Chapter 298 - 293: This Disciple Wants to Achieve Nascent Soul Formation, Wants to Attain Divinity Transformation, Wants to Reach Enlightenment

"Oh, forget it. On second thought, I can’t really blame you for all this."

Jie Yu finally calmed down, her somewhat silly, slightly regretful smile returning.

Du Youqian had to admire her. Putting himself in her shoes, if something he had planned for eight thousand years ended up being all for naught, he wasn’t sure he could have adjusted his mindset so quickly.

"Once I achieve Enlightenment in the future, I’ll definitely find eight or ten of these fragments to compensate you."

Jie Yu rolled her eyes at him. "Wait for you to achieve Enlightenment? Do you think you’ll achieve Enlightenment first, or that I, your master, will die of old age first?"

Du Youqian thumped his chest and guaranteed, "Don’t worry, Master. It’s fine if you die of old age. I’ll burn them for you as an offering."

A cluster of sparks ignited on Jie Yu’s fingertip as she said ominously, "I’ll burn you, my wicked disciple, right now."

Du Youqian could only try to console her.

Jie Yu pretended to sulk for a while. In truth, she wasn’t that angry anymore, but it was still nice to see her wicked disciple trying so hard to comfort her and show his filial piety.

It reminded her of the past, of the beautiful little moments when this wicked disciple had yet to reach Core Formation and was still an obedient apprentice.

Suddenly, an idea struck her. No matter how hard she tried, that Creation Jade Scroll Fragment just lay in her wicked disciple’s Dantian playing dead, completely ignoring her and leaving her with no way to exert her power.

However, she remembered a certain Dual Cultivation Secret Technique. The Gathering and Replenishing part of it was said to be so profound that one could even seize another person’s Lifebound Treasure.

Jie Yu’s eyes darted about as she snickered inwardly.

’Wicked disciple, you just keep nurturing this Creation Jade Scroll Fragment for your master.’

’Once I reach Core Formation and master that Secret Technique, I’ll take it back!’

’You can cry all you want then.’

Seeing her mood improve, Du Youqian asked her what she had gained during this time.

To put it simply, Jie Yu had hidden her cultivation and joined the Taihe Sect. She spent two and a half years as a trainee and had just recently revealed a cultivation at Qi Cultivation Perfection.

"If you hadn’t come looking for me, I would have started my Foundation Establishment in the next few months."

"Master, you must be taking the genius path this life. If only that Teleportation Array were still around..."

"What Teleportation Array?" Jie Yu asked, confused.

"...It’s nothing."

"Are you going to tell me or not?"

"This... I really can’t say."

"Waaaah! My Creation Jade Scroll! My Creation Jade Scroll that I spent eight thousand years refining! Waaaah, you’ve abandoned me just like that!"

"Ahem... It’s like this. In the past, the Taihe Sect and the Holy Blood Sect jointly supervised a Teleportation Array that led to the outside world..." Du Youqian really couldn’t stand her shameless antics, so he had no choice but to recount what he knew, explaining how he had followed the trail to the Teleportation Array’s location only to find that Pang Master, who garrisoned it, had fallen and the array was destroyed.

"So that’s how it is..." Jie Yu looked very satisfied. She had grasped another top-secret piece of information.

Secrets were money. Secrets were Spiritual Diamonds.

As long as she had enough secrets, her whole body felt at ease.

’What others don’t have, I have; what others have, I have better.’ Whenever she learned a new secret and then looked at those blissfully ignorant people, she would feel a sense of satisfaction and superiority.

After a moment’s thought, her expression turned stern. "You wicked disciple, why are you always thinking about running off to the Human World?"

"I want to achieve Nascent Soul Formation, Divinity Transformation, and Enlightenment."

Hearing this, Jie Yu was stunned speechless for a long moment. Suddenly, she felt it was all rather pointless.

She began to reflect. Had she been too lazy? For thousands of years, she hadn’t striven to advance. Even though she had been stuck at the Core Formation Early Stage all this time, she had never once thought of leaving Momenan.

She had never once considered it.

The Human Race was so diligent, persistent, and ambitious, able to endure hardship and loneliness. If they truly received the mandate of heaven again, would there be any room left in the world for other races to survive?

The thought made her feel a little dispirited.

’No, I must cultivate diligently for the rise of the Fox Race!’

"Master, what are you thinking about?"

"Ahem, nothing," Jie Yu’s attention returned to the previous topic. She asked with great interest, "My good disciple, do you think the outside world will find out that the Teleportation Array has been destroyed?"

Du Youqian answered without hesitation, "They probably will. After all, every few hundred years, Momenan sends a prodigy to the outside world. And sometimes, the outside world sends instructions through the Teleportation Array, like a Jade Slip or something. For example, before my Core Formation, a message came from the outside telling the Taihe and Saint Blood Sects to join forces and eliminate the phantoms in the Cyan Yang Sect relics. The hope was to use the opportunity of destroying the phantoms, and the Sword Intent of ’Annihilate,’ to implicate the Cyan Yang Sect in the outside world as well."

"I see. Then after the Teleportation Array was destroyed, will the outside world try to find a way to repair it?"

Du Youqian had also considered this question. "I think they will try to fix it. But how long will it take? What will be the cost? These are all unknowns. Perhaps for the outside world, it might take two or three thousand years to repair this Teleportation Array."

After escaping the Illusion Realm, due to some changes within himself, Du Youqian’s Divination Art had received an epic-level upgrade.

He had specifically performed a Divination on the matter of the Teleportation Array, and the resulting hexagram indicated that the array leading to the outside world was broken.

As for the missing Shi Shentong and Master Wu Ji, although Du Youqian didn’t know what happened to them, he could confirm that they were still alive.

Jie Yu said, "Since I’ve joined the Taihe Sect, I must make good use of it. Next, I will try to find out what exactly happened to Master Wu Ji back then, and why he disappeared at almost the same time as Shi Shentong."

"Also, keep an eye out for that mastermind I mentioned," Du Youqian reminded her.

Jie Yu smiled. "I will. But you could also go find Hundred Refinement Master and Master Qingqiu. I feel they might have some connection to the mastermind you mentioned. Some of their actions over the past decade or so really don’t hold up to scrutiny. Of course, even if they are connected to the mastermind, it might not be out of malice. I actually think they want to get something from the mastermind that can help you."

"Perhaps," Du Youqian said. It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered this possibility; he had already confirmed it to some extent through his Divination Art.

He just didn’t want to delve too deeply into it for the time being.

First, he needed to improve his own strength. Everything else could wait until after he reached Core Formation again.

It was like a man preparing for the bar exam. The test was in a month, and if he passed, his path would be smooth sailing, his future bright.

At this time, his girlfriend seems to be leaving early and coming home late, dressing herself up extravagantly and acting all mysterious.

So, what’s the most important thing for this man to do right now?

Follow her? Confront her? Try to check her phone, install a GPS tracker, or spend money to hire a private investigator to catch her cheating?

None of the above.

He shouldn’t waste money, or time, or risk getting distracted by focusing on these things.

He should focus on passing the bar exam, and then deal with this problem.

Once he has the certificate in hand, he’ll be free to advance or retreat as he pleases.

You want to break up? Fine, let’s break up.

You want to stay together? Then prove your innocence first.

For the current Du Youqian, everything was just empty talk until he recovered his strength.

If he were to investigate now... what would he do if Lin Sha, Luo Jinyu, Meng Xiao, and the others were indeed plotting something sinister?

Pretend he didn’t know and carry on, or expose them and wait for them to fly into a rage from shame and suppress him?

Although that possibility was very small.

Du Youqian believed they would not betray him.

But right now, he simply didn’t want to spend the time and energy to confirm any of it.

Only by recovering his strength and once again standing at the peak of Momenan would he have the right to keep Luo Jinyu, Lin Sha, and the others loyal to him.

Only then would all his plans have a foundation upon which to be realized.

After Jie Yu returned to Sui Shou Mountain to prepare for her Foundation Establishment, Du Youqian went south to Soul-shaking Mountain to cultivate.

Two and a half years had passed in a dream. Although his cultivation had reached Foundation Establishment Peak and he was on the verge of Core Formation within that Illusion Realm, after returning, his cultivation was still only at the Foundation Establishment Sixth Layer.

And naturally, not a single one of the precious materials he had placed in his Storage Treasure Pouch had come back with him.

It all felt like a fleeting dream.

But, in the end, some things had changed.

Back in the Illusion Realm, he had used Immortal Spirit Qi to make up for the defects in his Body Refining, allowing him to reach Foundation Establishment Perfection in a perfect state.

Now, even though his cultivation had regressed, he was shocked to find that the defects in his Body Refining had not.

He was still in that perfect state.

This point alone was enough to make him ecstatic.

What surprised Du Youqian even more, and what had been greatly enhanced, was his Divination Art.

For some unknown reason, the very caliber of his Divination Art seemed to have undergone a massive upgrade.

Forget Tier Three—he could now even perform Divination on Tier Four and Tier Five people or things.

Unlike before, when his Divination Art would work only intermittently whenever the Divination involved a Core Formation Master or higher-tier items.

After verifying it multiple times and confirming the epic-level upgrade to his Divination Art, Du Youqian specifically used the Divination Art to divine the identity of the mastermind.

"Pang."

That was the clue he received.

Du Youqian found it baffling.

Pang what?

Vast?

Face?

Pang Tong, the Fledgling Phoenix?

After a long time, he suddenly realized.

Pang Master.

The Divination was pointing to the very same Pang Master he had thought was dead.

But think about it.

For hundreds of years, he had been firmly seated as the second-in-command of the Holy Blood Sect.

Right after reaching Core Formation, he had ruthlessly instigated the war between Qi and Wu to forge a Treasure Level Demon Artifact.

He acted in a low-key manner and usually had almost no presence.

Would such a person really have fallen so easily?