Chapter 273: Surging Cultivation

“Grandma…” He sniffled, tears pouring out. He weakly reached out his two tiny hands, only to reveal a wooden pin that had already been split into two halves. It was the one that she gifted him the day before.

Zhu Yao frowned.

“Junior-martial sister says that other than the mystic tool in the Tranquil Valley, she doesn’t want anything else.” He rubbed his tears, and said with a pitiful look. “Senior-martial uncle Qu even broke it…”

“It’s alright, don’t cry.” Zhu Yao’s heart instantly softened.

Little tyrant however grew even more saddened, as he pounced into her embrace and wailed out loud. “Grandma, Xiao Bai got your wooden pin broken. Are you not going to like Xiao Bai anymore?”

Stupid child, you’re actually worried about this.

“I won’t. It’s fine if the wooden pin is broken. I’m not angry.”

“Really?” He raised his head, tears flowing abundantly.

“Really.”

Only then did he calm down. Sniffling, he stopped his tears, and said in a complaining tone. “Senior-martial uncle said that if I fail to find the mystic tool, I won’t be allowed to meet junior-martial sister Qu Yi again.”

That mystic tool again. It was already her third time hearing the little tyrant mention it. She could not help but suspect that senior-martial uncle Qu’s motives. It was very likely that they had been using this child this entire time.

“It was your senior-martial uncle who wanted you to find that mystic tool since the very beginning?”

“Mn.” He nodded.

Zhu Yao frowned even deeper. “Then why isn’t your senior-martial uncle looking for it on his own?” He was instead forcing a child to do it.

“Because senior-martial uncle can’t enter this place!” He said matter-of-factly.

“He can’t enter?”

The little tyrant took two steps forward, and pointed towards the sky. “There’s something blocking above. Other than Xiao Bai, no one else can enter this place.”

Blocking? Barrier? Why wasn’t she aware of it!?

“Xiao Bai, lend me your flying mystic artifact for a moment.

“Ou.” He obediently pulled out that feather.

Bringing him along, Zhu Yao rose into the air. When she reached mid-air, she realized that the place she was at was a gigantic valley of several hundred kilometers in width. Furthermore, the entire territory was encased in a barrier. After a detailed observation, this barrier seemed to be some form of restriction that was specially used to restrict human practitioners.

However, for some reason, little tyrant could enter and exit it freely.

Zhu Yao returned to the surface. That barrier was clearly used to protect the demons within.

It seemed like that senior-martial uncle or whatever knew that Xiao Bai could enter and exit freely, so he had been making him enter the place several times to look for an item. Furthermore, he even used the name of that junior-martial sister.

He actually dared to use the pure friendship between children, so detestable! Zhu Yao’s favorability meter towards senior-martial uncle Qu had plummeted by a 100 points.

However, just what in the world was the mystic tool little tyrant spoke of?

“Little tyr- Xiao Bai, do you know just what is the mystic tool your senior-martial uncle is making you look for?”

“It’s an umbrella. A really huge umbrella.”

“What kind of umbrella? Do you know?”

“I do.” He nodded. Lowering his head, he pulled out a scroll from the storage pouch next to him. “Senior-martial uncle was afraid that I would forget, so I drew it out for me.”

He sure was well prepared.

Zhu Yao took it and rolled it out. What she saw was a drawing of a lifelike, colourful… veil.

How was this an umbrella!? It was clearly a bed canopy!

Eh? Why did she feel that this canopy look so familiar?

The hell, wasn’t it the one that was hanging in her home?

Why did his senior-martial uncle want her bed canopy? Could he possibly have some strange fetish?

“Xiao Bai, how old is your senior-martial uncle?”

“Ah?” He was stunned for a moment, then he began using his fingers to count. “One hundred… Two hundred… Three hundred…”

That shameless bastard! He’s actually eyeing an old woman’s bed canopy!

“Come with me.” Zhu Yao pulled the little tyrant’s hands, walked to her own home, and turned towards her bedroom. She had to take a closer look.

When the little tyrant saw the light veil next to the bed, his eyes instantly shone. “Umbrella!”

“That’s a bed canopy!”

He then hopped towards it. “Grandma, so the umbrella is yours.”

“It’s a bed canopy.”

“Grandma, why did you hang the umbrella above your bed? Is it going to rain later tonight?”

“I already told you that’s a bed canopy.” Why can’t he just forget about the matter of it being a fan? Whatever, a fan it is then. Zhu Yao returned him the scroll that was in her hands. “Look, is this the mystic tool you’re looking for?”

The little tyrant looked at the scroll carefully, and then looked at the colourful light veil again, before nodding his head heavily. “That’s right, this is it.”

Zhu Yao looked at the light veil carefully, and realized there was a faint ripple of spiritual energy from it. Though it was a very small amount, it was indeed spiritual energy. Furthermore, it looked like it was made out of a rainbow of colours before, but it had now turned into a faint green.

She reached out her hand to touch it. She realized it had a soft texture, with a slight stickiness in it. This feeling… Why was it so similar to the barrier outside?

“Little tyrant, let’s take a look up there again.”

“Grandma, I’m called Xiao Bai…”

“Aiya, don’t mind such minor details.” Zhu Yao kept the bed canopy and pulled the little tyrant out. Taking the feather from his palm, she leapt into the air and once again flew upwards.

Zhu Yao carefully inspected the barrier above, and as expected, it was exactly the same as the bed canopy in her hands. The difference was that the barrier was transparent, while her canopy was faint green in colour. Furthermore, spiritual energy was flowing above the barrier, but it was impossible to distinguish its attribute.

She took a deep breath, and then carefully reached out her hand to touch the barrier. However, she immediately passed through it, and in an instant, large amount of spiritual energy rapidly poured into her body. Her Dantian which was empty just earlier, was instantly filled completely. It was so immense she could barely maintain her posture. Crackling sounds rang in her mind, as if things were being broken. Her cultivation instantly surged, and when she wanted to retract her hand, she was simply unable to move.

“Grandma!” The little tyrant was shocked as well, as he took over the control of the flying mystic tool. In a fluster, he tried to pull her, but his attempt was unsuccessful. Anxious, he pushed her out of the barrier.

The pouring of spiritual energy stopped, but the rapid movements within her body were still intensifying. Countless disorderly spiritual energy was filling her entire body. Several bloody scars had already appeared all around her body, and in an instant, she her entire being was covered in blood.

“Grandma… Grandma, are you alright…” The little tyrant cried out of anxiety. Most likely, this was his first time seeing such a terrifying sight of a human covered in blood. Tears of worry and fear poured out.

Zhu Yao desperately restrained the spiritual energy in her body, gritted her teeth, and mustered out a few words. “Bring me… back… to a safe place.” She had to meditate and digest the spiritual energy in her body.

“Safe place… Safe…” The little tyrant pondered in a panic, and then heavily nodded. “Okay!”

Then, he controlled the feather and brought her to a faraway floating mountain.

Wait a minute, where are you going? She meant to bring her back to the valley, why was he running off somewhere else?

Unfortunately, she no longer had the strength to resist. She was a pile of old bones in the first place, yet she was struck and bashed by various spiritual energy in such a disorderly manner. She was barely able to breathe.

The little tyrant flew at high speeds, bringing her into a small mansion as fast as possible.

Zhu Yao was about to lose her consciousness from the pain. She used up all her strength to sit in an upright position, and forcefully entered the meditative state.

She wouldn’t have known if she didn’t look, but after looking at it, she was shocked speechless.

Her body was filled with a myriad of colours. Red, blue, gold, yellow and green. She had all sorts of spiritual energy in her, to the point where it could look like a steamboat. Furthermore, these spiritual energy were scattered in all directions, bashing violently at her meridians.

She had to go on a large-scale cleaning here! Zhu Yao took a deep breath and calmed herself down. First, she carefully split apart the spiritual energy according to their colours. Then, she placed the spiritual energy of the same colour together, arranging them nicely. Finally, she guided them into her Dantian.

Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, lightning, ice… eh?

What’s with that transparent one? Why is there a transparent spiritual energy, hey?

Isn’t this a rise in difficulty level?

Zhu Yao gritted her teeth. She couldn’t be bothered anymore and simply put them in a cluster. Otherwise she would definitely die from body implosion due to the abundant spiritual energy in her meridians.

As she guided the five types of spiritual energy and mutated spiritual energy into her Dantian, she carefully inspected that unique transparent spiritual energy. She realized that the transparent spiritual energy was very miniscule in amount, to the point where it was merely about a hundredth of the other types of spiritual energy. She did not dare to guide this unknown spiritual energy into her Dantian either. After all, what if it were to cause an allergic reaction? She had no choice but to temporarily leave it in her meridians.

A large portion of her focus was on splitting the spiritual energy. As the five elements conflicted with one another, the violent spiritual energy instantly quietened down after being split apart. By guiding them on her own, she was able to insert them orderly into her Dantian.

There wasn’t any abnormal reactions or any rebounds coming from her Dantian as well. This could only mean that her old-aged avatar this time was a trash penta spirit veins.

Oh wait, she carried ice, lightning and wind spirit veins as well. It’s the harmony spirit veins. This was her second time encountering the harmony spirit veins after her dragon avatar.

Splitting spiritual energy apart was a very time-consuming and tedious work. She could not even sense the flow of time either. Most of the spiritual energy had already been split, but a new problem had arisen. Her Dantian was full.

She was now bloated again.

She was about to establish her Foundation! However, on one end was a bloated Dantian, while the other was a set of meridians filled with disorderly spiritual energy. If she were to establish her Foundation now, at the same time of her Dantian expanding, the spiritual energy inside would be stimulated as well.

If the two ends were to go berserk at the same time, suppressing them was something she couldn’t possibly do!

However, if she were to resist establishing her Foundation, she would either be killed by the rampant spiritual energy smashing her meridians apart, or she would be killed by her Dantian shattering. Either way was a route to death!

The hell. Realmspirit, you freaking bastard! What kind of ridiculous avatar did you give me!?

Since no matter which choice she take would result to death, hell, it was all or nothing.

Zhu Yao focused her mind and immediately established her Foundation, guiding the clustered spiritual energy into her Dantian at ten times the speed. Immense pain instantly filled her entire body, while her Dantian began to expand outwards and the abundant spiritual energy within began to be stimulated as well. Even the spiritual energy outside began to rapidly squeeze within like administering chicken blood therapy.

Furthermore, the disorderly spiritual energy in her meridians went out of control, and began smashing onto her meridians more violently than before. After a short while, she was no longer able to feel a single complete meridian. They were not damaged, but had simply shattered into smithereens.

Not only that, her Dantian did not make a breakthrough even after a long while. The spiritual energy that was split into clusters initially had begun to mix again. The endless pain filled her entire body, to the point where her consciousness was even beginning to blur.

Zhu Yao wanted to cry. Realmspirit, you did this on purpose, right? Giving her an avatar like this, and not to mention how old she was, it was all to have her return to the soil, right?