Yu Quan was now taking a break amid the shifting terrain. Looking inside the spatial ring he decided would be his own, he saw that he had amassed 200 root crystals and 50 fundamental pearls. Yu Quan thought it was a good amount until he factored in everybody who might need some. If he wanted to give a decent, equal amount to himself, his fellow disciples, and Dong Xiaoli, who was now under his banner and would soon be cultivating again, and still have enough to give to the exceptional followers of his cult and offer the rest as rewards, he would need much more.
“I’ll have to get more then. It shouldn’t hurt to use 10 pearls now, though.”
Yu Quan sat in lotus and took one pearl out. Holding the pearl, he went through the same process he went through with the root crystal. Releasing qi into it to sense the power within, then using the qi to begin siphoning whatever was within the pearl into his meridians. The pearl began slowly getting smaller. While the energy from the pearl was making its way through his meridians, Yu Quan didn’t feel as much of a change as he did with the root crystal. That was until it made its way into the core. Nothing happened in the first moment, but as if the energy had to travel a bit further after entering the core, Yu Quan felt the change the moment after. His core slightly expanded and seemed to work a bit more efficiently. His qi flowed better and felt more vigorous as if the power within that lay dormant until he activated it was more potent. The strength and durability of his body. The function of his mind. The peace of his soul. Even his meridians seemed to be affected, with the space within them growing. All the changes were so small that they were negligible. If it could all be rated on a scale from 0 to 1000, he only went up 0.05 in each one. But the improvement was an improvement, and the fact that one pearl could improve every function of his body was unbelievable.
“I don’t really understand the whole potential and talent thing, but common sense says that while the changes are small now, they’ll do a lot more for me in the future.”
Yu Quan repeated the process with nine more pearls, then continued to cultivate to stabilize the changes made to his body. After feeling he was in a good spot, he hopped up. It was time to look for more resources. He activated [Seek Order] and scanned his surroundings. Nothing was unusual for this small world until his line of sight was directed towards a specific area. There was a large amount of order in that direction. Yu Quan didn’t know if this was a good or a bad thing, but realizing how many resources he would need made him know he needed to take some risks.
Fwoosh
…
Li Wen was walking around, holding an oddly shaped stick faceted into a gem.
“Li Wen, can’t you find the beast already?” one of the people following him groaned.
Li Wen snapped his head around. “Can’t you be quiet? It isn’t me, but the pseudo-primordial compass. If you want it to work faster, why don’t you ask it?”
The person who spoke rolled their eyes. “It’s your family’s artifact! They earned it in the second level of this small world so many years ago. Are you telling me your family still can’t use it well? Or did they just not teach you well?”
Li Wen was not part of a family of note like the Hei family. However, the Li family of Virtuous City was known within the city walls as a respectable lineage. They didn’t have any specific arts or inheritances, but the one thing all Virtuous City Li descendants had was the pseudo-primordial compass.
“Ha! There it is,” Li Wen exclaimed as the artifact locked on and pointed toward a primordial false beast.
The group followed Li Wen through the terrain and saw a primordial false beast’s figure peeking out from behind the shifting terrain. They didn’t even speak; they just looked at each other and nodded. Despite the earlier quarrel, these cultivators knew each other and had enough experience to fight well as a team. Li Wen burst out with another cultivator in tow while a man and a woman went around from the sides to the flank. This left two more people, one who rushed in behind Li Wen and the other front-liner, who jumped over them while approaching the beast. While the five cultivators were rushing the beast, the remaining girl stayed back, preparing a technique that seemed to take some time to power up. Things should have gone how they had been since they arrived in the Pure Dao World, but the team didn’t expect a sudden projectile to come in right as they were all attacking the beast.
Boom!
The girl in the back coughed and swiped at the air, hoping to get the weird primordial dust that was kicked up from the impact away from her. When the dust had settled, all her teammates were knocked out, and the primordial beast seemed barely awake.
“Huh… large attacks take a lot out of me. But they seem to work fine against weaker cultivators for now.”
The girl snapped her head towards where the sudden voice came from. She saw a man with long black hair hanging down, covering his face. She wondered who this mysterious cultivator was who came in and took all her teammates out in one hit. She also wondered how he could even see through his hair like that, but she felt that was less important at the moment. Before she knew it, the man slightly shifted his head so that he was now looking at her.
“Oh? Seems there was one hanging out behind the others,” he said before shrugging. “Oh well.”
Yu Quan dashed over, collected the root crystals and fundamental pearls from their rings, and collected the weird artifact he saw one of the cultivators use to find primordial false beasts and ran off. The girl was stunned, not knowing how to react to what had happened.
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“Was he wearing… a Grand Artisan Sect uniform?”
…
When Yu Quan reached a safe place, he looked through his spoils. Satisfied with what he had raked in without much work, he turned his attention to the artifact he had grabbed. It looked like a wand with a giant gemstone. Upon closer inspection, there seemed to be light inside the gemstone.
“System, can you tell me what this is?”
[Pseudo-Primordial Compass]
High-Quality Mortal Tier
An artifact created in the Pure Dao World that points a light at primordial false beasts. Can be obtained from the Myriad Treasure Labyrinth.
Yu Quan was happy the system would help define the artifacts. He was also satisfied with the actual artifact. He felt terrible for stealing it because it was likely precious, but he planned to return it to them without implicating himself. He just hoped they didn’t curse him too much until then. Yu Quan took the artifact and started using it. When he saw the light move from the center of the gemstone to the edge, he started off in that direction.
…
Yu Quan spent the rest of his two-day time limit collecting as many root crystals and fundamental pearls as possible. From gathering to stealing to hunting beasts, he collected around 420 root crystals and 150 fundamental pearls. When the time ran out, Yu Quan was about to attack another group of people before they were all teleported to a large, circular area. Luckily enough, Yu Quan was in the middle of changing uniforms, so he just stopped and left his Roaring Flame Sect uniform on. Looking around, he saw that the shifting terrain seemed calm and still within the zone.
“Huh, there were definitely more people than this.”
There were still many people, just not as many as before. Yu Quan wondered what could possibly have caused so many cultivators to disappear. That was until he watched as 20 root crystals popped out of his spatial ring and floated to the middle of the area. Before he could be confused, he noticed that it happened to everyone.
“Ah… okay.”
Yu Quan realized they must go to the next level like this. He remembered something about a challenge but didn’t really take it to heart. He felt it was a good thing he was resource-hungry, even though he didn’t know how anyone could fail to obtain 20 root crystals. He guessed this was meant to sort the trash from the rest.
“How many of those people were just my victims…? I’m really taking advantage of the people here.”
“Hey!” a voice yelled from the other side of the area.
Yu Quan turned his head to see a familiar face. “Oh, it’s you,” he said nonchalantly to one of the three Great Artisan Sect disciples he had met at the beginning.
“Yeah! It is me! I should-” he responded before being cut off.
“I think you Great Artisans have done enough,” one cultivator said.
After this, many people began chiming in.
“That’s right. Your people have caused enough trouble in the trial; now you want trouble here, too?”
“When did the Great Artisan Sect get so bold?”
“Hmph! How shameless.”
The cultivator, who had initially thought to confront the Roaring Flame Sect, now saw himself at odds with everyone else. He was confused. When did the Great Artisan Sect have so many enemies? Yu Quan was trying his very best not to burst out laughing. All of his victims were now defending him. His plan had worked all too well.
Vwoom~
A strange sound diverted everyone’s attention away from the current conflict. While they were yelling at each other, the root crystals collected from them all collected at the top of the room, in the very center. From below, stone slowly started to peak from within the odd terrain. As the stone pushed through, a line formed, starting from the center between the stone and the crystals and growing towards them. After a few moments, the shape of the stone could be seen. What was just some stone in the ground became the head of a pedestal with beautiful carvings. As the pedestal seemed to be slowing down, the crystals descended, following the fully formed line towards the pedestal. When the crystals landed on the pedestal, a bright light flashed, and the line grew thick. It grew further and further, eventually taking on a more circular shape. At the end of the spectacle, what was left was a new portal above the pedestal.
The Great Artisan Sect cultivator from before turned back to Yu Quan and gave him a nasty glare. “We’ll settle all this later!”
Yu Quan simply nodded. “As you wish.”
The Great Artisan Sect cultivator huffed and then headed over to the portal. No one wanted to go in late in case they would lose some benefits to the hands of others, especially not over something as small as conflict. Yu Quan didn’t care much either way, but he was glad he could rest a bit longer. As people funneled into the portal, he started walking towards it. He didn’t mind letting most people go before.
“None of them can reap my benefits. anyway,” he said while smiling.
…
Yù Quán
Realm: Body Tempering Realm
Stage: 5th Level Skin Tempering
Main Cultivation Art: [Stolen-eyed Mùmùlián Body](Level 3)
Strength: 1410 Catties
Qi: 2460/2550 wisps
Mùmùlián Core: 22/100
Strange Fire: (Level 4)Murderous Flame(x4), (Level 7)Common Flame(x1)
Techniques:
[Mùmùlián Eye Stealing](Level 3)
[Mùmùlián Eye Refining](Level 3)
[Murder Mantra](Level 3)
[Yellow Qilin Dance](Level 3)
[Qi Compression](Level 3)
Attributes:
[Strange Fire: Murderous Flame]
[Starfire Eyes](Level 1)
[Sightburn](Level 1)
[Seek Order](Level 1)
[Top-Quality Maned Hog Ferocity Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality Winged Watcher Awareness Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality False Dragon Pride Eyes](Level 1)
[Low-Quality Death-Dealing Dama Killing Eyes](Level 1)(x10)
[Low-Quality Primordial False Beast Eyes](Level 1)