Experience Points Can Be Used to Upgrade Items?

System Notification: Killed one chicken, gained 0.2 experience.

System Notification: Killed one chicken, gained 0.2 experience.

Including the first one, Feng Wu killed six chickens in half an hour, earning a total of 1.2 experience points.

It felt better than a month of hard cultivation.

Wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, Feng Wu tossed the old hen, drained of blood, into a large pot of boiling water. (The step for plucking chicken and duck feathers.)

Being able to improve his cultivation by killing chickens was certainly exciting, but the pace was truly too slow.

Not only did it take a long time for the chicken's blood to drain, but the Butchering Knife he had used for years was no longer sharp. Even after plucking all the feathers from a chicken's neck, it was difficult to make a cut with a single stroke.

"Looks like I'll have to use the real thing. Ptoo!"

Feng Wu spat on the blade, tightened his grip, and circulated his Dou Qi slightly, concentrating his strength in his knife-wielding right hand.

Great strength worked miracles. If the blade was not sharp enough, strength would make up for it!

But before Feng Wu could bring the knife down, a sudden change occurred.

As Feng Wu began circulating his Dou Qi, a line of text appeared before his eyes.

Old Butchering Knife (Common / Upgradable)

A battered old Butchering Knife that cannot even cut through cowhide. Every cow looks upon it with disdain.

Under the old hen's terrified gaze, Feng Wu's Butchering Knife stopped less than an inch from its neck, frightening it so badly that it did not even dare cluck.

Hm? Feng Wu stopped his butcher's knife.

"This is... a new system function?"

Filled with curiosity and excitement, Feng Wu focused his attention on the words.

Then another line of text unfolded, listing the upgrade requirements and description.

Experience required for upgrade: 0.5

If upgraded, this old knife that has already been used for five years should be able to fight on for another ten!

System Notification: The experience required for upgrades will be consumed from the host. Please choose carefully!

Looking at the system text before him, Feng Wu was overjoyed. It could even upgrade items?

Was it not just the experience from killing two more chickens?

A trivial matter!

"Upgrade!" Feng Wu focused his attention on the upgrade button on the surface of the Butchering Knife and invested the experience.

No spectacular radiance appeared, perhaps because the Butchering Knife itself was of such poor quality.

But visibly, the mottled rust on the Butchering Knife rapidly faded away. The slightly curled blade and the chicken blood that had just stained it straightened and fell away on their own.

The grime embedded in the wooden handle gradually faded and disappeared as well, replaced by redwood.

In just a few seconds, a brand-new, sharp Butchering Knife, seemingly crafted by a master, appeared in Feng Wu's hand.

Compared to the old knife he had used for years, it was like heaven and earth!

The upgrade was complete. Under Feng Wu's gaze, a description appeared on the newly refurbished Butchering Knife, but the words had changed.

Fine Butchering Knife (Fine / Upgradable)

Experience required for upgrade: 2 points

Are you sure you still want to use it to kill chickens? Take it, put some strength into it, and even cutting through the hide of a Rank 1 Magical Beast will be effortless.

Upgrade it again, and even a Minotaur would tremble at the sight of this Butchering Knife.

The system's descriptions appeared one after another before Feng Wu's eyes. If it could cut through a Magical Beast's hide, then it was no longer an ordinary kitchen utensil!

It was a weapon!

However, while the Butchering Knife was being upgraded, Feng Wu's aura also dipped sharply for an instant.

It was as though... his body had been hollowed out...

The feeling was no different from kidney deficiency. It was truly unpleasant.

Feng Wu sympathized with Xiao Yan. He had been ridden and drained by that old man Yao Chen for nearly four whole years.

The experience points on Feng Wu's character panel had also changed, dropping from the newly accumulated (6.4/10) to (5.9/10).

"Let's test the power of the new knife!"

Excited, Feng Wu grabbed the old hen again and lightly drew the blade across its neck. In the end, it still could not escape Feng Wu's butcher's knife.

Blood trickled down. With just one stroke, Feng Wu slit the chicken's neck. He had even nearly chopped off its head because he forgot to hold back his strength!

Its sharpness was on an entirely different level!

Once the hen had bled dry and stopped struggling wildly, Feng Wu casually tossed it into the pot of boiling water and began his great slaughter!

System Notification: Killed one chicken, gained 0.2 experience.

System Notification: Killed one chicken, gained 0.2 experience.

With the new knife, his chicken-killing speed increased greatly.

Not only could he now accomplish in one stroke what used to take four or five, but he no longer needed to pluck the feathers from their necks.

Giving them a quick death greatly reduced the time needed to restrain the hens as they struggled.

Killing one chicken had originally taken five minutes. Now it only took about three!

Until a little over another hour had passed, Feng Wu's aura suddenly changed, rising by a great deal!

Dou Qi: Sixth Stage!

An hour of killing chickens, half a stage of Dou Qi!

Who would believe it?

At this moment, Feng Wu's experience bar had been cleared, becoming a brand-new (0.1/15).

Advancing from the sixth stage of Dou Qi to the seventh was a minor threshold, so the increase in required experience was perfectly normal.

But what mattered was that Feng Wu wanted to see whether he could still upgrade items now that his experience bar was empty.

He took out the Butchering Knife and looked at it again.

The words (Upgradable) were still present in the knife's description, and the upgrade button on its surface was clearly still glowing, indicating that it remained selectable.

Sure enough, it was just as Feng Wu had guessed! Even though Feng Wu's experience bar had been emptied after his upgrade, he could still upgrade items.

After all, while his experience bar was empty, the six strands of Dou Qi in Feng Wu's dantian were real enough.

But if he used experience points to upgrade again, he would likely be drained like Xiao Yan had been by Yao Lao, directly dropping a realm and losing a stage of cultivation.

Having figured out the system, Feng Wu killed all seven remaining chickens in the coop, gaining another 1.4 experience points in total.

Added to the previous 0.1, that made exactly one-tenth of the experience needed for his current level.

At that moment, several servants who, like Feng Wu, worked as kitchen hands arrived at the courtyard where Feng Wu was.

Before entering, they shouted loudly from outside the courtyard, "Feng Wu, have you finished killing your chickens? The head cook sent us to help you."

"Finished. They're all here. All that's left is plucking them."

"Huh? That fast?" The servants lifted the curtain and looked inside. It was exactly as Feng Wu had said. They could hardly believe it.

"You guys can pluck the feathers here. I'll go see whether there's any more livestock to slaughter elsewhere." Feng Wu brought out several long benches for the other servants to sit on, then spoke.

Feng Wu was specifically responsible for slaughtering. He did not need to concern himself with the rest.

He had to take advantage of the fact that the whole clan was dining together today, with plenty of livestock to slaughter, and find a way to earn more experience points!

"Alright. Feng Wu, I saw a few pigs and cattle that haven't been slaughtered over at the west courtyard. Go lend them a hand," one servant pointed Feng Wu in the right direction.

"Alright!"

Watching Feng Wu hurry out of the courtyard with the Butchering Knife in hand, a servant wondered, "Feng Wu sure is unusually hardworking today!"