Chapter 17: A Terrifying Rate of Improvement!
Nine Wolves Mountain was only thirty li outside the commandery city, and Jian Wushuang arrived within half a day. As for the cave in the northern valley of Nine Wolves Mountain, it took Jian Wushuang a long time of searching before he finally found it.
"That's the cave." Jian Wushuang stood atop the crown of a large tree, gazing at a cave at the bottom of the valley in the distance. Not far in front of the cave, a massive creature was coiled there, and faint sounds of breathing emanated from its nostrils.
"So that's the Blood Lion Beast?" Jian Wushuang could not help but look toward the enormous beast.
Bai Chong had mentioned earlier that this cave containing Innate Spiritual Fluid was the territory of a Blood Lion Beast at the peak of the sixth rank. The peak of the sixth rank was comparable to a human warrior at the peak of the sixth level of the Spirit Dao. Moreover, due to the innate advantages that spiritual beasts possessed, in a real life-and-death fight, this Blood Lion Beast would actually have the edge over a human.
"Spiritual beasts are born hating humans, and their territorial instincts are extremely strong. If I want to enter that cave, there's no other way—I must deal with this Blood Lion Beast. In that case, let us fight."
Jian Wushuang's eyes were like lightning. Like a hunting eagle, his figure leapt down from the treetop. The longsword on his back instantly left its sheath, the ring of the blade echoing outward, and he shot straight toward the Blood Lion Beast.
"Blood Lion Beast." Jian Wushuang's eyes brimmed with fighting spirit.
"A human!" The Blood Lion Beast immediately awoke. Its pair of vertical dark-golden pupils burst forth with cold killing intent, and with a furious roar, it charged straight at Jian Wushuang.
A fierce battle erupted at once.
A short while later, Jian Wushuang returned his bloodstained longsword to its sheath, looking down at the Blood Lion Beast on the ground. There was an incomparably clear and incomparably deep sword wound on the beast's neck, with thick streams of blood still pouring out. Beyond that, the Blood Lion Beast's entire body was covered in sword wounds of various sizes, and its life aura had completely dissipated.
A Blood Lion Beast at the peak of the sixth rank should, by all logic, be able to suppress a human at the peak of the sixth level of the Spirit Dao. But this suppression only applied to very ordinary human warriors. Once they encountered humans with truly remarkable martial techniques, the suppression failed; instead, they would be toyed with and ravaged with ease by such warriors. And Jian Wushuang's swordsmanship was enough to stand proud above the entire Sword Marquis Manor—naturally, killing this Blood Lion Beast was not difficult for him.
Paying no heed to the Blood Lion Beast's corpse, Jian Wushuang walked straight into the cave ahead. The cave was deep and the path rather narrow, but once inside, it opened into a hidden wonderland.
The interior of the cave was quite refined, with a stone table, stone stools, and even a stone bed—clearly, someone had once lived in this cave. Upon entering, Jian Wushuang immediately saw, at the side, a pool of water giving off a faint fragrance.
The pool was less than three meters across, a very, very small one. Yet the moment Jian Wushuang laid eyes on it, a look of wild ecstasy could not help but surface in his eyes.
"Innate Spiritual Fluid!"
Jian Wushuang gazed at the nearly transparent water in the pool with its faint fragrance, his gaze burning. He could sense the pure power contained in the water. Without a doubt, this was truly the priceless Innate Spiritual Fluid so rarely found in the world.
An entire pool of it!
Splash!
Jian Wushuang leapt straight into the pool. The moment he entered, he discovered that although the pool was not wide, it was very deep—at least a dozen meters or more.
"An entire pool, and every drop of the water is Innate Spiritual Fluid—just how much Innate Spiritual Fluid is this?" Jian Wushuang was thrilled beyond words.
Innate Spiritual Fluid was an incomparably pure liquid, almost without impurities. Its benefit to Spirit Dao warriors far exceeded that of Spirit-Nurturing Pills. Unfortunately, Innate Spiritual Fluid was naturally formed, so very few people were ever able to use large quantities of it to aid their cultivation.
But now—there was an entire pool of it. If converted drop by drop, how many drops would that be? How astonishing would its value be?
"Lord Bai Chong actually gifted me such a tremendous opportunity." Amid his shock, Jian Wushuang felt deep gratitude in his heart.
Without hesitation, Jian Wushuang immediately began cultivating within the pool.
Cultivating in the pool, through the cultivation method, he could naturally absorb the surrounding Innate Spiritual Fluid and convert it into his own spiritual power. If it were an ordinary cultivator, the time needed to absorb all the Innate Spiritual Fluid in this pool would probably be extremely long. But Jian Wushuang was different.
The Great Universe Creation Art was already heaven-defying to the extreme!
Recall that enormous medicinal efficacy of the rank-one Spirit-Nurturing Pill, which would take an ordinary Spirit Dao warrior one or two months to absorb—yet he had fully absorbed one in a single night.
And this Innate Spiritual Fluid was much the same.
As Jian Wushuang began circulating the Great Universe Creation Art, the domineering nature of the technique was immediately revealed. A terrifying devouring force erupted from Jian Wushuang's body, madly devouring everything around it. The Innate Spiritual Fluid in the pool naturally bore the brunt of it, surging into his body through every pore at an astonishing speed.
It was as if he had become an enormous black hole, devouring everything with wild, overbearing force.
How horrifying was that rate of absorption! And as this Innate Spiritual Fluid entered Jian Wushuang's body, under the operation of the Great Universe Creation Art it was instantly converted into Jian Wushuang's own spiritual power. With this absorption and conversion, the speed at which his spiritual power increased could only be described as terrifying!
"This... this... it's too fast! The speed at which my spiritual power is increasing—it's too fast, too terrifying!" Even Jian Wushuang himself was stunned. His head was somewhat dazed; he could hardly believe what was happening.
Because the speed was simply too frightening.
But in truth, all of this was only to be expected.
Abundant Innate Spiritual Fluid combined with the heaven-defying Great Universe Creation Art—of course it would be this domineering, of course it would be this terrifying!
Just like when he had consumed the rank-one Spirit-Nurturing Pill before. The Innate Spiritual Fluid was of even greater use to a warrior's cultivation than the Spirit-Nurturing Pill, and in quantity, an entire pool of Innate Spiritual Fluid was countless times more than those ten rank-one Spirit-Nurturing Pills.
Naturally, this brought the speed of his spiritual power's increase to an unbelievable level.
In just half a day, Jian Wushuang discovered that the spiritual power in his body had already reached the peak of the sixth level of the Spirit Dao!
And that was only half a day. What's more, after half a day of absorption, the pool—full to the brim with Innate Spiritual Fluid—seemed to have barely diminished at all.
In the time that followed, Jian Wushuang immersed himself completely in forgotten, single-minded cultivation—or rather, in this terrifying rise in strength.
Time flowed slowly by. In the blink of an eye, twenty days passed.
In the pool.
The pool that had once been was now completely dried up. Jian Wushuang sat cross-legged at the bottom of the pool, wisps of remaining Innate Spiritual Fluid still streaming into his body. Finally, as the last drop of Innate Spiritual Fluid was mercilessly absorbed by Jian Wushuang, the vast pool that had been filled with Innate Spiritual Fluid vanished entirely.
At the same moment, Jian Wushuang, who had been in cultivation all this while, abruptly opened his eyes, and a shocking flash of light burst forth from them.