Chapter 1932 - 220: Taking the Crucial Step
And this kind of increase, if you don’t stretch the timeline long enough, is just a drop in the bucket, meaningless in any substantive way for him.
As for stretching the timeline, what he lacks most right now is time.
These days, although all the Immortal Cave Heavens are peaceful, he can faintly feel that the next tribulation awaiting him is about to arrive.
He did not doubt this feeling that arose from Mingming.
Because having walked to this step, all so?called feelings from Mingming have their source.
In an instant, countless stray thoughts flashed through his mind.
Then his gaze slightly tightened, falling on those chests in front.
The Source Points he currently lacks can only be pinned on the resources in these chests.
"Hope they’ll be as I wish!"
He said to himself.
Then he lifted his leg and stepped forward.
He came before an ironwood chest.
The chest was bound layer upon layer with heavy iron chains.
Crack—
His palm fell, and the iron lock shattered at once.
Then, links of the iron lock fell to the ground.
Immediately after, he flipped the chest open with one hand.
Inside the chest, all that was packed were chunks of ore.
They varied in shape, size, and color.
Some were scarlet, some brown, some jet?black.
Next moment.
His mouth opened slightly, then he sucked in hard.
The ore in the chest was instantly seized by an invisible force, rising into the air out of nowhere, then rapidly shrinking.
In an instant they turned into streaks of flowing light and shot into Jiang Ning’s abdomen.
Several breaths later.
The chest was bare; all the ore in it had been swallowed into his belly.
He stood there with eyes slightly closed, gaze deep and steady.
With each inhalation and exhalation, astonishing heat radiated from his body, and his robe kept billowing.
Prince Zhenbei, watching from the side, even though he had already seen this many times, still felt shaken inside.
Open his mouth and directly swallow a whole chest of ore.
He could easily imagine that after a few dozen breaths, Jiang Ning would spit out the waste dregs from his abdomen.
𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
As for the energy in the ore, it would be completely devoured by Jiang Ning.
A few dozen breaths later.
Jiang Ning opened his eyes and spat.
Puff—
A heap of gray?white ore dregs spewed from his mouth, scattered onto the ground, instantly piling up into a small mound.
Those dregs now had no Spiritual or special qualities, like the most ordinary sand and gravel.
The energy contained within had been wholly swallowed by him and refined into Source Points.
He then once more closed his eyes slightly, feeling that surge of energy circulating inside his body, being thoroughly refined and absorbed by his body, made his to use, driving his Source Points to rise.
A short while later.
He slowly opened his eyes and called up the panel.
[Source Points]: 1903.7
"Still short by a bit!" he said to himself, and his gaze fell at once on the remaining ironwood chests.
Without the slightest hesitation.
He raised his hand again, his palm falling.
Crack—
Crack—
The iron locks on the ironwood chests shattered one after another.
With several crisp sounds in succession, the remaining chests were opened one by one.
What they held were either herbs, or Spirit Plants, or ore.
Only one chest made him involuntarily look twice.
That chest was full of scarlet ginseng, Blood Ginseng, which in terms of rarity wasn’t particularly precious.
But the ages were all decent, each over a hundred years old.
A century of accumulated time, even for ordinary Heavenly Materials, can pile up considerable medicinal power.
He then took a deep breath and sucked again.
An invisible force enveloped the chests laid out on the ground.
The ore in the chests rose into the air one after another, then shrank in size, finally turning into streaks of flowing light that sank into his abdomen.
This time, he devoured faster and more efficiently.
Within a few breaths, the second chest was bare.
The third chest was bare.
The fourth chest...
One chest after another was emptied, leaving Prince Zhenbei’s heart long since numb.
He’d already watched this scene many times.
When at last all the chests had been emptied, they were all utterly bare inside.
Jiang Ning stood there with eyes slightly closed, waves of heat surging off his body, his long robe flaring like a banner in the wind, snapping loudly.
About half a cup of tea’s time later.
The ore dregs in his abdomen were spat out again, scattered all over the ground.
Then he closed his eyes once more, fully refining the energy in his belly.
This time, he kept his eyes closed a bit longer.
After a long while.
He opened his eyes again.
His eyes were calm like still water, yet deep within there was a faint thread of anticipation.
Then, the panel surfaced before his eyes.
[Source Points]: 2131.7
"It worked!!"
The instant he saw the panel, his heart settled; the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
Two thousand Source Points had already been gathered, with a slight surplus to spare.
"I’ll head back first!" He turned again to look at Prince Zhenbei.
"Ah?" Prince Zhenbei was stunned.
The next moment.
A rainbow streak shot straight into the heavens.
Before Prince Zhenbei could react, Jiang Ning had already vanished at the end of the sky.
Right now, Jiang Ning’s heart could no longer wait.
Everything was prepared; he no longer wished to waste even the slightest bit of time.
...
A short while later.
Deep within a desolate, uninhabited wilderness.
A lone figure emerged out of thin air.
[Source Points]: 2131.7
[Skill]: Spirit Platform Cave Illumination True Self Method + (Tenfold Break Limit 100%) (trait: True Self Alone (Deep Gold), True Spirit Perception (Light Gold), Three Elements Unification (Light Gold), Precognition (Deep Gold), Spiritual Wisdom (Light Gold), Fish in the River (Light Gold))
At this moment, the familiar plus sign appeared again behind the Spirit Platform Cave Illumination True Self Method Skill.
This already signified that now, everything was truly ready.
What came next needed only a single thought from him.
In this instant, all sorts of stray thoughts sprouted in his heart; his mind refused to calm.
He then took several deep breaths, and only then did the surging emotions within him slowly subside.
Until, at last, his heart grew clear as a mirror, his Spirit Platform empty and ethereal.
He sent his mind surging forth in a sudden jolt.
In that split second.
The Source Points on the panel plummeted rapidly.
[Source Points]: 131.7
In the end, the remaining Source Points were fixed at one hundred and thirty-one.
Right after, he suddenly felt his consciousness climbing, rising higher.
In just an instant, his awareness shed the fetters of the flesh and continued to ascend.
Then, with a single blur, he arrived above the firmament; the land below had become incomparably tiny, the Royal Capital no more than a small square block, its grandeur no longer visible.
Next, his consciousness continued racing upward.
He crossed the Nine Heavens, entered Qingming, then passed through countless layers of sky.
Clatter—
Billowing spray, surging river water.
He beheld the Long River once more.
This time, the upper river was even more real, even more vivid.
He could feel the sensation of the river water scouring past, could feel the golden gravel mixed into the current, borne along by the water’s surge, brushing past him yet never making contact.
He felt his figure still rising, still growing vast.
He was roaming within the river current, swimming within the river water.
The Long River was boundless and vast; its turbid waters heaved without end, while the golden gravel flickered like a sky-full of stars.
He felt his own silhouette in this Long River appear incomparably small, yet exceptionally conspicuous.
For as he kept ascending, kept swimming on, he never once saw any existence besides himself.
He shuttled through the Long River, forever in motion.
Yet at the same time, it gave him another kind of feeling.
It wasn’t him who was moving, but the river that was moving.
With the rise of this thought, an idea formed in his heart.
Once the idea arose, action followed.
With action, his figure truly moved.
As he moved.
In that instant.
He felt himself touch that layer of invisible membrane.
That membrane separated him from truly contacting the waters of the Long River.
As that invisible film was brushed by him, he finally touched upon the true sensation.
The golden gravel, like fine sand carried within a flood, crashed fiercely against his body.
In a flash, he felt an indescribable impact, an indescribable pain.
This pain reached straight into the depths of his soul, far beyond anything that mere fleshly wounds could compare to.
In that single moment, he felt it would be better to die on the spot.
The next instant.
His thought plummeted, falling from the boundless heights.
With just a brief daze, his consciousness returned to his body.
Hoo—
He snapped his eyes wide open, his gaze regaining focus, lingering with aftershock.
He slowly raised his hand.
He could feel that his body was intact, that his palm was intact.
Yet the pain from just now still lingered faintly at his fingertips.
The contact just now had begun with his hand.
That rending agony had also first surged from his fingers.
"So that is the power of the Long River’s scouring?" he murmured inwardly, his eyes shimmering with the hues of contemplation.