“Here, this.” Zhuo Yifeng handed the groundrat the dagger which he had used to threaten it, but the groundrat shook its head. 

“Use that.” The groundrat’s little claw pointed at a tiger-canine arrow in the quiver on Zhuo Yifeng’s back.

Zhuo Yifeng had already used up the majority of his tiger-canine arrows, and there were only three left in his quiver.

“Those arrowheads of yours look quite sharp, so use them instead.”

Zhuo Yifeng plucked out an arrow. Following the groundrat’s instructions, he pried open the fruit’s tough outer shell, revealing a multicolored core that looked like a pill.

“Consume this, and that’s it,” the groundrat instructed.

Zhuo Yifeng glanced at the core in his hand, sensing the concentrated spiritual energy it held, a smile dancing around his lips. With the core in one hand, and the groundrat in the other, he stood up.

“Hey, let me go!”

Zhuo Yifeng released his hand, dropping the groundrat onto the ground. It cursed in pain, then hurriedly burrowed into the ground and went out of sight. Zhuo Yifeng headed off in search of a secluded spot, consumed the core, and began to cultivate.

Zhuo Yifeng’s cultivation was wood-attuned, and the heavenly spirit fruit generated an abundance of wood-attuned spiritual energy for him. Five days passed in the blink of an eye; after those five days, just like Yun Ruoyan, he found that his spiritual vortex had been filled to the brim, but the wood-attuned spiritual energy was continuing to flow out of his core.

If he didn’t disperse the spiritual energy from the core throughout his body, his spiritual vortex wouldn’t be able to handle the strain; if he continued dispersing the spiritual energy throughout his body, it might break down.

Without an appropriate technique for condensing spiritual energy, Zhuo Yifeng was on the verge of being consumed by his cultivation.

“Haha! This is the price for daring to mess with me, foolish human!” The groundrat that had scampered off now returned with a vengeance, smiling cockily at Zhuo Yifeng. It had tracked him to his hiding spot and was waiting for the precise moment at which he would go mad. Because of a natural defect, the groundrat wasn’t able to cultivate on its own. Instead, it had somehow mastered a technique that would allow it to steal another creature’s spiritual energy.

As a result, even though it had managed to steal a heavenly spirit fruit, it wouldn’t be able to consume it itself. Just as it was worrying about what to do, Zhuo Yifeng appeared. The devious groundrat cooked up a plan to have Zhuo Yifeng consume the pill on its behalf, then to steal Zhuo Yifeng’s spiritual energy away from him.

Just as it was searching for an opportunity to strike, spiritual energy began to run rampant through Zhuo Yifeng’s body, causing the groundrat to want to squeak in excitement.

“You, what are you trying to do?” Zhuo Yifeng opened his eyes and warily stared at the groundrat. The spiritual energy in his body and spiritual vortex continued to froth and bubble, causing him to grimace and splitting his concentration.

Although he still held a bow in his hands, he didn’t have the strength to pull it taut. Although his body and spiritual vortex were filled to the brim with spiritual energy, he couldn’t seem to use any of it.

Zhuo Yifeng could only watch on as the groundrat approached him cockily. “Since you look to be in such pain, I’ll help you relieve it.” 

The little groundrat scampered to Zhuo Yifeng’s back, then stuck to him like a pancake and began to suck away the excess spiritual energy in Zhuo Yifeng’s body. Initially, Zhuo Yifeng struggled and tried to beat the groundrat away. However, with the groundrat’s ‘assistance’, the spiritual energy that threatened to overwhelm Zhuo Yifeng had finally found a way out.

Zhuo Yifeng stopped struggling, and the man and beast cultivated in an unusual equilibrium. As the heavenly spirit fruit generated spiritual energy, the groundrat sucked it away.

After another five days, the groundrat’s body had filled up with spiritual energy. It tried to detach from Zhuo Yifeng’s body, but found itself utterly incapable of doing so: the spiritual energy had formed a natural flow between Zhuo Yifeng and the groundrat, one from which the groundrat couldn’t extricate itself.

Even after struggling for two entire days, it was still stuck to Zhuo Yifeng. Right before it would lose consciousness due to the spiritual energy rampaging through its body, it shouted to Zhuo Yifeng, “Hey, if this keeps up, we’re both going to die!”

“You little bastard, serves you right!”

“I… might have a solution to save us both,” the groundrat replied.

“What?” Zhuo Yifeng asked. He still had a blood feud with Li Mo, and he couldn’t die now!

“I’ll teach you the only technique that I’ve cultivated, which you can use to transfer your body’s excess spiritual energy to some other creature,” the groundrat began. “Once you learn it, find some magical beast in the forest and transfer your excess spiritual energy into it. The spiritual energy provided by the heavenly spirit fruit might be immense, but it’s certainly finite. As long as you can last until all the energy is exhausted, we’ll live.”

Both their conditions were particularly severe. With no other resort, Zhuo Yifeng could only agree to the groundrat’s suggestion. Zhuo Yifeng stumbled out of the bush he was hiding in, his body almost bulging at the seams with spiritual energy. Not a few steps later, he tumbled to the ground.

However, the spiritual energy leaking out of him managed to attract a wolf hunting in the distance, which padded warily toward Zhuo Yifeng’s prone body.

“Hey, hey, wake up!” Sensing danger, the groundrat bit Zhuo Yifeng’s shoulder.

Zhuo Yifeng gasped in shock, regaining his senses once more. As he turned, he saw the head of the giant wolf right next to his body. Before it could react, he stretched out his hand and began applying the groundrat’s technique to transfer spiritual energy into the wolf.

The wolf was initially startled, but then it felt a huge wave of spiritual energy transferring from the human in front of it. It had no clue what was going on, but the influx of spiritual energy was so comfortable a sensation that it ended up sitting quietly and wagging its tail as the spiritual energy flooded through its body.

When Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo soared over the narrow valley and re-entered the forest of giant trees, they found Guan Ruliu waiting for them. She anxiously told them that Zhuo Yifeng had rushed to the other side of the valley in search of them, and they immediately turned back to try to find him.

After two nights, they finally found Zhuo Yifeng deep within the grove that contained the heavenly spirit tree. By the time they found him, he was unconscious. Beside him lay a wolf whose body had exploded from taking in too much spiritual energy, and a groundrat spirit was plastered to his back.

“Li Mo, what’s going on?!”

Li Mo glanced at Zhuo Yifeng, then at the groundrat attached to his body. “He must have consumed the heavenly spirit fruit as well. Without anyone to guard him or a technique to condense spiritual energy, he’s losing control of his cultivation.”

“Losing control…!” Yun Ruoyan shouted. “Can he be saved? Li Mo, can you save him?”

“I don’t know how he managed to survive, but with me around, I won’t let him die!”

In his deep slumber, Zhuo Yifeng suddenly felt a pulse of mental energy breaking through his mental barriers and calling out to him, “Zhuo Yifeng, wake up, wake up!”

“Who are you?”

Instead of answering his question, the voice continued, “You have an immense amount of spiritual energy in your body right now. I’ll impart you a technique for condensing your spiritual energy, which will help you break through.”

In his half-conscious state, Zhuo Yifeng began to apply the technique. He didn’t know how long he spent circulating his spiritual energy over and over, but he finally managed to squeeze every last bit into his spiritual vortex, successfully making the transition from a seventh-rank to an eighth-rank blademaster.

“Brother Zhuo, Brother Zhuo!” 

Zhuo Yifeng opened his eyes to see Lin Qingxue’s impassioned gaze.

“Brother Zhuo, you’re finally awake!” Two tear tracks glimmered on her round face.

“Qingxue, what are you doing here?” Zhuo Yifeng asked, shocked. “Where am I?”

The last thing Zhuo Yifeng could remember was the wolf’s body exploding after being filled up with spiritual energy. The force of the explosion had knocked him unconscious, after which point Li Mo and Yun Ruoyan had found him.

“You’re in the central college—back in your own room!” Lin Qingxue told him anxiously, worried about his mental condition.

“My own room?” Zhuo Yifeng glanced all around him at his familiar surroundings, verifying Lin Qingxue’s words. “How did I end up in my own room? Wasn’t I training in an alternate dimension?”

Lin Qingxue told him how Yun Ruoyan and Li Mo had brought him back, and how he had lay unconscious for three whole days. Only then did he realize that they had saved him, that Li Mo himself was the one who had imparted him with the vital technique of condensing his spiritual energy.

He saved me…?!

“Brother Zhuo, what’s the matter? You look so pale—let me fetch you a physician!” Lin Qingxue was just about to dash out of the room when Zhuo Yifeng pulled her back. “Where’s Yun Ruoyan and Master Mo?”

“They’re in the great hall.” Lin Qingxue’s face turned grim. “Guan Tianyu’s dead, and Rong Yueshan and her group’s claiming that Sister Ruoyan killed him. The second elder’s making a fuss and refusing to leave. He’s intending on killing Sister Ruoyan to avenge him!”

“What? Guan Tianyu’s dead?!” Zhuo Yifeng hopped out of bed.

“Yes, and they’re claiming that Sister Ruoyan’s the murderer!”

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