Chapter 411: Chapter 319: Overnight Advancement
After returning from the Stone Workshop, Duan Rong stayed in his cave all day without anyone coming to find him.
It seems Pan Yong was right; around here, only when Shang Xiangyu needs alchemy do the medicine boys need to prepare some work, resulting in a short period of busyness.
Usually, it’s quite leisurely.
Duan Rong did not go to see Shen Mizi.
It’s not that he didn’t want to go. Although Shen Mizi’s place in his heart was evidently not as important as Xiao Yu and Ximen Kankan, the four of them had come out from Xianggu County together, and he and Shen Mizi had some kind of fateful connection.
But Shen Mizi was in the Elder Hall.
The Elder Hall is the highest authority center of the Taiyi Sect, not a place a registered disciple like him can visit at will.
In recent days, Duan Rong has gained a preliminary understanding of some institutions within the Taiyi Sect.
Places like the Lower Courtyard and the Weapon Workshop and Stone Workshop under the Imperial Stable Hall are loosely managed, and many of the personnel there aren’t even Martial Artists...
But places like the Medicine Pavilion, Guanglu Institute, and Scripture Repository have much stricter management, with guards and patrollers at least in the True Qi Realm. Although Duan Rong hasn’t seen them, he imagines that higher Realm Martial Artists must be stationed in these places.
The Medicine Pavilion, Guanglu Institute, and Scripture Repository are like this, so one can only imagine the Elder Hall.
If Shen Mizi weren’t from a bureaucratic family, she probably wouldn’t have been able to work as a maid in the Elder Hall.
Duan Rong sat cross-legged in the depths of his dark cave without lighting a lamp. The power of the pill was surging through his meridians, and in the darkness, Duan Rong furrowed his brows as he used Divine Sense Penetration on his own body to ’introspect’ the meticulous changes within his meridians and Dantian.
In the sect, there’s a certain danger to using Divine Sense Projection.
But firstly, Shang Xiangyu’s place is far from the sect’s core areas, located in a secluded corner. Secondly, Duan Rong controlled his Divine Sense to stay within his body, trying not to let it project outward, thus reducing the risk of detection.
The reason Duan Rong did so was because he was truly in a tight spot right now.
His one night of cultivation required him to devour two Yang Pills.
But for a normal Martial Artist who had just entered the True Qi Realm, the power of one Yang Pill could last them three days of refining.
Yet Duan Rong, since he obtained the Realm through devouring the Artifact Spirit, not only had a more efficient True Qi operation but also a more precise and meticulous control over True Qi. This caused him to refine and absorb the pill’s power much faster than his peers.
The good side, of course, is that he advances faster. The bad side is that it burns money... no, it burns Contribution Points even more.
Contribution Points are the hard currency within the sect; mortal-world silver coins are mere scraps of paper in the sect.
Through its outer disciple framework, the Taiyi Sect tightly controls Qingzhou.
Any resource in the mortal world can be taken and given as it pleases, without the need for silver coins!
Duan Rong exercised Divine Sense Penetration on his body as he sought ways to increase the efficiency of pill power usage, trying to reduce the dissipation of pill power running through his meridians...
New to the sect, when it comes to opening new sources, he’s in the dark and has to focus more on conserving resources.
Outside the cave, the valley was awash with white mist; the twilight skylight pierced through the dark clouds and descended upon the valley...
Duan Rong suddenly opened his eyes, exhaling a breath of turbid air after refining two Yang Pills overnight and painstakingly controlling the pill power to prevent its loss, feeling immensely fatigued.
Glimpsing the gentle skylight streaming in from outside the cave, Duan Rong wrapped himself in a blanket and fell into a deep sleep.
Unknown how long he slept, Duan Rong seemed to have had a very long dream.
In the dream, he sometimes saw Xiao Yu and other times Lv Qingzhu.
In the dream, inexplicably, Xiao Yu ignored him with a cold face, while Lv Qingzhu kept smiling at him...
Upon waking, Duan Rong felt like his head was splitting; he scratched the corners of his eyes, climbed off the stone bed, and exited the cave.
Outside the cave, the white mist rolled and dark clouds gathered, making the sky appear indistinguishable from early morning.
Walking along the cliffside, Duan Rong reached the water source, washing his face with the mountain spring streaming down the cliff and gulping down a few mouthfuls of the cold spring water into his parched throat.
Duan Rong perked up and returned to the cave, grabbing two empty burlap bags and a wooden bucket to head into the dense forest.
Duan Rong first reached the edge of the pool in the dense forest, placing the wooden bucket and empty burlap bags on a large green stone by the pool.
Then he sprang into the dense woods, returning with a wild chicken.
Handling the chicken cleanly, Duan Rong sat on the large green stone and began roasting it.
While roasting the chicken, Duan Rong periodically gazed at the seemingly small, mystical pool.
This mystical pool, the water cold to the bone; the day Duan Rong bathed here, curious about the pool’s depth, he dove deep to explore.
But Duan Rong plunged into the dark depths, surrounded by none of the sky’s light, though dark currents swirled around him...
The dark pool bottom resembled a bottomless abyss, devouring everything, imperceptible in depth...
For unknown reasons, an immense fear suddenly arose in Duan Rong’s heart.
The fear was so profound that he began to tremble deep beneath the water.
Duan Rong immediately twisted his body, kicked his legs upwards, and swam towards the bright water surface.
After a while, the inexplicable fear gradually dissipated from his heart...
Surfacing from the pool, Duan Rong’s heart filled with lingering fear.
In the depths of the pool, his mind was clearly shrouded by a fear.
But what exactly was the cause of this fear?
Was it merely due to the deep, unfathomable darkness of the pool bottom?
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