The Geared Immortal

The Nian clan misfortune Part 9

/*unedited*/

Inside the Dark Forest, there is a place where everything is in ruin. Debris of rocks and trees are scattered everywhere and traces of fire and ice elements can be seen everywhere. Meanwhile, a young man is currently on the ground beside a huge beast.

Shin Jiao is currently kneeling with his body convulsing every now and then. The huge amount of energy is slowly entering his meridians making feel unimaginable pain as they course through his body.

Inside his mind dantian, a force bombards its entrance like a battering ram hitting a huge castle gate.

Shin Jiao can hear on his head cracking sound which is making him feel a bit dizzy.

Then slowly but surely as a crack appear from within the entrance of his mind dantian. Although it has already opened, yet this time a large amount of energy is trying to burst inside it making the passage of his mind dantian break open.

Bang!

Shin Jiao's mind exploded with extreme pain as he gritted his teeth trying to prevent himself from fainting. He knows that if he faints then his mind dantian would explode and be ruined which he cannot afford to happen.

Although it was painful, Shin Jiao slowly guided a large amount of energy inside, making his mind dantian space grow bigger. Then he began condensing the huge amount of energy and started forming them into spheres.

Although the process is very tiresome and painful, yet Shin Jiao feels happy. This is because he can feel his strength growing. His body is currently absorbing the remaining energy as his physique slowly increases while breaking through to another level of cultivation.

"I have reached the middle-stage of the gold core realm now and still increasing…"

Although Shin Jiao is currently suffering, he is still happy to have reached his current cultivation.

Two hours later…

Shin Jiao is currently lying on the ground with his body covered in dark filth. His clothes which are already in tatters have become like rags with filth all over.

He slowly opens his eyes and was greeted by the foul stench covering his body.

"Ugh… Damn it… I… I need to wash my body." He thought as he conjures a water ball in the air.

Suddenly, Shin Jiao was dumbstruck at what he is doing.

Then his eyes lit up.

"I… I can use the natural energy in my body now. I can manipulate mana… haha…" Shin Jiao shouted in excitement as he let the large water ball fall on himself.

After washing the filth all over his body, he began inspecting his physique level which is already at the late stages of the gold core realm and the spheres in his mind dantian reaching around the 49th sphere.

This means that he only needs one sphere to reach the 50th sphere and his cultivation level would also reach the infant soul realm.

But the problem is how he can create an infant soul from his artificial dantian core?

To reach an infant soul, one should be able to create a fetus-like thingy inside one's gold core. This fetus would enhance one's physique far stronger than normal gold core experts. Plus the Qi their body can carry would now be like a lake, vast and almost unlimited.

Though it sounds simple, yet for Shin Jiao it is a mindboggling puzzle.

"With this strength, I'll be able to at least ascertain my chances for victory in this fight." Shin Jiao thought as he turned to look at the corpse of the huge demon beast.

With a wave of his hand, he gathered the corpse and continues on his journey in finding the fruit.

Not long later, Shin Jiao arrived in a hidden cave with a wide entrance.

This cave is naturally protected by a formation of stones hiding it from the outside world. Without Shin Jiao's goggles, it would be hard for him to find the place.

As he stood in the entrance of the cave, his eyes are focused on a grayish looking tree which is only around 3 meters in height. On that tree, there are around three grayish mango shaped fruits.

"I guess this is my mission then." Shin Jiao muttered to himself as he quickly made his move and took the fruits.

Then Shin Jiao carefully walked inside the cave and carefully inspected the place.

The inside of the cave is huge and dark. There is no light inside it and a foul stench of decay assaulted Shin Jiao's nose as goes deeper.

Suddenly, Shin Jiao stopped and noticed something from a corner. There is a strange plant on the wall of the cave. The plant is red in color and its flower has a golden hue. The dim light inside the cave is coming from the flower.

"What a strange flower…" Shin Jiao muttered as he carefully digs out the flower along with the soil.

This way, Shin Jiao can take it back and let Ai Ji study it thoroughly. Although he has a lot of information about the flowers of this world, the flower is not in his database. But he can feel and see the coagulation of the natural energy and Qi in the flower and know that it is unique.

Then Shin Jiao continue walking inside and found many other medicinal herbs inside the cave which made him happy.

His harvest this time is truly plenty. Not only he completed the high-risk mission, but he also gathered more treasures and increase his strength.

With this, Shin Jiao prepares himself in returning to the clan and submit his mission. That way he could advance to the inner clan member and go through with his plan.

While returning to the town, Shin Jiao began crafting the things he needed for his plan to precede. He needed to cause much damage and determine who took the older sister of the Lee siblings.

"I need to know what's going on in the Nian clan… something feels off in all of this…" Shin Jiao thought as his figure flashed through the woods.

With the increase of his speed, it only took Shin Jiao a day to return to the town. And before entering he replaced his artificial dantian core with core-forming realm energy.

Shin Jiao calmly walks towards the town and discovers that something is amiss.

He can see that people are running busily everywhere.

Shin Jiao reached out for a person and asked.

"What is going on here?"

The man who was grabbed by Shin Jiao showed an astonished look on his face, yet he still answered.

"The whole town is going to send out an expeditionary force to stop the Dragcule. So far there are many mercenary forces that have fallen in the forest. So now everyone is going to send out a huge number of cultivators to hunt it down. Even some of the elders of Heavenly Crow sect are coming…"

The man said animatedly.

Then his eyes turned to the direction of the town square.

"Look there, there are the airships of the Nian clan and the Heavenly Crow sect…" the man pointed towards the large ships which Shin Jiao saw.

"Ah, so that's what's going on." Shin Jiao muttered as he turned to the man and thanked him.

Then Shin Jiao dashed towards the town square where he can now see hundreds of cultivators lining up in a queue.

He decided not to submit his quest first because this would attract too much attention to him. He would just watch as they hunt for something that's already dead. He can also grab this opportunity to infiltrate the ships and sabotage them.

As he slowly concocts his plans, Shin Jiao noticed a recruitment board with a person shouting.

"Those who would like to volunteer in this great endeavor to hunt down the scourge, please sign up here!"

"Hmm… this is another chance for me to sabotage the Nian clan ships." Shin Jiao thought as an evil smile appears on his face.

 But then something from the corner of his eyes caught his attention. A beautiful young woman is walking beside a man wearing a red robe with a Nian clan insignia. The man seems to be the first elder of the Nian clan, Bo Ring. And the young woman in his side with the look of hesitation in her eyes is, Ziyun Lee.

Although she doesn't look like she is bound by something and walks like she is one of the maids of Bo Ring, it is clear that the first elder of the Nian clan regards her highly.

From what Shin Jiao is seeing it seems that Ziyun Lee is being used by the first leader as one of his trump cards. Ziyun Lee possesses the greatest innate ability in alchemy than her sister. If her cultivation grows then her ability to concoct medicine would also grow.

Shin Jiao knows that the Nian clan stretches their claws towards the siblings because right now they are in need of pills for something.

"It seems that the Nian clan scheme is deeper than I thought." Shin Jiao muttered as he joined the line.

This time he is not in a rush to enter the Nian clan elite disciples, because he has already found his target and a way to weaken the clan. If he can get in the ships, then they would be welcoming a tragedy which they have brought upon themselves.

If only they could have let him be and not be greedy, then their clan would not face Shin Jiao's wrath. But since they started it, then Shin Jiao decided to make them suffer some losses.

When Shin Jiao arrives in front of the booth, his eyes caught someone he knows and both of them look at each other with a dumbfounded expression on their faces.