61: seclusion

"What is your name?"

Ji Mo gently looked at the woman named Hong'er.

"Young Master, you can just call this servant Hong'er!"

Hong'er slightly curtsied and replied softly.

Ji Mo looked down at his blood-stained, wretched appearance and said:

"Hong'er, please go prepare bath water for me first. I need to wash up.

You don't need to wait on me. Once it's ready, just let me know. I'll go look around the back for a bit."

After speaking, Ji Mo turned and walked past the front hall, heading straight into the palace complex behind.

He searched around and finally found a secret passage in a palace resembling a training room.

Following this secret path, he saw that the cave was inlaid with various gems, and the colorful lights intertwined, making the entire cavern appear dazzling and dreamlike.

After walking about a hundred meters, Ji Mo felt that he had already penetrated deep inside the mountain.

Just then, the scene before him suddenly opened up.

Ahead, a space about the size of a basketball court appeared. The Spiritual Qi inside the cave was so dense it seemed about to solidify into spirit liquid.

Huge clouds of Spiritual Qi floated gently in the air, ethereal and dreamlike.

In the center of the space was an array platform constructed from Spirit Stones. Right in the middle of the platform, a small piece of "Earth Mother Stone" was conspicuously placed.

Ji Mo recalled his conversation with Elder Mu and knew that this "Earth Mother Stone" was the key component of the Secret Realm.

A Low Grade Earth Mother Stone can continuously gather Spiritual Qi for 50 years, producing an endless stream of pure Spiritual Qi.

For a Cultivator, this type of Spiritual Qi is easier to absorb, and produces fewer Impurities when refining and advancing, making it nearly pure Spiritual Qi.

Ji Mo carefully observed the Mother Stone before him, judging by experience that it likely only had a few years of lifespan remaining.

It seemed Seven Blades Yin was able to advance to the Perfection of Condensing Gang Realm, likely by utilizing the power of this Mother Stone. It must be said, his luck was truly good.

Now, this Mother Stone benefited Ji Mo instead.

Looking at its condition, this Earth Mother Stone would be depleted in a few more years.

However, Ji Mo was not in a hurry to absorb and refine it. He turned and walked toward the main hall.

At this moment, Hong'er had already settled the arrangements. Seeing Ji Mo, she quickly said:

"Young Master, please come this way. Everything has been prepared for you."

Ji Mo followed Hong'er to a side hall. These women all possessed some level of cultivation base, and they were very efficient, having replaced all the items with brand new ones.

Ji Mo was quite satisfied with this and said:

"Hong'er, you all may leave. I can handle the rest myself."

"Young Master, please allow this servant to stay and wait upon you!" Hong'er said softly.

Ji Mo smiled, shook his head, and said:

"There's no need. Go gather all the people who were kidnapped and brought to the island.

I plan to go into isolation for about 20 days. You all can stay and live here for now.

During this time, look for ships and transfer the necessary supplies onto them. Once I finish my isolation, we will depart immediately."

Hong'er's eyes were filled with gratitude. She bowed deeply to Ji Mo and said:

"Thank you, Young Master. Hong'er will go handle this immediately."

In fact, Ji Mo was not a rigid, upright gentleman, nor did he feel there was anything inappropriate about the identities of these women.

He simply thought it was inappropriate to take advantage of someone in such a situation, and he truly couldn't accept sleeping with them and then just walking away.

He wasn't refusing to establish a harem, he just didn't want to become that kind of excessively promiscuous stud.

Afterward, Ji Mo comfortably took a bath, changed into a brand new set of clothes, and once again stepped into that space filled with Spiritual Qi.

Next was the task of absorbing and digesting the Opportunity he had gained this time.

Ji Mo took out all the Storage Rings and then systematically began classifying the materials inside.

The first thing that caught his eye was Spirit Stones. A rough estimate put the number at over a thousand pieces.

Unfortunately, all these Spirit Stones were low-level Spirit Stones. Although their value wasn't high, they were better than nothing, so he casually set them aside.

Next were various Medicinal Pills, including even various poison pills. He placed these together with the Spirit Stones, intending to refine them all into pure spiritual energy later.

Next, a pile of Innate weapons and quite a few Martial Arts Secret Manuals appeared before Ji Mo.

He quickly flipped through them and found nothing he urgently needed, so he tossed them all into a Storage Ring, planning to find an Opportunity to sell them for resources later.

However, several Profound Rank Sword Techniques and one Earth Rank Sword Technique caught Ji Mo's attention. He planned to study them deeply, hoping to raise his Sword Intent through them.

Checking inside the heaven and earth furnace space, Ji Mo was pleasantly surprised to find that after refining several hundred people and dozens of Innate Martial Artists, a pool of spirit liquid had already formed inside the space.

This spirit liquid was the product of extremely condensed Spiritual Qi, containing incredibly rich energy.

Seeing this, Ji Mo immediately sat cross-legged and activated the 1008 heaven and earth furnaces to begin operating, refining this large mass of spirit liquid with an almost manic intensity.

This refining process lasted for a full eight days.

During this time, the 1008 heaven and earth furnaces devoured the energy within the spirit liquid like gluttonous Tāotiè.

Finally, upon absorbing up to a certain critical point, the heaven and earth furnaces began to violently expand and contract.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of sounds, like heartbeats, rang out. The heaven and earth furnaces, expanded to their limit, began to undergo Fusion at the critical point, finally condensing into a massive sun radiating scorching light.

However, this was not the end. Immediately afterward, the massive sun burst apart, transforming into 1800 heaven and earth furnaces.

At the same time, Ji Mo's cultivation base naturally advanced into the Peak of the Early Stage Innate True Gang Realm.

It is worth mentioning that this Spiritual Qi was primarily supplied to the Hegemonic Heaven Refining Art; the increase in cultivation base was merely a secondary benefit.

Having completed this step, Ji Mo turned his attention to the floating Spiritual Qi clouds, the Earth Mother Stone, and the small pile of Spirit Stones and Medicinal Pills beside him.

Immediately, all the heaven and earth furnaces underwent Fusion again, devouring the surrounding Spiritual Qi like a deep black hole.

Time flew by, and another 12 days passed in a flash.

By now, the Spirit Stones and Earth Mother Stone beside him had all turned to dust, and the Spiritual Qi clouds in the sky had been completely consumed.

The number of heaven and earth furnaces increased again to 2300, and Ji Mo's cultivation base subsequently grew to the Late Stage Innate True Gang Realm.

This time, Ji Mo intentionally allocated a portion of the Spiritual Qi to raising his cultivation base. After all, in preparation for the upcoming Imperial City Martial Arts Gathering, he didn't want to fall into the predicament of lacking Protective Aura in every battle.

Currently, there were 10 days left until the scheduled departure time.

Ji Mo planned to set aside 2 days to send the afflicted women back to the mainland, and the remaining 8 days he planned to use for studying those Sword Technique Secret Manuals.

He took out the Secret Manuals. Among them, the Earth-Rank Sword Technique, Great River Sword Technique, particularly caught Ji Mo's eye. This Sword Technique indeed had its unique merits, making it worth his dedicated study.

As for the other Sword Techniques, in Ji Mo's view, although their rank was not high, they could still serve as nourishment for improving his Sword Intent.

Ji Mo focused his mind and began to concentrate on reading the Great River Sword Technique.

This Sword Technique was renowned for its vastness, magnificence, and surging Aura.

Its inspiration clearly came from the ceaselessly flowing rivers, skillfully integrating the rivers' characteristic momentum, all-encompassing nature, and magnificent power into the Sword Technique, allowing one to feel the rivers' surging strength through the sword moves.

After finishing the Great River Sword Technique, Ji Mo began studying the Profound Rank Sword Techniques.

Although the ranks of these Sword Techniques were relatively low, upon careful examination, they still possessed some merits.