...
Time flowed like water. In the deep mountains, the vegetation withered and bloomed, turning green again and again. In the blink of an eye, five years had passed.
On the gravel plaza at the edge of the ruins, a green afterimage suddenly came to a halt.
Su Yueli shook both hands, and the Shadow Fist Blades on her palms let out a crisp, low hum as their dark light receded.
Letting out a long breath, Su Yueli felt the dense blood qi surging like a river within her body, her heart settling slightly.
The Sixth Realm.
After five years of bitter cultivation, she had finally crossed the threshold of the Fifth Realm and broken into the ranks of the Sixth Realm.
Not only that, but she had also completely mastered the fourth form of the nameless fist technique left behind by her master.
Su Yueli looked up at the sky obscured by the formation and murmured softly, “Master, I have completely mastered the four forms of the fist technique you created. My steps along this world's martial path have not been slow.”
Calming her surging blood qi, Su Yueli walked to the edge of the beacon tower. She gazed at the silhouette of the towering bronze gate in the distance, then patted the key hanging at her waist.
Five years had passed, and the Pang family outside had likely set up an inescapable dragnet along every major path long ago.
A Sixth Realm martial artist was indeed a powerhouse in the outer city, but before the factions of the Imperial City, they were still far from enough.
With her current combat strength and her mastery of the fourth form of her fist technique, she might have a slight chance of winning in a direct clash against a peak Seventh Realm martial Grandmaster. But what if the Pang family sent several Seventh Realm experts at once?
Not to mention, the Pang family patriarch, Pang Jinbiao, was a terrifying existence at the peak of the Eighth Realm, and standing behind him were the high-and-mighty cultivators.
If she left her seclusion now, she would have almost no way to survive.
After all, having beaten several of their direct descendants to death or crippling them in succession, she did not believe the Pang family would let the matter slide.
If they truly let it go, the Pang family's prestige would rapidly decline. Let alone outsiders, even the Pang family's own people would probably lose tolerance for Pang Jinbiao.
At this thought, Su Yueli clenched her fists tightly, her eyes turning exceptionally cold.
Strength. She had to become even stronger...
Until she reached a realm where she could completely overthrow the Pang family, she would absolutely not end her seclusion.
Drawing back her gaze, Su Yueli turned her head and looked toward the inner perimeter in the deeper parts of the ruins, an area she had never set foot in.
She had already explored the outer perimeter thoroughly. There was no danger, but there were also no opportunities. Staying here was merely practicing in a different environment, with the only benefit being that no one would disturb her.
But if she wanted to continue breaking through quickly, she had to go to the inner perimeter to try her luck.
A moment later, Su Yueli packed her things, slipped on her Shadow Fist Blades, and stepped toward the inner perimeter.
The deeper she went, the more grand the architectural ruins around her became.
Su Yueli could sense that the worldly energy in the air was beginning to grow denser.
This energy was highly unusual. Even though she was merely a martial artist without any immortal Bone Talent, she could still feel her pores opening slightly, and the circulation of her blood qi even accelerated by a fraction.
Passing through a scorched, dense forest, a massive ruin built against the mountainside appeared ahead.
Judging by the massive white jade pillars and the continuous outline of palaces, it was clearly the site of the ancient kingdom's palace.
Su Yueli slowed her pace, stepping over the gravel as she walked inside, intending to see if there were any missed treasures left behind.
The grand hall had collapsed over a large area, with a vast number of skeletons and broken weapons scattered across the ground.
Su Yueli stepped forward and kicked away a piece of rubble. She discovered that most of the weapons on the ground were only of the Profound-grade or Yellow-grade. Moreover, due to the passage of time, they had lost all their spiritual energy and had mostly turned into scrap metal.
Aside from weapons, there were also many ordinary jewels and jade pieces mixed among the dirt and bones. They were scattered in dense clusters, completely left untouched.
It seemed that when the Great Li Dynasty's army plundered this place a thousand years ago, they simply looked down on these low-grade and ordinary items, tossing them aside at will.
Su Yueli searched carefully through the pile of rubble.
Suddenly, beside the finger bones of a collapsed golden skeleton, she spotted a delicate silk bag about the size of a palm, its color somewhat faded.
The surface of the bag was embroidered with ancient cloud patterns, looking somewhat out of place in the dirt and sand.
Su Yueli picked up the bag, patted off the dirt, and examined it closely. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
A storage bag!
This was actually an extremely rare storage bag.
In this world of immortal cultivation and longevity, cultivators mostly used space rings to store their personal belongings.
However, space rings required spiritual energy to open, making them completely unusable for rogue martial artists.
But a storage bag was different. Although its internal storage space was much smaller than a space ring, its advantage lay in not requiring spiritual energy. A mortal martial artist only needed to drip their blood to establish ownership, and they could freely store and retrieve items using their mind.
Such items were not sold anywhere in the mortal world, existing only within ancient heritages or ancient kingdom ruins. To a martial artist, they were practically a rare treasure.
Without hesitation, Su Yueli immediately bit her fingertip and let a drop of fresh blood fall onto the cloud patterns of the storage bag.
The blood was instantly absorbed by the bag. Su Yueli felt a roaring sound in her mind, and she vaguely established a wondrous connection with it.
With a thought, a dark space about the size of half a room surfaced in her perception.
It was a success.
A flash of joy crossed Su Yueli's eyes. With this item, carrying her luggage in the future would be far more convenient.
She squatted down and began throwing the well-preserved, highly valuable jade jewelry and several Profound-grade weapons that had not yet completely weathered into the storage bag.
These things were useless for her current seclusion, but once she left the ruins in the future, selling some at random would fetch a vast amount of wealth. She could then use it to purchase high-grade demon beast essence blood to support her subsequent blood qi consumption.
At this thought, Su Yueli's mood brightened.
All this time, she had been buried in hard training, never relying on external resources to speed up her cultivation.
Because of this, even with her excellent talent, she still could not compare to the descendants of prominent families. However, her advantage lay in having a solid foundation, taking it one step at a time.
Su Yueli continued gathering the wealth on the ground, when suddenly...
“Roar—!”
A violent beast roar suddenly rang out from the deeper parts of the palace, shaking the ruined walls of the entire grand hall violently.
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