Chapter 211: First Step into Spiritsong
A day later, on the Eastern Sea, Xiao Nanfeng's main body took down another spiritbeast lair and excavated a six-hundred-meter-long draconic vein.
"Let's dig in!" Xiao Nanfeng shouted.
"Yes!" the cultivators replied in excitement.
Xiao Nanfeng was the first to launch himself at the dragon. As roiling draconic aether entered the cultivators' bodies, they began glowing with golden light.
Six hours later, a wave of energy burst from Xiao Nanfeng's body. He opened his eyes wide. "The tenth stage of Ascension. I've reached the peak of Ascension!"
Blazing golden flames emanated from Xiao Nanfeng's body. It was as though there were ten suns revolving around him, causing the cultivators to be taken aback.
"Just what sort of technique does King Xiao cultivate? Why does it seem as though that Ascension-realm technique is even stronger than most Spiritsong-realm techniques?" Ye Dafu cried out.
"Come on. We'll head to the next draconic vein!" Xiao Nanfeng called out.
"Got it!" everyone cried out in excitement.
Back in the valley within the draconic palace, where Xiao Nanfeng's avatar was located, the serpent recovered from its wounds as it considered what Xiao Nanfeng had said. It had been reflecting on its own actions in the past, but it didn't consider any of what it had done a mistake. Even if others had died, it had been able to remain alive. What was wrong about that?
On the other hand, Xiao Nanfeng's theory of alliances sounded eminently reasonable. His cultivation had skyrocketed over the serpent's own, and he was clearly in far better straits. How had its life become such a mess?
Confused and worried that Xiao Nanfeng was trying to hoodwink it, it wanted to confirm whether Xiao Nanfeng was truly telling the truth. A day would pass quickly; Xiao Nanfeng had claimed that the red rope would provide him with enough spiritual aether to reach Spiritsong. Whether that was true would have to be seen.
Suddenly, Xiao Nanfeng's avatar shook. A tremendous wave of energy emitted from him.
"The peak of Ascension!" the serpent cried out.
It was confident that Xiao Nanfeng hadn't eaten a thing in the past day, and there was no source of spiritual aether he could have consumed. How could his cultivation have improved out of nowhere? That couldn't be—unless the red rope he held really did help him.
"What're you shouting about? Haven't you ever seen someone break through?" Xiao Nanfeng asked.
The serpent swallowed a gulp of saliva. "Did you really ascend because the red rope helped you?"
"That's none of your business." Xiao Nanfeng ignored the serpent.
Just then, Xiao Nanfeng flung out a hand. A length of red rope shot out from his palm and lassoed a crocodile spirit that was acting suspiciously in the distance.
Xiao Nanfeng pulled the crocodile spirit over and stepped on its body with his foot.
"You dare spy on me?" Xiao Nanfeng interrogated.
"No, you're mistaken!" the crocodile spirit cried out. "I was spying on the black serpent!"
The serpent gaped at the red rope in Xiao Nanfeng's hand. It recognized this technique. A few months ago, it had seen the red rope cursed effigy use it. There could be no doubt—Xiao Nanfeng really had formed an alliance with the red rope! Not only did the red rope help him raise his cultivation, it even helped him seize anyone spying on him. Had everything he said been right?
"If I say that you're spying on me, then you're spying on me. Give me something worthwhile in exchange for your life, or you'll be my dinner tonight," Xiao Nanfeng threatened.
The crocodile spirit didn't expect that Xiao Nanfeng would be so unreasonable. It spat out stubbornly, "Our king is a Spiritsong-realm spirit. You had better let me go now, or you'll be dead when it shows up!"
Xiao Nanfeng drew the noose tight around the crocodile spirit's neck until its eyes were bulging and it was gasping for breath.
"Stop, stop! I have a treasure. Take it!" the crocodile spirit cried out.
Only then did Xiao Nanfeng let the crocodile spirit go. It spat out a pearl. Xiao Nanfeng inspected it. "It's of ordinary make. Forget it. I'm feeling rather generous today, so you can go."
Xiao Nanfeng let go of the crocodile spirit, which immediately scampered away into the crowd.
The serpent stared at the pearl in Xiao Nanfeng's hand. It suddenly felt unbelievably jealous. This sort of casual banditry was the life of its dreams! Back in the undying realm, it had to be cautious about what it was doing when it snatched others' relics, but Xiao Nanfeng was doing it publicly and directly! Was this what he could do with the backing of a cursed effigy? That had to be an amazing feeling...
The serpent suddenly smiled. "How does one go about joining your alliance?"
Xiao Nanfeng glanced disdainfully at the serpent. "Why do you care?"
The serpent's face twitched. It quashed its anger and continued smiling politely. "I'm just asking. We're already old friends, aren't we? One of my friends might be interested, so I'd like to learn about the procedure."
Xiao Nanfeng turned around and ignored the serpent.
The more Xiao Nanfeng ignored it, the more desperate the serpent became. It didn't want to form an alliance with Xiao Nanfeng; it wanted an alliance with the cursed effigy! However, with no one to recommend it, how was it to form such an alliance? What was it to do? Xiao Nanfeng was benefiting tremendously right before him!
Two days later, at another spiritbeast lair on the Eastern Sea, after Xiao Nanfeng and a group of cultivators slew the spirits there, they excavated a twelve-hundred-meter long draconic vein.
"What a tremendous vein!" Ye Sanshui was astounded.
"Absorb it all. Don't waste it," Xiao Nanfeng warned.
"Don't worry, King Xiao. Even if we gorge ourselves to death, we won't waste a single drop of aether!" Ye Dafu cried out.
Xiao Nanfeng stepped toward the dragon's head. Everyone was waiting for him to dig in.
By then, Xiao Nanfeng had reached the peak of Ascension, and was about to break through to Spiritsong. He chose not to switch his cultivation technique; he would continue cultivating Sky of Ten Suns. The technique was far deeper than he thought, and the more he cultivated with it, the more mysterious it seemed to become.
As he activated the technique, the ten suns within his body began to revolve furiously, forming a tremendous suction like that of a black hole within his body. He bit down on the dragon's head and a large part of its body.
Everyone was shocked. Xiao Nanfeng had devoured almost ten times his usual amount in that one bite.
"Dig in!" Croak cried out.
Croak and Warble opened their maws wide and feasted on the dragon with gusto. Everyone else did the same. In almost no time at all, the draconic vein was consumed in its entirety—though everyone felt as though their bodies were bulging.
Radiant light shone blindingly from them all as they distilled the aether into qi and used it to further their cultivation.
Xiao Nanfeng glowed the most brightly. His ten suns burned furiously as he absorbed the draconic aether and transformed it into pure yang qi.
More and more pure yang qi filled his body, until he was barely able to tolerate more. Suddenly, like fog condensing into rain, some qi condensed into a single drop of pure yang origin qi.
Then, as though sparking a chain reaction, all the remaining qi condensed quickly into origin qi. All the qi that was straining Xiao Nanfeng's body to the utmost had all liquefied, but more and more continued to pour in from the draconic aether that was still filling Xiao Nanfeng's body.
Xiao Nanfeng knew that this wasn't the true form of the Spiritsong evolution.
The Spiritsong realm, also known as the Spiritbloom realm, involved the gestation of a nascent spirit in one's dantian. The presence of this nascent spirit would allow for many superlative powers that represented the first key step in transcending mortality.
Right then and there, countless origin qi was rushing toward one of the suns in his dantian. With a great explosion that drained almost all the origin qi in his body, the sun burst with golden light which emanated from his body and illuminated the world.
At that moment, he could feel a miraculous golden bloom at the heart of that sun, a nascent spirit that was giving off tremendous vitality.
"The gestated spirit—I've hit the first stage of Spiritsong!" Xiao Nanfeng's eyes lit up.
Under ordinary circumstances, cultivators only gestated a single nascent spirit in their dantian, but from the looks of it, Xiao Nanfeng would be gestating ten.
All the energy from his body had been wiped out to spark this transformation. Fortunately, there was plenty of draconic aether remaining, which he absorbed into his body and transformed into pure yang origin qi, filling up his supply of energy.
Xiao Nanfeng opened his eyes to see Croak and Warble giving him a strange look.
"Xiao Nanfeng, have you hit Spiritsong? How could you have caused such a tremendous disturbance? Everyone around you was sent flying from the force of the energy leaving your body!" Croak exclaimed.
"My technique's simply a little unusual," Xiao Nanfeng replied.
He infused energy into his nascent spirit. A strange force caused him to float. It was a mysterious, fascinating sensation.
"Is this what flight feels like? It's like I'm levitating!" Xiao Nanfeng exclaimed.
Just then, four of the spectral guards shook as a tremendous wave of energy emanated from each of them. They awoke in shock.
"King Xiao, we've reached Spiritsong!"
Ye Sanshui's body underwent the same transformation.
"King Xiao, I've reached Spiritsong as well!" Ye Sanshui cried out.
Ye Dafu, who had reached the peak of Ascension, had been overjoyed by his performance before learning that so many of those around him, including his own uncle, had surpassed that achievement. He sighed in pride and exasperation.
"Mr. Zheng, it looks like I've fulfilled my promise to you ahead of time." Xiao Nanfeng smiled.
Zheng Qian exclaimed, "King Xiao, I never expected to reach Ascension so quickly. You have my gratitude."
Xiao Nanfeng was about to continue talking when You Jiu flew through the barrier of fog. He was the first to awaken after the breakthrough in his cultivation; after he woke up, he went out patrolling alertly.
"Master, something's wrong. There's a group of people spying on us from afar. We've excavated three draconic veins in a row these last few days and have attracted the attention of those from nearby sects," You Jiu reported.
"Only from afar? That means that they're not too confident in their own strength. They must only be at Spiritsong. However, they'll likely summon Wingform-realm cultivators soon enough, so we can't be too ostentatious for the near future. We'll stop here rather than take on more risk. Let's solidify our cultivation for the time being," Xiao Nanfeng suggested.
"Understood!" the disciples replied.
The cultivators packed up and were quickly on their way.
Back in the draconic palace, the serpent grew more and more anxious for two whole days as it continued to stare at Xiao Nanfeng's avatar.
Suddenly, energy surged around Xiao Nanfeng's avatar, then spread out all around him. The earth and rocks in the vicinity were sent flying.
"The first stage of Spiritsong?!" the serpent exclaimed.
The serpent wasn't envious any longer. It was irritable and anxious. If this was what being part of an alliance was like, who would want to work by themselves? Getting the support and backing of as powerful a cursed effigy as the red rope... Just look at Xiao Nanfeng! How much had he benefited from this alliance? If it were to hesitate any longer, Xiao Nanfeng might drain the red rope dry of resources!
"I, I've thought it through! You're right. My friend's very interested in joining your alliance. How can it join?" the serpent asked politely.
Xiao Nanfeng didn't respond, but he was inwardly pleased. The serpent had been hooked; it was time for the next step of his plan.
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