X-Dragon Era

The sun gradually sunk behind the western hills, just as Yi Luo Xiang thought they were about to return to the city, Xin Yun sent a message, to continue the fierce battle, fighting throughout the night…

Upon hearing Xin Yun's words, Yi Luo Xiang was momentarily stunned. It's already night, how could they fight? But then she quickly realized that, in the future, they would inevitably encounter enemies during the night. Could they simply stop fighting because it has gotten dark?

Fortunately, although the sky had darkened, Yi Luo Xiang could still clearly detect everything around her by relying on the Soul Ripples. As for Xin Yun, he wasn't so lucky. Once the light disappeared, eyes alone could not see far, and although he also had perceptive abilities, they were nowhere near the level of an expert like Yi Luo Xiang.

As time passed, the sky finally darkened completely. Although it wasn't to the point of not seeing one's own fingers in front of them, they could at best make out objects within a hundred meters. With no choice left, Xin Yun signaled Yi Luo Xiang to release the Soul Chain from the Sandfire Dragon and then connect the Soul Chain to himself.

With the release of the Soul Chain, the Sandfire Dragon looked around blankly at first and then, flapping its wings, flew towards the Sand Valley. Seeing this, Xin Yun couldn't help but sigh. Obviously… what Yi Luo Xiang had mastered was not permanent Soul Enslavement but merely temporary Soul Control.

Even so, Xin Yun was already very satisfied. After all… this should have been an ability of the crystal rank. Yet now, with those hammer-shaped antennae, Yi Luo Xiang had mastered it at the Bronze One Star rank, leaping over the three major ranks of bronze, silver, and gold. It was indeed exaggerated.

While Xin Yun was pondering, Yi Luo Xiang had already connected the Soul Chain to him. The next moment… although the night remained dark around them, in Xin Yun's mind, he could already see all the scenery within a thousand meters, as if the darkness had completely disappeared.

That wasn't even the most exaggerated part. Upon connecting with the Soul Chain, Xin Yun was astonished to find that his field of view had changed. Human vision has a scope of 180 degrees, but now, Xin Yun's field of view was 360 degrees. He could not only see things in front of him but even objects behind him, which felt very strange.

"Holy crap! Full panoramic view?" Surprised by his new field of view, Xin Yun couldn't help but curse. Feeling Xin Yun's amazement, Yi Luo Xiang said with confusion, "Yes… ever since I summoned the Purple Butterfly, it's always been this field of view. But it's not a full panoramic view; there's still a blind spot directly behind, which I filled in using the Soul Ripples."

Standing silently atop Yinglong, Xin Yun was completely speechless. Was Yi Luo Xiang too clever for her own good? Not only did she know to complete her field of view, but she had also figured out a way to do so! Could it be… that this girl was also reborn?

Looking at Yi Luo Xiang strangely, he saw nothing amiss on her face, and after carefully thinking about everything since his rebirth, it didn't seem to be the case.

While Xin Yun was secretly speculating, Yi Luo Xiang continued, "Actually, this image is scanned by my Soul Ripples. I am just transmitting the image scanned in my mind to you in real-time."

Upon hearing Yi Luo Xiang's words, Xin Yun finally felt completely relieved. In fact… what he was seeing was not really what Yi Luo Xiang saw with her eyes, but the scene formed in her brain after scanning with Soul Ripples. What she did was merely transmit this image to him.

However, although the darkness around them could no longer block his sight, it was still darkness for other dragons, rendering them unable to see. If that was the case…

Xin Yun made his decision resolutely. With a wave of his large hand, he declared loudly, "Let's go. Since it's gotten dark, let's head into the valley. Heh heh… We can see the Sandfire Dragons, but they can't see us. Stick close to me."

Hearing Xin Yun's words, Yi Luo Xiang smiled and nodded. Simultaneously, Yinglong swiftly dived, rushing into the Sand Valley under the cover of darkness.

In the darkness, although the Sand Dragons' vision was affected, many wild dragons still loved to move about at night, so there were still many flying in the air. As soon as Xin Yun and Yi Luo Xiang entered, they were immediately met with an interception.

Facing the whistling dozens of Sandfire Balls, Xin Yun wasn't afraid in the slightest. After reminding Yi Luo Xiang to be careful, he steered Yinglong, whizzing through the group of Sand Dragons, with all the fired balls falling into the void.

Time slowly ticked by. Throughout the entire night, Xin Yun and Yi Luo Xiang circled inside the Sand Valley several times without launching a single attack, dodging all the crisscrossing fireballs in the sky.

In midair, Xin Yun was steering Yinglong with agility, tumbling flexibly through the sky, while Yi Luo Xiang's Purple Butterfly flickered in and out of existence around Yinglong's body, creating an image of a dragon playing with a butterfly.

The primary purpose of this cultivation session was actually to train evasion and escape abilities. There was no need to attack. To get there before Yan Qingying was sold, he had to reach the destination as quickly as possible, and rushing straight there was obviously the most time-efficient way.

When it comes to cultivation, it should be mentioned that there are no cultivation techniques in this world. Everyone is secretly exploring on their own. Perhaps in the future, some Divine Skill or Great Method might emerge, but in this era, these do not exist, and cultivation relies entirely on individual exploration.

As far as Xin Yun knew, there were three ways to cultivate in this world:

The first method involved focused condensation, using spiritual power to compress the energy inside the Dragon Ball from a gaseous state to a misty state. When all the energy in the Dragon Ball was misty, it would reach the Silver tier.

The second method was cultivation, with hands and feet pointed to the sky, using the body to absorb the stray energy in the air, circulating it through the meridians and condensing it into one's own energy, before adding it to the Dragon Ball.

The space inside the Dragon Ball was limited. As more and more energy was input, it would compress against each other. When the pressure reached a certain level, it would transform. For instance, liquefied gas on Earth is filled based on this principle.

The third method was to rely on external forces, such as using Divine Dragon Fruit or Dragon Crystal, to draw a large amount of energy into the body, circulate it, and then infuse it into the Dragon Ball. This could also enhance energy, but... this energy was, after all, crudely made, and since it was not gained through one's own efforts, it was never quite as flexible in use.

Among the three methods of advancement, in his previous life, Xin Yun tended toward the third method. As long as one had money, they could buy a large amount of Dragon Crystal, which contained vast energy and did not require bit by bit extraction from the outside world, making it a shortcut for cultivation.

Before his rebirth, after a lifetime of effort, Xin Yun combined the Inner Strength mentioned in legends on Earth, the cultivation techniques of Cultivation, and the ways of cultivation in this world, creating his own set.

Actually, to say he created it is a bit of an exaggeration; it was just a combination of the first and second methods. Sitting with hands and feet pointing upward, he let the energy within the Dragon Ball flow out, compressing it with his spiritual power while using the body to draw in energy from the outside to merge into the flow.

When the energy from the Dragon Ball made a full circuit around Xin Yun's body and returned to the Dragon Ball, not only was the energy refined by spiritual power, but it also included the extra energy absorbed from the outside through the body, therefore always resulting in a surplus.

Through experiments, Xin Yun was pleasantly surprised to find that this way of cultivation, although not quite as fast as using external objects like Dragon Crystal, was twice as fast as regular cultivation, completing two tasks in the same span of time.

Actually, this method wasn't something that nobody had thought of before, but to come up with it without the knowledge from Earth, one had to be extremely clever, and yet this technique, somewhat like ambidexterity, was harder to master for those who were too clever.

Simply put, during the cultivation process, one must first concentrate spiritual power to refine and compress the energy in the meridians, while also gathering the Power of the Soul to absorb outside energy into the body, and then send it into the meridians.

This was more difficult than ambidexterity, and in his previous life, Xin Yun also took nearly decades in his later years just to grasp the basics.

Xin Yun had also tried to teach this cultivation technique to Yi Luo Xiang, but in reality, Yi Luo Xiang was not able to learn at all. Being too clever was actually the biggest obstacle to learning this technique!

After creating and successfully running this cultivation technique, Xin Yun was quite proud. After pondering for a long time, he even named this technique, which was all about running spiritual and soul power simultaneously. He called it Concentrating Spirit and Returning to the Origin.

Concentrating Spirit involved refining energy with spiritual power, and as for Returning to the Origin, Xin Yun considered the soul as the primal spirit, meaning to bring energy back into the body with the primal spirit.

Through Concentrating Spirit and Returning to the Origin, Xin Yun refined energy and absorbed it at the same time, greatly improving efficiency and naturally making the speed of cultivation incredibly fast.

It was just unfortunate… Xin Yun was using a 9.9 grade Dragon Creation Stone, so although his cultivation speed was rapid, the container was too large, and filling the entire 9.9 grade Dragon Ball required too much energy and took too long. To Star Upgrade, there was much practice to be done.

However, looking at it from another perspective, such good fortune was something others couldn't obtain even if they begged for it. Compared to other Martial Artists of the same tier, aside from technique and luck, the deciding factor in victory was probably just quantity, assuming the quality was the same!