CHAPTER 84: CHAPTER 82: JI YUAN’S “DEATH,” JI YUAN BREAKS THROUGH

After speaking, he glanced down at Qiu Qianhai, who was still in a deep slumber.

"You are the peerless genius whom I have nurtured with the efforts of three generations in this Dragon Nurturing Land. You must not disappoint, young one."

"Let’s go, let’s go, I’ll take you back first."

Saying this, the black skeleton looked left and right, and finally decided to remove one of its ribs on the left side.

"Bang," a light sound echoed.

The entire skeleton trembled slightly.

With his left hand, he snapped his fingers again, igniting a green fire between his index finger and thumb, and held the rib over the flame with his right hand to set it ablaze.

He watched his burning rib, sighed deeply, and finally tossed it to the ground.

As soon as the rib touched the ground, the flames intensified sharply, ultimately transforming into a blazing bonfire.

"Cangluo is too small, Shang Court is nowhere to be found, better not to come..."

With a gentle chant, the skeleton dragged the lifeless body of Qiu Qianhai into the green bonfire, after which their forms disappeared, and the flames extinguished on their own...

"Ji Yuan!!!"

Qiu Qianhai shouted loudly, sitting up abruptly, only to find himself in a stone chamber.

A skeleton was standing right in front of him.

Without a word, Qiu Qianhai summoned his Crescent Moon Saber and swung it horizontally.

The saber struck the skeleton... but it broke!

The black skeleton slowly turned around, looked at the now-awake Qiu Qianhai, and let out a gentle laugh from his throat, "My dear apprentice, could it be that you wish to slay your master?"

"If you want, I’ll send you to meet your friend."

"If not, then I will teach you... how to seek revenge!"

Qiu Qianhai looked at his broken magical artifact, then at the talking black skeleton before him, and without any hesitation, bowed his head and exclaimed:

"Master above, please accept my obeisance!"

The black skeleton stepped forward, gently touched Qiu Qianhai’s head, "Good disciple."

Qiu Qianhai shivered, looked up, and asked, "Master... Master, what is this place? Wasn’t I at the Clear Wave Pond?"

"This place."

The black skeleton spoke slowly, with hands behind its back, "This place."

"This is a paradise for the chaotic, a hell for the orderly. Everyone here worships one truth... that brute strength is the hard truth, yet equally, countless strong individuals desire to rewrite this chaotic land and create a new order here."

"Here, there are heroes who rebuild themselves to immortality, there are prodigies who achieve Foundation Establishment in a day, and of course..." the black skeleton leaned abruptly towards Qiu Qianhai with green flames flickering in its eye sockets.

"There is you and me."

"But... but Master, you haven’t said where this place actually is?"

"This is the Land of the Abyss!"

"Also known as the Abyss Island."

"Of course, if you ask on a larger scale, it’s the Endless Sea with three thousand boats, each ferrying people across."

"..."

As the scorching summer passed and the bountiful autumn harvested, the harsh winter season arrived.

Ji Yuan felt that this year had passed particularly quickly, because his cultivation had reached the late stage of Qi Cultivation, and as long as he didn’t provoke anything himself, very little could disturb him in Cloud Rain Marsh.

In the majority of this time, apart from trips to Zengtou City, he spent the rest of his time cultivating at home.

He barely left his main door, let alone the secondary one; even when some late-stage Qi Cultivators came by with issues, he politely declined.

Even though he knew he could profit, Ji Yuan refrained from participating in endeavors like demon slaying and treasure hunting.

He even stopped actively inquiring about Qiu Qianhai’s matters; instead, the limper Li came by twice, asking Ji Yuan if he had any news.

Days passed one by one like this.

The fish in Ji Yuan’s Fish Pond were exchanged repeatedly.

As for neighbors, Wu Qin was nearly due to give birth, so in recent days Lin Hu stopped going out to sea, staying at home to care for her.

During this time, Lin Hu also sought out Ji Yuan twice, initially hoping Ji Yuan would be the godfather to his son.

After Ji Yuan turned it down, he changed his request, saying he hadn’t studied much and hoped Ji Yuan could name his child.

Once again, Ji Yuan declined, citing his limited literary knowledge, and suggested he visit Wen Lin next door instead.

After all, both Ji Yuan and Lin Hu knew Wen Lin was truly a well-read nobleman.

As for what name Wen Lin chose, Ji Yuan did not ask further, as after a year of pill-taking and cultivation using Spirit Stones, he was finally on the verge of another breakthrough.

Advancing from the seventh to the eighth level of Qi Cultivation was barely considered a small milestone.

Thus, Ji Yuan hadn’t prepared precious things like Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

On a beautiful sunny morning, Ji Yuan isolated all sound, set up two hundred Spirit Stones around him, and began his breakthrough with the Cave Mansion’s effects.

He held two Spirit Stones in each hand, and internally, he operated the "Jade Sea Tide Generation Skill." The Spiritual Qi within the stones was rapidly absorbed, channeled through his meridians, and finally converged in his Dantian.

Becoming part of that Danyun.

Repeating this cycle, coupled with a 30% increase in nighttime Spiritual Qi density in the Cave Mansion.

Even under these conditions, it still took Ji Yuan nearly ten days to absorb almost 500 Low-grade Spirit Stones.

His cultivation advanced from the seventh to the eighth layer of Qi Cultivation.

Ji Yuan had always cultivated steadily, so there was no danger, everything happened naturally.

After breaking through to the eighth layer of Qi Cultivation, he spent another three or four days stabilizing it before emerging from seclusion.

The first thing he did after coming out was urgently slaughter the two mid-stage first-level Spirit Fish in the Fish Pond.

Both fish had advanced while he was in seclusion; if not killed, they would compete with each other and also encroach on the living space of other Spirit Fish.