Chapter 651: Chapter 650: The World of Mental Power
The Zhuolu Plain undulated like countless enlarged waves, extending all the way to the horizon under the setting sun, giving a sense of endless grandeur.
The faintest hint of blood color in the sky made the Zhuolu Plain seem even more desolate and solemn.
"Let’s split up and search."
Yu Zhao suggested with a smile.
Since he had accompanied Shi Xiaole to this place, it would be unreasonable not to look around, even though it was unlikely to find any Essence Stones here. But what if they stumbled upon great luck?
Another reason for his proposal was that if the four of them found an Essence Stone together, how would they divide it?
"Agreed."
"I don’t mind."
Right then, each of them chose a direction and left.
The Zhuolu Plain was usually deserted and eerily quiet. Among the four of them, even the young girl with the weakest power had reached the eighteenth level of the Dragon Gate realm, which was quite impressive in the martial world, so they wouldn’t be in any danger.
Shi Xiaole chose the north direction.
As he raced along, he strained his spiritual power to its limit of one thousand five hundred meters, and the ground beneath his feet blurred as he retreated.
His spiritual quality far surpassed that of ordinary people, thus if any Essence Stones appeared within the radius of one thousand five hundred meters, he would sense them. There was no risk of missing them due to the high speed.
Of course, others might not be as fortunate.
An instant later, half a two-hour period had passed.
The Zhuolu Plain seemed to have no end, extending all the way to the end of the earth. Shi Xiaole walked and stopped, but found nothing.
"Hm?"
Another half two-hour period passed. Just when he was feeling frustrated, a very subtle fluctuation appeared more than a thousand meters to the south.
Whoosh.
In a blink of an eye, covering a kilometer, Shi Xiaole soon turned over a pale gray stone from a pile of rubble.
"Finally, I found it, a used Essence Stone!"
From the beginning, Shi Xiaole had never thought of trying his luck.
Those major forces and countless martial artists had searched tirelessly but found no Essence Stones. So why would he be able to find one? What Shi Xiaole was aiming for were these used Essence Stones.
To others, used Essence Stones may be useless. So even if they were found before, people wouldn’t pay much attention to them.
But for Shi Xiaole, these used Essence Stones were treasures. Even a remnant of energy, when accumulated, could potentially transform his spiritual quality.
Logically speaking, the spiritual quality of terrestrial immortals should be no worse than his own. So why did they abandon these used Essence Stones?
Could it be that they couldn’t detect the energy fluctuations in the stones?
Thinking it over, Shi Xiaole was again reminded of his mutated soul. He couldn’t find any other reasonable explanation.
Shaking his head, he took the used Essence Stone in his hand and urged the green little sword.
The next moment...
The Essence Stone, having exhausted its energy, crumbled into dust.
While others had to absorb the Essence Stones with sparse spiritual power, Shi Xiaole utilized the methods of terrestrial immortals to absorb with the power of martial arts, thereby increasing efficiency by dozens of times.
Perhaps it was a stroke of luck.
After finding the first used Essence Stone, Shi Xiaole quickly found the second, the third... Particularly behind a mound of dirt, he found hundreds of used Essence Stones.
Presumably a long time ago, someone had acquired Essence Stones and absorbed and refined them. The remnants left behind were now Shi Xiaole’s windfall.
With each used Essence Stone he absorbed, Shi Xiaole’s spiritual quality gradually increased.
However, he could clearly feel that compared to the progress he made when he absorbed it at the inn last time, this time was much slower. It was likely because the higher the spiritual quality, the harder it is to improve.
Three days passed quickly.
During this time, Shi Xiaole returned to the meeting point with the other three, indicating that he wanted to continue searching and asked them to return to the Qin Family first.
The three of them smiled bitterly, seeing Shi Xiaole’s firm expression. Knowing that they could not persuade him, they left after warning him a few times. They were not at all worried about Shi Xiaole encountering danger due to his martial arts skills.
Nobody among the three could have imagined that Shi Xiaole, in his search, would find over eight hundred used Essence Stones in half a month.
A trace of energy silently enhanced Shi Xiaole’s spiritual quality. But what made him frown was that he was still far from increasing a level.
Moreover, unlike last time, this time after the increase in spiritual quality, the change in the green little sword was not evident, at most it was slightly clearer than at the start.
The martial arts power, from not stepping into the door to entering, was easy. But to reach a small level of achievement from entry level, the difficulty increased by more than ten times.
Most people, just after breaking through to the Divine Barrier Realm, would already be at the small level of achievement in martial arts power due to the divine air.
"My spiritual quality is too high, and each used Essence Stone contains too little energy. After absorbing over eight hundred, the effect is still unsatisfactory."
Shi Xiaole shook his head. After more than half a month, he had turned the Zhuolu Plain upside down, but the effect did not meet his expectations, which was a regret.
If only he could find a complete Essence Stone.
Gently touching down on the ground, looking at the distant sunset, Shi Xiaole stepped off.
Whoosh...
Unexpectedly, at this moment, an invisible ripple suddenly passed through his body, making him turn abruptly.
"That is..."
Under the sunset, a crack suddenly appeared that the human eye couldn’t see.
From within the crack, Shi Xiaole sensed a profoundly complex Array System aura. Even with his spiritual power, when he penetrated it, he felt entangled and couldn’t grasp anything.
The crack widened.
Boom!
The Array System flood crashed forth without warning, rolling towards Shi Xiaole. He quickly reacted, maneuvering fluidly to make his escape.
Ten thousand meters.
Five thousand meters.
Two thousand meters.
Whoosh.
The thick flood of Array System swallowed Shi Xiaole in an instant, and soon after, another two warriors present on the Zhuolu Plain. As it reached its peak, the Array System flood retracted into the space tear at an even greater speed.
After a few breaths, the space tear healed, with everything appearing as if nothing had happened at all.
...
"Did that boy go to Yuanling?"
By a roadside, a black-haired elder frowned.
"Lord Emissary, according to our alliance’s intelligence, the Kirin is travelling through the official road of Lingnan. Among his companions, one is from the Qin family of Yuanling. It is very likely that they are heading there," reported a man with his head bowed.
The black-haired elder gave him a disdainful roll of his eyes.
After Shi Xiaole caused chaos in the South Sea, the Whales Alliance had marked him as a must-kill target. To this end, they didn’t hesitate to send the Sky Crow Wanderer himself.
Unfortunately, with the Divine Strategy Academy no longer providing information about Shi Xiaole, the Sky Crow Wanderer had to rely on the Whales Alliance’s underground network in the Flying Horse Dynasty and his own methods to gradually track down his target.
He had a sudden inspiration and reached Endless Risky Peak ahead of time, where he indeed found Shi Xiaole. He initially planned to make his move after Shi Xiaole left the Endless Risky Peak, to eliminate him swiftly.
Unexpectedly, at the worst possible time, Jade Lion invited him for drinks.
With the presence of three Divine Barrier Realm monsters, Sky Crow Wanderer had no choice but to change his plans. His new strategy was to secretly follow them and wait for an opportunity to strike.
However, he had underestimated the three monsters, or rather, the force behind them, who moved mysteriously. He almost got discovered and had to escape thousands of miles away.
When he returned to Windhearing City, he learned that Shi Xiaole had already left. Based on the alliance’s intelligence, he followed the trail to his current location.
No one could understand Sky Crow Wanderer’s urgency.
Shi Xiaole’s abilities in the Endless Risky Peak battle had deeply shocked him. Sky Crow Wanderer suspected that given another year or so, Shi Xiaole might even break into the Divine Border Realm. By then, it would be too late to kill him.
So at present, Sky Crow Wanderer couldn’t wait to find Shi Xiaole and take him down personally!
"Did you notify our people in Yuanling?"
"Lord Emissary, they are already in position and ready to report the latest movements of the Kirin to you at any time," the man said respectfully.
Nodding, Sky Crow Wanderer shot off into the distance, disappearing instantly and leaving the man gawking in surprise.
...
When Shi Xiaole woke up, he found himself in a dense forest. The air was slightly humid, and the vegetation was larger than in other places.
The strangest thing was the feeling around him. Once it seeped into his skin, it froze his Vigorous Air, making it unusable.
But his mental power was extraordinarily active.
"Ah!"
"Help!"
From afar, two screams rang out. By the time Shi Xiaole arrived on the scene, he could only see two pairs of legs sticking out the mouth of a giant python. With one forceful swallow, the python gulped down the struggling legs.
Hiss.
Noticing Shi Xiaole, the python opened its mouth wide and sprung at him. Its tail lashed out, the strong, pungent smell hit Shi Xiaole before it did.
Out of instinct, Shi Xiaole thrust out with his sword, but upon realizing he couldn’t use his Vigorous Air, he quickly changed his move into a punch which landed squarely on the python’s head.
Splat!
The python’s head burst open, but before its blood could splatter, Shi Xiaole had moved away, not a single drop staining his clothes.
Even without his Vigorous Air, Shi Xiaole’s single arm strength exceeded several tons, more than enough to handle a mere python.
What surprised him was that he had sensed a sharp mental fluctuation when the python charged at him. Due to his extraordinarily strong psychic sea, he hadn’t been affected.
Could it be that the two warriors from before fell prey to this trick?
Perhaps his loud punch had made quite a commotion. Soon, over a dozen large snakes were rushing towards him through the undergrowth, with several giant birds circling in the sky.
Buzzing...
Waves of mental fluctuations from all sides rushed towards Shi Xiaole. Each one was on the level of an average Xuanqi Realm Warrior, impacting him relentlessly.
Moving swiftly, Shi Xiaole punched and kicked, smashing each giant snake. The birds in the sky tried to ambush him, but he dodged them adeptly and rent the birds in halves. Amidst the shower of blood, Shi Xiaole remained in his clean azure garment.
The cries of the birds travelled far. The sound of their wings flapping alerted Shi Xiaole to a black mass of huge birds charging towards him. The substantial mental fluctuations they emitted was like the sea, threatening to drown everything in their path.
"This is bad!"
Shi Xiaole turned to flee.
Despite each bird’s mental strength seeming not potent, their combined strength would be enough to shatter his psychic sea, causing irreversible damage.
What in the world was this place?
"Hold on, the animals outside use physical strength, but these here use mental strength. Is this area under Array influence?"
The environment here kept Shi Xiaole from using his Vigorous Air but in contrast, his mental power was exceptionally potent. It was strikingly similar to the Array System aura that had swept him away, inevitably leading him to this hypothesis.
