Chapter 110: You should turn back

After making sure everything was alright Yun Jhin left the sect and started to travel towards the location of the Fiery Phoenix pool.

It was in the capital and unlike the Jade Dragon pool, it was open to the public, public as in females only.

They also had to use quite a few spirit stones to be let in and it was akin to hot springs for the females of the phoenix race, it would reinvigorate them and heal them, however, they weren't allowed to absorb too much of the energy, they would be allowed to absorb energy based on the rank of spirit stones they gave, the highest-ranked spirit stones would let them absorb as much as their body could let them.

However finding these type of stones was easier said than done, Yun Jhin only had none of those on the azure dragon planet, right now he was pretty much penniless, he had a few marine herbs that he could use to create pills but they weren't worth that much...

Remembering about pills gave Yun Jhin a simple idea, he could use his pill making abilities to get enough money then use his connections with Qinghe to get into the Fiery Phoenix pool to absorb its whole contents.

This way he would be able to do it legitimately and get very close to breaking through to the Emperor realm, after he broke through he would be able to kill and absorb the remaining people quite easily as his stealth skill would improve quite a lot, even sage realm experts wouldn't be able to detect him properly and if he played his cards well he wouldn't even have to meet God Realm practitioners.

The capital was quite far away from the ocean city that Yun Jhin ended up at, at full speed traveling took him almost 2 months, fortunately, the phoenix planet had a different layout compared to the azure dragon one.

The capital was two to three times bigger than the city he left behind, it was full of red buildings as phoenix women loved the color red, pavilions, pagodas, even some western and modern type of buildings could be seen here and there, the architecture evolved a small bit since Yun Jhin last saw it, it seemed that the azure dragon planet was also lagging in this regard as they had the same type of buildings as 500,000 years prior.

It didn't take him much time to find a shop that specialized in selling medicinal pills, the thing was that the moment he entered it he was thrown outside even after he showed his skills, the woman who ran the shop gave him the stink eye and said:

"A male like yourself, trying to make money without your female knowing? Don't you think that we had enough of you running around trying to make themselves look important? Your skills may be genuine but since you came without your female you might as well give up on trying this type of stuff in the capital!"

Yun Jhin frowned as he looked around seeing women looking at him and giggling under their breath, the men which stood behind the women were giving him sympathizing looks as they shook their head.

It seemed he miscalculated something here, the sexism in the capital was considerably stronger than the one in the ocean city he came from, he wasn't sure how this worked, but he realized it might be due to them being more prideful as the capital had the Empress in it, they thought that as females who were near the Empress they were better even compared to other females.

Yun Jhin sighed as he got up from the ground, it seemed he needed to use his connections with Qinghe already, if he needed to use them for such a small matter how was he able to get inside the Fiery Phoenix Pool? What did he need to do?

Finding Qinghe didn't take him much time considering the location of the imperial visits was publicized, even though Qinghe was supposed to meet the main prince she wasn't let in the huge palace that stood before the rather small visiting building.

Yun Jhin found her playing a flute and sobbing, when she found Yun Jhin's intentionally leaked aura she immediately ushered him into her room at a light speed.

She hugged him forcefully almost squeezing the lungs out of him as she cried while whispering:

"The young prince said that I was fatter than a Uxidrow and that he didn't really want to touch me at all... only after the Empress persuaded him did he relent but he said that he would only touch me after I finished completing my cultivation technique, and then he won't touch me again after I became pregnant."

She hiccuped from time to time as hot tears dripped down from her cheeks on Yun Jhin's clothes, Yun Jhin decided to comfort her, it seemed her mother was still in the palace doing god knows what and she let her daughter out first.

After discharging all of the emotions out of her she finally asked:

"What are you doing in the capital Zhao Yun?"

Yun Jhin coughed a bit as he said:

"I was missing you, your sister already made me her man but I didn't feel the same as with you, I just feel bad that we can't continue our relationship so I wanted to see you one last time."

Qinghe smiled sadly as she continued to hug Yun Jhin, it seemed that they shared the same sentiments.

Yun Jhin faked a few tears as he reciprocated the hug and told her:

"I'm sorry that we can't be together but in our type of society we can't do much about it..."

Qinghe nodded, she felt quite sad as well, but then her eyes started to lighten as she said:

"Then why don't we run away?"

Yun Jhin frowned, he didn't think she would be that bold, this was a peak God Realm expert she wanted to run away from! After all, her mother already gave the word that she would give birth to at least 1 child!

Yun Jhin opened his mouth to dissuade her:

"While we might be able to run away, think about it a little, your mother already gave her word and the Empress is a God Realm expert, what do you think will happen to us the moment she senses you leaving?"

Seeing Yun Jhin's hard logic made Qinghe start to think, she wasn't dumb and understood what she meant, dying at this stage meant that they wouldn't be together and she truly liked him, not because of his sweet words but because he seemed truthful and empathetic to her, this was something that even her sister and mother weren't with her, while they were truthful they never empathized with her, trying to understand how she felt, but Yun Jhin words and actions gave her that feeling.

Yun Jhin smiled inside, it seemed his plan worked, he patted her fat shoulders as he tilted his head to the side and said:

"Your plan might work, I have mastered a technique that would let me become completely invisible to those around the sage realm, but I need to break through to the Emperor Realm for that.. you see.."

Yun Jhin told him about the things he found out and how he needed to make money to be able to enter the Fiery Phoenix Pool, he also wondered if she could help him in both regards, if his plan worked they would be able to run away!

At least that's what Qinghe was thinking right now, her eyes light up as she looked at Yun Jhin and a small smile blossomed on her face, while her mother would surely run after them, the Empress looked quite indifferent when she pursued her son to mate with her, maybe there was a chance for them!

Seeing how easily Qinghe got manipulated, Yun Jhin gave her a genuine smiled that made her think that he was really thinking about them with the contents of the conversation still flashing through her mind at quick speeds.

Qinghe decided to accompany Yun Jhin to a pill selling shop and give her approval of him working there, they chose a different shop to make things go easier.

After he got employed Yun Jhin was made to work like a pack mule as he got the hardest jobs because he was a male, however, he easily did them and got promoted quite quickly, 4 months passed since he was in the capital and he already was a senior pill refiner, even the females who were coming and going through the shop would take a peek at his public work, the boss of the shop even praised him and wanted to take him out for a few sessions, but Yun Jhin declined her saying that he was loyal to Qinghe.

This made the boss of the shop even more impressed with him and gave him a salary raise.

Due to his high position and the way he was quickly making money for the shop, his salary was quite big and it contained a few highest-ranked spirit stones, the way he was making business boom made the boss give him the highest salary in the shop regardless of his gender, he was that good!

It also helped he used sweet words and sometimes would sigh and act like he missed Qinghe, women loved these type of tragic stories the most and they felt like they should do something when they saw such type of lovebirds, something to help them.

Thus his salary was increased above normal measures, especially when some of his plans leaked, it was nothing serious to tell her some rumors that made her think what she wanted.

After 4 months Qinghe still didn't break through, she was now intentionally failing her breakthrough and waiting for Yun Jhin to make the money so they could escape together.

Her mother suspected something going on after she visited her the last time, but Qinghe faked her failed breakthroughs too well, after all the technique she was cultivating came from a Buddhist school and they were one of the harder techniques to master out there, also this was a type of technique that needed accumulation and not enlightenment, so her mother couldn't truly rush her in this regard.

More time passed, a year went by at lightning speed as Yun Jhin found himself with enough money to empty the Fiery Phoenix pool, but for now, he had to wait till the pool was at full capacity before he would enter as he needed its max capacity to unleash his potential to his best capability, while he said that his cultivation base might increase by 4-6 levels this was only an estimation, who truly knew how much energy he would need to break through to the Emperor realm?

He wasn't sure about that himself because of the high quality of his jewels it might take more energy for him to breakthrough, but one thing was guaranteed, with the energy of this pool he would be able to reach the Emperor realm!

First, he told Qinghe that he finished gathering money and that he would soon need her help to get inside the Fiery Phoenix pool, after all, as a male it was a very low chance he would be able to enter it by himself.

Qinghe found a way to enter, sometimes couples would be able to enter and dual cultivate into the pool and with Qinghe's special position she was let to enter with Yun Jhin, her mother was still inside the palace at the time so nothing happened, Qinghe wasn't sure what her mother was doing inside the palace as she didn't tell her anything when she came to visit, it was actually quite strange.

Yun Jhin's eyes laid on the fiery pool that was full of crimson lava-like energy, he told Qinghe who was behind him:

"You just keep a lookout while I cultivate, I will need all of the energy inside the pool to make my breakthrough, after I breakthrough we can leave, we can use the jumping pad formation and leave this planet behind us!"

Qinghe had a faint smile on her face, her eyes were red and it seemed she had been crying more lately, most likely because her mother was berating her on her breakthrough failures, even though her mother understood her, she was still frustrated at her daughter's incompetence.

Yun Jhin started to slowly get into the pool as he swam down to the bottom, he closed his eyes as he sat cross-legged and started to do his breathing exercises, he was ready to use the energy from the pool to refine himself and breakthrough even further in his cultivation!

Qinghe just looked at him with a big smile on her face as she fantasized about what was to come, she hoped that her children would be with Yun Jhin and not with that prince, at least Yun Jhin loved her even though she was fat...

Yun Jhin closed all of his senses as he focused on cultivation, he only left a opening for Qinghe to awaken him if anything happened, for now, he would do his best to cultivate.