Dark clouds veiled the moon, and the night was deep and vast.
Outside Nanmo Border City, the Shack District was steeped in silence.
People were either working hard at their cultivation or already sleeping soundly.
At that hour, Du En calmly pushed open his door.
He glanced around at the other rooms in the little courtyard. Everyone else had already fallen into a troubled, heavy sleep. Naturally, no one noticed him getting up in the night, much less saw him slip away.
Keeping to the shadows, he made his way forward, squeezing through one cramped shack district after another. At last, he reached the nearby mountain woods. After carefully searching around, he found an excellent place to practice his techniques.
The surroundings were pitch-black and utterly silent.
Du En stood still and calmed his mind. Then he began circulating the magical power in his dantian.
After brewing for a moment, he raised his hand.
Earth Bullet Technique!
As his magical power drained away, a one-inch-wide earth bullet radiating a faint yellow glow rapidly condensed several inches before his finger. Then, following his thoughts, it shot forward with a sudden burst.
His target was a tree a zhang and a half away. It looked utterly ordinary, except that its wood was exceptionally dense—barely comparable to the normal physical defenses of someone in the Early Qi Refining stage, making it suitable for comparison.
Smack!
Amid a faint cracking sound, the earth bullet shattered as it embedded itself in the trunk. The damage was less than an inch deep and had not even caused the wound to splinter open.
"The power is lacking. And it consumes quite a lot of magical power. Even at full strength, I can only fire it six times."
High consumption and low power—it truly was Beginner's Practice.
Du En felt no anxiety. He simply continued practicing in silence.
Every round of wholehearted practice accumulated bit by bit. Each brought a slight change, reducing the consumption and increasing the power, though the difference was not obvious to the naked eye.
After every three practice sessions, he would sit cross-legged in the darkness, remaining alert to his surroundings as he circulated his energy to recover.
Practice, recovery, practice, recovery... During those several hours in the dead of night, Du En repeated this process.
Only after the fourth watch had passed and the fifth was about to begin did he stop.
Fifteen times!
That was the upper limit for the number of times he could practice each night while retaining some strength and focusing wholeheartedly on the technique.
"I can accumulate 1.5 points of proficiency in a day. No, that's not right. Judging from the sensation just now, I can actually accumulate one point with nine and a half uses... It must be the influence of the cultivation method. Since both are earth-element techniques, they're positively correlated. Thus, having a cultivation method one stage higher gives this technique the advantage of looking down from a high vantage point."
In other words, at this rate, the Earth Bullet Technique would break through to the next stage in less than seven days.
While pondering this, Du En did not linger. When it was time to leave, he left, secretly taking the small paths and quickly returning to the corpse buriers' courtyard.
After returning to his room, he silently observed the surroundings for a while before going to sleep.
He had not slept for long when morning arrived.
Everyone got up and stretched their bodies.
Wei Ming looked sickly and could not help yawning. He wanted to maintain the state he had been in the previous afternoon, but he could not enter it no matter what. Unable to help himself, he grew worried and began sighing.
Clearly, he had already experienced the drawbacks of excessive tension and mental exhaustion during the day.
Still, his luck was fairly good. During the following six days, they encountered no accidents while burying corpses, and everyone made it through safely.
By observing Du En and copying his example, they began adjusting themselves and working hard at it. They gradually felt their way to the knack, adapting to the job and shedding the title of newcomer.
They could be considered skilled workers now!
Of course, boiling a Strange Owl was something they simply could not learn!
As time passed, the deadline for Luo Heng's demand for protection fees drew closer and closer, making everyone uneasy.
The tension in their hearts did not ease. However, seeing that Du En, their leader, remained as calm and unhurried as ever, they could only suppress their unease for the time being.
After all, only three days remained!
They could ask about it tomorrow or the day after!
Du En naturally noticed the restlessness among them.
However, he maintained his own rhythm and was completely unaffected.
Late that night on the seventh day, at the edge of the woods outside the Shack District, Du En sent out an earth bullet that had already reined in its light. His Earth Bullet Technique officially reached Initial Glimpse!
He slowly closed his eyes and silently experienced the transformation that had come as naturally as water flowing into a channel.
The black woods were silent and still.
After a while.
Du En opened his eyes and raised his hand, breaking the silence.
The circulation of his magical power felt different from before. It was faster and more efficient. As it traveled through his meridians, it began to overflow, creating an arcane transformation. A solid earth bullet the size of a fist appeared several inches before his finger.
With a movement of his thoughts, a soft whoosh rang out.
Boom!
The tree that had endured repeated attacks was instantly blasted open, leaving a gap the size of a washbasin. Wood splinters flew high into the air, followed by a tooth-aching series of cracking sounds.
It was about to fall!
But it did not truly come crashing down, because Du En stepped forward, raised a hand, and halted its momentum.
He then drew the hatchet he carried and chopped down the tree in a few strokes. After making a few minor adjustments, he disguised it as firewood he had chopped. Then he dragged the tree toward the place where he had spotted a good firewood-cutting site two nights earlier.
Firewood was indeed a necessity. He would leave it there for now and deal with it all together later in a perfectly reasonable manner.
Then Du En found a corner, sat cross-legged, and circulated his energy to recover.
"As expected, there are some changes..."
The moment he circulated his cultivation method, he immediately sensed a change, even though he was not concentrating with all his might.
After circulating his energy once, his magical power had basically recovered. Du En called up his personal panel.
[Age: 18/91] [Spiritual Root: Low Grade] [ cultivation: Early Qi Refining (14/100)] [Cultivation Method: Yellow Earth Technique (Initial Glimpse 2/20)] [Technique: Earth Bullet Technique (Initial Glimpse 0/20)] [Divine Ability: None] [Hundred Arts: None]
Over the past few days, Du En had not focused wholeheartedly on circulating his energy and cultivating. Yet the proficiency of the Yellow Earth Technique had increased by two points.
Clearly, this was the change brought about by the Earth Bullet Technique's breakthrough.
Just as the Yellow Earth Technique, being a stage higher, could look down from a high vantage point and shorten the time needed to accumulate proficiency in the Earth Bullet Technique, the Earth Bullet Technique had now caught up and likewise raised the proficiency of the Yellow Earth Technique in return.
"However, the experimental casting just now proved that, at the same stage, the previous influence no longer exists. It has returned to the normal rate of one point every ten uses."
"Also, although the Earth Bullet Technique's power has clearly increased, my cultivation, which serves as its foundation, is no longer sufficient. With this little magical power, I can release the technique at most three times."
Next, he would focus on training his cultivation method, raising the cultivation that served as his foundation, and then use the advantage of looking down from a high vantage point to train the technique faster.
Du En slightly adjusted his subsequent training plans.
As for now, it was time to take action!
Before you continue