Chapter 262: Chapter 22: News of the Kunlun Ruins

[Thunder Lord is fine, but isn’t Dragon King a little cheesy?]

[To be fair, Dragon King is actually pretty fitting. After all, it’s a Dragon controlling thunder; the thunder is just secondary.]

[It’s a tradition. Just think about it. That nuclear fusion ignition device the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed off a while back? If that professor hadn’t explained what it was, I’d have thought it was just some big hunk of iron. The plastic tarp covering it looked just like the one we use to cover grain back in my hometown.]

[Right? That paint job is so tacky it hurts, but the longer you look at it, the more it kinda grows on you!]

[Welp, I’ve been conditioned to like the government’s style~]

The online discussions about Su Zhou’s new titles weren’t extensive. After all, they were well-deserved and lacked any real gimmicks—a rare instance of a codename that was perfectly fitting without any over-the-top hype.

Becoming an official public figure didn’t really affect Su Zhou’s daily life—in fact, there were even fewer reporters than before.

After all, harassing the Holy Ascension Examination Champion Scholar was one thing, but harassing a professor and an officially certified Extraordinary Tier cultivator was a completely different story. No one wanted to get zapped into paralysis. Judging by his demeanor, he clearly wasn’t the type to care about his reputation. He was an eighteen-year-old kid; piss him off, and he might actually go all out.

Su Zhou never thought he’d be seen as the type of person who ’doesn’t care about his reputation.’ ’I care about it a lot, okay!’ he thought. Still, thanks to the South Sea incident, the global craze for Cultivation surged once more. The idle chatter on various forums was no longer gossip like, "Who got cheated on today?" but cultivation tidbits like, "Did you get your Cultivation in today?"

The government also finally discovered how the Spirit Summoning Association had been spreading the Evil Demon Factor: it was through the products of a small health supplement company. The supplement hadn’t been widely distributed and was now completely banned. Most of it was concentrated in coastal areas; after all, if it had spread inland, it would have been difficult for them to retrieve it with their rituals.

Immediately, the chaos in related industries was stamped out. Furthermore, operating under the principle of "if you don’t occupy the high ground, the enemy will," the State Food and Drug Administration began reviewing official Cultivation Pills. It wouldn’t be long before pills that could genuinely assist with Spirit Awakening would be available for purchase.

"I barely even got in the water on this whole South Sea trip!"

Shao Shuangyue was the most disgruntled, and for good reason. How could she not be? She’d barely gotten any rest during her hard-earned vacation. To make it up to her, Su Zhou and Shao Qiming soon took her to climb Mount Lushan. The trip exhausted the self-proclaimed "beautiful-girl homebody" to the point of tears. When she got home, she swore she’d be a shut-in for the rest of her life, declaring that "anyone who goes on vacation is a dog."

Meanwhile, Shao Qiming and Su Zhou reviewed the legends of the Nether God related to the Silent Lord, discussing potential points of concern and information about relevant rituals.

Although they had no immediate plans to explore and tackle the Silent Lord World, it couldn’t hurt to brush up on the relevant knowledge beforehand.

As the one who had acted as notary and guide when Yara and Su Zhou formed their pact, Shao Qiming’s own connection to the Great Being was not insignificant. Yara had even offered some faint praise, remarking that Shao Qiming was a rather interesting person who, given the chance, would not remain ordinary.

「Three weeks passed in the blink of an eye.」

Many things happened during this time. For instance, relatives from both sides of Su Zhou’s family went for official testing to see if they carried the Dragon Blood heritage.

The results weren’t entirely negative. Traces of the Dragon Blood factor were indeed found in Su Zhou’s paternal bloodline. However, Su Zhou was the only one in whom it was dominantly active—a unique case. But at least this confirmed that his heritage was traceable and hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere.

It was also during this period that the Zhengguo Government delivered his rewards for resolving the South Sea incident: the international bounty for the Shepherd of Spirits, as well as a supply of cultivation resources.

It was, without a doubt, an enormous fortune. The precious Cultivation Pills alone—like the Five Thunders God-Storage Pill, on par with those of the Daoist Saint—would have made Su Zhou a multimillionaire overnight if converted to cash.

The money came so easily it felt unreal—not that it stopped Su Zhou from happily consuming them. Each bite was like swallowing several square meters of Celestial Capital real estate.

With this batch of resources, he was able to lay a solid foundation for cultivating the Heart of the Thunder Marsh. Su Zhou transformed his bone marrow into a Spiritual Power Organ, creating his third such organ. He then used this as a foundation to optimize his blood and blood vessels, and to nourish his heart.

The Thunder Marsh Inheritance had been passed down and refined countless times since antiquity. While the Heart of the Thunder Marsh was powerful, it required a vast amount of resources to create. Su Zhou held to the belief of ’if you can do it perfectly, don’t settle for less,’ so he preferred to build up his foundation rather than rush the process, lest he have to spend even more time fixing it later.

His Cultivation of the Sacred Geometry: Pentagram also continued without interruption. Su Zhou felt his soul growing more and more resilient, to the point where it felt like he had a permanent version of Steel Will. Now, he could catch an Awakened Level Evil Spirit, force it to unleash its wailing Spirit Sound right next to his ear, and feel absolutely nothing. He could even start to pick out a bit of a rhythm.

"Next, I bet I’ll even be able to ignore a Banshee’s Wail!" Su Zhou declared. In the background, Shao Qiming’s face was scrunched in pain, his expression dazed. Su Zhou even shoved the Evil Spirit into Shao Qiming’s hands, recommending, "Seriously, Qiming, you should listen to this more often. It really builds up your soul’s endurance and strengthens it!"

"Get it away from me! Any more of this and I’ll get Evil-Spirit-PTSD!" Shao Qiming was so cornered he cast his Purifying Heart Spell, directly purifying the Evil Spirit. "Begone, Evil Spirit!"

It just went to show that if you pushed someone far enough, even a Purifying Heart Spell could kill a ghost.

「2:30 PM on Wednesday, July 23, 2015.」

"Say, it’s been exactly one year, hasn’t it?"

It happened to be the one-year anniversary of when Su Zhou and Yara first met. He hadn’t intentionally kept track; it was just a coincidence he recalled while watering the Wisdom Tree, so he brought it up.

Yara, who was watching a crosstalk comedy show, replied, "Sure has been."

Su Zhou felt something was a little off about her reply, but he didn’t think too much of it.

Originally, Su Zhou had thought he could hunt some Sea Beasts in the South Sea and use their blood to water the Wisdom Tree. Who would have guessed that after one trip, he’d end up as their Dragon King? Su Zhou was no saint, but he did believe in the principle of "not hitting a smiling face." The Sea Beasts looked at him like he was their own ancestor; he just couldn’t bring himself to attack them.

It was only recently, when he took Shao Shuangyue hiking, that he managed to slip away into the mountain outskirts and slay some "impolite" beasts that had undergone Spirit Awakening due to the Spiritual Qi Burst. That was how he’d barely managed to keep the Wisdom Tree from starving.

By now, the Wisdom Tree was about twice the size of a normal potted apple tree. The Demon Emperor’s Dragon Horn Long Spear rested beside it, absorbing the overflowing Spiritual Qi from the tree to nourish itself. This was supposed to grant the Wood-Attribute Long Spear some unusual effects, but Su Zhou hadn’t yet encountered an enemy that absolutely required him to use a weapon, so he hadn’t had a chance to try it out.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but ask Yara, "Yara, the Wisdom Tree is getting bigger and bigger. It’s manageable for now, but what am I supposed to do when it actually grows into a full-sized tree?"

"...Then the next time you go to another world, you’ll need to keep an eye out for any Spatial Equipment."

At this, even Yara seemed to have a headache. It tore its gaze from the screen. "Actually, this is a pretty serious problem. The Wisdom Tree is a Divine Tree, after all. In its complete form, it might be even bigger than the Immortal Banyan Tree."

"Bigger than the Immortal Banyan Tree?" Now it was Su Zhou’s expression that twisted. He pictured a Wisdom Tree the size of an entire province, its canopy breaking through the atmosphere. "Then where on earth was it planted before?"

"In Eden, in the Supreme Heaven. It’s an independent little world," the Snake Spirit replied quickly. "Divine Objects like this basically all have the ability to form their own pocket dimension. Otherwise, if their complete forms were placed in a small world, it wouldn’t take long for them to twist that world into their own image, or even ’destroy’ it outright."

"So, is there a simple, convenient, and quick way to create my own personal dimension?"

Su Zhou blinked, his tone becoming rather leading. "Like, for example, that space you disappear into every time you pull out the Sacred Geometry Original... Can I learn how to do that?"

Hearing this, Yara instantly grew wary. "Aha! No wonder you brought this up all of a sudden. You’re trying to get your hands on my treasure vault!"

But it quickly changed its tune. "I *can* teach you, but... Extraordinary Tier is still a bit too low, and you don’t have the necessary Extraordinary Materials for the Cultivation. A Personal Space is something that many Commanders, and even beings of the next tier up, don’t necessarily possess."

"What kind of Extraordinary Materials? I can ask the Zhengguo Government if they have any!"

Su Zhou was quite optimistic and saw nothing wrong with his approach. If he received benefits, he would certainly make contributions in return. After all, if a powerful Demon Beast were to appear within Zhengguo’s borders, would he really stand by and do nothing?

"Maybe in the future, but at the current concentration of Spiritual Qi, I think it’s unlikely," Yara said. "Unless you can open up the ruins of the Immortal Gods. You might be able to find the necessary materials in the Ancient Treasure Vaults that store creations from the Spiritual Energy Era."

Perhaps it was fate.

Two hours after this discussion with Yara, while he was practicing his Gale Armor Cultivation, Su Zhou received a message from the Zhengguo Government.

A special envoy from the Celestial Capital was on their way to visit him.

The purpose of the visit: to discuss matters concerning the [Kunlun Ruins].