The leaves were much thicker than before, their edges still lined with tiny, razor-fine serrations and marked with delicate silver veins.
They gleamed with a silvery-white chill under the light—the traces left behind by the Sharpness trait.
Wang Xian leaned closer and found a lustrous film covering the surface of the leaves. Rather than seeming as fragile as an ordinary plant, they possessed an oddly tough texture.
Those silver veins were not mere decoration. He could sense faint life energy flowing through them.
He carefully touched the leaf's edge with the pad of his finger.
Before he could even apply force, a sharp pain pricked his fingertip. His finger had been cut.
Wang Xian took hold of his Blue Silver Grass and gave it a hard pull. It instantly stretched taut, but unlike before, it did not snap.
Soul Power surged explosively through his body, greatly enhancing his strength.
He pulled again with all his might, drawing the blade of grass perfectly straight.
The Blue Silver Grass still did not break. Instead, it made a faint creaking sound, as though something inside it was desperately holding on.
Wang Xian could feel the resistance in his hands. At the edge where it should have broken, the grass repeatedly stretched and tore, thread after thread refusing to snap completely.
One second, two seconds, three seconds...
The Blue Silver Grass finally could not endure any longer and began to break.
Yet it did not snap apart all at once with a crack. Instead, like lotus roots still connected by fibers, its strands broke one after another.
With every strand that snapped, those remaining grew tighter, clinging on stubbornly and refusing to let go.
It took a full five seconds before the Blue Silver Grass finally broke into two pieces.
Before Wang Xian could even rejoice, a dense aura of life suddenly poured from the broken end of the grass blade.
The severed section visibly withered away.
Meanwhile, the portion left in his palm began to squirm at its broken end. Fresh green growth emerged bit by bit from the break.
The grass blade regrew at astonishing speed. Within a few breaths, it had returned to its original length.
It was almost no different from the Blue Silver Grass from before.
At the same time, Wang Xian felt the Soul Power within him draining away, though not very quickly.
That meant the Blue Silver Grass was not drawing entirely upon his own Soul Power during its recovery process.
"Is this... the power of the Life Blue Silver Grass itself?"
He had previously guessed that once he chose the life path in the Martial Soul Cultivation Chamber, the Blue Silver Grass's growth and recovery speed would be greatly enhanced.
It seemed he had been right.
And the effect was even better than he had imagined.
Wang Xian could not help but grin. He recalled the Blue Silver Grass into his body, then summoned it again, repeating the test several times.
Each time, the Blue Silver Grass appeared steadily in his palm, its leaves full and glossy with a moist dark green sheen. The film covering them had also grown thicker than before.
"Good. Excellent."
Then he looked at the brand-new panel. After the Martial Soul Cultivation, the Blue Silver Grass had become Life Blue Silver Grass, and its quality had risen to E-Rank.
Even his Soul Power Level had increased by two ranks.
"My cultivation talent should have improved too. But I don't have a Meditation Method, otherwise I could try cultivating."
Wang Xian's gaze moved again and finally settled on Form Cultivation. Now that his Martial Soul had reached E-Rank, this function had finally been unlocked.
"Weapon Form? What does that mean?"
The system cultivated his Martial Soul. Could it turn his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul into a weapon?
"Could it be something similar to Tang San's Blue Silver Overlord Spear?" Wang Xian guessed inwardly.
"One hundred Cultivation Points isn't much. Besides, it'll be a while before I can gather a thousand Cultivation Points for the next cultivation."
Having made up his mind, Wang Xian silently commanded, "Consume one hundred Cultivation Points. Cultivate Weapon Form."
"Weapon Form (Cultivating), Progress: 1%. Estimated completion time: thirty days."
"Thirty days? Why does it take so long? Is this form inherently difficult to cultivate, or is it because of the change in Martial Soul quality?"
Wang Xian guessed it was probably the latter. After all, Weapon Form cultivation only required one hundred Cultivation Points.
"Next comes trait fusion."
After testing the Life Blue Silver Grass's strength, recovery ability, and growth speed, he became even more certain of his earlier plan.
He would fuse the Deep Tilling and Toughness traits to further improve the Life Blue Silver Grass's toughness and destructive power.
"System, fuse the Deep Tilling and Toughness traits," Wang Xian ordered.
"Please confirm again. Fuse the Deep Tilling and Toughness traits?"
"Notice: An E-Rank Martial Soul can fuse a maximum of three traits."
"Yes," Wang Xian confirmed again.
The moment he spoke, a warm sensation surged from his palm once more.
This time, it was even more pronounced than when he fused Sharpness. It felt as though two currents of warmth were pouring into his Martial Soul at once, slowly flowing through his body.
Wang Xian took a deep breath. The Blue Silver Grass already in his right hand had grown several degrees thicker, and the film on the surface of its dark green leaves had become even more distinct.
It felt slightly rough to the touch, as if he were touching polished stone.
In addition to the row of tiny serrations already lining the leaf edges,
another layer of even finer barbs had appeared at the roots of those serrations.
They were packed densely together like countless miniature hooks.
The silver veins on the front of the leaves had also become denser than before, crisscrossing like blood vessels across the entire blade.
At the points where those veins intersected, faint strands of dark golden light flowed in and out of sight.
The two traits, Deep Tilling and Toughness, had finished fusing.
Wang Xian pinched a leaf between his fingers and rubbed it hard.
The leaf did not move in the slightest, and not even a mark was left behind.
"Now that's something." Wang Xian's eyes lit up.
Then he glanced around the room, looking for something to test it on.
But the Blue Silver Grass had changed too much now, and he was afraid of causing excessive damage.
"Forget it. I should find something in the village to test it on."
Wang Xian rushed eagerly out of the room and headed behind the house, where there was an uncultivated patch of woodland.
He found a sturdy tree so thick that five people would need to link arms to encircle it. Activating his Soul Power, he made the Life Blue Silver Grass spread and grow rapidly before wrapping it around the tree trunk.
He did not immediately tighten it. Instead, he first loosely wound the grass around the trunk twice, then slowly channeled his Soul Power.
The Blue Silver Grass began to tighten gradually. Its tiny barbs caught against the surface of the trunk as if biting into it, drawing tighter and digging deeper with every moment.
Wang Xian could feel that the longer the Blue Silver Grass remained wrapped around something, the stronger its constricting force became.
Power slowly accumulated within the grass blades, layering bit by bit, growing heavier and heavier.
The tree trunk let out a series of creaks, as though something were crushing it from all directions at once.
He stared at the trunk and noticed fine cracks beginning to appear on its surface where the Blue Silver Grass was wrapped around it.
The cracks spread outward from the edges of the grass blades, growing more numerous and denser.
After several more breaths, the cracks connected into one mass, and wood chips began to fall.
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