Chapter 141: 【Meditation Room: lv1】

It succeeded!

He really succeeded!

Ji Yuan saw the three words "Upgradeable" on the Panel, and the anxiety he had been holding onto finally settled completely.

The Panel only required him to kill a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator. It never specified how. As long as he was the one who did the killing, then this 【Meditation Room】 could be upgraded.

According to the Panel, once the 【Meditation Room】 was upgraded, it could allow him to possess Divine Sense even in the Qi Refining stage.

Ji Yuan didn’t know whether there would be any changes or side effects after the upgrade.

With this in mind, he decided to wait until he returned to Misty Island before upgrading it. After all this time, what was a little while longer?

As for killing Yang Shunan, would it be exposed? It definitely would. Since he didn’t wipe out the entire Yang family, word would inevitably leak.

But so what?

He wasn’t using his original appearance. The only one who had seen his true face, Yang Shunan, was now completely turned to bones.

As for others, Yang Dianfeng knew his "real name".

So, it was Qiu Qianhai who did the killing—what did that have to do with Ji Yuan?

He was just a low-level Qi Refining cultivator. How could he possibly kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator? That was simply impossible.

Two days later.

On Misty Island, Ji Yuan released the Great Toad from the Spiritual Beast Pouch. Having been kept in that cramped space for so long, the Great Toad was naturally very displeased.

So Ji Yuan fed it three Spiritual Pigs, which finally satisfied the creature.

Six Spiritual Pigs just for the life of a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator—how expensive!

Back home, Ji Yuan was in excellent spirits. Even Tu Yue, who passed by him, had her cheek pinched.

Mm—cool to the touch, and soft too.

Unfortunately, Tu Yue had no reaction at all. Like a corpse—oh no, she was a corpse—completely unresponsive as Ji Yuan fiddled with her.

"Forget it, forget it, go feed the pigs instead."

Ji Yuan looked at the wild grass in Tu Yue’s hands. It was all pig feed.

Tu Yue left without any expression.

Ji Yuan then returned to his 【Cave Dwelling】. The stone chambers he had previously carved out were already used up. Now that he had a new 【Meditation Room】, naturally it was time to carve out another.

His previous high-grade Green Centipede Flying Sword had become the supreme-grade Purple Lightning Flying Sword.

The speed of opening up the Cave Dwelling was noticeably faster. In just under half an hour, a new stone chamber was successfully carved out.

Just the thought that he would soon possess Divine Sense made Ji Yuan slightly excited. He first went to sit in the 【Enlightenment Room】, drank some tea to calm himself, and then decisively said from within: 【Meditation Room】, upgrade!

As his thought moved, he wasn’t sure whether there would be any changes to the 【Meditation Room】.

Probably not. A level 1 building likely didn’t have much of a structure.

What he could perceive, however, was a change in his Divine Soul.

At first, he felt nothing. But once the 【Meditation Room】 was upgraded, he suddenly noticed his head felt lighter.

It was as if he were floating higher and higher, like he was in the clouds.

So this was what it felt like to elevate one's Divine Soul?

He had thought the enhancement of the Divine Soul would be as painful as physical advancement. Ji Yuan had even braced himself for a headache.

But to his surprise, it was actually quite pleasant.

So pleasant that Ji Yuan leaned back and lay flat on the floor of the 【Enlightenment Room】.

That light sensation in his mind continued, making Ji Yuan feel as if he were experiencing a leap in life itself.

Gradually, he noticed something strange.

Though he was clearly lying on the floor, staring at the stone ceiling above, he could still "see" the surrounding scene.

To the left of his head, the ground was slightly concave. That was probably from when he hadn’t carved the floor evenly.

The meditation cushion he had just sat on was flattened, but now it was slowly returning to its original shape.

Ji Yuan could even "see" the little tuft of fluff on the cushion.

Perfectly clear.

And as his mind grew lighter, Ji Yuan found that the range of his vision was gradually expanding.

Until the entire 【Enlightenment Room】 was included.

Ji Yuan tried using Divine Sense to penetrate the stone wall. It had some effect. But after extending about three zhang in, his head began to ache.

That was probably the limit.

He quickly retracted his Divine Sense, and the pain faded.

"Hu—with this thing, I don’t have to worry about being sneak-attacked from behind. Of course, Divine Sense can’t be kept active all the time."

Ji Yuan estimated that continuous use would last half a stick of incense’s time at best.

After resting on the ground for a bit, he moved to the adjacent 【Meditation Room】, just as he had expected.

There was no visible difference in the 【Meditation Room】, but just being inside made his previous fatigue vanish.

Meditation... what should he meditate on?

Ji Yuan sat down inside the stone chamber and tried meditating as if he were a stone, a tree growing on a cliff, or an eagle. None worked.

Then he meditated on Erlang Manifested Sage True Lord, the Three Altars Sea Assembly Grand Deity, and the Nine Heavens Thunder-Resonant Universalization Celestial Venerable. Still, there was no response.

He understood now—meditation probably required specific techniques.

Or paintings left behind by great cultivators imbued with Dao resonance, or certain relics.

In short, aimless daydreaming wouldn’t work.

After experiencing Divine Sense and the effect of the 【Meditation Room】, Ji Yuan summoned the Panel to check the effect of the level 2 【Meditation Room】.

【Meditation Room: |v2】

【Spiritual Effect: Meditate to refine the Divine Soul; can increase Divine Sense by 200% at current cultivation stage.】

【Upgrade Requirement: Kill one Core Formation stage cultivator during Foundation Establishment stage. (Not achieved)】

Good heavens.

Ji Yuan was first shocked by the spiritual effect. Level 2 【Meditation Room】 directly doubled his Divine Sense?

An increase of 200%—this was the first time Ji Yuan had seen such a massive enhancement from a building.

As expected, core buildings were indeed different.

Of course, the upgrade conditions were also difficult.

It actually required a Foundation Establishment cultivator to kill a Core Formation cultivator.

Then to upgrade the 【Meditation Room】 to level 3, wouldn’t that mean a Core Formation stage must kill a Nascent Soul?

Was that even something a human could do?!

Never mind, when the cart gets to the mountain, there’ll be a way through; when the boat reaches the bridgehead, it will naturally go straight. It was still too early to worry about that now.

Who knows, he might just run into a dying Nascent Soul on the road someday and casually finish it off, gaining a great opportunity.

Immediately after, Ji Yuan stayed in the 【Meditation Room】 for an entire day, and discovered that as long as he remained inside, his Divine Sense would continue to grow bit by bit.

It was just that the growth rate was a bit slow.

But that was fine. As long as it had an effect.

Afterward, he exited the 【Cave Dwelling】 and arrived at the highest point of Misty Island, fully releasing his Divine Sense there.

His Divine Sense spread in all directions, and all the grass, trees, insects, and ants around him were completely under Ji Yuan's control.

On this mountain peak, with no stone walls to obstruct him, his Divine Sense fully extended, and Ji Yuan came to understand the limits of his Divine Sense.

It could cover a radius of half a li.

For a Foundation Establishment early stage cultivator, Divine Sense could cover about one li. Yet he had not even reached Foundation Establishment and could already cover half a li.

With such power, what more could he ask for?!

Once he broke through to Foundation Establishment and gained the 80% attribute boost,

his Divine Sense at Foundation Establishment early stage would reach roughly two li, comparable to that of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

After upgrading the 【Meditation Room】, Ji Yuan finally resolved one major concern. With that done, it was time to review the harvest from this journey.

A Qi Refining peak cultivator and a Foundation Establishment early stage cultivator’s storage pouches should be worth quite a bit, right?

Half a day later.

Inside the 【Cave Dwelling】, Ji Yuan looked at the numerous categorized items in front of him with great satisfaction.

First were the Spirit Stones. These actually weren’t many. Ji Yuan figured that the Yang family probably had a treasury, and the bulk of the Spirit Stones were likely stored there.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have time to find it at the time.

Currently, the two storage pouches combined only held 213 mid-grade Spirit Stones.

Still not as many as what Ji Yuan had on him.

As for Spiritual Artifacts, there were two, both found in the storage pouch of Yang Shunan, the Foundation Establishment cultivator.

One flying boat and one large halberd.

The flying boat was called "Sky-Slicer", and the halberd was named "Mountain-Smasher".

Ji Yuan tested the flying boat on Misty Island, and its speed was naturally faster than his Thunder-Gather Boat.

The Thunder Falcon Boat needed to activate backup hidden energy sources just to compete with the Sky-Slicer.

A fine item indeed.

Unfortunately, Ji Yuan didn’t dare to use it.

It was a stolen item. If seen by others, his killing of Yang Shunan would be exposed.

Even selling it would require extreme caution.

Ji Yuan wasn’t in a rush to sell it but instead stored it in the storage pouch for emergency escape.

When the time truly came to flee for his life, he wouldn’t care about those other concerns.

As for the Mountain-Smasher halberd, it was not much different from the Water-Dividing Dragon Spear. It contained a powerful spell within that could shatter mountains.

Since that was the case, the Water-Dividing Dragon Spear could retire.

This halberd could serve as a close-combat Spiritual Artifact. Of course, it would only be used in life-and-death situations.

For a Foundation Establishment early stage cultivator to possess two Spiritual Artifacts, that was already quite something.

Ji Yuan figured his second brother from the Water Dragon Sect, Yang Taian, had probably supported him a lot.

There were also a few supreme-grade Magic Tools. Both Yang Shunan and Yang Yunxiang had them.

Two offensive flying swords, a supreme-grade protective shield, and a supreme-grade magic robe.

In addition, there was also a supreme-grade Magic Tool-grade fish basket.

This item had a natural suppressive effect on water-type monsters and was considered a rare Magic Tool.

Ji Yuan planned to store this fish basket, and sell the rest at an opportune time.

Unlike Spiritual Artifacts, Magic Tools were easy to handle.

As for Talisman Treasures—there were none.

Those were indeed rare.

However, there were quite a few second-rank talismans found in both their storage pouches.

Ji Yuan even found two sets of Divine-Walk Talismans specifically for flying boats. When affixed to a flying boat, they had the same effect as activating the backup hidden energy source.

He planned to stack them with the Sky-Slicer flying boat for use.

An excellent tool for escaping.

As for pills, the Foundation Establishment Pill Ji Yuan longed for—none.

He figured the Yang family probably had one or two. Even if Yang Shunan didn’t need them, Yang Yunxiang did.

It was impossible they weren’t prepared at all.

Either they were in the treasury or on Yang Taian.

The rest were just miscellaneous items.

Things to be sold for money.

Like meat from second-rank monsters and the like.

Afterward, Ji Yuan stayed on Misty Island for another two days before preparing to return to the sect.

First, to inquire and see if Yang Shunan’s death had stirred any waves in the sect.

Second, to buy some supplies.

The standard robe from the Water Dragon Sect he had worn earlier was damaged in the battle with Jian Zong. Now the robe Ji Yuan wore was a mid-grade one picked up from who knows where.

Though its grade was lower and helped conceal his identity,

it was a bit too low. A dignified Qi Refining peak expert walking around in a mid-grade robe—who wouldn’t suspect he was hiding his wealth?

For Ji Yuan at present, the most suitable option was still the standard robe of the Water Dragon Sect, the most commonly worn within the sect.

Utterly ordinary.

  Still needed to go to Everything Island’s Hundred Treasure Pavilion to buy several sets of supplementary ingredients for refining Foundation Establishment Pills.

Previously at the auction, he had obtained two stalks of Millennium Qinghui Grass; with the main ingredient already collected, the supplementary ingredients naturally needed to follow up.

Right.

Also, this spiritual wine should be brought along. It had already been several months since the last time he submitted a mission—he couldn't keep stringing people along indefinitely.

Occasionally keeping them in suspense was just about enough.

With that thought, Ji Yuan returned to the [Wine Cellar], and took out over ten jars of spiritual wine, picking a few jars of each kind.

Even if he didn't submit them in the end, he could just keep them in his own storage pouch and drink them himself.

Or give them to Old Master Xu and Island Lord Iron Hammer.

Thinking of this, Ji Yuan brought a few more jars.

Once he finished packing his things, he also took with him all the items Tu Yue had collected over this period. He could sell whatever could be sold when he arrived.

Things like Blood Essence had dropped in price as the war at Liancheng Mountain subsided.

The same applied to other first-tier talismans and pills.

Before long, a Red Dawn Boat sailed out of the misty region, heading straight for the Water Dragon Sect.

This time returning to the sect, Ji Yuan still wasn’t in a rush to go back to Hatchling Dragon Island. Instead, he first went to Everything Island, planning to buy everything he needed before returning to Hatchling Dragon Island via Thousand Mechanisms Island.

Whether it was supplementary ingredients for the Foundation Establishment Pill or the Water Dragon Sect’s Standard Robe, they all had to be bought at the Hundred Treasure Pavilion.

Thus, Ji Yuan went directly to the highest point of Everything Island. After circling around a few towers, he left with the things he needed.

Along the way, he also sold those few top-grade magical artifacts. These things weren’t eye-catching. As for spiritual artifacts, he hadn’t sold any for now.

When he came out of the Hundred Treasure Pavilion—

The robe he was wearing had changed from a mid-grade magical robe to a top-grade Standard Robe of the Water Dragon Sect.

Just as he was about to leave Everything Island and head for Thousand Mechanisms Island, he suddenly saw a flying boat descend beside him.

「Damn it, I knew I wasn’t seeing things. Where’ve you been raking in riches lately? Haven’t seen your shadow in months.」

A familiar voice rang in his ear. Hearing it, Ji Yuan couldn't help but feel delighted and immediately said with a smile, 「I was in seclusion, making a breakthrough. Grandpa Xu, look what stage I'm at now.」

As he spoke, Ji Yuan exuded his peak Qi Refining stage aura.

Xu Fugui, after putting away his flying boat, stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder. 「Not bad, didn’t disgrace your old man.」

Ever since Ji Yuan joined the Water Dragon Sect, Xu Fugui had become even more casual in his attitude toward him.

And this simple excuse was enough for Xu Fugui to drop the previous matter.

Ji Yuan could also guess that over the past few months, Xu Fugui had surely gone looking for him at his courtyard.

But every time, he had gotten shut out.

So Ji Yuan just used his breakthrough as a cover—after all, nothing was more important than making progress.

「Grandpa Xu, where are you off to?」

「Where else? My master sent a message saying he wanted to drink, told me to come keep him company, and bring some side dishes along too.

Xu Fugui said with clear displeasure, 「I was cultivating, and now I gotta go serve him—really got too much time on his hands.」

Despite the words, their master-disciple relationship did make Ji Yuan feel a bit envious.

「Let’s go together then, I was just planning to visit Senior Iron Hammer.」

Though busy cultivating, Ji Yuan could still spare a day.

Besides, his physical breakthrough owed a lot to Island Lord Iron Hammer’s help.

Going now to express his gratitude was the right thing to do.

「Alright then, I’ll go buy more meat.」

Xu Fugui said, heading toward the island.

「What for? I’ve got meat. And wine too.」

Ji Yuan said, taking out a piece of second-tier monster meat and giving it a shake. Xu Fugui glanced at it.

「Alright, we’ll eat yours this time. Not bad, huh—eating second-tier meat now.」

Xu Fugui chuckled as he spoke.

Seeing Ji Yuan doing better and better, he was naturally pleased.

「Of course. If I hadn’t finished off all the third-tier monster meat I bought last time, I’d have brought something even bigger this time.」

Spending time with him, Ji Yuan also started boasting.

「What, trying to bluff now? Why don’t you say you’re eating transformed monster meat?」

「Pfft, that meat’s too tough—gets stuck in the teeth————」

A day later.

Iron Hammer Island.

Island Lord Iron Hammer was clearly thrilled to see Ji Yuan visiting.

So he immediately said, 「Come, brat Ji, let’s have a bout first.」

What he meant by “bout” was naturally the kind of close combat between body cultivators.

Ji Yuan hesitated a bit. Last time, he had been afraid of being beaten to death by Island Lord Iron Hammer. This time, he was afraid he’d beat the island lord to death.

This Foundation Establishment body cultivation wasn’t for show!

「What are you afraid of? I’m not going to be rough. Worst case, you’ll just need a few days to recover.」

Island Lord Iron Hammer, utterly unconcerned, dragged Ji Yuan to the backyard—the same place where Ji Yuan had previously completed his body refinement.

As soon as they entered this time, Ji Yuan noticed the cauldron had changed.

Previously, it had been a weapon refining cauldron nearly two men tall. Now, it was a bronze cauldron only half a man high.

「This—」

Ji Yuan shook off Island Lord Iron Hammer’s hand in one move and stepped up to the bronze cauldron.

As someone who had stepped into the second-tier alchemy domain, a “Alchemy Master,” he naturally recognized this as a pill cauldron.

Moreover, it was a second-tier pill cauldron!

「Ahem, Senior, Senior Iron Hammer?」

Ji Yuan’s voice became much more flattering.

Island Lord Iron Hammer clearly saw through Ji Yuan’s intentions, so he folded his arms and looked at him, saying:

「What, you’re also an alchemist now?」

「This junior is unworthy, but has indeed become a second-tier alchemist.」 Ji Yuan said while rubbing his hands together, looking rather embarrassed:

「You see, I just happen to be missing a handy second-tier pill cauldron.」

  A second-tier pill cauldron was essentially a spiritual artifact pill cauldron.

The price was not low.

「Oh?」

Island Lord Iron Hammer, hearing this, stepped up beside the pill cauldron and casually lifted the bronze cauldron with one hand.

Only then did Ji Yuan see that the very bottom of the cauldron was actually crimson red.

Judging by its appearance, it would likely double the efficiency when igniting fire—making it exceptionally efficient for refining second-tier pills.

「This pill cauldron of mine isn’t cheap. Just forging it took me eighty-one days.」

「Ahem ahem.」

Xu Fugui, who had followed in from behind, immediately said, 「Master, didn’t you tell me last time it only took forty-nine days?」

「Tch, you old brat.」

Island Lord Iron Hammer casually tossed the pill cauldron onto the ground, pointed at Xu Fugui, and scolded, 「Am I your master or is he your master?

Damn it, siding with outsiders now, are you?」

Xu Fugui was completely unafraid.

「Master, you call me an old brat, and he calls me Grandpa—tell me who I should side with. If you’ve got the guts, you call me—」

「Ow ow ow—」

Before Xu Fugui could finish, Island Lord Iron Hammer had already stepped up, grabbed his ear, showing no regard for the fact that this was an elderly man in his eighties or nineties.

Ji Yuan paid no mind to their playful antics and instead stepped beside the pill cauldron, examining it carefully.

This pill cauldron appeared to be a mid-second-tier pill cauldron, perfectly suited for refining Foundation Establishment Pills. If he could obtain it, it would greatly advance his progress in pill refinement.

「What, you really have your eyes on this Crimson-Blood Tripod, huh?」

At some point, Island Lord Iron Hammer had returned to Ji Yuan’s side.

「Yes!」

Ji Yuan nodded firmly.

Such a pill cauldron was not easy to come by. If taken to the Qingye Auction House, it could likely make it to the main auction itself.

「Then the price won’t be cheap.」

Island Lord Iron Hammer stood with hands on his hips, looking at the young man before him with a half-smile.

Ji Yuan glanced at his storage pouch. He had just killed a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator and had accumulated 485 spirit stones—middle-grade ones.

If that wasn’t enough, he still had a few top-grade magical artifacts that he could liquidate.

It should be enough to secure the cauldron.

「May I ask, Senior, how much do you want for it?」

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