Spells Perfected

The leap from the third tier of Qi Induction to the fourth seemed to be only a single tier,

but it was, in truth, the dividing line between the early and middle stages of the Qi Induction Realm!

After reaching the fourth tier of Qi Induction,

Shen Changchuan had finally escaped the lowest, weakest rung of the cultivation path!

Though to those high-level cultivators, he was still an ant,

Shen Changchuan was now a somewhat bigger ant.

That was naturally something worth celebrating.

Still, Shen Changchuan didn't let his excitement cloud his judgment.

After taking a single day to rest,

he resumed his hard cultivation.

Time flew by.

More than a month passed in the blink of an eye after Shen Changchuan reached the fourth tier of Qi Induction.

Over that month, several nearby villages that had originally sought shelter under Dawan Village's protection learned that the village's guardian had been replaced.

They came one after another with gifts to congratulate Shen Changchuan on taking up his post.

There were six of these villages, or seven counting Zhao Family Village.

They were all small villages within roughly a hundred li of Dawan Village.

Each was a small cultivation family passed down through generations. They had one or two mu of Spirit Fields at home, or in some cases only a few fen, and barely managed to keep their families of cultivators going.

These small cultivation families were all quite weak.

The strongest members of their families were generally around the third or fourth tier of Qi Induction.

They had only one or two spells at their disposal.

By comparison,

Zhao Hangao of Zhao Family Village was actually the strongest among them, and had the largest area of Spirit Fields.

But unlike Zhao Hangao, who had practically dropped to his knees in deference,

the others were certainly respectful toward Shen Changchuan and careful not to offend him, but they weren't nearly as obsequious.

After some subtle probing and conversation, he learned the reason.

The surrounding villages didn't know about Shen Changchuan's background.

They assumed he was merely a collateral member of the Shen Family, who had perhaps used Spirit Stones to secure the favor of some powerful figure within the family and get himself assigned to the lucrative post of guardian of Dawan Village.

This wasn't surprising.

After all, to members of these small families, the Shen Family was like a towering mountain compared to an ant.

How could they easily learn the inside information of such a powerful force?

Since they didn't know Shen Changchuan's exact identity,

they treated him just as they had treated his predecessor, Shen Shiying—with respect and deference, but without Zhao Hangao's obsequiousness.

This inevitably stirred a trace of doubt in Shen Changchuan's mind.

Where had Zhao Hangao gotten the news about his identity?

After all, Dawan Village was so far from the Shen Family's home base in Tiannan City, and it wasn't easy to pass messages back and forth.

But the thought only crossed his mind for a moment.

Shen Changchuan had no intention of investigating further.

Perhaps Zhao Hangao had heard it from Shen Shiying's family when they left.

It had nothing to do with improving his strength, so there was no need to get to the bottom of it.

Afterward, Shen Changchuan didn't reveal his identity to the other small families.

He wasn't the sort to flaunt his status.

There was no need.

His two and a half years at the Shen Family Estate had taught him to value his own strength far more than his identity as the Shen Family head's son.

And so,

during the month or so after reaching the fourth tier of Qi Induction,

aside from receiving visits and gifts from those small families and occasionally checking on the Spirit Grain Crop seedlings in the Spirit Fields,

he devoted practically all his time to cultivation.

As it happened, the successive visits from the heads of those small families were a good thing.

The gifts they brought were all spiritual resources.

Some were spiritual fruits, others medicinal herbs, and even the poorer ones brought a few pounds of Spirit Grain as gifts.

Shen Changchuan didn't turn his nose up at them and accepted everything.

These things,

in turn, proved quite useful in his cultivation.

With the help of those spiritual resources,

in just over a month,

he had not only solidified his early-stage fourth-tier Qi Induction cultivation, but had also made a great deal of progress beyond that.

Shen Changchuan could feel that if he kept cultivating hard for another two months, he would break through to the middle stage of the fourth tier of Qi Induction!

Even Shen Changchuan found this rate of improvement hard to believe.

But on closer thought,

it wasn't so difficult to understand.

His aptitude for cultivation wasn't high, but it wasn't too poor either.

Now that he had plentiful spiritual resources, along with his dogged hard work and the transformation in his state of mind after escaping the suffocating environment of the Shen Family Estate,

such progress was perfectly reasonable.

More than a month of hard work

had brought more than just an increase in his cultivation.

With enough spiritual resources to aid his training, Shen Changchuan could work hard every day to grind out proficiency in new spells.

As a result, over the course of that month,

he had successfully raised every spell on his status panel to 100% proficiency!

Name: Shen Changchuan

Realm:

Early stage, fourth tier of Qi Induction

Cultivation Method:

Elephant Mountain Qi Absorption Art

Magical Artifacts:

Two Gold Needles (quasi-low-tier magical artifacts)

Spells:

Golden Needle Stab: 100% (Perfection Trait: Slightly improved accuracy with hidden weapons; negligible experience in Metal-element spell cultivation)

Light Body Technique: 100% (Perfection Trait: Slightly increased body speed; negligible experience in movement technique cultivation)

Spirit Eye Technique: 100% (Perfection Trait: Slightly improved eyesight; negligible experience in ocular art cultivation)

Wind Blade Technique: 100% (Perfection Trait: Slightly increased sharpness; negligible experience in Wind-element spell cultivation)

Fireball Technique: 100% (Perfection Trait: Slightly increased spell temperature; negligible experience in Fire-element spell cultivation)

Vine Technique: 100% (Perfection Trait: Slightly increased spell resilience; negligible experience in Wood-element spell cultivation)

"All my spells have reached perfection!"

Looking at the neat row of 100% entries in the spell section of his status panel,

Shen Changchuan couldn't help letting out a long breath.

He felt completely refreshed.

All the effort he'd put into grinding spell proficiency without pause over the past month had been worth it!

All six spells had reached perfection.

The benefits brought by perfecting those spells also lived up to his expectations.

A new trait had appeared after each spell.

With those traits,

Shen Changchuan could clearly feel that his perfected spells were a cut above their former selves in power!

And after perfecting four spells in a row,

during that intense period of training,

Shen Changchuan discovered another hidden trait of perfected spells.

Instant casting!

Before a spell was perfected, casting it required forming hand seals and coordinating them with the circulation of the spiritual power inside his body before the spell could be released.

That process took at least two or three seconds.

After reaching perfection,

the time could be reduced to under a second.

But that wasn't the limit!

If he lowered the spell's output and reduced its power, he could bring the casting time down to under a tenth of a second!

That could absolutely be considered instant casting.

After several rounds of experimentation, Shen Changchuan found that with a mere lift of his hand, he could send out a Fireball or a Wind Blade!

Although an instantly cast spell had only two-thirds the power of its full-strength version,

after some research, Shen Changchuan quickly found a way to make up for that lost power.

He simply had to cast repeatedly!

By making use of a spell's instant-casting trait, he could release the same spell several times in quick succession.

After training, Shen Changchuan could now

cast three Fireball Techniques, Wind Blade Techniques, or other offensive spells in a single second!

Their combined power was greater, not less.

The significance of this method

in the middle of a battle was self-evident.

His strength had soared!

"Wouldn't even three or five versions of me from two months ago be a match for me now?"

"If I faced that river Demon Beast again, I'd have at least an eighty percent chance of killing it!"

Feeling the increase in strength brought by perfecting his spells,

Shen Changchuan was brimming with confidence.