Chapter 61: Preparations
As before, Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue went to the sword section as soon as they arrived in the inner sect martial hall.
"Do you know which sword arts you want to choose?" Jiang Yue asked.
"I will pick randomly."
In this situation where he needed to pick one hundred low-grade silver rank sword arts, Yu Nianzhen didn’t need to be selective.
After all, his intention wasn’t to practice the sword arts for future use.
He just needed to comprehend different intents to build his own origin sword intent.
When he heard this reasoning, Jiang Yue did not continue to question.
Instead, he perused the section and helped Yu Nianzhen pick one hundred sword arts.
After that, they moved to the section that contained mid-grade silver rank sword arts.
However, this time, Yu Nianzhen was a little more careful.
Although he wasn’t too selective, he chose ten sword arts that were in line with his preferences.
"Go to the formation section?" He asked after he finished picking the sword arts.
"Go."
As they walked, they passed the soul section, and Yu Nianzhen suddenly remembered their last trip to the martial arts hall.
"By the way, how is your soul refining?" He asked.
"Still at the first level."
Jiang Yue frowned when he thought about it.
In the past five years, his focus was on improving his cultivation base.
He also spent some time learning and practising illusion arts and whip arts.
However, he didn’t neglect soul refining.
His slow progress was because soul refining was more complex than body refining or qi cultivation.
Even to nascent soul realm cultivators, the soul was a mystery.
Refining it could bring limitless benefits, but if one was careless, the consequences were unimaginable.
At best, one’s soul would be damaged, and at worst, the soul could collapse or disperse.
Although soul-repairing herbs and pills were rare, there was always a chance that one could encounter them in the course of their life.
If one was unlucky, they could still live with a damaged soul even though they couldn’t continue cultivating.
However, if the soul collapsed or dispersed, not even a nascent soul realm cultivator could save them.
In a worst-case scenario, one may not even get a chance to reincarnate.
"I am hoping to find a soul refining herb in the thousand herbs garden. If I do, I should be able to break through to the second level of the ethereal soul refining technique."
"I almost forgot, did master Yang give you details about the thousand herbs garden?" Jiang Yue asked.
Rather than answer, Yu Nianzhen removed a jade tablet from his storage ring.
He handed the tablet to Jiang Yue, and the other raised an eyebrow in question.
"Read it."
Jiang Yue sunk his consciousness into the tablet.
"This..." He exclaimed happily when he saw the contents.
"It’s a map of the thousand herbs garden." Yu Nianzhen confirmed.
Over thousands of years, the thousand herbs garden had opened many times.
Every time it did, Sea Cloud sect disciples would enter.
After each closing, the sect would buy information, including maps from the disciples.
It was this accumulated information that was compiled into a map of the secret realm.
Although many areas in the secret realm had yet to be explored, there was detailed information about some areas.
However, this map was not distributed to all the disciples.
This was because there was a limited supply of precious herbs, thus only valued disciples were given the map.
Although he was no longer powerful, Yang Xu was still a supreme elder of the Sea Clouds sect.
As early as when he negotiated with the sect, he acquired the map for Yu Nianzhen.
Now that the realm was about to open, he had given it to his disciple so that he could prepare.
"If this information is right, there should be soul refining herbs in the inner section of the secret realm."
From what Yu Nianzhen knew, the secret realm was divided into the outer section and the inner section.
The outer section contained some valuable herbs, but most of the precious herbs were in the inner section.
When the secret realm opened, everyone would be deposited in the outer section.
After nine months, the inner section would open, and qualified cultivators would enter the inner section for three months before the secret realm closed.
"Qualified?" Jiang Yue asked when he heard Yu Nianzhen’s explanation.
"According to master, there is a mysterious tree in the outer section. Only those who acquire a fruit from that tree can enter the inner section."
"Mysterious tree?"
"It doesn’t appear in a specific place. Meeting it depends on one’s luck."
Yu Nianzhen was a little dissatisfied with this matter.
He wanted to enter the inner section of the secret realm, and he didn’t like that his qualification depended on luck.
Jiang Yue also didn’t like this.
However, what could they do?
He again sunk his consciousness into the jade and observed it more carefully.
As Yu Nianzhen said, the outer section and inner section were clearly indicated.
Most of the outer section had been explored, and the areas were mapped.
However, only a few places in the inner section were mapped.
One of those areas was a field that had soul refining herbs and another that had scarlet rock herbs.
"What’s at the centre of the secret realm?" He wondered.
The centre was a patch of white, and no information was included on the map.
"We will know when we get there."
"You are right."
Jiang Yue returned the jade tablet, and they both turned their attention to the formation section.
"Is there a specific book you are looking for?"
"Not really. My plan is to take the most comprehensive and go from there."
Yu Nianzhen approved this plan.
They both began to peruse different books and eventually chose one.
After that, they didn’t linger around the area.
They found the elder in charge to report the sword arts and books they wanted to redeem.
"This disciple..." The martial elder began when he saw all the martial arts that Yu Nianzhen wanted to redeem.
"Forget it."
In the end, he couldn’t be bothered.
He quickly deducted the appropriate contribution points, handed over the actual sword arts, and watched until the boys walked away from the martial hall.
"Resource hall?" Jiang Yue asked.
"Let’s make a plan first."
Yu Nianzhen led the way and found a rock close to the resource hall.
They sat on the rock, and Yu Nianzhen removed the jade tablet.
"The secret realm will be open for one year, and we can’t be careless with our preparations."
Jiang Yue also knew this.
At every opening, a thousand origin forging realm cultivators would enter the secret realm.
Among the one thousand, two hundred were from the border guard faction, and eight hundred were from the sixteen regions.
However, the sixteen regions were a mixture of righteous factions, neutral factions, and evil factions.
When the realm opened, there was no telling where in the secret realm one would appear.
If they were unlucky to encounter a disciple of the evil faction or a faction that was hostile to their region, a fight would break out.
Fights would also break out when different cultivators came across a precious resource.
Although Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen were strong, there was no guarantee that there wouldn’t be stronger cultivators.
They would also lose if they were ambushed by a group.
It was because of these possibilities that they needed to properly prepare.
"We need to prepare a lot of talismans." Jiang Yue stated.
"Teleportation talismans, attack talismans, defence talismans, invisibility talismans,..." He listed.
"Pills are also a must."
"Healing pills, cultivation pills, detoxifying pills, ..."
"We should also prepare special storage." Yu Nianzhen continued.
Although herbs could be directly placed in storage rings and storage bags, this was not the best.
This is because the herbal effect would begin to dissipate as soon as the herb was harvested.
To prevent that, the best way was to store the herbs in jade containers before putting them in storage artefacts.
When he heard Yu Nianzhen’s words, Jiang Yue suddenly remembered something.
"Do you still have the jade box you received from the ten-storey pagoda?" He asked urgently.
Yu Nianzhen nodded and removed the box from the storage ring.
"Open it."
Yu Nianzhen did as asked, and both sunk their consciousness into the jade box.
After five years, the tree of life was still there.
However, it hadn’t grown a single centimetre.
Its leaves had all been used, and none had regrown in the past five years.
When Jiang Yue saw this, a meaningful look crossed his mind.
In fact, a thought had crossed his mind in the past five years.
However, Yu Nianzhen was in seclusion.
When Yang mountain opened, a lot of things happened, and he forgot about the matter.
Now, he suddenly remembered it.
Without a word, he threw a hundred spirit stones into the jade box.
"What..." Yu Nianzhen was surprised at Jiang Yue’s action.
However, before he could question him, a change appeared in the box.
"It wasn’t a waste to read all those cultivation novels in our previous life." Jiang Yue said and laughed heartily.
