Chapter 200: Chapter 198: Ruined Ancient Temple

’The most dangerous place is also the safest place!’

It was a move no one could have predicted. They would never have believed that after cheating death, Jiang Jichen wouldn’t flee at the first opportunity. Instead, he had hidden right behind them, only revealing himself after they had all departed.

He could have revealed himself when only Yee Youmeng and Luoo Long remained, but now that he wielded the Holy Sword, he was a target for everyone. Staying with them would only place them in grave danger.

Now, he was like a wounded wolf, fit only to walk the path alone.

He stood atop the walls of the Ancient Ruined City, gazing out at the vast and majestic cityscape before him.

There were towering, dilapidated temples and long, wide Ancient Streets; once-glorious palaces now fallen to ruin; immense, boundless plazas; and a vast, bottomless, secret lake... There were mountains, streams, and forests!

The Ancient Ruined City was like a world in miniature; it contained everything. The deeper one ventured, the more varied the landscapes became.

But the long eons had stained everything with a deep, ancient melancholy.

Dragging his weak, grievously wounded, and exhausted body, Jiang Jichen proceeded along the temple’s Ancient Dao.

In the distance, he saw a tall, ancient mountain rising up behind the dilapidated temple.

Giant trees reached for the sky, silver waterfalls cascaded down, ancient pavilions seemed to hang in mid-air, and strange rock formations stood in dense clusters. It looked like a suitable place to hide and recover.

Most importantly, while he was hidden earlier, he’d noticed that no one had gone in the direction of the dilapidated temple.

In his current condition, Jiang Jichen definitely didn’t want to run into anyone else. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

His condition was truly dire. He couldn’t afford to waste any more time; he had to find a quiet place to recuperate immediately.

Suppressing his aura as much as possible, Jiang Jichen moved forward along the Ancient Dao.

From the city wall, the ancient temple hadn’t seemed far. But as he walked, he realized it was still nearly a hundred li away.

In his condition, it still took Jiang Jichen more than a double-hour of walking to finally arrive before the dilapidated ancient temple.

Only upon drawing near did he realize just how enormous the dilapidated ancient temple was.

It was nearly the size of Cyan Moon City in the Celestial Pearl Country. The temple itself was tall and imposing, perched halfway up the mountainside.

Jiang Jichen ascended the temple steps. An unnerving silence hung in the air on both sides, creating a deeply oppressive atmosphere.

The sky had already grown dim. As night fell, the entire Ancient Ruined City was about to be shrouded in darkness.

The Ancient Ruined City was a dead city, a place of Annihilation. It felt gloomy and oppressive even in broad daylight; at night, anyone staying alone in such an Ancient City without a formidable will would likely be driven mad.

Jiang Jichen’s Divine Soul was incredibly powerful, but his Soul Power was a chaotic, impure mess. This was a perilous state to be in. If it continued, he feared his very soul would begin to break down.

Under these circumstances, all Jiang Jichen wanted was to find a place to hide and recuperate as quickly as possible.

He hurried past, sparing only a quick glance for the ancient temple’s main gate. A worn-out plaque hung above it, inscribed with the four ancient words: "Law of Action Temple."

The characters were mottled with age, exuding a mysterious, ancient aura, but Jiang Jichen had no time to examine them closely.

He passed through the dilapidated temple gate and rushed inside.

Inside, he found the temple grounds crowded with a dense forest of Buddha Towers. Only a single, wide Ancient Dao cut through them, leading to a Buddha Hall at the far end.

Buddha Towers were built to enshrine the Relics left by Enlightened Monks upon their passing. Monks capable of producing Relics were all experts at or above the Foundation Establishment Realm. Yet here stood thousands upon thousands of these towers, all of varying heights.

Before the Buddha Hall at the far end stood the tallest of them all—a blood-red Buddha Tower, eleven stories high.

All the others were nine stories or shorter and were of a common, earthen color.

Jiang Jichen paid none of this any mind. He rushed into the forest of Buddha Towers, found a random spot, and immediately sat down cross-legged to begin his recovery.

He had reached his limit. If he pushed himself any further, he feared both his soul and his physical body would be annihilated.

Sitting cross-legged, Jiang Jichen immediately took out the Storage Bags he had snatched earlier.

He had killed three Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the final moments of the battle, and their Storage Bags had fallen into his hands, providing a desperately needed solution to his current predicament.

After all, he had consumed all of his Spiritual Pills and Treasured Medicines during his breakthrough, leaving him with only a single Dao Spirit Flower.

Jiang Jichen was now flat broke. Fortunately, those three Foundation Establishment Cultivators had possessed considerable wealth. Though it couldn’t compare to what Cang Songzi had, they still had quite a few Spirit Pills.

He stuffed all of the Spirit Pills into his mouth, regardless of grade or type, and began refining them with the Undying Scripture and the Source Character Qi Condensing Technique.

A day later, Jiang Jichen’s injuries had finally stabilized.

But he was still a long way from a full recovery, especially when it came to his soul and his depleted Spiritual Power.

And so, Jiang Jichen took out the Yin Soul Flower and the Rootless Spiritual Spring.

The Yin Soul Flower was for cleansing the soul, while the Rootless Spiritual Spring was, of course, for replenishing Spiritual Qi.

He swallowed the four-petaled Yin Soul Flower and half of the Rootless Spiritual Spring at the same time, then began the next stage of refinement.

BOOM!

As the Yin Soul Flower entered his mouth, it transformed into a surging tide of Soul Power that flooded into his soul.

As the Soul Power coursed through him, Jiang Jichen’s soul felt as if it were being devoured by ten thousand ghosts. The agony was indescribable; even with his formidable willpower, he was nearly driven mad.

But in the end, he managed to endure it.

This was a process of complete soul tempering. The purest Yin Power from the Yin Soul Flower scoured Jiang Jichen’s soul, washing away the chaotic impurities left behind from absorbing the Resentful Souls. They dissipated as a wisp of black smoke that rose from the crown of his head.

Besides its heaven-defying abilities—communicating with the Profound Nether, recalling a soul to its vessel, and even reviving the dead—the Yin Soul Flower could also be used to strengthen and refine one’s soul.

Jiang Jichen was now fully utilizing the Yin Soul Flower’s effects. The impurities in his soul, born from devouring Resentful Souls, vanished. They transformed into the purest Soul Power, which he absorbed until it completely fused with his Divine Soul, becoming truly his to command.

At this moment, Jiang Jichen’s Divine Soul Power was likely on par with any Foundation Establishment Cultivator in the world. Its other miraculous aspects were beyond imagination, waiting for him to discover them. After all, his was an unprecedented, mutated soul.

Sometime after midnight on the fifth day, Jiang Jichen finally opened his eyes. His physical body, spiritual cultivation, and Divine Soul had all reached the peak state for his current Realm.

His Divine Soul suddenly registered a sensation—a faint, ethereal sound seemed to be drifting from the Buddha Hall at the end of the Ancient Dao.

Now fully recovered, he was fearless. He rose to his feet and silently flitted toward the Buddha Hall.

Through the open doors of the Buddha Hall, candlelight flickered. In the distance, he could see a woman in white with hair like a cascading waterfall. She was half-kneeling before a statue of the Buddha, gently tapping a wooden fish.