Chapter 492: Retreat
The Cangxing mountain treasure house was a room of about one thousand square metres.
It had five rows of shelves and each shelf was divided into two hundred or so compartments.
Before the challenge event, Jiang Yue and Bei Chengling arranged dozens of formations in the treasure house.
There were defence formations, killing formations, and detection formations among others.
It was because of the existence of these formations that Yu Nianzhen was assured of letting people enter the treasure house.
"Good." Yu Nianzhen answered and led Jiang Yue towards the area reserved for consigned treasures.
"Mountain master, deputy mountain master, you are also here." Di Shan greeted with a wary look in his eyes.
"Has fellow Daoist Di found a treasure he likes?" Jiang Yue asked while secretly winking at Yu Nianzhen.
’Azhen, I will distract him. Take the opportunity to quickly grab what you need.’ Jiang Yue thought with a proud look in his eyes.
Seeing this, Yu Nianzhen smiled but didn’t say anything.
Instead, he focused on the treasures in front of him and began to check them carefully.
To his front was a fist-sized golden stone.
The stone emitted a faint golden light and exuded a soothing aura that resonated with his origin.
’Essence of metal.’ Yu Nianzhen thought.
However, the grade of the essence was too low and wasn’t useful for Shanjiang.
’If I want to upgrade Shanjiang, such essence isn’t useful.’ Yu Nianzhen thought and shifted his gaze to another item.
’Gold spirit crystal.’ He quickly identified the treasure.
Unfortunately, the owner of the crystal wanted to exchange it for a same-grade water spirit crystal.
At the moment, neither Yu Nianzhen nor Jiang Yue had a water spirit crystal.
Most importantly, Jiang Yue’s origin belonged to the water element.
If they had a water spirit crystal, they would leave it for Jiang Yue’s use rather than exchange it.
’The gold spirit crystal is a good thing that can quickly increase my cultivation. However, I have a lot of reincarnation stones and advancing won’t be a problem.’
After that, Yu Nianzhen checked the third, fourth, and fifth treasures but none impressed him.
When he was checking the sixth, Di Shan escaped Jiang Yue’s entanglement and also began to examine the treasures.
[How?] Jiang Yue asked.
[This one is good.] Yu Nianzhen said and pointed at the sixth treasure.
[What is it?]
[It’s a sword stone.]
"Sword stone..." Jiang Yue muttered and suddenly thought of King Arthur and his Excalibur.
However, when he looked at the fist-sized stone, Jiang Yue didn’t see a sword stuck in the stone.
"It’s not that kind of sword stone." Yu Nianzhen smiled and rubbed his husband’s hair.
"What kind is it?" Jiang Yue couldn’t help but be curious.
"It’s the kind used to sharpen swords."
"How come?" Jiang Yue asked with a confused look on his face.
After all, Yu Nianzhen had been a swordsman for almost one thousand years and Jiang Yue had never seen him sharpening his sword.
From his knowledge, only mortal swords needed sharpening.
"Generally, the sharpness of a sword depends on the materials used to refine it. After being refined, the sword will retain the same sharpness unless it is re-refined, or damaged. However,..."
"However?"
"Well, a sword stone is a rare item that can significantly enhance the sharpness of a spiritual sword."
"The exchange terms aren’t bad. You should take it." Jiang Yue urged.
"Mmmm." Yu Nianzhen agreed.
His Shanjiang was a profound rank weapon.
Unless Yu Nianzhen encountered a great opportunity, it was difficult to advance the sword’s rank.
Considering that, Yu Nianzhen had to take advantage of the small opportunities he encountered along the way.
In this way, he may eventually urge Shanjiang into the low level of heaven rank.
"Look around and see if there is anything else you want." Jiang Yue encouraged and Yu Nianzhen didn’t refuse.
Unfortunately, there were no other suitable treasures.
In the end, Yu Nianzhen exchanged the sword stone and returned with Jiang Yue to the mountain master’s cave.
"Do you want to retreat?" Jiang Yue asked.
"No." Yu Nianzhen said and pulled his lover to sit beside him.
"XiaoYue, do you want to stay together for the time being? We can retreat in a year."
"Okay." Jiang Yue immediately agreed.
Over the next year, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue didn’t do anything constructive.
Instead, they cooked, ate, played games, and slept together.
However, this one year of rest was extremely beneficial.
Without their notice, the tension they accumulated since they arrived in the Reincarnation world gradually dissipated and their state of mind improved.
When they eventually went into seclusion, both were a lot more relaxed and their thoughts were more flexible.
’Before I do anything, I must heal all the hidden injuries in my body.’ Yu Nianzhen thought with a frown on his face.
During the hundred years event, Yu Nianzhen rarely had time to rest.
As a result, bits of sequelae accumulated and some dark wounds appeared in his body.
At the moment, these dark wounds were insignificant and didn’t affect him.
However, in the long run, the dark wounds were a hidden danger.
Rather than wait for them to become a problem, Yu Nianzhen planned to eliminate them as soon as possible.
’It should take about ten years to completely remove the dark wounds.’ He thought and sighed.
A moment later, he swallowed a Tree of Life leaf and a green energy spread from his stomach to every centimetre of his body.
After that, he swallowed another leaf but this time, he didn’t allow the energy to spread.
Instead, he focused all the green energy on his right leg.
In the early years of the competition, Yu Nianzhen was poisoned by a poison refiner and his right leg was corroded.
Fortunately, he detoxified on time and his leg quickly recovered.
However, the corrosion left a dark wound.
By focusing the Tree of Life energy on his right leg, Yu Nianzhen hoped to get rid of this wound.
With a target in mind, Yu Nianzhen spent three months dealing with his right leg injury.
When the dark wound was removed, his leg veins were unclogged and the blood flow was noticeably better.
In this way, Yu Nianzhen moved from his right leg to the right thigh, left leg, left thigh, waist region, torso, two arms, two hands, neck and head.
As expected, it took ten years for Yu Nianzhen to rejuvenate every centimetre of his body.
However, his efforts were not in vain.
After rejuvenating his body, Yu Nianzhen felt lighter, and his blood was more vigorous.
’Fortunately, I didn’t accumulate any stubborn wounds.’ Yu Nianzhen thought and exhaled a turbid breath.
After his body healed, Yu Nianzhen adjusted his state of mind for another three days.
When that was done, he allowed his mind to wander to the first challenge one hundred years ago.
Originally, Yu Nianzhen planned to sequentially examine and absorb the experiences from his duels.
However, after absorbing the experience from his first duel, his mind did not shift to the second duel.
Instead, it roamed to other duels, making conceptual connections that Yu Nianzhen had previously ignored.
In this way, two hundred years passed.
During that time, Yu Nianzhen absorbed all his duel experience and his cultivation reached the peak of the first level.
Unfortunately, when his cultivation reached this point, he felt a barrier.
The barrier was thicker than a city wall and no matter what he did, he couldn’t overcome it.
’It seems there is no way until I experience my first tribulation.’ He thought and sighed.
After that, Yu Nianzhen didn’t continue to force it.
Instead, he adjusted his state and when he was ready, he opened his eyes.
"Azhen." An excited voice called and a soft body fell into the swordsman’s arms.
"XiaoYue." Yu Nianzhen called with a smile on his face.
"When did you leave seclusion?"
"Nineteen years ago." Jiang Yue said with an aggrieved voice.
Like Yu Nianzhen, he healed his wounds before absorbing his experience.
However, his injuries were fewer and it took less than five years to fully recover.
After that, Jiang Yue began to absorb his experiences.
Because he didn’t have as many duels as Yu Nianzhen and he occasionally took breaks, it took less than one hundred years to fully absorb his experiences.
However, Jiang Yue didn’t leave seclusion at that point.
Instead, he delved into his formation inheritance and continued to improve his mastery.
It was not until nineteen years ago that he opened his eyes and left seclusion.
Unfortunately, his lover was still in seclusion and Jiang Yue didn’t want to disturb him.
While waiting for Yu Nianzhen to leave seclusion, Jiang Yue engraved formation disks and continued to study his formation inheritance.
Fortunately, he only had to wait for two decades.
"Azhen, your cultivation has reached the peak of the first level." Jiang Yue said in an excited voice.
"Yours too." Yu Nianzhen was also happy for Jiang Yue.
Most importantly, Jiang Yue’s aura had become more elusive and illusory.
