Chapter 504: Recovering Internal Injuries, Eliminating Hidden Dangers
The First Spirit Bone was the true core of Wei Tu’s fourth-grade body refining.
As long as the Spirit Bone remained, even if all his flesh was gone and only a bare skeleton was left, he could still survive and regenerate the rest of his law body.
It wasn’t quite rebirth from a drop of blood, but for restoring lost blood and vitality like now, it was more than enough.
Before long, Wei Tu formed a hand seal, and his withered, bark-like skin rapidly plumped up under the nourishing power of the First Spirit Bone.
If someone had been nearby listening closely, they would have heard thunderous roars like tigers and leopards from inside his body, along with the steady gurgle of blood rushing through his veins.
Bones that roared like thunder and blood thick as mercury—this was a sign of Wei Tu’s extremely high body refining stage.
In less than 3 days, with his vitality fully restored, his appearance shifted from that of an old man back to a young man.
"Using the essence of the First Spirit Bone to restore my blood has cured the aftereffects of over-extracting it with the Blood Vitality Seal during my breakthrough, and healed my internal injuries…
"But losing a third of the bone’s essence is no small blow to my current strength."
Wei Tu glanced at his First Spirit Bone, now missing a full third of its essence, and felt a sharp pang of regret.
The Spirit Bone’s essence wasn’t permanently gone after use, but its recovery speed was unbearably slow.
By his estimate, to fully restore it under normal circumstances would take at least 10 years of cultivation.
Of course, that time could be shortened using spirit crystals from the overseas cultivation world.
But now that he had successfully broken through to mid Nascent Soul, he was flat broke, without a single extra coin to speed the process.
Truly, even a hero can be stumped without money.
"Ten years isn’t that long.
"And with this, I can shorten it even more."
With a flick of his sleeve, three pale yellow crystals, each the size of an apricot pit and wrapped in milky-white spiritual mist, appeared on the table before him.
These were none other than the Holy Spring Crystals promised to him by Divine Master Du Long and Divine Master He Di when persuading him to join the Ying Ding Tribe.
Over 50 years ago, when he had told Divine Master Du Long about Ji Zhang, Du Long had handed him these crystals as part of his “stipend.”
Holy Spring Crystals were condensed from the waters of the Falling Sun Spring, the sacred spring of the Kangju Tribe, and their spiritual energy was far denser than even the finest spirit stones.
A century ago, when Wei Tu had just advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, he had coveted them endlessly.
But decades later, after seeing the wealth and abundance of the overseas cultivation world, they no longer seemed so impressive.
From his own testing, while stronger than top-grade spirit stones, they were still much weaker than true spirit crystals.
They were like defective versions of spirit crystals.
Still, right now, better something than nothing.
…
Time flew by.
Another 3 years passed.
This was the final year of Wei Tu’s planned 50-year timeline to reach mid Nascent Soul.
"Three years of cultivation, and I’ve finally restored my body refining to its peak."
His eyes shone as he looked inward at the First Spirit Bone, now radiating bright spiritual light, and a smile crept onto his face.
With this strength, even though he had only just entered mid Nascent Soul, he could firmly stand his ground in this stage and not fear some of the old veterans of mid Nascent Soul.
If he added the Nine Secrets of Vitality to his current strength, his combat power would be enough to rank among the top tier.
"Now, it’s time to deal with the hidden threat."
Wei Tu rose, flicked his sleeve, and opened the sealed cultivation chamber. His gaze fell on the distant Right Virtuous King’s residence.
40 years was neither long nor short, but it was more than enough for Yuan Jie to carefully consider whether to "turn from darkness to light."
Now, Yuan Jie had given him no response at all. That alone proved he had already sided with the Liu Yu Daoist and was harboring thoughts of betraying the Ying Ding Tribe.
Of course, it was also possible Yuan Jie simply disliked him and didn’t want to give him any warning, without truly intending to betray the tribe.
But to Wei Tu, such a Yuan Jie was no different from an enemy.
Even if he had to fabricate charges, he would spare no cost to completely remove Yuan Jie as a potential danger.
…
The Left and Right Virtuous Kings held lofty positions, ranking just below the four Divine Masters. They were not people who could be killed lightly.
As a Divine Master, Wei Tu held a higher position than Yuan Jie and certainly had the power to kill him, but according to the Ying Ding Tribe’s rules, he had no authority over Yuan Jie’s life and death.
What’s more, unlike other Divine Masters, he was the only "foreign Divine Master" in the Ying Ding Tribe. Striking against Yuan Jie without cause would be far too taboo.
So after leaving seclusion, Wei Tu did not go directly to the Right Virtuous King’s residence. Instead, he went straight to Divine Master Du Long’s cave dwelling to discuss the matter with the tribe’s most senior Divine Master.
"Fellow Daoist Wei, are you saying… Yuan Jie has betrayed the tribe and sided with the Liu Yu Daoist?"
Hearing Wei Tu’s purpose, Divine Master Du Long was stunned for a long time, disbelief written all over his face.
After all, for centuries, Yuan Jie’s love for the tribe and determination to reform it had been plain to all the Divine Masters.
If not for that, they would never have decided to push through the Golden Tent election, replacing the old Right Virtuous King with a Nascent Soul cultivator as the new tribal leader.
Now, with Wei Tu suddenly saying Yuan Jie had betrayed the tribe… even with all his shrewdness, Du Long could not immediately adjust to such a huge change.
If these words had come from anyone else, someone not on his own level, he might have flown into a rage and struck down this "troublemaker" on the spot.
"Whether it’s true or not, Fellow Daoist Du Long has his own ways to verify. I have no need to say more."
Wei Tu shook his head.
Before meeting Du Long, he had been about 80% sure Yuan Jie had betrayed the Ying Ding Tribe—leaving a 20% chance Yuan Jie had told Du Long and the others, but not him.
But now, seeing Du Long’s reaction, his certainty rose to 100%.
After all, Du Long had been the main force pushing for Yuan Jie to succeed to the Right Virtuous King’s seat over 200 years ago.
If even Du Long didn’t know Yuan Jie had secretly met with Yu Wenliang Gu, then it was obvious the other Divine Masters wouldn’t know either.
At Wei Tu’s words, Du Long slowly nodded, now believing more than half of what he’d heard.
Once he set aside his bias toward Yuan Jie, it wasn’t hard to see that Wei Tu had no personal gain to make from harming him.
And if Yuan Jie were truly still loyal, Wei Tu would never cripple his own arm at such a time by choosing to "kill kin for the sake of justice."
"This matter is far too serious to decide rashly. Have Donglai return to the tribe, and the four of us… will discuss and vote on it together." Du Long’s expression turned thoughtful, and after a long pause, he spoke slowly.
"Also, the fact that Divine Master Jin Xia and the Liu Yu Daoist are working together is no small matter. We’ll need the strength of all four of us combined."
Du Long added.