Chapter 66 My Sister's Strange Behavior

The sky was cloudless, and the moon hung like a hook in the night sky.

Squad Yi-34 rushed back to Chu Prefecture city overnight.

Yun Bai moved quickly, and before long, he arrived at his doorstep.

"Qianqian, I'm home!" Accompanying the creak of the door being pushed open, Yun Qian, who was head-down and tinkering in the courtyard, heard her brother's voice.

She looked up and saw a tall, upright youth looking at her with a smile. It was her brother, Yun Bai.

"Brother?" Yun Qian was squatting on the ground, looking up toward the doorway.

Yun Bai had been away on a mission for four days again. Although she knew her brother was protected by his squad, she still couldn't help but worry.

Seeing Yun Qian standing still, Yun Bai walked straight over, wanting to give his sister a hug.

"Huh?" Yun Bai suddenly felt his feet entangled by something. It was just like an insect caught in a spiderweb, firmly stuck in place.

"This is... a Silk Entanglement Formation?" Yun Bai looked around in surprise and discovered several simple deployment implements placed around the courtyard.

After trying to lift his feet a few times, Yun Bai sensed that this restraint was roughly equivalent to the power of a First Realm Early Stage Cultivator.

"Eh? Did I succeed?" Yun Qian said.

"You did this?" Yun Bai was dumbfounded.

This Silk Entanglement Formation was a type of trapping Formation capable of restricting the movements of those within it. Du San had once explained this Formation to Yun Bai; it was simple to set up and highly effective, making it a very cost-effective control-type Formation. It could be considered a required course for beginner Formation Masters; as long as the Materials were sufficient, even ordinary people without any Cultivation could set it up.

Yet, not only had Yun Qian not started to Cultivate, but having only attended school for a few days, she had completed this Formation relying solely on a few books on Formations and a few Spirit Stones.

This meant she already possessed a certain foundation of knowledge regarding Formations and had completely grasped the principles of this Formation.

This kind of Comprehension Ability for Formations was not something an ordinary person could possess.

"Ah, I did it." Seeing the shocked expression on Yun Bai's face, Yun Qian was momentarily confused; she thought there was something wrong with the Formation.

"Qianqian, you really are a Genius!" Yun Bai laughed toward the sky.

"Hehe, it's alright, I just followed what was in the book." Yun Qian didn't seem very excited. She yawned, "Hooah—Brother, I'm sleepy, I'm going back to my room to sleep now."

"Oh, okay." Yun Bai was left a bit dazed by Yun Qian's indifferent manner. "Where are Shen Qi and Auntie Yang?"

"They are reading in the study." After saying this, Yun Qian went into the house without looking back.

Yun Bai watched his sister's disappearing back and rubbed his chin.

Sigh, my little sister has grown up; she's not as close to her brother as she used to be. Yun Bai thought like an old father.

Since everyone was busy with their own things, it wouldn't be convenient for Yun Bai to disturb them, so he decided to head straight to the State Religion Temple in the city center.

"Spirit Spring?" Carrying an attitude of curiosity, Yun Bai stepped into the Lingxing Gate of the State Religion.

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Deep within the State Religion Temple in Chu Prefecture city, with a gushing "Spirit Spring" as the core, an area dense with rich Spiritual Qi was constructed—the Spirit Pool. This was a treasure ground for peripheral members of the State Religion to break through Bottlenecks and improve their Cultivation.

Although named "Spirit Pool," it was not actually a pool filled with water. With the Spirit Spring as the center, the State Religion had built dozens of isolated quiet rooms for Cultivators in need. It wasn't just State Religion Cultivators who could come here to Cultivate; people from outside the State Religion could also enter as long as they could pay the corresponding price.

Yun Bai stood at the entrance of the Spirit Pool, feeling the rushing current of Spiritual Qi that had almost condensed into a physical substance. He took a deep breath, and it felt as if every pore on his body was cheering.

He looked toward the eye of the Spirit Spring. Although the "Spirit Pool" was not a pool, the "Spirit Spring" was indeed a spring. The Spiritual power gushing from the spring eye was so dense that it had turned into a liquid form. The golden color radiating from the Spirit Spring water—he didn't know if it was caused by the ambient light or if it was naturally so.

Seeing this, Yun Bai's confidence greatly increased.

With Xiao Liu's assistance, he was absorbing the Spiritual power between heaven and earth at every moment. Over time, the Spiritual power within his body had rapidly accumulated to the limit of the First Realm Middle Stage.

Counting from the day he broke through to the Middle Stage, it had only taken him twenty days for the Spiritual power in his body to reach the Middle Stage limit.

This speed of Cultivation could be described as shocking in Chu Prefecture city. Even if placed in the Holy Land where Geniuses gathered—the Holy City—he would be a one-in-ten-thousand standout.

Yun Bai learned this through the Materials in the State Religion's Scripture Pavilion, and he couldn't help but feel increasingly expectant about his future path of Cultivation.

But good times didn't last long. Over the past ten days, his Cultivation of the Gouchen Technique had fallen into an irritating stagnation.

In fact, that time at the healing pool in Huangyang Town was not the first time he had attempted a Breakthrough.

Every time he circulated the guiding technique, he always felt that the Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth was like a drop in the bucket, far from enough to fill his "needs," which were like a bottomless pit.

What was even more bizarre was that a large amount of the Spiritual power he had painstakingly absorbed, after flowing into his Sea of Consciousness, was crazily devoured and compressed by that Source Core Black Hole, resulting in huge losses. This caused the embryonic Golden Core that should have formed in his lower Dantian to remain unstable for a long time.

Indeed, everything has its pros and cons.

The strange structure within his Sea of Consciousness could compress and solidify his Spiritual power to a great extent, making the Spiritual power within his body purer. His explosive power, endurance, and other attributes far exceeded those of Cultivators at the same stage.

At the same time, this structure also caused the Spiritual power entering Yun Bai's body to suffer huge losses; the amount of pure Spiritual power that could actually flow into his Dantian was far from enough to meet the requirements for condensing a Golden Core.

There were two ways to solve this. One was to expand the source of Spiritual power, and the second was to reduce the loss when the Source Core Black Hole compressed the Spiritual power.

Yun Bai was obviously helpless regarding his Sea of Consciousness and could only start by expanding the source of Spiritual power.

The solution was the Spirit Pool before him.

According to the regulations, up to one hundred units of Spiritual power could be provided for free for condensing a Golden Core (each unit was equivalent to the storage of one standard Spirit Stone). The portion exceeding this was calculated at eighty Spirit Stones per unit. Although the price was not cheap, for Yun Bai who was anxious to achieve a Breakthrough, it was completely acceptable.

The Spirit Pool was shrouded by a Formation on the outside and guarded by a managing Elder, so no thieves ever dared to force their way in.

To enter the Spirit Pool, one had to enter through the "entrance" where the managing Elder sat cross-legged.

The managing Elder appeared to be an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, a Daoist Cultivator. At this moment, he was wearing Daoist robes, sitting cross-legged on a meditation cushion with his eyes closed.

Yun Bai had already learned about this person; the Elder's name was Elder Yin Xin. Although this person rarely appeared, he was a genuine Innate Second Realm Late Stage Cultivator!

Yun Bai walked toward the entrance and was surprised to find two others whose destination coincided with his. Coincidentally, both of these people were acquaintances of his.

One was Wang Er. The man who had traded punches with him during the Thousand Machine Attraction assessment. Yun Bai had also once met him in Huangyang Town while he was executing a patrol mission.

Later, Yun Bai learned that this person had ultimately not chosen to join the State Religion, but had been poached by the Northwest Army. The military had offered him the same "Mysterious-Grade Special Contract" as Yun Bai, regarding him as a talent for special training.

At this moment, Wang Er's aura was steady and deep; he had also surprisingly reached the First Realm Middle Stage, perhaps also preparing for a Breakthrough to the Late Stage.

Yun Bai's heart stirred slightly. He didn't expect Wang Er's talent for Cultivation to be so terrifying. After all, Yun Bai himself relied on Xiao Liu's help, while the other party did not have such a cheat.

The other figure made Yun Bai somewhat surprised—Jiang Shuanger.