We made you practice martial arts, and you've mastered the Great Golden Body?

Chapter 188 The Origin of the World
"Could it be..." Shen Bailian's consciousness sank, and his spiritual power poured out like water from a burst dam. His Divine Eye entered battle mode, carefully observing the surrounding rustling of leaves and the slightest movement.

Using both spiritual perception and the Eye of God.

All of a sudden.

Shen Bailian felt the world around him suddenly quiet down. The sound of his blood flowing in his body, the pounding of his heart, the slightest sound of the wind blowing, and the trajectory of the flowing fog were all clearly visible.

He did not stop; the scope of the Eye of God's exploration continued to expand outwards.

"Understood!"

"I understand everything!"

"As expected, it was indeed because of that! It was indeed because of the thick fog all around." Shen Bailian took a deep breath, his eyes brightened slightly, and as he looked around, an uncontrollable smile appeared on his face.

After fully immersing myself in observing the surrounding environment.

Shen Bailian indeed noticed something unusual: the density of the thick fog surrounding him had changed slightly, and the visible range had extended by about one ten-thousandth.

If it were the third stage of martial arts technique, the Breath of All Things, he might not be able to perceive this subtle change when his mental power was suppressed.

But it's different now.

Not only were these subtle changes observed, but they were also observed very clearly and with remarkable insight.

“We’ve come to the right place, this time we’ve really come to the right place.” Shen Bailian stretched out his arm, feeling the dense fog around him, put away the nano battle intent above his head, and revealed a look of enjoyment: “This time we’ve really struck it rich.”

What are rare and precious materials compared to that?
Five hundred million Great Xia coins...

No, 500 million Xia coins are also very important. After all, even a hero can be brought down by a penny, and you can't move an inch without money. He also has his parents behind him.

However, all of these must give way to divine matter.

Shen Bailian's success today is largely due to the Qinglin Taxue, the beast that delivered the bird's head from a thousand miles away in Bozhou City. Without that ferocious beast, he would hardly have reached this point.

After all, that's a starting capital of 100 points of divine matter.

Slaying a second-tier ferocious beast only yields less than ten points of divine substance. Who knows when one will be able to accumulate the one hundred points of divine substance needed for skill advancement?

However, that feather with green scales and snow-covered skin contained more than a hundred points of divine substance.

The divine skill that Shen Bailian activated later, "Shadow Follows," also originated from that Azure Scale Snow-Treading Beast, which indirectly confirmed its extraordinary nature.

Judging from his recent experiences, there must be a relatively complete fragment of a divine spark on the body of that Azure Scale Snow-Treading Beast. Otherwise, it would be impossible for a second-tier ferocious beast to easily break through the city's intercity defense line.

After the official start of the school year.

Shen Bailian had used his authority to check information about the Azure Scale Snow-Treading Beast, but after it was transported away from Bozhou City, there was no further news about it.

There is only one reason why this happened, and that is—

The unusual nature of that azure-scaled snow-treading creature has been discovered by the Great Xia authorities, but Shen Bailian's authority is currently insufficient to investigate its specific details.

"If we can absorb all the divine matter in it, the harvest this time might exceed five hundred points."

Shen Bailian activated his Divine Eye to its ultimate detection state, 'looking' at the thick fog around him, his heart pounding with excitement.

The fog here is extremely dense, largely due to the influence of divine substances.

"but."

"If we want to absorb all the divine matter inside, we have to deal with that guy who's been sneaking around following us first, otherwise we'll most likely be discovered to be suspicious."

A divine substance exceeding five hundred points is indeed astonishing.

However, if the follower behind him cannot be dealt with, Shen Bailian's large-scale absorption of divine matter will inevitably lead to the discovery of something amiss.

"If this news spreads among the gods, I will become a thorn in their side, and may even be forcibly kept by some of them in an attempt to extract my secrets."

"It seems," Shen Bailian's eyes flickered slightly. After a moment of contemplation, he turned his gaze to the depths of the thick fog and thought to himself, "I still have to keep going in."

The fact that the other party hasn't made a move yet suggests that they likely have a backup plan deep within the dense fog.

Or perhaps, deep within the dense fog dwells a formidable beast, at least at the peak of the second tier; when fish and clams fight, a third party reaps the benefits…

of course.

Most importantly, once inside the fog, the fog's ability to suppress mental perception provided cover for Shen Bailian, allowing him to temporarily escape the sight of the Sea Opening Realm warrior behind him.

Quietly.

"call out!"

The arrows were like thunderbolts, and the bows like lightning.

A thick arrow was shot out by Shen Bailian in an instant.

"Pfft!"

With a crisp "crack" sound as an arrow pierced bone, and as the Force spread in all directions, a torrent of dark green blood suddenly gushed out from the rock wall without warning.

In an instant.

"Boom~"

Amidst a deafening roar, a "giant rock" suddenly broke off from the rock face and crashed to the ground, its cold blood soaking the branches and leaves of the Dragon Scale Fruit Tree.

A strong, pungent smell of blood gradually filled the air.

Only then did the appearance of the "giant rock" become clear. It was not a giant rock at all, but a huge yellow rock python with a body length of nearly 20 meters.

In general education courses and in the database of Tiangang Academy, these kinds of ferocious beasts that like to lie in wait and launch ambushes are often the focus of the introduction.

Because ambushing and lurking are the common methods used by most ferocious beasts to capture prey, and at the same time, this method of capturing prey is also the safest.

After all, unlike humans, ferocious beasts cannot afford to go to the hospital, find a doctor, or use a treatment pod to heal their injuries.

Once most ferocious beasts are injured, they basically only have two possible outcomes.

The first option is to rely on one's own strong vitality to heal oneself; the second is to wait for death.

As a cold-blooded animal, the yellow rock python can lower its blood temperature to single digits and can also enter a pseudo-dormant state, reducing its physiological activity to about one percent of its normal level.

Furthermore, its skin is remarkably similar in color to the rock wall, placing it at the top of the food chain among ferocious beasts of the same level.

Even most martial artists at the early stage of the Sea Opening Realm would find it difficult to detect the presence of the Yellow Rock Python from more than ten meters away unless they paid special attention.

It's just a pity.

It encountered Shen Bailian, a cheat code. Without the direct intervention of divine power, no matter how well it hid, it could not escape the observation of the Eye of God.

"Dragon Scale Fruit, 92 scales, preliminarily judged to be third-tier... ripe and ready to be picked." Shen Bailian looked at the data displayed on the virtual AR glasses and felt a slight surge of joy.

According to the records in the Tiangang Academy's database, a Dragon Scale Fruit Tree can only produce one fruit at a time, and can only produce fruit a maximum of three times in its lifetime.

If the first fruit produced is a Tier 1 Dragon Scale Fruit, then the second fruit will be a Tier 2 Dragon Scale Fruit, and so on.

There is also an extremely simple method to determine the grade of Dragon Scale Fruit.

那就是看龙鳞果之上鳞片的数量，1~30片为一阶龙鳞果，31~60片为二阶龙鳞果，61~100片为三阶龙鳞果

The Dragon Scale Fruit Tree has extremely high requirements for its growing environment. Humidity, the concentration of the elemental energy of heaven and earth must all meet the standards, and to bear a mature first-tier Dragon Scale Fruit, it needs to absorb the essence and blood of at least one dragon-blooded beast.

The second-tier Dragon Scale Fruit requires absorbing the essence blood of at least ten dragon-blooded ferocious beasts, the third-tier requires one hundred dragon-blooded ferocious beasts, the fourth-tier requires... and so on.

The benefits of dragon scale fruit include greatly enhancing physical strength and boosting physical potential.

Furthermore, it also has the effect of purifying and strengthening bloodlines, containing a trace of extremely faint dragon blood, which is of no different value to those bloodline warriors than the Enlightenment Fruit of the same level.

This single Tier 3 Dragon Scale Fruit is worth 30 million Great Xia coins.

"It was probably nurtured by the gods, Ram. Now, it's all benefited me." Shen Bailian took out the jade box that had been emptied earlier and carefully put the Dragon Scale Fruit inside.

snort~
After the dragon scale fruit was picked, the dragon scale fruit tree in front of Shen Bailian seemed to have undergone a great transformation. Its thick trunk and lush branches decayed at a visible speed.

finally.

As a gentle breeze blew by, the Dragon Scale Fruit Tree, which originally possessed a rich aura of elemental energy, turned into ashes and vanished into the world.

"pity."

Looking at everything that was happening before him, Shen Bailian shook his head helplessly. He had originally held onto a sliver of hope, but now it seemed he had been overthinking things.

"Keep going in, I don't believe you won't come out." Shen Bailian felt the blurry aura behind him and couldn't help but sneer, then continued to venture deeper into the thick fog.

……

"We finally managed to trap this guy without him even noticing." Melbourne breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at Yang Wu, who was circling in the sky within a radius of several hundred meters.

In order to effectively trap its opponent for a long time, it directly consumed about one-tenth of its divine power to enhance the second-tier Drunken Dream Fruit to a level close to the fourth tier.

Without external influence, even with Yang Wu's mental strength having reached the mid-stage of the Spirit Stream Realm, he would still be immersed in a dreamlike state for at least half a day. "Next up is that worm." Melbourne looked at Shen Bailian, who was gradually delving deeper into the mist, and couldn't help but lick his lips with a sinister smile.

Then, with a slight movement, he immediately followed Shen Bailian's trajectory and chased after him.

……

As time goes by.

The deeper you go, the smaller the detection range of your mental perception becomes, but fortunately there is still the [Eye of God], which, even when compressed, still has a detection range of several hundred meters.

At this distance, unless a ferocious beast at the late stage or peak of the third tier appears, it would be impossible for it to launch a successful sneak attack on Shen Bailian when he was completely unprepared.

As the saying goes, wealth and honor are sought in danger, but also lost in danger; one in ten times you succeed, but nine in ten times you lose.

“However, I possess the divine skill [Shadow Follows], and given an abundance of divine matter, taking unconventional approaches is what I should do.” Shen Bailian glanced at the illusory yet clear panel out of the corner of his eye.

[Divine Matter: 301]

In just over an hour, they acquired more than ten points of divine matter.

There's a reason why the purification process is so slow: the outermost layer is a rough Force suit, and inside there's a layer of nano armor.

With double protection, being able to absorb divine substances from the surrounding dense fog was already a stroke of good fortune amidst misfortune.

However, this is not bad, at least nothing unusual will be discovered in the short term.

Go deeper.

The originally thick fog gradually dissipated and became thinner, and Shen Bailian's vision gradually became clearer. However, the detection range of the Eye of God did not improve; instead, it was weakened again.

This made him realize that he had entered the core area of ​​the dense fog region. On the way here, many rare and precious materials were guarded by ferocious beasts, so there was no reason why there wouldn't be any here.

This made Shen Bailian even more cautious.

Although most of the ferocious beasts in the core area were likely transferred to the front lines, this can be confirmed by the lingering silver-haired figure in the background.

There must be one or more powerful and ferocious beasts here that haven't been moved away yet, hiding in the lake at the very center of the core area.

"Wait! What's that? High Yuan Spirit Fruit?!" Shen Bailian's gaze swept across the area and he discovered that many lush, haphazardly growing fruit trees were growing along the edge of the central lake not far away.

Each fruit tree is over ten meters tall, with a thick, smooth trunk, and every leaf contains a powerful vitality, exuding a rich aura of primordial energy.

The most eye-catching thing is the abundance of fruit hanging on the branches, each fruit gleaming with a faint silver light and radiating a gentle ripple.

A refreshing fragrance wafted over, instantly restoring Shen Bailian's body slightly.

The High Yuan Spirit Fruit is a rare and precious material that almost every martial artist at or above the Transcendent Realm must come into contact with. Why is that?
Because the High Yuan Spirit Fruit is one of the main ingredients for making high-grade nutritional potions, and it is also one of the most important ones.

Shen Bailian quickly opened the virtual AR glasses and connected to the smart bracelet's built-in database. Although he recognized the Gao Yuanling fruit, it was still better to rely on the smart bracelet to determine its age.

“Eighty percent of them are high-grade spirit fruits over thirty years old, enough to make second-tier high-level nutritional potions. Just one tree is worth hundreds of thousands of Great Xia coins.” Shen Bailian’s eyes lit up:
"Most importantly, there isn't just one Gaoyuan Spirit Fruit tree here, but a total of... 467 trees!"

Because it involves high-grade nutritional agents that are a necessity, and because the Gao Yuan Ling fruit tree has high requirements for its surrounding growing environment, the number of Gao Yuan Ling fruit trees is very important.

If there were only a few high-level spirit fruit trees here, it wouldn't be so significant, but there are a total of 267 trees, which represents a completely different meaning.

The sheer number of these trees under natural growing conditions indicates that this place is very suitable for the growth of the Gao Yuan Ling fruit tree.

If we successfully conquer Cave Heaven No. 98 and clear away the divine matter in this foggy area, we can use it as a cultivation base for high-level spiritual fruits.

With proper dense planting and technological means, the number of high-quality spirit fruit trees can be multiplied several times over.

"It seems I need to change my plans." Shen Bailian's heart pounded, and many thoughts raced through his mind.

His original plan was to explore this area, deal with the tagalong behind him, and then move on to explore other treasure troves.

However, if this area of ​​high-quality spirit fruit trees were developed and managed normally, it would be enough to supply the daily cultivation needs of tens of thousands of Transcendent Realm martial artists.

If measured in Da Xia currency, it would be worth billions of Da Xia currency.

It is an unimaginable fortune.

"We must protect these Gaoyuan Spirit Fruit trees! We absolutely must!"

"According to the provisions of the Great Xia Exploration Law, if an explorer discovers a large-scale, sustainable natural treasure with a total value of at least 2 billion Great Xia coins and is willing to hand it over to the Great Xia government."

"In this way, not only can you enjoy a 5% profit, but your authority level within the Great Xia government can also be unconditionally upgraded by one level."

"The master leads you through the door, but cultivation depends on the individual. Even if I possess a hidden holy body, the cultivation resources of the Heavenly Gang Academy cannot be unreservedly poured onto me alone." Shen Bailian's eyes flickered slightly.

"At this stage, if I were to enter a state of seclusion, my daily cultivation would cost at least 500,000 Great Xia coins, and that's assuming my strength remains unchanged."

"If all goes as expected, after this mission is completed, I will break through to the Opening Sea Realm at an extremely fast speed. At that time, I will need even more cultivation resources, and I will have to solve 80% of them myself."

Strictly speaking, martial artists at the Opening Sea Realm have already met the graduation requirements in the current Great Xia Dynasty.

Just like turning eighteen, in a legal sense, a martial artist at the Opening Sea Realm is already an "adult," and the Martial Arts University has every right to stop providing them with cultivation resources.

In fact, some martial arts universities do the same.

Because the total amount of resources that Daxia allocates to the Education Bureau each year is fixed, and then the resources are distributed according to the Martial Arts University's grade.

For most martial arts universities, the majority of their training resources are allocated to the higher-level practitioners.

Even for martial arts prodigies and top-tier martial arts prodigies, the training efforts are still limited.

Although it is cruel, it is the truth.

The Great Xia has always adhered to the policy of focusing on both the present and the future, but without the present, how can we talk about the future?
Furthermore, within the Great Xia Dynasty, 80% of the precious cultivation resources are controlled by the Great Xia government. This means that simply having money is useless; the most important thing is to have the corresponding authority to exchange for rare and precious materials.

Take Yuwen Changkong for example. He has hundreds of millions of Daxia coins in any card he holds, but Daxia coins are a currency used by the lower and middle levels.

Otherwise, when Duan Wuyai and Shen Bailian signed the Rank A training contract, they wouldn't have included the "priority right to exchange cultivation resources" clause in the contract.

There are also some more precious cultivation resources, such as rare and precious elixirs.

This portion of rare treasures is not enough even for the powerful experts in the Embracing Moon Realm and Divine Palace Realm of the Great Xia Dynasty, so how could they possibly use these rare treasures that are hard to come by to supply martial arts students whose strength is still in the early to mid-stages of the Transcendent Realm and the Opening Sea Realm?
Only top-tier experts who are particularly close to you would be willing to share their rare and precious treasures.

What if you have money but no authority?
easy to do!

The most common way is to go to the front lines, carry out missions issued by the Great Xia government to earn military merits, and then use those merits to improve one's authority level within the Great Xia government.

One of the more difficult paths is to win glory for the country.

It's not something anyone can do just to win glory for the country; there are requirements. At the very least, one must have the potential to earn a title in order to overcome numerous obstacles and stand out among the vast number of martial arts students in the Great Xia Dynasty.

This is not a path that ordinary martial arts students can take. Even the most talented martial arts masters have only just met the minimum requirements.

suddenly.

[Congratulations, you have obtained two points of divine substance!]

Another line of dazzling gold text popped up on the panel.

"what?!"

"How is this possible? This...this feeling..." Shen Bailian was walking around the lake when he was suddenly struck dumb, frozen in place as if by lightning.

I stared in disbelief at the tiny indentation in the very center of the lake.

Shen Bailian had originally decided to guard the Gaoyuan Spirit Fruit Tree here until the battle on the main battlefield ended.

However, being idle all the time is not a good thing, especially with a benevolent god following behind, so you have to create a reasonable opportunity for the other party to take advantage of the situation.

and so.

Shen Bailian's bones and muscles throbbed, and he unleashed his spiritual power, focusing all his attention on the lake in the core area, hoping to discover some more precious natural treasures.

At the beginning, for some unknown reason, even his divine eye could not detect the entire lake.

However, Shen Bailian didn't pay too much attention to it, because he had encountered similar things more than once or twice since entering this foggy area.

It is most likely caused by divine matter.

However, just now, Shen Bailian suddenly sensed an extremely faint fluctuation. If it were an ordinary martial artist with second-tier spiritual power at the Opening Sea Realm, they probably wouldn't even be able to detect that faint fluctuation.

However, that extremely faint fluctuation was an "old friend" that he knew all too well.

Because that slight ripple felt like a warm current!

It was the warm current that surged from Shen Bailian's dantian when he upgraded or advanced his skills on the panel, used to improve his physical attributes.

This is why Shen Bailian suddenly froze on the spot.

Before this, he had consulted a lot of information and found many natural treasures that had similar effects to warm currents. However, those natural treasures had limitations; after the first use, the effect would diminish the second time.

Shen Bailian thought it would take him a long time to find the true form of the warmth.
However, he never expected that, after seemingly reaching a dead end, he would unexpectedly discover the true form of the warm current in this very place.

(End of this chapter)