most were too intimidated to step further. A few rash cultivators did so regardless, wading fearlessly through the thick fog before Croak and Warble instantly dealt with them.

Word of the unusual commotion spread. In just four hours, Wingform-realm cultivators that had heard about the news arrived. Sensing Croak and Warble's auras, however, the Wingform-realm cultivators ultimately chose to avoid a confrontation.

Blooms of energy emerged from within the fog as more and more cultivators broke through.

"The second stage of Spiritsong!" Xiao Nanfeng opened his eyes.

He had formed his second nascent spirit and was pleased with the accomplishment. He patiently waited for You Jiu to finish meditating.

A burst of energy erupted from You Jiu as he slowly opened his eyes. He smiled wryly. "Sir Xiao, I was just a little bit away, but was ultimately unable to break through to Wingform."

"Then we'll keep going. Come! To the next draconic vein!" Xiao Nanfeng commanded.

"Yes!" the cultivators replied in excitement.

The cultivators sailed off once again.

With Croak and Warble at Wingform-realm, Xiao Nanfeng and his group didn't have to be worried of being ambushed or attacked any longer.

At another spiritbeast lair, the cultivators smoothly and efficiently excavated another draconic vein.

A burst of energy erupted from Xiao Nanfeng as he gestated a third nascent spirit.

Meanwhile, You Jiu finally overcame his bottleneck in a tremendous burst of energy. He had reached Wingform.

With three Wingform-realm cultivators guarding them, Xiao Nanfeng and his group grew bolder and far more confident.

They excavated two more draconic veins. Xiao Nanfeng's cultivation had reached the fifth stage of Spiritsong in half as many days. Only then did they return to the undying realm.

"King Xiao, aren't we going to continue? This feels great! I'm already at the third stage of Spiritsong, and all my brothers have reached the peak of Ascension. King Xiao, if we can excavate a few more draconic veins, they'd all reach Spiritsong—and we could all become elders in the sect together! We'd support you as division leader," Ye Dafu exclaimed.

"Silence!" Ye Sanshui chided his nephew, then turned to Xiao Nanfeng. "I apologize, King Xiao, but my nephew continues to speak without any forethought."

Xiao Nanfeng smiled and shook his head. "It's no matter. Ye Dafu's not wrong. If I can become the division leader of the Taiqing Sect, I would not refuse."

"Ah?" Ye Sanshui hesitated.

"See, Third Uncle? Even King Xiao agrees with me. At this rate, once my brothers all reach Spiritsong, we'd have a dozen elders on our side. King Xiao will surely be able to reach Wingform by then. If King Xiao announces the news of Zhao Tianheng's death, given his influence in the sect, it would hardly be a far cry for him to be made the Ascended division leader. Furthermore, Elder Ku would surely support him too!"

Ye Sanshui: ...

"We can speak of sect matters later. Unfortunately, we won't be able to continue," Xiao Nanfeng replied.

"Why not?" Ye Dafu asked.

"We've excavated five draconic veins in a short period of time. Do you think we'd be able to keep going with so much attention around us?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.

"That's right. We took advantage of the fact that information takes time to spread to excavate five draconic veins quickly. Now, however, the Immortal sects must have an idea as to what we're doing. If we were to keep excavating more veins, they'd rally together against us, and even Croak and Warble wouldn't be able to hold them back then." Ye Sanshui nodded sagely.

"I see. I was thinking of things too simply." Ye Dafu nodded seriously.

"Of course, there's a more important factor. Not every spirit king at the Eastern Sea Draconic Palace has a lair atop a draconic vein, and we've excavated all the ones there are in the vicinity," Xiao Nanfeng explained.

"There aren't any left?" Ye Dafu was taken aback.

"There are, but they're situated under the Immortal sects' islands. Do you intend to raid them?" Xiao Nanfeng smiled.

"Ah? Forget it, then!" Ye Dafu's face stiffened.

That was akin to committing suicide. Each Immortal sect was helmed by the strong and guarded by multiple layers of defensive formations.

"That's it, then. We'll head back and digest our gains from this expedition," Xiao Nanfeng informed them all.

"Understood!" the disciples replied.

"Don't worry, King Xiao. Even without draconic veins around, We'd be able to support you better then!" Ye Dafu pledged.

"Oh?" Xiao Nanfeng was somewhat taken aback.

"We cultivate the Indomitable Body, after all. Every time we suffer or hurt ourselves, our cultivation will increase by leaps and bounds. We've devised a method for helping each other improve at a rapid rate," Ye Dafu informed Xiao Nanfeng excitedly.

"How?"

"By being beaten," Ye Dafu said.

"What?"

The disciples who had overheard the conversation all looked over, thinking that they must have misheard.

"We take turns beating each other up to within an inch of our lives. That's how our cultivation has been shooting up rapidly!" Ye Dafu explained.

Beside them, Zheng Qian gasped. "I received reports not too long ago about a group of men shining in gold furiously beating each other in a valley. Was that you?"

"That's right. Our principle is that, if we don't want to be beaten to death, we have to beat our opponents to death!"

Everyone stared at Ye Dafu in shock. Were these disciples crazy...?

"The more we get beaten, the more addicted we become. By now, I feel uncomfortable if I go without being punched for a day!"

"I like being beaten too. I was almost beaten to death last time!"

"My cultivation improves rapidly after I get beaten. It's really effective!"

"Right, it's comfortable, too!" Ye Dafu's lackeys bragged.

Xiao Nanfeng and the others stared at these perverts in shock. What had the Indomitable Body done to them?

Ye Sanshui palmed his face. At that moment, he even wanted to dissolve his familial ties with Ye Dafu. His nephew was simply far too embarrassing!

Back in the draconic palace, in the mirror world, Xiao Nanfeng's avatar was facing off against a length of red rope.

As his main body's physical cultivation improved, so too did that of his avatar. His improved physical cultivation would affect his spiritual power as well, strengthening him to some extent in the mirror world, but not enough to overwhelm the red rope directly. Fortunately, the hypnosis of his red moon was startlingly effective.

In the end, he took down the red rope cursed effigy and brought it to the divine purple rock, where Madam Rouge devoured it.

"Lad, you must be finding it harder and harder to take down my subordinates now. With more of them going missing, they must have become alert. They won't head anywhere on their own. Things will only become more dangerous for you—until they beat you to death!" the red rope cursed king warned.

Xiao Nanfeng ignored him and turned to the mirror fragments glowing in pink. "Madam Rouge, are you certain that the red rope cursed king can't send mental transmissions to his subordinates anymore?"

"You've done as I told and consumed half the cursed spiritual power in the Mirror of Truth to seal the entrance to this layer of the mirror world, and they won't be able to enter. Naturally, they can't communicate with the red rope cursed king, either," Madam Rouge replied.

"Good. As long as they don't die, it's only a matter of time before I take them all down." Xiao Nanfeng nodded.

"As long as they don't die?" Madam Rouge seemed confused.

"They're all only at late-stage Lunar Deluge, and I can handle them for now. If they were to listen to the red rope cursed king's commands and devour each other to reach Yin Body, however, I would surely falter. Without the cursed king's commands, I doubt they would do something so extreme on their own."

"But these lengths of red rope are already wary, aren't they? If they gather together, how will you take them down?"

"I'll take it slowly. There's no rush," Xiao Nanfeng replied, smiling.

Before Madam Rouge could speak, the red rope cursed king interrupted them. He sniffed. "Your physical cultivation might have improved a little, but the difference is insignificant. You'll never take them down!"

"I just need to cultivate a little more." Xiao Nanfeng smiled at him.

The red rope cursed king frowned. Xiao Nanfeng was exaggerating, surely. What would be the point of trying to raise his cultivation now?"

"Madam Rouge, give me a bit of time."

Xiao Nanfeng stepped into the internal space within the divine purple rock.

"Has he really gone into secluded cultivation? As if he'd manage to get anything done like that," the red rope cursed king scoffed.

Xiao Nanfeng continued to infuse his spiritual power into the Scroll of Heavenly Dao as the mysterious space slowly repaired it.

He was in cultivation, but not with his avatar—it was his main body doing all the work. By then, his main body had returned to the undying realm and was hard at work understanding, comprehending, and intuiting more scriptures. At the same time, the people of the undying realm were generating a constant influx of fortune that allowed him to gain a deeper, more complex understanding from multiple interlayered perspectives.

Four months later, Xiao Nanfeng turned nineteen. He put down the final jade tablet in his hands. He had finished reading all 48,000 scriptures from the Taiqing Immortal Sect's Vault of Scriptures, committed them to memory, and comprehended them at a superficial level at the very least. Over these four months, all the fortune that he had managed to gain from the countless people in his kingdom were all spent for improved comprehension.

As his knowledge of scripture broadened and deepened, he made tremendous progress with both his Body of Yin and Taiqing Yin Body.

Suddenly, a blinding halo of white light formed behind his head.

"Late-stage Lunar Deluge!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up.

At that point, his avatar put down the slowly regenerating Scroll of the Heavenly Dao and stepped out of the domain of the divine purple rock. Spiritual power suffused his body, and a red moon manifested to the back of his head, so bright that the red rope cursed king was gobsmacked.

"Impossible. He's only been in secluded cultivation for four months. How could his spiritual cultivation have improved to such an extent?"

"Red Rope, your subordinates are dead!" Madam Rouge crowed.