### **Chapter 89: Cultivation Progress**
The second time, he forcefully killed three spirit slaves, framed others with a very crude method, outmaneuvered the stewards of the stone hut area, and delivered a favorable situation to True Disciple Su.
This time, he received high praise and the reward of promotion to outer disciple.
The third time, this very instance, his plan was not adopted. There was no follow-up notification or reward. The thoroughly confused Fatty Duan also did not contact him again.
All this was enough to prove that True Disciple Su was an impulsive person. Who knew what arrangements he might make?
And seven months passing... also proved that Wang Yu had been discarded.
In that case, before Wei Zhong emerged from seclusion, he definitely needed to save himself.
Moreover, having a suitable aptitude-enhancing secret art in hand was equivalent to Wang Yu obtaining a key directly to Foundation Establishment, far better than that damned *Foundation Seizing Art*.
Even without a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill, once he improved his own aptitude, breaking through with a high-grade Foundation Establishment Pill would be a natural progression. He wouldn't need to slowly grind and experiment using the placement slot!
Furthermore, the Demonic Embryo Profound Origin Secret Curse provided a permanent improvement and could be used repeatedly. Even without a blood relation, where each use might only seize ten to twenty percent of the aptitude, using it multiple times...
The path to the Golden Core Dao would also open for him. Combined with the effect of the placement slot, he didn't dare imagine how fast his future cultivation speed would be.
Therefore, for this trip out of the sect, Wang Yu could seriously consider whether to defect.
The value of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect to him had decreased significantly. Now, deeply embroiled in the vortex of True Disciple conflicts, wouldn't it be better to make a clean break and simply flee the Crimson Kite Demon Domain?
After all, the *Coldblood Art* technique was almost ready to advance through placement. He wouldn't need to exchange for a second-grade technique from the sect to continue his cultivation into the Foundation Establishment stage.
All conditions were satisfied.
"It's been nearly ten years since I left home. I should go back and take a look."
Wang Yu temporarily suppressed the thought of defecting. He remembered how he had been captured. He could investigate the situation later.
He could also take on a spirit slave capture mission, which would allow him to enter the Taihu Spirit Domain openly and legitimately. Whether to stay or leave could be decided then.
8th month of Wang Yu's 9th year as an outer disciple. After seven months in seclusion, he extended it for another three months. Apart from daily cultivation and spell practice, he focused on one thing.
Maps!
The cultivation world placed great importance on maps, valuing them no less than cultivation techniques and secret arts. Furthermore, they were contraband, forbidden for trade among disciples.
Disciples who stayed in the sect year-round mostly only had a basic understanding of the [Blood Abyss Province] where the sect was located, with access to basic maps.
Only Foundation Establishment cultivators and above would have a comprehensive understanding of the four provinces under the direct control of the Reverse Spirit Blood Sect, including numerous city outposts, locations of cultivated resources, and so on.
The border area between the Crimson Kite Demon Domain and the Taihu Spirit Domain had many dangerous passes and old battlefields, heavily guarded by cultivators, making normal passage very difficult.
Beyond these passes and battlefields lay two vast, continuous mountain ranges occupied by demonic beasts. The Reverse Spirit Blood Sect was located in the upper left corner of the Crimson Kite Demon Domain, adjacent to the [Range-Severing Mountains].
The governed provinces—Blood Abyss, Maple, and Night Qiong—all bordered it. The nearest dangerous pass was called [Black Mountain Pass]. To its right was the 〈Withered Leaf Swamp〉, located at the foot of the mountains, a treacherous poisonous marshland.
To the left of the pass was the 〈Black Mountain Demon Territory〉, closely connected to the [Coiling Dragon Mountains] in the south. These two vast, layered, and overlapping regions diagonally separated the two domains.
The righteous and demonic paths, one on each side.
This basic information was widely circulated and not difficult to investigate. With a little deduction, one could draw their own map.
The difficulty lay in the distribution of spirit veins, the garrisoned cities above them, the involved resource sites, and so on.
Also, detailed maps of the two mountain ranges, such as demonic beast activity zones, territories ruled by different races, and the formations and restrictions laid down during past conflicts between the righteous and demonic paths within the mountains.
Do not underestimate this.
Conflict between the righteous and demonic paths was an eternal tradition, often initiated by the demonic side, invading deep into the Taihu Spirit Domain to plunder extensively. This usually happened when resources were scarce.
Over countless major battles, the number of undismantled, deactivated traps and restrictions remaining in the mountains numbered in the tens of thousands? These were life-threatening hazards. Temporarily dug cave dwellings, deliberately placed inheritance traps... there were far too many.
It was almost impossible for a Qi Refining cultivator to traverse the mountain ranges between the two domains. At a minimum, Foundation Establishment was required; Golden Core was safer but still carried the risk of disaster.
There was no helping it. The accumulated traps from generations past and the troubles posed by the demonic beasts in the mountains were all problems.
Furthermore, the data was incomplete, with severe information loss. Some sects had perished, their unique methods lost, making dismantling difficult. Problems piled up over time, gradually creating the current situation.
High-level maps were strategic resources, almost never released to low-level cultivators.
Wang Yu was also suffering from this headache.
The spirit slave capture mission seemed to be his only channel for returning to the Taihu Spirit Domain.
Progress on the map was slow and couldn't be rushed.
He could only take comfort in his daily progress. Since the improvement of the top-grade Coldblooded Pill, each pill Wang Yu refined increased his spiritual power by 150 strands, a 50% boost in efficacy!
He was currently on his second refined version, with the refinement progress past the halfway point, making it his seventh top-grade Coldblooded Pill overall (he had consumed one high-grade one before).
Therefore, his consumption limit was eleven pills before pill resistance would appear, drastically reducing efficacy. He currently had four pills left before reaching that limit.
This improvement came from the Frigid Flame characteristic substituted by the Frost Python Alchemy Technique, limited to ice-attribute spirit pills. Later, when Wang Yu wanted to modify first-grade pill formulas, he failed.
The more basic the pill formula, the harder it was to improve. He had previously only thought about an ice-attribute Spirit Restoration Pill, forgetting that such widely circulated pills had already been verified by countless people.
They were almost optimized to the most perfect state. Unless there was a revolutionary change in the cultivation world's alchemy system, there was no room for further improvement.
Unless the pill formula was completely overturned and rebuilt, which was a different concept altogether—the workload was too great, and he didn't have the capability yet.
So, after several failures, he directly shelved the idea.
Regarding spiritual power cultivation, a little over a year ago, he had 149 units.
During this period, the placement slot contributed 2,400 strands, equivalent to 24 units. Self-cultivation increased by 200 strands, equivalent to 2 units.
Refining one and a half improved top-grade Coldblooded Pills increased it by 225 strands, equivalent to 22.5 units of spiritual power.
In a little over a year, close to two years, he gained a total of 48.5 units of spiritual power. Added to his original cultivation, Wang Yu had accumulated 197 units of spiritual power at the seventh layer of Qi Refining.
He was still about a hundred units short of a breakthrough, roughly ten thousand strands of spiritual power.
Keeping the placement slots unchanged, it would take 6-7 years. This was fast for a Three Spiritual Roots cultivator, but slow for Wang Yu.
But he had no other options in the short term.
With four placement slots—two for cultivation techniques, one for the Demonic Embryo Secret Curse, and one for Flood Dragon Strength—even his dearly missed Corpse Demon Secret Art had been bumped off.
His 'little brother' was suffering bitterly~ (;Д`)~
None of these slots could be changed. Altering his aptitude was a long-term project. Foundation Establishment wasn't far off. Projecting the timeline, to fully replenish his vitality and blood, it was best to advance the Flood Dragon Strength to at least the seventh sinew.
**(End of Chapter)**