337 9 Smelting Technique

"If I plant one in the spring, I will get back 10,000 in autumn..."

Within the Golden Sun Prosperous Land.

Looking at the golden stalks of rice, his face was filled with anticipation to harvest them.

"Even if the Yellow Grain Rice does not evolve any special traits, the fact that I am able to shorten its maturity period meant that the resources required would be greatly reduced. As long as I am able to harvest them after maturity, I would have already earned!"

After farming for half a day, Fang Yuan walked out of the array and arrived at the main hall.

Beautiful servants with blushed cheeks served Fang Yuan all kinds of spiritual food and started to brew a pot of tea for him.

In the past few days, he had spent half the day farming and the other half practising his martial arts. In his free time, he would read up on ancient recordings or conduct research on martial arts techniques. Occasionally, he would try and understand the mysterious glow from the water dragon pearl. Therefore, his lifestyle was rather regulated.

As time passed, Fang Yuan started to give off a mature vibe. He no longer had the haste of pushing his progress forward.

This was a sign of his strengthening foundation.

"Whooo!"

After finishing his meal, he teased 2 servants and thoroughly enjoyed himself. With a laugh, he arrived at a square, released a breath of white energy and began his training in martial arts.

"Chi! Chi!"

Behind his back, 4 spiritual meridians formed a vague figure. A 5th spiritual meridian was faint, but with time, it slowly formed. Finally, it glowed with brilliance, and the entire illusionary vague figure shook.

"The 5th Meridian of Wu Zong is formed!"

Fang Yuan composed himself before revealing a look of satisfaction on his face. "The 9 Smelting Technique to purify one's elemental force is indeed effective!"

In the past few weeks, he had accumulated experience to fill up his proficiency points. In addition, he had also started to practice the 9 Smelting Technique. It was the simplified version of the Red Night Recordings, but it was enough to purify his martial arts elemental force.

Previously, he had hastily achieved his breakthroughs without a strong foundation. Now that he had practised the 9 Smelting Technique, although it had resulted in a dip in his elemental force, his foundations were slowly being perfected.

Finally, he had achieved a breakthrough today, further progressing on his path as a Wu Zong.

Fang Yuan took a glance at his stats window:

"Name: Fang Yuan

Essence: 48

Spirit: 48

Magic: 59

Profession: Dream Soldier Master

Cultivation: Illusionary Divine (3rd Tier), Wu Zong (5th Meridian)

Technique: [Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique (Grade 6) (1%)], [Hundred Poison Golden Body (1st Refining)], [8 Gates Sword Array (4th Sword) (99%)]

Skill: [Medicine (Level 3)], [Botany (Level 5)]"

"The Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique, although fused with the Qian Kun Giant Spiritual Technique from the Yang Family, can only attain the 8th Meridian at most. Although I can form the Divine Body, it is still imperfect..."

From the corner of his eye, he could see the stats for his Hundred Poison Golden Body as he rubbed his chin. "Now that I've settled down, I should improve this technique of mine... Furthermore, these two martial arts techniques that I have can complement each other to form a new technique. This is the path for me to enter the realm of true martial arts!"

He took a look at both his arms.

Even without channelling his elemental force, he could turn his skin into a golden colour with a mere thought.

He had already thought of achieving such a stage, but could only finally achieve it after training in this plot of prosperous land.

This was not only due to the fact that the environment was stable. More importantly, he had obtained information which was once in the water dragon pearl and now had the information that a dream master at the Prominent Divine stage would have.

"That mysterious glow is indeed a library of information. If there are already so many secrets on the surface of the glow, I wonder what I can discover in the core of the glow..."

Up till now, he had achieved the peak condition and had improved as well. Fang Yuan arrived at a meditation room. With the flip of his palms, a blood-red crystal appeared.

"I shall familiarise myself with the 9 Smelting Technique before I shall attempt the techniques in the Red Night Recordings. This way, although slow, I would be able to succeed with low risks..."

Fang Yuan sighed.

The reason why he was so cautious was the fact that through various means, he had gathered more information regarding the evil force in him. Therefore, he would rather deal with it conscientiously.

"This evil force, also known as Heavenly Evil Dream Element, is a unique variant of dream elemental force which comes from the Evil Divine Sect... Dream masters with this variant of evil force in them are mostly dream masters at the 4th Tier of the Illusionary Divine stage. Furthermore... Most of them will experience a gruesome death. However, if they manage to survive, they would become accomplished and might even have the chance to achieve a breakthrough to the 7th Tier of the Illusionary Divine stage!"

"However, to me, I can achieve the same outcome with an equal probability if I slowly progress in cultivating the 8 Gates Sword Array. Therefore, I have no need for such an evil force in me!"

"Although others would not dare to claim that this evil force came from the Evil Divine Sect, it is most likely that this was the case! They can use this to control or train up dream masters. Ultimately, they would be in control of everything!"

...

With experience, Fang Yuan would not hesitate to assume to worse of his enemy.

Since he knew that this was a trap, he would be a fool to jump right into it.

"Fortunately, I am different from the dream masters of Evil Divine Sect. This evil force is different from my foundations as a dream master. I would only experience a mere disturbance if I were to achieve a breakthrough. However, I could still attempt to get rid of it even at that stage!"

Fang Yuan closed his eyes. Sentences of the recordings from the Red Night Recordings appeared in his mind, and every single word was glowing.

"Red means fire! The Red Night 9 Smelting Technique is basically bringing in an external fire to burn one's foundation and get rid of foreign forces. It might result in both the evil force and one's foundation to be destroyed... However, right now, my cultivation is pure and I have foundations in martial arts. I can still afford to experience some damage to my foundation!"

With a single thought, a small flame appeared in his actualised dream world.

This flame was not a normal flame. It was also different compared to the flames from the Fire Sword. It was red like blood. In an instant, it covered his entire actualised dream world and started to burn.

"Rumble!"

The 8 Gates Sword Array started to shake. Large amounts of dream elemental force started to evaporate, revealing the physical bodies of the 3 magical swords.

Furthermore, the physical bodies of the magical soldiers started to undergo changes as the red flames raged on. It seemed as though it was being purified.

"Bloop! Bloop!"

Of course, dream elemental force was not as hardy as the magical swords and could not hold on for long.

Under the red flames, mercury-like dream elemental force started to evaporate rapidly. In a few moments, the entire actualised dream world was almost bone-dry.

Fang Yuan felt a wave of dizziness and started to feel weak in his limbs.

He did not feel such weakness even when battling Yi Xie of the Evil Divine Sect while he was in the hollow, or when he had escaped from the hollow with all the physical injuries.

"This flames can burn my magical energy..."

Fang Yuan turned pale. The energy in his eyes started to dim.

"Chi! Chi!"

Finally, as the last drop of dream elemental force evaporated, the ground of the actualised dream world suddenly shook. An evil and demonic red dream elemental force started to appear from beneath.

In the next moment, the dim red evil force started to clash with the red flames.

"Buzz!"

The actualised dream world shook. Fang Yuan shook as well, and there was blood flowing out from his mouth, nose, eyes and even ears.

"8 Gates Sword Array, defend the 4 directions!"

He did not care about himself. All he was focused at was defending the foundations of his actualised dream world, allowing the fire to freely burn the evil force.

"Buzz! Buzz!"

Suddenly, the evil force filled his entire body. In the meditation room, a red glow was emitted from his body, giving off an evil vibe in the process.

As the flames raged on, the weakened evil force had nothing else to feed on. It retreated and started to sizzle.

After a long while, everything settled down. Only Fang Yuan's hoarse voice could be heard. "Haha... This is indeed effective. Although the process is painful and that I can only remove 1% of it every time, I have the Yellow Grain Rice to replenish my elemental energy. I have all the time in the world. Slowly, but surely, I will be able to cleanse myself of this evil force and remove all troubles that would come with it!"

This process would consume a lot of his energy and might even result in this cultivation level to drop.

However, with the ability to fix his stats and the resources to replenish his energy, he could recuperate in a short period of time. What would he have to fear?

After his excitement died down, he started to become suspicious. "The things is... did I have that shocking feeling because my heart is pumping? Or could it be a powerful being performing a prediction on me? The only one who can do this to me now should be the owner of the evil force, right? Or could it be the inheritance left behind by Sage Changli? Tian Xiezi has already passed on. Therefore, does this mean that it is more probable for Sage Changli's inheritance to have caused this feeling? Hehe... As I was purging the evil force, I felt a concentration of spiritual aura around me. That is actually the best form of disguise! Could this be fate?"

...

In an unknown place in mid-air.

A few strong spiritual wills had gathered together. With their combined powers, the space around them shook. "Who would've thought... Dragon Changli has spent so many resources and successfully found clues about the source... If not for the fact that Lord Yin had helped us, the Imperial Court might have snatched it away!"

"I respect Sage Changli for his knowledge and findings. However, there are 6 portions to the entire secret. If we do not gather all portions together, we cannot deduce the findings. Although we had tried out best, we only managed to obtain 2 portions!"

"The Imperial Court might have obtained 1 to 2 portions as well. However, the locations of the other portions are unknown!"

The few spiritual wills started to suspect each other.

Even a dream master of the Prominent Divine stage had to put in so much effort to find out the source of all dream masters. If anyone were to manage to discover the source, they would obtain an unparalleled mighty force!

With such a lure, no one in the right mind would peacefully work with one another.

Unless they were to find the source publicly, otherwise, everyone would rather keep the source for themselves.

Lord Yin remained silent. She began to suspect that among these Prominent Divine stage dream masters, one of them had kept the portions for themselves. 'On the day of the self-destruction of the hollow, one of my magical clones was after a portion. As she entered the chaos, she was destroyed. I do not know where that portion of inheritance went to!'

As a sage, Lord Yin would receive an answer with a single thought.

Even if she did not specialise as a dream future master to perform predictions, she would also be able to get an answer. 'Is the missing portion related to an evil force? Evil Divine Sect!?'

Lord Yin started to glare at another spiritual will. 'You hide really well! You almost had me fooled...'

Of course, without evidence, she would not accuse anyone of anything. Furthermore, as sages, they would surely erase all traces that they had done it. She could only let it go. With that, she had decided that in the future, she would test him before giving him what he deserved!

'Something feels weird. Did something happen in the sect?'

A silent spiritual will seemed to have recalled something but slowly became suspicious as well. However, it replied without hesitation. "Although we cannot combine the 6 portions, we can still come to a decision with all the information that we currently have! If we don't remove the Imperial Court of Da Qian, it will always be in our way!"

As a sage from the Evil Divine Sect, he was not against the Imperial Court.

"I agree!"

The Divine Lotus Cult showed its support.

"I agree! We cannot let the Imperial Court benefit from the efforts of Sage Changli!"

The sage of Source Seeking Sect agreed as well.

"The Realm Alliance... agrees!"

"Baize Mountain... forfeits the vote!"

In a streak of divine light, there was a weak voice.

"Haha... great! Ever since the creation of the Dream Realm, this is the first time that we 5 organisations have arrived at a consensus!"

The spiritual will of the Evil Divine Sect was elated. As soon as the 5 sages came to a consensus, thunder started to rumble outside and a storm broke out!