Fantasy: Starting with a bowl, you can exchange it for endless cultivation.

The next day.

Cheng Mengling came to find him and excitedly reported, "Brother Gu, good news!"

"What good news?" Gu Chen asked, seeing how excited she was.

"Because of your improved ranking on the Prodigy Ranking, Brother Gu, and your consecutive victories over geniuses like Yuan Geng, Shen Qinglan, and Chen Xinglong, your influence has increased. Now, many forces within the Desolate State know that my Cheng family is under your command, and they are all eager to curry favor with my Cheng family, opening up their industries and trade routes to cooperate with us. As a result, the scale of my Cheng family's industries has been expanded, and the silver I give you as tribute each month will be increased to 25,000 taels."

"Oh, okay, haha." Gu Chen laughed.

Because of his increased influence, the forces in the desolate state have shown him goodwill, taken the initiative to accept the Cheng family's businesses, and cooperated with the Cheng family, which has led to an expansion of the Cheng family's businesses. This is a good thing.

The Cheng family can give him 20% of their annual profits.

Twenty-five thousand taels a month, that's three hundred thousand taels a year.

As the Cheng family's business expands in the future, this money tree will bring him even more money to offer as tribute.

"Hmm." Cheng Mengling nodded and continued, "Also, because of your increased fame, Brother Gu, some rogue cultivators want to follow you and rely on you for development. Now they have joined my Cheng family and become Cheng family retainers. The strongest one has the strength of the True Essence Realm Perfection, and there are also a few people in the early to late stages of the True Essence Realm. The overall strength of the Cheng family has also increased."

"Not bad." Gu Chen looked at Cheng Mengling: "You did a great job. You have made great contributions to the development of the Cheng family. Thank you for your hard work."

A person's name is like the shadow of a tree.

The Cheng family's growth and expansion required strong support, and these rogue cultivators came because of his reputation, wanting to follow him.

Entering the Cheng family to be worshipped is also a good arrangement.

They could become a force to be reckoned with under his command.

Cheng Mengling smiled upon receiving Gu Chen's praise.

She was very happy to receive Gu Chen's approval, and all the hard work was worth it.

"Brother Gu, in the past half month, my Cheng family has collected another batch of the medicinal materials for refining that special pill," Cheng Mengling said.

"Okay, well done." Gu Chen nodded: "Give it to Wei Zhong later."

Gu Chen took out 30,000 taels of silver and handed it to her.

The Cheng family now has a stable supply chain for the medicinal materials used in the refining of the Red Copper Elixir.

It takes about half a month to collect one copy.

He has now condensed sixty protective divine runes within his body.

Activating all of them would allow him to ignore attacks from those in the early stages of the Sea Transformation Realm.

Once you reach seventy levels, you can ignore attacks from mid-stage Transformation Sea Realm cultivators.

It can truly help him.

"Okay." Cheng Mengling took the money and left.

Afterwards, someone delivered a batch of medicinal materials for refining the Red Copper Pill.

After Gu Chen finished refining the last batch of pills that day.

He then worked overtime to refine this batch of red copper pills.

That night.

Inside the mansion.

Gu Chen took out a copper bowl.

Without hesitation, he placed all ten red copper pills into the copper bowl.

Ten Crimson Copper Pills can be exchanged for ten protective divine runes.

The copper bowl provides a clue.

"Exchange." Gu Chen confirmed immediately.

In an instant, the ten red copper pills in the copper bowl disappeared, transforming into a strange power that entered his body and began to transform his physique.

The ancient dust aura rose steadily, and the strength of his physical body continued to increase.

soon.

Beneath Gu Chen's skin, ten new golden protective divine runes were engraved and imprinted, shining with golden light together with the sixty protective divine runes that had already been engraved.

The new ten protective divine runes have been imprinted.

Gu Chen's transformation was complete, and his physical defenses were raised to a new level.

Even without activating the protective divine runes, it allows him to generate a golden protective shield around his body.

It can also ignore attacks from mid-stage Breakthrough Realm cultivators.

If all seventy protective divine runes are activated, allowing the seventy protective light shields to merge into a thick protective true qi, it can ignore attacks from mid-stage Transformation Sea Realm cultivators.

And as the number of protective divine runes on his body continued to increase.

Gu Chen discovered that his physical physique had undergone a transformation, with both his strength and speed being enhanced.

He is now.

Even without using cultivation or true essence, one can kill a mid-stage sixth-grade Breaking Aperture Realm expert simply by relying on physical strength and speed.

Cool.

This is what it feels like to be powerful.

He would never have dared to dream of such a thing before.

Thinking back to a year ago, when I was still working as a handyman at the Baoyao Pavilion and had not yet received the copper bowl.

He considered even a third-rate expert guarding him at the early stage of the Blood Refining Realm to be an unapproachable and superior powerhouse.

He is now.

Even if he stood still and let a third-rate expert in the early stage of Blood Refining Realm slash at him with a knife, he wouldn't be able to break through his defenses.

Everything has been turned upside down.

of course.

This is not the end.

He was only a fifth-rank official.

Once you reach the fourth rank of Core Formation, you can condense a golden core, and your true essence will be inexhaustible, allowing you to live for more than two hundred years.

Upon reaching the upper three realms, one can establish a spiritual platform, open up the Purple Mansion, and cultivate the primordial spirit.

It can travel through the world in spirit and communicate with the power of heaven and earth to fight.

That's what's truly terrifying.

They can live for hundreds of years.

Not to mention the realms of the Heaven and Earth Venerables, which are above the three realms.

To comprehend the general trend, gather the power of intention, form a domain, and become the master of one's own domain wherever one goes—that is truly terrifying.

As for the powerful beings at the level of terrestrial immortals.

He didn't dare to think about it yet.

That was way ahead of its time.

He has to take it one step at a time. He has the copper bowl, and he'll reach that point sooner or later.

As long as he doesn't act recklessly or do anything foolish.

Keep a low profile.

Meanwhile.

Here at Li Huo Prefecture.

A hidden dock on a deserted island.

One after another, cargo ships belonging to the Yamamoto family of the island nation are loading supplies.

These supplies include rare iron ore that the Divine Dynasty forbids from being sold to island nations, as well as many rare and precious medicinal herbs and other valuable medicinal plants that are not available in island nations.

It was during this period of more than half a month that He Teng, the head of the Night Watch of Li Huo Prefecture, secretly helped the Yamamoto family of the island nation to collect them.

Smuggling this batch of resources over will significantly enhance the island nation's military strength.

That night.

Inside He Teng's mansion.

When Yamamoto Yota arrived, he reported to He Teng: "All supplies have been shipped. This is 10,000 taels of silver, a tribute from our Yamamoto family to Lord He."

He took out ten thousand taels of silver and handed it to He Teng.

He continued, "Lord He is a man of his word. We will deliver the first-grade spiritual medicine, the Nourishing Essence Ginseng, that we promised to give you within three months."

He Teng took the silver and said, "I've done what I promised you, and I've given you the green light so you could acquire these rare resources. But when will you do what you promised me—to kill Gu Chen?"

"Let me warn you, we're all in this together now. If Gu Chen doesn't die, and he discovers I've been helping you with smuggling, not only will I be finished, but all the new strongholds your Yamamoto family has established will be lost, and everyone you're currently active within the Divine Dynasty's borders may die!"

Upon hearing this, Yamamoto Yota narrowed his eyes and said, "We are already planning to deal with Gu Chen. Lord He, rest assured, Gu Chen will surely die within a month. My Yamamoto family will naturally not allow someone with such terrifying potential and strong tracking ability to continue to exist."

During this time, they also wanted to get rid of Gu Chen.

But I never had the chance.

Some time ago, Gu Chen defeated several geniuses who had broken through the Qi Refining Realm.

Their power is at its peak, making it difficult to take action.

We can only wait until the next month to find an opportunity to make a move.

"The sooner the better," He Teng reminded him. "Gu Chen is growing too fast. In just over a month, he has already reached the late stage of the Breaking Aperture Realm. If this drags on any longer, he will probably be able to fight against a Perfect Breaking Aperture Realm expert. It will be increasingly difficult to kill him."

"To kill Gu Chen, our Yamamoto family will definitely send out a fifth-rank expert to ensure success. Lord He, please rest assured," Yamamoto Yaotian said.

To assassinate Gu Chen, one must ensure that once the plan is made, he will be killed.

Otherwise, if he realizes what's going on, not only will the assassination fail, but he will also be able to trace back and uncover your background.

Here in Jiuwan City.

The next two weeks.

Gu Chen continued to refine pills steadily, accumulating the silver needed to break through to the late stage of the Transformation Sea Realm.

In the past two weeks, he earned another 27,000 taels of silver from alchemy.

In addition, the Cheng family gave him 25,000 taels of silver as a tribute.

He had a total of over 120,000 taels of silver.

With another 20,000 taels, I can buy pills to break through to the late stage of the Transformation Sea Realm.

"Let's endure another half month," Gu Chen pondered.

He already had 100,000 taels of silver.

After Cheng Mengling collected all the medicinal materials for him to refine the Red Copper Pill, she spent another 30,000 taels of silver on him.

Now there are only 70,000 taels left. With the pill refining over the past half month and the monthly tribute from the Cheng family, we have finally raised 120,000 taels.

Now another half month has passed.

The Cheng family should be able to gather another set of materials for refining the Red Copper Pill for him soon.

This time, Gu Chen did not intend to spend money on this medicinal herb first.

Let's save up enough silver to break through to a higher realm first.