Chapter 25: Small Success

When the Cataclysm Cultivator realized that his poison had no effect on Li Zhen, coupled with their close-quarters combat, he found himself unable to employ any of his subtle tactics.

Conversely, Li Zhen fought more fluidly as time passed; he even forgot about specific attack techniques. An instinctive understanding guided each of his sword strokes, embodying the essence of basic swordsmanship. This allowed spiritual energy to flow effortlessly through his mid-grade flying sword, unleashing tremendous power with every strike.

“Haha!” He let out a wild laugh, feeling a new realm of sword mastery within reach. He could now freely dissect and reassemble the fundamental sword forms, crafting attacks perfectly suited to the moment—a clear sign of nascent skill in swordsmanship.

Previously, the Cataclysm Cultivator relied solely on his vast combat experience to face Li Zhen. One must understand that wielding a mid-grade flying sword made Li Zhen an immense threat to him.

Now, with Li Zhen’s breakthrough in swordsmanship, his attacks became unpredictable—sometimes swift as a gazelle hanging from a branch, other times surging like a mighty river.

The Cataclysm Cultivator’s low-grade longsword failed twice in a row to parry Li Zhen’s strikes. The mid-grade flying sword struck it squarely both times. On the second impact, the low-grade longsword emitted a sharp crack—the sound of impending breakage.

Feeling the weight in his hand suddenly lessen, the Cataclysm Cultivator knew he was in trouble. He hastily raised his shield before him and began retreating steadily backward. Fear gripped him—he no longer dared to engage Li Zhen in battle. His sole desire now was to escape this encounter unscathed.

At this point, Li Zhen had achieved his goal and couldn’t afford to waste time with the Cataclysm Cultivator.

He activated the dragon might from his Dragon Heart. A faint aura emanated from it, instantly freezing the retreating figure of the Cataclysm Cultivator as an overwhelming sense of dread engulfed him.

Moving with incredible speed, Li Zhen closed the gap in two strides, swiftly delivering a fatal strike to the throat.

Activating the Dragon Heart’s perception ability, he collected all the spiritual artifacts before departing the scene.

The battle had been prolonged. If not for the incident at the Ghost Market, such a commotion during the night would have alerted the Security Bureau long ago.

Not long after Li Zhen left, a team of security officers arrived on the scene.

Upon returning home, Li Zhen removed his identity bracelet and communicated with Mei Yun, the smart housekeeper. Mei Yun opened the bedroom window, allowing Li Zhen to slip back inside unnoticed.

“Mei Yun, did my dad return yet?” he asked, once he had composed himself.

“He returned seven minutes ago!” Mei Yun replied.

Li Zhen felt relieved; it seemed his father hadn’t encountered any further trouble.

After freshening up and changing clothes, he climbed into bed.

There, he examined his haul from the battle. In the heat of the moment, he hadn’t paid attention to what exactly he had collected.

There were three magical artifacts: a broken low-grade longsword in two pieces, an intact low-grade longsword, a low-grade shield, two bottles of medicinal pills, and a piece of low-grade metal.

Man, this is like hitting the jackpot! Li Zhen marveled inwardly.

He first examined the broken low-grade longsword, which he had snapped with his Nine Heavens C045 mid-grade flying sword.

He had no interest in repairing it; such damaged magical artifacts rarely could be fixed.

Besides, this particular low-grade longsword was made by Xingrui Group—a mass-produced item that held no value for repair.

Swallow it up! he commanded the Dragon Heart.

Two distinct glows rose from the severed halves of the low-grade longsword—one red, one golden—with the golden glow being more prominent.

From this, he deduced that the sword used materials imbued with two different elemental properties: the golden glow indicated metallic essence, while the red glow suggested fire essence.

As the red and golden glows were absorbed into the Dragon Heart space, he felt changes within his spiritual roots.

Activating his identity bracelet, he summoned his personal information onto his retinal display:

He noticed that his metal spiritual root had increased from 11 to 12, and he now had a fire spiritual root with a value of 5.

“This mass-produced magical weapon uses too little material!” Li Zhen said, somewhat dissatisfied as he looked at the growth of his spiritual roots.

It wasn’t surprising for him to be greedy; this was only a low-grade first-rank longsword magical weapon. Such a large longsword magical weapon provided far too few benefits to his spiritual roots.

Li Zhen couldn’t bear to consume the other low-grade first-rank longsword either. He was still practicing swordsmanship using a training sword. Although mid-grade flying swords were excellent, holding one felt like wielding a short sword, making it unsuitable for close-quarters sword techniques.

He then examined the first-rank shield magical item. It was a rare defensive tool, and he similarly didn’t want the Dragon Heart Space to consume it.

At that moment, he found himself facing a happy dilemma. With so many magical items, he couldn’t refine them all daily.

After some thought, he decided to give only cursory refinements to the low-grade first-rank longsword and shield. Based on his estimate, these two low-grade magical items wouldn’t last long before becoming obsolete.

“First-rank low-grade metal? I should probably consume it,” Li Zhen instructed aloud while looking at the metal.

First-rank low-grade metal served as spirit material for crafting magical weapons. Even if someone refined it into a magical item, it would merely result in another low-grade first-rank magical item. His options were limited: sell it or consume it.

He chose to swallow it down. Rather than risking selling low-grade tier-one spiritual materials, he might as well risk selling low-grade tier-two spiritual materials.

After all, for a twelve-year-old like him, there was always risk involved no matter which type of spiritual material he sold. He really was too young.

Inside the Dragon Heart Space, the first-tier low-grade metal ascended with golden light, and the golden light was absorbed by the Dragon Heart Space.

Li Zhen checked his personal information displayed on his retina again through the identity bracelet. He saw that his gold spirit root had increased by 1 point.

Through the Dragon Heart Space’s previous two acts of swallowing, he confirmed even more strongly that as one’s innate talent for spirit roots improved, the higher quality of spirit materials required would also increase accordingly.

Before, when he swallowed a first-tier low-grade water attribute spirit object, he obtained Water 7 pseudo-spirit root. Now, after swallowing a first-tier low-grade metal attribute spirit object, he only increased his low-grade gold spirit root talent by 1 point.

He thought about that courtyard in the ghost market. If he were to swallow all twenty or so spirit objects from there, perhaps his spirit root talents could undergo a major enhancement.

Finally, he took out two bottles of pills. These two bottles contained the most common low-grade Qi Guidance Pills.

The Qi Guidance Pill was a medicinal pill used by cultivators in the early stages of qi cultivation. Both bottles of pills had been partially consumed, with only four pills remaining in total.

Li Zhen dared not consume more than necessary. He commanded the Dragon Heart Space to absorb just one inferior-grade Qi Guidance Pill.

Focusing his mind on the Dragon Heart Space, he wanted to observe what changes would occur when it absorbed the medicinal pill.

As the inferior-grade Qi Guidance Pill was consumed, it dissolved into nothingness, releasing a pure energy essence from within.

Li Zhen couldn’t adequately describe the purity of this energy. His sensitivity to spiritual objects was exceptionally strong, especially enhanced many times over within the Dragon Heart Space.

He felt that this pure energy was even more refined than any other form of energy he’d encountered before.

Attempting to send this pure energy out of the Dragon Heart Space and into his own body, he activated the ‘Seventeenth Version of Foundation Qi Refining Technique.’ The pure energy began circulating through his meridians as guided by the technique.

After completing one cycle of the practice, the pure energy transformed into wood elemental spiritual power, which then entered his dantian.

This entire cultivation session took more than half an hour, continuing until all the pure energy had been fully converted within his body.

Li Zhen couldn’t help but check his information, noticing that his spiritual energy had increased from 10.1 to 10.8.

He was utterly astonished; a jump of 0.7 in his spiritual energy level was significant.

Don’t underestimate 0.7—it represented seven days’ worth of cultivation at school, or seventy hours of practice. Yet he’d achieved this increase in just over half an hour.

His secret weapon? Consuming a low-grade Qi Guidance Pill.

While he knew medicinal pills could accelerate cultivation, he never anticipated such a dramatic effect.

It’s important to note that this was merely a first-rank low-grade Qi Guidance Pill, considered the least potent among all cultivation-enhancing pills.

Just imagine how many days of cultivation a single mid-grade pill from the school reward might equal—Li Zhen’s heart raced at the thought.

Of course, by consuming this low-grade pill today, Li Zhen aimed not only to test the Dragon Heart Space’s ability to process medicinal pills but also to check if doing so would leave any Pill Toxins within his body.

If even trace amounts of Pill Toxin remained, no matter how effective the pill, he wouldn’t risk using medicinal pills to speed up his cultivation again.