Unlocking Medium Fortune of Great Luck!

Unable to wait any longer, Chen Yan immediately went to a nearby grain shop and bought a dou each of premium five grains, spending a full ten taels of silver.

Fortunately, he had looted over a hundred taels from Ding Feihu and his group. Otherwise, Chen Yan would not have been able to afford it.

Ordinary five grains were not normally this expensive, but the Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record required premium-grade five grains to open its gate. This left Chen Yan no choice but to spend more silver.

Under Facai's bored, yawning gaze, Chen Yan cooked the grains he had bought and placed them separately into five large wooden barrels.

Then, following the method described in the Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record, Chen Yan took a spoonful from each and ate them, recalling the key verses in his heart:

"Gather the essence of the five grains, transform it into the origin of the five organs; press the tongue against the upper palate, knock the teeth thirty-six times..."

To be honest, Chen Yan felt nothing at first.

But as the large wooden barrels of grains gradually emptied, an indescribably profound sensation emerged.

Chen Yan suddenly felt an intensely bitter flavor explode in his mouth.

The feeling nearly made him want to vomit up every grain he had swallowed.

Suppressing the urge to vomit, he knocked his teeth thirty-six times and swallowed the final mouthful of grains.

Boom!

In an instant.

A surge of heat violently erupted!

The heat passed through his throat and spread through his limbs and bones, leaving him drenched in sweat.

Chen Yan did not dare let his guard down. He knew this was the crucial moment. That stream of heat was nothing else than the essence of the five grains transformed after consumption.

Calming his mind and steadying his breath, Chen Yan guided the grain essence from his lower dantian, through the perineum, up the Governing Vessel and past the three gates of the Tailbone, Spine, and Jade Pillow, to the Niwan atop his head, where it met at the tip of his tongue. It connected with the Conception Vessel, then descended back to his dantian.

One Lesser Heavenly Cycle was complete.

Within his dantian, a thread of entirely new power appeared—fine as a hair, yet incomparably pure, completely unlike the power of blood qi.

Some called this power essence origin, but cultivators more often called it—Magic Power!

Chen Yan opened his eyes, and a sharp gleam flashed through them.

In that instant, the world before him seemed to have become "new."

His gaze easily caught the ants carrying grains of rice in the corner of the little courtyard. Even the antennae they extended were clearly visible!

His strength seemed to have increased somewhat as well.

"So... I'm a cultivator now?"

Feeling as though the entire world had changed, Chen Yan rose excitedly to his feet. He hurried into the void space, opened the Heavenly Book of Merit, and looked at his personal panel.

Sure enough, the personal panel had changed again:

Name: Chen Yan

Realm: Third Blood Qi Realm, Essence Cultivation (Early Stage)

Cultivation Techniques: Blood Fiend Saber Technique (Peak Perfection), Dragon Step (Hall Entering), Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record (First Layer)

Items: Fish Dragon Saber (Thousand-Forged), Cultivation Technique Jade Slip, Evil-Slaying Talisman

Merit: 1,003 points

An additional line had appeared in the realm section.

Early-stage Essence Cultivation!

He, Chen Yan, could now wield talismans without using Heart's Yang Blood!

"Awesome!"

Chen Yan desperately wanted to try casting a spell right away, but he did not know any spells at all.

No, wait!

Chen Yan's eyes suddenly lit up. Old Daoist Liu seemed to have given him a Daoist spell before, but because of the massacre at Little Yellow Village, he had never found the time to read it.

Unable to wait, Chen Yan rummaged through his pack and pulled out the ancient booklet.

"Tai Wei's Three Sections, Eight Sceneries, Twenty-Four True Records"!

He opened to the first page. "The Eight True Spirit Diagrams of the Upper Section, using the primordial qi of the grotto-heaven to transform and give birth to the Eight Sceneries' true beings of nature..."

Sure enough, after reciting the Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record once, his personal panel changed again.

Name: Chen Yan

Realm: Third Blood Qi Realm, Essence Cultivation (Early Stage)

Cultivation Techniques: Blood Fiend Saber Technique (Peak Perfection), Dragon Step (Hall Entering), Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record (First Layer)

Spells: Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record (Not Initiated)

Items: Fish Dragon Saber (Thousand-Forged), Cultivation Technique Jade Slip, Evil-Slaying Talisman

Merit: 1,003 points

A brand-new status category had appeared: spells!

Chen Yan was so excited that he wanted to try it immediately, but he had only read through the Daoist spell Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record once. He could not even memorize it, much less gain entry into it.

Moreover, strictly speaking, the Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record was a Daoist art of talisman drawing. It mainly taught the user how to manifest the eight auspicious sceneries of the human body and the corresponding activation incantations. Learning it in a day or two was out of the question.

Then again, Chen Yan had no talisman-drawing tools at hand. Even if he wanted to draw one, he could not. Tomorrow, he would ask the old Daoist and see whether Old Daoist Liu had any, while also seeking some guidance.

Having successfully learned a cultivation method and become an early-stage Essence Cultivation cultivator, Chen Yan was in excellent spirits.

Taking advantage of the moment, he simply did not leave the void space and directly chose to unlock Medium Fortune of Great Luck.

He had not chosen to unlock it with his previous thousand merit points because he had not been strong enough then.

Now that Chen Yan was already a Third Blood Qi Realm Martial Master, and the Great Return Pill no longer worked on him, it was time to unlock Medium Fortune of Great Luck and see what exactly this higher-tier fortune contained.

Honestly, compared with a cultivation method, Chen Yan hoped he could obtain a spell that he could use immediately.

Of course, he would not mind if it were a cultivation method. After all, the Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record did not conflict with the cultivation methods of the Immortal and Buddhist Orthodox Schools; instead, it could accelerate cultivation.

With that thought, Chen Yan silently recited in his heart:

"Unlock Medium Fortune of Great Luck."

The instant Chen Yan spoke the words, one thousand merit points immediately dropped to zero.

Then, an immense flood of information poured into Chen Yan's mind like a surging river. This was not his first time experiencing it. He concentrated and accepted the Heavenly Book of Merit's empowerment.

Second by second, time passed. From the outside, Chen Yan stood motionless in the little courtyard.

Facai had long since grown used to it. Everything about its poop-scooper was fine, except he had a habit of spacing out at the drop of a hat. After the panic of the first time, Facai had matured. It even yawned in the tree and dozed off.

Who knew how long passed. When night fell and the bright moon hung overhead, Chen Yan finally emerged from the state of empowerment.

He looked at his personal panel, and a trace of complexity flashed through his eyes.

The treasure unlocked from Medium Fortune of Great Luck this time was not a cultivation method. Chen Yan was not surprised by that.

Because compared with a cultivation method, he cared more about having a spell he could use immediately.

After all, he could freeload a real cultivation method from Old Daoist Liu later, couldn't he?

He could even save a thousand merit points. Why not?

Yet the spell exchanged through unlocking Medium Fortune of Great Luck left Chen Yan feeling somewhat conflicted.

It was not that the spell was weak. On the contrary, after reading its description, Chen Yan felt that it was absolutely the strongest spell—perhaps even stronger than the Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record Old Daoist Liu had given him.

The reason Chen Yan's expression was somewhat complicated was that this spell was a little different from the spells he had imagined.

On his personal panel, beneath the spells category, an entirely new spell silently emerged.

Spells: Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record (Not Initiated), Spirit Striking (First Rank)

Spirit Striking!