Unlock Great Fortune, Gain an Earthly Fiend Art!

There were actually 1,300 merit points!

Chen Yan was overjoyed. He had never imagined he would directly gain 1,300 merit points—300 more than the 1,000 merit points he had received for wiping out Ding Feihu and the Tiger Head Mountain Bandits.

To be honest, even Chen Yan himself had not expected it.

Upon closer inspection, the Heavenly Book of Merit provided the specifics.

Of the 1,300 merit points, 300 had come from exterminating the Blood Wolf Gang. As for the other 1,000, they had all come from A Jia, the White Lotus Dao Soldier.

One could well imagine that the innocent lives stained upon A Jia's hands were likely no fewer than those of the Tiger Head Mountain Bandits who had massacred a village.

He truly deserved to die!

A cold glint flashed through Chen Yan's eyes before he turned his attention back to his personal panel:

Name: Chen Yan

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

Cultivation Arts: Blood Fiend Saber Technique (Mastery Beyond Perfection), Dragon Step (Entering the Hall), Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record (First Layer)

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

Items: Fish Dragon Saber (Thousand-Forged), Evil-Slaying Talisman

Merit: 1,304

After Spirit Striking, Chen Yan's merit points had broken a thousand once more!

At the thought of being able to unlock Medium Fortune of Great Luck again, Chen Yan could not help growing excited.

There was no helping it. Spirit Striking had set the bar far too high, and Chen Yan could not wait to see what the next Medium Fortune of Great Luck would yield.

He was not lacking in cultivation arts. Whether it was the Five Grains Qi Nourishment Record inherited from the old woman's ancestors or the Shang Qing Xuan Jing Qi Induction Art given to him by Old Daoist Liu, both were enough to support his cultivation before Refining Essence into Qi.

Compared to cultivation arts, Chen Yan hoped more to obtain a spell similar to Spirit Striking.

To be honest, Spirit Striking was very good, and Chen Yan was highly satisfied with it.

But how should he put it? Spirit Striking was still somewhat different from the spells Chen Yan had imagined. In his mind, spells and divine abilities ought to be things like summoning wind and rain, Five Thunders Strike Head, or Samadhi True Fire.

Or, failing that, auxiliary movement arts like shrinking the ground into an inch, transforming into a rainbow, or the Five Elements Escape Arts would do just fine.

After all, he was a cultivator now. Chen Yan felt that he could not keep acting so much like a mere martial man.

Suppressing his excitement, Chen Yan drew a deep breath and silently recited in his heart:

"Unlock Medium Fortune of Great Luck."

In an instant, 1,000 merit points vanished.

What followed was the familiar torrent of information pouring into his mind.

Chen Yan calmed his breath and stilled his mind, accepting the baptism of that information.

Very soon, like a sponge, he greedily and frantically absorbed the knowledge transmitted by the Heavenly Book of Merit.

This time, the drain on Chen Yan's soul power was unprecedented, even surpassing that of Spirit Striking.

Only after a full hour had passed did Chen Yan awaken from meditation. Fine beads of sweat covered his forehead, while his eyes held both exhaustion and astonished wonder as he murmured:

"So it's this spell..."

A brand-new spell had appeared in Chen Yan's spell column.

Spells: Tai Wei Eight Sceneries Record (Not Initiated), Spirit Striking (First Grade), Seventy-two Earthly Fiends: Pot Heaven Technique (Minor Accomplishment)

The Pot Heaven Technique, one of the Seventy-two Earthly Fiends!

"As the saying goes, Pot Heaven can open up space and cave abodes, Shrink the Mustard Seed; it can even make the universe vast within one's sleeve, with heaven and earth held in one's palm!"

It was difficult to determine whether Seventy-two Earthly Fiends: Pot Heaven was an auxiliary divine ability or an offensive one.

As an auxiliary art, the Pot Heaven Technique could undoubtedly replace storage pouches, storage rings, and similar storage treasures. It was extremely convenient for the caster and an essential spell for those setting out on their travels.

Yet as an offensive art, ancient cultivators who had cultivated the Pot Heaven Technique to perfection could, just as the technique itself described, form a world within their sleeves, swallow mountains and roll up seas, imprison heaven and earth. No matter how powerful the living beings taken into their sleeves were, a mere flick of the sleeve would turn them to ash and scatter their souls.

It possessed the terrifying power of Sleeve Universe, capable of swallowing the sun, moon, stars, heaven, earth, and the vast firmament.

To a certain extent, even Spirit Striking was inferior to the Pot Heaven Technique.

Thanks to the Heavenly Book of Merit, after Chen Yan learned the Pot Heaven Technique, the empowerment directly carried him past the threshold of initiation and into the stage of Minor Accomplishment.

The Pot Heaven Technique at Minor Accomplishment was already capable of initially refining the Sleeve Universe Art, allowing it to contain all things, including living creatures.

At the same time, living creatures imprisoned within Sleeve Universe would also be affected to a certain degree. While Chen Yan could not yet reduce them to ash with a flick of his sleeve, it could still muddle their minds and interfere with their souls.

Of course, there was one prerequisite: the imprisoned creature had to be weaker than Chen Yan. Otherwise, against enemies stronger than himself, the power of Chen Yan's Minor Accomplishment Pot Heaven Technique would be greatly diminished.

But no matter what, Seventy-two Earthly Fiends: Pot Heaven was absolutely one of the spells Chen Yan needed most right now!

Heaven knew how much Chen Yan had envied Old Daoist Liu's storage pouch!

Moreover, because First Grade Spirit Striking required a Divine Invocation Item and a divine statue to be nearby, Chen Yan had to bring along the Guangong Statue every time he went out.

It was not heavy, and that bit of weight was nothing to Chen Yan, but it was still rather inconvenient, was it not?

But with the Pot Heaven Technique, things would be different. As long as he refined his Daoist robe, Chen Yan could use Sleeve Universe to store all things whenever he wished. Traveling outside would become incredibly convenient.

Regrettably, Chen Yan could not use the Pot Heaven Technique yet.

The reason was simple: the Sleeve Universe Art had extremely strict requirements for the Daoist robe worn by the cultivator.

The best kind was a Daoist robe made from the silk spun by the legendary Heavenly Gang Silkworms of ancient times.

Chen Yan could forget about that. Never mind whether Heavenly Gang Silkworms still existed—if they did, they were not something the current Chen Yan could make use of.

At the very least, a high-grade Daoist robe woven from the silk of Five Elements Spirit Silkworms would suffice.

And in the absolute worst case, even an ordinary Daoist robe made from regular silk and tempered with a cultivator's heartfire would do.

Without question, Chen Yan had none of those three types of Daoist robes.

All he had was rough hemp clothing twisted from coarse flax. Clearly, it did not meet the basic requirements for refining the Sleeve Universe Art.

Chen Yan felt rather helpless and could only wait to ask Old Daoist Liu whether he had one next time.

He looked up at the sky. By now, night had completely fallen. A bright moon hung high overhead, its clear radiance spilling down and draping the small courtyard in a hazy veil of silver.

Facai lay listlessly atop a branch, dozing. Seeing Chen Yan's gaze turn toward it, it gave a soft cry, then yawned and squinted as it resumed its nap.

Chen Yan smiled. Seeing that it was still early, he simply took out the jade slip Old Daoist Liu had given him, which recorded the Shang Qing Xuan Jing Qi Induction Art.

Having gone through this once before, Chen Yan pressed the jade slip to his brow and infused it with a thread of Magic Power.

Soon, an ancient yet mysterious voice rang out in his mind:

"The Shang Qing Xuan Jing Qi Induction Scripture binds qi and condenses clouds, spanning heaven and weaving earth; above, it seals the Jade Capital and Golden Gates, below, it conceals cave abodes and famed mountains; passed down amid the Dragon-Han Calamity, proclaimed throughout the greater thousand worlds.

Eight characters of spirit-seals soar through the eight directions, trailing rays of light; ten grades of mystic script restrain the demons and wraiths of the ten heavens; expounding wondrous principles, it unfolds mystic arts..."