Chapter 169: Merging the Grimoires-Heavenly Tome of Mastery(Wen drifted past the peak.)

After practicing the Clear Wind Spell, Hu Li became much nimbler in his movements.

By the time Zeng Yun and the others recovered from their astonishment and shock, rushing out past the barrier, they saw only a boundless sea of clouds. There was no trace of him left!

Immortals Zeng Yun gnashed her teeth in furious embarrassment. "Bah! What kind of nonsense is this!" she spat. "Give a damned beast an inch and it really thinks it rules the world!"

Immortal Mu Qing rolled his eyes repeatedly in rage—having been thoroughly humiliated by Immortal Shishi just moments before, only to be given the cold shoulder by a mere beast in the blink of an eye!

Ah, ah, ah! How could anyone endure such indignity!

"Zeng Yun, you'd better find someone else for such 'good deeds' in the future. I cannot stomach this anymore. Farewell!" Immortal Wang Xin sneered coldly, leaping onto the first welcoming orb of light. In the Spirit Realm, beasts had always been the lowest and most humble of existences. When Zeng Yun had first approached him for help, he had been a million times reluctant. However, Zeng Yun had claimed that the matter was entrusted by the Shi family of the East Spirit Continent. It was always good to stand under a tall tree for shade. If he could use this opportunity to curry favor with the Shi family... he had agreed. Yet, judging by everything that had transpired, the so-called commission by the Shi family was purely Zeng Yun's wild fabrication. Hmph! Not only had he labored for nothing, but he had also suffered continuous humiliation. And all of this was thanks to that foul woman Zeng Yun! Someday, he would repay this insult a hundredfold!

Immortal Mu Qing stomped his foot heavily, flicked his sleeves, leaped onto another welcoming orb of light, and swept away in a huff.

Zeng Yun's face turned red, then pale, then red again. With a look of extreme awkwardness, she turned to Immortal Jinshi. "Senior Sister Jin..." It had clearly been a well-laid plan; she had never intended it to turn out like this.

"I have matters to attend to. I must take my leave first." Immortal Jinshi hastily cupped her fists to cut off her words, whirled around, and walked away.

"What?" Zeng Yun gasped in astonishment, grabbing the sleeve of her robe and asking stammeringly, "The... the matter concerning the Shi family..."

"Zeng Yun!" Immortal Jinshi finally snapped, her anger boiling over. Pulling her sleeve away without a trace of courtesy, she barked harshly, "If you hadn't invited us here to assist, how could we have suffered unprovoked humiliation today? How could we have inexplicably incurred the wrath of Immortal Shishi? Hmph! Thanks to you, I now have to rush back to the East Spirit Continent immediately and prepare heavy gifts to make my apologies to the Shi family!" With that, she angrily leaped onto a welcoming orb of light. "To the East Spirit Continent!"

"No, it wasn't supposed to be like this!" Zeng Yun shrieked in desperation at the edge of the vast sea of clouds. That person surnamed Jin had clearly been a part of today's plan from the start! If not for this wretch, how would she have even known about the mysterious heavenly stone? In the beginning, she genuinely wanted to befriend that pill-devouring beast! To her, sucking up to the Hu family or the Shi family was entirely the same—what difference did it make?

Leaving aside Zeng Yun's various worries, regrets, and entanglements, Hu Li gave the welcoming orb of light double the usual amount of spirit stones and rushed back to the South Spirit Continent at top speed. As soon as he stepped onto the ferry pier, he teleported straight back to his immortal cave.

After taking the extra precaution of adding another layer of restriction outside the cave, he anxiously asked, "How are you doing, Master?" Before this, he had always assumed that once she crossed the heavenly tribulation, his master would no longer be an undocumented stowaway. Now, it seemed he had once again oversimplified things.

Time inside the spatial sphere flowed ten times faster than outside. By this time, a good half-day had already passed within the sphere. Both the primordial spirit giant cocoon and the jade plaque lesser cocoon had shed a layer, appearing a size smaller. The peeled-off purple thin layer resembled cicada slough, neither dissolving nor melting. One floated within the sea of dantian, while the other drifted softly to the ground.

Aside from this, Feng Ke'er felt no discomfort whatsoever.

It seemed she had been making a fuss over nothing. Feng Ke'er chuckled and said, "I'm fine. The purple cocoon shed a layer of skin. I'm doing great."

Hu Li let out a sigh of relief, though he still cautioned, "This thing is extremely mystical. Master, you'd better not lower your guard."

"Understood," Feng Ke'er replied. "Protect me while I enter seclusion for a while."

That was the only option left. Hu Li nodded in agreement and immediately hung a white wooden plaque marked "In Seclusion" outside the cave entrance—this was a regulation of the South Spirit Alliance. When a cultivator entered seclusion, they were required to hang a white wooden plaque at the entrance of their cave. Seeing this plaque, if any other cultivator dared to come and disturb them, their actions would be no different from armed robbery. At the same time, once this plaque was hung, rent did not need to be paid month by month; it could be settled in full at the External Affairs Hall within five days after exiting seclusion.

The next day, Zeng Yun, having sorted out her thoughts, came looking for Hu Li. Upon seeing the white wooden plaque, her heart instantly turned ice-cold. Bound by the alliance's regulations, she had no choice but to stamp her feet and leave.

Inside the spatial sphere, both the large and small purple cocoons shed a layer each day. On the ninth day, they were finally reduced to a single layer of nearly transparent film.

Yet, strangely enough, despite it being completely transparent, Feng Ke'er could not see a thing through it.

Another "rip" sound echoed as one end of the thin cocoon split open. In an instant, five-colored brilliant light burst forth.

So bright! Feng Ke'er instinctively closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, the thin cocoon in her dantian had split into several pieces, blossoming like a purple lotus. Her primordial spirit, surrounded entirely by magnificent natal spiritual light, sat cross-legged with curved eyebrows and a smiling expression.

She reached out a slender, delicate hand, scooped up a piece of the previously shed "cicada slough" from her dantian, popped it into her mouth, and chewed with a crisp *crunch, crunch* sound, just like eating potato chips. As soon as she finished one piece, she immediately scooped up another, nodding repeatedly as she ate. "Delicious, truly delicious."

The primordial spirit and the true body shared a linked heart and pulse; thus, wisps of refreshing fragrance bloomed between Feng Ke'er's lips and teeth. However, compared to this fleeting enjoyment on her tongue, she cared far more about the thousand hands that had been sliced off by the tribulation lightning.

"Where are the rest of the arms and hands?"

"They're all healed," her primordial spirit answered with a smug smile. Stretching out a thousand hands, she scooped up the remaining "cicada slough" in the dantian in the blink of an eye. "They're about to melt. It would be a terrible waste to let them go to waste."

Feng Ke'er blinked. Sure enough, as the previously shed thin cocoons touched her natal spiritual light, they reacted just like snow meeting the sun, instantly generating purple water vapor on their surfaces. Fortunately, her primordial spirit possessed a thousand hands, and they were lightning-fast—not a single fragment was "wasted"!

Acting like a starving ghost who hadn't eaten for centuries (well, to be fair, this creature really was eating for the very first time), this glutton didn't even spare the "lotus platform" beneath her bottom, devouring it clean just before it melted away. Then, licking her lips with lingering satisfaction, she murmured, "Pick up all the ones outside too. Don't waste a single piece."

Waste your head! A torrent of profanity surged through someone's mind, yet her hands mechanically began picking them up all the same.

Just as she lowered her head, she was nearly blinded by the dazzling five-colored light radiating from her neck—the sandstone shell on the outside of the Phoenix Jade Plaque was gone. At this moment, her Phoenix Jade Plaque looked precisely like a set of powered-up, ultra-high-wattage LED colored lights!

"This... Ah—" Just as she stood there dumbfounded, a beam of cyan light suddenly shot out from the Phoenix Jade Plaque, fast as lightning, and plunged straight into the center of her brow.

Immediately following that, the glutton in the dantian let out a gasp of "Ah!", and both her thousand hands and her main body simultaneously clutched their foreheads.

"What is going on?" Feng Ke'er rubbed her brow doubtfully. Aside from a fleeting hint of warmth at first, the skin between her brows was as smooth and flat as ever.

Her primordial spirit also seemed completely fine, showing no abnormalities whatsoever.

She lowered her gaze to look at her neck once more. The Phoenix Jade Plaque was gone. The earthy-colored cord had been replaced by a vibrant red string, from which hung a white jade plaque about half the size of a palm—how terribly familiar it looked!

Feng Ke'er pulled down the jade plaque to inspect it closely, and her little heart instantly began to thump wildly: this was no longer her Phoenix Jade Plaque, but rather a standard identity jade plaque of the Spirit Realm!

Incredulous, she channeled her spiritual energy into it. Just like when Hu Li had first channeled spiritual energy into his own identity plaque, the token in her hand gradually began to glow.

Inside her mind, the words appeared: "Feng Ke'er, cultivator of the South Spirit Continent, Ascension Realm Tier 1 cultivation base, 0 merit points."

Without a doubt, this was an identity jade plaque! *Wahaha*, she had finally washed away her status as an undocumented stowaway! When the jade plaque was halfway lit, Feng Ke'er stopped, gripped the token with a beaming smile, and lifted her leg to step out of the spatial sphere.

Right at that moment, the primordial spirit relaxed her thousand hands that had been clutching her brow.

A blinding five-colored light burst forth from the center of her brow.

A familiar voice rang in her ears: "Ding—Compendium fusion complete!"

Almost simultaneously, with a sharp *crack*, the barrier of the Ascension Realm Tier 1 shattered into dust under the blinding light.

Purple Qi surged forth like a towering sea wave, flooding the entire dantian in the blink of an eye.

Feng Ke'er's vision went black, and the identity jade plaque slipped from her hand with a *clatter*, dropping to the ground.

Inside the immortal cave, a deafening *boom* resounded.

Hu Li was blown backward by a sudden, violent surge of air pressure within the cave, his back slamming viciously against the stone wall. He dropped to the floor, coughed up a mouthful of blood, rolled his eyes upward, and passed out cold.

Meanwhile, inside the spatial sphere, Feng Ke'er remained in a daze, as if caught in a dream. In her dream, the sound of "ding" echoed endlessly.

"Upgrading..."

...

Following every single "ding" announcing an upgrade came a wave of violent tremors. More and more spiritual energy surged within her dantian. She felt as though she had transformed into a balloon that was being continuously inflated.

The scene felt terribly familiar. It reminded her of that ten-consecutive-level breakthrough in the Barrier Sea.

*Primordial spirit, it's dangerous! Run! The five-colored auspicious light bursting forth during the upgrade will kill you.* Feng Ke'er wanted to scream, but no sound came out. She couldn't even open her eyes.

Finally, she plunged completely into an endless, heavy darkness...

Little did she know that the moment the first wave of five-colored auspicious light from the upgrade burst forth, her primordial spirit had opened her mouth and exhaled cyan bubbles, one after another. The small cyan bubbles gathered together, enveloping the surface of the primordial spirit until she finally appeared as though she were wearing a suit of bubble armor. Even more magically, this bubble armor possessed the ability to absorb the five-colored auspicious light. Whenever the auspicious light rebounded off the spatial walls and struck the bubble armor, it sank in like a mud ox entering the sea, leaving no trace.

In addition to the five-colored auspicious light, the bubble armor could also absorb spiritual energy. As everyone knew, during a cultivation upgrade, the barrier would shatter, causing an eruption of spiritual energy within the dantian. This spiritual energy was immensely tyrannical; if not refined in time, it would undoubtedly destroy the dantian and the meridians of all sizes. Yet, when the bubble armor absorbed this spiritual energy, it acted precisely like a sponge soaking up water. The only difference was that while a sponge grew heavier as it absorbed water, the bubble armor actually shrank in volume the more spiritual energy it absorbed.

In the end, it condensed into a single drop of cyan liquid, which dripped straight into the brow of the primordial spirit and vanished with a *whoosh*.

Feng Ke'er slowly opened her eyes and let out a soft groan—her head felt heavy, as if filled to the brim with lead, and simultaneously as though countless golden, glittering things were jostling and pushing each other inside, making it exceptionally lively.