Warrior’s Promise

As Hong Qingxuan cultivated, Su Mo stepped out of the Divine Map. He had heard someone knocking on the door through the mental imprint he had left on the Map.

He opened the door to the tower and was greeted by Tian Chen who was beaming with excitement.

“11th Junior Brother, I’m here to…” Tian Chen began but Su Mo stopped him.

“I know, let’s go to your tower!” Su Mo said with a smile.

“Great!”

They left for Tian Chen’s tower.

“11th Junior Brother, what should I do?” Tian Chen asked. They had reached his practice room and he was looking hopefully at Su Mo.

Tian Chen could not wait to begin. Having witnessed Su Mo’s rapid increase in cultivation, now that he finally had a chance to do the same, he was bursting with excitement.

“Take out 100 million Medium Spiritual Stones!” Su Mo ordered. And then he felt that the room was too small to hold 100 million spiritual stones, so he hastily changed his mind. “50 million should be enough!”

“Ok!” Tian Chen nodded solemnly. With a wave of his hand, 50 million Medium Spiritual Stones appeared, practically filling up the entire room.

“Explode!” Su Mo shouted. He exerted his Devouring Martial Soul.

50 million Spiritual Stones exploded immediately and a dense Spiritual Qi fog filled the room.

Tian Chen was utterly stunned. Su Mo quickly shouted to him, “10th Senior Brother, what are you waiting for?”

“Ah!” Tian Chen suddenly came back to his senses and jumped to his feet. “Holy cow! What dense Spiritual Qi!” he marveled.

“Ha Ha!” He laughed. He sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate.

“10th Senior Brother, please keep this secret to yourself, or you won’t be able to enjoy this benefit in the future!” Su Mo cautioned Tian Chen.

Su Mo liked Tian Chen, and was willing to aid him in his cultivation, but he did not want others to know about this.

This would do him more harm than good!

“Ha ha! No problem, don’t you worry!” Tian Chen laughed.

Tell the others? Was he crazy?

Once his cultivation spiked, he planned to act clueless in front of the other seniors!

How could he reveal the truth to the others?

Tian Chen knew that he ranked last amongst the disciples in both talent and cultivation. He could not help but feel elated at the thought of surpassing the others once his cultivation increased.

Su Mo nodded. He left Tian Chen’s tower and returned to the Divine Map’s Space.

He sat cross-legged in the yard and started to cultivate the Nirvana Cultivation Method once again.

The 10,000 Upper Spiritual Stones he had were not nearly enough to do anything with. Craftsmanship and increasing the level of his Martial Soul and cultivation would all have to wait for now.

Su Mo did not cultivate with Hong Qingxuan either, in spite of her wealth of Spiritual Stones.

Firstly, for the time being, he was unable to devour Spiritual Stones, and secondly, he needed an enormous amount of Spiritual Qi for his strength to move to the next level. Her spiritual stones were not enough for him to increase his cultivation one bit!

“I’ll head out to train first. I need to get more Spiritual Stones, even if I have to resort to looting!” he thought.

He needed far too many Spiritual Stones, a King’s ransom.

There was no way he would be able to obtain this many if he wasn’t prepared to loot someone.

He did a rough calculation and concluded that he would need to reach at least Lv 5 or 6 True Darkness Realm in order to have the strength of a Martial King.

He would need a multitude of Spiritual Stones to even hit this level, not to mention the stones he would need to increase his physical strength and Martial Soul.

He didn’t have much time left either. With just over a year remaining, he had to head toward the Central Continent in the next three months.

All he could do was train his hardest.

Loot!

Loot all that he could!

Time passed slowly as Su Mo cultivated. 6 hours passed before Hong Qingxuan stepped out of the stone hut.

Su Mo heard her footsteps and slowly opened his eyes.

“Qingxuan! Congratulations on attaining the True Darkness Realm!” He beamed at her cultivation.

Hong Qingxuan was now at Lv 1 True Darkness Realm and had reached the Late-stage. There was a mighty surge in her aura.

He estimated that her combat strength was probably on par with a Lv 4 True Darkness Realm martial artist!

“Brother Su Mo, this is all thanks to you!” She replied with a smile. She would not have been able to break through to the next realm so quickly if it wasn’t for his help.

“There’s no need for such formalities!” Su Mo waved it off.

“Qingxuan, you’re familiar with Dark Domain. Do you know anywhere suitable for training, or anywhere I can earn an enormous amount of Spiritual Stones?” he asked.

“Earn Spiritual Stones?”

Hong Qingxuan thought about it for a moment, then said, “Brother Su Mo, I heard from my master that there will be a Talents’ Grand Gathering in two months. It’s being organized by the seven major powers of the East Continent. There will be generous rewards given out.”

“Generous rewards?” Su Mo’s eyes lit up, but the light soon dimmed.

It was still two months away!

He could not wait around for two months!

Still, he asked. “What kind of rewards?”

“I’m not sure yet!” She shook her head.

“Cold blood Hall will be hosting it, and the seven major powers will all contribute to the final reward. The details are still being worked out.”

“Cold-blood Hall!” Su Mo’s eyes narrowed. It was not easy to deal with them. They practiced cruel cultivation methods and had no scruples.

He may have devoured blood to cultivate at times, but he only devoured his enemies’ blood. He had never harmed the innocent.

Cold-blood Hall was different. They devoured blood to increase their cultivation without remorse, and anyone could be their nutrition!

He wondered what the reason behind them hosting this gathering was.

He shook his head. This was not something he could meddle in at the moment.

He sighed. “That’s still two months away! Qingxuan, as you know, I need an enormous amount of Spiritual Stones to cultivate. I plan to head outside to train and find ways to earn some Spiritual Stones.”

“Alright! Let’s head out together then!” Hong Qingxuan nodded, then continued, “There are many treasure spots within Hong Domain. I’ll go with you!”

Su Mo nodded in agreement. Hong Qingxuan was very strong, so travelling together was unlikely to be a problem.

They agreed on a departure time, then Su Mo sent her out of the Divine Map’s Space.

After she left, he returned to the Map Space and started to peruse the jade slip as he cultivated.

This jade slip was also from Firmament Palace. It listed all the disciples that had passed through their gates over the past few centuries.

There were official disciples, disciples-in-name and master disciples.

Now that he was free, he could look at the names on the list.

It would be great if there was a talent he could tap onto!