Ye Ling circulated her Divine Sense to erase the trace of unfamiliar Divine Sense remaining on the storage bag, then projected her own Divine Sense inside.
The moment she saw the internal space, Ye Ling could not help but gasp in surprise.
The space inside the bag was a full three hundred cubic meters, three times the capacity of her original storage bag!
A storage bag of this capacity was priceless and extremely rare in the Qingyun Kingdom.
It was likely that even Sect Master Leng Zhiwei might not possess one.
From this, it was not difficult to deduce that the cultivator who had passed away in the underground cavern was definitely not a native of the Qingyun Kingdom.
Ye Ling's curiosity grew even stronger, and she once again mobilized her Divine Sense to carefully scan all the items inside the storage bag.
Though the storage bag had a vast space, the items stored inside were not particularly cluttered.
In one corner sat several neatly sealed pill bottles. Beside them was a pile of hundreds of crystals slightly larger than low-grade spirit stones, and alongside those were several ancient, simple books.
“They are actually mid-grade spirit stones!” Ye Ling was suddenly overjoyed.
For daily transactions among cultivators in the Qingyun Kingdom, only low-grade spirit stones circulated.
Above low-grade were mid-grade spirit stones. A single mid-grade spirit stone contained a spiritual energy reserve and purity that far exceeded those of a low-grade one.
By market exchange rates, one mid-grade spirit stone was equivalent to one hundred low-grade spirit stones, but almost no cultivator would be foolish enough to trade mid-grade for low-grade. The difference in their value was like night and day; they were simply incomparable.
Looking at the hundreds of mid-grade spirit stones before her, which contained a rich, reserved spiritual energy, hope was rekindled in Ye Ling's heart.
Even though the spiritual energy in the Bailing Secret Realm was several times richer than the outside world, she still lacked the confidence to break through to the late-stage Xiantian Realm before the start of the Qingyun Grand Tournament.
But now, with a large pile of mid-grade spirit stones in hand, the situation had completely changed. She believed she would definitely be able to step into the late-stage Xiantian Realm before the tournament.
Mid-grade spirit stones contained spiritual energy that was far purer than that of low-grade spirit stones, with virtually no impurities.
When a cultivator refined and absorbed them, there would be almost no blockages or obstacles. Naturally, one's cultivation progress would advance by leaps and bounds, far beyond what low-grade spirit stones could achieve.
After calming her excitement, Ye Ling temporarily set the mid-grade spirit stones aside and reached out to take the several pill bottles from the side.
The surfaces of the bottles were extremely smooth, without any labels indicating the names of the pills.
She did not dare to open and inspect them rashly, fearing they might contain lethal poison. She simply put them all away, planning to hand them to Peak Master Wen to help identify them after leaving the secret realm.
After dealing with the pills, Ye Ling turned her attention to the stack of ancient books on the side. She reached out and picked up the topmost volume. On the cover, the words Complete Registry of Demon Beasts of the Xuantian Continent were written.
Seeing this title, Ye Ling's heart stirred, and a look of joy surfaced in her eyes.
If the contents of this text were detailed and complete, it would be a veritable treasure. In the future, when she traveled and trained outside, she would no longer have to worry about failing to identify various demon beasts and falling into unknown dangers out of nowhere.
She immediately recalled the giant lantern-headed monster fish she had fought in the pool earlier. She quickly flipped through the pages, searching for records of Xiantian water-attribute demon beasts.
After searching for a moment, a page with a lifelike illustration caught her eye. The appearance of the demon beast in the drawing was exactly the same as the giant fish she had fought earlier.
The text on the page clearly labeled it: Lantern-Bone Giant Fish, a Xiantian demon beast. Naturally quiet and lethargic, it dwells in deep waters and is proficient in the water element, capable of drawing water to form ice and using ice blades against enemies.
Ye Ling read it carefully and found that the demon beast's habits and attack methods completely matched those of the giant fish at the bottom of the pool.
This completely confirmed that the records in this book were genuine and reliable, making its value extremely high.
She carefully put the book away, keeping it to flip through regularly in the future.
Then, she picked up the remaining books to look through. The rest were Anecdotes of the Xuantian Continent and a geographical atlas of the continent.
With the help of the records in the books, Ye Ling finally figured out the position of the Qingyun Kingdom in the entire Eastern Territory.
The Qingyun Kingdom was located in the southwestern corner of the Eastern Territory, and all the neighboring kingdoms, large and small, were clearly marked.
With this complete geographical record, it would be much more convenient for her to travel and explore once she left the Qingyun Kingdom in the future.
Only the last ancient book remained. Ye Ling did not have high expectations, assuming it was just another common notebook containing local folklore or continent anecdotes. She casually picked up the volume.
However, the moment her fingertips brushed against the yellowed cover, Ye Ling shuddered, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
On the ancient, simple cover, written in powerful strokes, were four large characters: Soul-Tempering Spiritual Art.
In the bottom-left corner of the cover, a line of small characters was noted: Profound-grade peak-tier.
“Awesome!”
Ye Ling could no longer suppress the wild joy in her heart and could not help but cry out softly.
Soul-tempering cultivation methods were originally the most scarce cultivation methods in the world, far rarer than body-tempering or spiritual-tempering methods.
In the vast Qinglan Sword Sect, with its thousands of years of heritage, there were only a handful of Profound-grade soul-tempering methods, and the highest among them was only at the Profound-grade mid-tier.
She had just obtained the Sorrow-Clearing Spiritual Herb and was worrying about not having a corresponding cultivation method to refine and nourish it. She had never expected that the storage bag gifted by the Miasma Demon Frog would actually contain a top-tier soul-tempering cultivation method!
Opportunities were coming one after another, leaving Ye Ling ecstatic. This was simply heaven helping her.
“Little Frog really did me a massive favor this time!”
“Once I get out of the secret realm, I will definitely find a large batch of Quiet Heart Grass to repay it!”
“And I'll also go pay a visit to that Demon Claw Wolf. That was the first time I ever suffered a setback.”
Keeping this thought in mind, Ye Ling finally opened the ancient book and thoroughly read the general outline of the cultivation method and its pathways.
In an instant, the complete twelve layers of the Soul-Tempering Spiritual Art entered her mind, with clear pathways and exquisite methods.
Twelve layers! Her heart shook once again.
The highest level of the Qinglan Sword Sect's guardian manual, the Qinglan Sword Canon, was only eleven layers, yet this Soul-Tempering Spiritual Art had a full twelve layers!
This point alone was enough to prove that the true value of this Profound-grade peak-tier soul-tempering cultivation method was even higher than that of the Qinglan Sword Canon.
Ye Ling did not dare to waste time. She immediately gathered her focus, sat cross-legged on the open ground of the valley, cleared her mind of distracting thoughts, and officially began her soul-tempering cultivation according to the mnemonic of the Soul-Tempering Spiritual Art.
The moment she circulated the method, wisps of pure spiritual energy flowed through the entrance of her sea of consciousness into the origin of her soul.
In the next instant, Ye Ling's brows furrowed tightly, and her pretty face instantly turned pale.
Tempering the soul was a hundred times more painful than tempering the physical body.
At the very beginning, a dense, piercing pain like thousands of fine needles pricking her bones echoed from the depths of her sea of consciousness.
Though it was not extremely intense, it was omnipresent, penetrating every single inch of her soul.
Immediately after, the extreme pain turned into an unbearable itch, spreading from the depths of her soul to her entire body. It was the kind of itch that could not be scratched or touched, burrowing deep into her very origin, making one's mind practically erupt with agitation.
Ordinary cultivators simply could not withstand this kind of soul torture; the slightest carelessness would lead to their minds scattering and their sea of consciousness being damaged.
But Ye Ling's mental fortitude far surpassed her peers. Having gone through several life-or-death battles, her willpower was as tough as steel.
She gritted her teeth, fine beads of cold sweat seeping from her forehead, and her skin tensed slightly.
Forcibly suppressing her instinct to thrash and break free, she steadily maintained the circulation path of the cultivation method.
As the Soul-Tempering Spiritual Art continued to run, spiritual energy repeatedly washed over, polished, and tempered her soul.
Within her sea of consciousness, invisible to the naked eye, her original soul was gradually filtering out impurities, becoming increasingly condensed and pure.
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