By the time Xu Ziming got home, it was already the early hours of the morning. By rights, this was the perfect time to practice the Galaxy Mental Tempering Method, but he had no intention of doing so.
Just moments ago, Sun Wenbin had sent him a message. The gist was that the rewards for defeating the aliens had come through and would be deposited into his account right away.
Besides that, Xu Ziming had also been awarded the title of City Hero. It looked useless, but that wasn't the case.
The title would give him ten extra points on the College Entrance Exam! A full ten points.
At lower score ranges, ten points might not matter much, but once you scored above six hundred, the gap between every ten points was enormous.
His mother and younger sister seemed to have already gone to bed. Before he left, Xu Ziming had told them that he was going to train with Teacher Ma and might not come home tonight.
Yet when he returned to his room, he still saw the glass of milk.
Xu Ziming had received ten million Blue Star Coins during the day. The reason he hadn't spent any of it yet was that he had wanted to set some aside for household expenses. As for how much, he would decide after Fang Xingyun sent him the villa's address tomorrow.
But after earning a million in just one night, Xu Ziming suddenly changed his mind. He realized that as long as he was strong enough, he could make as much money as he wanted in the future.
I'll put tonight's million together with the reward Officer Sun sent me and give it to Mom tomorrow. I'll leave ten thousand for my sister, too. I remember she wanted to learn to play an instrument.
Thinking this, Xu Ziming opened the message Officer Sun had sent to his wristband.
It contained the details of the reward for defeating the aliens.
First was the prize money: a full... fifty thousand!
That was a lot, to be sure. After all, this was a government reward, not money earned from underground bare-knuckle fights.
Second was a demon horn. It was obviously taken from the Flame Spirit Clan commander, and it seemed to have been treated.
Third was a soft armor vest that looked incredibly sturdy.
To test its durability, Xu Ziming took out Jinghong and gradually increased the force in his hand. In the end, he found that its defensive capabilities were astonishing.
Even with all his strength, he couldn't leave a single mark on it. Armor this formidable was probably on the level of a first Life Evolution.
You couldn't buy one online for less than seven or eight hundred thousand.
"I have to say, aside from the Blue Star Coins, the police station gave me some really good stuff."
Xu Ziming smacked his lips, then picked up the demon horn.
[Detecting equippable item: Flame Spirit Clan Commander's Horn]
[Expected trait: Blessing of the Flame Spirit Clan (Blue)]
[Effect: The lowest starting affinity of all races toward you will be indifference. They will not naturally feel hostility toward you. Wound recovery increased by 300%.]
[Note: This is a symbol of status belonging to the Flame Spirit Clan commander. The curse placed upon it by the one who killed him has been completely removed, leaving only the Flame Spirit Clan's blessing upon its commanders before they set out to war.]
Increasing affinity and greatly improving recovery definitely counted as a "blessing."
[Permanent consolidation requirement: Participate in killing 100 members of the Flame Spirit Clan. Current progress: 2/100]
The Blessing of the Flame Spirit Clan could only be permanently consolidated by killing members of the Flame Spirit Clan. If they found out, they'd probably be furious enough to drop dead on the spot.
Still, he really did need to consider consolidating some traits. To upgrade his Equipment Slot, he needed to permanently consolidate three green-quality traits or higher.
But the only trait he was about to consolidate right now was the white-quality Filter Charge.
Soon, though, he should be able to permanently consolidate the green-quality [Filter Charge+], since he no longer had to worry about affording Blood Qi Potions.
As for the Sword Saint Body Technique, if he remembered correctly, its permanent consolidation requirement was to form a sword intent.
Now that he had the Five Prison Sword Art, all he had to do was practice.
As for the Qilin Body, wiping out the True Martial Sect was simply impossible. At least, it was for now.
The final reward was something familiar to him: a purified [Alien Warrior Life Source Crystal (First Evolution)]. Perhaps they had only sent him one because it only worked the first time it was consumed.
"I can't believe I got another one so soon. This is just..."
He had only just consumed the one his father had mailed him that morning, and now he'd gotten another one that same night.
Xu Ziming immediately felt a strange sensation.
The moment he touched the crystal, he realized he could apparently equip the "Alien Slayer" trait again.
To his delight, the requirement to consolidate this trait was simply to kill ten aliens—and it was a green-quality trait, too.
That was one more taken care of. It seemed that he still had a chance of upgrading his Equipment Slot in the near future.
After dealing with all of that, Xu Ziming started browsing the wristband's shopping mall.
He intended to spend all the ten million Blue Star Coins the martial hall had sent him. The Second Mock Exam was less than ten days away.
Only a massive amount of resources could significantly improve his strength. At least for now, he had no chance of beating Shen Xingyue.
After opening the mall, Xu Ziming first bought another E-Grade Blood Qi Potion. With this one, he would have just enough to complete the final permanent consolidation.
Besides that, he immediately bought ten D-Grade Blood Qi Potions. One E-Grade potion cost five thousand, while a D-Grade one cost fifty thousand.
The price was ten times higher.
Since Xu Ziming had bought ten D-Grade Blood Qi Potions, the seller threw in an E-Grade one for free.
Those purchases alone had cost him five hundred thousand Blue Star Coins.
He had nine and a half million Blue Star Coins left.
He wasn't short on weapons. He had Jinghong, and though he'd lacked armor, Officer Sun had sent him a soft armor vest.
As for techniques, he could choose from the Nebula Armory. So what else did he need?
Xu Ziming was a little troubled—not because he couldn't afford things, but because he seemed to have too much money. So many resources he had once wanted but couldn't get were now within his reach.
Xu Ziming lowered his head and thought carefully about what he needed most right now.
His main goal was definitely the College Entrance Exam, which was more than eighty days away. In the short term, though, the thing that would affect him most was the Second Mock Exam.
The Second Mock Exam required "surviving in the wilderness." More precisely, he had to spend enough time inside a secret realm.
That meant the first thing he lacked was the ability to move quickly. He hadn't had time to train his footwork.
As a result, he wasn't very fast. With less than ten days left, it was practically impossible to improve his speed by training his footwork.
The second thing he lacked was probably endurance.
When he had fought the Demon Vine earlier, he had used Dragon Trap only three times, along with a few ordinary sword techniques, and had nearly run out of strength.
His endurance was terribly "short." It was one thing to finish other activities in ten minutes, but he couldn't afford to finish a fight in ten minutes.
Now that he had settled on a goal, Xu Ziming no longer had anything to deliberate over.
After buying these two things, he would save the rest for next time. He only got money once a year, but there was no need to blow it all at once.
First, he looked for something that could increase his speed. It didn't have to actually enhance his abilities, as long as the Equipment Slot recognized it and he could really use it.
With that in mind, Xu Ziming immediately started searching the mall.
Before long, he found several items that were perfect for him.
The first was a movement technique called the Heavenly Demon Dance. Just reading the description was enough to tell that it was extraordinary.
More importantly, it had been created by the human race's second-strongest fighter, a man from the Eagle Kingdom known as Odin.
According to the comments, once you mastered the technique—even just the first layer—your speed would increase by thirty percent.
Thirty percent was a huge increase. Martial Artists could usually run a hundred meters in five seconds. With a thirty-percent boost, you could run a hundred and thirty meters in five seconds.
In a chase, the distance between two people would close or widen by thirty meters every five seconds.
Most importantly, this technique wasn't meant for pounding along the ground at a run.
It was a technique for launching surprise attacks over short distances. After mastering the first layer, Xu Ziming could even achieve something like instantaneous movement within five meters.
The instructions did say, however, that it consumed a tremendous amount of stamina.
"Looks like I'll have to replenish my stamina." He had already decided to buy the movement technique.
The movement techniques at the Nebula Martial Hall were too mediocre, and its most powerful fist technique wasn't what he needed.
But this technique, created by the world's second-strongest fighter, cost a whopping three hundred million!
There were nine layers, but luckily, each layer could be bought separately.
The first layer only cost two million. That was a low price because it was difficult to master.
When the payment confirmation lit up, a file appeared out of nowhere on Xu Ziming's wristband. He lightly focused his awareness on it, and heaps of already-translated text appeared before his eyes.
These were clearly the first layer of the Heavenly Demon Dance.
He didn't start practicing right away, though. There was still something important he needed to take care of.
Namely, how to improve his endurance.
Whether it was Dragon Trap, which he had already learned, or the Heavenly Demon Dance, which he was about to start learning, both would be extremely difficult to practice without sufficient endurance.
And endurance was really just blood qi. To raise his blood qi, he needed to keep honing the Basic Body Forging Method day after day.
If he could bring the technique to the great mastery stage, his blood qi would surely double again.
But he had less than ten days. Reaching great mastery in such a short time would still be difficult.
That made an item capable of improving his endurance all the more important.
Since there was a way to improve himself, he didn't look at techniques. Instead, he searched for items that could increase his blood qi reserves.
The market was huge, so finding something that fit the bill was easy. It was just that the items were all too expensive—staggeringly so.
Any random item cost over ten million. But Xu Ziming could understand why. Martial Artists risked their lives fighting the aliens.
Even the slightest improvement could determine whether they lived or died.
Every one of these blood-qi-boosting items had a significant effect. They could automatically gather the blood qi that dispersed during combat and return it to their wearer.
After patiently searching the mall for a long time, Xu Ziming finally found a jade pendant.
It was called the Pure Yang Jade Pendant. Judging by the description, it could help absorb eighty percent of the blood qi that dispersed, then return fifty percent of that to the wearer.
At first glance, that didn't seem like much, but in fact it increased his blood qi by forty percent.
The jade pendant cost five million Blue Star Coins.
"I was hoping to save some for later, but it looks like that won't work."
Xu Ziming shook his head and gave a helpless smile, but he still tapped the purchase button.
The payment confirmation appeared, and the ten million that had just entered Xu Ziming's account was reduced to a quarter of its original amount.
The Pure Yang Jade Pendant also appeared in his hands.
It was beautifully carved, shaped like a phoenix reborn in flames. It felt warm in his hand, and his mind gradually settled along with it.
[Detecting equippable item: Pure Yang Jade Pendant]
[Expected trait: Pure Yang Body (Green)]
[Expected effect: The Pure Yang Jade Pendant's blood-qi recovery effect will be modified to absorb 100% of wasted blood qi and return all of it to the wearer.]
[Permanent consolidation requirement: Use the Pure Yang Jade Pendant to recover 100 times your body's total blood qi. Current progress: 0/100]
Another green-quality trait. Its effect greatly improved the pendant's original abilities.
Based on Xu Ziming's experience, items with effects like this usually cost over twenty million. He'd gotten it for five million.
The Equipment Slot was incredible. No more needed to be said!
After picking out everything he needed, his shopping spree came to an end. Now all that remained was to train!
He had to make full use of all his resources.
Mental strength, footwork, blood qi, swordsmanship.
He needed to improve every one of them and reach a new level in each before the Second Mock Exam.
Meanwhile, everyone else was also preparing in full swing. Shen Xingyue was in the training room at home, sweating as she chopped at wooden posts.
She didn't even hear the noise from outside the door.
"Xingyue, are you still training this late?"
A gentle voice came from outside the training room. A well-dressed woman who looked no older than her thirties gazed at Shen Xingyue with concern.
Her skin was beautifully maintained, smooth as a young girl's. You could never tell just by looking that she was a woman in her forties.
"Mm."
At home, Shen Xingyue didn't say much. Her distant, icy demeanor had returned.
In truth, she was like that almost all the time. Only in front of Xu Ziming was she a little different.
The reason was simple: she thought Xu Ziming was surely someone who worked hard in silence, just like her.
"Girls don't need to put so much pressure on themselves, especially when it comes to martial arts. You just need to find a good family to marry into in the future. If you ask me, Mr. Gao's son is a fine young man."
Shen Xingyue's mother said with a smile, as if she hoped those words would shake her daughter's resolve to practice martial arts.
"How about you two meet after the College Entrance Exam? You grew up together, after all. I'm sure you'll have plenty to talk about."
Shen Xingyue didn't respond to her mother.
Because she wasn't her biological mother. Her birth mother had died not long after giving birth to her.
The woman before her was always trying to get her to marry someone so that her own son could inherit the family business.
And as Shen Xingyue grew stronger through cultivation, the woman had even begun to subtly exclude her.