Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Spirit Rain in the Secret Realm

After half a month of so?called sparring, Rong Shu had a clear sense of her current strength.

In the past she could only measure herself by cultivation alone, but real combat shifts in a heartbeat and anything can happen.

She had once ambushed and bested a fellow disciple at the eighth layer of Qi Refining whose cultivation was higher than hers. That success came because he had been careless, thinking her lower realm meant she could not defeat him, and because he knew bouts between fellow disciples carried no real danger, which dulled his sense of crisis and urgency.

Still, her leek?harvesting plan had not been smooth throughout. She overturned the cart when facing a disciple at the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

The other’s cultivation was inferior to hers, and in pure movement and brawling he was no match, but he had a pile of magic tools and trinkets, defensive, escape, offensive and the whole flashy lot.

In the end he was too tough a nut to crack, and Rong Shu nearly got hurt. She had no choice but to let him go.

As she was now, if she held the initiative, she dared even to test herself against an eighth?layer Qi Refining disciple.

If she accidentally ran into someone at the ninth or tenth layer of Qi Refining, Rong Shu would first probe the opponent’s spirit root attributes and dueling style.

If she could fight without injury, she would fight. If not, she would withdraw.

On the seventeenth day of the secret?realm trial, Rong Shu “sparred” with four disciples at the seventh layer of Qi Refining at the same time.

This batch of leeks was a difficult harvest, deliberately chosen so she could see whether, facing four cultivators of the same realm at once, she could force out greater potential.

Fortunately, she won in the end.

After collecting the spoils, she let them go.

Then Rong Shu went to look for the next leek.

A short while later, before she found one, she tipped her head back toward the black clouds gathering overhead and breathed a soft question: “Is it going to rain?”

If rain came, she should not wander about and needed to find shelter.

Although cultivators do not catch colds as mortals do when soaked, Rong Shu refused to leave room for even a small avoidable mistake.

If her body felt off, it would affect her ability to keep harvesting leeks.

She recalled the cave where she had killed a beast yesterday, and that cave seemed well suited for waiting out the rain.

While the rain had yet to fall, she followed her memory and quickly found the cave. It still carried the slain beast’s lingering aura and had not yet been occupied by a new one.

Suddenly Rong Shu’s brows knit.

“Mm…” She could not help clutching her abdomen as she bent slowly, bracing herself against the stone wall.

A familiar spasm surged from her dantian, as if countless tiny knives were stabbing it again and again.

Gritting her teeth, Rong Shu sat cross?legged at once.

[Spiritual energy, I need a lot of spiritual energy!]

As before, the stabbing would ease once she absorbed a great deal of spiritual energy.

Rong Shu took out four Spirit Gathering Pills and swallowed them in one go.

When the medicine took hold, her intake of heaven and earth spiritual energy accelerated. Streams of qi poured in without end from the surroundings, regardless of attribute, all surging into her nearly depleted dantian.

At that very moment, Rong Shu did not realize the world outside had already changed.

The long?brewing black clouds began to release their rain.

Within the rainfall there was a faint overflow of dense spiritual energy.

Each drop that landed seeped into the soil, and the qi contained within the rainwater nourished the land along with it.

Veteran disciples quickly sensed the anomaly.

The qi within the rain was several times richer than the ambient qi of the entire secret realm. This was the fabled, chance?dependent Spirit Rain.

There were startled cries all around: “This is… Spirit Rain?”

More voices rose with excitement: “It is a once?in?a?century Spirit Rain in the secret realm!”

Under Spirit Rain, all beings are blessed.

Realizing that this was a boon from heaven and earth, the disciples of Heaven’s Evolution Sect simply stopped seeking shelter and instead stood openly beneath the rain, striving to absorb the dense spiritual energy carried by the Spirit Rain.

Laughter pealed through the downpour as someone shouted: “Hahaha, my luck is unbelievable. I hit the jackpot and ran into Spirit Rain!”

Others urged one another: “Hurry and cultivate. This is all spiritual energy. It enters more easily than usual, and it is purer too!”

Disciples at every realm, from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, were overjoyed at the sudden appearance of Spirit Rain.

Yet just as they began to draw in qi from the Spirit Rain, they suddenly realized something was wrong.

There was indeed plenty of qi, but they could not pull it toward themselves.

It felt as if something was swallowing it all in one go.

More and more disciples sensed the anomaly and called out in frustration: “What is going on? Why is the qi thinning? Has the Spirit Rain stopped?”

Others cursed between clenched teeth: “Who is so ruthless as to suck up all the qi in the Spirit Rain at once?”

More groans followed: “No good… I cannot compete at all.”