Chapter 201: Heading towards the Black Pillar

The next morning, Yi Chen woke up the moment the early rays of the sun shone on his eyes.

’It’s morning,’ he thought, stretching his arms out wide while yawning. A few seconds later, he got up and busied himself with freshening up.

He would be leaving for the tomb’s core today, and since the journey was going to be a long one, he left early so it would be more convenient for him.

An hour later, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and glanced at the hundred or so clay pots that were filled to the brim.

A regretful expression was evident in his eyes.

"Sadly, that’s the most I can carry around with me..." he said with a bitter smile.

He had tried storing just water inside his storage ring at first, but that idea had failed. Strangely, there needed to be a container to hold the water for it to be stored inside the storage ring.

’In the few novels I read, the storage items could hold fluid in them as well...is it because my storage ring is a low-grade artefact?’

Yi Chen mused, but didn’t think over it much. It was not like doing so would suddenly allow him to take more water with him.

With a regretful sigh, he waved his hand, and a hundred or so pots entered his storage ring the next instant.

"I’ll make sure to use them as conservatively as possible," he thought while glancing at the pond one last time.

’Now that I think of it, won’t the pond’s status panel also be visible?’

He thought curiously, and the next second willed for it to open.

========STATUS========

Name : Mystical Pond

Usage : Replenishes spiritual energy and spiritual Qi consumption.

Remark : Shouldn’t exist in this realm, but does. (Regenerate 10,000 EXP)

======================

’Shouldn’t exist in this realm but does?’ Seeing the cryptic line, Yi Chen’s curiosity was stoked.

A desire to regenerate the response welled up in his mind, but the amount of experience points he had with him soon gave him a reality check.

"Whatever...most probably it means that this pond is more special than I had thought. Even more reason for me to use the stored water judiciously."

He nodded subtly and, after finishing some final checks to ensure that he had not left anything behind, turned to face the towering black pillar.

"Let’s go then," He muttered and, using the Bursting Fire Steps, headed towards the tomb’s core.

BURST!

BURST!

BURST!

While he was in the middle of navigating through the forest at a pace much faster than ten days before, an amused expression formed on his face.

’In the last ten days I’ve used the Bursting Fire Steps so often that it finally breached the 89% barrier...’

With a grin, he glanced at the comprehension percentage, which was now at 91%.

The changes were clearly observable.

The speed of his movements had increased substantially the moment he entered the 90% mark. Along with that, the loud bursting sound created with each use had also dimmed by one-fourth.

’At 100% comprehension, won’t it become completely silent then?’

Yi Chen thought in excitement, apparent in his eyes as the image of him moving like an apparition and surprising his friends and foes appeared in his mind.

Bursting Fire Steps was considered a great technique among the Tier 3 low-level martial techniques in the kingdom.

However, one of its major drawbacks when compared to other movement techniques at the same level was the intense sound it made.

Thanks to it, a cultivator could easily determine the location of the user, thus making it ineffective while escaping or in situations that required one to be stealthy.

Despite this drawback, what made it popular among fire-natured cultivators was that it completely outshone other techniques in terms of maximum speed and instant acceleration.

’Once the technique becomes completely silent, won’t it end up becoming unmatchable in its level?’

Yi Chen’s eyes shone in thought as he continued to move deeper and deeper into the forest, never losing sight of the towering black pillar in the sky.

Since there were many other cultivators inside the tomb as well, it was natural for him to encounter a few in the last ten days when he had been actively searching all through the forest for beasts.

The ones he had encountered till now were mostly unprepared cultivators who were treading extremely carefully, afraid of encountering ghostly beasts.

They were confused, scared and anxious. Cursing their decision to enter this forest each and every second.

Whenever Yi Chen’s figure used to go past them, they used to look towards him with pleading eyes as if wanting him to help them.

However, he had chosen to ignore them and focus instead on his own grinding.

Seeing how strong Yi Chen was and how brazenly he was acting in this terrifying forest, the other parties were also hesitant to approach him openly and ask for help.

By the time they were able to gather enough courage, Yi Chen would have been done with his business and would already be looking for other beasts.

Thanks to this, in the last ten days, he had little to no interaction with other cultivators.

As for feeling guilty for not helping them? He felt none.

He wasn’t strong enough to ensure nothing happened to them in this tomb. Moreover, it was their own decision to enter the tomb, so they had to face the consequences as well.

The sun’s rays intensified, and by now Yi Chen had covered more than fifty kilometres.

Seeing that his Qi pool was on the verge of finishing, he stopped beside a tall tree to rest.

Sitting on the ground, with his back resting on the tree trunk, he took out a Qi Nourishing Pill and swallowed it whole.

Closing his eyes, he busied himself with refilling his Qi pool, which took a little more than ten minutes.

Using the Mystical Pond’s water would have been much quicker, but he had no intention of wasting such a precious resource on such routine tasks.

’I have more than enough Qi Nourishing Pills and Spirit Stones to make up for such things,’ he thought.

Although this cost him more time, it was a loss he was willing to take.

"Let’s eat some snacks and leave," Yi Chen muttered, and took out a freshly prepared meal he had stored in his storage ring previously and busied himself.

However, before he could satiate his stomach’s cravings, he was alerted by panic-filled cries.

"Keep running! I can’t fight them all!"

"But they will catch us at this rate, Leader Tian!"

"Just keep running!"

"Please do something, I can’t run anymore!"

Panic-filled cries entered Yi Chen’s ears the next moment, which were accompanied by the roaring of beasts.

"It’s them..." Yi Chen muttered when he noticed two cultivators being chased by four wolflike beasts.

They were the same people whom Gao Zhen had refused to offer food the other day.

Just as Yi Chen had noticed the two of them, the middle-aged man and the woman had also noticed him.

Meeting each other’s eyes, they nodded with a determined glint and started running in Yi Chen’s direction the next instant.

Seeing this, Yi Chen’s eyes narrowed.

’So, after disturbing my lunch, you also want to pull aggro towards me?’