Chapter 263: Mid-Stage Third Rank Divine Awareness, Southern Border of Youzhou

The Soul Dream Primordial Pill resembled a glass bead, with colorful, swirling spiritual patterns inside that emitted a misty glow. Its effect was to induce a soul dream in the user, after which their divine sense would significantly increase. It was particularly effective for breaking through minor cultivation bottlenecks.

Wang Yu had been stuck at his current cultivation level because of limitations in his cultivation method. However, after the Ancient Soul Art was fully perfected, he had begun to show faint signs of a breakthrough.

Yet, since leaving the Heavenly Soul Sect's Scripture Pavilion, he had been constantly fighting or fleeing, surrounded by malevolent villains. It was then that he truly experienced the harsh reality of a rogue cultivator's life without the protection of a powerful sect.

Upon consuming a Soul Dream Primordial Pill, Wang Yu immediately felt himself enveloped in a hazy dream. Though he could see nothing clearly and remember nothing distinctly, it felt remarkably vivid, as if he had lived an entire lifetime. When he awoke, his Mud-Pill Palace was filled with numerous shimmering, star-like motes of light, dreamlike and ethereal, all capable of enhancing his divine sense.

He promptly circulated the Ancient Soul Art, absorbing and refining all the special energy derived from the pill. His divine sense within the Mud-Pill Palace immediately began to expand, and even the Ancient Soul itself subtly grew in size.

"Still a bit short," Wang Yu mused after concluding his cultivation. He estimated the time it took. The Soul Dream Primordial Pill required only a few days for refinement, yielding swift results—far more efficient than Ice Spirit Pills or Ice Lotus Pills. Unfortunately, excessive consumption of such pills could lead to pill-induced side effects. This seemed to be an unavoidable issue with all elixirs. After stabilizing his condition for a brief period, Wang Yu continued to ingest the spiritual pills.

Half a month later, all five high-grade Soul Dream Primordial Pills had been completely refined. Within Wang Yu's consciousness, the hazy gray mist further dissipated, revealing thousands of black paper boats navigating the space. These boats served to repel all external divine sense attacks. Deeper still, the light blue threads representing his divine sense had entirely merged into the Ancient Soul, the Mud-Pill Guardian born from his miraculous cultivation method, which was now significantly stronger. This remarkable growth was a direct result of his successful breakthrough. Wang Yu's divine sense had now reached the mid-third stage.

His total divine sense had nearly doubled. The Soul Dream Primordial Pill proved exceptionally effective, and a top-grade version would undoubtedly be even better. As for the mid-grade and low-grade Soul Dream Primordial Pills, he had no intention of consuming them. Their quality was too inferior; he decided it would be better to sell them for spirit stones, which should allow him to recover the cost of the spiritual herbs he had used.

Furthermore, the Ancient Soul was a characteristic of his cultivation method, not Wang Yu's actual soul. While seemingly similar, it was, in fact, a condensed form of divine sense and, fundamentally, an extension of his soul. Its primary role was to enhance his resistance. In the future, it could even be refined into a second Nascent Soul, though he hadn't yet decided if he would pursue this path.

When personally cultivating the fourth-tier Ancient Soul Art, he would only absorb the essence of sunlight, moonlight, and morning dew, deliberately avoiding the use of heavenly demon evil thoughts for accelerated progress. However, placing it into his system's "placement slot" was a different matter entirely.

Over the past six years, in addition to his cultivation and artifact refinement, numerous soul-path secret arts had also been updated and replaced. Thanks to his solid foundation, Wang Yu's progress in these areas was swift. Techniques such as Ten Thousand Li Tracking, Soul Extermination Finger, and Heavenly Soul Qi, all third-tier divine sense secret arts, had reached the Minor Accomplishment stage. It was only after exhausting his accumulated resources that his progress began to slow. Nevertheless, combined with his current divine sense realm, these techniques could serve as reliable trump cards, no less effective than his Demonic Dragon Fist.

Additionally, he had officially begun to master the incomplete divine ability, the "Soul-Destroying, Spirit-Annihilating Death Ray." Though incomplete, it still possessed a third-tier component. Its cultivation method was highly unusual, with the Ancient Soul being a prerequisite. It demanded the engraving of "Soul-Destroying" and "Spirit-Annihilating" talismans onto the Ancient Soul itself. Crucially, one's own true essence or divine sense could not be used; instead, the Qi of Dead Souls from heaven and earth had to serve as the engraving tool.

What is the Qi of Dead Souls? It is the wisp of aura that dissipates upon the death of a soul. Wang Yu had previously encountered "Death Qi," an invisible force that manifests only when life is about to end. Paradoxically, the closer one is to death, the less perceptible this force becomes, whereas younger cultivators are often able to detect it. The Qi of Dead Souls is one such branch of Death Qi.

Cultivating such a dangerous power carried the risk of immediate soul dissipation. Furthermore, the limited availability of the Qi of Dead Souls was a significant challenge, as it could only be found in places like mass graves, burial mounds, or other yin-afflicted areas. Unwilling to risk danger or spend time searching, Wang Yu simply used his system's "placement slot" to initiate its cultivation. Currently, he was still unable to employ it in actual combat.

He observed that all these divine abilities—whether the Minor Asura Slaughter Fist, Yellow Spring Grand Seal, or Demonic Dragon Fist—had, to varying degrees, positive supplementary effects on his foundational cultivation when practiced. However, without sufficient magic power, it seemed genuinely difficult to unleash the true potential of these divine abilities. The Demonic Dragon Fist was an exception, but even soul-path techniques were affected by this limitation. This further deepened his understanding of the efficacy of the Golden Core realm.

"I still need to search for more spiritual herbs that can increase my true essence capacity," he murmured.

His six years in secluded cultivation had allowed him to thoroughly consolidate his progress.

In Ancient Square City, You Province, the Vegetarian Fasting Workshop was renowned for its medicinal cuisine. Without sparing any spirit stones, one could not only satisfy their palate but also significantly aid their cultivation. Upon emerging from seclusion, Wang Yu's first stop was this very establishment for a grand feast.

After eating his fill and satisfying his desires, he proceeded to the Jinman Tower in Ancient Square City. Though this establishment was under Jinlin's influence, it didn't deter him from conducting business there. The twenty-year period was still six years from expiring. His primary reason for visiting Jinman Tower was to collect the Qi of the Four Directions and Four Seas. There wasn't just one lineage of Earth Array Masters in the world, and these unique spiritual items had a market. He was currently gathering them to refine a Feng Shui compass.

The cultivation of the Earth Mother Scripture had just begun to progress steadily. He primarily relied on his own comprehension, only using the placement slot to overcome bottlenecks. Consequently, his advancement wasn't particularly rapid; he had merely just begun to grasp its fundamentals.

He emerged from Jinman Tower with a satisfied expression. The Qi of the Four Seas typically had to be collected from the Chaotic Ancient Sea, but he lacked the time for such a distant journey. Fortunately, Jinman Tower held a certain reserve, and it wasn't excessively expensive; a complete set could be acquired for 500,000 low-grade spirit stones. It was said that array masters often required these unique spiritual items. The Qi of the Four Directions, or Four Earth Qi, was relatively straightforward to collect. Using his Qi-Gazing Golden Eyes, he could simply trace the earth veins in the four cardinal directions and extract a wisp from each. Conversely, the primary material for the Feng Shui compass, ink copper, was exceedingly rare, and he had yet to acquire any.

He had made two appearances while wearing the Earth Net Ghost Mask, which was sufficient for his purposes.

Next, he planned to journey around Lunar Pursuit Province, traveling from north to south, before returning to Cloud Ridge Province. Along the way, he would gather information and collect the Qi of the Four Earth Directions. By traveling and making his way back, the time for his rendezvous with Zuo Qiuming in Guiling would be approaching. Furthermore, Jin Miaoshan had high-grade ice-attributed Golden Core spiritual items and disaster-avoiding treasures awaiting him. He calculated that the timing should be just right.

With his plans set, Wang Yu left Ancient Square City and headed south.

The landscape of the Yellow Springs Temple territory was quite similar to that of the Sacred Sect, though its landmass was smaller, with a greater proportion of its domain lying over the sea. Due to the unsuitability of the Dead Silence Desert for mortal habitation, the population in other areas was considerably denser.

Ambushes and robberies were rampant in the wilderness, yet the cultivators of the Yellow Springs Temple seemed remarkably fond of meddling. Once caught by them, both parties involved would often face severe consequences—specifically, fines! Indeed, the Yellow Springs Temple cultivators preferred fines over killing. They were particularly keen on fining individuals into destitution, citing the "disruption of public order," and then would offer them unavoidable mining work on an island. After witnessing this several times, Wang Yu couldn't help but scratch his head, puzzled by how such an unusual custom had originated.

The Yellow Springs Temple governed five provinces: You Province, Sand Province (the Dead Silence Desert), Peach Province, Bamboo Mountain Province, and East Sea Province. On the Crimson Kite Continent, their territories stretched like a plump, elongated worm. A significant portion of their domain extended along the eastern coast, with East Sea Province serving as their main base and most prosperous region.

Wang Yu avoided interfering in any conflicts, relying on invisibility techniques to pass by unnoticed by ordinary cultivators. As a result, his journey was smooth and uneventful. He arrived very smoothly at the southern border of You Province, which was quite close to Wanglong City, located at the very edge of Lunar Pursuit Province.

The Lord of Wanglong City was Wei Hao, whom Wang Yu had met once in Guiling. Wei Hao had been notably friendly, and his name was not among the six lords who had perished from Lunar Pursuit's New Nine Cities. Wang Yu wondered if his city's remote location had spared him from disaster.

Upon arriving in the vicinity, Wang Yu entered Huangbai City, a border town, where he employed various methods to inquire about the current situation in Lunar Pursuit Province. Publicly circulated information was easy enough to gather, but obtaining the specifics of the negotiations between the two dominant powers proved much more challenging.

Six years had passed, and as expected, there had been virtually no progress in the negotiations; a stalemate persisted. Meanwhile, on the Lunar Pursuit Province side, the Sacred Sect city lords were frantically leveraging their connections and resources to deploy additional forces. For them, expanding their territory was a significant achievement, with the profits from city sovereignty being a secondary concern.

In Huangbai City, a significant number of Yellow Springs Temple cultivators had also gathered. They too were taking advantage of the stalled negotiations, dispatching a large contingent of inner and outer disciples to station them in this newly established border city. This strategic positioning meant that as soon as the negotiations concluded, they could launch an immediate attack to seize the remaining three cities, thus bringing Lunar Pursuit Province back under the Yellow Springs Temple's dominion. Both factions were mobilizing troops and amassing strength, a clear indication of their intentions. It seemed likely that once the negotiations concluded, a final battle would be fought here to definitively determine the cities' sovereignty.

At that moment, in the inn where Wang Yu was temporarily staying, several Yellow Springs Temple disciples, led by a Foundation Establishment cultivator, entered. They had just settled into an empty booth when one of the disciples spotted Wang Yu, who was wearing a mask. After whispering a few words to his companions, the group collectively approached Wang Yu. "Fellow Daoist," the leader began, "Lunar Pursuit Province is currently at war, and this area is dangerously close to the Sacred Sect's remaining three cities, making it a hub for spies. Would you be able to verify your identity?"

Wang Yu set down his wine glass. He had only entered this single city since leaving Ancient Square City and was surprised to be questioned so soon. "Gentlemen," he calmly replied, "I am merely a rogue cultivator. I'm unsure how I might prove my identity."

"A rogue cultivator?" The group exchanged glances, and the Foundation Establishment leader rubbed his fingers together. "It's simple, Fellow Daoist. Just allow this Yang to inspect your storage pouch."

As Wang Yu considered his options, he retrieved a storage pouch from his robes. This particular pouch was for miscellaneous items, mostly dispensable things he could sell at any time. He extracted several bottles of pills from it and, with a calm demeanor, asked, "Four bottles of first-tier high-grade spiritual pills—would these suffice as proof?"

Each bottle contained nine pills, totaling a value of nearly ten thousand low-grade spirit stones—more than enough to buy the lives of those few Qi Condensation cultivators. Upon receiving them, the Foundation Establishment leader showed no inclination to share with his subordinates. With a wave of his hand, he prepared to lead his men away.

However, one of the disciples, clearly unwilling to let it go, interjected, "Why are you sneaking around wearing a mask? Take it off and let us see!"

"Alas, why indeed!"