National Fortune Jade!

For a moment, the pain made Su Yueli tremble all over, cold sweat instantly drenching her clothes.

Yet this pain did not cause her to faint; instead, it made her exceptionally clear-headed.

It was working... It was really working!

Su Yueli grit her teeth. Even though her red lips were bitten to the point of bleeding, she stubbornly did not make a single sound.

As waves of pain washed over her, she simply closed her eyes and forcibly mobilized the blood qi in her body to fight to the death against that violent, wild energy.

At this moment, scenes of her past flashed continuously through her mind.

Her tragically killed parents, her master Lu Chen lying in a pool of blood, and Shen Qing'an back in Fengling City, who always loved to nag.

She bore a deep, ocean-like blood feud, and... she still had to investigate that fellow, Shen Huai'an.

“Shen Huai'an...”

Whether her master, Lu Chen, had truly died because of him, Su Yueli was still unsure. She had to investigate and find out the truth!

If she couldn't even endure the raw blood of a First Realm demon beast right now, how could she talk about immortality? How could she talk about revenge?!

Get stronger! She had to get stronger!

Half an hour, one hour, two hours...

After enduring for a full two hours, the burning sensation inside her body finally began to subside.

Su Yueli slowly opened her eyes and exhaled a long breath.

At this moment, she felt weak and sore all over, but the blood qi inside her body had grown by a full twenty percent. Her Sixth Realm foundation had become extremely solid.

Standing up, she looked at the massive corpse of the Blood-Eyed Wolf.

“In this restricted area, every part of a demon beast is a treasure.”

Su Yueli took out some ceramic treasures she had previously collected from her storage bag and gathered the remaining demon blood from the giant wolf.

Then, she dragged the corpse back to the gravel square.

Using her Shadow Fist Blades, she began to skin and butcher the beast. Setting up a bonfire, she roasted the wolf meat until it sizzled with oil.

Drinking raw blood directly was excruciatingly painful, but eating the roasted demon beast meat, which contained faint traces of energy, could also nourish a martial artist's blood qi.

Su Yueli chewed on the somewhat tough wolf meat, untied the wine gourd from her waist, and took a sip.

“Cough...”

The bitter liquid slid down her throat.

This was still the ordinary beer she had filled in the outer city before setting out five years ago.

Left in these ruins where refrigeration was impossible for five years, its taste had long since changed, becoming very bitter.

Even if it hadn't changed, warm beer was just as bitter.

Su Yueli stared at the gourd in her hand, dazed for a brief moment.

She wondered how Tie Tu and Ling'er were doing now, and whether that kid Lin Ye had made it back to Lingshui City alive...

She shook her head with a self-deprecating smile, forcibly pushing these cluttered thoughts down.

Right now, she could barely protect herself; thinking about these things was completely redundant.

After finishing the last piece of wolf meat and feeling the warm energy rising from her stomach once more, Su Yueli immediately fell into stance and began practicing her fist techniques in the night, using it to accelerate her absorption.

...

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, three years had passed.

In a ruined palace within the inner region, a late stage First Realm demon beast had just let out a mournful wail before its throat was pierced by a flash of azure lightning.

Su Yueli withdrew her Shadow Fist Blades, skillfully drained the essence blood from the demon beast, and threw it into her storage bag.

Her gaze now was even colder than it had been three years ago, and her body exuded a terrifying, murderous aura forged from crawling through mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

Three years of continuous hunting had made her intimately familiar with the habits of First Realm demon beasts, and her methods of killing had grown increasingly proficient.

Boom!

Su Yueli stomped her foot, and a powerful wave of blood qi erupted outward, shattering the surrounding gravel into dust.

The Seventh Realm!

By relying on the flesh and blood she had absorbed over the past three years, she had finally broken through her shackles and successfully stepped into the ranks of the Seventh Realm of the martial path!

“Phew...”

Su Yueli clenched her fists, feeling the multiplied strength surging through her body, and couldn't help but feel a wave of emotion.

“I have to admit, with resources like demon beast flesh and blood to boost me, advancing along the martial path is indeed incredibly fast.”

Previously, without any resources, she had spent five years outside the Great Li Imperial City just to barely grind her way into the Sixth Realm.

Now, with First Realm demon beasts serving as experience packs, it had taken her a mere three years to cross into the Seventh Realm.

“Pay-to-win really is satisfying,” Su Yueli couldn't help but complain to herself.

This also made her fully understand why the descendants of prominent families in the imperial city had such terrifyingly high martial realms at such a young age.

They consumed spirit herbs and beast blood with every meal; they were on a completely different level compared to her past days of training blindly in isolation.

However, over these past three years, she had hunted the First Realm demon beasts in the entire outer and inner regions to near extinction, leaving not even a single hair behind.

If she wanted to continue obtaining resources, she could only set her sights on her final option.

Su Yueli turned her head and looked toward the very center of the ruins, at the core region shrouded in thick black mist.

She had always designated that place as a forbidden zone.

But now that she had broken through to the Seventh Realm, combined with her mastered fist techniques and the high-grade Earth-grade Shadow Fist Blades, she planned to go to the core region to try her luck.

Wealth is found in danger; if she always stayed in her comfort zone, her progress on the martial path would only stagnate.

Su Yueli didn't waste any words. She slung her pack over her back, and with a flash of her figure, plunged into the black mist of the core region.

To her surprise, however, she did not encounter any of the terrifying, high-level demon beasts she had imagined along the way.

After passing through layers of thick mist, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

There were no grand palaces here, but rather an endless stretch of tombstones.

Su Yueli raised an eyebrow. This seemed to be the ancestral graveyard of the Cangyun Ancient Kingdom from a thousand years ago.

She then walked over to the nearest stone monument, swept away the dust on it with her blood qi, and took a look.

Ancient characters were carved upon it: Tomb of the Sixth Sovereign of the Cangyun Kingdom.

Refusing to believe her eyes, she walked to the side and looked at several more in succession.

The Tenth Sovereign, the Thirteenth Sovereign...

This was indeed the royal mausoleum of the Cangyun Ancient Kingdom.

Su Yueli walked all the way to the deepest part of the graveyard.

Here stood a black mausoleum that was several times larger than any of the other tombs.

Carved deeply into the tombstone with sharp implements were large characters: Tomb of the Last Emperor of the Cangyun Kingdom.

Below that massive tombstone lay a crystal-clear, azure jade stone.

Pressed beneath the jade stone seemed to be a page of ancient silk manuscript made of a special material.

Su Yueli stepped forward and looked around. After confirming there were no mechanical beasts or array fluctuations, she finally pulled out the page of silk manuscript.

By the faint light, she carefully deciphered the handwriting on it.

“I am the sovereign of a fallen state, filled with deep regret... The iron cavalry of Great Li trampled our mountains and rivers, destroying our nation. Knowing I was powerless to turn the tide, before my death, I have sealed eighty percent of the remaining national fortune of the Cangyun Ancient Kingdom entirely within this National Fortune Jade!”

“I hope that a destined individual of future generations will obtain it, receive the blessing of the national fortune, revitalize my Cangyun, and restore our state!”

After reading the contents of the silk manuscript, Su Yueli raised an eyebrow, highly astonished.

Such a good thing that could change one's destiny and contained the fortune of a nation—how did those powerful cultivators of the Great Li Dynasty a thousand years ago fail to discover it?

But on second thought, she understood.

To the high-and-mighty cultivators, the so-called fortune of a mortal nation was probably like the gold and silver of the mortal world—nothing but useless trash in their eyes.

They wouldn't even bother to spare it a glance, perhaps even fearing that becoming entangled with mortal cause and effect would ruin their Dao Heart.

But a thousand years had passed; was this thing really still useful?

Su Yueli stared at the azure jade stone, which emitted a faint glow, her thoughts racing.

No matter what, since she had stumbled upon it, this was her opportunity.

In this world of immortality where human life was as cheap as grass, she needed any power she could grasp.

“I have no interest in revitalizing Cangyun, but since you left this power behind, then allow me to borrow it.”

A ruthless glint flashed in Su Yueli's eyes. She directly reached out her right hand and gripped the jade stone firmly.

Then, a thread of pure Seventh Realm martial artist blood qi flowed from her palm into the jade, attempting to activate this ancient state jade that had slept for a thousand years.