Instant Shadow Sword and a Frenzied Shopping Spree

Morning sunlight filtered through the window lattice, scattering mottled patches of light across the dormitory floor.

Lin Xiao slowly opened his eyes. A concentrated gleam, almost tangible, flashed through them and vanished. He let out a long breath of turbid air, which actually became a white arrow of vapor that shot several meters through the air before gradually dissipating.

"Body Refinement Eighth Level..."

He slowly clenched his fist, feeling the Spiritual Energy within him—several times more vigorous than before, surging endlessly like a great river—as well as the explosive power filling every limb and bone. A faintly satisfied smile appeared on his face.

He had broken through two levels in a single night!

If word got out, it would likely shake all of Cloud Creek Academy. The domineering potency of the Earth Core Body Tempering Milk was plain to see.

Yet, for Lin Xiao, his breakthrough in cultivation was not his greatest gain from the previous night.

He sank his awareness into his mind.

A fresh line of text, glowing with a pale golden radiance, floated quietly upon the system screen.

[Earth-Tier Low-Grade Martial Skill—Instant Shadow Sword]

[Skill description: A supreme assassination sword created by combining the profound meaning of "straight thrust" from Basic Swordplay, the "unpredictable footwork" of Basic Movement Technique, and the "explosive charge" of Phantom Tracing Steps, simplifying complexity into one.]

[Skill effect: Upon activation, instantly consumes thirty percent of the Spiritual Energy within the body, pushing speed to its limit. Man and sword become one, transforming into an unstoppable shadow of instant death. Its speed can shatter the sound barrier; its edge can pierce mystical armor!]

[Note: This sword advances without retreat, charging forward with unwavering resolve. Do not use it lightly unless it is a battle of life and death!]

Earth-Tier Low-Grade!

Even with Lin Xiao's temperament, the sight of those four words sent a surge of excitement through his heart.

This was an Earth-Tier Martial Skill!

Throughout Cloud Creek Academy's outer court, Profound Grade Martial Skills were treasures enough to make countless people fight until their heads were battered and bloodied. As for Earth-Tier Martial Skills, they existed only in legend—supreme secret manuals that only the inner court's most outstanding core disciples were qualified to cultivate!

And now, he possessed one!

Moreover, this Instant Shadow Sword had practically been tailor-made for him! It perfectly matched Lin Xiao's martial philosophy of simplifying complexity and pursuing ultimate efficiency.

There were no flashy moves, no convoluted transformations.

There was only the purest speed and the sharpest edge!

"The only flaw is that I still need a good sword."

Lin Xiao spread his palm and muttered helplessly. He had never used a weapon before, but this Instant Shadow Sword required a sword as its medium to unleash its true power.

It seemed that a trip to the Merit Hall today was unavoidable.

He rose to his feet and pushed open the door.

Outside, Shi Lei, Su Yue, and all twenty-seven students of Yellow Class Nine had long since formed neat ranks and waited there.

The moment they saw Lin Xiao emerge, every one of them involuntarily shuddered!

They felt that after merely one night apart, their Chief Instructor's entire aura seemed to have undergone another earth-shaking transformation! If yesterday's Lin Xiao had been an unparalleled divine weapon with its edge fully exposed, daring to throw a punch at the heavens, then today, he was like a towering mountain fused with heaven and earth—bottomless and unfathomable, still as an abyss and firm as a peak, impossible to see through at a glance!

"Congratulations, Chief Instructor, on another leap in strength!" Shi Lei clasped his fists and offered his sincere congratulations, sensing the faint but terrifying pressure emanating from Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao smiled faintly. His gaze swept over the youthful, admiring faces before him, and a warm current rose within his heart.

"My progress is nothing," he said. His voice was not loud, yet it reached every ear with perfect clarity. "My true goal is for every one of you to undergo a complete rebirth!"

He looked at the blazing flames burning in everyone's eyes.

"Yesterday, we won back our dignity, and we also won the capital capable of changing our fates! But merit points are merely external things. If we cannot turn them into our own strength, then they are utterly meaningless!"

"The Bloody Trial three months from now will be our final stage to prove ourselves to the entire academy! I do not want anyone falling behind in that trial, much less anyone dying within it!"

"Therefore, from today onward, prepare yourselves to welcome true hell!"

His voice was filled with unquestionable authority and power!

"Everyone, attention!"

"Yes!" Twenty-nine unified roars shot into the sky.

"Destination: Merit Hall! Today, I'll use the spoils we won to arm every last one of you to the teeth!"

The Merit Hall stood in the outer court's central district. It was a nine-story octagonal pagoda, and also the busiest, most prosperous place in the entire outer court.

This was the academy's hub for the circulation of resources. Pills, weapons, cultivation methods, heavenly treasures and earthly materials... everything students needed for cultivation could be exchanged here with merit points.

When Lin Xiao led the vast procession of twenty-nine people from Yellow Class Nine to the entrance of the Merit Hall, they immediately drew everyone's attention.

"Look! It's Lin Xiao, that savage who one-shotted Li Tianyi with a single punch!" "Those behind him are... Yellow Class Nine? Why have so many of them come to the Merit Hall? To show off?" "They won over two hundred thousand merit points yesterday, and they already can't wait to spend them today? Hmph, nothing but nouveau riche!"

All kinds of gazes—filled with envy, jealousy, awe, and contempt—poured in from every direction.

Lin Xiao simply chose to ignore them.

He led his team straight into the resplendent first-floor hall of the Merit Hall.

The hall was packed with people and bustling with activity. The surrounding walls were covered in dazzling screens displaying the names, prices, and stock quantities of various resources.

Lin Xiao did not linger on the first floor. Instead, he directly led everyone toward the stairs to the second floor.

The first floor of the Merit Hall only sold the lowest-grade Body Refinement Pills, healing medicine, and standard-issue weapons. Such things had long since ceased to interest Lin Xiao.

"Stop!"

Just as they were about to step onto the stairs, a disciple serving as a guard reached out to block them. He glanced at the badges on Lin Xiao and the others' chests, symbols of the Yellow Class, and undisguised contempt appeared on his face.

"The second floor and above of the Merit Hall are only open to students from the Profound Classes and above. Whatever you Yellow Class students need, settle it on the first floor."

This disciple clearly had not fully recovered from yesterday's shock and still clung to his deeply rooted notions of hierarchy.

The instant he finished speaking, the older steward beside him went pale with a swish. He fiercely tugged on his companion's sleeve and glared at him as if he were an idiot.

Yellow Class?

Didn't you see who was leading them?! That was the murderous god who had made the vice dean personally intervene, then beaten the Heaven Class's Chief Instructor half to death with one punch! And you were blocking him? Were you insane?!

Sure enough, Lin Xiao stopped walking.

He was not even angry. He merely cast a calm, deathly glance at the steward disciple who did not know what was good for him.

"Yesterday, we won two hundred and twenty thousand merit points from the Heaven Class."

He slowly raised his student jade token.

"Are you sure we should settle this on the first floor?"

Boom!

The moment the number "two hundred and twenty thousand" left Lin Xiao's mouth, the entire first-floor hall fell into dead silence!

Every gaze fixed upon the ordinary-looking jade token in Lin Xiao's hand as though they had seen a ghost!

The steward disciple blocking the way was struck as if by lightning, his entire body frozen stiff! Beads of sweat the size of soybeans instantly formed on his forehead, and his legs began to tremble violently beyond his control!

Two hundred and twenty thousand... merit points?!

He... he wasn't joking, was he?!

"F-forgive me! Chief... Chief Instructor Lin! I failed to recognize greatness before me! Please... please, go ahead! Go ahead!"

He no longer dared obstruct them in the slightest. He practically scrambled away on hands and feet to clear the path, his cringing servility completely different from his earlier arrogance.

Lin Xiao did not spare him another glance. Leading his teammates, who had long grown accustomed to such scenes, he stepped onto the stairs to the second floor beneath countless awed and complicated gazes.

The second floor was the Weapon Pavilion.

The space here was much smaller than the first floor, but its class was on an entirely different level. All manner of gleaming weapons lay displayed on rows of weapon racks crafted from thousand-year cold ironwood. Every piece emitted faint Spiritual Energy fluctuations, clearly marking them as no ordinary items.

"Choose freely according to your cultivation methods and fighting habits. There is only one requirement: don't choose what's right, choose what's expensive!" Lin Xiao's voice exploded beside every teammate's ear like thunder. "Today, I'm paying for everything!"

"Long live Chief Instructor!"

Having long struggled to restrain themselves, everyone erupted in cheers upon receiving Lin Xiao's permission and rushed toward the weapon racks they had eyed greedily for so long like starving wolves.

Lin Xiao himself also slowly walked to the section specifically displaying longswords.

His gaze swept across one ornate sword after another, each inlaid with gold and jade, but he kept shaking his head.

What he needed was not an ornament.

It was a sword born purely for slaughter!

At last, his gaze settled upon an ancient, entirely black longsword without any decoration, hanging at the highest point of the wall.

The sword lay quietly in its scabbard without emitting the slightest Spiritual Energy fluctuation, looking like an unpolished piece of ordinary iron. Yet Lin Xiao sensed from it an edge and chill so restrained that they had reached the utmost limit!

[System prompt: Profound Grade Middle Rank spirit artifact discovered—'Ink Shadow']

[Material: thousand-year elite mystical iron, deep-sea silver]

[Traits: indestructible, peerlessly sharp, armor-piercing, energy absorption (can absorb Spiritual Energy to enhance the sword's resilience)]

[Price: 12,000 merit points]

This was it!

A satisfied glint flashed through Lin Xiao's eyes.

He walked up to the elder in charge and pointed at the sword. "Elder, I want that 'Ink Shadow.'"

The elder responsible for the Weapon Pavilion had been resting with his eyes closed. Hearing Lin Xiao, he could not even be bothered to lift his eyelids, merely saying indifferently, "'Ink Shadow' is a Profound Grade Middle Rank artifact, priced at twelve thousand merit points. This sword was forged from elite mystical iron and weighs eighty-one jin. Its Spiritual Energy conduction is extremely poor. Unless you possess Innate Divine Strength and exceptionally pure Spiritual Energy, you cannot wield it. Young man, this old man advises you to choose another sword."

Clearly, he too did not believe that a youth in the Body Refinement Realm could use this "scrap iron."

Lin Xiao did not argue with him.

He merely placed his student jade token lightly on the counter.

"Charge my card."

The elder finally opened his eyes with some impatience. He glanced at the jade token, about to rebuke Lin Xiao, but the instant his eyes landed on the absurdly long string of numbers on it, his cloudy old eyes abruptly constricted!

He instinctively rubbed his eyes, leaned closer, and carefully examined it again.

Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands... hundred-thousands?!

Two hundred and ten thousand?!

"Hiss—!"

At that moment, this Weapon Pavilion elder, who had weathered great storms and seen great waves, could not help sucking in a cold breath! He abruptly raised his head and reassessed the calm-faced youth before him as if looking at a monster.

"Y-you are... that... Lin Xiao?!"

Lin Xiao nodded.

The elder's attitude instantly took a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn! A smile even more unpleasant than crying squeezed onto his rigid face as he hurriedly rose from his seat.

"So it is Chief Instructor Lin! Forgive this old man for failing to welcome you from afar, forgive me! Please wait a moment. This old man will fetch the sword for you at once!"

With that, he trotted off and personally retrieved 'Ink Shadow,' respectfully presenting it with both hands.

Lin Xiao accepted the longsword and drew it from its sheath with a clang!

A chilling sword light like autumn water instantly illuminated the entire second floor! A piercingly cold aura of sharpness rushed forward, making even the surrounding temperature seem to drop by several degrees!

A fine sword!

Holding the sword one-handed, Lin Xiao casually spun it in a flourish. Yet the blade, weighing eighty-one jin, felt as light as nothing in his hand!

He nodded with satisfaction and handed over his jade token.

"Beep."

As twelve thousand merit points were deducted, this Profound Grade Middle Rank spirit artifact officially became his.

Meanwhile, everyone from Yellow Class Nine had also selected their own favored weapons.

Shi Lei chose a pair of Profound Grade Lower Tier gauntlets forged from volcanic red copper, named 'Molten Rock.' They could greatly amplify his punching power and fire-element affinity. Su Yue chose an airy and graceful soft sword, likewise Profound Grade Lower Tier, called 'Tassel.' It complemented her Starlight Sword Rain perfectly. Following Lin Xiao's earlier guidance, everyone else had also chosen weapons best suited to themselves.

When all twenty-nine of them came to the counter with their respective weapons, ready to settle the bill.

The entire Weapon Pavilion fell into dead silence.

Every eye was focused on that pile of Profound Grade spirit artifacts glowing with Spiritual Energy. They all looked like ducks with their throats clutched, unable to make a sound.

Twenty-nine... Profound Grade spirit artifacts?!

Th-this was clearing out nearly half the Weapon Pavilion's inventory, wasn't it?!

"A total of... ninety-seven thousand, eight hundred merit points..." The elder's voice trembled as he looked at the staggering bill.

Without changing expression, Lin Xiao handed over his jade token again.

"Beep."

Another enormous sum, nearly one hundred thousand, was deducted.

After finishing all this, Lin Xiao did not stop.

Looking at the crowd that had already fallen into a stupor, he calmly said, "We have weapons. Next come pills."

With that, he led this team, now armed to the teeth, up toward the Pill Pavilion on the third floor in a grand procession beneath gazes that looked upon them as though they were immortals.