Led by the elder, Yi Tianyun followed him inside the Main Pavilion. They walked through a long corridor and soon arrived in a special hallway.

The atmosphere here was clearly different from the outside. The walls were engraved with Divine Runes, which could obviously be activated against enemies. As for their effect, he would have to study them carefully to find out. Yi Tianyun had no interest in that, though. He didn’t even have to guess to know this was an extremely important place.

"The Celestial Spirit Jade Pool is just ahead." The elder led him to a large gate not far away. Two guards at the Core Formation Stage stood watch here. ’Using Core Formation Stage experts as mere guards... that’s quite an extravagant display.’

"Elder Yun, what is it?" one of the two guards asked.

"This is the first-place winner of the Star Pavilion’s Divine Rune tournament. He’s here to claim his reward," Elder Yun said, taking out the Token and handing it to them. "This is Pavilion Master Li’s personal order. Please inspect it."

Even Elder Yun couldn’t enter the Celestial Spirit Jade Pool at will, which just went to show how important it was.

The guard took the order, and after inspecting it, he nodded. "It’s authentic. This is indeed Pavilion Master Li’s personal order. According to the rules of the reward, he is granted five days’ time."

With that, they pushed open the heavy gate together. As a crack appeared, an incredibly dense wave of Spiritual Power rushed out, making Yi Tianyun feel instantly refreshed. The concentration was immense, far stronger than anything outside.

’It’s more than ten times denser than the Spirit Gathering Array in the Celestial Sinking Ruins!’

When the opening was wide enough for one person, the guard urged, "Get in, quickly. We will open the gate for you in five days. In the meantime, absorb as you please. How much you can take in is your own business! But don’t touch the Spirit Medicine inside. If you take any, you’ll have to buy it."

Yi Tianyun nodded. Without another word, he immediately rushed inside.

After he entered, the guards quickly shut the door, preventing any more Spiritual Power from escaping.

’So this is the Celestial Spirit Jade Pool...’

Upon entering, the first thing he saw was a lake! It was incredibly vast, and its shores were covered in all sorts of flora. But these were no ordinary plants; they were all Spirit Medicines! Their grades varied, with the highest reaching the fifth grade, while even the lowest were at least fourth-grade. They were all excellent materials for refining fourth-grade Elixir Pills.

Other than these, there was nothing else and no one else here.

’Such dense Spiritual Power... this is a complete Spiritual Spring...’

Yi Tianyun glanced over, and the Eye of Investigation immediately brought up the details.

Celestial Spirit Jade Pool: A fifth-grade Spiritual Vein spring capable of nurturing fifth-grade Spirit Medicine. Its Spiritual Power is extremely dense and is suitable for absorption by cultivators at or below the Spirit Pill Stage. It has the effect of increasing one’s cultivation and strengthening their Spiritual Power.

’Five days? I can’t afford to waste them.’

Wasting no time, Yi Tianyun jumped straight into the Celestial Spirit Jade Pool. The moment he entered the water, the dense Spiritual Power all around him scrambled to surge into his body. It rushed inside him so quickly that he didn’t even need to actively absorb it.

’500 experience... 300 experience... 460 experience...’

This was the experience that was constantly pouring in. He could gain it without even moving a muscle. It meant he could just lie here and sleep, and he might wake up with millions of experience points. Of course, he wouldn’t be so wasteful. Even a few million experience was a pitifully small amount for him now.

’Time to start absorbing!’

’Mad Experience Mode, activate!’

Yi Tianyun wasted no time. Activating Madness Mode, he began to absorb the Spiritual Power. A massive vortex formed around him under the effects of his Star Absorption Technique, pulling all the surrounding Spiritual Power into his body.

’32,000 experience, 35,000 experience, 34,000 experience...’

With the eight-times experience multiplier active, his experience gain skyrocketed. He had Experience Cards, but he was reluctant to use them. After all, the amount of experience he was getting here was still too low to justify it. He’d save them for a real breakthrough.

’To upgrade the intermediate North Nether Divine Technique to a High-grade Earth Level Martial Art, I still need a lot of experience. I’m not in a hurry to upgrade my Star Absorption Technique, but the North Nether Divine Technique is my main source of experience.’

The Star Absorption Technique was purely for absorption and couldn’t convert energy into experience; the North Nether Divine Technique was his main method for gaining experience.

Yi Tianyun immediately dismissed all other thoughts and immersed himself in his cultivation. His experience points continued to surge upwards. At the same time, he was burning through a significant amount of Madness Value; the cost of the eight-times multiplier was not small.

This was precisely why he didn’t dare to spend Madness Value casually. ’It’s so hard to earn and so easy to spend!’

In the blink of an eye, a full day passed. He had been absorbing continuously and was finally greeted by a pleasant sound in his mind.

DING!

"Congratulations, Player Yi Tianyun, for successfully advancing to the Seventh Level of the Spirit Pill Stage!"

The process had been quite arduous. He had eventually deactivated the eight-times multiplier from Madness Mode because the cost, calculated by the minute, was simply too high. If he could have sustained it, the experience gain would have been incredible.

Still, he had kept it active for a good while before stopping. Otherwise, leveling up would have taken far longer.

’I finally leveled up. Let me check the status of my North Nether Divine Technique.’

He checked the Skill Level of his North Nether Divine Technique and found he was just over 7,000 points shy of the next level. With just a bit over 7,000 more points, he could upgrade it.

’Keep absorbing!’

Yi Tianyun immediately settled his mind and began to absorb frantically, trying to increase the Skill Level for his North Nether Divine Technique. Another day passed in the blink of an eye. When he checked again, he found he was still over 3,000 points short!

’I only gained a little over three thousand Skill Level points in an entire day? What a rip-off!’

The Skill Level didn’t increase just from casual absorption. He had to absorb a specific quantity of energy to gain a corresponding amount of Skill Level. Otherwise, couldn’t he just absorb energy from the open air indefinitely to level up his skills?

’Forget it. Time is short. I’ll just grit my teeth and buy the manual for the Intermediate-grade Earth Level North Nether Divine Technique!’

He opened the system’s shop. The manual for the Intermediate-grade Earth Level North Nether Divine Technique was sitting right there, with an equally eye-watering price tag: 300,000 Madness Value!

’I’ll buy it!’ Gritting his teeth, Yi Tianyun bought the manual for the Intermediate-grade Earth Level North Nether Divine Technique. He couldn’t afford to waste this rare opportunity with so much Spiritual Power readily available.

In an instant, the Intermediate-grade Earth Level Martial Arts manual appeared in his inventory, and he chose to merge it.

DING!

"Successfully merged North Nether Divine Technique. Gained 5,000 Skill Level points!"

DING!

"Successfully upgraded the North Nether Divine Technique. It is now a High-grade Earth Level Martial Art. Absorption speed increased to six times! The next level requires 1,000,000 Skill Level points."

’Awesome, the upgrade was a success! I wonder how effective it’ll be now?’ Yi Tianyun was thrilled. He had finally managed to upgrade this thing.