At the sound of the system, Fei Luo smiled faintly. He didn't claim his rewards right away, instead turning to look at Dong Xiaoyu, who had been blasted into a charred husk.
Dong Xiaoyu still had a faint breath left in her, but it was so weak that she could die at any moment.
"Who exactly are you?" Dong Xiaoyu asked, seemingly filled with endless resentment.
That instant-cast Five Thunders spell had left her dumbfounded.
She had never seen a Taoist conjure spells as effortlessly as someone casting magic. Just who was this man before her?
Whoosh!
A flash of sword light swept past. Dong Xiaoyu's head rose into the air, carried by the wind, as Fei Luo's calm voice rang out.
"I'm just an ordinary person. I only want to protect the righteous path of this world."
The Five Thunders Heart-Burning Curse he had just used was one of the more powerful spells among those Fei Luo had learned from the Supreme Clarity Great Cavern Scripture.
Despite the depth of Fei Luo's magical power, he hadn't expected that a single spell would consume a third of it.
Still, he was thoroughly satisfied with its power.
I wonder what the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Art will be like once I've mastered it? Fei Luo couldn't help but look forward to it.
That strike had not only killed Dong Xiaoyu, but also reduced all the remaining ghosts to dust.
Its power was extraordinary, and its reach had encompassed the entire Ghost Mansion.
With Dong Xiaoyu's death, the illusion concealing the brightly decorated Ghost Mansion gradually faded, revealing a derelict estate filled with ruins.
"Qiusheng, let's go. What are you standing around for?" Fei Luo strolled over to Qiusheng and patted him on the shoulder.
"Ah." Qiusheng came back to himself and stared deeply at Fei Luo, his throat feeling a little dry.
"Junior Brother Fei Luo, that move just now..."
Qiusheng looked at him with awe, speaking respectfully, but seeming unsure how to continue.
That move had been real thunder. Its dazzling light had illuminated the entire night sky.
He swore he would never forget that brilliant sight for the rest of his life.
No, there was also the demonic genius of a junior brother standing before him. Now that was a true prodigy—he could unleash such powerful magic out of thin air.
It was a hundred times stronger than any ordinary thunder talisman.
Compared to the magic Fei Luo had unleashed, that thunder talisman was a joke.
"Senior Brother, there's no need to be surprised. This is an orthodox Maoshan art, the Five Thunders Heart-Burning Curse. As long as you diligently cultivate the Dao, one day you'll reach my level." Fei Luo patted Qiusheng on the shoulder and continued on his way.
"..."
Silently watching Fei Luo's tall, straight back, Qiusheng felt a surge of heroic determination rise within him.
With a junior brother like this, how could I, Qiusheng, fail to achieve something in this life?
Qiusheng felt both fortunate and excited.
He was fortunate to have met such a powerful, monstrous junior brother, and excited by the thought that one day he might become as invincible as Fei Luo.
That was right. In Qiusheng's eyes, everything Fei Luo had done today was the very definition of invincibility.
At that very moment, a hundred miles from Ren Family Town,
two shadowy figures stood atop a mountain peak.
"What a powerful presence. Has such a formidable expert really emerged among the Taoists of the mortal realm?"
"Indeed. That was no talisman. It was already a spell."
"A spell? Has another anomaly appeared?"
Their ghostly voices drifted through the air, inaudible to ordinary people. They sounded as though they had come from the Netherworld, utterly devoid of emotion, like the voices of ghosts and gods.
"Let's ask the City God over there. The world is crumbling in this Age of Declining Dharma. If such a genius has appeared, we should make his acquaintance."
"Agreed!"
Then the two men in black robes blurred and vanished into the wind.
Meanwhile, Fei Luo returned to Ren Family Town with Qiusheng. "Qiusheng, after all those battles, I'm a little tired. I'll head home and rest. You go find Master."
"Alright, Junior Brother Fei Luo. I'll head over first." Qiusheng nodded and made his way toward the Ren Family Villa.
His face was filled with indescribable shock.
Even now, Qiusheng still hadn't recovered from everything Fei Luo had done that night. He had been utterly stunned.
All he wanted was to go back and tell Wencai and Uncle Nine everything he had seen and heard, to share it with them.
Fei Luo really was a little tired.
The battle that night had drained a great deal of his strength, and he was also eager to see what rewards the system would grant him this time.
Back in his small courtyard, Fei Luo washed up, changed into clean clothes, and sat cross-legged in his room.
"System! Claim my rewards."
Ding! Congratulations, host. You have slain a hundred ghosts and successfully claimed your reward: one Top-Grade Foundation Cultivation Pill! Ding! Congratulations, host. You have slain a hundred ghosts and successfully claimed your reward: twenty Heaven Origin Soul Gathering Pills! Ding! Congratulations, host. You have slain a hundred ghosts and successfully claimed your reward: your human-grade spiritual root has improved by four ranks! Ding! Congratulations, host. You have slain a hundred ghosts and successfully claimed your reward: the Void-Breaking Sword Art! Ding! Congratulations, host. You have slain a hundred ghosts and successfully claimed your reward: one top-grade storage ring!
Though Fei Luo had guessed that he would receive plenty of rewards this time, he had never imagined there would be so many.
Before he could examine them closely, a golden light descended from the heavens and entered his body. Wrapped in its glow, his soul felt warm and comfortable.
A blessing had come to him as if from the heart: human-grade, ninth rank!
His spiritual root had reached the peak of the human grade. Under the amplification buff, it was comparable to an earth-grade, fifth-rank root.
Fei Luo realized this change instinctively.
"What a peculiar feeling. Is this what a human-grade, ninth-rank spiritual root feels like?" Fei Luo murmured. To his delight, his thoughts were moving much faster than before. Problems that had once baffled him now made sense in an instant.
Even complicated equations from his previous life could be solved in his mind in the blink of an eye.
Ding! With your human-grade, ninth-rank spiritual root amplified ten thousandfold, your progress in cultivating the Nine Heavens Thunder Invocation Art has reached 35%!
Without warning, the system's voice rang out in Fei Luo's mind again.
"Hm?" Fei Luo's face lit up. "My comprehension speed with a human-grade, ninth-rank spiritual root is twice what it was with a fifth-rank one?"
"Looks like it won't be long before I've mastered the Nine Heavens Thunder Invocation Art completely. A few more days, perhaps." Fei Luo smiled and looked toward the system storage.
After examining it for a long while, Fei Luo couldn't help exclaiming, "Well, would you look at that!"
"This time, I can definitely break through to the Golden Core Realm and enter the False Core Realm." His eyes blazed, and his heart surged with ambition.
The Top-Grade Foundation Cultivation Pill could increase a Foundation Establishment cultivator's chances of successfully forming a core by seventy percent!
That was an astonishing amount.
Even the Maoshan classics said that in ancient times, only three out of every ten Foundation Establishment cultivators managed to form a core.
The False Core Realm, Solid Core Realm, and Golden Core Realm!
Those were the three stages of the Golden Core Realm.
As one's magical power condensed, the liquid spiritual energy in the body would transform into an inner core and grow increasingly solid.
The twenty Heaven Origin Soul Gathering Pills could be converted into abundant magical power to help Fei Luo break through to the False Core Realm.
"Today is the day I form my core." Fei Luo looked at the two jade bottles in his hands, dazzling light shining from his eyes.
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