Yun Chen stayed at home to cultivate for two whole weeks. But he didn't want to break through to the spirit-gathering realm yet. He wanted to forge a solid foundation. Moreover, each time someone breakthrough to a great realm, their qi, spirit power and physical strength are increased according to the body potential.
Yun Chen decided to stop cultivating his qi at the limit and focused on spirit power and physical strength. He wanted to increase the potential of his body to maximum and for that, he must also possess all the spirit roots. It is impossible to awaken spirit roots after breaking through to the spirit-gathering realm because, at this stage the soul and the spirit root(s) are linked. So, adding a spirit root at that moment will inevitably cause a backlash to the cultivator.
The next spirit roots that Yun Chen has to find must be at the innate realm and he didn't find any at the auction house for the moment so, he must go out to hunt innate realm demon beast himself to collect their spirit roots. After that, he will rise their rank to the highest before breaking through to the spirit-gathering realm. However, his strength is not enough to go against innate realm demon beasts yet and he need new weapons. That is why he decided to increase his physical strength to at least that of the foundation-building realm before asking the help of an innate expert at the auction house to hunt a dragon-type beast at the innate level. He wanted another hexa-elemental seed in order to upgrade his two daggers but not all dragon-type demon beast have a hexa-elemental seed. So, after collecting some information from demon beast's souls, he found out where the perfect beast was.
Now, another week has passed. Yun Chen's physical strength has reached the peak of the foundation-building stage and can't go any further without breakthrough. His soul power is comparable to that of a peak Nascent-soul realm cultivator. His two spirit roots have also been upgraded to seven-star spirit roots. He is now ready to go out.
During his cultivation and since the scouting range of his soul has increased, Yun Chen discovered that there were some spies of the Mu family lurking around the Yun family mansion presumably waiting for him to go out alone and ambush him.
«It seems that some insects didn't learn their lesson. It is time to clean this mess! » declared Yun Chen while heading out of the family mansion. He lured his pursuers out of the town and arrived at an isolated place where he stopped.
«Isn't it time for you to show up? Or are you five foundation-building realm cultivators afraid of a qi-condensing realm brat? » Yun Chen asked sarcastically.
Suddenly, five shadows jumped out and surrounded Yun Chen. There were three masked assassins at the fourth layer of foundation-building and two at the fifth layer.
«Worthy of being the genius of the hunting context! We actually got found by you even when using our stealth technique. But unfortunately, you will die here today. You should have been low-key and now you are in trouble. » laughed the seemingly chief of the assassins.
«Hahaha! You five want to kill me? Are you worthy? » Yun Chen laughed.
«Bastard! How dare you? » cried one of the assassins out of anger.
«Then, I will stay here without moving and see if you can even hurt me » declared Yun Chen while standing there and closing his eyes.
«Presumptuous! We will make you regret it! » cried out the leader.
All of them began to unleash their strongest attacks toward Yun Chen. After that there were a lot of dust but when the dust quieted down, Yun Chen was still standing there unscathed. All the assassins were surprised.
«Imp….impos…impossible! How could a mere qi-condensing realm cultivator survive our joint attack? » cried out one of the assassins in disbelief.
«Mons…monster! Everyone, retreat! » cried out the leader in fear.
«Since you have come all the way here, why not stay here forever. » said Yun Chen after disappearing from his initial position.
In a flash, the throats of all five of them were sliced before Yun Chen reappeared in front of them.
After examining their bodies, Yun Chen found a lot of materials and spirit stones. But the most important thing was their spirit roots. He is also able to absorb human spirit roots however, his initial spirit root must be from a demon beast.
«Two three-star wind element, one four-star lightning element, one four-star fire element and one five-star earth element spirit roots. Hm! It seems that the Mu family is a bunch of geniuses. I can't use the lightning and earth element spirit roots for the moment. Let's put it aside for the moment! » said Yun Chen while putting them in a special wooden box to conserve them properly.
«After coming back from my trip, I will have to clean the Mu family from this town. » said Yun Chen with a murderous look in his eyes.
Yun Chen found a safe place not far away to absorb the wind element and fire element spirit roots. His fire element spirit root automatically broke through and became an eight-star spirit root.
«Looks like human spirit is more effective to rise the quality of my spirit roots. I will let the Mu family geniuses be my steppingstone when I complete the other spirit roots. Let's go to the auction house. » said Yun Chen after finishing absorbing the spirit roots.
Yun Chen had already asked for the help of an expert a week ago from the auction house so, they were only waiting for him. After arriving at the auction house, Yun Chen was directly greeted by Lao Gu and four other persons were beside him.
«Greeting, young master Yun! » Lao Gu politely greeted Yun Chen.
The others beside him were stupefied by this behavior of Lao Gu but they didn't utter a word. Yun Chen was also very curious as to who they were since three of them were at the innate realm and one was at the ninth level of foundation-building realm.
«Elder Lao Gu, what is going on? » Yun Chen curiously asked.
«Oh! Young master Yun, they are mercenaries acquainted with me. They are from another city and were passing here for an errand. They will be leaving today, and they are on the same way as you so, I asked them to help you in your task. » Lao Gu explained.
«Thank you, elder Lao Gu! Even if I asked for only one innate realm expert, you hired an entire mercenary squad. I have bothered you. » Yun Chen replied.
«It is not a problem. You are our benefactor. That is the least we must do. » Lao Gu proudly replied.
«I am not an ungrateful person. Take this as my thanks for the trouble. » declared Yun Chen while tossing a space -ring at Lao Gu.
«This is?....I can't acc… » cried out Lao Gu after examining what was inside the ring.
«Don't refuse it! It is a gift. » Yun Chen interrupted him.
Inside the ring that was given to Lao Gu, there were four realm-breaking pills and a hundred bottles of soul essence of the highest quality. They were treasures that even Lao Gu had rarely seen in his whole life.
Yun Chen turned toward the mercenaries to prepare for the trip.
«Greetings! I will be in your care from now on. » Yun Chen respectfully said to mercenaries.
«Greetings! My name is Xuan Bu. I'm a fifth layer innate realm expert and the leader of this team. This my little sister Xuan Yuan. She is also a member of this team and a ninth layer foundation-building realm master. She is good at healing and control-type spells. » the leader presented.
«Greetings, young master Yun! » Xuan Yuan greeted in return.
«Oh? Interesting! » Yun Chen said.
«This is Ling Yang, a fourth layer innate realm expert. He is specialised in close range battle and sneak attacks. He has the highest speed in the group. » continued the leader.
«Hello, Mr. Yun! » Ling Yang greeted familiarly.
«And here is…..» said the leader.
«Don't bother! I will do it myself. My name is Zhang Muyun and I am a fourth innate realm expert. I am also the best at archery and long-distance attacks in our town. » Zhang Muyun proudly declared.
«Please, Young master Yun, don't take him too seriously! » the leader tried to apologize.
« There is no problem! » Yun Chen calmly replied.
They were all experienced mercenaries, and they would be a huge help to Yun Chen in this trip.