Longzang

Chapter 359 Spiritual Breakthrough

Upon entering the temple again today, Wei Yuan's senses became even clearer. Deep within the temple, something was indeed calling to him. Was the three-eyed bird's delivery of him here related to something hidden underground?
Wei Yuan took out the newly made equipment and said, "If the Undead Monster appears, tell me its location and distance."

The woman brandished the crossbow Wei Yuan had made and said, "At noon, it will be slow to move even inside a cave. If I see it, I'll shoot an arrow first; you just need to aim for the sound."

The two slowly ventured deeper, passing four murals. There was no fifth mural; further ahead was a natural passage, from which the undead monster emerged.

Hearing the commotion outside, the undead monster indeed emerged from the passage again.

The woman fired an arrow, hitting it accurately. But despite the crossbow's immense power, it couldn't penetrate its body; the bolt sank deep inside, producing a metallic clang.

Upon hearing the sound, Wei Yuan immediately used his Dao power to unleash a burst of energy. With a deafening roar, several flying swords shot out from the equipment in his hand. Propelled by the explosion, the flying swords also gained their own momentum, instantly tearing the undead monster to shreds!

But then more footsteps echoed through the passage. The woman rushed over and exclaimed, "So many monsters! Run!"

But she didn't run. Wei Yuan pulled her back and then stood at the entrance of the passage.

The heavy footsteps in the passage had already pointed Wei Yuan in the right direction. Then, with a deafening roar, Wei Yuan emptied all the flying swords from the cauldron box in one go. Instantly, the narrow passage was littered with monster carcasses.

Flying swords are essentially Dao Foundation artifacts, far more powerful than crossbows. A single shot will obliterate any part of a body it touches.

But the cave walls began to shake, and countless footsteps echoed from the depths of the passage, indicating that countless monsters had awakened and were heading this way!

Wei Yuan didn't dare to be reckless this time, and said, "Run!" Then he picked up the woman and fled outside the temple.

Feeling the sunlight streaming down from the sky, Wei Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, wisps of yin energy gathered towards Wei Yuan and entered his sea of ​​consciousness. A small patch of fertile soil appeared where the girl had stood, and life there had begun to recover.

Wei Yuan realized that the source of this Yin energy was those undead monsters. Could it be that, like the Xu family youth before, they were unable to escape for some reason and were thus purified through Wei Yuan's reincarnations across various realms?
The fertile soil that had been created this time was different from the past. It not only possessed vitality but also a touch of spirituality. This change both surprised and delighted Wei Yuan. The most crucial aspect of the rebirth stage in the mid-stage of the Dao Foundation realm was not the accumulation of spiritual energy, but the birth of spirituality. The presence or absence of spirituality was key to achieving a Dharma form, and the quality of that spirituality determined the quality of the Dharma form.

The emergence of spirituality within his Dao Foundation signifies that Wei Yuan has passed the first hurdle. The next step is to strengthen and enhance the quality of this spirituality.

Wei Yuan's vast land was unprecedented, so there was no experience to follow in cultivation. At this moment, the first spark of spirituality was born from the earth, and it seemed quite good, with a certain level of potential. It was just unknown how it would develop in the future.

Now that he knew that the Yin energy of the undead monsters could be reincarnated to cultivate Dao foundation and spirituality, Wei Yuan naturally couldn't just leave like that. He blocked the entrance to the temple, sending flying swords in one after another, reaping all the undead monsters that rushed out.

In the blink of an eye, the flying sword strike was finished, and Wei Yuan escaped with the woman. The undead monster rushed out of the temple, then roared and fell to the ground in the sunlight. The others dared not come out again, futilely barking at Wei Yuan's retreating figure.

The sniping at the temple entrance killed at least dozens of undead monsters, and the Yin energy caused the fertile soil beneath the girl's Yin-Yang feet to expand to ten zhang (approximately 33 meters). Surprisingly, the portion covered by this fertile soil was unaffected by the Azure Netherworld; it could materialize and provide Dao power normally.

Upon returning to his residence, Wei Yuan continued crafting flying swords. The flying swords he had created in the previous round had exhausted their Dao power after killing the undead monsters and vanished into nothingness.

This time, Wei Yuan took his time, crafting the flying swords one by one, spending the entire afternoon making two hundred in one go. He also made ten cauldron cases.

With nothing else to do, the woman sat beside Wei Yuan and watched him make swords, and she did so for the entire afternoon.

After dinner, Wei Yuan casually made the woman over a dozen new crossbow bolts, and then made her a short sword. However, the woman seemed more interested in the flying swords, so Wei Yuan modified the short sword into the shape of a flying sword.

Wei Yuan spent the entire night making flying swords, and only when the night was deep and quiet did he fall asleep with the woman.

With that fertile soil, Wei Yuan's Dao foundation came back to life and was able to generate spiritual energy on its own again. Although the fertile soil was not large, the Dao power restored each day was enough for Wei Yuan to make two or three hundred flying swords.

At noon the next day, Wei Yuan and the woman ventured deep into the temple, fighting their way in along the passage for a hundred feet. They killed over a hundred undead monsters and exhausted their flying swords before finally leaving the temple.

The yin energy gained that day expanded the fertile land to twelve zhang, but the details on the girl's yin-yang body became even more abundant, almost indistinguishable from a real person. If Wei Yuan didn't look closely, he might mistake her for a real person.

Today, Wei Yuan made 360 ​​flying swords in one go, then ate and slept well before continuing to explore the temple with the woman.

Over the next few days, Wei Yuan continued to venture deeper into the fertile land, killing more and more undead monsters. The area of ​​the fertile land gradually expanded, but the changes in the girl's yin and yang became more and more obvious.

Previously, the vast landscape was centered around Jade Mountain, but now, having strayed too far from Qingming, Jade Mountain has fallen silent, and the focus has shifted to the young woman Yin Yang. Over the past few days, Wei Yuan has explored more than three hundred feet deep, slaying hundreds of undead monsters. Further along the passageway, the temple transforms into a vast natural cave system. Now, Wei Yuan's senses are becoming increasingly clear, and the call is coming from the depths of the underground.

It's quiet at night.

Wei Yuan appeared in the underground passage once again. This time, all the undead monsters had disappeared. He walked down the passage and felt more and more that there was something deep underground. He could faintly hear the sound of rushing water.

Soon Wei Yuan entered a huge space, where a faceless man in black robes said, "You've finally arrived."

Before Wei Yuan could answer, he saw figures appear one after another behind the man in black robes: Zhang Sheng, Bao Yun, Ji Liuli, Ancestor Xuan Yue, Yun Fei, and so on. They smiled at Wei Yuan, and one by one walked towards the abyss in front of them and jumped down.

Wei Yuan was shocked and rushed to the edge of the abyss. Looking down, he discovered that the abyss was actually an opening to another world. In the center of that world was the three-pupiled Heavenly Eye!

Wei Yuan was startled and instantly woke up from the nightmare, only then realizing that his clothes were soaked with sweat.

The woman was still asleep in his arms, her breathing even and calm, which gradually calmed Wei Yuan down. He buried his face in the woman's hair again and hugged her tightly.

The woman stirred but didn't wake up, and the two continued to sleep until dawn.

In the morning, Wei Yuan used his newly generated Dao power to make another hundred flying swords, then had a hearty meal with the woman before entering the temple again.

At this moment, Wei Yuan's divine sense had recovered somewhat, allowing him to perceive further and more clearly. However, the images he regained were still very blurry, much like, in the terms of the outer world, a thousand degrees of myopia.

As before, Wei Yuan made some noise, and an undead monster emerged from the passage, only to have its head blown off by a flying sword shot by Wei Yuan.

Wei Yuan entered the passage first, and before several undead monsters wandering in the passage could react, they were shot down by Wei Yuan's flying sword.

After clearing the undead monsters from the passage, the two entered a spacious area. The woman fired a crossbow bolt that struck a monster twenty feet away, and Wei Yuan immediately followed with two flying swords, cleaving the monster in two.

The two worked together in this way, and when they encountered open terrain, the woman would use a crossbow to guide Wei Yuan, gradually leading him deeper underground.

After passing through a passage, Wei Yuan clearly felt that the space in front of him suddenly opened up, and a terrifying pressure was gathering not far ahead, like a dark thunderbolt about to be unleashed.

The woman's voice was unusually grave as she said, "It seems we've messed with something we shouldn't have."

"What is that?" Wei Yuan asked.

"A two-zhang-tall undead monster, wearing armor, with a lizard head—oh, now it's a skull. It's standing up now!"

At this moment, a terrifying aura erupted in front of us; this was an opponent at the Dharma Aspect level!
Without hesitation, Wei Yuan grabbed the woman and retreated back into the passage he had come from. Then he pushed her away and said, "You go first, I'll deal with him!"

The woman didn't mince words at all, saying, "Then be careful! Don't forget you still owe debts!"

"I won't forget it." Wei Yuan slapped the woman's buttocks with his backhand. The woman immediately fled out of the passage like a startled rabbit.

Wei Yuan held his gun, aiming it at the entrance of the passage. The undead monster at the Dharma Aspect level had just emerged from the passage when a barrage of flying swords shot towards it!
Wei Yuan instantly emptied the sword box and took out another one to put in. Although these flying swords were not very powerful, they were still at the Dao Foundation level, and they would still cause damage if they hit the monster. Moreover, there were many of them, and the monster was knocked back, with cracks appearing on its armor!

Just as it stabilized, Wei Yuan emptied the second sword box.

Wei Yuan then retreated, circled around to another corner of the passage, reloaded the sword case, and waited for the monstrous form. The monster, enraged by Wei Yuan, roared and charged out from around the corner, only to crash head-on into a box of flying swords!
Its armor was shattered into pieces, and its withered body bore obvious wounds. Wei Yuan emptied his sword case, retreated to change his armor, and then waited for the monster to peek out from around the corner before unleashing a barrage of flying sword attacks. After that, he ran away.

As he continued firing and retreating, by the time Wei Yuan had finished emptying the sixth sword box, the monstrous Dharma form finally let out a furious roar of resentment and collapsed in front of Wei Yuan.

A dense cloud of yin energy rose from the monster's corpse and spread across the vast landscape. This cloud of yin energy was greater than the sum of all the previous undead monsters, and it directly entered the fertile soil beneath the feet of the young woman.

At this moment, the spiritual energy accumulated in the vast rivers and mountains finally reached a critical point. With a crack, the stone skin on the body of a warrior peeled off piece by piece, and he slowly opened his eyes, which were filled with wisdom.

(End of this chapter)