After following Old Zhong up to the third level of the chariot, Yun Hanshuang saw an enchantingly beautiful woman in her twenties, dressed in an alluring manner, seated on a soft couch made from the hide of a third-tier spirit beast.

The alluring woman on the soft couch looked at Yun Hanshuang following behind Old Zhong and asked softly, "What is your name?"

"Replying to the Immortal Maiden, my name is Yun Hanshuang. Many thanks to the Immortal Maiden for being willing to give me a ride for a stretch." Yun Hanshuang's posture was extremely humble, for he could sense that the woman before him was immensely powerful.

"Uncle Zhong, you and the others may leave first. I have something to discuss with this guest privately."

"Yes, young miss."

Old Zhong, upon hearing this, took the servants who had been attending there and left, leaving only Yun Hanshuang and the woman.

"Don't be nervous. Sit."

"Many thanks, Immortal Maiden. It's fine if I just stand."

The woman chuckled softly, raised her hand and gently smoothed it, and Yun Hanshuang was pressed down into a chair by a force.

"I told you not to be so formal. I'm called Qingyao. I sensed the aura of a fifth-tier spiritual flora, the Fire Velvet Flower, on you. This spiritual flora is very important to me, and I'm willing to trade something for it."

"Immortal Qingyao, if you want this Fire Velvet Flower, just take it. How could I dare accept anything from you?"

Yun Hanshuang took a jade box out from his sleeve and handed it to Qingyao with both hands.

Seeing Yun Hanshuang produce the jade box from his sleeve, Qingyao's eyes flickered for a moment, then she chuckled lightly and said, "I won't let you suffer a loss, or it will affect my Dao heart. This is a fifth-tier spiritual material, Ice Silk Ore. Also, I think you'll need these three books very much. I'll trade you these for it."

After taking the jade box from Yun Hanshuang, Qingyao took out a ball of silver-white threads emitting cold air, along with three thin books, and handed them to him.

After giving Yun Hanshuang the items, Qingyao said softly, "Uncle Zhong, take him to the second level to choose a room to stay in, and escort him to the nearest city."

Old Zhong soon came up and brought Yun Hanshuang to the second level, then arranged a luxurious room for him to stay in.

"These three days you're to stay in your room and not come out. Three days from now, we'll pass by Luo Tian City, and you can disembark from the chariot then."

"Yes."

Yun Hanshuang respectfully bowed to Old Zhong. After the other left, he closed the door and took out the three books to read.

Introduction to Phoenix Fall Province, Legends of the 108,000 Provinces of the Heavenly Abyss, Introduction to the Powers of Phoenix Fall Province

* * *

Just as Yun Hanshuang was flipping through those three books, on the third level of the chariot, Old Zhong was looking at Qingyao with puzzlement and asking, "Young miss, how did you see through his identity as a cultivator?"

"I had been searching for the Fire Velvet Flower for a long time without success. My master was also worried for me, so she sought out her old friend, the Yanhua Daoist, and asked him to divine a hexagram for me. The resulting hexagram indicated that in this Phoenix Fall Province, I would encounter a special cultivator, and from that cultivator, I would obtain what I wanted. As it turned out, I truly obtained the Fire Velvet Flower."

Qingyao opened the jade box obtained from Yun Hanshuang. Inside lay a small red flower, resembling a flame. She picked up the small flower, inspected it, found no issues, then placed it back into the jade box and stored it away.

"Uncle Zhong, I'll leave that person to you."

After saying this, without waiting for Old Zhong to react, Qingyao's figure directly vanished from the spot.

* * *

Inside Yun Hanshuang's room, he was currently reading that book, Legends of the 108,000 Provinces of the Heavenly Abyss. The content of this book primarily speculated on the size of the Heavenly Abyss Continent. The Heavenly Abyss Continent—no one knew how large it truly was.

Because just a single province alone, a Nascent Soul stage expert, even flying at full speed without rest his entire life, could at most traverse one-tenth of the distance across it. And the territory occupied by humans was currently divided into one hundred and eighty provinces, which only accounted for a very small part of the Heavenly Abyss Continent.

Thus, some busybodies made the speculation that The Heavenly Abyss Continent is as large as one hundred eight thousand provinces combined.

Yun Hanshuang was not interested in those speculations. What he cared more about was that this book recorded the names of those one hundred and eighty provinces and also noted the hegemonic powers of each province. Among these names and powers, Yun Hanshuang saw the name of the Moon Worship Sect, which was the most powerful immortal cultivation sect in Moonview Province. However, after learning the distance between Phoenix Fall Province and Moonview Province, Yun Hanshuang's originally happy mood suddenly plummeted into dejection.

Although teleportation arrays were very common on the Heavenly Abyss Continent, the cost to teleport between provinces was at minimum hundreds of thousands of Low-Grade spirit stones. Yun Hanshuang calculated that if he wanted to teleport from Phoenix Fall Province to Moonview Province, it would require roughly one hundred million Low-Grade spirit stones.

‘Even if I went, I might not even be able to get in. Better to just cultivate slowly! With a hundred million spirit stones, there's plenty of other things I could do.’

Faced with such an exorbitant teleportation fee, Yun Hanshuang ultimately resorted to self-comfort.

* * *

After staying on the chariot for a day, Yun Hanshuang suddenly remembered that the next day would be the full-moon night, so he went to find Old Zhong.

"Old Zhong, I have urgent business and need to disembark ahead of time. I'll trouble you to grant me this convenience."

"Are you sure?" Yun Hanshuang bowed and nodded with a very serious expression.

"Very well." After confirming that Yun Hanshuang truly wanted to disembark, Old Zhong immediately had the chariot stopped.

Watching the chariot leave, Yun Hanshuang summoned the Profound Spirit Ice Sparrow, rode it to find a cave, and settled in, waiting for the full-moon night to arrive. As the full moon slowly rose, Yun Hanshuang successfully transformed into his female body at the hour of Xu. Tonight was his first time cultivating on the Heavenly Abyss Continent. He swallowed two Ice Soul Pills and began operating the Profound Yin Formula to absorb spiritual energy.

‘This…’

The moment the Profound Yin Formula began operating, Yun Hanshuang was shocked by the dense spiritual energy. The tenfold absorption speed from the jade pendant, the spiritual energy contained in the Ice Soul Pills, and the much denser spiritual energy compared to Marsh Island—all of this gave Yun Hanshuang an unprecedented feeling of exhilaration he had never experienced since he began cultivating.

The dense spiritual energy drilled into his body, making him feel as if he were soaking in a hot spring, his whole body warm and comfortable, leaving him so intoxicated in cultivation that he couldn't pull himself away.

All that night, Yun Hanshuang absorbed spiritual energy to his heart's content. The eighth groove of his Spiritual Power Seed unknowingly accumulated one-third of its spiritual power. At the hour of Chen the next day, with a burst of white smoke, Yun Hanshuang changed back into his male body. Unable to continue cultivating now, he finally had time to observe the condition of his Qi Sea.

‘Just one night and the eighth groove already accumulated a third of its spiritual power?’

Seeing the state of the eighth groove of his Spiritual Power Seed, Yun Hanshuang was so overjoyed he nearly leaped up. At this cultivation speed, he could hope to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage within a single year.

Crack~

Just as Yun Hanshuang was dreaming of a bright future, a faint cracking sound came from his chest. Hearing this sound, Yun Hanshuang's expression changed. He carefully probed the jade pendant with his divine sense and discovered a crack had appeared on it. Suddenly, the jade pendant transformed into motes of light and entered Yun Hanshuang's Sea of Consciousness, forming a long passage of text.