Chapter 201: Fourth Realm

"Hidden One, come with us. Lord Yin sent us to fetch you." Yin Fifteen and Yin Sixteen appeared on the sea dike, their voices carried by spiritual energy.

"Just a moment." Li Weiyi folded his two banners, knowing he couldn't maintain the arena at this stage. He looked out at the fierce battle between Yin Eleven and Zhu Yuzhao on the sea. "Should we join them and retreat?"

Yin Fifteen replied, "Many other masters under the Young Venerable haven't yet appeared. This is not a safe place to linger; your safety is paramount. Yin Nine and Yin Eleven have their own missions—a battle to establish their reputation that must be fought. The Jiuli clan intends to use the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival to reassert the influence of our ancient lineage."

Realizing the situation was out of control and it was genuinely dangerous to remain, Li Weiyi joined Yin Fifteen and Yin Sixteen on the sea dike, heading towards Zhuoyuan. The injured Qi Wangshu and Zuoqiu Baiyuan had already been escorted back to the city by martial practitioners from the Zuoqiu household.

Just as they approached the inner city, Li Weiyi paused, gazing into the distance. Amidst a thunderous tiger's roar, an enormous white tiger leaped onto the city wall, landing atop a three-story watchtower. Simultaneously, a long, drawn-out voice echoed from afar: "Zuoqiu Ting, accompanied by eleven members of the Zuoqiu Household, pays respects to the Young Venerable and requests guidance."

Yin Nine, who had repelled the Four Truths of Coffin Mountain, advanced with overwhelming demonic might, striding down the long street. With an axe on his shoulder, he swiftly charged towards the city wall, then came to an abrupt halt on the ground below, forming a combined offensive stance with Cang Li, creating a striking contrast like heaven and earth.

Zhuoyuan, located in the southeast corner of the inner South City, served as another clandestine stronghold for the Jiuli Hidden Gate. After Qinyuan was compromised, all the young Hidden Ones relocated here.

Upon Li Weiyi, Yin Fifteen, and Yin Sixteen's return, Lord Yin had already arrived back from Taoli Mountain. He was instructing Yao Yin on how to master the combat intent of the Jiuli God and the power inherent within that intent. Indeed, it could be said that, apart from Li Weiyi, Yao Yin was Lord Yin's most cherished protégé.

"So, you made it back alive?" Lord Yin asked, a touch of amusement in his voice. Yin Fifteen and Yin Sixteen, sensing the moment, discreetly withdrew to study the silver skeleton of the Celestial Clan.

Li Weiyi knew full well that Lord Yin would seize this opportunity to urge him to leave Qiuzhou Prefecture City. So he replied, "Everything is proceeding as planned; it's still quite safe. Aren't you concerned about their situation?" Even if things were spiraling out of control, he couldn't show any weakness now and deftly changed the subject.

From Zhuoyuan, they could clearly see the swirling mists of spiritual energy above the city walls. Lord Yin moved to his side, cast a dismissive glance towards the wall, then looked away. "They won't actually fight! Luan Sheng Linyou and Ge Xiantong were both severely wounded in their last confrontation and are likely still recovering. With Lunar New Year's Eve only about ten days away, if they were to launch an attack against the Jiuli clan and the Zuoqiu household now, wouldn't all the other factions be absolutely delighted?"

"Then why are they making a move?" Li Weiyi inquired.

"You're quite clever; take a guess," Lord Yin challenged.

"Are they perhaps using this opportunity to force the Jiuli clan and the Zuoqiu household to reveal their trump cards?" As soon as he spoke, Li Weiyi shook his head. "No, even if they were to make a move, it should be the imperial court's forces conducting the test. It's highly unlikely that Luan Sheng Linyou, while injured, would again pave the way for Ge Xiantong's victory."

"Could they be here for me?" Li Weiyi met Lord Yin's amused gaze and shook his head again. "That's even more improbable! Perhaps Cang Jin's target is me, but the others' target certainly isn't. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made it out of the Ancestral Battlefield."

Li Weiyi consistently believed that individuals vying for the top scholar position in the national college entrance examinations wouldn't, at such a crucial juncture, consider a middle school student with excellent grades like himself a threat or an adversary. While he might be conveniently eliminated, a conflict of this scale seemed utterly unreasonable.

Lord Yin stated, "Are you aware how many people have been ensnared by your arena gambling over the past few days, not only losing all their family's wealth but also flocking to Qianli Mountain to borrow money?"

"It was all voluntary, wasn't it? I even advised them against it, but they wouldn't listen," Li Weiyi said.

"Because they were caught up in the game, they lost their rationality," Lord Yin replied. "This applies to those who lost money, but wasn't it equally true for those who won?"

Li Weiyi's eyes widened in realization, and he felt as if struck by lightning. His face instantly paled, and he sobered up as though enlightened, finally grasping the true origin of the day's events. While those who lost were undeniably driven by their gambling addiction, weren't those who won, constantly tasting success, equally driven by greed and the allure of wealth? It was difficult for anyone to simply stop. The former faced ruin and devastation, while the latter could hardly escape dire consequences. This was because the money came too easily, flashing before their eyes, inevitably inciting envy and bringing about calamity.

"They came for those Spring Coins, Blood Crystals, millennium elixirs, and magical artifacts," Li Weiyi murmured to himself, then offered a bitter smile, reflecting on the mental imbalance he had experienced over the past few days. He had always considered himself rational and meticulous in his preparations, yet he truly hadn't grasped the immense danger that vast wealth could attract, nor had he managed to curb his impulses in time. He allowed the riches to accumulate unchecked, ultimately leading to a catastrophe that almost cost Qi Wangshu and Zuoqiu Baiyuan their lives.

Had he genuinely approached it as a friendly martial arts gathering from the start, even if he had defeated every opponent in his realm within five moves, it wouldn't have created such a significant commotion.

"Knowing contentment avoids humiliation; knowing when to stop avoids peril. These words truly hold. Failing to control one's greed, and accumulating wealth one cannot manage, is indeed a very dangerous endeavor," Li Weiyi mused.

Seeing that Li Weiyi understood his error and possessed the capacity for self-reflection, Lord Yin smiled with satisfaction. "The wealth you accumulated these past few days — never mind them — even I found myself a little tempted. You must understand, young masters of the Five Seas realm are already willing to take extreme risks for just a single millennium elixir."

"It's a shame it was all stolen!" Li Weiyi sighed.

Lord Yin, seeing through his pretense, chuckled and asked, "Was it *really* all stolen?"

Of course not. Li Weiyi had already secreted away some of the most valuable items won during the first four days — specifically, millennium elixirs and unusual high-grade magical artifacts — into his spatial pouch. However, this didn't mean he was indifferent to the loss of the five large chests of wealth that *were* stolen. Now, he could only pray that the Zuoqiu household would capture the female thief, or at the very least, that she would escape alive. If her own greed led to her demise midway, Li Weiyi wouldn't even know who to reclaim the debts from.

Noticing Li Weiyi's low spirits, Lord Yin, assuming he was still lost in reflection, offered, "Experience isn't frightening; what's truly frightening is *not* having experiences. It is only through continuous experience that one can identify the weaknesses of human nature, stemming from our seven emotions and six desires, and constantly strive to correct and compensate for them. True understanding is forged through a thousand trials!"

For the following few days, Li Weiyi remained at Zhuoyuan, healing his injuries and cultivating his spiritual energy. During this period, he met with Qi Xiao to ascertain the female thief's situation. Though she hadn't been apprehended, it appeared the opposing faction hadn't captured her either. This was, in a way, a silver lining amidst the misfortune.

"Help me investigate the Sui Sect members and keep them under close surveillance," Li Weiyi instructed.

"The Sui Sect? Did *they* steal our money?" Qi Xiao's face flushed with anger, as if the stolen goods were not mere money but his own family.

"Don't tip them off; wait for my instructions," Li Weiyi cautioned.

"Fine, those bastards from the Sui Sect dared to steal from *me*!" Qi Xiao raged. "Don't worry, my Qi family has eyes everywhere in the South City; they won't escape." Qi Xiao considered himself a man of calm disposition, but this humiliation and financial loss truly pushed him over the edge.

As Lunar New Year's Eve drew closer, the festive atmosphere in Qiuzhou Prefecture City intensified. Most residents of the prefecture city were martial cultivators or mind masters. Many of them, rather than leaving due to the impending Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival, eagerly anticipated it. After all, the massive influx of young martial cultivators from various prefectures had allowed them to earn a substantial fortune.

On the eve of Lunar New Year's Eve, Li Weiyi finally completed the cultivation of his third Spirit Sea. After consuming the Yanxia exotic medicine, he successfully broke through to the Fourth Sea of the Five Seas realm. This Fourth Sea, being the primary one, required an extremely long process to open. Even with the aid of the Buddha's sarira's spatial power, the expansion took several hours.

Using his spiritual sense for internal observation, Li Weiyi confirmed what others had said: his Fourth Sea was indeed more than ten times larger than the first three combined. His first Spirit Sea measured ten cubic units. His second Spirit Sea, sixty-three cubic units. His third Spirit Sea, approximately three hundred eighty cubic units. The Fourth Spirit Sea, however, he roughly estimated to be around eight thousand cubic units, so immense it was hard to believe such an internal world existed within a small lung lobe.

It was like a grand hall, twenty meters in length, width, and height, capable of storing spiritual energy in quantities as vast as a lake or even a sea. "No wonder they say the Fourth Stage of the Five Seas realm is a world apart from the Third," he mused. "Opening the primary sea truly makes a difference; there's no longer a need to conserve spiritual energy as much as before."

"Moreover, my spiritual energy appears to have reached the Fourth-tier level." Li Weiyi felt a liberating sense of clarity, as if the clouds had parted. If he could fully replenish his Fourth Spirit Sea to its peak, he believed he could confidently challenge even the top masters cultivating the Seventh Sea in the Five Seas realm, even without the aid of his seven little companions.

He experimented and found that, after his breakthrough, absorbing Dao Fruit through the 'spring eyes' in his palms more than doubled his spiritual energy accumulation rate. However, if he were to continue accumulating spiritual energy at this methodical pace, it would still take two to three years to fully cultivate his Fourth Spirit Sea.

Naturally, he couldn't wait. Remembering his prior discussion with Master Coffin about directly injecting the Dao Fruit into his Fourth Spirit Sea, he activated the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish and entered the blood-mud space within the microscopic world.

Within the blood-mud space, the seven Phoenix-winged Moth Emperors had grown to six inches in length, a size typically associated with the Fifth Sea realm. However, their combat prowess, he suspected, could allow them to reign supreme even among martial cultivators of the Sixth Sea. As their cultivation levels advanced, each inch of growth demanded an increasing amount of medicinal resources. To grow from five to six inches, they consumed two of Li Weiyi's millennium elixirs and three Xihe Flowers. It was daunting to imagine how many millennium elixirs would be needed to nurture them to seven inches in length.

Nevertheless, as their cultivation levels steadily climbed, their unique abilities began to manifest more prominently. One of the creatures, affectionately named "Third Phoenix" by Li Weiyi, could even unleash Golden Crow flames so potent that his protective spiritual energy couldn't withstand them and would be incinerated. Li Weiyi tested this with a mid-grade magical artifact battle sword. The battle sword was cleanly severed by its feathered wing, with clear signs of melting at the point of fracture.

Sitting beside Master Coffin's sarcophagus, Li Weiyi explained his purpose.

"Is today the end of the year?" Master Coffin inquired.

"When I came in, the sky was already bright; it's the last day of the old year," Li Weiyi confirmed.

Master Coffin replied, "Eight thousand cubic units is barely large enough, but you could risk directly injecting the Dao Fruit. The spiritual energy released naturally by the Dao Fruit is like a powerful vortex; it could fill your Spirit Sea in mere moments. If not withdrawn in time, there's a risk of your Spirit Sea rupturing. That's the first risk!"

"Secondly, the spiritual energy within the Dao Fruit is not your own cultivated energy. If it enters your body in large quantities, there will be a strong rejection. This could even lead to your spiritual energy becoming uncontrollable during battle."

"Consequently, martial cultivators who utilize this technique for rapid energy accumulation must spend an extended period in secluded cultivation for refinement and integration."

"Now, here's the issue: the final batch of invitations and the rules for the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival will be distributed and announced tonight at the base of Taoli Mountain."

"First, it's uncertain whether you'll even receive an invitation from the final batch. Second, we don't know the exact rules, or if battles will erupt tonight."

"You'll need at least several days of secluded cultivation for preliminary refinement and temporary integration. I advise that you return from Taoli Mountain tonight before deciding whether to inject the Dao Fruit into your Fourth Spirit Sea; that approach would be much safer."