Primordial Era: The Holy Maiden Shiji, a woman of exceptional talent and beauty

Shi Ji smiled and shook her head: "Don't worry, there's no danger. We even found a lot of good stuff."

As he spoke, he took out a storage ring from the underground palace from his storage bag and placed it on the table.

Shi Ji picked up a storage ring engraved with the Black Wind Stronghold's logo—it was the Black Wind Immortal's storage ring. He examined it carefully and found that the ring's material was quite special, and it was also engraved with simple defensive runes.

He channeled his spiritual energy into the ring, opening its storage space. Inside, there was a dazzling array of items. Although the magical treasures were rather mixed, there were also many precious materials, such as millennium-old black iron and deep-sea pearls, all of which were excellent materials for cultivation and crafting magical treasures.

Just as Shi Ji was organizing her storage ring, half of a dark red fruit rolled out from a pile of materials and landed on the table.

The fruit was about the size of a finger, with fine lines covering its surface and a faint golden glow. Even though only half of it remained, one could still feel the immense energy it contained.

"Huh, there's still half a dragon bone fruit left."

Upon seeing the half-eaten dragon bone fruit, Shi Ji's eyes lit up slightly, her heart filled with surprise.

He had seen records of dragon bone fruit in ancient books. This fruit is extremely rare, growing only in places where dragon veins converge. It takes a hundred years to flower and a thousand years to bear fruit, and each plant produces only one fruit.

Ancient texts say that the Dragon Bone Fruit contains pure dragon vein power. If one can consume it, it can not only greatly enhance one's cultivation level, but also improve one's physique, enhance the quality of one's bloodline, and even bring about a complete transformation. It is a truly heaven-defying divine fruit.

The descendant-inherited cultivation technique that Shi Ji cultivates places great importance on the power of bloodline. If he can absorb the power of this half of the Dragon Bone Fruit, the quality of his bloodline will be greatly improved, and the power of the technique will also be enhanced.

Shi Ji carefully picked up the half of the dragon bone fruit and, without the slightest hesitation, put it directly into her mouth.

Dragon bone fruit melts in your mouth, transforming into a warm energy that slides down your throat and into your stomach.

Shi Ji immediately activated the inherited cultivation technique of her descendants, trying to guide this energy into her bloodline.

To his surprise, the warm energy disappeared as soon as it entered his stomach, as if it had never existed.

"What happened? Has it been completely devoured?"

Shi Ji frowned, her face full of confusion.

He carefully examined his body but found no residual energy from the Dragon Bone Fruit, as if the half-Dragon Bone Fruit was just an illusion.

"Could it be that the dragon bone fruit has been stored for too long and its energy has dissipated?"

Shi Ji had her own guesses, but she didn't dwell on them too much.

Although it was a pity that he couldn't absorb the power of the Dragon Bone Fruit, he had already obtained a lot of precious materials from the Black Wind Immortal's storage ring, so it could be considered a gain.

Afterwards, Shi Ji began to examine the other storage rings.

Most of these storage rings belong to ordinary cultivators from Black Wind Stronghold. The contents inside are relatively ordinary, with nothing particularly precious, such as a jade slip, some talismans, or a few magic weapons.

In addition, those storage rings also contained dozens of bottles of pills.

Shi Ji poured the pills out of the bottle one by one and examined them carefully in her palm—some were round and reddish-brown, some had a faint bluish-green halo, and some had a layer of fine lines on their surface.

He infused his spiritual power into the pills, sensing the energy they contained. He discovered that most of them were ordinary pills used to restore spiritual power and stabilize one's realm, such as the Marrow Cleansing Pill and the Qi Gathering Pill. There were no particularly precious high-level pills, such as the Realm Breakthrough Pill that could help people break through bottlenecks, or the Life-Sustaining Pill that contained immense vitality.

"It seems that Black Wind Stronghold's resources are nothing special. Apart from that half of the Dragon Bone Fruit, there's nothing particularly rare about it."

Shi Ji muttered to herself as she put the pill back into the bottle and stored it in her storage bag.

However, he was not disappointed. Although these ordinary pills were not of much help to his current cultivation level, his junior sister was breaking through to a critical realm and might be able to use them. Even if he couldn't use them himself, he could exchange them for the materials he needed.

Then, Shi Ji took out the half of the dragon bone fruit from her storage bag, gently ran her fingertips along the patterns on the fruit's surface, and focused her senses once again.

The last time he took the Dragon Bone Fruit, he felt his energy disappear instantly and thought the fruit had lost its medicinal effect. But this time, when he carefully sensed it, he keenly detected a very faint aura—a warm and mellow aura with a sense of weightiness from the depths of the dragon vein, which was emanating from this half of the Dragon Bone Fruit.

"I see. The Dragon Bone Fruit didn't completely disappear; its energy just became extremely thin, which is why we didn't notice it before."

A look of understanding flashed in Shi Ji's eyes, then she frowned. "How could the energy of a perfectly good Dragon Bone Fruit become so diluted? Could it be that something swallowed part of this half of the Dragon Bone Fruit before?"

A conjecture involuntarily surfaced in his mind: those mysterious forces that control the demonic corpses might be raising some kind of special ferocious beast.

These ferocious beasts are likely enormous birds of prey with incredibly sharp teeth, capable of easily biting hard objects. They are also extremely vicious by nature. Perhaps it was these beasts that ate most of the half of the dragon bone fruit, causing a significant loss of energy from the fruit.

"No matter what this dragon bone fruit has been through before, the fact that I was able to keep this half is already an incredible stroke of luck for me."

Shi Ji gripped the Dragon Bone Fruit tightly, her eyes regaining their light. "If I can completely refine the energy of this half Dragon Bone Fruit, the effect on my bloodline will be beyond imagination. It might even make the power of my inherited cultivation techniques even greater."

He stopped thinking about it, carefully held the Dragon Bone Fruit in his palm, then sat cross-legged on the futon in the center of the room, closed his eyes, and began to prepare to refine the Dragon Bone Fruit.

He knew that the remaining medicinal power in half of the dragon bone fruit was still very strong, and it would not be possible to completely refine it in a short time. He had to concentrate all his mind and not delay in the slightest.

As Shi Ji activated the inherited cultivation technique, a golden halo gradually enveloped his body.

He placed the half of the dragon bone fruit between his eyebrows, guiding the faint energy within the fruit to slowly seep into his body.

The moment the energy entered her meridians, Shi Ji immediately felt a warm current spreading along her meridians and flowing to her limbs and bones.

But not long after, this warm current suddenly became violent, like a rushing river breaking through the dam, rampaging through his meridians.

Shi Ji's face instantly turned flushed, her skin gradually turned crimson, her body temperature continued to rise, and wisps of white steam could even be faintly seen rising from her pores.

"What powerful energy!"

Shi Ji was secretly shocked. He hadn't expected that even with only half a fruit left, the energy of the Dragon Bone Fruit would still be so powerful.

The difficulty of completely refining this violent energy and bringing it under his control was much greater than he had anticipated.

In the critical moment, Shi Ji immediately adjusted the path of her cultivation technique and simultaneously activated another ultimate skill—the Reincarnation Technique of the Heavens.

This technique originates from ancient times and possesses a unique power of reincarnation, capable of regulating violent energy and transforming it into gentle spiritual power, which can be used to assist in refining the Dragon Bone Fruit. As the Heavenly Reincarnation Technique circulated, a small vortex of reincarnation seemed to form within Shi Ji's body.

The violent energy of the Dragon Bone Fruit was drawn into the vortex, and under the constant tempering of the power of reincarnation, it gradually became docile and no longer impacted the meridians as before.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Shi Ji guided the gentle energy, gradually integrating it into her bloodline and nourishing the bloodline of her descendants.

Time slipped away quietly during the cultivation, and the sky outside the window changed from bright to pitch black, and then gradually turned from pitch black to a pale white.

As the first ray of sunlight shone into the room through the window, Shi Ji finally slowly opened her eyes. A flash of golden light appeared in her eyes, and the golden halo around her dissipated.

He exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling the surging power within his body, and a relieved smile appeared on his face—after a whole day of refining, he had finally succeeded in completely absorbing the energy of that half of the dragon bone fruit.

What surprised him even more was that his cultivation level also broke through: originally he was only at the Emperor level, but now he crossed the peak of the Emperor level in one go and directly reached the fifth level of the Emperor realm.

Not only that, his physical strength has also been significantly enhanced.

Previously, his physical body was already able to withstand attacks from ordinary Emperor-level weapons, and now, even when facing high-level Emperor-level weapons, he can withstand them without getting injured.

All these changes were due to refining that half of the Dragon Bone Fruit.

"The energy of the Dragon Bone Fruit is indeed extraordinary; it truly deserves to be called a heaven-defying divine fruit."

Shi Ji stood up, stretched her limbs, and felt the surging power within her body, feeling a sense of awe.

He could clearly feel that his descendants' bloodline had become purer, and when he circulated his cultivation technique, the flow of spiritual energy was smoother than before. Even his range of perception had expanded considerably.

Afterwards, Shi Ji began to sort through the items she had seized from the Black Wind Stronghold cultivators.

He poured the items from his storage ring and storage bag onto the table one by one and carefully counted them: apart from a small portion of resources used for daily cultivation, such as spirit stones and low-grade materials, most of them were low-grade immortal artifacts and immortal medicines.

Most of those magical artifacts were weapons like swords and knives, and the magical medicines were just ordinary medicinal herbs that were a hundred years old. They were basically of little use to Shi Ji now.

"These things are taking up space anyway. Let's wait for a suitable opportunity to exchange them for some useful materials."

Shi Ji shook her head, preparing to put these things away again, when her gaze was suddenly drawn to a magical artifact placed in the corner.

It was a palm-sized black iron ring, its surface engraved with many obscure and incomprehensible patterns, from which a faint black aura shimmered.

When Shi Ji's gaze fell on the iron ring, he keenly sensed an extremely strange energy—a cold and malevolent energy, somewhat similar to the aura on the demon corpse, yet even more profound, as if it came from an endless abyss of darkness.

"What kind of magical artifact is this? It has such strange energy."

Curious, Shi Ji reached out and picked up the black iron ring.

But the moment his fingertips touched the iron ring, the ring suddenly trembled violently, as if it had come to life and was trying to break free from his grasp and escape.

Shi Ji was startled and immediately increased her spiritual power output, trying to imprison the iron ring.

To his surprise, the black iron ring was incredibly powerful. Even with his Emperor-level spiritual power, he could only barely grasp it and couldn't completely imprison it. You see, ordinary Emperor-level weapons would obediently obey his spiritual power, so the power of this black iron ring was clearly far beyond that of ordinary Emperor-level weapons.

"It seems we have no choice but to use the Map of Mountains and Rivers."

Without further hesitation, Shi Ji uttered a low shout: "Suppress!"

As he finished speaking, a huge scroll suddenly flew out of his storage bag and hovered in the air above the room.

As the scroll unfolds, it reveals a scene of mountains, rivers, sun, moon, and stars, like a real little world—the very treasured "Map of Mountains and Rivers" that Shi Ji had obtained by chance.

Shi Ji channeled her spiritual power into the Landscape Painting, instantly bringing the scene within to life. A powerful pressure emanated from the painting, enveloping the black iron ring.

Under the suppression of this oppressive force, the trembling of the black iron ring gradually weakened, and finally stopped struggling completely, obediently falling into Shi Ji's palm.

"As expected of the Mountain and River Map, its power is indeed terrifying."

Shi Ji gazed at the painting in the sky, secretly admiring it.

This Mountain and River Map is not only powerful in attack, but also has top-notch defensive capabilities. Moreover, the starry universe that evolves in the map contains world-destroying power. If it is fully activated, even a quasi-immortal level expert would have to retreat.

Just then, Shi Ji suddenly felt a faint fluctuation coming from the black iron ring in her palm, and this fluctuation actually resonated with the landscape map in the air—the scene in the landscape map swayed slightly, and the patterns on the surface of the black iron ring lit up, emitting a faint black light.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Shi Ji's face showed a surprised expression. "This black iron ring can actually resonate with my Mountain and River Map. It's a really strange magic weapon."

Judging from this, it must be hiding a significant secret, perhaps even having some unknown connection to the "Map of Mountains and Rivers".

A blurry image involuntarily surfaced in his mind: many figures stood in the image, men and women, each face shrouded in a layer of mist, their features unclear, except for a huge palace in the center of the image that was clearly visible.

The palace was built entirely of blue jade, with a roof covered in golden glazed tiles, exuding an extremely ancient aura, as if it had existed for hundreds of millions of years.

"This scene... why does it look so familiar?"

Shi Ji frowned and thought carefully. He quickly remembered where he had seen a similar scene before – he had seen a mural in the Shanhe Temple that depicted such a huge palace.

The Shanhe Temple is the place where the spirit of the Shanhe Sheji Tu (a map of mountains and rivers) slumbered.

"Could it be that the spirit of the Mountain and River Map once awakened, which is why I saw this scene?"

Shi Ji thought to herself, "So this black iron ring might really have some connection with the Mountain and River Map."

If we could communicate with this iron ring, we might be able to obtain more clues about the Map of Mountains and Rivers, or even those mysterious forces. (End of Chapter)