27: breakthrough

Ji Mo gently loosened his arms wrapped around Nangong Xue'er, but took the opportunity to let her soft body sit securely in his embrace.

His eyes were filled with tenderness and determination as he slowly said:

"Xue'er, our relationship must be kept strictly confidential for now; we absolutely cannot let outsiders perceive even the slightest hint of it.

You must also instruct Brother Shan and the others to be extremely careful when helping me gather information, and they must never leak any details about us."

"Xue'er, you are the existence I cherish most, just like my weakness.

Song Dong is just an insignificant minor character; it would be effortless for me to eliminate him.

Once I kill Song Dong, it is highly likely to draw out the more powerful Song Jianyi behind him. Given his current strength, if he were to launch a retaliation, I fear you would be unable to withstand it.

Therefore, Xue'er, once I have dealt with all these enemies, we will be able to be together openly."

Upon hearing this, a trace of worry flashed in Nangong Xue'er's eyes, and she instinctively wanted to speak.

"Xue'er, listen to me first."

Ji Mo gently held her hand, his tone firm and tender,

"I know your heart well and understand your worries for me.

But you must trust your husband; with my current strength, even when facing an Innate expert, I have the ability to fight against them.

You just need to focus on helping me with the support work, and I will definitely resolve the rest of the matters quickly and properly."

Nangong Xue'er gazed affectionately at Ji Mo, her eyes filled with trust and love, and finally nodded slowly, saying softly:

"Alright then, husband, you must be careful in everything."

Ji Mo nodded with a smile, and Nangong Xue'er continued:

"I will go find Brother Shan and the others to communicate the situation, and take the opportunity to remind them to be extra careful."

After reluctantly parting with Nangong Xue'er, Ji Mo returned to his residence.

The moment he stepped into his home, he suddenly felt a sense of loss, realizing that there seemed to be nothing left to do at this moment.

After pondering for a moment, Ji Mo suddenly slapped his forehead, realizing that he had completely overlooked the Hegemonic Heaven Refining Art.

Thinking about it carefully, it had indeed been a long time since he had fully devoted himself to deeply cultivating this Cultivation Technique.

Currently, the Hegemonic Heaven Refining Art had only entered the first layer. Given the current situation, he really should accelerate his cultivation progress during this relatively free time; after all, this was his most important asset for standing firm in this world.

Action is better than thought; Ji Mo knew well that the core element for the Hegemonic Heaven Refining Art to advance was Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

And the most direct and effective way to obtain a large amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was to utilize Spiritual Plants rich in Spiritual Qi.

Thinking of this, he immediately checked his own supplies. After some thought, Ji Mo decided to go around the city to see if he could purchase some of the needed Spiritual Plants.

Ji Mo stepped out of his home and walked towards the most prosperous street in the city. Before long, he arrived at the city's largest trading house—Ten Thousand Treasures Tower.

Stepping into Ten Thousand Treasures Tower, the shop was bustling with activity, people coming and going, and all kinds of rare treasures were on display.

Ji Mo walked straight to a clerk and concisely explained his needs.

After waiting a moment, a plump man walked down quickly from the second floor.

He was all smiles and respectfully said:

"Greetings, esteemed guest. I am the manager of Ten Thousand Treasures Tower, my surname is Wan. I do not know what requirements you have, please feel free to speak."

Ji Mo looked at this Manager Wan in front of him and said:

"I intend to purchase a batch of Spiritual Plants that contain a large amount of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. Take a look and see how much these supplies of mine can be exchanged for."

Having said that, he handed over two Storage Rings, which contained some weapons, Yao Beast furs, and a significant amount of silver notes.

Manager Wan took the two Storage Rings and could not help but be secretly shocked.

He used his Divine Sense to probe them without revealing his emotions, discovering that the quantity of these supplies was truly significant. A rough estimate suggested it could be a transaction value of several hundred thousand.

He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead without leaving a trace, and with a face full of smiles, said: "Young Master, please this way."

Having said that, he led Ji Mo into an elegantly decorated private room.

"Young Master, your transaction volume this time is quite large. I need to find someone to carefully estimate the price, and at the same time, I need to check our stock of Spiritual Plants.

As far as I know, your only requirement is that the more Spiritual Qi the Spiritual Plants contain, the better. As for the value of the Spiritual Plants themselves, you do not consider it, right?"

Manager Wan confirmed cautiously.

"Yes, it does not matter what these Spiritual Plants actually are, nor do I care what their effects are. Even if they are highly poisonous plants, it does not matter, as long as the Spiritual Qi they contain is sufficiently abundant."

Ji Mo said in a firm tone.

"Alright, Young Master, please rest for a moment, I will go make arrangements immediately."

Manager Wan acknowledged and hurried away.

About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Manager Wan returned with a Storage Ring.

He respectfully handed the ring to Ji Mo and said:

"Young Master, according to your requirements, this contains all the Heaven and Earth Spiritual items you can exchange for.

Please check it, Young Master, to see if you are satisfied."

Ji Mo took the ring and probed his Divine Thought into the ring's space to check.

Goodness, he saw that the inside was densely packed with Spiritual Plants, roughly estimated to be several hundred, among which there were even some poisonous Spiritual Plants.

It seemed that Ten Thousand Treasures Tower had bundled all those Spiritual Plants with simple effects, those that had been ignored for a long time, and those with strange and peculiar colors, and given them all to Ji Mo.

Ji Mo frowned slightly, his gaze lingering on Manager Wan with deep meaning.

Seeing Ji Mo staring at him, Manager Wan's expression was slightly awkward, and he said with a bit of caution:

"Young Master, these Spiritual Plants should all meet your requirements!

To be honest, these Spiritual Plants are indeed a bit useless in terms of application and have been backlogged in our Ten Thousand Treasures Tower for a long time.

However, they do completely meet your requirements for Spiritual Qi content.

And in terms of price, we calculated it at ninety percent of the standard Spiritual Plant price. I wonder if you are satisfied with this, Young Master?"

"Manager Wan, I am very satisfied. Happy cooperation.

I hope you can continue to prepare such Spiritual Plants, including similar stock from your Ten Thousand Treasures Tower in other cities; they can all be shipped here.

I expect that before long, I will come again to conduct transactions with your tower."

Ji Mo smiled and looked at Manager Wan with satisfaction.

Hearing this, Manager Wan was overjoyed and quickly said:

"Alright, Young Master, rest assured, we will definitely not let you down.

I will go contact the various branch towers immediately to reserve a batch for you as soon as possible."

One must know that Ten Thousand Treasures Tower has always been open to all business, and its business network spans several major Empires.

Some Spiritual Plants have limited uses and extremely low utilization rates, so they have accumulated quite a lot in the branch towers of every city.

Ji Mo's move was undoubtedly helping him improve his performance, so he was naturally eager to do it.

Ji Mo was also feeling happy; he really did not expect such a rich harvest in just a few short days.

If he had to rely on himself to search for these Spiritual Plants, he probably would not have been able to gather them in a year or half a year.

After returning to his residence, Ji Mo did not intend to use this to improve his own cultivation.

After all, with his current Physical Body cultivation, when he unleashed the God Slaying Art, his strength had already reached the Innate level, even enough to injure those ordinary Cultivators who had just entered the Innate Realm.

Even if he improved his cultivation at this time, it would at most reach the Acquired Great Perfection or Half-step Innate Realm, and for him, the effect of such an improvement was negligible.

At the moment, the most critical thing for Ji Mo was still cultivating the Hegemonic Heaven Refining Art.

He was full of anticipation, wanting to see what kind of surprises this magical Cultivation Technique would bring him in the future.

Ji Mo made up his mind and immediately immersed himself wholeheartedly in the operation of the Cultivation Technique.

In an instant, the heaven and earth creation bell that was originally floating around his body exploded without warning, turning into fragments of a furnace, flickering with light, dreamlike and illusory.

Immediately afterwards, 108 small golden stars appeared out of thin air, just like little children who had been hungry for a long time, with eagerness and longing in their eyes, crazily pouncing towards the hundreds of Spiritual Plants, beginning to greedily swallow and absorb them.

In this process of absorption, which seemed disorderly but contained hidden patterns, a certain mysterious moment quietly arrived.

The 108 furnace fragments seemed to be summoned by some mysterious force, all beating violently like hearts, the rhythm of the beating getting faster and faster, as if playing a mysterious musical movement.

Immediately afterwards, these fragments collided with each other at an astonishing speed, the light produced by the collision dazzling and eye-catching, making it almost impossible to look directly at it.

Just as the light reached its peak, the fragments instantly split apart again.

However, after this split, the number of furnace fragments was no longer the initial 108, but about 200.

These furnace fragments revolved around Ji Mo's body, moving at high speed in a wondrous and mysterious trajectory, and with a thought, golden light poured into his body.

Ji Mo took the opportunity to step into the Acquired Ninth Layer Realm, and the aura around his body suddenly became more powerful.

However, Ji Mo could not help but feel a little disappointed.

This Breakthrough did not bring a qualitative leap, but thinking about it carefully, such a magical Cultivation Technique, if it could break through to the second layer so easily, would seem too simple.

After a brief moment of disappointment, Ji Mo quickly pulled himself together, and instead, he felt full of motivation, even more determined to continue studying and cultivating the Hegemonic Heaven Refining Art.

Having successfully broken through to the Acquired Ninth Layer, Ji Mo pondered the direction of his next cultivation.

Now that his Physical Body was already extremely tyrannical, this was undoubtedly his biggest trump card.

However, if he only had powerful attack power but could not catch enemies because his speed was insufficient, that would be truly annoying.

Therefore, improving his speed became an extremely urgent matter at the moment. And the "Lightness Skill" he was cultivating naturally became the key to improving his speed.

"The Lightness Skill must be cultivated to the Mahayana Realm!"

Ji Mo set a goal for himself in his heart.

Thinking of this, he immediately calmed his mind and focused all his attention on comprehending the Secret Manual of the Lightness Skill.

Time passed quietly in his concentration. I do not know how long it had been, when Ji Mo slowly opened his eyes, stood up, and walked outside with steady steps.

At this moment, the small courtyard instantly became his training ground.

Seeing Ji Mo's figure flicker, in an instant, the courtyard was filled with his phantoms, his speed so fast that it had reached a level almost indistinguishable to the naked eye.

Every movement was like a gust of wind passing by, leaving only blurry afterimages. However, even so, Ji Mo was still not satisfied.

After cultivating for a while, he sat cross-legged again to continue deeply comprehending the essence of the Cultivation Technique. After grasping new key points, he would get up again to continue practicing his movement technique. This cycle repeated, tireless.

Unconsciously, the sky gradually darkened.

Ji Mo stopped his movements, frowned slightly, and could not help but feel a little distressed. After this period of cultivation, he could clearly feel that his movement technique speed had indeed improved to a certain extent.

But it was still far from the Mahayana Realm he expected.

Just burying his head in hard training like this did not seem to be a good strategy.

After thinking for a moment, Ji Mo decided to give himself a break tonight, go taste some delicious food, and properly reward himself for his hard cultivation.

At the same time, he would relax his tense nerves; perhaps changing his train of thought would have unexpected help for his cultivation of the "Lightness Skill".