Chapter 123: Sun-Moon Gleaming Glass

Shen consoled himself since he couldn’t break through to the next stage of his Nature Qi.

In the first place, he tamed the Spirited Snake Turtle for its ability to increase the size of the Realm of the Violet Jade Immortal. Although his realm changed a certain amount, the fundamental rules were still there.

He grabbed the Spirited Snake Turtle and moved inside the Immortal Realm. Since he already tamed the snake turtle, there shouldn’t be any trouble.

As expected, he entered the realm without any resistance.

He entered the Immortal along with the Spirited Snake Turtle because he wanted to see the change in the realm with his own eyes. He had yet to see the realm upgrade in real-time.

The scene that welcomed him wasn’t the realm expanding, but... already expanded...

Once again, Shen encountered another situation where he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He ignored the feeling of disappointment rising from his heart and surveyed the realm properly. Although it was supposed to expand only. There were some differences.

The most obvious change was the realm didn’t have any width and length anymore. Not only did it become circular but also three times bigger in size. The large lake became equally bigger and deeper. The gorgeous Absolute Tree still took the centermost spot of the realm. The small pond which housed the Absolute Tree hadn’t changed in size, no, it became smaller than before.

Shen consoled himself seeing the great upgrade. He only miscalculated this time. Maybe the change happened as soon as the contract was formed. Just in  case, he checked the tablet. Who knows, after the passionate night the realm might have another upgrade.

But when he checked the stone tablet, he realized how foolish his thought was. Not long ago he trained inside the Immortal Realm, how could such a big change go unnoticed by him?

He knew the change was related to the skill of the Spirited Snake Turtle, though he forgot the name of the ability itself.

For the first time, he slightly missed the system of his previous life.

Although information shown for the normal beasts were limited. One could see detailed info about their tamed beasts.

While his Absolute Vision was great, it didn’t show abilities or skills. In fact, it only revealed the true form and auras. Prevented him from getting caught in illusion. But this skill never showed information about something.

He could only get concrete details similar to a system window from his main ability, Absolute Upgrade.

However, it was only limited to non-living items. Even a normal piece of wood could be appraised.

Shen looked at the turtle looking at its left and right. It was surprised at the sudden change of scenery. Not to mention, all the water around it suddenly disappeared.

It first ran towards the nearest small pond but stopped half-way. Then it ran to the lake.

Shen found the turtle funny. Especially with its long snake tail still unconscious as it was getting dragged along the main body.

Shen stopped the turtle through conversing with it through his Spiritual Sense. It was much older and high in cultivation, so it was easier to converse through Spiritual Sense.

After a short communication, Shen decided to let the turtle out as a test. Since the change happened as soon as he tamed the turtle, the change should remain even if the turtle wasn’t inside the realm.

And as the turtle disappeared, Shen found no change.

But if it were to perish, the realm itself would revert to its past appearance. Reminding himself not to summon the turtle in a dangerous situation, Shen left the realm.

‘It shouldn’t get bored since it lived just fine for countless years in this swamp,’ he mumbled.

It was time for the real mission. Taming the turtle was only a part of this scavenging mission.

He checked the room which seemed like the den of the Spirited Snake Turtle. Considering how it ran in panic, Shen could easily deduce that much.

For a king of a rich area, it should have some treasure inside its den. And Shen was pretty excited about this. Even if it wasn’t something precious, it should have something decent.

He tossed around some good quality jade-like stones. They had little spiritual qi inside but pretty nonetheless.

Shen looked around and found the turtle rummaging through something. It mostly consisted of precious spiritual stones. It was a kind of stone filled with strong spiritual qi. Furthermore, it came in quite a huge quantity. The stones which he tossed into the realm previously also had spiritual qi, just not as abundant as those inside the small stones.

Shen didn’t hold back and immediately threw all of them into the Immortal Realm.

Shen observed the place yet again. Finally noticing the plants here were of good quality and the current Immortal Realm had tons of extra spaces, he threw them all.

He even flipped ordinary stones to see if there was anything hidden behind. Finally not finding anything, he glared at the innocent turtle, “Hey, if you are hiding something quickly take them out. We’ll be leaving soon anyway, don’t think we are coming here again!” His words were sharp even though he only talked with a turtle, making one wonder exactly how long his greed stretched to...

As expected, the turtle could only blink cutely at this greedy owner. All it had was already taken by Shen. And as for others, whatever it found precious was long gone inside its bottomless pit.

Annoyed, Shen muttered, “Alright, you’re searching for everything precious inside the swamp!...”

Unknown whether the turtle understood the greedy owner’s intention, its now awoken snake tail rubbed against its Master’s shoulder adorably. Unfortunately, its current owner was filled with greed. Greed for something called Beauty of Portrait, which only served to make things worse for it.

Shen jumped two meters back. He disliked snakes to a certain point. It wasn’t fear or trauma but his suffering started from a snake, so he disliked them equally.

Making sure to work the turtle as much as possible, he traced his path back.

But before he left the turtle’s den, Shen noticed a piece of large broken rock.

The rock itself wasn’t anything special, there was plenty of broken or crushed rocks. Through one of the cracks, Shen noticed something black.

Curious, he dug out the thing out of the rock.

“A cube?”

It was a black cube.

Absolute Vision didn’t show any reaction but he couldn’t break cube with his current strength either.

Breathless, he put the cube inside the Immortal Realm before ordering the turtle to head up at once.

And for the first time, Shen experienced underwater jet.

Let alone surveying for treasures and fishes, before he realized he was already above the water.

“No wonder I couldn’t catch up with it,” Shen sighed emotionally.

It was fast in water but decided to hide in a shelter. Not only was the Spirited Snake Turtle unsuitable for battle but also, had zero battle sense.

He then ordered the turtle, which could only be used as a mount, to swim around the swamp.

This swamp was a treasure trove to him. Not only just fauna and flora. Somewhere around here should be some rare pills and also one of the twelve Portraits of Beauty!

However, he only knew they were inside the deeper part of the Ten Thousand Turtle Swamp but not the exact location. On top of that, he didn’t have the Pure Gold Fishing Rod which could be used to fish out those treasures.

Shen looked at the swamp surrounded by precipitous cliffs from all four sides. The water here was extremely murky and filled with death Qi. The weak death qi didn’t hinder him but even with his enhanced vision, he could hardly see anything below. His spiritual qi seemed to be held by something and couldn’t penetrate deep inside.

Most of all, he didn’t want to swim inside that disgusting looking water.

Just as he was about to issue a new order to the turtle, he was wrapped inside clean water.

“Woah,” Shen marveled at the fluid control of water element. He mostly concentrated on his Yang Element, so his control over Water Element was minuscule. Seeing the turtle controlling it fluidly, Shen let out an amazed whistle.

“I didn’t know you had this ability,” he mumbled as he gazed at the end of the swamp. By earliest, he estimated it would take two and a half days to go through the whole swamp.

Even then, Shen felt he would profit hugely. No, just profit alone couldn’t amount to his gain. After all, there were only twelve portraits like this in the whole continent. Getting one just by searching for two days was barely any effort.

As the turtle swam inside the murky swamp, Shen started to feel the presence of many demonic beasts. However, none were close to the Martial King Realm.

Shen erased his vigilance but kept his guard up. He ordered the turtle to suppress its presence, after all, most of the fish or turtles would run away from the turtle’s presence. He had to concentrate on his spiritual sense to cover a large if he wanted to reduce the time.

And his spiritual sense stopped only after a few dozens of meters.

Shen sighed before retracting his spiritual sense, his Absolute Vision worked much better inside the water. He didn’t have to worry about the murky water thanks to the turtle’s skill.

Every once in a while he would send a fish or turtle inside the Immortal Realm. With the current space, he had no worries of running out of space.

This went for hours. Shen felt his eyes tingling.

Letting out a sigh he looked at the dark surface of the water. It was already night. He started before noon and since then using Absolute Vision without rest dried out his Spiritual Qi. The burden on his eyes wasn’t light either.

Marking the area, he decided to quit for the day.

He felt bored and exhausted but thinking of the items he acquired, he felt his time wasn’t completely worthless either.

He found three pairs of Blood Turtles and a pair of Horned Yin Koi.

According to his knowledge from the Absolute Taming Manual, either of them wasn’t rare but provided abundant benefits. But Shen had never seen them commonly used before. No, just from their magical effects he knew they were anything but common.

And he had never heard of Horned Yin Koi before. Born in places with concentrated Yin Qi. They were small in size, if he had failed to notice the amassed Yin Qi in their body, he would’ve thought they were normal koi. Through proper cooking method, they gave the consumer a passive boost in their Yin Cultivation. Though, only those with Yin Qi would receive the benefits. This was a treasure to those with Yin related physique.

Definitely, something Shen appreciated. It might be nothing currently, but later on, he believed he would delve into strengthening his Yin Qi. Then they would be a positive nourishment. From their size, Shen deduced they would reach maturity in another 20 years. If they laid eggs that would be for the best. Same with the turtle.

He decided to keep two pairs of Blood Turtles. Unlike the koi fish, Shen had no idea how long it would take for Blood Turtles to produce their offsprings. They had a long lifespan and there was no record regarding their offsprings. Anyway, he understood it would take time but inside the Immortal Realm, there was anything but lack of time.

He also found various ornaments and pearls but he ignored most of them and only collected a few rarely seen pearls. All other items had rusted to the point of no recognition.

Recounting his gains, Shen was about to order the turtle to get out of the water but he got reminded the Immortal Realm still had half the time remaining.

...

When Shen returned outside, he couldn’t help but squint his eyes.

Entering the realm, he took a proper rest and trained while the turtle familiarized itself with the crystal lake. After he woke up, he practiced diligently before hopping out of the realm.

Of course, since he was on the swamp, he came along with the turtle. But the scenery before his eyes confused him thoroughly.

Before him was a blinding light. He even wanted to pleasantly sing, “What a nice weather~”

Just this ‘sunlight’ made his body feel refreshed and pleasant but also odd.

And very quickly he found the reason for this odd feeling. Only an hour should have passed by on the outside world. It should still be a few hours away from midnight but it was clear as day.

When he turned away from the cliff, he blanked out momentarily. His head failed to process the absurdity of the situation.

Where he stood, everything was clear as day but just outside the swamp, it was still dark as usual. He couldn’t understand for a while. A luminous stone produced light but it couldn’t replicate the effect of natural sunlight.

Shen tried his best to think but he failed to come out with an answer. But since the source of this ‘sunlight’ seemed rather close to his location he decided to check the source.

Only a treasure of Heaven and Earth could replicate the sunlight so perfectly!

Shen instructed the turtle towards the cliff as he communicated about the source of light. According to it, the light started to appear every night of full moon from a year ago. The turtle already surveyed in case a treasure appeared but no matter how much it tried, it couldn’t reach the source. Even then, the turtle tried to search every time. When he asked why it didn’t tell him about this, the turtle fumbled and failed to come up with anything for a while. In the end, the turtle told him that it thought there wasn’t anything valuable of notice.

Shen mused for a moment but didn’t stop the turtle. He didn’t even need to guide the turtle as it was more familiar. But halfway through he encountered a strange phenomenon. The turtle, which was heading straight towards the cliff at the front twisted from its path. And not long after, it was circling in the middle of the swamp.

Shen facepalmed and finally realized what the turtle meant by not being able to reach the source. But he didn’t facepalm because it fell under illusion but rather for it to be under the illusion for a whole year and not realize it even then.

Shen wanted to curse that he lost huge time by taming this useless shit of a turtle but he consoled himself by continuously reminding himself about the upgrade of the Immortal Realm.

He instructed the turtle step by step. Every time it started to get off the tracks he corrected them. As they got closer Shen slightly traced the illusion. He had no prior experience with illusion abilities or formations, but this place seemed to have formed a natural formation with the energy of Heaven and Earth.

Natural formations like these get stronger with time, unlike the others. In that sense, it was a weak formation but without any measure, the beasts were easily vulnerable. Any cultivator, if not careless might be able to avoid it, let alone Shen with Absolute Vision.

But Shen could almost imagine that Qing Shui, with his Houtian cultivation, passing through this illusion like taking a walk on a garden with his Heavenly Vision. Though he failed to remember anything related to this phenomenon in the story.

Before long he was already before the cliff. Fifty meters above from his position, there was a small cave that couldn’t be seen from plain view.

He checked for any kind of caves when he arrived at the daytime, but he failed to find this cave at that time. Looking carefully, in the hundred meters perimeter of this cave, there were no demonic beasts either. All of them were led far due to the illusion.

With a swift jump, he reached the small cave. It was a pretty normal cave with a height of ten feet and a length of around twenty feet.

Shen hadn’t even taken a step but he could see something, no, it was basically touching his toe.

“Middlemist White?” Shen looked with surprise.

Middlemist White, it was a variation of the already extinct Middlemist Red flower in his previous world and only appeared after the apocalypse. It grew on the body of higher-level humans and monsters, but extremely hard to maintain. Before he died, he heard a mature Middlemist White could awaken unique skill.

Shen immediately wandered inside his Alchemy Manual, there should definitely be something useful in it. Till now, the Alchemy and Taming Manual lived up to their knowledge. He was still a bit skeptical about taming goddesses and fairies, but taming beasts definitely became easier.

However, even after searching for one hour straight there was no result. Though, he didn’t even search 1/10000th of the manual, one hour search was enough to wear his spirit energy empty. Even though he regularly studied the manuals, there was no way he couldn’t learn about all of them something that’s been collected for tens of thousands of years.

Just when he was about to give up, an unexplainable scene occurred. As if guided by a mystical force, his spirit energy picked out an information page. When he focused, he found this was none other than what he was searching for!

The flower in the picture seemed similar but with a different color. Was it a different flower then? But before he felt disappointed, he found another picture below. It matched the flower but looked more mature which was understandable, as this flower was only one-three years old. He quickly read the description and understood the reason for two kinds of petal colors.

This flower wasn’t called Middlemist White but had a more Xinxia type name, Sun-moon Gleaming Glass. Always originated above Earth or Dragon Veins, as they sucked the veins pretty fast, their lifespan was small. There was an Alchemist God from the Immortal Race, who cultivated the Sun-Moon Gleaming Glass for 10,043 years but in the end, the Dragon Vein was sucked dry but even then she failed to find any useful method for refining this flower. As for what properties this flower contained, it wasn’t disclosed either. However, from the initially displayed properties, everyone concluded that it contained the essence of Sun and Moon as during the daytime, the flower turned crystal color and emitted moonlight essence and during the night, the petals turned white like the moon and created natural sun-light.

As the plant reflected the essence of Sun and Moon similar to glass, hence it was named Sun-Moon Gleaming Glass. There was further research on it, but no clear result.

A smirk crept on Shen’s face, however, it was not the cunning smirk but rather a smirk of self-pity. He thought he had gained a stroke of the protagonist’s luck, and found a treasure during beauty search but the reality was cruel. No, in this case, he wasn’t pitying self, but being purely narcissistic.

Well, he decided to replant it inside the Immortal Realm anyway. Even for decoration, it didn’t seem so bad. And if he could have a miniature sun and moon, that didn’t sound half-bad either.

But when he saw the method for replanting the plant, he almost gave up immediately. Not only the place of replant must be above a Dragon or Earth Vein. The ground also had to be soaked with a decent amount Spirited Jade Water.

Let alone the fact he couldn’t get hold of the Spirited Jade Water currently, the Immortal Realm didn’t have a Dragon or Earth Vein.  More like, there was no possible way for a vein to exist inside the Absolute Jade Immortal Realm. As it was an independent space that replenished its energy automatically.

Shen decided to leave the Sun-moon Gleaming Glass for now, although he would plant it inside the Immortal Realm without any spirit vein, he thought the Spirited Jade Water was the basic minimum. If possible he wanted to learn Wood Hand technique from the Alchemy Manual as well.

And then he focused on the small corner at the end of the cave. He noticed it as soon as he entered here, but the Sun-Moon Gleaming Glass took his attention. He didn’t expect much as he lightly stepped.

However, the dead excitement peaked once again as soon as he turned to the corner!

A golden pouch!

A golden pouch on the rocky bed!

...