The Romantic Cultivator

As Yuan Ji and his group descended deeper down the desolate mists, they soon spotted another fifth rank profound beast which was the same kind as the one that Ji Hao, Jin Yuyun and Li Ye had fought earlier.

Ji Hao, Jin Yuyun and Li Ye were actually all staggering by now and they were all looking at Yuan Ji, half-expecting that he would order them to fight it again.

"Leave this to me." Yuan Ji quietly said.

With a flash, he had brandished his divine sword with his left hand and with a downward cut, the ground around the desolate beast exploded thunderous and the desolate beast was instantly crashed to death by the sheer profound power that was displayed by his sword stroke!

Li Ye, Ji Hao and Jin Yuyun were all looking at one another with a sheepish look; they had taken almost an hour to kill a similar desolate beast and it was with all their best profound arts. But Yuan Ji had simply used an ordinary attack and the desolate beast was killed in the next instant.

Yuan Ji simply said, "Let's go."

Soon they saw three terrifying sixth rank profound desolate beasts which scared the shits out of Ji Hao, Jin Yuyun and Li Ye.

But Yuan Ji, Ling Feiyue and Xue Qianxue calmly approached the three sixth rank profound desolate beasts and after a quick battle, they had killed these desolate beasts effortlessly without even taking any injuries.

Finally a seventh rank profound desolate beast that was the same kind as the one that had killed Saintess Yuxian was seen. It was a Titan Draconic Beast!

Yuan Ji said to his group. "Let me take care of it."

He immediately moved ahead of them.

Ji Hao and Jin Yuyun could still remember their horrifying experiences from this Titan Draconic Beast. They had remembered that Yuan Ji had killed it with three hundred berserking strokes while he had taken ten horrifying injuries from it.

But this time Yuan Ji was on the defensive rather than on the offensive. In fact, he had taken nearly an hour to kill it but he was completely unscathed.

Ji Hao and Jin Yuyun had remembered that at that time Yuan Ji had taken only a short while to kill it. But this time he had taken a longer time and he was using the terrain to his advantage to slowly drained the profound strength of the Titan Draconic Beast.

Ji Hao muttered, "At that time father was anxious for mother and that was why he was in the offensive. Now father is showing me how to fight a superior desolate monster by using the terrain…"

Jin Yuyun was also muttering, "Although we had many superior profound arts but we were using the wrong tactics to kill the fifth rank profound desolate beast earlier and hence result in our current heavy injuries…"

Xue Qianxue and Ling Feiyue were watching the battle nervously. After all this was a seventh rank profound desolate beast. There were quite a few times that they almost could not resist the urge to join Yuan Ji in battle…

Ling Feiyue muttered, "He didn't use his right hand yet so it is still fine."

"The regeneration rate of this monster is really too insane and this desolate beast is much fiercer than the one that we had encountered previously." Xue Qianxue returned a nervous sigh.

When Yuan Ji had finished off the profound desolate monster, he merely said to them. "Follow me."

Soon they had reached a valley in the mountains and they had spotted dozens of yellow spirit plants that were giving off a strange white glow. Around these spirit plants were dozens of different types of desolate beasts ranging from fourth rank to the seventh rank!

Except for Yuan Ji, everyone was stunned by the number of desolate beasts that were presented and it was impossible to even reach the spirit plants or to kill all the desolate beasts.

Xue Qianxue was gasping softly, "I know this spirit plant. This spirit plant is the Million Suns Sage. It will take roughly a thousand year for these spirit plants to appear and the biggest spirit plant over there seems to be a million year old."

A million years old!

When everyone heard Xue Qianxue, they were astonished.

Only Yuan Ji was nonchalant as he said coolly, "Wait here. I will destroy it."

Everyone was startled and shocked that Yuan Ji was going to destroy something so precious.

Ling Feiyue smiled weakly, "The Million Suns Sage is a precious cultivation resource that is useful for treating injuries and making rejuvenation pills. A million year old Million Suns Sage may even be used to make divine pills…"

But before she had finished, Yuan Ji had already walked away as he said to them. "Help me to take care of Xiaobai."

Bai Qianfeng was looking at Yuan Ji with soft pleading eyes. Are you sure you want to go alone? This goddess can accompany you...

Everyone was quite startled that Yuan Ji's aura had completely faded and even their divine sense could no longer even sense his heartbeat. Even though he was right in front of them, he was like an invisible person as he moved steadily away from them.

Xue Qianxue muttered with a shock, "His lightless profound art is really this good?"

"Well, he did assassinate the leader of the Black Hand Guild in the past." Ling Feiyue muttered.

Ji Hao, Jin Yuyun and Li Ye were all startled. It was because they had heard of the reputation of the Black Hand Guild and knew that it was an assassin guild.

Xue Qianxue was perplexed. "Why did he want to destroy these spirit plants?"

Ling Feiyue pondered for a while before she said, "I know. He is making sure that the Five Heavens Peaks will have some peace when he is not around…"

Xue Qianxue gasped as she used her fingers to cover her mouth. "Yuan Ji, he…" She had a sudden realization as well.

In the Celestial Realm, spirit plants are not like the ordinary floras and are invisible to the eyes of the cultivators. It is literally in spirit form most of the time and is completely invisible even to the divine sense of the most accomplished cultivators.

There are hundreds of thousands of different spirit plants in the Celestial Realm and when it is growing, it is completely invisible. The most common spirit plants will appear every year while others will take years, decades, hundreds of years and even thousands of years to appear when it is flowering its spiritual seeds. When they do appear, these spirit plants will have a short window before fading away.

But when these spirit plants do appear, especially the ones that have a cycle of hundreds or more years, it will always attract plenty of high level desolate beasts.

Take for example, something that is as rare as the Million Suns Sage. When it has spawned, it will spread its invisible spiritual animus for hundreds of miles to nourish the many desolate beasts that are within its distorted spiritual animus field. Because of the ragged terrains of the mountains, the effects of the spiritual animus field can be weaker or stronger, creating an entire ecosystem for the desolate beasts in the vast space of the mountains.

During this period, many of the desolate beasts will be hunting spirit beasts that are below and above the desolate mists to nourish the Million Suns Sage in return. Of course, the best spiritual nourishment to feed the spirit plants is the soul core of the cultivators.

When a desolate beast kills a cultivator, the soul core of the cultivators which contain their spiritual sea will be absorbed into the desolate core of the desolate beast, to be stored until the desolate beast can return to the spirit plant to nourish it.

That was the main reason why the epic desolate beast was attacking the Five Heavens Peaks when Yuan Ji had arrived. It was trying to nourish the spirit plants below the desolate mists.

Yuan Ji naturally knows what is happening. The appearance of an epic desolate monster had indicated a rare type of spirit plant had spawned below the desolate mists and it was causing the desolate beasts to ravage the Five Heavens Peaks.

The cultivators in the Celestial Realm often gather spirit plants for their own cultivation uses. Although the spirit plants cannot defend itself but it has formed a symbolic relationship with the desolate beasts to harvest the cultivators.

As long as the Million Suns Sage is not destroyed or faded away on its own, the Five Heavens Peaks will still be in danger.

Yuan Ji was startled to see that several of the desolate beasts are transforming into higher rank desolate monster right before his very eyes. He had never seen anything like this before. This million year old spirit plant was like a powerful divine pill to the desolate beasts...

He thought, "This should be the spirit plant that is causing all the weird disturbances."

Before long, he had sneaked to the epicenter of the valley.

Everyone was stunned that Yuan Ji stealth was so good that even the desolate beasts were all not aware that he was moving in the tall grass.

Ling Feiyue muttered, "Sister Qianxue, now I truly believe that he is practicing his stealth around the bathrooms." She had said a light joke to lessen the anxiety in the air.

Xue Qianxue nodded with a startled look but she was also anxious for Yuan Ji.

All of a sudden Yuan Ji had plucked the biggest Million Suns Sage and used his sword to destroy the rest with a thunderous outburst of profound sword energies.

Immediately pandemonium reigned among the dozens of desolate beasts and all the desolate beasts seemed to have grown mad as they began to chase after Yuan Ji.

Once Yuan Ji had performed an attack, he was not able to suppress his heartbeat or profound signature anymore.

But Yuan Ji was simply too quick as he ran between the rocks where the desolate beasts had difficulty following him.

Soon he was back to his group as he shouted to everyone, "Make a break to the top! These desolate beasts will be in a rampage for quite some time!"

Everyone was startled as they ran with him.

Ling Feiyue could not resist asking him, "It seem like you did this thing quite often?"

Yuan Ji smiled weakly, "Yea. I did this often with my old master."

"Oh." Ling Feiyue was quite surprised to hear that his old master was doing this with him.

Yuan Ji had a melancholy look before he said quietly, "My old master perished in one of the expeditions below. At that time, a powerful desolate beast had attacked the surface. Although that monster isn't too hard for my master but to the other cultivators in the Five Heavens Peak, it is a big threat. So he had to go to the desolate mists below but he never returned."

Ling Feiyue and Xue Qianxue had finally understood why Fairy Ye Chengxi had such a look of disapproval on her and she had even turned ashen.

It was because what Yuan Ji was doing was extremely dangerous. In fact, there were at least a dozen times that Yuan Ji would be killed as he sneaked into the epicenter of the valley. He was just lucky that the desolate monsters looked a little lazy today and most were undergoing their bodily transformation to take notice of him.

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When Yuan Ji and his group had returned to the Emperor Hall Sect, Fairy Ye Cheng and Shangguan immediately crowded around him to check him for any signs of injuries.

Jin Yuyun, Ji Hao and Li Ye were all smiling weakly. It was pretty obvious that they were the heavily injured and not Yuan Ji...

Yuan Ji chuckled jovially to them, "With two great saintesses to protect me, how would things go wrong?"

Ling Feiyue, Xue Qianxue: We didn't do a single thing…

Ji Hao, Jin Yuyun and Li Ye were completely white when they had returned to the Emperor Hall Sect. Along the way, they were chased by numerous desolate beasts. Also Yuan Ji had taken them quite deep into the desolate mists where it was difficult for them to recover their profound strength as the desolate aura was too dense and the spiritual aura was too sparse to cultivate.

Yuan Ji gently smiled at Fairy Ye Chengxi and Shangguan Yan, "So have you taken the Blood Grapes Divine Pills yet?"

The two maidens nodded quietly.

"Well, it is from Feiyue to her new sisters. Haha." Yuan Ji chuckled.

Ling Feiyue smiled weakly, "I still got some. Actually I don't really need more."

Xue Qianxue quickly added with a cheerful smile, "I have more too and I don't need it. I can give it all to Sister Chengxi and Sister Yan."

Yuan Ji held the four of them together and he also had Bai Qianfeng in his arm too as he said gently to the five of them. "Now that everything has been settled now, I can finally focus on my duel."