Hong Yu's family was located in Shishui City.
The Underground Alliance was the ruler of Shishui City's underworld.
Here, both family factions and individuals could issue quests, which were then undertaken by the experts who had joined the Underground Alliance.
All Martial Artists who joined the Underground Alliance received a unified title: "Hunter."
The Hunter ranks were strict, distinguished from weakest to strongest as Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Hunting King. The higher the Level, the greater the strength, and naturally, the greater the reward for completing quests.
Hong Yu had joined the Underground Alliance a year ago. Now, he was already a Silver Hunter—and the youngest one at that!
"Little brother, you have ten hours left in the training Quiet Chamber this month. The room is ready for you. Are you heading over now?" Sister Qin said with a gentle smile.
"Yes, I need to make the most of my time!"
Hong Yu nodded.
Sister Qin gave a helpless smile. "You really work yourself to the bone!"
"I have no choice. It's all for survival..." Hong Yu's expression grew distant. The memory of Yun Mengyao's tearful face during an episode of her illness flashed through his mind, and his voice deepened.
"Who isn't?"
Sister Qin's expression turned a little strange. She seemed lost in thought for a moment before nodding. "Go on, then!"
...
「In the Quiet Chamber.」
Hong Yu sat quietly cross-legged on the stone bed. At some point, a strange, small black tower had appeared in his hand. As he gently caressed it, the small black tower emitted faint wisps of black light that traveled up his palm, into his body, and through his Eight Extraordinary Meridians, finally converging upon the most mysterious of them all: his Primordial Vein.
Wherever this energy passed, Hong Yu could clearly feel a tingling sensation spreading through his Primordial Vein.
His cultivation also rose slowly, only gradually stopping when he reached the Peak of the Sixth Layer of the Essence Realm.
WHOOSH!
Hong Yu exhaled a long breath and slowly opened his eyes.
This small black tower was called the Profound Celestial Tower, the only item his long-disappeared father had left him.
Hong Yu still clearly remembered the words his father spoke when he gave him the Profound Celestial Tower: "Son, if you cannot unlock the secrets of this Treasure Tower before you turn sixteen, then give up the Martial Dao. From then on, just live your life peacefully as an ordinary person!"
'Was my so-called father really just from a branch of the Hong Family?' Hong Yu thought, rubbing his nose. His memories of his father were extremely vague.
After thinking for a while without any leads, Hong Yu refocused his attention on the Profound Celestial Tower.
Neither the original owner of this body nor the transmigrated Hong Yu had ever stopped researching the Profound Celestial Tower.
However, while the original owner had spent years on it to no avail, the current Hong Yu, after three years of painstaking research, had managed to figure out some of its superficial uses.
For instance, nourishing his Primordial Vein!
It was precisely because of this function of the Profound Celestial Tower that, despite never having consumed a single Nourishing Essence Pill, the strength of his Primordial Vein far surpassed that of others.
Furthermore, due to the power of his Primordial Vein, Hong Yu's cultivation speed had also greatly increased.
He now possessed the strength of the Peak of the Sixth Layer of the Essence Realm. Combined with his years of training in the Underground Alliance, his actual combat prowess was not inferior to that of an ordinary expert at the Seventh Layer of the Essence Realm.
Although Hong Yu was young, he understood the principle that possessing a treasure invites disaster. To avoid exposing the Profound Celestial Tower's secrets, he had always hidden his true strength.
If Hongyan hadn't pushed him too far today, he would never have revealed his power.
'I'm only at the Peak of the Sixth Layer of the Essence Realm right now. I can hold my own against an expert at the Seventh Layer, but if my opponent were the Red Yin Poison Scorpion, I probably wouldn't even be enough to pick its teeth. However, if I can break through to the Seventh Layer of the Essence Realm and use some traps and tools, I should have a better chance...'
Hong Yu carefully took out the Yin-Yang Flower. He placed it on the ground and smashed down on it with the Profound Celestial Tower, causing venom to splash everywhere. But before the deadly, throat-sealing venom could even touch the ground, a flash of black light from the Profound Celestial Tower swallowed it all. Once the venom from the five Yin-Yang Flowers was completely devoured...
Hong Yu's vision went black, and he found himself in a hollow, dark space.
This was the second function of the Profound Celestial Tower—Shadow Martial!
As the name implied, Shadow Martial meant a shadow performing martial arts.
A dark silhouette with an indistinct face slowly coalesced before Hong Yu. The silhouette stood in front of him, continuously executing a series of moves. If Hongyan were here, he would have been utterly shocked, because the Martial Skill the silhouette was performing was none other than the Little Thunderbolt Palm he had used.
However, the silhouette's version of the Little Thunderbolt Palm was more fluid, more powerful, had greater Momentum, and was altogether more perfect!
To perfect any Martial Skill one had witnessed—this was the function of Shadow Martial.
BANG!
After the tenth execution of the Little Thunderbolt Palm, the silhouette shattered, and Hong Yu returned to reality. He closed his eyes, replaying the Little Thunderbolt Palm in his mind. A moment later, he suddenly moved. His movements were swift and decisive, like wind, like lightning, like a clap of thunder. In just a few short hours, he had completely learned and mastered this Low-Level Martial Skill, the Little Thunderbolt Palm.
The entire Little Thunderbolt Palm was branded into his mind with perfect clarity, as if he had practiced it countless times.
"The Little Thunderbolt Palm is truly powerful. Now I have another life-saving trick up my sleeve."
Hong Yu was increasingly in awe of the Profound Celestial Tower's mystery and power.
Just its two most superficial functions had already brought him this far. If he could uncover the Profound Celestial Tower's true secrets, Hong Yu dared not imagine what kind of incredible progress he would make. But that was a matter for the future. Right now, there was something more important before him!
'I have to complete the Restoring Yin Grass quest as soon as possible. It'll be a problem if someone else gets to it first.'
Hong Yu narrowed his eyes. 'A Tier One Advanced Desolate Beast, the Red Yin Poison Scorpion, is comparable to a powerhouse at the Ninth Layer of the Essence Realm. I'll only have a fighting chance if I can break through to the Seventh Layer of the Essence Realm and use some special tools to help. But those tools cost a lot of money. It seems that besides breaking through quickly, I also need to find a way to earn some cash!'
'But for now, I need to focus on cultivating. My time in the training Quiet Chamber is almost up for the month.'
The Underground Alliance's training Quiet Chambers were very special places. It was said that there was a unique Array inside the Underground Alliance headquarters that had a peculiar effect: cultivating inside the Quiet Chambers was twice as effective.
This was one of the ways the Underground Alliance attracted so many experts to join its ranks!
Of course, the Underground Alliance wouldn't provide such a precious training ground to Hunters for free. The alliance divided the training Quiet Chambers into different areas based on a Hunter's Level, each with a different price tag. As a Silver Hunter, Hong Yu had an exclusive Quiet Chamber in the silver training area, but the price was a bit steep!
This was also why, despite being a Hunter for several years, Hong Yu's pockets were not exactly full.
Hong Yu slowly closed his eyes and began cultivating once more.
Deep in his meditative state, Hong Yu didn't notice that as he cultivated, a ring of black, diamond-like markers on the First Layer of the Profound Celestial Tower was slowly rising.
Judging by the trend, it was only a short way from completely filling the scale on the first level. Unfortunately, Hong Yu remained completely unaware of all this...