Heavenly Sword Sect.
The Servant's Hall.
Li Hu sat upright in his chair, his face terrifyingly grim.
Ma Yingjie knelt on the cold floor tiles, his head bowed low, almost touching the ground.
He trembled violently, not daring to breathe, much less look up at Li Hu's furious face, as if meeting his eyes would mean being torn to shreds.
After a full half-incense stick's time, Li Hu finally spoke.
"Why was Hu Nan at Qingyun Lake? How were you monitoring him?"
These words struck Ma Yingjie like a thunderbolt.
His body shuddered violently, cold sweat instantly beading on his forehead, sliding down his cheeks and splashing onto the bluestone floor, leaving a small damp patch.
He opened his mouth, his throat terribly dry, and stammered, "Young Master, this subordinate...this subordinate really doesn't know!"
"As you instructed, we arranged three teams to watch Hu Nan's tent day and night, and Hu Nan's figure has never left the tent."
Ma Yingjie was also completely bewildered.
He hadn't relaxed his surveillance of Hu Nan for a moment.
He had even arranged three teams to take turns monitoring him.
But even so, Hu Nan still appeared in Qingyun Lake.
"Hmph!" Li Hu let out a cold snort, filled with disdain and rage.
He slammed his hand on the armrest, the heavy chair creaking under his weight, the armrest dented from his blow.
"Useless! A bunch of useless trash!" Li Hu roared, his anger intensifying. He demanded again, "How many died this time?"
Ma Yingjie was terrified by the shout. He immediately lowered his head further, his voice trembling as he reported, "Reporting to...Young Master, fifteen people died in this operation...and...and Elder Chen was also killed in one bite by that Golden Core demon beast."
The moment the name "Elder Chen" was uttered, the temperature in the hall seemed to drop several degrees.
Li Hu's face instantly turned even more grim. His previously somber expression now turned ashen.
Elder Chen was a master of formations. Many great formations had been broken thanks to him. Now, he had perished at Qingyun Lake, killed by a Golden Core demon beast. This was undoubtedly like losing an arm for him!
The reason Li Hu had spared no expense in planning this trip to Qingyun Lake was for the secret treasure at the bottom of the lake that could greatly increase his strength.
He thought everything was under control; he only needed to wait for the Golden Core demon beast to leave to easily seize the treasure and achieve his own Golden Core cultivation.
But to his utter surprise, his plan backfired spectacularly.
Not only did he lose fifteen subordinates and his key general, Elder Chen, but Hu Nan also beat him to the punch with the treasure of Qingyun Lake.
Hu Nan, who had been under their close surveillance in the Misty Forest, appeared at Qingyun Lake undetected, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Golden Core demon beast to steal the opportunity that should have been his.
This time, he not only failed to obtain the treasure but also suffered a complete loss, becoming a pawn in Hu Nan's scheme!
With the deaths of these dozen or so people, their Blood Demon Sect's infiltration plan within the Heavenly Sword Sect had utterly failed.
At the same time, he was extremely curious about the identity of the mysterious person.
Who exactly was that person?
Why did Hu Nan protect him so fiercely?
...
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed.
Throughout this year, Qin Changsheng maintained an extremely low profile, never revealing his talents within the sect.
He remained in his secluded courtyard, keeping the gates tightly shut during the day, setting up double concealment arrays to isolate himself from all outside disturbances, focusing solely on cultivation.
With the blessing of the Heavenly Dao's "Cultivation" technique—"one part effort, ten parts reward"—Qin Changsheng's cultivation efficiency far surpassed his previous levels. His daily absorption of spiritual energy and the speed at which he refined his meridians increased several times over. Even when he occasionally paused, the spiritual power within his body continued to slowly accumulate, never stagnating.
After a year of hard work, Qin Changsheng had also raised his proficiency to 43,000 points.
He was only 17,000 points away from the proficiency required for the fifth level of Foundation Establishment.
[Name: Qin Changsheng]
[Lifespan: 29/+∞]
[Cultivation Level: Foundation Establishment Level 4 (43000/60000)]
[Cultivation Technique: Five Elements Gathering Spirit Technique (Perfected)]
[Spells: Fire Serpent Technique (Perfected), Fire Shield Technique (Great Success 6000/10000)]
[Swift Wind Sword Technique: Perfected]
[Smoke Shadow Step: Perfected]
[Sword Flight Technique: Perfected]
[Spiritual Root: Top-Grade Five Spiritual Roots]
[Number of times the term was drawn: 1]
[Terms: Cultivation, Storage Space, Avatar, Immortality, Substitute Death, Absorption, Exchange, Sword Heart Clarity, Sharing, Intelligence, Source of Mana, Fire Spells, Rebirth, Repair]
Over the past year, he not only focused on his own cultivation but also never neglected the use of his avatar, Hu Nan.
Thanks to the blessing of the Heavenly Dao term "Cultivation," Qin Changsheng had Hu Nan refine Qi Gathering Pills.
Benefiting from the alchemy techniques taught by Qin Changsheng, and with the indirect blessing of the Heavenly Dao "Cultivation," Hu Nan's success rate in alchemy was extremely high. He could harvest ten Qi Gathering Pills for every one he refined, an astonishing efficiency.
In one year, Hu Nan refined hundreds of batches of Qi Gathering Pills, producing countless pills in total.
Most of these Qi Gathering Pills were secretly sold by Hu Nan to outer disciples within the sect through clandestine channels, or exchanged for other cultivation resources. This brought Qin Changsheng tens of thousands of spirit stones in income.
Looking at the spirit stones piled up in his storage space, Qin Changsheng was somewhat satisfied, but he knew it was far from enough.
After all, just repairing that high-grade Earth-level Spirit Suppressing Pearl would cost a million spirit stones.
However, Qin Changsheng wasn't considering that now, but instead focused on the attribute extraction.
Now that it was a new year, Qin Changsheng could extract new attributes.
"Extract an attribute!" Qin Changsheng didn't hesitate.
As soon as he finished speaking, countless tiny golden dots on the attribute panel intertwined and converged, gradually forming a blurry, phantom-like attribute.
In just a few breaths, the blurry illusory phrase gradually became clear, and a golden character slowly emerged, shining brightly, appearing clearly in mid-air above the spirit jade.
The four large golden characters, "[Instant Spell Casting]", carried a faint pressure, hovering in mid-air, their flowing light exuding a powerful magical aura.
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[Ding! Congratulations on successfully drawing the golden phrase—[Instant Spell Casting]!]
[Instant Casting (Golden Affix) Passive: Cast any learned spell instantly, without hand seals or incantations. Spell power is increased by 50%, and mana consumption is reduced by 30%.]
Qin Changsheng closed his eyes, quietly processing the information in his mind, his joy growing stronger.
The passive effect required no active activation. Any spell he had already learned, whether fire-based like Fire Serpent or Fireball Talisman, or others, could be cast instantly without the need for hand seals or incantations.
In actual combat, this was undoubtedly a fatal advantage, often allowing him to seize the initiative and unexpectedly defeat his enemy.
What surprised him even more was that, in addition to the instant casting effect, spell power was increased by 50%, while mana consumption was reduced by 30%.
This meant that in the future, his spellcasting would not only be faster and more powerful, but he would also conserve a significant amount of mana, greatly improving his mana sustain.
Previously, casting the Fire Serpent Spell required a significant amount of mana and involved hand seals and incantations. Now, with the [Instant Casting] ability, it can be cast in an instant, doubling its power while consuming far less mana—a true combat marvel.
Qin Changsheng slowly opened his eyes, raised his hand, and condensed a wisp of spiritual energy, silently chanting "Fire Serpent Spell."
Without cumbersome hand seals or obscure incantations, a blazing red light instantly erupted from his fingertips, and a fiery serpent, its body ablaze with flames, instantly materialized, shooting towards the stone in the corner of the courtyard with lightning speed.
"Boom!" With a soft sound, the fire serpent struck the stone, exploding instantly. The intense flames engulfed the stone, and when the smoke cleared, the stone was reduced to ashes.
A hint of satisfaction flashed in Qin Changsheng's eyes—this was the effect of [Instant Casting]: instant release, far greater power than before, and indeed, significantly less mana consumption.
Closing the attribute panel, Qin Changsheng sat before the stone table, meticulously reviewing his past accumulations and future plans. He ultimately set three core goals, the most urgent task being to proceed step by step.
The most pressing and crucial issue at present was earning enough spirit stones.
He knew that whether it was repairing the Spirit-Stabilizing Pearl, finding the auxiliary materials needed for refining his natal magic weapon, extracting more golden attributes, or searching for other fragments of the Heavenly Dao, all required a massive amount of spirit stones.
Having spent a year refining pills as Hu Nan, he had only accumulated tens of thousands of spirit stones, still over 900,000 short of his initial goal of one million. This pace was far from meeting the demands of his subsequent plans.
Regarding earning spirit stones, Qin Changsheng already had a preliminary plan: to go to a spirit stone mine and mine.
With the blessing of cultivating Heavenly Dao attributes, he could obtain one million spirit stones in a few years at most.
After repairing the treasure, Qin Changsheng's core long-term plan began—to find the necessary auxiliary materials for refining his natal magic weapon.
On the path of cultivation, after Foundation Establishment, the natal magic weapon becomes a cultivator's most crucial source of combat power. Only by refining a natal magic weapon that suits one's own abilities can one truly gain a foothold and strive for higher realms.
These auxiliary items are extremely rare, mostly hidden in famous mountains and rivers, monster lairs, or collected by major sects and cultivators. Finding them is extremely difficult and requires sufficient strength and spirit stones.
Besides this, Qin Changsheng did not forget to continue searching for other fragments of the Heavenly Dao, and to strengthen the power of his existing entries. If he could find more fragments of the Heavenly Dao in the future and enhance them into Heavenly Dao entries, their power would undoubtedly reach a new level.