Hanyuan's meditation ended exactly twelve hours later. When he opened his eyes, the morning mist was swirling into his chamber.He looked down at the Cold Cloud Spear resting across his knees. The dark blue metal, once pristine, was now marred by jagged nicks along the blade, and fine, hairline cracks webbed the shaft near the grip.
"I was too arrogant," Hanyuan whispered, tracing a crack with his thumb. "I thought 10 star potential would let me steamroll a veteran. But Qi is just the fuel,the soul and the weapon are the engine."
He stood up, his gaze hardening. For the next three days, he only trained. Every ten hours, he plucked and consumed an Azure Sky Apple, using the mental clarity of the Tier 2 fruit to dissect his recent loss. He replayed the woman's faked kick and the precise angle of her rapier until his own body intuitively understood the flow he had been missing. He pushed the Frost Domination Scripture further, focusing on shortening the transition time between the first and second rays of the Blizzard's Hidden Fang.
By the end of the third day, the Azure Sky Apple tree was bare, its branches shivering in the mountain wind. But Hanyuan's forms had shifted. His movements were less like an explosion and more like a predator,efficient, silent, and terrifyingly precise.
He took a break to replenish his Body, flying Lingxiao to the cafeteria. He ordered a bowl of Golden Sun Fried Rice, made with spirit grains harvested from the sun drenched lower valleys. The energy was so dense that a single bowl made him feel as if he had swallowed a small star.
Next, he visited the Inner Sect Shop. He bowed respectfully to the old man with the cane. "Senior, I need a set of Core Refining Pills."
The old man peeked over his spectacles. "Refining the Core is a slow business, lad. Those pills will cost you twenty Mid grade spirit stones."
Hanyuan didn't hesitate. He paid the stones, leaving his pouch significantly lighter, and returned to his estate. He entered his cultivation chamber, lit a stick of ordinary incense, and began the grueling process of feeding his Mortal Core with the concentrated medicinal power of the pills.
One week passed in a flash of internal pressure and Qi circulation. When Hanyuan finally stepped out into the sunlight of his garden, he let out a long, heavy sigh that turned into a plume of frost.
"The Mortal Core realm is truly a bottomless pit," Hanyuan muttered, checking the density of his energy. "Despite the pills and the improved Talent, I've barely moved the needle. At this rate, reaching the 2nd Layer will take at least ten months... maybe even a full year."
The realization was sobering. In the Qi Refining realm, breakthroughs felt like jumping hurdles. Now, it felt like trying to fill an abyss with a teaspoon.
Whoosh!
A sudden gale of wind ruffled Hanyuan's hair. He looked up to see a massive Snowy Owl descending from the clouds. It landed with a soft thump in his garden, and Feng Yue leaped down, her blue hair braided with silver thread. She looked at him, her cerulean eyes scanning the courtyard.
"Hanyuan! The Nerd..I mean, Qin Yu,is still at his family estate, isn't he?" she asked, her tone characteristically blunt.
"He is," Hanyuan replied. "Why? Did you miss his stammering?"
Feng Yue snorted and crossed her arms. "Hardly. If he's not here, then you're the only one left who isn't a total bore. Let's do a mission together. I've been back for two days and the silence of my estate is driving me mad."
Hanyuan pondered for a moment. He looked at his empty fruit tree and his dwindling pouch of spirit stones.
"I suppose I don't have much of a choice," Hanyuan said with a slight nod. "I'm fresh out of spirit stones for resources anyway. A mission might be the only way to pay for my next breakthrough."
"Good," Feng Yue said, a small, triumphant spark in her eyes. "Get your spear. I found a mission in the Frozen Bone Valley that pays exceptionally well".
Hanyuan whistled for Lingxiao. The eagle dove from the roof, landing beside the owl. "Frozen Bone Valley? That's a dangerous territory. You're aiming high, Feng Yue."
"I don't aim for the dirt, Hanyuan," she replied, mounting her owl. "Let's go."
The Silver Winged Eagle and the Snowy Owl sliced through the high altitude winds like jagged streaks of metal and snow. Below them, the lush green floating islands of the Inner Sect began to recede, replaced by a jagged, desolate mountain range that looked like the bared teeth of a titan. The air grew thinner, the sunlight losing its warmth as it struggled to pierce the grey, heavy clouds of the north.
"The mission is a High Rank Mission!" Feng Yue shouted over the whistling wind, her blue hair whipping behind her like a silk banner. "We need to collect five Frozen Bone Marrow Crystals. They only form in the deepest part of the valley! The reward is 50 mid grade spirit stones, split between us!"
"Twenty five stones each for one trip?" Hanyuan replied, leaning forward on Lingxiao's neck. "The danger must be proportional to the payout."
"It is!" she called back, her eyes fixed on the horizon. "The valley is infested with Frozen Bone Spiders. They are Tier 2 beasts, mostly at the 1st Layer of the Mortal Core, but their webbing is infused with a numbing poison that can lock a cultivator's meridians in seconds. If you get tied up, you're dead before they even bite you."
After several hours of flight, the temperature plummeted. Ahead, a massive canyon draped in eternal permafrost appeared, shrouded in a sickly white mist. The walls of the valley were a gruesome gallery, littered with the skeletons of giant beasts,mammoths, drakes, and mountain bears,all encased in thick, translucent ice. Hence the name: Frozen Bone Valley.
They landed at the mouth of the valley, the ground beneath them a sheet of slick, blue ice. Hanyuan patted Lingxiao, signaling for the eagle to stay in the sky and remain alert. Feng Yue did the same with her owl. In this narrow terrain, the beasts would be better used as aerial scouts than combatants.
As they stepped into the valley, the silence was absolute,until it wasn't.
Click... click... click...
A rhythmic, metallic sound echoed from the icy walls above. Hanyuan's senses prickled.
"Get ready," Feng Yue whispered, her hand blurring as she unsheathed her sword. The blue steel hummed with a thirsty, cold energy.
From the deep shadows of a jagged overhang, three spiders emerged. They were horrifying to behold,each the size of a small carriage, their carapaces as white and dull as weathered bone. Their eight legs didn't end in claws, but in jagged, ice covered blades that bit into the frozen stone with every step. Their multiple eyes,twelve in total,glowed with a sickly, malevolent green light.
"Screee!"
The lead spider opened its mandibles, and a glob of glistening, grey silk hissed through the air toward Hanyuan.
"Thunderclap Steps!"
Hanyuan's figure vanished. A faint boom of displaced air and a spark of violet lightning marked his previous position. He reappeared five meters to the left, his Cold Cloud Spear already spinning in his hands.
"They're faster than they look!" Hanyuan warned.
One spider lunged from the wall, its blade legs aiming to skewer him from above. Hanyuan didn't use a basic block. He stepped into the beast's reach, the blue runes on his spear glowing with an intense, dominating light.
"Blizzard's Hidden Fang!"
He swept the spear in a wide, powerful arc. A visible ray of frost Qi shot out, striking the spider's face and freezing three of its green eyes. The beast shrieked, tilting its head to compensate for the blow,but that was the trap.
Hidden perfectly behind the first wave, a second, needle thin ray of frost Qi erupted from the wake of the first strike. It bypassed the spider's defensive legs and punched clean through its soft underbelly.
Squelch!
The hidden ray exploded inside the creature, freezing its organs instantly. The spider crashed to the ground, stone dead, its bone white legs twitching uselessly in the air.
Beside him, Feng Yue was a blur of blue. Her sword danced like a river in winter, parrying the strikes of the other two spiders. "One down! Don't let them surround us, Hanyuan!"