Sword Qi Talisman

With the goal of his outing achieved, Lu Xuan was thinking of the Spirit Plants in the courtyard and did not linger. He returned straight home.

Inside the house.

He impatiently took out the Array Plate marked with dark-red bloodstains. A basic Protective Array had been inscribed within it; once activated, it could protect a certain area, and when foreign objects intruded, it could also serve as a warning.

Lu Xuan adjusted his breathing. Once his mind had calmed, he circulated the Spiritual Power in his body and, following the instructions of the Rogue Cultivator Stall Owner, slowly poured it into the Array Plate.

Stimulated by Spiritual Power, the Array Plate flickered with a faint white light. After absorbing enough Spiritual Power, the white light instantly expanded hundreds, even thousands of times, enveloping the entire courtyard.

The faint white light swayed unsteadily, like a layer of egg white.

Lu Xuan continued adjusting it, controlling the Array Plate. The faint spiritual energy barrier kept changing according to the shape of the courtyard and gradually faded from sight; from the outside, no abnormality could be detected at all.

As the master of the Array Plate, he could naturally still clearly sense the existence of the spiritual energy barrier.

The barrier possessed a certain degree of defensive ability and could block the invasion of foreign objects. If anything tried to pass through the spiritual energy barrier and intrude inside, as long as Lu Xuan was home, he would notice at once.

After the Protective Array was successfully set up, the heart Lu Xuan had been holding up finally settled completely.

At this moment, he felt utterly secure. He no longer had to worry about the Spirit Plants in the courtyard being harmed by villains or Demon Worms and thus affecting the rewards from the White Light Orbs.

After resting for a brief while, Lu Xuan took the Spirit Firefly Grass seeds and the cloth bag containing the Red Cloud Pine sapling and went to the Spirit Field.

After harvesting nine stalks of Spirit Firefly Grass, a large area had been left empty in the Spirit Field.

Lu Xuan measured it out, took out ten Spirit Firefly Grass seeds, and estimated the range they would occupy after growing.

Spiritual Power surged within his body. The soil of the Spirit Field rose slightly, and under the control of the Earth Guidance Art, ten cracks of moderate size appeared.

The Spirit Firefly Grass seeds, like dried tea leaves, were placed one by one into the cracks, then covered with a shallow layer of Spirit Field soil.

Fine threads of spiritual energy raindrops seeped into the soil, nourishing the Spirit Firefly Grass seeds within.

Lu Xuan tried gathering his mind on the seeds and sensed a joyful, lively, striving-upward

emotion coming from them.

Infected by this emotion, he could not help revealing a faint smile.

"Little fellows, grow well. Hurry and break through the soil, and take a look at this wondrous world."

As for the remaining ten Spirit Firefly Grass seeds, he planned to plant them after the other fifteen stalks of Spirit Firefly Grass matured.

Next, he took out the Red Cloud Pine sapling. The sapling had stayed in the cloth bag for most of half a day and looked a little droopy and dispirited.

Lu Xuan hurriedly controlled the Spirit Field soil and buried the root section of the sapling in the earth.

After planting it, he cast the Spirit Rain Technique again. Under the abundant nourishment of the spirit rain, the Red Cloud Pine sapling regained its vitality.

Lu Xuan circulated the Spiritual Power in his body, and a crimson fireball the size of a fist surfaced in front of him.

The fireball traced an arc and flew toward the Red Cloud Pine sapling.

The instant it was about to touch the Red Cloud Pine, the crimson fireball silently disintegrated, turning into several hundred clusters of tiny flames that merged into the trunk, pine needles, and other parts of the Red Cloud Pine.

Nurtured by the many flames, the Red Cloud Pine's originally gray-black trunk revealed a faint red hue, and there was a vague, slight sense of scorching heat.

Countless branches and leaves like fiery-red fine needles all stood upright. The entire Red Cloud Pine looked like a hedgehog that had been provoked, truly quite amusing.

Lu Xuan looked at the Red Cloud Pine in this stress state and could not help laughing.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

During these three days, Lu Xuan stayed at home the entire time and did not go out.

In order to obtain better-quality Spirit Plants, he spent most of his time tending and cultivating them, squeezing out time to cultivate a little and practice the Earth Guidance Art and Gold Metal Swordplay.

The cultivation method he practiced was called the "Yin Origin Skill." It was a common good available everywhere on the market, without anything remarkable about it, and its speed of absorbing spiritual energy was extremely slow.

Of course, to Lu Xuan back then and even now, being cheap was its greatest advantage.

After practicing the Earth Guidance Art and Gold Metal Swordplay for a few days, he had become somewhat more proficient. At the very least, the speed at which he released the swordplay had increased quite a bit.

If he really were to encounter some enemy, this slight improvement would not have much effect. In any case, it would all end the same way:

The swordplay would collapse halfway through before it could be fully executed.

"Whenever it's a time like this, I especially miss the White Light Orbs and look forward to another experience bar appearing."

Lu Xuan sighed and came to the courtyard.

With his meticulous care over the past few days, another four stalks of Spirit Firefly Grass had fully matured, leaving eleven more that were about to mature.

With several extra days of careful cultivation, the probability of Good Grade Spirit Firefly Grass appearing had also increased somewhat. Among the four stalks of Spirit Firefly Grass, three were Good Grade and one was Common.

The Common Spirit Firefly Grass still brought three months of cultivation.

As for those three stalks of Good Grade Spirit Firefly Grass.

Lu Xuan picked up the three faintly flickering White Light Orbs in the soil one by one.

"Harvested one stalk of Spirit Firefly Grass. Obtained First-Rank Spell, 'Gold Metal Swordplay.'"

"Harvested one stalk of Spirit Firefly Grass. Obtained half a year of cultivation."

"Harvested one stalk of Spirit Firefly Grass. Obtained First Grade Talisman, Sword Qi Talisman."

Several thoughts flashed through Lu Xuan's mind, and the rewards from the three White Light Orbs revealed themselves one after another.

After absorbing the orb that contained the Sword Art, Lu Xuan's understanding of the Sword Art rose to another level. He could unleash it faster now, and its power increased by ten or twenty percent along with it.

"Common-quality Spirit Firefly Grass brought Three Months Cultivation, while Good Grade brings half a year's cultivation. This is an unexpected delight."

Lu Xuan sighed inwardly, then shifted his attention to a talisman that had silently appeared in his hand.

The talisman was dark yellow, its edges engraved with profound, obscure runic patterns. At its very center was a faint strand of sword qi, standing out from the talisman as if it might shoot out at any moment.

"Sword Qi Talisman, First Grade Talisman, a single-use item. Equivalent to the full-force strike of a Qi Refining Middle Stage cultivator skilled in the sword path. Extremely lethal."

"A First Grade Talisman... I hit the jackpot."

Although it was only a single-use talisman, the sword path had always been famed for slaughter and killing. This Sword Qi Talisman was equivalent to the all-out strike of a Qi Refining Middle Stage sword cultivator, so the strength of its offense was plain to see.

For Lu Xuan, who was at Qi Training Stage 3, it counted as quite an excellent trump card.

Lu Xuan was perfectly satisfied, and his expectations for the remaining eleven Spirit Firefly Grass plants grew even stronger.

The ten Spirit Firefly Grass seeds planted three days ago had all broken through the soil as well, putting forth fresh shoots.

Their tender green leaves were extremely narrow, with specks of fluorescent light as fine as dust upon them. If one did not look carefully, they would be difficult to notice at all.

"The Spirit Firefly Grass that has entered its rapid growth phase is growing well and has an extremely vigorous demand for spiritual energy. You're nothing but an unranked Spirit Plant Master—can you satisfy it?"

Lu Xuan looked at the thought that appeared in his mind under Mind Focused and gave a derisive laugh.

"I want to take on ten!"

The Red Cloud Pine's growth was slightly slower. It had grown about an inch. Whenever Lu Xuan stimulated it with a flame transformed from Fireball Technique, its fine red pine needles would bristle in fury like a crown of hair standing on end, only returning to their natural state after they had completely digested it.