Chapter 326: Retreat
"It’s been twenty years." He said.
"Twenty years..." Jiang Yue muttered and looked at Li Futian in disbelief.
"How can it be twenty years?" Xuan Ke also didn’t want to believe it.
"It’s difficult to accept but it’s really been twenty years."
After that, everyone fell silent.
At first, Yang Xu, Bing Lan, Yu Nianzhen, and Jiang Yue were shocked. After the shock, came anger.
They didn’t want to believe they spent twenty years in the space tear and didn’t have anything to show for it.
"What kind of broken space crack did we enter?" Jiang Yue roared angrily.
They only had one hundred years in the Nine Treasures secret realm.
In the blink of an eye, almost thirty years had passed and none of them had refined an origin treasure.
"It’s no use getting angry." Yu Nianzhen sighed and hugged his husband.
In fact, he was also angry.
However, being angry would not change the fact that they spent twenty years in the space crack.
"Nianzhen is right. Our first priority is to recover. When we recover, we can leave this place to find more opportunities." Yang Xu said.
"I don’t believe the twenty years was wasted. Maybe you will discover your rewards when you recover." Li Futian comforted but no one was optimistic.
Even if they discovered the so-called rewards, it was unknown whether they would be worth the wasted twenty years.
"Let’s recover for the time being." Yu Nianzhen said and everyone nodded.
With the mentality of not wasting any more time, everyone focused on recovering.
Originally, Yu Nianzhen thought it would take one month.
However, everyone did their best and they all recovered in less than three weeks.
"The water still has a lot of medicinal effect." Jiang Yue mentioned when everyone left the hot spring.
"Let’s collect it." Yu Nianzhen was unambiguous about the matter.
They still had more than seventy years in the Nine Treasures secret realm.
In that time, they would likely be injured and the medicinal hot spring water would come in handy.
"Good." Jiang Yue agreed and began to transfer the water into several bathtubs in the ancient palace.
"It would be good if we had more than one universe gourd." He said and sighed.
Earlier, they used their universe gourd to collect the water in the thunder pool.
Since they hadn’t had time to use the water, the universe gourd was tied up and couldn’t be used to collect the medicinal water.
"Be content." Yu Nianzhen said and rubbed his husband’s hair.
"I am just saying." Jiang Yue said and stuck out his tongue.
"If you are done messing around, let’s look at the map." Yang Xu said and laid the map down.
"Do we even know where we are?" Jiang Yue complained and the others looked a little depressed.
"The space plane is here." Yang Xu said and pointed at the map.
"Let’s start from there."
After that, everyone focused on the map and they finally figured out their location after one hour of study.
"It seems this place is a hidden medicine valley." Xuan Ke said.
"We haven’t had a chance to look around so we haven’t discovered the herbs. Let’s see what we can get on our way out." Bing Lan said.
"Once we leave this area, we will enter the ice cave." Yu Nianzhen said and looked at his master.
"The treasures in the ice cave are especially important to your mistress." Yang Xu said.
"Let’s hope that all the treasures have not been taken away." Xuan Ke said.
"The ice cave is relatively far from the entrance of the Nine Treasures secret realm. Although it’s been thirty years, a lot of people shouldn’t have made it this far out."
"Master, XiaoYue and I should retreat to refine the treasures we found in thunder forest."
"I also want to retreat." Xuan Ke said.
"Leave everything to me and your mistress. While you retreat, we will go to the ice cave."
"I have been in the ancient palace for twenty years. I will stay outside to explore with the two seniors." Li Futian said.
"About the treasures we found in the space plane..." Yu Nianzhen started but Li Futian stopped him.
"Brother Yu, let’s wait to divide them later. I still feel that the twenty years were not wasted."
"I am not in a hurry to refine the space treasures." Xuan Ke said.
"Keep them for the time being." Yang Xu said and Bing Lan nodded.
After arranging everything, Xuan Ke, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue entered the ancient palace to retreat.
"Brother Xuan, we still have a lot of lightning liquid. Do you want it?" Jiang Yue asked.
"I want it but I don’t know what to exchange it for."
"You can owe it for the time being." Yu Nianzhen said and handed over several bottles of lightning liquid.
"I understand. I will repay it when I have an opportunity."
"Good"
After that, they separated and Xuan Ke went to a training room while Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue went to their room on the top floor.
"Azhen..." Jiang Yue called as soon as the door closed behind them.
However, Yu Nianzhen didn’t give him a chance to speak. He pulled him into his arms and kissed him passionately.
"It’s been too long." He said and Jiang Yue rolled his eyes.
"How can it be too long? We didn’t feel the passing of time." Jiang Yue said but still held his husband tightly.
Although they didn’t feel the passing of time, the thought that they hadn’t been together for twenty years was discomfiting.
"I want you." The swordsman said.
"En." Jiang Yue agreed and pulled Yu Nianzhen to the bed.
Soon after, their clothes fell to the ground and their two bodies entangled on the large bed.
This entanglement lasted one month before the two separated.
If not for the fact that they were conscious of time, they would have continued to linger for a few more months.
"After leaving the Nine Treasures secret realm, I want to have a long holiday." Jiang Yue said.
"Let’s find a secluded place and hide away for a few years." Yu Nianzhen agreed.
"Good."
With that, Jiang Yue drained the water in the bathing pool and replaced it with lightning liquid and water from the thunder pool.
"The lightning element in the water should allow us to better understand the lightning in our treasures. Tempering our bodies will be an added bonus."
"XiaoYue, I want to use the enlightenment mat. Do you mind?"
"Go ahead."
From the beginning, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue planned to incorporate the concept of duality into their cultivation.
However, their paths were different.
Jiang Yue planned to keep the attributes of the heavenly thunder stone and the heavenly gentle soil when he refined his first treasure world.
On the other hand, Yu Nianzhen planned to extract and refine the meaning of violence and gentleness from his thunder essence crystal and heavenly gentle soil.
Although his choice was more difficult to implement, Yu Nianzhen believed it was the best path for him.
However, he didn’t have a lot of time to slowly comprehend the heavenly gentle soil and thunder essence crystal.
In that case, he could only rely on the enlightenment mat to increase his comprehension ability.
"Azhen, didn’t you get a soul-condensing stone in the soul beasts’ forest? You can first refine it to increase your comprehension ability."
"I plan to do so."
"Okay."
After that, the two settled on opposite sides of the bath pool.
’I hope it won’t take too long.’ Yu Nianzhen thought and took a last look at his husband.
Soon after, he entered a meditative state and began refining the soul-condensing stone.
This refining took two years.
When he finished, his soul was extremely compact and looked like a physical person.
The only difference between his soul and his person was colour. Otherwise, others wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.
’My soul power is still at the peak of the fourth level but it’s not weaker than an ordinary soul at the peak of the fifth level." He thought excitedly.
However, he was not excited for too long.
At the back of his mind, he still worried about time and he immediately took out the thunder essence crystal and heavenly gentle soil.
’Lightning is violent and the soil is nurturing.’
’If my sword is too violent, it will lose its way and cause meaningless slaughter. However, if it is too gentle, it will also lose its way and cannot kill when necessary.’
’The trick is to balance violence and gentleness. When necessary, extreme gentleness can turn into extreme violence and vice versus.’
With the help of the enlightenment mat, Yu Nianzhen’s mind went blank.
Soon after, a lot of ideas flooded into his mind and he began to slowly comprehend them.
As he did, the comprehended meanings entered his first treasure world and formed a black-and-white yin-yang symbol.
