Chapter 37

After a quarter of an hour, Tanggu returned to his small thatched cottage at the peak of the mountain.

In the blink of an eye, another half month had passed.

During this half month, Tanggu continued to cultivate the "Xuanhuang Qi Cultivation Technique," consolidating and enhancing his qi cultivation, while also continuing to practice the "Water to Ice" technique and secretly cultivating the "Thunder Water Mad Snake Finger" secret manual, strengthening his various offensive methods.

At the same time, he diligently and tirelessly cultivated the "Soul Technique" and the "Beast Taming Art" within it.

Therefore, during this half month, the people of Shiyantown often heard the sounds of beasts roaring and birds chirping from the direction of Moonblade Peak, sometimes continuing through the entire night.

Some hunters who frequently went into the mountains to hunt noticed that the demonic beasts they once feared like tigers seemed to have become listless and were no longer as terrifying as before.

This strange situation persisted for nearly half a month without any sign of disappearing, and no one understood what was happening, leading to many bizarre rumors in the town.

However, for Tanggu, who was fully immersed in cultivation and paid no attention to the outside world, he was completely unaware of these events. During this time, he had not even returned to the town or the martial academy, continuing to improve and deepen his strength.

The strange sounds of beasts and birds, or the listlessness of the demonic beasts, were all his doing during this period.

In this uninterrupted half month of diligent cultivation, his "Soul Technique" and "Beast Taming Art" had made significant progress. Even in other areas, whether it was the "Xuanhuang Qi Cultivation Technique," "Water to Ice," or "Thunder Water Mad Snake Finger," he had far surpassed his state from half a month ago.

Among them, the "Water to Ice" martial technique had progressed the fastest, reaching the third level of the martial path, the initial stage of refinement.

The next step was to fully penetrate this realm.

As for the "Xuanhuang Qi Cultivation Technique" and "Thunder Water Mad Snake Finger," they had made little progress, still remaining at the middle and late stages of the beginner level, far from the peak of the beginner level.

...

Night.

Deep night.

Tanggu sat on a simple wooden bed, with Panjiu perched on a wooden stick hanging from the thatched roof, glaring at the silver snow weasel curled up on the ground, both eyes locked in mutual hostility.

This scene had become commonplace over the past half month, and Tanggu no longer found it strange, choosing to ignore it.

Inside his body, a series of crystalline red lights, like beads, rolled and flickered. With each flicker, the amount of primordial qi in his body increased.

Finally, these red lights converged in his hundred meridians and gathered in his dantian, making Tanggu's "Xuanhuang Qi Cultivation Technique" qi even stronger.

At the third watch of the night.

Suddenly, Tanggu's ears twitched, hearing the soft footsteps of "shua, shua..." coming from not far below the cliff. His heart stirred, and he quietly released his divine sense, instantly expanding it to cover a radius of several hundred meters.

Since cultivating the "Soul Technique," Tanggu discovered that the divine sense he could convert from his soul power far exceeded that of ordinary qi cultivators at the third level, at least three times as much. Therefore, the area he could monitor and explore was also more than three times that of ordinary qi cultivators.

If his soul power were to improve and transform in quality, the divine sense he could possess in the future would only increase, not decrease.

Under Tanggu's wave-like divine sense, he quickly located the source of the "shua, shua..." footsteps.

At the base of Moonblade Peak.

A black-clothed girl, her face covered by a white veil, her figure slender, and wearing a black cloak that covered half her body, was slowly walking up the mountain.

Seeing the person, Tanggu was slightly surprised. Although the black-clothed girl was covered from head to toe, she gave him a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen her somewhere before.

However, who would come to the top of Moonblade Peak in the middle of the night? Tanggu originally thought that if anyone came, it would definitely be someone from the Du family, and the most likely person would be one of the top ten disciples of the Inner Court, "Silver Sword" Du Zhongjing, coming to seek revenge and reclaim the "Thunder Water Mad Snake Finger" secret manual...

But it was not.

"Where have I seen her before?"

He pondered in his heart. If it were "Silver Sword" Du Zhongjing, he would need to prepare, but since it was not, he decided to ignore it and continue cultivating the "Xuanhuang Qi Cultivation Technique" while observing what the black-clothed girl intended to do.

At this moment, the black-clothed girl finally reached the peak.

She looked at the small thatched cottage hidden among the trees on the mountain top, somewhat surprised, seemingly curious about why there was suddenly a small thatched cottage here.

However, she did not seem to intend to push the door open and check. Instead, she slowly reached into her chest and pulled out a transparent white jade silver bottle, holding it in her palm and facing the bright moon in the sky.

She slowly gathered her strength.

With a light "pu" sound, a milky white pearl floated up from the bottom of the silver bottle, hovering three inches above the bottle's mouth, spinning and facing the moonlight.

A faint spiritual energy fluctuation suddenly came, and the surrounding heaven and earth's spiritual energy rapidly converged around the pearl in her palm.

After half a moment, a drop of cool, moon-white dew slowly appeared on the surface of the pearl, shimmering with a strange light.

Then, the dew continued to gather, eventually forming a drop that slowly rolled into the bottle below, making a light "ding" sound, as if it were not dew but a pearl, rolling continuously in the silver bottle.

In the thatched cottage not far away.

Although Tanggu had not stopped cultivating, he had been secretly observing the black-clothed girl's every move. Seeing her strange actions, he could not help but feel curious.

"What is she doing? Collecting dew? How is she doing it?"

Moreover, the thing she was collecting did not seem to be ordinary. Everything was centered around the white jade silver bottle and the milky white pearl floating and spinning at the bottle's mouth.

The black-clothed girl seemed pleased with the first drop of dew she collected, showing no intention of leaving immediately. Instead, she sat down on the spot, still holding the jade bottle in her palm, and continued to collect dew.

After a full one and a half hours.

The jade bottle was nearly half full of moon dew, rolling and shimmering like mercury, emitting a faint, sweet fragrance.

In the thatched cottage, Tanggu had already finished his cultivation, resting his chin in his hand, deep in thought.

At this moment, a silver light flashed in the thatched cottage. The silver snow weasel, unable to resist the attraction of the fragrance, suddenly rushed out of the thatched cottage, heading straight for the black-clothed girl's silver bottle.

"Hmm?"

The black-clothed girl suddenly became alert, turning her head sharply. Her left hand remained still, still lightly holding the silver bottle, while her right palm slightly lifted, like scattering flowers, and she lightly slapped out.

In the next moment, the silver weasel flew back at a speed even faster than when it had rushed out, landing on the thatched roof. However, the black-clothed girl had clearly held back, not injuring it. It quickly got up again but did not dare to move recklessly.

Its eyes, however, still darted around, clearly still coveting the silver bottle and moon dew in the black-clothed girl's hand.

Seeing this, Tanggu could no longer pretend to be unaware and had to step out of the thatched cottage. He extended his hand, and the little weasel quickly darted into his arms. Holding the silver weasel, he approached the black-clothed girl, his face filled with apology, and bowed deeply, saying, "I am incompetent in taming beasts and have disturbed Miss. I apologize on behalf of the silver weasel. Please forgive me, forgive me!"

"Ah, it's you?"

Looking at Tanggu's clear and steady face, the black-clothed girl seemed to recall something and exclaimed in surprise.

Under the white veil, her eyes gazed at Tanggu, and at this moment, Tanggu felt as if he were in a dream. Her eyes were as clear and gentle as water, piercing deep into the heart, making it hard to break free.

A more familiar feeling arose from his heart. After a while, the clear, water-like eyes before him slowly overlapped with those of someone in his memory, and Tanggu remembered who this person was.

PS: First update. I had some things to do today, sending a friend to Nanjing, and came back a bit late. This is the first update, and the second will follow shortly.