It was morning when Yan Zaizen finally woke up. The sunlight shone in the cove in a similar way that the moonlight did. "What...happened?!" Getting himself up, he realized that the surrounding walls were missing a few rocks here and there. The skyship seemed fine, but the formation shield he activated was gone. The first thing he did in his panic was to check the status of the ship because, without it, he had no way of getting to Xuanwu City on time.
Thankfully, the skyship was fine, but the essence fuel reserves were completely gone. This bewildered him. He imagined something had attacked him and tried to destroy the shield, but could do nothing but completely deplete the fuel reserves. Therefore, he was safe. He didn't care about the fuel, he had essence in his possession to fuel this skyship dozens of times.
As long as he was alive, what else mattered?
"Hm…" He felt that something was off. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but something was different. Looking around, he didn't find anything out of place. Looking at his body, he had all of his clothes, his limbs, and hair. However, he just couldn't put his finger on it. He used his spiritual sense to see if there was anything in the surroundings, but when he did his eyes widened larger than they've ever been before.
"Impossible!" He screamed. His spiritual sense was no longer limited to 3,000 meters. No, it could reach nearly 50,000 meters!!! The clarity of it was exceptional. He could feel every ounce of movement of the water, the grass, insects, or even the air. This was beyond unbelievable!
"But...how?!" He questioned.
Wait.
He checked his Soul Form and when he did, he realized there was a silver-blue Aurora Borealis floating snuggly within it. Within it, a black shadow and white flame circulating around each other like they were dancing partners. These were his conceptual laws! Wouldn't that mean...he broke through the Aurora Soul Realm?! How was that possible?
Over the past few months, he's been progressing at such a fast speed that he found it unbelievable. It was like, a lifetime of misfortune would follow a lifetime of fortune. He looked at the Meteor Ring and attributed all of his increases to it. He felt that if that meteor never hit him, he would've never reached this level in his lifetime.
He entered the Meteor Ring, and when he did, he noticed an Aurora Borealis floating and lightning up this space. It was several thousand times larger than the one in his soul form, and it was extraordinarily beautiful. It seems the Meteor Ring and his soul was interconnected. Makes sense, it could only be used with soul energy and it couldn't be taken off. So, it's likely attached to his soul.
Thinking up to here, he grabbed one of the books from before. As he held it, he had a strange sensation like he could take it with him. Acting on this, he focused his intentions and wrapped the book with his soul energy.
It vanished.
"!!!" His mind was startled, and then an incomparable happiness surged in his eyes. He can finally take things out! He exited out of the ring and saw the book in his hand. He covered it with his soul energy once more and focused his intentions to send it into the ring.
It vanished.
The book returned to the ring as if it was never in the real world.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" He felt an incomparable level of happiness and excitement at the moment. Not only did his soul break through the Aurora Realm, he can now take the fortune in the Meteor Ring as his own, and obtained a great fortune of a skyship and nearly an entire clan's wealth. He just felt satisfied.
After several hours of happy antics of laughter, chuckles, and hehes, he finally calmed down. He looked at the skyship with a little thought. Could he? He placed his hand on it, and it vanished. By now, his control over the removal and storage function of the ring has been thoroughly tested. The skyship can be stored and removed with a little bit of soul energy. He learned, regardless of size or essence emissions, it always used the same amount of soul energy.
This meant he could store and retrieve the ship at a moment's notice without any delay. This ring was beyond magical. Now, he had four months before he can return home. During which, he can now cultivate in this location, and wouldn't have to worry about the skyship being spotted accidentally.
"Now, what should I begin with?" After he calmed down, he realized he had a ton of time to spare and resources to waste. Four months of continuous cultivation? Not only would he be seventeen, but his cultivation will rise incredibly high.
Unfortunately, his body cultivation had to be put on hold. The core reason for this was because it couldn't be sped up with resources, and required just time and effort. Only after he reaches the Perfect Stage of the Nascent Herculean Physique will he be able to use resources to propel his cultivation. This was because the initial stage is about removing the limiters of the body and reconstructing the body into a complete Herculean, not enhancing the physique. That required time, time which he did not have at the moment.
He didn't even think about soul cultivation. It was high, and even if he used the spirit essence material in the Meteor Ring for his cultivation, the amount of headway he could reach in four to five months would be minimal.
Which left qi cultivation and conceptual law comprehension!
Qi Cultivation is all about using resources to propel one's cultivation. While all forms of cultivation required resources, Qi Cultivation overall uses the most and had the most benefits generally speaking. Because it's pretty much linear for every cultivator, there's no great difference like there is in Body Cultivation or require incredibly high enlightenment like Soul Cultivation.
He took out a mid-grade essence crystal from the Meteor Ring. His eyes lit up with avarice. When he first saw this, he was surprised. If to put it in perspective, the unrefined essence chair in the Great Serpentine Emporium was worth 1,000,000 drops of low-grade liquid essence. However, that was only a low-grade essence crystal. This mid-grade essence crystal was worth 100 low-grade essence crystal.
That's right.
100,000,000 drops of low-grade freaking liquid essence!!!
With this alone, he was wealthy enough to go to an auction and buy everything. However, he decided to use this for cultivation. Despite being the same grade as the respective drops, it's completely different. Imagine a drop of water vs a diamond. The value was astronomically different, and that's the same for its effect. In terms of purity, essence concentration, and rarity, it was beyond any form of liquid essence could rival.
Typically, low-grade essence drops were used for Qi Revolving and Essence Formation Cultivators. Mid-grade essence drops for Essence Formation and Qi Unification Cultivators. High-grade essence drops for Qi Unification and Origin Core Cultivators. In terms of essence crystals, only Origin Core and True Essence Cultivators would typically use them.
Now he, at the half-step Essence Formation Realm, was planning to use it to enhance and solidify his cultivation base. Who could match his level of spendthrift?
"Time to get started!" Holding the crystal essence in hand, he could feel it radiating a pure form of essence he has never come across before. Anticipation colored his face, and he began.