350: Chapter 350 Nine-Tailed Transformation, Perfect Dao Palace?

After settling down in the Phoenix Clan, Chu Sheng truly realized how long it had been since he had a proper rest.

The Heavenly Pool birthday banquet, the Dragon Palace Formation, that fierce battle with Wan Qiba, and the arduous journey fleeing all the way from the Heavenly Pool to the Phoenix Clan.

These events were like a string that had been repeatedly tightened, and only now did it finally loosen a little.

The accommodation arranged by the Phoenix Clan was on a branch of the main Wutong trunk; the tree hollow had been renovated quite neatly, and the Spiritual Qi was several times denser than the outside world.

Through the windowsill, one could see a continuous sea of Wutong leaves below, which looked like a layer of golden waves when surging in the wind.

It was rare for Jiuer not to be in a hurry to Cultivate; she sat on the windowsill for a while, the wind blowing through her hair tips, and she squinted slightly, like a fox basking in the sun.

Chu Sheng leaned against the window, not looking at her, but also not in a hurry to do anything, simply staying there quietly.

The two did not mention the events at the Heavenly Pool again, nor did they mention that monk, that fragment, or that token.

Those matters were temporarily set aside.

Until the fifth day, when the Phoenix King sent someone to deliver a scroll.

When Chu Sheng opened it, he saw that it recorded some brief news about the movements outside the Western Regions.

The content was not much, but one item caught his attention—

The situation in the Northern Territory had undergone drastic changes.

A new Venerable had risen within the Demon Race, and their influence was expanding extremely rapidly.

Several Northern Territory kingdoms, originally laid out by Central Territory forces, including the Tianfeng Kingdom and Beiyuan Kingdom, had successively fallen.

Chu Sheng's fingers paused.

He did not put down the scroll immediately, but stopped there and stared for a long while, as if confirming that he hadn't misread the characters.

The Tianfeng Kingdom had fallen.

The Beiyuan Kingdom had also fallen.

Subconsciously, he sensed the feedback from Many Children, Many Blessings.

The feeling was very subtle, like an extremely thin thread extending from a distant place, tied deep within his heart and mind.

The thread was still there; it had not broken.

Although several auras were weak and somewhat fluctuating, they were still burning, like flames flickering in the wind but never extinguished.

They were still there.

Chu Sheng didn't say anything more, just silently closed the scroll and placed it on the corner of the table.

The days after Chu Sheng settled down in the Phoenix Clan were much more stable than when he was in the Dragon Palace.

Apart from occasionally needing to cooperate with the Phoenix Clan Elder to verify some details regarding the Fengxian Secret Realm, he could arrange most of his time freely.

Life in the Phoenix Clan was rarely quiet for a few days.

No pursuit, no Formations, and no need to travel overnight.

On this day.

Chu Sheng and Jiuer were staying in a tree hollow on a branch of the main Wutong trunk; the space was not large, but it was enough to accommodate their daily needs.

Moonlight leaked in through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting fine, fragmented spots of light on the ground, like sifted crushed silver.

Jiuer was combing her hair behind him, the black strands sliding through her fingers, shimmering with a faint glow.

She glanced at Chu Sheng's back, her combing motion pausing for a moment, and then she said: "What are you thinking about?"

Chu Sheng did not turn back: "Thinking about where to go next."

Jiuer did not answer, just put down the comb, walked over, and sat down beside him.

Her shoulder leaned against his, the tips of her hair brushing across his arm, carrying a faint, light fragrance.

The two sat quietly for a while.

Then Chu Sheng turned his head, looked at her, and said: "Do you need help with conditioning?"

Jiuer did not refuse.

The two looked at each other for a moment; Chu Sheng did not speak again, but reached out and placed his hand gently on her shoulder, slowly transferring a stream of warm Spiritual Qi into her Meridians.

A moment later, Jiuer suddenly grasped his wrist with her backhand; the force was not great, but it carried an implication that could not be pushed away.

She leaned closer: "Conditioning can be done in a different way."

Before Chu Sheng could answer, Jiuer had already leaned in even closer.

Chu Sheng did not expect that because Jiuer had consumed too much over these days, the conditioning would last so long.

He had originally thought that with Jiuer's Divine Ability Realm Cultivation, he wouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage.

But after a few rounds, Jiuer's breathing had begun to become somewhat rapid.

She bit her lip, not wanting to appear to be at a disadvantage.

A moment later, she suddenly said: "Wait."

Chu Sheng's movements paused, and he looked at her.

Jiuer took a deep breath, as if making some major decision, and then said very quickly: "Do you know that the Fox Clan has a secret technique?"

"A Heaven Rank top grade Cultivation Technique—"

"Nine-Tails Transformation."

Before Chu Sheng could think carefully about the meaning of these words, Jiuer's figure suddenly flickered.

Immediately after, the spot where she was seemed to be disturbed by an invisible ripple of water; one split into two, two turned into four, and in the blink of an eye, nine identical figures appeared before him.

Nine Jiuers, some sitting or standing, with different postures, all looked at him with the same smiling gaze.

Chu Sheng was silent for a moment.

"One is fine, two I can handle, three I can barely manage—"

He looked at the nine Jiuers standing in unison in front of him, his voice taking on a serious tone.

"Nine, I really can't handle."

The Jiuers did not answer, but their smiles became more pronounced.

Several hours later.

Things gradually calmed down within the palace; one of the Jiuers' figures flickered, and the others, like shadows blown away by the wind, successively converged back into the main body.

She lowered her eyelids, glanced at the figure beside her who had already closed his eyes, and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

She did not speak again.

She had won, hahaha...

The moonlight outside the window had shifted, and the Wutong branches and leaves were still rustling low in the wind.

Her beloved had fallen asleep.

Jiuer leaned to the side, closing her eyes to rest, but the curve of her mouth did not completely fade.

Like a competitor who had won a match they didn't expect to win, she was savoring the game that had just ended.

Chu Sheng was already sleeping very deeply, as if he had finally been completely drained for once.

Jiuer glanced at him, did not wake him up, kissed him lightly, and reached out to move that Jade Slip aside.

"Having such a husband, how is it not a blessing?"

Over these few days, after their passionate encounters, Jiuer's aura was indeed more stable than before.

During normal times, Chu Sheng was always in the upper hand, but once Jiuer used special tactics, Chu Sheng could never parry, and in the last few days, he simply surrendered directly.

She leaned against the pillow, slowly combing her hair tips with her fingers, and said: "You have been quite composed lately."

Chu Sheng, with his eyes closed, replied: "Being impatient is useless. I can't go back even if I'm anxious now, so it's better to do what I can do first."

Jiuer did not speak again, just turned over, as if she had fallen asleep.

At the same time, Chu Sheng also began to face a problem he had vaguely known about, but had never seriously addressed...

His Foundation was unstable.

Most of his Cultivation was improved by feedback or Dual Cultivation; there wasn't much that he had truly polished step by step on his own.

Those feedbacks did indeed give him great help in the early stages, allowing him to break through layers of Bottlenecks in a short time.

But at the level of Peak Dao Completion, the improvement brought by feedback was becoming increasingly limited.

He vaguely felt that the Dao Palace within him, although it had indeed reached three levels, was not impregnable.

It was like a house; although three floors had been built, the Foundation was shallower than that of other Cultivators of the same rank, and the roof was a bit broken, letting in some rain.

The Phoenix King came once, looked at him, and said: "What are you pondering lately?"

Chu Sheng did not hide it and truthfully spoke of his feelings.

The Phoenix King was silent for a while, then spoke.

"The fact that you can perceive this shows that your perception has not been completely blinded by those fast-tracked Cultivations."

His tone was not harsh, but carried a calmness that only comes after having seen too many people go astray.

"A Divine Ability certainly cannot be mastered just by hard Cultivation, but a Dao Palace can."

"Perfection of the Dao Palace requires a great deal of time to polish; even with the Immortal Wutong assisting me, it took me a full one thousand three hundred years to polish it."

"The polishing process you skipped will sooner or later come back to find you."

Chu Sheng did not refute this.

The Phoenix King continued: "Where the Immortal Wutong takes root, there is a layer of lava underground. It is not ordinary fire, but a type of earth fire naturally transformed after the Wutong root system absorbed tens of thousands of years of Spiritual Qi."

"A Spirit Sea Realm Cultivator would die without a doubt if they went down, and a Dao Palace Realm Cultivator must be extremely careful to endure it."

"If you want to complete that missing part, you can go down and try."

Chu Sheng was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Then I will try."

He did not let Jiuer accompany him, nor did he disturb anyone else; he just came alone to a fissure at the bottom of the main Wutong trunk.

The fissure was extremely narrow, requiring one to turn sideways to pass through.

After walking down a distance, the surrounding temperature began to rise significantly, and the air became dry and heavy.

At the end of the fissure was a dark red lava lake, its surface surging with fine bubbles, emitting a heat that made one's breath hitch.

Chu Sheng did not hesitate for too long; he confirmed the state of his protective Spiritual Qi and then stepped into the lava.

The scalding touch instantly enveloped his whole body, as if he had been swallowed by an invisible giant beast.

He did not have the Phoenix Clan's natural affinity for fire, so he could only rely on Spiritual Qi to endure it.

The feeling on the first day was a bone-piercing burning sensation, as if every inch of his skin was being scalded all over again.

Starting from the second day, that burning sensation gradually penetrated inward, as if something was slowly prying at the accumulated deposits at the bottom of his Dao Palace.

He did not count the days, but every so often, he would notice that a subtle blockage somewhere in his body had been loosened a little.

That feeling was not intense, but extremely long-lasting.

After ten days and ten nights, he finally walked out of the lava, his body still carrying the residual heat of the earth fire.

His face was a bit pale, but his eyes were actually deeper than before he went down.

A corner of his Dao Palace had indeed been repaired a bit; although it was not complete, he already had a direction to start polishing it again.

He put on his robe and was about to return to his accommodation when a commotion suddenly came from the branches and leaves above the Wutong.

A Phoenix Clan member flew over from afar, landed on a nearby branch, their expression carrying a bit of urgency.

"The Clan Chief requests your presence at the front hall."

Chu Sheng did not ask more, just nodded, and quickened his pace.

He passed through several passages between the branches, and when he was about to reach the front hall, he could already hear voices coming from afar.

"Phoenix Clan, get out! Where is your Clan Chief? Are you all in the Phoenix Clan just a bunch of turtles hiding in their shells? You might as well call yourselves the Turtle Clan."

It was not a daily conversation of the Phoenix Clan, but a sharper sound of a challenge.

There was a monster challenging them outside the Phoenix Clan.

Chu Sheng did not slow down his pace, but his steps became steadier.