245: Chapter 245 Harvest from the Outskirts

"Fellow Daoist Ye, do not misunderstand. We mean no harm; we are just passing by," two figures appeared from behind a large rock, cupping their hands politely.

Ye Yisong looked closely, his pupils slightly constricting. Among the two, one was a burly, tall middle-aged man, while the other was a woman disguised as a man, who appeared quite young. Both of them had reached the Late Stage of the Martial Ancestor realm.

Their chests were embroidered with a small blue sword, indicating that they were from the Li Family of the East Sea.

Among the Four Great Families of the East Sea, the Li Family ranked fourth in strength. When facing the other three families, as long as it did not touch their bottom line, they would take the initiative to concede. Therefore, when members of the Li Family traveled outside, they lacked some of the arrogance of the Disciples of the Martial Emperor families.

"Fellow Daoists, do you recognize me?" Ye Yisong returned the salute and asked.

"How could we not recognize such a Prodigy who has cultivated the Green Lotus Sea-Transformation Sutra, such a miraculous Cultivation Technique?" the burly man took the initiative to introduce himself, "I am Li Xiuya, and this is my niece, Li Jianing."

"Ye Yisong, farewell." Ye Yisong did not want to have too much entanglement with the other party. After stating his name, he slowly retreated, and with a few leaps, disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.

"This guy is quite alert," Li Jianing said with a smile, her eyes flashing with a hint of cunning.

"Jianing, you should learn more from him in this regard, and not always be stirring up trouble outside," Li Xiuya said, holding his head in headache as he looked at this eccentric niece of his.

"When have I ever done that?" Li Jianing stuck out her tongue and said playfully.

"Let's go. We will wander around the outer perimeter again to see if we can find a few more Fourth-Rank precious herbs." Li Xiuya took his niece and avoided Ye Yisong, heading in another direction.

Ye Yisong sat in a rock cave and let out a long sigh. The rumors were indeed true; among these big families, the Li Family was considered to have a good temper and did not easily resort to violence.

Over the past half month, it was not as if Ye Yisong had not encountered other Martial Artists; he had met members of the Hu Family, Disciples of the Yunhai Sect, Disciples of the Lihuo Sect, and Disciples of Hermit Hanjiang.

When these people saw Ye Yisong, even though his cultivation was only at the Middle Stage of the Martial Ancestor realm, they dared to extend their claws towards him.

The members of the Hu Family, in particular, were the most arrogant. They actually dared to directly demand a toll from Ye Yisong, so he broke their dog heads, and they fled for their lives immediately.

"In four more days, I should be able to finish exploring the entire outer perimeter area." Ye Yisong compared the terrain map of the Wangchuan Secret Realm given to him by the Zhao Family, and after careful investigation, he roughly estimated the time.

On the entire terrain map, only the outer perimeter area was marked very clearly. As for the inner layer, it was blurry and unclear. Only a few high mountains, dense forests, and lakes near the outer perimeter were named to facilitate the Martial Artists in distinguishing directions.

It was already very rare for the Zhao Family to be able to provide this map to Ye Yisong; perhaps it was still out of consideration for Zhao Fenghua's Face. If it were someone else, they might not have received this treatment.

Four days later, when Ye Yisong arrived once again at the lake where he first entered the Secret Realm, the ring-shaped map in his mind was completely filled in, marking that he had finished exploring the entire outer perimeter of the Wangchuan Secret Realm.

According to the map in his mind, Ye Yisong found an inaccessible underground rock cave, sealed the entrance with a large rock, and took out all his gains from the past twenty-plus days.

After counting all the items, Ye Yisong's greatest gains were two Fifth-Rank treasures.

One was called the Purple Mansion Spirit Mushroom, which had the same effect as the Purple Mansion Spirit-Nourishing Mushroom. It could help Martial Artists stabilize their minds, prevent interference from external evils, and had immense benefits for a Martial Ancestor attempting a Breakthrough to the Martial King realm.

A bottle of Thousand-Year Cold Pool Stone Milk was a treasure obtained after slaying a Late Stage Fourth-Rank Ice Python. It could help Martial Artists with Water or Ice Spiritual Roots solidify their Foundation and could also serve as a supreme treasure for Body Refining, tempering the Physical Body, with a slight possibility of breaking through the Physical Body Bottleneck.

There were also one hundred and twenty-seven Fourth-Rank precious herbs: the Biluo Vitality Leaf for healing, the Guiyuan Soul-Nourishing Root, the Bodhi Seed, three Zhu Fruits for advancing cultivation, the Mysterious Yellow Ginseng Fruit, the Nine-Orifice Clear-Mind Grass, the Body Tempering Flower beneficial to the Physical Body, and the Three-Light Divine Water, among others.

All kinds of rare treasures broadened Ye Yisong's horizons, and he exclaimed that the Wangchuan Martial God was truly formidable; to still have such a Family fortune after thousands of years since his ascension, he truly had great means.

In addition, in an underground karst cave, he accidentally encountered the skeletons of three Martial Ancestors. After inheriting their Legacy, he chose a nearby geomantically auspicious spot to bury them.

Among the three, one was a Fourth-Rank Formation Master who had left behind three one-time-use Legacy Jade Slips for those fated to find them, one of which was inadvertently wasted by Ye Yisong.

Ye Yisong, a Fourth-Rank Talisman Maker, had completely accepted the Legacy of a High Grade Fourth-Rank Formation Master; what a waste!

But it was not without any use. This Formation Master's Legacy opened up a new horizon for Ye Yisong. Perhaps Talismans did not just have to be used alone; they could also coordinate with each other to form specific Talisman Formations, and the power should be quite good.

However, for now, this was merely a hypothesis in Ye Yisong's mind, and whether it was specifically feasible remained to be developed in the future.

The other two people brought Ye Yisong his greatest gains: two Cultivation Techniques—a Fire-element Fourth-Rank Cultivation Technique, the "Red Flame Incineration Technique," and a Fifth-Rank Earth-element Cultivation Technique, the "Earth Vein Repository Sutra."

The "Earth Vein Repository Sutra" was actually suitable for his father, Ye Jiesheng, but he did not know which province or Family it was a Legacy of, or if they were still in the world, so he hoped he wouldn't be attacked by others at his doorstep.

In the remaining Storage Pouches, many items had either turned to dust or lost their spirituality over the passage of time, becoming ordinary objects that could no longer be used.

Just the outer perimeter was this wealthy; Ye Yisong could not help but look towards the more mysterious inner layer—what kind of picture would that be?

Before entering the inner layer, Ye Yisong needed to go into seclusion for a few days to digest his gains this time, at least to raise his cultivation to the Nine-Star Martial Sect realm, to smooth out some of the gap with the first tier, so as not to have no power to fight back when encountering them.

If he could use the Thousand-Year Cold Pool Stone Milk to break through his Fourth-Rank Perfection Physical Body to the Fifth-Rank realm, then Ye Yisong would be even more confident, and perhaps even help the Zhao Family compete with other families.

Ye Yisong took out a Low Grade Fourth-Rank Zhu Fruit; this fruit was enough to support him in quickly breaking through to the Nine-Star Martial Sect realm.

He took a light bite of the fruit skin, and hot fruit juice flowed out, dripping onto the back of Ye Yisong's hand, leaving a scalding mark, but it quickly recovered as before—his Fourth-Rank Perfection Physical Body was not just for show.

Not daring to waste even a fraction, Ye Yisong hurriedly swallowed the whole Zhu Fruit. From his heart and abdomen, a hot, flowing liquid gradually spread to his surrounding internal organs, Meridians, and acupoints. It was not burning to his heart, but rather warm.

As Ye Yisong circulated the fourth layer of the Green Lotus Sea-Transformation Sutra, the medicinal power of the Zhu Fruit was slowly absorbed by Ye Yisong, turning into drops of spiritual liquid, becoming a part of Ye Yisong's body.

Three days later, Ye Yisong opened his eyes, and a flash of sharp light flickered and then vanished. His clothes fluttered without wind—the Nine-Star Martial Sect realm, achieved!