"Great Lady!" Three Sky Realm warriors were standing in a chamber, respectfully conducting ceremony toward Cao ZhiLan.
This chamber situated right at the foot of the Sacred Light Mountain in a business quarter. This area was very bustling and animated with boisterous voices and many warriors from different places of the Endless Sea gathering here to find treasures they had desired.
There was a small road at a hidden corner of the business quarter leading to a hatch where a path connected with this secret chamber under the ground.
Those three Sky Realm warriors looked like three brothers, wearing the same coarse garments. Standing solemnly in the chamber, they looked like three imposing and intimidating mountains, emitting heavy auras.
Ordinary warriors even found it hard to breathe when facing them.
Those three people just had normal appearances, so if they mingled in the crowd, no one would ever notice them. Those three people were the protectors of the Cao family, who were seldom showed up in front of strangers and devoted in helping the Cao family do some dubious missions.
"You are all here. That's good."
Cao ZhiLan was comfortably sitting on a chair; a halo flashed over her face, which could mesmerize other people. She knitted her eyebrows, "Tell me about the latest situation of the family."
The three warriors of the Cao family nodded, bent down, and started reporting on everything about the Cao family in recent years.
Cao ZhiLan slightly closed her eyes while listening carefully. Waiting until those three people had finished, she then nodded, "Everything is good, nothing is abnormal. So, the plan seems to be unchanged?"
The three of them all nodded with the respectful manners. This attitude truly came from inside their hearts, not just because of Cao ZhiLan's status.
"The three of you come here to protect me or to attend the meeting on the Sun Island as well?" Cao ZhiLan emotionlessly asked with moderate speed.
"The main purpose is to accompany you back home," One of those three people bent down close to the ground, respectfully said, "The Hengluo Sea is not safe anymore. Our Master's intention is that we should temporarily not involve in the Hengluo Sea's matters. As we come here to see you, we also want to check how many forces are gathering here for the meeting on the same occasion. We actually don't want to join it."
Cao ZhiLan gently nodded, seemed to know about this in advance.
"We have heard that Great Lady has been confined. Do you need us to go there…?" Another man stepped forward to ask for her instructions while a cold beam of light glinted in his eyes.
"No need." Cao ZhiLan coldly said.
"Great Lady, we have heard that you and the little rascal Shi Yan have seemingly had conflicts in the hot spring. Man Gu has also had to show himself out and got defeated, suffering serious injuries."
That man considered a little more carefully then bent down even lower, " Great Lady, you have never laid your eyes on anyone. Do you really want to involve in the relationship with that guy?"
Cao ZhiLan was silent, whining inside her heart. She contemplated for a while before standing up, shaking her head, and speaking up indifferently, "In fact, I initially had that intention. However, I don't know what to think now. The mutation has happened to his Martial Spirits. Perhaps he will not be able to gather the Profound Qi for the rest of his life. His cultivation base has probably reached its limit."
The other three people were astonished then silently nodded, assuming that what Cao ZhiLan had done was obviously right.
"Sigh," Cao ZhiLan was a little melancholy, "If it weren't because he could not gather his Profound Qi anymore, perhaps I would sincerely follow him. This man is indeed outstanding. If he could have maintained his strength as before, he would have had a big advancement and surpassed Zhong LiDun, becoming the most brilliant person in the Endless Sea."
A beam of light suddenly glinted in the eyes of the three protectors of the Cao family while they showed their disbelieving manners.
"I know how dangerous Zhong LiDun is. He has the Nirvana Realm cultivation base, the well-known abstruse soul, as well as many martial techniques; thus, he is always complimented as once in a lifetime genius." Cao ZhiLan slightly harrumphed and continued, "However, Shi Yan is not much inferior to him. Even my Spirit God Martial Spirit couldn't check how many secrets he has. This man brings me a mysterious feeling. If it weren't for the mutant Martial Spirit, I would have longed for the day that he and Zhong LiDun fight against each other."
"Such a pity then." The three protectors of the Cao family nodded.
"Hmm, it's a pity indeed. I…" Cao ZhiLan blushed with embarrassment when suddenly thinking about how she had given him her first kiss on her own initiative. She thus kept silent without saying anything further.
"As Shi Yan has no value anymore, we perhaps should skip him and contact directly with the guys following him." The other person said.
"Very difficult," Cao ZhiLan thought for a while before speaking, "Considering the situation now, I feel that convincing those three pagans is not a simple matter. On the Snow Dragon Island, there are another terrifying God Realm pagan warriors as well."
The three protectors of the Cao family looked odd, screaming at the same time, "Five God Realm warriors?"
Cao ZhiLan nodded with a strained smile, "Yes, five God Realm warriors. This force is terrifyingly powerful. If it isn't so, I wouldn't have boldly stayed there for such a long time like that. Sigh, regretfully, he can't gather the Profound Qi, maybe those pagans are also about to leave him."
"Do we need to send our men straight to the Snow Dragon Island to see the other two people?"
"Yeah, we can try. I am not sure if we will succeed or not, but at least we should show them the Cao family's good intentions."
"I think if Shi Yan just dies in silence, it will be easier for us to contact with those pagans."
Cao ZhiLan's eyes glimmered with a cold beam of light, stonily looking at the protector who had just spoken up, "You better forget what you have just said. Not to mention the relation between Shi Yan and that pagan group, Yang Tian Emperor has not been killed just yet, so if Shi Yan is dead in your hands, you think how many people can you hide it from? You think you are a God Realm warrior?"
That protector's face dramatically changed while he obediently nodded nonstop, didn't dare to say another word.
"Don't think about killing ShiYan. Don't bring troubles to the Cao family anymore. Understand?" Cao Shi Lan snorted coldly.
The three protectors quickly nodded, clearly showing that they were very scared of her.
In another secret stone chamber.
ShiYan was sitting cross-legged on the ground with a gloomy face, knitting his eyebrows while looking at his right arm and thinking dolefully.
He placed his right arm on a rock surface, looking at his rough arm, didn't recognized anything different from before.
Afterward, when he closed his eyes, strange purple rays suddenly appeared from his eyes. After focusing his mind, he realized that those purple rays also stayed hidden in his muscles.
He was thinking about the current situation where his right arm had become as rigid as iron and stone and was not different from being sculptured by a knife. This gave people an impetuous feeling.
"Mutant Martial Spirit," Shi Yan frowned and mumbled to himself, "It should be because of that Petrification Martial Spirit. But, how come this kind of mutation has happened? Why has it consumed all of my Profound Qi?"
He sat in the stone chamber and watched his body's transformation for half a day with many unanswered questions. He somehow could be certain that the transformation of his body happened due to the Petrification Martial Spirit.
He knew the evolvement process of the Petrification Martial Spirit included four phases and every phase had a different shade from each other. At the first phase, the skin had the white-gray hue, and then, it would turn into the light brown at the second phase and green-yellow at the third phase. At the last phase, the skin would be purple.
Besides the fact that different phases had different shades, the strength in each phase was also various.
According to what he had known, only when the cultivation base entered the Sky Realm could the Petrification Martial Spirit reach the fourth phase where the skin would turn to be purple.
Of course, that process happened to the ordinary warriors only.
Since Shi Yan's body had the support of the Mystery Martial Spirit's power, his Martial Spirit could directly enter the fourth phase without requiring his cultivation base to reach the demanded Realm.
Presently, the Petrification Martial Spirit was still in the third phase. If he triggered his mind, urging the Petrification Martial Spirit, most of the skin on his body would turn into green-yellow.
However, the color of his right hand remained unchanged, which was its normal skin color.
However, with a closer look, people could see a flow of purple light vaguely emerged from his right arm. From that phenomenon, he guessed the Petrification Martial Spirit was about to enter the fourth phase.
Right now, the Master ShiJian of the Shi family only had the Nirvana Realm cultivation base, and thus, the Petrification Martial Spirit was only in the third phase.
Until now, nobody in the Shi family had ever broken through the Sky Realm, so no one had cultivated the Petrification Martial Spirit to the fourth phase.
Nothing about this fourth phase had been mentioned or described in ShiYan's memory, making him uncertain whether the current transformation of his body was normal or not, given that the Petrification Martial Spirit was about to enter the fourth phase.
His entire body had fossilized, being covered by a layer of green-yellow light; it was now stony and unbreakable.
Meanwhile, although his right arm remained its original color, it became extremely heavy. It was already hard for him to move his right arm, and thus, if he had to engage in a fight now, this arm would definitely be troublesome for him, even causing his unsteady move.
The reason was due to the heaviness of this arm.
The weight difference between the left arm and right arm was more than a hundred times. One of them was as light as nothing while the other one was as heavy as a mountain. The imbalance disturbed him very much.
"Dang it!" ShiYan used his strength to lift his right arm as high as possible. Without the help of the Profound Qi, this move was extremely slow. Until he could lift it over his head, sweat had already beaded on his forehead, and his back had also soaked in sweat. It looked like as if he had to lift a big mountain.
ShiYan understood that the reason he had been able to raise this arm over his head was that his body had gone through the extremely arduous cultivation, and thus his body's strength was much mightier than other ordinary warriors. Otherwise, it was unlikely to lift this arm up like this.
"Dang it!" He got crazy and cursed. His right arm suddenly dropped, his fist was like a big club pounding heavily on the rock surface.
The arm and the fist effortlessly dropped as quickly as lightning, bringing along the terrifying flow of purple light.
"Boom."
The hard green rock now became a piece of tofu which had utterly been smashed. He didn't encounter any difficulties in doing so.
His right arm was like an undefeatable drill that pierced through the green rock. At the same time, a peculiar, powerful force was transmitted, dragging the tremor of his body.
This tremor was very familiar.
ShiYan's face changed after he had realized this vibration. He felt his right arm seemed to be about to explode.
A crazy, terrifying power from his body was spreading to his arm, making him unable to stand it.
"Boom, boom." The explosive sounds suddenly reverberated from the ground under ShiYan's feet, giving people a terrible feeling.
ShiYan was frightened while his dazed eyes gazed at his feet, seeing the ground rippling like sea waves.
In the booming sounds, the green stone ground under his feet was heaving nonstop as if it was being destroyed by a major earthquake which had a magnitude of 7 or 8.
The broken green stones turned into chalky putty that scattered everywhere.
His right arm shot out many circles of purple light one by one crushing all the green stones into ashes wherever it had passed through, devastating everything that blocked their way.
"Boom, boom, boom."
ShiYan's face changed dramatically when a deafening sound resounded. He wanted to withdraw his arm but realized that it was getting so heavy he failed to do so; instead, his body was pulled down into that mess.
"Swoosh." His clothes were torn apart, scraps of fabric didn't fall on the ground but were attracted down by that arm. The noise of explosion still kept coming up while the chamber looked as if it was being devastated by the earthquake. The stone chamber was gradually falling into pieces, green stones scattered everywhere.
After a while, ShiYan was besieged in an area of thirty square meters by the broken rubble. He was wearing an eccentric face, looking at the big 'grave' and then his right arm while a strange beam of light flashed up in his eyes.
"Master." The three people of Yi TianMo's group appeared at his side like ghosts, looking at the 'grave' with complicated faces.
"This is…" Xia ShengChuan and Xia XinYan also arrived. Looking at the ruined chamber, they showed a suspicious look on their faces.
"You did it?" Xia ShengChuan hesitated a little bit before glancing at Yi TianMo.
Yi TianMo shook his head.
"So, who did this then?" Xia ShengChuan raised his head, shifting his look to YaMeng and KaBa and asked again, "You two?"
YaMeng and KaBa were bewildered, constantly shaking their heads. Thus, everyone turned their heads around, looking at ShiYan with strange eyes, together with the astonished, unbelievable look on their faces.
"I don't know what has happened either." Under the scrutinizing eyes of other people, ShiYan shook his head, strangely looking at his right arm and mumbling, "The mutant Martial Spirit not only prevents me from gathering the Profound Qi but also makes me become like this."