However, by the time Ye Chu turned around, both women had already submerged their bodies in the water. Ripples danced across the surface, making it impossible to see clearly what they looked like beneath.
Ye Chu felt it was quite a pity. He stepped into the pool and walked straight to the middle, right between the two women. This startled Ye Jingyun into shouting, “What are you doing?”
“Soaking in the spiritual spring, of course!” Ye Chu replied to the two women as though it were the most natural thing in the world. After speaking, he casually lay down right in the middle of them.
Tan Miaotong and Ye Jingyun exchanged a glance. Seeing Ye Chu’s utterly matter-of-fact expression, they felt helpless. They could only shift slightly to the sides. A shy blush crept across their pretty faces.
“You really are a rogue!” Ye Jingyun could not help cursing at Ye Chu.
“Me, a rogue?” Ye Chu widened his eyes and stared at Ye Jingyun. “Please watch your words, alright? If I remember correctly, outside just now you promised to let me touch your thighs however I wanted. What’s the matter? Are you going back on your word now?”
“You…” Ye Jingyun’s face flushed crimson. She turned her head away, pretending not to see Ye Chu.
Tan Miaotong giggled softly from the side. But when Ye Chu’s gaze turned to her, she could not help becoming shy again. A rosy glow spread across her charming face, utterly captivating.
“Miaotong is much prettier than her. I’d rather touch Miaotong!” Ye Chu winked at Tan Miaotong.
Tan Miaotong bit her lip and gave Ye Chu a sideways glance. Her expression was shy yet carried an alluring charm. Especially with the mist from the spiritual spring enveloping her, her skin looked even more delicate and tender. It made Ye Chu feel utterly dazed.
“Aren’t you going to start absorbing the spiritual energy?” Tan Miaotong saw Ye Chu staring at her nonstop. Feeling flustered, she could not help reminding him. Her voice was soft and gentle, like a feather.
Ye Chu nodded at Tan Miaotong. He glanced at Ye Jingyun and saw that the woman had already immersed herself in absorbing the spiritual energy from the spring.
He drew his mind into his qi sea. Ye Chu controlled his body and began to absorb the spiritual spring earnestly. The spiritual energy in the spring truly was dense, and its affinity with people was extremely high. The moment Ye Chu began circulating his cultivation technique, spiritual energy surged madly into his body.
Ye Chu’s primordial spirit moved along with the patterns on the black iron. This made his absorption speed even faster. The spiritual energy from the spring flowed like water, continuously washing through Ye Chu’s body.
Ye Jingyun was startled and could not help looking towards Ye Chu. She saw the surrounding spiritual energy rushing frantically into Ye Chu’s body. This made her freeze for a moment. Even as a Primordial Spirit Realm cultivator, her absorption had never caused such a surge. Yet Ye Chu, merely in the Innate Realm, was making the spring water boil and churn endlessly.
This struck Ye Jingyun as utterly unbelievable. How could a mere Innate Realm cultivator absorb spiritual energy faster and in greater quantity than her, a Primordial Spirit Realm cultivator? It was simply inconceivable.
“Is he really that scum and rogue from Yao City?” Ye Jingyun could only feel that the world was too unpredictable. Who could have imagined that three years ago, this very person had been the most despised figure in all of Yao City?
She shook her head and pushed those emotions out of her mind.
Ye Chu continued to devour spiritual energy at a frantic pace. The spiritual energy merged into his body with a warm, nourishing sensation. The qi sea that had expanded because of the black iron began to fill with wave after wave of spiritual energy.
This filling process was terrifying. It was visibly increasing at a rapid pace.
The black iron in his qi sea still flickered with cyan light. The cyan glow seeped into Ye Chu’s body. Ye Chu felt his qi sea continuing to expand while his primordial spirit grew steadily stronger. With this influx of spiritual energy, his primordial spirit began to undergo gradual transformation.
The patterns on the black iron were truly miraculous. Every time Ye Chu circulated them, he experienced a different sensation. His primordial spirit was continuously tempered by this process! Although Ye Chu did not possess a complete spirit-forging technique, he felt that as long as he followed the patterns’ circulation, any spirit-forging technique would be unnecessary for him.
This kind of spirit forging was terrifying. Ye Chu discovered that his primordial spirit had already grown several times larger than before. Although the advantage was not yet obvious and could not compare to those of certain prodigies, Ye Chu knew that as long as he continued cultivating steadily, his primordial spirit would absolutely not be inferior to theirs.
With the black iron altering his talent, Ye Chu’s future potential could also reach the level of those prodigies.
His body devoured spiritual energy madly while his primordial spirit carried his will realm. The transformation of Ye Chu’s will realm during the battle at Yong Peak had been extremely clear. It now possessed a lively, nimble intent. This was an enormous advantage. Only great cultivators could possibly possess such a lively intent. Yet Ye Chu, merely in the Innate Realm, already had it. For him, this was a tremendous edge.
At this moment it might not be obvious, but as it gradually matured, Ye Chu could turn it into a terrifying trump card.
With the black iron and spiritual energy pouring into his primordial spirit simultaneously, Ye Chu felt his mind become much clearer. His understanding of his will realm deepened with sudden insight. The will realm gradually fused and merged into his mind.
……
The three of them absorbed frantically in the spiritual spring. Spiritual energy surged into their bodies. Tan Miaotong remained charming and alluring. Although a great deal of spiritual energy poured into her, her aura showed no change whatsoever. Meanwhile, Ye Chu and Ye Jingyun’s strength continued to rise steadily until they soon reached a bottleneck.
With the support of such terrifying spiritual energy, everything happened naturally. The two broke through the bottleneck and advanced one layer each.
After advancing one layer, the effect of the spiritual spring gradually weakened. The spiritual energy merging into Ye Chu and Ye Jingyun’s bodies slowed down. The spiritual energy entering them now mainly helped stabilise their newly broken-through realms.
Ye Chu understood that this spiritual energy had already pushed their advancement to the limit. Continuing to soak would be useless.
Just as Ye Chu let out a soft breath and withdrew his mind, he saw Ye Jingyun take out a long old vine from somewhere. She tied several irregularly shaped stones to it and tossed it towards the source where the spiritual spring gushed forth.
“What are you doing?” Ye Chu asked in confusion.
“Haven’t you noticed that this spiritual spring was artificially cultivated? If it were a natural innate spiritual spring, it would be useful even to great cultivators. But it only benefits those below the Primordial Spirit Realm. So this place must have been man-made,” Ye Jingyun replied.
Ye Chu thought about it and felt it made sense. He watched as Ye Jingyun turned the vine continuously and followed her gaze.
“There really is something!” Ye Jingyun suddenly laughed. She yanked the vine upward forcefully. Hanging from one of the large irregular stones was a sheepskin scroll that shimmered with flowing light. Various gemstones were embedded in the sheepskin. The light from the gems converged to form an array. When Ye Jingyun pulled it out, she saw the surrounding spiritual energy rushing towards the scroll.
“A spirit-gathering array!”
Ye Jingyun was shaken. Ye Chu also looked at the sheepskin scroll in surprise. He thought to himself that Ye Jingyun had truly found a treasure. Clearly, this spiritual spring had formed because of this sheepskin scroll.
“What a good item! For my family, this thing would be extremely useful!” Ye Jingyun could not help feeling delighted. Spirit-gathering arrays existed in abundance in the world, and her clan had them too. But this kind—one engraved on a sheepskin scroll and placed in a spring to turn ordinary water into a spiritual spring—was something her clan did not possess.
“There seem to be words on it!” Tan Miaotong also opened her eyes. She leaned over to take a look and said to Ye Jingyun. This made Ye Chu perk up with interest as well.