Right then, Shen Haoran’s body seemed to be bathing in a golden ocean. Under the illumination of this golden light, the blood in his veins began to evaporate, and his very bones started to melt.

Yet, Shen Haoran felt no pain during this process. On the contrary, he wore an expression of pure enjoyment, a truly bizarre sight.

As the blood throughout his body evaporated, gray droplets began to appear. This was all of Shen Haoran’s Essence Blood! Eighty-one drops in total, all of them swirling around the Sealing Spirit Pearl that shone like a golden sun.

A moment later, the eighty-one drops of gray Essence Blood slowly converged, ultimately merging completely into the Sealing Spirit Pearl and fusing into a single drop of golden blood!

The nine-times-nine returns to one! In this world, nine is not the limit. When anything reaches its apex, it will always return to its origin. Now, only that single drop of golden blood remained around the Sealing Spirit Pearl.

Once the golden blood formed, it shot toward Shen Haoran’s chest and merged directly into his heart.

"THUMP THUMP...!"

"THUMP THUMP...!"

The sound of a powerful heartbeat rang out, echoing throughout the cave. Upon hearing it, joy finally bloomed on the faces of Elder Yan and Ji Lingxuan.

Still, the golden light did not dim; it continued to shine down. Within his Dantian, the peerless Divine Artifact, the Soul-devouring Sword, began to melt under the light’s radiance. It eventually turned into a pool of molten metal that flowed throughout Shen Haoran’s entire body.

The molten metal, transformed from the peerless Divine Artifact, quickly fused with Shen Haoran’s body, becoming one with him. With that, a body of unbreakable steel was forged.

After his body was remolded, the golden light from the Sealing Spirit Pearl began to recede, and the pearl itself slowly settled into Shen Haoran’s Dantian.

Once the golden light vanished and the Golden Core settled, a terrifying suction erupted from within Shen Haoran’s body. Soon, a Spiritual Power Vortex formed in the cave, constantly expanding outward.

At that same moment, Shen Haoran’s power level shot up like a rocket.

"Tier Four Spiritualist! Tier Five Spiritualist, Tier Six..." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"He’s at Tier Nine Spiritualist, and it’s still rising! ’Is he going to break through into the next major realm?’" Seeing Shen Haoran’s explosive rise in power, Elder Yan’s brow furrowed. If Shen Haoran’s strength continued to climb like this, it would have an unimaginably severe impact on his future cultivation.

"It stopped!" Just as Elder Yan was worrying, Shen Haoran’s skyrocketing strength finally came to a halt.

"Huh?" After Shen Haoran’s strength stopped growing, it suddenly began to drop!

"Tier Eight Spiritualist... Tier Seven Spiritualist... This... he’s compressing the explosive Spiritual Power in his body!" Elder Yan said in pleasant surprise. A sudden surge in strength would definitely cause Shen Haoran’s foundation to be unstable. Without a solid foundation, he wouldn’t be able to go very far on his future cultivation path!

Most people, when faced with a sudden surge in power, would be overjoyed, wishing they could jump several tiers at once. Shen Haoran was no exception, but thankfully, he came to his senses at the last moment. ’A temporary explosion of power certainly feels great,’ he realized, ’but compared to the long road of cultivation ahead, this kind of growth is nothing but a stumbling block!’

After Shen Haoran’s desperate compression, his strength finally stabilized at Tier Six Spiritualist, only a step away from Tier Seven.

After Shen Haoran’s strength stabilized, his tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open. Two tangible beams of golden light flashed out, so piercing that neither Elder Yan nor Ji Lingxuan could keep their eyes open!

"Haha!" Sensing his current physical condition, Shen Haoran couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He then clenched his fists and punched the stone wall behind him. Instantly, spiderweb-like cracks spread out, and the stone wall shattered with a BOOM, kicking up a cloud of dust!

Seeing that his physical strength alone already had such power, Shen Haoran nodded in satisfaction.

"ROAR!" Suddenly, a massive roar echoed through the cave. Changmao, who had been sleeping beside Shen Haoran, also woke up. Accompanying the roar, the image of a giant black beast appeared behind Changmao!

This giant black beast was completely shrouded in black mist, its features indistinct. However, it emanated the aura of a King, making one feel an uncontrollable urge to prostrate themselves in worship! Elder Yan and Ji Lingxuan almost fell to their knees at the beast’s feet.

However, the Spirit Beasts in the surrounding Profound Spirit Mountain Range weren’t so lucky. After the black beast appeared, a pressure originating from the depths of their souls and bloodlines descended, forcing them all to kneel and prostrate themselves, trembling on the ground.

Fortunately, the black beast appeared and disappeared just as quickly.

After the black beast vanished, the oppressive feeling in Elder Yan’s and Ji Lingxuan’s hearts also dissipated. They then looked at Changmao. At this moment, Changmao’s body had become extremely solid, no different from a physical entity. A golden rune on its forehead flashed once before melting into its body and disappearing.

Returning to normal, Changmao leaped onto Shen Haoran’s shoulder. Shen Haoran glanced at Changmao before walking straight over to Elder Yan and Ji Lingxuan.

"Elder Yan, Ji... Miss Ji." He seemed unsure of how to address Ji Lingxuan, and after a long pause, could only settle on calling her Miss Ji.

"Just call me Ling Xuan," Ji Lingxuan said instinctively. The moment the words left her mouth, her face flushed crimson. ’Aside from my parents, no one has ever called me by such an intimate name.’

"Alright, Ling Xuan..." Shen Haoran said, a knowing smile playing on his lips as he looked at Ji Lingxuan, whose cheeks were as red as ripe apples.

"Shen the kid, how are you feeling now?" Elder Yan, unable to watch the two of them any longer, asked.

"Feeling? I’ve never felt this good before!" Shen Haoran clenched his fists and said excitedly.

"Obviously! Do you even know what that golden pearl in your Dantian is? That’s not some Sealing Spirit Pearl at all, it’s an Ancient Divine Relic! Now that it’s become your Spirit Pill, it’d be strange if you didn’t feel good!" Changmao said, rolling its eyes at Shen Haoran.

"Ancient Divine Relics!" Elder Yan exclaimed. In their era, the Ancient Gods had long since vanished, leaving behind only legends! And the Ancient Divine Relics were the lifelong essence left behind after a legendary Ancient God passed on. What kind of existence was an Ancient God? On the path of cultivation, the Spirit Tempering Stage was the beginning, and Spirit Saint was the Peak! But there was always a higher mountain; the Peak was not the end. After Spirit Saint, there were still more powerful beings, it’s just that people didn’t know about them. And this Ancient God was an existence even more powerful than a Spirit Saint!

"Hmph, not only that, but even that peerless Divine Artifact, the Soul-devouring Sword, was used to remold your body. What a waste! But with your current body, if you claimed to be second on the whole continent, no one would dare claim to be first. Even in ’that place’, it’s absolutely one of a kind!" Changmao said with its tail held high.

Hearing this, Shen Haoran re-examined his body. It was truly perfect beyond words.

"Don’t just stand there being happy, you brat! If it weren’t for Miss Ling Xuan, you’d be long dead!" Elder Yan then told Shen Haoran about how Ji Lingxuan had used forty-five drops of her Essence Blood.

Sensing that Ji Lingxuan’s strength was now only at Tier One Spirit Pupil, Shen Haoran’s heart warmed. He looked into her eyes and said with deep emotion, "Ling Xuan, thank you! Don’t worry, I will definitely help you resolve the Nine Nether Qi in your body! I swear on my life!"

Seeing Shen Haoran’s passionate gaze, Ji Lingxuan quickly turned her head away and said with a red face, "It was just a life for a life! You don’t have to thank me!"

Seeing Ji Lingxuan still putting on a cold and aloof front, Elder Yan couldn’t help but chuckle. He mused to himself, ’Sigh... to think the Ji Family’s Little Princess would be won over by this brat so easily. When the time comes for him to go to the Ji Family to propose, I’ll enjoy pissing those old coots off!’

Hearing Elder Yan’s laughter, Ji Lingxuan became too shy to stay and turned to run out of the cave. Watching her retreating back, the corners of Shen Haoran’s mouth curled up unconsciously.

"Alright, you brat, stop daydreaming. It’s been over a month since you started healing. With your current strength as a Tier Six Peak Spiritualist, it will still be difficult to kill Xue Qinghe. You need to continue your cultivation!

And if you want to kill Xue Qinghe, you must break through to Tier Eight Spiritualist! You only have a month and a half left in the Profound Spirit Mountain Range! Therefore, you must break through two tiers within this month and a half!" Elder Yan analyzed.

"No problem!" Shen Haoran said, his expression turning serious. The score with Xue Qinghe had to be settled; not a single member of the Blood Skull Mercenary Corps could be spared. ’Besides,’ he thought, ’with Elder Yan here, breaking through two tiers in a month and a half shouldn’t be a problem. It just means I’ll have to suffer a little.’

"Good! From now on, you must hunt at least five Tier Three Spirit Beasts every day! If you’re short by even one, the number doubles the next day!" Elder Yan said sternly.

"Ah!" Shen Haoran’s jaw dropped. A Tier Three Spirit Beast was equivalent to a human Martial Artist of the Spirit Pupil Tier, which meant... he had to kill five Spirit Beasts every day that were a major realm higher than him?!

"What, you think that’s too few? Then add two more!" Seeing the unwilling expression on Shen Haoran’s face, Elder Yan said sternly.

"No, no, no! I’m going right now, right now!" With that, Shen Haoran could only run out, crying, to complete his task.

Ji Lingxuan, who was just returning from outside the cave, saw Shen Haoran run out, practically in tears. Puzzled, she asked, "What’s wrong with him?"

"Oh, he farted. It was so bad it made his eyes water, so he ran out to clean himself up. Don’t worry about him!" Elder Yan said casually.

"Oh..." Ji Lingxuan didn’t quite know how to react and nodded subconsciously. Then she sat down with Elder Yan and started to tease Changmao.