43: Chapter 43 You Can Get Stronger Even While Lying Down

The two massive bear paws were eventually split and completely eaten by the two of them.

Lin Bingyao felt the surging warm current within her body, and every part of her limbs exuded an unprecedented comfort.

That pure Spiritual Qi, like a gentle spring rain, nourished the Meridians that she had previously damaged by forcibly stimulating a secret technique.

In merely the time it takes to eat a meal, her injuries had unexpectedly healed by seventy to eighty percent.

With this recovery speed, even using the most precious Nine-Turn Spring-Returning Pill in the Sect could not achieve such instantaneous results.

She looked at the young man who was poking the campfire with a tree branch, letting the flames slowly die out, and the shock in her heart had already become somewhat numb.

"Many thanks to Fellow Daoist Zhao for the… roast meat."

Lin Bingyao gathered her thoughts, finding the word "hospitality" a bit strange to use, yet unable to find a more suitable one.

"Your injuries are what matter most."

Zhao Ruoan replied casually, completely burying the campfire.

"We will rest here tonight and set off early tomorrow morning."

Lin Bingyao nodded; this was indeed a prudent course of action.

She retrieved the soft cushion she had previously used for meditation, sat cross-legged, and prepared to circulate her Cultivation Technique to completely refine the remaining medicinal power in the bear paw meat, while simultaneously adjusting her condition to the Peak.

Circulating her Cultivation Technique, her mind sank into her Qi Sea.

Yet for some reason, she always had a trace of distracting thoughts that she couldn't brush away.

She quietly opened her eyes a crack and looked in Zhao Ruoan's direction.

Then, she saw a scene that shattered her worldview on Cultivation once again.

That young man with Heaven-Defying combat prowess, divine culinary skills, and shrouded in mystery, after dealing with the campfire, actually just found a flat piece of stone, patted the dust off it, and lay right down on it.

With his hands pillowed behind his head and one leg crossed over the other, he assumed a posture ready for sleep.

Sleep?

A huge question mark popped up over Lin Bingyao's head.

For a Cultivator, especially young Cultivators like them who were in their ascending period, how precious time was.

Meditation and breathing exercises not only restored Spiritual Qi but also furthered one's Cultivation, making it a daily mandatory course.

Even when resting, it should be done in a state of trance.

To directly lie down and sleep, wasn't that something only a Mortal would do?

"Fellow Daoist Zhao…"

In the end, she couldn't hold back and asked,

"Are you not going to Cultivate?"

Zhao Ruoan closed his eyes, his voice carrying a hint of laziness.

"I am Cultivating."

Lin Bingyao: "…"

She felt her intelligence was being insulted.

You call resting your hands behind your head and crossing your legs Cultivating?

What kind of unique secret technique is this, the Lie-Flat Ascension Technique?

"Fellow Daoist really knows how to joke."

Lin Bingyao's tone was somewhat dry.

"My situation is rather special."

Zhao Ruoan shifted into a more comfortable position and explained slowly,

"My Cultivation Technique is relatively Advanced, so it automatically circulates even when I lie down, and the efficiency is quite high."

Lin Bingyao was completely speechless.

Looking at Zhao Ruoan's casual appearance, a deep sense of powerlessness welled up in her heart.

Making up lies so freshly and refined, and so righteously.

What else could she say?

Forget it, monsters cannot be measured by conventional logic.

Perhaps he truly had some unknown hardships, for instance… cultivating too fast and needing to lie down to suppress his cultivation level?

Lin Bingyao shook her head, cast these outrageous thoughts out of her mind, closed her eyes, and forced herself into the state of Cultivation.

Inside the cave, tranquility was restored once more.

Only one person sat cross-legged with Spiritual Qi circulating around her body, while the other lay sprawling with steady and long breaths.

...

Meanwhile,

in a city named Tianyao City on the outer periphery of the Tianyao Mountain Range,

deep underground in an inconspicuous courtyard in the southern part of the city lay a heavily guarded stone chamber.

The stone chamber was dimly lit with a cold air.

That black-robed person who had escaped using the Blood Escape Talisman was currently covered in blood, kneeling miserably on the ground, his body trembling uncontrollably out of fear.

Before him, a tall figure sat upright on a stone chair, entirely shrouded in shadows, with only a pair of flickering eerie eyes visible.

"So, the mission has failed."

The person in the shadows spoke, their voice hoarse.

"Black Three, Black Four, Black Five, all of them perished?"

"Y-Yes, Elder!"

The black-robed person did not dare to raise his head, his voice trembling.

"This subordinate is incompetent, please punish me, Elder!"

The temperature inside the stone chamber seemed to drop by a few more degrees.

"Four Spirit Sea Realm Cultivators went to intercept and kill a severely injured Lin Bingyao. In the end, three died and one ran back."

The figure addressed as Elder revealed a hint of playfulness in his tone, but more so, a heart-palpitating murderous intent.

"You had better give me a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind using your Soul to light an eternal lamp."

The black-robed person shuddered in fright and hurriedly recounted everything that had happened beforehand from beginning to end.

"Reporting to Elder, we had already succeeded, but a brat suddenly burst in halfway!"

"That brat… that brat is not right!"

"He was only at the Perfection of the Spirit Gathering Realm, yet he…"

The black-robed person seemed to recall that terrifying scene, his voice changing pitch.

"He instantly killed Black Four with a single sword strike! When Black Five confronted him head-on, he was also counter-killed in a single move! His swordsmanship is too bizarre, and his Physical Body is so strong it doesn't look human!"

The stone chamber fell into a brief silence.

A moment later, the Elder in the shadows let out a low chuckle.

"Hehe…"

"Perfection of the Spirit Gathering Realm, instantly killing an Early Stage Spirit Sea Realm Cultivator in one move?"

"Are you telling me a fairy tale?"

A terrifying coercion pressed down on the black-robed person like a mountain, causing him to instantly spit out a mouthful of blood.

"This subordinate wouldn't dare! Every word is true, and if there is half a sentence of falsehood, I am willing to suffer strikes from the heavens and thunder, and have my Divine Soul destroyed!"

The black-robed person kowtowed frantically, his forehead colliding with the hard stone slab, making dull thudding sounds.

The Elder did not speak again; the atmosphere in the stone chamber became depressed to the extreme.

Naturally, he didn't believe any ghost talk of being struck by heavenly lightning.

But he could sense that his subordinate was currently in extreme fear; this trembling originating from the depths of his Soul did not seem fake.

Someone capable of frightening a battle-hardened Spirit Sea Realm assassin into this state—

that so-called Spirit Gathering Realm brat probably really had some weird trick up his sleeve.

"When did such a character pop up in this barren land of the Eastern Region?"

For the first time, there was a sense of gravity in the Elder's voice.

"Have you found out the other party's identity?"

"N- No…"

the black-robed person said tremblingly.

"That brat and Lin Bingyao also seemed to be meeting for the first time; I only heard Lin Bingyao address him as 'Fellow Daoist Zhao', a newly entered Disciple of the Qingxuan Sect."

"Qingxuan Sect… a newly entered Disciple?"

The Elder chewed on these words, that pair of eyes in the gloom flickering uncertainly.

A newly entered Disciple possessing such combat prowess?

Did the Qingxuan Sect hide some secret weapon, or was this brat himself a once-in-ten-thousand-years Prodigy?

"This matter is no trivial issue."

The Elder's fingers tapped gently on the armrest of the stone chair, making rhythmic tapping sounds.

"Our Youluo Palace has been dormant for many years. Before our grand plan is accomplished, any possible variable that might appear must be nipped in the bud."

He stopped tapping and looked coldly at the black-robed person on the ground.

"You, having failed this mission, should rightfully be executed."

"However, considering that you brought back this important intelligence, I will give you a chance to redeem your merits."

The black-robed person abruptly raised his head, a desire for survival bursting forth in his eyes.

"Please give your orders, Elder!"

"I will give you one month."

The Elder's voice was unquestionable.

"Mobilize all your strength and investigate everything about this brat surnamed Zhao for me. His origins, his master, his trump cards… I want to know everything about him."

"If you cannot find out…"

The Elder paused, his voice turning even more sinister.

"You can just find a place yourself and bury yourself."

"Yes! This subordinate obeys! Thank you, Elder, for sparing my life!"

As if granted amnesty, the black-robed person scrambled out of the stone chamber.