"The Palace must be replaced by a Pagoda."

The first line of the primordial text was straightforward to understand. The Jade Palace realm is established by creating a palace in a Qi Sea right below the Spirit Lakes.

Jade Palaces varies from cultivator's type of spiritual energy, but even with their differences in components, a Pagoda was still in some sense a palace.

"Lead the 8 lakes to oppose the 12 rivers, meet at sea and create a whirlpool, grind the impure and throw what is not needed. Create a path for the dragon to reside and breach a new realm. Cultivate the Golden Pagoda Skill."

"I see, all start at the foundation, strengthen the foundation and let go of all the unneeded impurities." Wang Xue didn't mind it that much, though, as he continued to read the following line.

Wang Xue read the final sentence of the primordial texts. He closed his eyes and started digesting everything that he gained.

Enlightened by the truth of the Spirit, Wang Xue sat in a cross-legged position above the Dragon Pagoda Martial Spirit.

In the physical world, six hours had passed, and Wu Hui was nowhere to be found. She had gone outside to enjoy herself in the City.

6 hours after Wang Xue started cultivating, his body began to shake profusely all of a sudden. He had finished comprehending everything he was given. He exhaled a golden light while opening his eyes. Wang Xue's eyes were brightly lit, and his mouth curved to a smile.

"Dragon Dwelling Pagoda, good name."

These words that he uttered were a name, and it was the name of that Martial Spirit that dwells inside one of his Spirit Lake. Wang Xue had gotten many good things from the Dragon Dwelling Pagoda this time; not only was he able to get its name but also a strange innate skill from this Martial Spirit.

Skills were classified into 4 categories: Human, Earth, Heaven, and Saint. Wang Xue was the Bloodbath Monarch and knew 5 skills in the Saint category, his self-created cultivation skill that he used previously was also of the Saint category.

However, Wang Xue decided not to cultivate any of them. This was because he found something as powerful, if not even more powerful, the Golden Pagoda Skill.

In his comprehension of the first floor's texts, Wang Xue extracted the ancient skill. According to the description he deciphered, the Golden Pagoda Skill will let him condense his power in one point and diverge from cultivation norms.

However, there was one strict rule if one wishes to cultivate this skill, the Great Pagoda Skill must be developed from the Jade Palace realm onwards until it reaches Great Completion. Instead of creating a palace every time he advances a level in cultivation, Wang Xue would have to form a floor for the Pagoda.

The Golden Pagoda skill has 99 floors, and every single one he creates would bestow him a considerable boost in strength. But even with all these benefits, the thing that attracted him most was the skill that will let him create a Spirit Lake every 9 floors.

"One Lake makes One Martial Spirit, 99 floors mean 11 Spirit Lakes, and with the three I have now, I will have a grand total of 14 Martial Spirits." It was a dream that anyone would salivate from.

Wang Xue had already memorized everything about the Golden Pagoda Skill, and with a thought, those words started appearing in his mind.

To create the Pagoda, Wang Xue would need a tremendous amount of spiritual energy; he followed every instruction to the letter reversing the flow of his 8 minor meridians to the Qi Sea to make a whirlpool with the oncoming 12 meridian's spiritual energy.

Wang Xue created two separated regions within his body; one had 12 spiritual energy running clockwise while the other had 8 running in a counterclockwise movement.

Wang Xue entered a deep cultivation state. His focus was directed to his control of spiritual energy while working at a frightening pace without stopping.

Grinding sounds were constantly emerging from his body for an hour; his forehead had bullets of sweat forming on it. It felt like his body was being forcefully molded; if not for his strong will, anyone else who experience kind of experience would've stopped halfway through.

Ugh!

Wang Xue groaned from the pain. He started vehemently vomiting blood accompanied by that grinding feeling in his body which made him feel like he was being torn apart. The blood that Wang Xue vomited was black in color. This was the rest of the impurities inside his body he could not purge earlier.

"Discard everything that is not needed by grinding the body." Wang Xue repeated the line in his head. This was the first part of the Golden Pagoda skill.

His will was strong thanks to his countless experience of life and death: Wang Xue smiled and just continued not long after.

'Draw all the power until it reaches the maximum capacity, then create the first floor of the Pagoda.'

Thought Wang Xue.

The text from the Golden Pagoda skill was continuously flowing in his mind. His body was in great pain from cultivating.

5 hours later

Crack!

A clear cracking sound could be heard coming from Wang Xue's body. The whirlpool was still ongoing, and a building was starting to form on top. The spiritual energy of his body reached its maximum capacity; all of the excesses it had shot up to the barrier separating the Spirit Realm and the Jade Palace Realm.

The body of the Golden Pagoda started becoming more vivid as time went on. The first layer of the Golden Pagoda finally finished forming, and the barrier of the Jade Palace realm was finally broken through.

Wang Xue felt his body overflowing with power, the golden-colored Pagoda glowed magnificently. Although its design was simplistic and not that elaborate, it was still eye-catching just from the radiance that it held.

Wang Xue started stabilizing the foundation of his cultivation. He was no amateur and knew how important a foundation was to cultivators. After strengthening his foundation, Wang Xue finally opened his eyes to see the Pagoda created.

He successfully broke through the barrier of the Spirit Realm and Jade Palace Realm.

On top of his inner world, floating right above the three Spirit Lakes, was a giant golden Whirpool and on top of it was a Golden Pagoda's first floor.

"A pagoda replacing a palace; this is a first even for me." Wang Xue let out a joyous laugh.

On the top right corner, Wang Xue saw an engraving of a dragon. He entered the Pagoda, where he found his spiritual energy to be all kept.

"The Golden Pagoda skill is awe-inspiring; it even exceeded my every expectation."

Wang Xue didn't have much to explore in the Pagoda, so he left after checking it out for a while. Of course, he tried searching for secrets that it might hold, but he came out empty-handed.

Sadly, the Pagoda's role does not differ from a Jade Palace. It holds qi, and that was all that it could do.

Opening his eyes, Wang Xue found out that it was already noon; he didn't see Wu Hui, but a futon and a bedsheet were laid out on the side of his bed.

Ha!

Wang Xue threw a simple punch on the air; booming sounds were created due to friction. Wang Xue's eyes went wide open; his fist just now was only casual, but it still had 2,000 kilograms of force behind it.

Wang Xue was satisfied with the results. He can't practice any other cultivation skills now because of the gold Pagoda that he built instead of creating a Jade Palace.

'I'll have to forcefully alter a technique if I want to learn something that catches my attention.' even he knew the danger of practicing incompatible techniques. He should know. He almost died from one before, after all.

"Senior Brother, I heard someone from the Boulder Sect arrived just now!"

"Hooh, an auction is being held right now?"

"The bazaar has some interesting things; why not go there with me, Junior Sisters?"

Wang Xue heard the sounds of people laughing outside his window, and upon remembering what Wu Hui had told him, Wang Xue remembered that tomorrow something called the Jade Province competition was being held.

"The Jade Province competition seems like a pretty big deal, for so many people to actually turn up is amazing."

Looking out his window Wang Xue found many people below going around food stalls looking at the items being sold by merchants. The many youths were having fun, from what he could see.

Wang Xue looked at his attire, sat on the bed like before, and started thinking about his future goals. His first goal was to obviously get back his cultivation like before, but Wang Xue had a significant problem, and that was he didn't have any money to use.

"Cultivating needs many resources, elixirs, pills, earthly treasures, and more. I currently have 100 silvers with me, so what can I buy with that, or should I create pills to sell? Even then, I would need a lot to buy the necessary ingredients."

Wang Xue played with the bag of money in his hands, trying to think of a way to make use of his money, he didn't have much, but this should be enough to buy a few stalks of herbs that he could use. He turns his head to the window, and with a nod, he decided to leave outside.

"There's a market outside, and I need many things; if I'm lucky, I might see some good things."

Going out, Wang Xue brought his old clothes to be thrown out. After he threw his smelly garments, he went to the trade fair in the plaza.

In the plaza where the trade fair was going on, many people crowded the place. Many different kinds of items were laid out on the floor by people and sellers.

The items they were selling ranged from aged ginseng that can help heal wounds to a Blood Lotus that can significantly raise Blood Essence. But Wang Xue had keen eyes, and he was able to clearly saw that the items in the trade fair were mostly bogus and full of fake.

A Mind Pearl was being sold far from him, and it had the price of 1,000 silver. A mind crystal was a High-Human category item that can help ease the state of being, making it easier to enter a meditative state.

But that Mind Crystal, in actuality, was an ordinary crystal that had grown much bigger than other pearls. It doesn't even count as a Human category treasure, it may count as a great accessory to be displayed, but it won't attract cultivators' eyes.

The treasures also have rank like the cultivation skills; the categories were Human, Earth, Heaven, and Saint, 4 kinds, but it also held sub ranks such as low, middle, high, and peak. In the Crimson Wind Continent, these were the known categories of treasures.

'It is the same in this Continent, it appears.'

Wang Xue only had 100 silvers with him, so the only ones he could buy were low-human category treasures. If he could find one good item, it would be enough for now. Wandering around, he saw things from ordinary weapons to Spirit Weapons... all were trash in his eyes.

Medicinal Plants were also rubbished.

'What did I expect from a world like this? A kitchen knife will be more useful than any of these things.' he was sorely disappointed.

After an hour of going around and coming up empty-handed, Wang Xue was about to go back to the inn; he didn't want to waste any time or money here if nothing catches his eyes. Then as he was about to head back, he saw something from the corner of his eyes.

It was a shop near an alleyway where not many people were flocking. It must have been because the place looked too shabby, and the items being sold were too old to be used. He would've ignored it himself if not for the sword that was with the other scraps of metal and those little throwing knives.

Walking up to the middle-aged man with purple hair who staffed the store, Wang Xue picked the sword that was rusting all over; this sword was junk through and through, but Wang Xue was not interested in its appearance, but the things inside tell a different story.

"How much for this old good for nothing scrap of metal?"

Wang Xue said casually.

The middle-aged man moved his gaze to the sword, and seeing that Wang Xue was interested in it, he said, "70 silvers for the sword."

"70 silvers? This place is a goddamn rip-off; give it to me for 30 silvers."

Wang Xue's voice suddenly rose, trying to get the attention of the people around him, the price is too high, and the item is not good; he was constantly trying to bad mouth the sword that was in his hands.

The middle-aged man panicked; he was already having a hard time selling the junk… items he had there, and the kid he was trying to cheat was messing with him.

The middle-aged man was in a pickle, so he lowered the price a little "I'll give it to you for 50 silvers, I can't go any lower; that sword still have some sharpness in it, and it used to be a spirit weapon, so 50 silvers are my bottom line."

Wang Xue was thrown in deep thought. After a while, when the people around that shop gathered enough, he said, "Alright, I'll take it, but it should come with these throwing knives; I'll take them for 10 silvers as a sign of friendship."

The middle-aged man agreed to it and sold it to Wang Xue without any more argument; he threw him the other 9 throwing knives and said, "Take that and leave already."

Spitting on the ground, the middle-aged old man acted like a victim, but he was already celebrating in his mind, 'What a dumb boy, causing that ruckus and still buying junk. What an idiot.'

Wang Xue went to an alleyway to check his haul; he laid them on the floor to be observed.

Picking them up one by one to confirm if he was right, Wang Xue's mouth curve to a smile.

"That middle-aged man was an idiot, selling weapons made from ice steel like junk. What an idiot."

With that Wang Xue felt more excited to go around this trade fair.