Back at the Ji Family.
Ji Haoyuan immediately found Ji Bochang and recounted the events of their journey to the Qiulin Mountain Range.
The focus was on the situation regarding the two Demon Cultivators.
This quickly made Ji Bochang's expression turn grave.
"Based on your recent encounter, if our suspicions are correct, the number of Demon Cultivators lurking around us might already be considerable.
We just don't know what their ultimate goal is."
"Ancestor, do you think their target could be...?"
Ji Haoyuan suddenly exchanged a glance with Ji Bochang.
It was clear they both thought of a possibility.
That the real target of those Demon Cultivators is none other than the Crimson Sunset Sect above them.
If that's the case, then it's likely that an upheaval will occur in the region headed by the Crimson Sunset Sect.
And it would be a rather large-scale upheaval.
"Ancestor, let's inform Yunfan and the others about this later,"
Ji Haoyuan spoke after a moment.
"Regardless of others, we absolutely cannot allow any Demon Cultivators within the Ji Family territory.
Otherwise, whether it's for ourselves or if the Crimson Sunset Sect finds out later, it won't be beneficial in any way."
Upon hearing this, Ji Bochang nodded.
It was clear that he too understood the threat posed to the Ji Family if there indeed were Demon Cultivators hidden within their territory.
"I will inform them soon to keep a close eye on the movements of the Demon Cultivators.
If there's any discovery, it must be dealt with immediately."
With that said, the two continued to discuss some matters.
Some time later, Ji Haoyuan returned to his cave abode.
He quickly took out the two Storage Bags belonging to the Demon Cultivators.
It took him about half a day.
Ji Haoyuan successfully removed the imprints left by the two Demon Cultivators on the Storage Bags.
Whether intentionally or for some other reason, Ji Haoyuan did not find any indication of the two's specific identities in their Storage Bags.
Instead, he found a considerable amount of cultivation resources.
First and foremost were five to six thousand Spirit Stones.
Next, there were some materials used for Array Formation.
There were even some second-grade Array Materials among them.
This made Ji Haoyuan ponder what the purpose of having so many Array Materials in their Storage Bags was.
Could it be...
Ji Haoyuan's eyes slightly narrowed.
At that moment, two words suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"Array Breaking."
If that's truly the case, then the plot of these Demon Cultivators is not a small one.
The situation seems to be more serious than we thought.
Suppressing these thoughts for now, Ji Haoyuan continued to examine the contents of the Storage Bags.
Most of the items were related to Demon Cultivators.
These were not of much use to him or Ji Bochang.
Only some universal minerals and Spirit Medicines were generally needed by all cultivators.
Hmm...?
Suddenly, Ji Haoyuan's gaze rested on a spot in the hooked-nose man's Storage Bag.
There, several jade slips were piled up.
With a thought.
Those jade slips appeared in Ji Haoyuan's hand.
Examining these jade slips one by one.
A hint of joy immediately appeared on Ji Haoyuan's face.
For no other reason than having discovered a second-grade Earth Element Cultivation Technique in these jade slips.
The cultivation technique was named "Thick Earth Technique."
A simple and unadorned name.
However, after Ji Haoyuan finished reading the contents of this cultivation technique, he realized it was anything but ordinary.
The biggest feature of cultivating this technique was the abundance of magical power.
Especially when you were on the ground, you could absorb Earth Qi from the land and transform it into your own magical power.
In other words, as long as the speed of your magical power consumption could keep pace with the conversion speed of Earth Qi, your magical power would be inexhaustible.
The only pity was that this Thick Earth Technique seemed to be an incomplete cultivation technique.
It only contained the first half.
But even with just the first half, it was enough to cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage.
It seems that the complete Thick Earth Technique should be a Golden Core level cultivation technique.
Who knows where that Demon Cultivator got this cultivation technique from.
It's a lucky find for him.
Moving on, Ji Haoyuan wasted no time and immediately began to cultivate this Thick Earth Technique.
With his insight, it only took him a few days to grasp the basics of this technique.
He then spent several months cultivating this technique to a considerable depth.
From this moment on, Ji Haoyuan began attempting to merge the Thick Earth Technique with his Profound Nether Fire Technique.
[You attempt to merge the Thick Earth Technique with the Profound Nether Fire Technique, and you gain some insight.]
[You attempt to merge the Thick Earth Technique with the Profound Nether Fire Technique, and you gain some insight.]
[You attempt to merge the Thick Earth Technique with the Profound Nether Fire Technique, and you gain great insight, successfully merging the two techniques.]
[Congratulations, you have created the most suitable new cultivation technique under the current conditions, "Profound Fire and Earth Technique."]
This technique retains the explosive power of the Profound Nether Fire Technique, while incorporating the robust attributes of the Thick Earth Technique.
Moreover, when Ji Haoyuan is on the ground, he can still harness the ability of the original Thick Earth Technique to convert Earth Qi, transforming it into a technique containing both fire and earth attributes.
The current highest cultivation limit of this technique is still the mid-stage Golden Core.
But compared to the original Profound Nether Fire Technique, both the robustness of magical power, the explosiveness, and the progress towards cultivation breakthroughs are vastly improved.
In simple terms, if the magical power cultivated from the Profound Nether Fire Technique was one, then the power cultivated from the Profound Fire and Earth Technique is three.
It's three times stronger, at least.
At this point.
Ji Haoyuan had already taken out the Earth Profound Fruit from himself.
Undoubtedly, the Earth Profound Fruit is now something that can have a significant impact for him.
With it, it's possible to advance his current cultivation further.
Quickly, Ji Haoyuan consumed one Earth Profound Fruit.
Instantly, an extremely pure Earth Qi surged up within his body, and was then transformed by Ji Haoyuan into incredibly pure and robust magical power.
He closed his eyes to carefully perceive himself.
Ji Haoyuan accurately assessed that his magical power had increased by more than forty percent from before.
However, this didn't seem to be his limit yet.
He then took out and consumed another Earth Profound Fruit.
Rich and robust magical power once more filled every meridian in his body and finally converged in his Dantian, forming liquefied magical power shimmering with a reddish-yellow glow.
At this moment, Ji Haoyuan could clearly feel that his magical power was not inferior to that of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Faintly, it seemed even slightly stronger.
But that still didn't seem to be his limit.
Should he choose to break through now, Ji Haoyuan was more than ninety percent confident he could successfully break into the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
Yet doing so would be somewhat wasteful.
According to his current observations, there was still room for further improvement.
The only thing missing was a spiritual object capable of enhancing his Fire Attribute Magical Power.
Only when both the fire and earth attributes of his magical power reach an extreme, and he breaks through at that time, can it be considered the perfect situation.
It seems it's time to find and purchase a spiritual object that can enhance Fire Attribute Magical Power.
As this thought flashed through his mind, Ji Haoyuan keenly sensed that the restriction of his cave abode had suddenly been triggered by someone.