Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees (Part 1)

The breakfast in the food box could hardly be called exquisite, but it was plentiful: two kinds of low-grade magical beast eggs, enough for everyone, fragrant steaming buns, meat soup, greens, and even fruit.

They had expended quite a bit last night, and they were all young. In no time at all, they wiped out every last bit of food.

Of the seven, only Cai'er and Chen Yinger ate less. Everyone else had appetites that surpassed even adult warriors.

The bald-headed priest Sima Xian patted his pectorals with a satisfied look. "I wonder when we'll get back on the battlefield. Yesterday wasn't nearly enough."

Long Haochen said, "Right, let's divide up the Merit Points."

"Merit Points? Captain, you went to the battlefield again yesterday?" Lin Xin asked curiously. It had already been late when they returned yesterday. Long Haochen had told everyone to rest first and had not mentioned what he had experienced.

Long Haochen glanced at Cai'er beside him. "Yes. Yesterday, the Military Chief summoned me. Later, I went onto the battlefield with him."

At that, Cai'er visibly frowned.

Long Haochen had not intended to hide it from Cai'er, because he did not want to lie to her, not even with a well-intentioned lie. But the same matter, expressed in different ways, could leave the listener with vastly different feelings.

"The chief is actually Cai'er's father. Yesterday, after Auntie saw Cai'er and me in bed, she probably told the chief. That's why I was summoned that evening."

"They..." Cai'er grabbed Long Haochen's hand, tension already showing in her voice.

Long Haochen smiled. "Do I look like anything happened to me? Let me finish."

"At first, Saint Uncle really wasn't polite to me. He merely had me follow him as he led the Radiant Angels Knight Order onto the battlefield. But during the fight, Saint Uncle recognized one of the skills I used. It turned out that he and my father were old acquaintances. Later, Saint Uncle and I fought side by side, and I learned many things. Saint Uncle even gave me a skill book."

The others all looked somewhat puzzled. Long Haochen had made the process sound far too simple.

Cai'er raised her head. "That's all?"

Long Haochen said, "Later, when we faced a powerful enemy, Saint Uncle used the Rejuvenation Spiritual Stove to protect me. Although we returned safely, he's still unconscious."

As Long Haochen spoke, he had been watching Cai'er's expression. What made his heart sink slightly was that she showed no reaction at all upon hearing that Sheng Lingxin was unconscious.

"On the battlefield, I picked off and killed some demons. I should have accumulated some Merit Points, so I'll distribute them to everyone." Before the others, Long Haochen did not say anything more about Sheng Lingxin. He knew Cai'er's emotional knot would not be easily untied, and he absolutely could not rush her. Besides, it was her private matter.

Wang Yuanyuan said in confusion, "There's no need, is there? You earned all of this through your own fighting. It wasn't gained by all of us killing enemies together."

Long Haochen chuckled. "Our team is still in the process of adjusting to one another. I was the one who proposed splitting Merit Points evenly, so how could I not set an example? Without Lin Xin's pills, I might not even have returned alive. Let's split them evenly. If someone especially needs Merit Points in the future, would the rest of us not help them? I think that while combat coordination is certainly important as we use this trial to temper our team, what matters even more is the bond between us. We are companions, like brothers and sisters. Merit Points are good, but only when used where they are needed most can they have their greatest effect. The seven of us are one. Isn't sharing Merit Points the best approach?"

As he spoke, he took out the Merit Test Gem and checked his own Merit Points.

When Long Haochen distributed the Merit Points to everyone, they were all stunned, because there were simply too many.

When the seven of them had fought together, each person had only received a little over twenty Merit Points. Yet this time, Long Haochen gave each of them more than fifty. In the end, everyone's Merit Points had reached seventy-three.

Seeing the strange looks in everyone's eyes, Long Haochen chuckled. "I followed behind Saint Uncle and picked up the leftovers. I killed around several dozen Emerald Twin Blade Demons, which is why I gained so many Merit Points. I'd guess we're definitely the team with the most Merit Points now. You didn't see how powerful Saint Uncle's Rejuvenation Spiritual Stove was. In an instant, it killed over a hundred Fifth and Sixth Rank demon powerhouses."

Chen Yinger giggled. "How nice. It's early in the morning, and pies are already falling from the sky. I'm in such a good mood now. There's tasty food and Merit Points to share too. Captain, it's really great following you."

Sima Xian laughed heartily. "Ying'er is right. Haochen, I used to admire only your strength, but now I admire your character too. You truly deserve to be captain. It doesn't seem like we'll have a chance to go into the city for now, so what should we do?"

Long Haochen said, "Everyone should continue cultivating. First, I'll help everyone test their Inner and External Spiritual Power."

Monitoring everyone's Inner and External Spiritual Power was very necessary. Gao Yingjie had told Long Haochen that the higher one's cultivation, the more necessary such monitoring became, so that the team could form good habits. This made it easier to allocate the team's resources. For example, if a member was close to breaking through, buying them a suitable pill could save a great deal of time while also raising the strength of the entire team.

Very quickly, the test results came out.

In descending order, Wang Yuanyuan ranked first in External Spiritual Power, reaching as high as 524. Even among Fifth Rank warriors, that was an extremely terrifying figure. Cai'er was unexpectedly second at 446. Long Haochen had 396 External Spiritual Power, Sima Xian had 362, and Han Yu had 275.

As for the two involved with magic, their External Spiritual Power was not worth mentioning. Neither had even reached one hundred...

When it came to Inner Spiritual Power, Cai'er was clearly first, with 2,590. This was already at the level of Fifth Rank Level Three. Added to her physique as the Daughter of Reincarnation, even without considering the Reincarnation Spiritual Stove's extreme harshness, she was still the strongest among them.

Lin Xin ranked second in Inner Spiritual Power with 2,385, followed by Han Yu with 2,270. Wang Yuanyuan had 2,160, while Long Haochen only came fifth with 2,095. Although his Inner Spiritual Power ranked only fifth, his actual combat strength was second only to Cai'er. Moreover, he had only broken through during the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament. The rate at which his Inner Spiritual Power had improved was already quite astonishing. After all, after the Fifth Rank, increases in Inner Spiritual Power clearly slowed down.

Sima Xian was sixth with 1,920, while Chen Yinger came last with 1,850. The two of them had recently been cultivating with Spirit Gathering Pills, and their improvement had been quite apparent.

After seeing their own and their companions' spiritual power figures, everyone's gazes ultimately converged on Cai'er without prior agreement. They had expected her Inner Spiritual Power to rank first, but her External Spiritual Power had also reached over four hundred, surpassing both Sima Xian before Berserkification and Long Haochen. What kind of strength was that? And Cai'er was probably the youngest among them.

After Long Haochen carefully recorded everyone's current spiritual power, he said, "All right, everyone, begin cultivating. But don't expend too much, in case we are called into battle at any moment."

Lin Xin had just obtained the corpses of Emerald Twin Blade Demons and Beta Flying Demons yesterday, perfect materials for making medicine. On the battlefield, the rate at which pills were consumed could easily be imagined. They were also lifesaving items. Though he could not attack, his contribution and importance to the Demon Hunt Squad were no less than anyone else's. Naturally, he had to make the most of his greatest advantage.

Most of the others chose to cultivate their spiritual power, especially Sima Xian and Chen Yinger. They had yet to develop liquid spiritual power, so they needed improvement in this area the most.

Long Haochen took Cai'er's hand and returned to their bed.

Long Haochen asked softly, "Cai'er, aren't you going to visit Saint Uncle?"

Cai'er seemed somewhat silent, but in the end, she shook her head. "I know about the Rejuvenation Spiritual Stove. He'll be fine. I'm going to cultivate first." As she spoke, she had already climbed onto the bed, sat down on one side, and closed her eyes to cultivate.

Looking at her with pity, Long Haochen sat down opposite her. However, rather than cultivating his spiritual power, he took out the book on Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees that Sheng Lingxin had given him and began reading it carefully.

This book recording the skill Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees was very thin, with only seven or eight pages. Long Haochen read it very carefully, and gradually, a look of surprise appeared on his handsome face.

Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees was a very unusual skill. Though it was called a skill, it was more like a method of using spiritual power. The skill itself had no offensive or defensive ability, but it was extremely practical.

So-called Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees was actually a special ability to store other skills within one's body.

After using this skill, one could store within one's body any skill they themselves were capable of using. It was equivalent to accumulating spiritual power. Once stored, the skill could be released instantly at any time. However, while storing it, the person had to remain in a half-meditative state. At the very least, their body could not move, much less engage in battle.

After the storage was complete, the skill had to be released within one shichen. Otherwise, the stored spiritual power would disperse on its own.

After a skill had been stored through Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees, it would not continuously consume spiritual power, nor would it affect spiritual power recovery.

With Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees, a profession user essentially gained an additional strongest skill that could be unleashed instantly at any time.

However, Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees also had its limitations. First, it was only suitable for warriors, assassins, and knights. It was useless to mages, priests, and summoners. Furthermore, Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees was more suited to skills that erupted with spiritual power, rather than technique-based skills.

For example, Long Haochen's Fighting Kill Revolving Sword could not be stored through Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees, because Fighting Kill Revolving Sword required the perfect combination of spiritual power and technique.

But a skill like Holy Sword was perfectly suited to it.

After reading the entire skill book, Long Haochen thought for a moment and came up with several possible applications. If used well, Grafting Flowers and Connecting Trees could absolutely become a lifesaving ability. It truly was a top-tier Secret Skill. Moreover, it was a self-created skill, and its creator was none other than the Ninth Rank Gallant Saint Moon.