The Attack of the Wastrel

“Although this amount of spirit stones are unable to make you become a Martial Artist as strong as Seventh Brother, it can allow you to get a sense of spiritual energy and awake the Spiritual Roots in your body. Even if you cannot use spiritual energy in your battles, you can use it to assess Storage Rings.”

Before Lu Yuan finished, the troop members eagerly snatched the spirit stones from his hand, leaving it bare and empty.

Rong Yuan had not given Lu Yuan a lot of spirit stones and he had used much of them in his own cultivation. These were all the spirit stones he had left but he was not reluctant to share them with his troop members. Instead, Lu Yuan was frustrated at himself for consuming so many spirit stones in the past few days for his own cultivation and he was afraid that there were not enough left for the rest of the troop members.

However Lu Yuan’s worry was dispelled quickly because Rong Yuan quickly took out more spirit stones and Spiritual Medicine for the troop members. After Rong Yuan found out that Lu Yuan shared his spirit stones with the troop members, he generously gave Lu Yuan another Storage Ring. Lu Yuan allowed his mental energy to enter the Storage Ring, and he stumbled backward at the sheer amount of resources in them. Tons of spirit stones and Spiritual Medicine filled the Storage Ring and this number of spirit stones was enough to buy over the Forgotten City.

“This is too much, I can not accept it.” Lu Yuan returned the Storage Ring to Rong Yuan.

Rong Yuan smiled and pushed it back into Lu Yuan’s hands, “This is not for you only. The resources there are for everyone to use. In the future when I am no longer in the headquarters, you should be in charge of distributing the spirit stones and Spiritual Medicine to those who need them. Do not be afraid that these will run out, I have plenty of them.”

Rong Yuan was fully confident as he said this, the spiritual energy in the Inheritance Space was so thick, it could turn even normal stones there into spirit stones. Although they would only be lower grade spirit stones, it would be enough for the people here.

However, Lu Yuan did not know this and he refused to accept the Storage Ring as he would then be indebted to Rong Yuan. In the end, Rong Yuan had to force him to keep it after threatening to use it to buy useless things in the market again. With the Storage Ring on his finger, Lu Yuan started to become fearful. If others knew how much items he had in the Storage Ring, they would go mad and try to steal it from him.

A few days of time passed by quickly. In these few days, the elders of the Langya Troop hid in their rooms and practiced cultivation. Since all this happened behind closed doors, they did not attract any attention.

That morning, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan were just about to head out when they received news from the Expedition Meeting.

This startled the two as they had not expected that the day they were supposed to meet with Wei Lingshu would come so soon. After a hurried goodbye to Lu Yuan, the two rushed to the Expedition Meeting.

At the entrance of the Expedition Meeting were the two men from Spirit City dressed in clothes made from skin of demon beasts. Nodding towards their hosts, they sat on the Dragon Horse carriage and prepared to head off.

As the Dragon Horse carriage moved out of the city gates of Forgotten City, the two realised that there were others headed out on the same mission. Two other Dragon Horse carriages came from the outskirts of Forgotten City and Wei Lingshu had to talk with the other passengers in the Dragon Horse Carriages before he returned and continued on the journey. Turning his head back towards the two, he smiled, “This journey will take some time. The men in the two other Dragon Horse carriages are also from Spirit City. I will introduce you to them later.”

Rong Yuan casually nodded his head as he clasped Gu Lingzhi’s palm tightly. Seeing that Rong Yuan had no intention to talk with him, Wei Lingshu retrieved a spirit stone from his Storage Ring and closed his eyes to concentrate on cultivation.

Yao Teng, the other man from Spirit City similarly closed his eyes to cultivate. Although the pathetic amount of spiritual energy from the spirit stones was insufficient for them to become high-ranked Martial Artists, they could increase their physical strength and allow their body to achieve a more stable state. That was also the reason why Spirit City could maintain its strength with two Glaze Class Warriors.

Spirit stones and Spiritual Medicine were useless for Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan due to their high cultivation ranks. Since they could not enter the Inheritance Space with outsiders around, they passed their time taking in the scenery and flirting with each other.

However, their interaction irritated the two men from Spirit City. The laughter and casual talk between the couple annoyed the two. When lunch time finally arrived and the Dragon Horse Carriage came to a stop, the two jumped off the carriage as fast as they could. Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan finally saw the other men who were on the journey with them.

There were a total of seven people in the other two Dragon Horse carriages. In addition to them, there were eleven people in total. While they could not see the cultivation ranks of a few of the men, they could tell from their spiritual aura around the group that five of them were Martial Practitioners. Wei Lingshu and three others were Martial Teachers while the last girl that looked to be a teenager was a Level Six Martial Student. The girl seemed to be about twenty years old and it was remarkable for her to achieve such a cultivation rank despite being so young.

Once the two hopped down from the carriage, Lin Rong curiously stepped forward. Smiling sweetly to reveal the two dimples in her cheek, she asked, “Are you Martial Artists from the outside world?”

Gu Lingzhi smiled and acknowledged, slightly interested in the young lady in front of her.

“Wow, so you two are really from the outside world?” Lin Rong exclaimed in awe. Her eyes lit up and she asked, “Is the outside world fun? My father told me that the outside world is filled with spiritual energy and it is very easy to become a Demigod there unlike here. There are so little people here who can become Martial Artists. We can only rely on the physical body to raise our strength. Is that true?”

“You are talking about the Tianyuan Continent in the past.” Gu Lingzhi smiled and explained to the girl. “Ever since the War of the Gods happened and the deities left the continent, the spiritual energy in the continent has thinned significantly. In the past few hundred thousand years, there has not been anyone who entered the Realm of the Gods. There are also only a few dozen Demigods in the continent.”

“What happened?” Lin Rong frowned, “If becoming a Demigod is so difficult, my sister would not have…”

“Young miss, lunch is ready. Come over and eat it.” Wei Lingshu interrupted Lin Rong’s question. One of the Martial Teachers, Lin Meng, stepped forward and stood between Gu Lingzhi and Lin Rong. Smiling apologetically to Gu Lingzhi, she led Lin Rong away.

Gu Lingzhi shrugged and pressed her back against Rong Yuan’s hug. She whispered, “It seems like Guan Yue was right. Someone has really left the Lost Lands in the past hundred years.”

“Mm,” Rong Yuan agreed and stared into her eyes, “Perhaps Lin Rong can be a lead, we’ll see if she can give us any hints. Even if it is not successful, there is no harm in establishing a good relationship with her.”

“I think so too.” Gu Lingzhi agreed.

They had stopped outside a town for their lunch and everywhere around them was wilderness. A large table that was big enough to sit ten people was placed on the grass patch. Cold vegetables and steamed buns were placed on the table, ready to be served.

Seeing that there were two empty seats beside Wei Lingshu, the two walked over casually and sat down. Not waiting for anyone, they picked up their utensils and helped themselves to the food. Everyone was stunned. It was the first time they met someone who fearlessly ate the food, not worried about whether the food was poisoned. Were they not afraid that the group would rob them after poisoning them?

If Gu Lingzhi knew what the rest were thinking, she would have laughed. The strongest person among them was an Amethyst Class Warrior and it was hard to say who would win in a fight.

After the meal, Wei Lingshu decided to take the chance to cultivate. He changed seats with a Martial Practitioner and continued the journey in another carriage.

This Martial Practitioner was a bubbly man who was similar to Lu Heng, he could not stop talking through the entire journey. At the beginning, Gu Lingzhi and Rong Yuan entertained and talked to him, trying to sieve out any information from him. However, they gave up one day later.

Zuo Fang, the young Martial Practitioner, was careful with what he said. Aside from learning that Lin Rong was the most powerful lady in the Spirit City, he did not reveal anything else. On the other hand, he was more curious about them and the outside world and he asked many questions about the war between the Alliance and the Empire. Rong Yuan shut him out after a day and ignored him. Finally, the Dragon Horse carriage turned peaceful.

Yao Teng heaved a sigh of relief. He could finally cultivate in peace as well.

The three Dragon Horse carriages sped off and one month later, the group finally arrived at their destination, the Heavenly Lands.

The Heavenly Lands was a weak boundary between the Endless Sea Realm and the Lost Lands. Thick black smoke filled the Heavenly Lands and dark blue lightning would occasionally flash across the sky. As the bellows of smoke rolled through the sky, an ominous feel like that of dead souls being ripped apart crept up people’s spines.

“Is this the place where we can gather spiritual energy?” Rong Yuan frowned as he questioned.

“Nope.” Wei Lingshu shook his head as Rong Yuan sighed in relief. With an awkward smile, he admitted, “The place to gather spiritual energy is in the middle of the Heavenly Lands.”

Instantly, Rong Yuan wanted to pack his bags and leave.