Chapter 32

A large warship sailed through the waves, moving steadily and leisurely on the river, but the people on board were all extremely tense.

Standing at the bow of the ship like a statue, the man in the brocade robe finally sighed after a long while and muttered to himself, "The two little brats from the Bai family escaped quite quickly, but if they can escape from my palm, I wouldn't be the Grand Steward of the Imperial Court. Pass down my order: whoever can capture those two little brats will be promoted to a seventh-rank official if they have no position, and those with a rank will be promoted by one level, with an additional reward of thirty thousand coins and a grand mansion in the capital."

As soon as the man in the brocade robe issued his command, the capable people on the ship quickly spread the order through various channels to tens of thousands of officials of all ranks on both banks of the river, as well as countless spies, urging them to capture the targets quickly.

Ning Yue suddenly heard a splash of water, opened his eyes slightly, and felt that he had nothing to rely on, with emptiness all around him. Out of habit, he used the Qingyu Chengfeng Technique, a lightness skill he had created during the Yuan Dynasty, which was known as the best in the world.

However, halfway through the technique, Ning Yue couldn't help but show a bitter smile. He could no longer sense any power, his body was completely empty of soul force, and he had no trace of the pure true qi he had cultivated for hundreds of years. He fell solidly into the water.

If it had been on land, he would have fallen in a very undignified manner, but now he just fell into the water.

Ning Yue was quite skilled in swimming. He swam up from the water with a few strokes, shook his head, and wiped the water droplets from his face. Only then did he have the leisure to look around.

He was now on a large river. In a hurry, Ning Yue couldn't tell which river he had fallen into, but he had a feeling that he was no longer in the main world.

It took Ning Yue half an hour to swim to the shore. He climbed out of the river with a bitter smile, looking at the shore where towering trees, over a dozen meters tall, with straight trunks and lush, dense canopies, stood. It took several people to encircle one of these trees. He calmed himself, sensed his surroundings, and the divine crystal appeared beside him, immediately transforming into three crystal screens.

Over the years Ning Yue had spent in the main world, unable to increase his power limit, he had tried to broaden his skills, cultivating hundreds of life soul diagrams. Since his body had already surpassed the totem stage, cultivating life soul diagrams did not have the same restrictions as ordinary people.

However, now he had no soul force left in his body, all the life souls he had opened and the virtual phases he had condensed had disappeared, and even the innate true qi he had perfected since the Yuan Dynasty had vanished without a trace.

Fortunately, he still had a faint connection with the divine crystal, allowing him to easily manipulate this treasure.

Ning Yue took off his clothes and shoes, wringing out the water while looking at the text on the crystal screens. He could recognize most of the text. One of the screens displayed his personal data, including physical strength, soul force value, speed, nerve reflexes, cell vitality, intelligence, and mental power.

His physical strength value was: 737.

This was about twenty to thirty times stronger than a T-Rex from prehistoric times, capable of pushing forty to fifty elephants.

His soul force value had plummeted to the bottom, only: 23.

This was slightly better than an ordinary person. The soul force value of a healthy, strong ordinary person is about "5".

His speed was similar to his physical strength, with a value of: 690.

This speed was roughly subsonic on flat ground, comparable to the fastest cars on Earth.

His nerve reflexes were: 0.1.

This was the only data where a lower value was better, indicating that Ning Yue could react to danger within 0.1 seconds, about ten times faster than an ordinary person.

His cell vitality value was: 1024.

This was almost on par with some of the most resilient creatures on Earth, capable of withstanding temperatures of several hundred degrees Celsius, moving freely at minus one hundred degrees Celsius, surviving for months without water, and a year without food. Even if reduced to a mummy, they could quickly recover when immersed in water. In short, those with this level of cell vitality were monsters, not human.

His intelligence was: 193.

This was the level of the most brilliant human geniuses, not yet considered outrageous.

His mental power value was: 3612.

Although he had lost all his powers, his mind was incredibly active, with his senses and thoughts far surpassing their usual state. In other words, even without soul force, Ning Yue could still twist railway tracks with his will, remotely exert force to make creatures explode from a hundred meters away, and even bewitch intelligent beings to serve him.

The other two crystal screens were blank, but from the labels, Ning Yue could tell that one screen recorded his future battle achievements, and the other recorded the skills he had learned.

"Trouble, I was too hasty and didn't have time to carefully examine the information about this divine realm. I vaguely remember it's called the Nine Heavens."

Ning Yue was completely unfamiliar with the environment of this divine realm. His top priority was to regain his strength.

As for how to regain his strength, Ning Yue hesitated for a moment but ultimately chose the most stable plan. He made a hand seal, sat cross-legged, and began to practice the Taiqing Heart Method, a secret technique passed down from his master.

As soon as he entered a meditative state, boundless strange energy from the world rushed into his body, quickly filling his eight extraordinary meridians and twelve main meridians, and continued to pour in, becoming increasingly violent.

If it were anyone else, they would have been burst by this strange energy or forced to interrupt their cultivation to cut off the source of the energy. However, Ning Yue was a martial arts grandmaster from the late Yuan Dynasty, with unparalleled cultivation. He had mastered true qi to the point of manipulating it like an extension of his body, almost reaching a spiritual level. The Taiqing Heart Method operated like a skilled boatman navigating through turbulent waves, always keeping the boat light and agile, riding the waves with ease.

The Taiqing Heart Method was divided into twelve levels. Later, Ning Yue entered the Dark World, ascended to divinity, and further developed this secret technique to twenty-eight levels, roughly equivalent to the power of a twelfth-rank virtual phase, but without opening any life souls, focusing solely on cultivating soul force, creating a unique path.

However, above the virtual phase were totems, above totems were great ancestors, and above great ancestors were even higher levels. Therefore, Ning Yue eventually abandoned the idea of developing the Taiqing Heart Method to match the power of a divine realm.

In the main world, where the energy of heaven and earth was scarce and constrained by laws, Yan Jifeng could still break through to the innate stage. In the Nine Heavens, where the energy of heaven and earth was both violent and abundant, hundreds of times more than in the main world, Ning Yue naturally found it easy to cultivate.

The Taiqing Heart Method broke through level after level in an instant. In less than an hour, it had already reached the seventh level, breaking through the barrier between the human and celestial realms. According to martial arts realms, he had returned to the innate secret realm.

Once a martial artist enters the innate realm, they can return to the fetal breathing stage at any time, no longer breathing through the nose and mouth but directly through the skin and pores, constantly cleansing the body of impurities and increasing physical strength to a terrifying degree.

Ning Yue had already reached this realm seven hundred years ago and didn't need to re-temper his body. However, at this level of the Taiqing Heart Method, he could connect with innate soul force, combining true qi and soul force for cultivation, which he found even more promising.