Chapter 23: A Step Ahead
By now, everyone felt the dense spiritual energy coming from the other side of the ruins and couldn’t help but get excited.
The last time such concentrated spiritual power appeared was five hundred years ago when the Xuanyuan Ruins were opened.
At that time, everyone who entered the Xuanyuan Ruins and survived had greatly increased their cultivation, and now all of them had become prominent figures in the Cangqiong Realm.
“Go.”
Ying Tong said to Ying Xuechen, Ying Ming, and the others.
Everyone nodded and flew toward the entrance of the ruins.
However, in a corner that no one was paying attention to, Ying Tong glanced toward an unremarkable spot among the Ying family members.
There stood a member with ordinary looks and cultivation, who had just barely reached the Foundation Establishment stage, utterly average in all aspects.
At the moment Ying Tong looked over, that person happened to raise her head.
Their gazes met for a moment before quickly shifting away.
“This avatar turned out quite well,” Ying Tong communicated with Ye Ying in her mind.
“Of course, this time I put in a lot of effort. Everything was done according to your instructions, and it seems the results aren’t bad.”
“I told you to listen to me from the start, but you just had to mess around on your own.”
…
At the same time, on the other side.
The group passed through a fog-covered passage, and as the mist gradually dissipated, the scene within the ruins appeared before them.
When they saw the surroundings clearly, even the well-traveled Ying Xuechen couldn’t help but be astonished by the sight before him.
Beneath their feet were small puddles.
But these puddles, while seemingly ordinary, were far from it, as they were all formed from liquefied spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy within this ruin had reached an unimaginably dense level.
A member of the Ying family bent down and touched a puddle on the ground with his hand. After a moment, he said, “This is top-grade high-level spiritual liquid. Outside, even a small bottle would be worth at least 10,000 spirit stones.”
However, even with such a price, this kind of high-level spiritual liquid was practically impossible to find on the market.
Yet here, such high-quality spiritual liquid was everywhere.
They had only just entered the ruins and had already encountered something so valuable. If they ventured further, there would surely be even more treasures to find.
With that thought, the group didn’t linger for long and quickly moved onward.
Ying Tong left a trace of her divine sense on Ying Xuechen, Ying Xuan, and Ying Ming, then turned away from the group.
She preferred exploring unknown areas alone, free from concerns about others slowing her down.
After leaving the crowd, Ying Tong stretched her arms and legs. “This feels really awkward.”
Since this clone had only just been crafted, it could only exert Foundation Establishment-level power at best.
It had been a long time since she’d experienced such weakness, and she wasn’t quite used to it.
“I need to quickly improve this body’s cultivation level.”
Unlike her true body, the clone could increase its cultivation directly by absorbing heavenly treasures, and it could even feedback the results to her main self.
For now, the most spiritual energy-rich and readily available resource around her were the small puddles on the ground.
However, these puddles were far too small. If she wanted to rely on them to boost her cultivation, who knew how long it would take?
Ying Tong carefully assessed the concentration of spiritual energy in the air and, using her own experience, chose a direction.
Before long, she arrived at a valley.
The terrain here was flat, and as soon as she arrived, a jade-like lake came into view.
This was no ordinary lake; its water was pure essence, formed by countless cycles of spiritual energy condensation.
Without hesitation, Ying Tong jumped right in.
With a splash, the moment she entered, the lake’s water began to visibly recede at an astonishing rate.
At the same time, the real Ying Tong, along with Fentian and Ye Ying outside, immediately felt a powerful feedback from the clone. They closed their eyes and began to absorb and digest the influx of power.
Since Ying Tong’s cultivation had already reached its peak—leaving only ascension to advance further—she sealed this new surge of energy within herself to avoid wasting it. She would save it for when it was truly needed.
“It looks like this trip really paid off,” she thought to herself.
Although the version of Ying Tong inside the secret realm was just her clone, the real Ying Tong couldn’t immediately synchronize with its memories. Only after the clone returned and merged with the main body would she be able to access those memories.
This cloning technique was one that Ying Tong had discovered deep within the Ying family’s library.
Compared to the typical method of creating a clone in the Cangqiong Realm—where one splits off a fragment of their soul—her method was much safer. The common technique risked the true body being injured if the clone was harmed, and splitting off a part of one’s soul was inherently dangerous.
Ying Tong’s technique, however, posed no threat to the true body if the clone encountered trouble. Moreover, whenever the clone gained any benefits, they would be fed back to the main body—just like now.
Back in the ruins, Ying Tong had already left the valley. The lake, once brimming to the point of overflowing, had completely vanished, leaving behind only a large, round crater.
It would likely take thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years for the lake to return to its former state.
Using spiritual energy, she dried her damp clothes, and her appearance had changed drastically.
Her cultivation had now successfully advanced to the Golden Core stage, and her features had transformed significantly.
Compared to her previously unremarkable appearance, Ying Tong now looked like a completely different person.
Her features were now much closer to those of her true body, though still subtly distinct.
Shortly after Ying Tong left the valley, a young man rushed in, his expression darkening as he saw the now-empty lake.
“It seems we’re too late.”
Had Ying Tong still been there, she would have recognized the young man as Qin Xuan, who was supposed to be imprisoned in the Ying family’s dark prison.
Beside Qin Xuan was a black fox, its eerie presence marked by two tufts of golden fur above its eyes.
The fox leisurely licked its paws and said in a slow, mocking tone, “I told you to hurry. Now look, someone else beat us to it.”
Qin Xuan glared at the dried-up lake, letting out a cold snort. “Didn’t you say there were many opportunities here? This is just the first one. Take me to find others.”
The black fox cast a sidelong glance at Qin Xuan and lazily replied, “Bringing you here drained most of my energy. I can’t do anything else unless you help me hunt ten demonic beasts.”
Hearing this, Qin Xuan frowned. “You still want to eat? You already devoured my black-scaled dragon!”
At the mention of this, Qin Xuan’s heart bled. That dragon had the potential to ascend and transform into a true dragon, but it had been consumed by this fox that had appeared out of nowhere.
