Song Shuhang was very pleased at this moment. He had discovered that his Lotus Blossoming Tongue skill had now another use besides appeasing his hunger.

　　True Monarch Eternal Fire held his chin, and said, “I had no idea that the Lotus Blossoming Tongue skill had this type of hidden ability. Right… little friend Shuhang, the strength of your Lotus Blossoming Tongue skill is still in its initial stage, and you can strengthen it if you diligently train it or consume several seeds of the Virtuous Golden Lotus. At that time, you’ll be able to create four white lotus flowers in one go. If that happens, will you be able to produce four Saber Intent Condensing Lotus Seeds ¹ all at once?”

　　If he could really produce four Saber Intent Condensing Lotus Seeds at once, little friend Song Shuhang wouldn’t have to worry about spirit stones during the early stage of his cultivation life. Continuously selling ‘Saber Intent Condensing Lotus Seeds’ would earn him enough spirit stones to last until the Fifth Stage Realm.

　　Song Shuhang’s eyes immediately lit up. He felt that there was some fate between him and lotus flowers as of late.

　　“It’s worth giving it a try. During the battle with the demons of the Netherworld Realm, I’ll help you collect the corpses of the demons. If we can gather a sizable number, we can give them to Senior Eternal Fire and get a seed of the Virtuous Golden Lotus in exchange,” Su Clan’s Sixteen said with a smile.

　　“Little friend Shuhang, if you want to carry out a transaction, you just have to contact me. I can—according to the price Senior White mentioned—give you four or five blades of Saber Intent Condensing Grass ² in exchange for one of your lotus seeds. After all, the Spirit River Su Clan has a pretty large stock of Saber Intent Condensing Grass,” Su Clan’s Seven said with a smile.

　　“No, trade with me first,” Venerable White said. “I remember that I collected a lot of Saber Intent Condensing Grass in the past. You just have to wait for me to return to my treasure house and look for it. You guys can proceed with your transaction once he’s done trading with me.”

　　Saber Intent Condensing Grass was very difficult to eat, and Senior White would be more than happy to exchange it for those delicious ‘lotus seeds’.

　　With a smile, Northern River’s Loose Cultivator said, “Little friend Shuhang, why don’t you seize this opportunity to refine another one of those lotus seeds?” Northern River’s Loose Cultivator was afraid that the fact that Song Shuhang had managed to refine a lotus seed might be just a coincidence. As such, he wanted to see if Song Shuhang could produce more.

　　Song Shuhang thought for a moment, and shook his head. “I’ll stop here for today.”

　　His throat and stomach were still faintly throbbing with pain. Once his throat felt a little better, he would look for Senior Medicine Master and ask him about some medicinal liquid he could drink while eating the Saber Intent Condensing Grass. Only afterward would he make another attempt.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Time flew by.

　　At nightfall, True Monarch Eternal Fire and the other scholarly disciples had finished fixing the severely injured Mountain of Myriad Books.

　　The fellow daoists of the Nine Provinces Number One Group woke up the members of Jacob’s Production Team, and completed the shooting of the few remaining scenes.

　　After they finished shooting the scenes, the flying boats brought the members of Jacob’s Production Team away from the White Cloud Academy.

　　The demons of the Netherworld Realm might drop for a visit at any time, and it was dangerous for the ordinary people of the movie crew to stay at the White Cloud Academy. As a consequence, they were moved to the filming location of the next scene.

　　Then, under Fairy Lychee’s arrangement, the members of Jacob’s Production Team left behind a camera. At the appointed time, Fairy Lychee would use the camera to record the fighting scene where Venerable White was advancing within the horde of demons of the Netherworld Realm, vanquishing demons with each step he was taking.

　　After the shooting of the movie came to an end…

　　True Monarch Eternal Fire decided to turn the Mountain of Myriad Books into a high-priority target that had to be protected at all costs during the invasion of the demons of the Netherworld. After all, the Still Pond of Wisdom was concealed within the Mountain of Myriad Books, and it was the only hope for the White Cloud Academy and the scholarly faction to return to the former glory!

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　The sky started to become dark.

　　After dinner, Song Shuhang arrived at the place the White Cloud Academy had arranged for him to stay.

　　Since the demons of the Netherworld Realm had yet to attack, he decided to seize this opportunity to increase his strength.

　　Song Shuhang first tried to practice the ❮Strong Gale Saber❯ he’d obtained from Cave Lord Snow Wolf. It was a saber technique he had traded for some of his demodragon medicine.

　　Song Shuhang’s talent when it came to saber techniques… was truly outstanding. After practicing it for a few hours, he had completely grasped the moves of the ❮Strong Gale Saber❯. When brandishing the saber, the vague outline of the technique was already visible.

　　He needed just a little more time to successfully cultivate this saber technique that had wild and explosive attacks.

　　After he had finished practicing the saber technique, Song Shuhang took out a brush from his clothes.

　　It was the ‘Heaven and Earth Worshipping Brush’, a scholarly treasure of the Third Stage rank. It was the reward he had obtained after completing the challenge in that ‘infinite make-up test space’.

　　Song Shuhang held the brush in his hand, and started to recall the content of the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯ that was recorded inside the ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯.

　　After contemplating the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯ in his mind, Song Shuhang picked up the brush, and started to write down the characters on a sheet of white paper.

　　Heavy! When he started to write the characters down, the ‘Heaven and Earth Worshipping Brush’ he was holding in his right hand felt incredibly heavy, just as though what he was holding wasn’t a brush but a super heavy iron ingot.

　　It was quite the challenge to perfectly write the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯ with his arm being under so much pressure.

　　As he was going through the memories of the Sage back then—looking at him creating and testing the ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯—Song Shuhang had gotten an idea of the level of difficulty of this secret technique.

　　But when he started to actually write down the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯, he discovered that the process was way more difficult than what he had initially imagined.

　　“If I wasn’t practicing the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯ and didn’t have the help of this ‘Heaven and Earth Worshipping Brush’, I’m afraid that I would have been unable to write even a few characters,” Song Shuhang muttered to himself.

　　It took him a whole two minutes to write down the first ancient characters of the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯.

　　Song Shuhang was dripping with sweat… at the same time, he felt a mysterious energy that he had never felt before flow into his body, tempering and strengthening his constitution.

　　This was precisely the ‘righteousness’ that the Sage had used to temper his body. One only had to write down the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯ to bring forth this type of energy.

　　Other than strengthening his body, the mysterious energy that the Sage called ‘righteousness’ changed into ‘gravitational force’ that pressed down onto Song Shuhang.

　　Song Shuhang felt that his body was around five kilograms heavier now, and he was just at the first character. Would he be able to hold on as the weight kept increasing?

　　Song Shuhang took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, continuing to write the following content of the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯ on the paper.

　　As he was writing down each character, he felt as though he had returned to the time when he had just stepped on the path of cultivation and was practicing the ❮Basic Buddhist Fist Technique❯. That feeling of weakness was surging forward character after character.

　　After writing each character, his constitution would strengthen a bit. At the same time, the gravitational force oppressing him would likewise get stronger.

　　The physical energy he was consuming while writing each new character was getting higher and higher.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Time flew by.

　　August 13th, Tuesday.

　　Deep in the night.

　　Song Shuhang was grabbing the brush with both hands, and didn’t have the time to mind his current posture. At this time, he was lying face-down on the table. Luckily, the table was sturdy enough, and didn’t collapse under his weight.

　　Song Shuhang gritted his teeth, and said, “The final character.”

　　At this moment, his whole body was drenched in sweat, just as though he had come out of the shower. His muscles, which had inflated due to the demodragon medicine earlier, had also returned to normal.

　　While it was strengthening his body, the ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯ also helped Song Shuhang to absorb the remaining strength of the demodragon medicine, allowing his constitution to strengthen at a steady pace.

　　The originally faint ‘starlight’ emanating from Song Shuhang’s body was already starting to turn into ‘moonlight’. It meant that his constitution had strengthened by a small level.

　　The ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯ was, after all, something that the Sage had personally created; its effects were excellent.

　　Song Shuhang clutched the brush with both hands, and finally finished drawing the last character. Afterward, he lost all his strength, and weakly lay on the table.

　　“Crash~”

　　At last, the sturdy table couldn’t bear it anymore, and collapsed under Song Shuhang’s weight.

　　At this time, Song Shuhang didn’t have any strength left, and was thus unable to move.

　　As such, he lay face-down on the broken table and closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

　　The characters written on the white paper in front of him slightly shone; one breath later, they all disappeared without a trace.

　　At the same time, a burst of ‘righteous energy’ flowed back into Song Shuhang’s body. Immediately after, the faint ‘starlight’ shrouding his body thoroughly consolidated and turned into ‘moonlight’.

　　The strength of the body of a cultivator of the Third Stage was divided into four levels, to which corresponded the four meridians—Dazzling Star, Overcast Moon, Blazing Sun, Immaterial King.

　　At this time, Song Shuhang was still in the initial phase of the Third Stage Realm, and he had yet to open any of his meridians.

　　But regardless of that, the strength of his body had already reached that of a cultivator of the Third Stage Second Meridian ‘Overcast Moon Meridian’ Realm.

　　If his constitution kept strengthening at this pace, he might really end up with a body that surpassed his realm like Senior Dharma King Creation from the Nine Provinces Number One Group.

　　The strength of Dharma King Creation’s body had reached the Sixth Stage True Monarch rank while he himself was still in the Fifth Stage Realm.

　　As such, if he continued to exert himself, there was a chance that Song Shuhang might also be able to obtain a body with an intensity of the Fourth Stage rank while he was still in the Third Stage Realm.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　In the size-reducing purse, Lady Onion silently lay above that pile of green onion sprouts, her face full of tears.

　　Song Shuhang was currently unconscious…

　　In addition, there wasn’t any fellow daoist from the Nine Provinces Number One Group in the surrounding area, and even that girl called ‘Su Clan’s Sixteen’ wasn’t accompanying Song Shuhang today. Yu Jiaojiao and Venerable White were nowhere to be seen, either.

　　If she wanted to escape, this was the best opportunity! She wouldn’t find a better one!

　　However… Lady Onion was in the same situation as Song Shuhang. Her body had been drained of its strength, and she didn’t have any strength left at this moment.

　　Earlier, too many of her green onion sprouts were plucked off due to the ❮Berserk Technique❯, and now she didn’t even have the strength to move.

　　Moreover…

　　Lady Onion wiped her tears away and faintly sighed.

　　To tell the truth, she wasn’t really that interested in escaping as of late.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　After he fell asleep, Song Shuhang’s thoughts also entered a strange state.

　　Damn, I forgot about that strange curse of the ancient Jet-Black Sect. Am I going to sink into that strange dreamland again? Song Shuhang thought to himself.

　　Would he have to beg for Senior White Two’s help again?

　　However, he quickly discovered that he didn’t enter that cursed dreamland this time.

　　At this moment, he was seeing everything around him with a 360-degree field of vision, with no blind spots.

　　Everything around him was filth and evil.

　　From the looks of it, he was in the Netherworld Realm.

　　Had he arrived in the Netherworld Realm through the dream? In that case, from whose point of view was he seeing the Netherworld Realm?

　　Am I dreaming of someone’s life again?

　　Song Shuhang immediately thought of his innate skill.