Restart

Restart Li Shiming closed the study door. The study was inside the main house, and some books were arranged on the bookcase.

The books here were all ordinary books; none were the Selected Classics passed down in the family.

The books needed for the exam were still in the trunks he had brought, and he would only have time to sort them out tomorrow.

Naturally, he did not need those books, but for appearances' sake, he still had to put on an act.

A little impatient, he Took Out the Spirit Gathering Disk and pried the four Spirit Stones that had no Spiritual Power off the Spirit Gathering Disk.

He then Took Out four new Spirit Stones and carefully placed them into the four grooves of the Spirit Gathering Disk.

Looking at the complex Rune Patterns on the Spirit Gathering Disk, he recalled in his mind the optimal plan he had worked out over twelve days of research.

Li Shiming extended a finger, and Spiritual Power flickered over it.

His finger traced over the Spirit Gathering Disk in quick succession, guiding the Spiritual Power within the four Spirit Stones into the Spirit Gathering Disk and setting it flowing inside.

Activating the Spirit Gathering Disk was not actually complicated. For any completed formation, as long as one grasped the direction in which the Spiritual Power flowed, one could smoothly activate it—this was what Fan Yiyang had explained.

Li Shiming had used the Spirit Gathering Disk for a month, and he had long since stored videos of the Spirit Gathering Disk in operation inside the IBMz15 Mainframe.

This meant that even if he did not understand the operating principles of the Spirit Gathering Disk, he could still find the most likely energy route connecting the Spirit Stones to the Spirit Gathering Disk.

When light flickered over the Spirit Gathering Disk and formed a range of illumination, he knew he had succeeded.

Li Shiming looked at the activated Spirit Gathering Disk before him with some excitement. With the Spirit Gathering Disk, he could continue cultivating the Five Elements Qi Absorption Art, and he would also have enough Spiritual Power to learn other Spells.

He could even be a little more generous when planting Spirit Rice, able to cast the Spring Breeze Transforming Rain Art a few more times.

He sat above the Spirit Gathering Disk and began circulating the Five Elements Qi Absorption Art. Following the Spiritual Power Lines of the second level of the technique, he soon entered a deep state of cultivation.

An hour later, he opened his eyes. Feeling the increase of Spiritual Power in his body once more made him so happy he wanted to cry.

Only after losing something did one understand how precious it was to have it. During the days without Spiritual Qi, he had been afraid that one day he might drop from Qi Refining Second Level back to Qi Refining First Level.

This was not impossible. The fact that he had been able to remain stable at Qi Refining Second Level was because he ate Spiritual Rice every day. If he did not have Spiritual Rice as food, mundane food would make his body reject Spiritual Power, and his realm would slowly decline.

The reason Fan Yiyang, on their very first meeting, had immediately asked whether he could purchase some after merely guessing that Li Shiming had Spiritual Rice on him, was precisely because cultivators were dependent on Spiritual Food.

Li Shiming did not dwell on it. With a slight movement of his consciousness, he put the Spirit Gathering Disk into the Server Room Space.

He did not try to shut off the Spirit Gathering Disk's operation. Now that he had one hundred Spirit Stones in hand, and a way to earn Spirit Stones besides, he did not need to care about the monthly consumption of four Spirit Stones.

The Server Room Space also needed Spiritual Qi; the denser the Spiritual Qi, the better it was for the growth of Spirit Plants.

Especially since, in the future, he wanted to plant Spirit Plants of a higher grade than Spirit Rice, which would require an even better Spiritual Qi environment.

"Young Master, when will you dine?" As soon as he opened the study door, Si Qin asked.

"Have the kitchen send it over. You don't need to serve me during the meal!" Li Shiming instructed casually.

Si Qin bowed and answered. She was somewhat unhappy; for some reason, recently the Young Master had not wanted her to serve at his side during meals, which left her feeling very disappointed.

Li Shiming paid no attention to a maidservant's little temper. He did not want to appear too special. At least before he revealed his status as a cultivator to his family, he still had to behave like an ordinary person.

Every time he ate, he put the food away and pretended he had finished the meal. In fact, his only food was Spirit Rice.

After finishing the meal and washing up, he returned to the bedroom.

He had spent twelve days on the Official Ship, and after returning, he had immediately cultivated. His mind was somewhat fatigued, so he did not consider anything else.

In the night, the third-entry courtyard had no lights left, and like all the neighboring households, it sank into sleep.

"The air is dry, beware of candles and fire!"

The "tok, tok, tok" of knocking and the watchman's voice drifted faintly through the darkness. It was already the third watch.

Li Shiming, who was sleeping, gave a slight twitch of his ears, then suddenly opened his eyes.

Ever since he no longer needed to worry about saving power, even while sleeping, he kept his five senses connected to the IBMz15 Mainframe.

Just now, the IBMz15 Mainframe had issued a warning, a string of beeps exploding in his ears.

This was the alarm program he had made for Himself, to ensure that if anything abnormal occurred around him while he was sleeping or cultivating, the IBMz15 Mainframe could take the initiative to alert him.

He did not move, maintaining his sleeping posture, but his ears began collecting tiny sounds.

He heard the sound of feet stepping on tiles, and at the same time, a scene appeared in his mind of someone wearing soft-soled boots landing on the tips of their toes. This was the real-time analysis result given by the IBMz15 Mainframe.

He located the Night Walker. He was directly above the main house.

The Night Walker's movements were extremely light. If not for the monitoring of the IBMz15 Mainframe, Li Shiming would not have been able to discover the Night Walker's trace so early.

Li Shiming's eyes moved along with the Night Walker's movement on the roof. He did not know whether the Night Walker was passing by or had come specifically to find him.

When the Night Walker left the roof and descended along the outer wall, the sound of silk clothing rubbing against the wall made Li Shiming certain that the Night Walker had come for Himself.

Li Shiming was extremely puzzled. He had not yet begun to Visit his father's Old Friends, so how had someone already learned that he had moved into the Old Residence? And what kind of grudge would make someone send a person over just as he first entered Central Capital?

He would not believe that the Night Walker had any goodwill. The most likely possibility was that he had come to assassinate him.

A faint sound of window paper being pierced came through. In Li Shiming's mind appeared the real-time analysis image from the IBMz15 Mainframe: the Night Walker was using a bamboo tube to pierce the window paper.

"Poison, or knockout incense?"

There was no need to confirm which it was; he immediately held his breath.

In Fact, with the strength of Qi Refining Second Level, the vast majority of mundane poisons and knockout incense had no effect on him.

The only poisons that could affect a cultivator were poisons imbued with Spiritual Qi.

It wasn't that Li Shiming looked down on this Night Walker. If the other man could get his hands on poison imbued with Spiritual Qi, he wouldn't need to be so cautious.

A faint wisp of smoke was blown into the bedroom. After a while, a short dagger slipped in through the crack of the window and lifted it open.

Night Walker leapt in through the window, landing almost without a sound, and Li Shiming's heart tightened.

Judging by the noise Night Walker made, he was a martial arts expert.

Although Li Shiming was a Qi Refining Second Level cultivator, he had very few means of combat.