Happy New Year, students! Also, I want to thank all the students who sent me gifts. I'm too busy during the New Year to make a list!
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Before spending the night on Fifth Heaven, Hao Ren had to patrol the airspace of East Ocean City as usual. Riding on Little White, Hao Ren quickly patrolled the border between First Heaven and Second Heaven.
Second Heaven, Third Heaven, and Fourth Heaven were the zones between the dragon cultivators and the human cultivators, and they were the buffer zones for wars. It wasn't a big problem for the human cultivators to patrol in these zones. However, the two cultivators of the White Sand Sect had crossed the boundary of First Heaven and patrolled at a low altitude. That was a serious offense, and the dragon cultivators on the ground couldn't say anything even if they were killed by them.
It was about eight o 'clock at night, and the sky was getting dark. Hao Ren released his spiritual senses to sense the nature essence fluctuations around him.
Since he wasn't familiar with using spiritual senses, he could barely cover an area with a radius of 100 meters. If he weren't in the clouds, he would be better off looking with his eyes. However, for Qian-level and Kun-level masters like Su Han, they would be able to sense every movement within a radius of 1,000 meters.
Two cultivators! When Hao Ren was about to end his patrol, two cultivators suddenly entered the range of his spiritual senses.
The two cultivators had obviously sensed Hao Ren's arrival before Hao Ren and were fleeing into the distance. However, Little White's speed was too fast. Even though they had sensed Hao Ren's arrival, they couldn't fly as fast as Little White.
According to their experience, the dragon cultivators who patrolled the border of First Heaven were mostly inspectors. Inspectors were the elites of the dragon cultivators, and they were equivalent to Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. They weren't people that these cultivators could resist.
Therefore, when they sensed the cultivators flying toward them from below First Heaven, they immediately split into two groups and fled.
Of course, Hao Ren wouldn't let them go. He flicked his fingers, and 16 sword energies each formed two sets of basic sword array formations and shot toward the two cultivators.
Although the sword array formations were simple, they were 100% powerful.
A white and a yellow ray of light shot towards the backs of the two cultivators.
Pu! Pu!
Severely injured, the two cultivators dashed forward five to six meters each and flew toward Third Heaven with all their might. From the beginning to the end, they didn't even dare to look back to see what the person who attacked them looked like.
If they knew that the person who attacked them was only a Zhen-level cultivator who was equivalent to a low-tier Core Formation Realm cultivator, they would be depressed.
Hao Ren withdrew the 32 sword energies and patted Little White's rump before continuing his patrol. Those two cultivators were more powerful than the two cultivators Hao Ren caught last time. If they didn't flee in panic, Hao Ren wouldn't be able to defeat them.
However, it didn't matter. Little White's traveling speed was comparable to the flying speed of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator. If it couldn't defeat them, it could escape. It was Little White's horrifying flying speed that made the two cultivators panic and realize that they had encountered a Nascent Soul Realm dragon inspector.
Hao Ren patted Little White's head when he sensed that the two cultivators had escaped back to Fifth Heaven. Little White looked up abruptly and flew toward Fifth Heaven.
Ethereal Summit was as tranquil as before. Carrying Hao Ren, Little White dashed into the cave abode through the thick fog.
In the cave abode, the tables and chairs were still as empty as before.
However, Hao Ren noticed some messy footprints on the flat ground of the cave abode. Hao Ren was worried, so he used the suction force of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll to spread a thin layer of dust on the ground when he left the cave abode in the morning.
The footprints meant that someone had been here when Hao Ren wasn't in the cave abode. The people on and above Fifth Heaven couldn't be ordinary cultivators; they must be cultivators from nearby sects.
Hao Ren had thought it was strange that no cultivator built a cave abode in this valley with abundant nature essence. He suspected that this was a forbidden area in the back mountain of a certain sect, so he borrowed an array formation from Zhen Congming and prepared to set it up.
However, it seemed that someone had discovered Hao Ren's tracks.
These cultivators only knew to be wary of the array formation inside and outside the cave abode and tried to hide their nature essence fluctuations. They didn't know that the owner of the cave abode had used such a simple and mundane method to prevent thieves.
From the shallow footprints, it was hard to estimate the number of cultivators who had visited the cave abode during the day, but there were at least three of them.
"Little White, guard the cave for me tonight!" Hao Ren said to Little White.
Little White looked at Hao Ren with a puzzled expression and chirped.
Hao Ren wanted to speed up his cultivation and didn't want to give up such a good place for cultivation. Also, he didn't want to waste time searching for other mountains with abundant nature essence. Especially at night, he might run into a sect's array formation if he wandered around on Fifth Heaven …
After clearing the dust on the stone bed, Hao Ren closed his eyes to cultivate.
Little White crawled at the entrance of the cave, looking to the left and then to the right with vigilance. With its keen sense of smell, it could detect the smell of strangers in the cave abode. Even cats and dogs didn't like strangers intruding into their territory, let alone spirit beasts.
Outside the valley, two beautiful figures flew across the night sky.
"Sister, Gongzi's body is quite good."
"Sister … Did you really peek at Gongzi bathing?"
"Haha! What do you think?"
"I must be lying! But if there's a chance in the future, I want to bathe and change Gongzi's clothes … "
Swoosh! Two dark lights flashed by in the blink of an eye.
The moonlight rose and then slowly descended.
Fifth Heaven also ushered in its dawn and morning. Hao Ren exhaled slowly and felt that three new openings had been unlocked in his dragon core!
70 openings!
The nature essence that could be stored in his body increased exponentially!
For the Dragon Tribe, the higher the cultivation level, the more difficult it was. It was because the higher the cultivation level, the harder it was to unlock new openings. That was why the cultivators had to use mystic crystals to reach Qian-level and Kun-level. The so-called mystic crystals were equivalent to the transfer stations of nature essence. After storing enough nature essence, they would be able to break through to the dragon core and achieve new breakthroughs.
Unlocking five openings in two days was something that Hao Ren had never dared to dream of before. This valley was definitely Hao Ren's lucky land, and he would never give it to anyone else!
Hao Ren stomped his feet and dashed out of the cave abode. A white sword energy appeared under his feet and carried him around the valley.
It was a waste of nature essence to fly on the sword energy. However, Hao Ren had just broken through, and the concentration of nature essence in his bloodline was very high. Therefore, he didn't care about this little bit of nature essence.
The entire valley was oval in shape and also had a U-shaped structure. It was like a broken egg with an exit in one direction. If it was in ancient times, it would definitely be a terrain that was easy to defend and hard to attack.
However, on Fifth Heaven, all cultivators could fly freely. There was nothing special about this terrain. The only advantage was that it was like a funnel that gathered all the nature essence in the surroundings. The thick fog made the nature essence here much denser than the outside.
After understanding the characteristics of the terrain, Hao Ren took out the array formation that Zhen Congming gave him and placed the compass that represented the array core in the cave abode. Then, he placed the 72 array flags evenly around the valley.
The steps of setting up the array formation were written on the inside of the box, and Hao Ren only needed to follow them step by step.
The 72 array flags corresponded to the number of 72 Earthly Fiends. If the array formation was controlled well, it could transform into 72 array formations, such as Wind, Fog, Rain, Water, Light, Flow, Scenery, Stone …
However, the array formation that Hao Ren was setting up now was the most basic one. It used the Big Dipper Constellation, which was the origin of the 72 Earthly Fiends, and it could change the position of the stars without any active control.
The cultivators who got close to the valley couldn't enter the valley no matter how they flew or walked, unless they were at the Nascent Soul Realm and could break the array formation with brute force.
As the last array flag fell into the mud, the fog in the valley became thicker, and the visibility around the valley decreased by four to five times.
Hao Ren flew to the outside of the valley and tried to enter it. However, he dashed in on the sword energy. When he looked up, he found that he was already on the other side of the valley.
He changed directions and tried again. Again, he went into the fog and came out from the outside of the valley.
It was as if the valley didn't exist!
Hao Ren marveled at the miraculous array formation and took out a small star that looked like a pendant from his necklace. It was the array core made of deep-sea mystic crystal, and it was blue and translucent.
After injecting some nature essence into it, the small mystic crystal emitted a faint blue light. Hao Ren flew over on the sword energy, broke through the fog, and entered the core of the valley!
"Great!" Hao Ren couldn't help but exclaim.
Zhen Congming was usually arrogant, but the things he gave out were indeed good stuff. According to Zhen Congming, the array formation that he gave Hao Ren was only a beginner-level array formation!
Back in the cave abode, Little White looked at Hao Ren in a daze.
Standing in the center of the array formation, it could see Hao Ren flying around outside the valley.
The coffee-colored compass was placed on the stone table in the cave abode. It looked like it was made of aged wood, but it was heavier than metal when Hao Ren weighed it.
The compass was also made of deep-sea mystic crystal, and all kinds of symbols were engraved on it.
Hao Ren placed the small blue star in the small hole in the center of the compass, and it fit right in. With the array core in place, he could control the big array formation in the entire valley.
The inner and outer circles of the compass could be rotated, and different changes would occur according to the positions of the rotation. Hao Ren tried one basic change, which was to rotate the inner and outer circles of the compass to their original positions.
After injecting some nature essence into the compass, the thick fog in the valley immediately dispersed. This step was to temporarily remove the array formation!
After randomly rotating the two circles of symbols to other positions, Hao Ren took out the array core from the compass. He plucked a golden hair from Little White's paw and strung it on his wrist, turning it into a simple bracelet.
Little White howled and looked at Hao Ren with grievance when one of its hairs was plucked.
Hao Ren smiled at it. After all, Little White's golden hair was firmer than ordinary red strings, and it was impervious to fire and water. With this bracelet on his wrist, it would never fall off.
"Let's go back to class!" Hao Ren patted Little White's rump and got it up from the ground before walking toward the entrance of the cave.
Little White shook its rump and rubbed against Hao Ren's leg. Boom! It turned into a snow lion.
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