Chapter 313: Stupid Uncle!

Needless to say, the sword that was formed by the five-elemental essences was immensely better than the ordinary swords. Therefore, its speed was more than twice the speed of the swords from before.

A flash of golden light was seen briskly crossing the sky.

The members of the sects in Fifth Heaven, small or prominent, were shocked as they observed this golden light pass through their territories. They couldn't help but gasp, "Nascent Soul Realm!"

Indeed, the speed of this travel technique, which relied on the burning of nature essence, was even comparable to the flying speed of a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator.

No matter how fine the materials, the swords were still made with tangible items. Yet, the sword energy that was cast by Hao Ren was a sword that was made of pure nature essence.

Phew... Carrying Zhao Yanzi, Hao Ren exhale deeply as he descended onto a common-looking mountain.

The gigantic sword now disassembled into 160 sword energies before returning to Hao Ren's body. This flight had exhausted a considerable amount of his nature essence.

In the meantime, unable to withstand the loneliness, Little White was rolling about in the Jiezi space - it was dying to come out.

As Hao Ren opened the necklace, it instantly jumped out onto the grass.

Little White was eager to participate in the intense battles that Hao Ren was in, but Hao Ren did not want to reveal Little White to the world yet, so he did not let it out.

To protest Hao Ren's decision, Little White began tossing and jumping relentlessly.

Ever since it had received the dharma treasure -'Hoofs of Flowing Cloud' from Zhen Congming, Little White's speed had increased by a few dozen times. Besides the experience of accelerated flying, it always wanted to get a taste of real battle as well.

Unsurprisingly, the animals on the land were no match for Little White. Even the tiger and lions would not have the courage to face Little White head-on. It was pointless to be overbearing in front of those weak animals.

Hence, Little White became upset as it felt like a hero with no place to display its power.

Yet, Hao Ren only treated it as a pet and wouldn't let it take part in battles, making Little White feel oppressed inside. After all, it was a snow lion and not a little pet dog! Slapping its paws, Little White chewed on the roots of the trees in the nearby area to express its annoyance and anger.

On the other hand, thinking that Little White was simply playing around and enjoying itself, Zhao Yanzi dashed over to give it a big hug and began tickling it.

Chuu, chuu... Chuu, chuu... Since Little White was extremely ticklish, it instantly started turning and tossing in Zhao Yanzi's arm.

"Little White is the cutest thing ever!" Zhao Yanzi was in a great mood and pressed her cheek affectionately against Little White's fur.

"Alright... I guess it is not too bad being a little pet dog..." Little White soon lost its will to fight. Straightening and stiffening its limbs, it surrendered itself to Zhao Yanzi's gentle caressing of its belly.

Seeing the playful Zhao Yanzi and Little White having fun, Hao Ren found a clean spot and sat down cross-legged while leaning against a big tree.

As he had just achieved a breakthrough, used the Two Dragons Array Formation, and then dashed away on his sword energy, Hao Ren's reserve of nature essence was almost completely drained.

Now that there was a little time to spare, Hao Ren immediately attempted to recover his nature essence. The level of chaos in Fifth Heaven had surpassed First Heaven by a significant degree. They needed to be prepared for any types of danger that might occur at any moment.

Without the protection of a sect, ordinary cultivators had high chances of being ambushed and killed by others.

Slowly closing his eyes, Hao Ren absorbed the nature essence from the surroundings.

The now hollow dragon core was desperately consuming the nature essence nearby. The intensity of the nature essence here was three times more than that of First Heaven's.

Hao Ren could clearly feel that the energy throughout his body was steadily increasing, and the dragon core was also spinning faster and faster.

Since dragon cultivators were born with such a great cultivation assisting device, their cultivation progress could be unimaginably rapid in such an environment where the intensity of the nature essence was high.

Even though the dragon core in Hao Ren's body was originally from Zhao Yanzi, it had become one with Hao Ren after his prolonged cultivation. Right now, there were 65 openings on it already.

However, as the cultivation technique Hao Ren had was the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll, which required the cultivation of all five elemental essences at once, Hao Ren was not taken as a dragon cultivator by others.

...

With every breath he took, a small amount of nature essence swiftly entered his body!

For the amount of nature essence that would typically take three hours to replenish, it only took an hour here!

Refreshing! Incredibly refreshing!

The battles went smoothly, and so did the recovery!

His nature essence which was almost depleted had been fully replenished in no time!

Resting in Zhao Yanzi's arms, Little White was twitching its nose, hungrily sniffing the nature essence this place had to offer!

Although elixir pills could also restore one's nature essence, nothing could be as natural and pure as the process of natural refinement like this. For demon beasts like Little White, the more often they stayed in places where nature essence was highly concentrated, the quicker their advancement would come!

Suddenly, a black dash of light rushed toward them.

Hao Ren looked at the time. As they had agreed upon, it had been precisely two hours.

Breathing heavily, Zhen Congming was carrying a large sack on his back as he called out to Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi, "Let's go!"

Noticing the anxious expression on Zhen Congming's face, Hao Ren did not bother to ask what he was up to; he certainly was up to no good.

With a spin, Little White turned into its snow lion form and let Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi get on its back; its golden paws were emitting specks of golden light.

Standing on the black disk, Zhen Congming led the way through the blockage array formation between Fifth Heaven and the lower heavens.

His sack was completely filled with spiritual herbs. Since he had just stolen these spiritual herbs, some were still heavily covered in soil. For this reason, he had to first take them back and wash them clean before placing them into his storage space.

With just one visit from Zhen Congming, a few sects in Fifth Heaven suffered great losses. The mountains behind their residences, the spiritual gardens, and even the well-protected spiritual fields had all been overturned. Any spiritual herbs that were older than 500 years were dug out and snatched.

Back then, just as how a rabbit would not eat the grass around its burrow, he didn't want to steal from the Hundred-Flower Palace inside the East Ocean Dragon Palace. Therefore, he would periodically visit Sixth Heaven or Seventh Heaven for a 'harvest' to replenish his stock and supplies.

At this time, his master Qiu Niu was in a seclusion cultivation in the Nine Dragon Palace. Since the Nine Dragon Palace was completely cut off from the outside world, even Zhen Congming had no way of getting in touch with his master. Therefore, Zhen Congming had to rely on Hao Ren and did not dare to run rampant. There were undoubtedly powerful masters in Sixth Heaven and Seventh Heaven who didn't care that much about his title as Qiu Niu's disciple. Therefore, in order to be safe, he could only lower his standards and target the weak Fifth Heaven for his spiritual herbs.

Even though the spiritual herbs from Fifth Heaven could not compare to those planted by prominent sects in Sixth Heaven and Seventh Heaven, they were still better than the spiritual herbs grown by the clumsy dragon cultivators; they were older, purer, and were of a greater variety.

After all, elixir making was never a strong point of dragon cultivators; even the supreme forces like the four ocean dragon palaces didn't have great elixir masters. Thus, they could never be entrusted for growing fine spiritual herbs. On the other hand, human cultivators were weaker physically, so they relied more on elixirs and became more professional in growing spiritual herbs over time.

Nevertheless, Zhen Congming's relentless stealing of the spiritual herbs that the sects had spent thousands of years of effort on was enough to cause heartaches in those affected in Fifth Heaven.

Yet, there was nothing that they could do. Even if they sent out their entire sect, no one could catch up to Zhen Congming's flight dharma treasure.

Sadly, they could only watch Zhen Congming run for his life with the sack on his back... All the precautious, defensive, and offensive array formations were nothing when put against Zhen Congming! Regarding theft and robbery, the gangs of hooligan cultivators on Fifth Heaven could not be compared to Zhen Congming; he was in a league of his own!

The two red energy spheres rapidly traversed through the white clouds and reached the land.

The black disk and Little White's paws firmly descended onto the top of a skyscraper.

"Remember to count me in when you're set to revisit Fifth Heaven in the future!" With a red glow on his face, Zhen Congming said to Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi while putting away his black disk.

Since they were in a rush today, there were many sects that Zhen Congming did not have the chance to 'patronize'. Still, what he harvested today was enough to restock his storage.

"Sure, we'll let you know!" Zhao Yanzi replied.

She had no idea the kind of disaster her promise would bring to the sects on Fifth Heaven.

"Hee, hee, hee, hee..." Zhen Congming was utterly delighted. Humming a tune, he raised a red energy sphere and drifted toward the ocean.

"With this much material, Xie Yujia should be able to try out the elixir recipes one by one... Although I can't learn her way of elixir making, I can at least ask her to make elixirs for me... How easy would it be for me to complete the task assigned to me by my master now," Zhen Congming became proud and satisfied as he went further away.

"Let's go!" Zhao Yanzi suddenly turned to Hao Ren and said.

It had been three hours since they had sneaked out and went to Fifth Heaven. Zhao Yanzi told her mom that they were going out for food. If they didn't return soon, Zhao Hongyu would surely become suspicious.

However, it was this trip to Fifth Heaven that made Zhao Yanzi realize how much Hao Ren cared for her. Thanks to this trip, she was able to witness how Hao Ren became enraged for her sake. Thinking of that, Zhao Yanzi felt like her heart was filled with warmth and joy.

Zhao Yanzi walked closer to Hao Ren and held his hand. She then pulled him down the staircase as they walked through the door on the roof.

"What are you doing?" Hao Ren was not used to Zhao Yanzi's display of warmth and sudden change of attitude. She was never a forward and active person who would take the initiative to hold his hand.

"Humph, this is a reward for taking me on an adventure to Fifth Heaven!" Zhao Yanzi's soft small hands lightly squeezed his hand.

If Ling, Zhao Yanzi's best friend, were to see this little gesture from Zhao Yanzi, she would be in disbelief... Zhao Yanzi never held back the display of her disdain toward this 'uncle' to Ling, yet, she was now taking the initiative to hold his hand?

"Well then... what other rewards are there?" Hao Ren asked again while being pulled toward the staircase by her.

Zhao Yanzi suddenly turned and glared at Hao Ren.

"Uh..." Shocked by her reaction, Hao Ren's feet froze in place.

However, to Hao Ren's surprise, shades of red appeared on Zhao Yanzi's cheeks as she muttered through her bitten lips, "Jerk!"

"What?..." Hao Ren was baffled.

Zhao Yanzi, who froze after hearing Hao Ren's remark, suddenly threw a big punch onto Hao Ren's chest after seeing the dull expression on his face.

Immediately after that, she forcefully dragged Hao Ren toward the elevator.

"Dull uncle, evil uncle, stupid uncle..." Zhao Yanzi cursed Hao Ren with all her might in her mind.

Rubbing his chest, Hao Ren had no clue why Zhao Yanzi got mad suddenly.

"I can never guess what's on a girl's mind..." Looking at Zhao Yanzi's reflection in the mirror of the elevator, Hao Ren shook his head helplessly.