"Two bottles of Great Return Pills, one bottle of Spirit Calming Pills, and a Daoist cultivation manual."
Rong Zimo curled his lip. "This Qi Cultivation True Person only had this much property?"
Twenty Great Return Pills were worth ten thousand taels. The Spirit Calming Pills were medicinal pills that condensed the spiritual sense, and were slightly more expensive—eight thousand taels a bottle.
"That's not little." Han Mao smiled. "How much can a person carry on him? His Daoist Robe, which he blew himself up along with, and the Ghostly Imp were probably the real valuables."
The others all nodded. They wanted to buy a treasure capable of resisting the binding power of Yan You's Second Summon of Deity, and such a thing would not come cheap.
Not to mention that Daoist Xiangyang had refined two Ghostly Imps comparable to Early-stage Xiantian experts. It was normal for him not to have many valuable possessions.
"Four Great Return Pills per person, to prepare for emergencies. The Spirit Calming Pills will help somewhat with breaking through to Xiantian. Everyone needs them, so two pills each." Han Mao quickly made his decision.
"Big Brother Han, I don't need the Great Return Pills. You and Brother Hu are both injured." Rong Zimo hurriedly refused.
Shen Zhui nodded as well, showing his agreement. He had the Yuanpin Pearl in hand, so the Great Return Pills were more or less dispensable to him.
Han Mao directly stuffed the pills into his hand. "We all risked our lives together, so don't divide things so clearly. There are still bloody battles ahead. If you don't have enough Great Return Pills, just ask me for more later. It's settled."
Seeing that he had put it that way, Shen Zhui and the others said no more and accepted the pills.
"This nameless book is probably the evil technique that Daoist cultivated. Such a wicked object is best destroyed, lest it bring disaster upon the mortal world." Han Mao frowned and was about to burn it.
"Big Brother Han, wait." Shen Zhui stopped him. "Could you let me take a look?"
"Brother Shen Zhui, you..."
"Don't worry, Big Brother Han." Shen Zhui smiled. "Before reaching Xiantian, we can't cultivate it at all. I'll just take a look. Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you win every battle."
"Fine." Han Mao hesitated briefly before tossing it directly to Shen Zhui.
"Thank you, Big Brother Han."
A long while later, the sky gradually darkened, and the heavens filled with twinkling stars.
Under the starry sky, Shen Zhui sat quietly beside the campfire, keeping watch while pondering the battle from earlier. "That battle didn't put enough pressure on me. I still haven't figured out the second form of the Falling Snow Saber Technique. Instead, my first form—stirring the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy to create snowflake attacks—has taken another step forward."
With that thought, Shen Zhui walked aside and snatched up his saber.
"Whoosh~"
His wrist flicked. The saber spun and swept over the campfire. The small pile of flames was immediately sliced into countless sparks that danced in the air.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~"
A hundred sparks fell from the air. After flying several meters, they shot into the yellow earth.
"Pfft, pfft, pfft~"
A string of faint impacts rang out, leaving a series of roughly equal-sized pits in the ground.
"As expected. Earlier, there were only around eighty snowflakes formed from spiritual energy, but now I've broken through a hundred."
The increased number of spiritual-energy snowflakes represented stronger Power of Heaven and Earth being drawn upon within a certain range. It could just barely rival the attack of a normal Early-stage Xiantian expert.
"It's still not powerful enough. If I can develop the second form, I'll probably have the strength to kill an Early-stage Xiantian expert." Shen Zhui felt somewhat regretful.
First, although the snowflakes formed from spiritual energy had a wide attack range, only when concentrated together could they be considered an Early-stage Xiantian attack.
What if they were dispersed? They probably wouldn't affect an expert in the Xiantian Realm at all, and could barely kill a weak Seventh- or Eighth-stage Houtian martial artist.
The second issue was that its range was too short.
Under normal circumstances, an Xiantian Realm martial artist's Sword Qi could sweep across dozens of meters.
A Qi Cultivation True Person was even more terrifying, probably reaching a hundred meters.
But for Shen Zhui's snowflakes of spiritual energy, thirty meters was about the limit.
Beyond that, their power would decline. After fifty meters, they would become completely uncontrollable and could only scatter on their own.
"If one day I can send out a single saber strike where every snowflake possesses the attack power of an Early-stage Xiantian expert, and the range reaches a hundred meters, that would be terrifying."
Shen Zhui pondered this, but he understood that it was impossible for now. He would probably have to wait until his saber technique advanced again or his cultivation reached Xiantian.
"Right now, I have the Bright Light Armor for defense and the Falling Snow Saber Technique for offense. With Unity of Heaven and Man, my saber technique can weaken the opponent's attacks. Aside from being unable to fly, I'm practically no different from an Xiantian Master."
If he borrowed divine power as well, Shen Zhui felt that with the amplification from his Second Summon of Deity, combined with his saber technique, even a Mid-stage Xiantian martial artist probably wouldn't be his match.
"I wonder how I compare to a Qi Cultivation True Person."
Shen Zhui flipped through the nameless booklet, trying to glimpse the secrets of the Daoist technique cultivated by Daoist Xiangyang.
"'Thunderclap Art.'" Shen Zhui was startled. This was quite different from the evil technique he had imagined.
"Let's see." Shen Zhui continued examining it carefully by the firelight.
"Thunderclap Art has two major characteristics!"
"The first is speed: fast formation, fast attacks, and fast movement. It can cross the distance between you and your enemy almost instantly! Thunder flashes by in a moment. When your attack becomes too fast for the enemy to catch with the naked eye, naturally, it will be difficult to defend against, and they can only suffer defeat!"
"The second is powerful penetration!"
"Nowadays, cultivators throughout the world, whether martial artists or Qi Cultivation True Persons, almost always wear treasures on their person when traveling the world!"
"When a somewhat decent defensive treasure is struck by a Daoist technique, its power is instantly weakened by several tenths. With one side diminished and the other strengthened, facing such a defensive treasure is equivalent to fighting while reduced by an entire cultivation realm!"
"The Thunderclap Spell manipulates the Power of Heaven and Earth, forming entirely from lightning!"
"Highly concentrated thunderclap power possesses astonishing penetrating force!"
"It can instantly pierce through the formation core of a defensive treasure. Even if it can withstand the attack, it can still leave the enemy wrapped in armor and treasures intensely paralyzed, to the point where the treasure remains intact while the person dies first!"
The more Shen Zhui read, the more alarmed he became.
According to the booklet, the Thunder Spell was practically designed to counter defensive armor!
"The Thunder Spell has five stages of transformation. The first stage is the Thunderclap Lasso. An Xiantian Realm martial artist or a Spiritual Inspiration Realm Qi Cultivation True Person can cast it."
"When you can make ten Thunderclap Lassos appear with a single thought and control them as you please, the first stage will be considered perfected. An Early-stage Xiantian expert will then be able to fight a Mid-stage one!"
"The second stage is the Lightning Grasping Hand! Its size can be adjusted at will, and it has a paralyzing effect that can swiftly make an enemy lose control of their body! The Lightning Grasping Hand can be cast with eleven lassos, and at most can be formed from ninety-nine Thunderclap Lassos! Once perfected, an Early-stage Xiantian expert can fight a High-stage one!"
"The third stage is the Thunderclap Cage. It controls a hundred Thunderclap Lassos... Once perfected, an Early-stage Xiantian expert can trap a Spirit Bridge Realm expert!"
My heavens?!
Shen Zhui couldn't help being stunned. The Thunderclap Art could actually let an Early-stage Xiantian expert cross an entire major realm and trap a Spirit Bridge Realm expert?!
Although it could only trap one rather than kill one, that was still absurdly powerful!
Who exactly had developed this technique, and how had it ended up in Daoist Xiangyang's hands?!
"Hm? Why is the rest missing?" Shen Zhui was engrossed in reading when he discovered that there was nothing after this. He had no idea who had erased the changes of the final two stages.
"So this is an incomplete copy. But even incomplete, it's still extraordinary."
Shen Zhui sighed with emotion. Otherwise, Daoist Xiangyang wouldn't have carried it with him. He didn't know whether Daoist Xiangyang had mastered it or not, as he had never seen the Daoist cast it.
"The Thunderclap Art requires the learner to possess extremely strong control over spiritual energy, and its structure is exceptionally complex and difficult to understand."
"For the first stage, a normal martial artist would probably need three years to learn it, while a Qi Cultivation True Person would need only one."
"If even this first stage takes longer than the allotted time, the learner is advised to give up. Their comprehension is too poor, and they are unsuited to this sect's techniques. Forcing themselves to cultivate it would only waste time."
Shen Zhui was immediately stunned when he saw this requirement.
Comprehension?
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