On the Moon-Refining Continent, the spiritual power stored in the meridians of those in the Pulse-Opening Realm and higher realms was called spiritual essence. Those in the Body Refining Realm could only absorb spiritual power to strengthen their bodies; they couldn't store it in their meridians and turn it into spiritual essence. No matter how much they strengthened their bodies, if they faced a powerful opponent with spiritual essence, they could only meet defeat and death.
The greatest difference between having spiritual essence and not having it lay in the strength of one's inner force. No matter how strong a person was, when attacking someone else, they could at most completely wreck the other person's body. All injuries would show on the outside, and no matter how strong their force was, it could never leave their body.
But once they had spiritual essence, their attacks could not only injure someone externally; the spiritual essence could also surge through their bodies and into their opponent's, damaging their internal organs. No matter how strong the body was, the organs could never be just as tough. That was one of the greatest advantages spiritual essence gave its users over those without it.
There was another advantage: spiritual essence could leave the body, unlike physical strength, which could only take effect after making contact with an opponent. With spiritual essence, one could kill from a thousand miles away. Of course, such abilities only became possible once one had reached a certain level of strength.
Those who had only just acquired spiritual essence couldn't do that. Even someone like Cheng Erhu, who had only recently reached the Tongmai Realm and still had little spiritual essence in his body, could make only a tiny difference with it in a fight. Even that tiny difference gave him a considerable advantage over those below the Pulse-Opening Realm.
But against Chu Xiaotian, who also had spiritual essence—and whose was even denser—Cheng Erhu had no advantage at all. In their fight, Cheng Erhu's spiritual essence was scattered almost as soon as it appeared. By the time he died, it had never managed to do a thing.
After killing Cheng Erhu so easily, Chu Xiaotian couldn't help feeling a surge of excitement. The fight had proved at least one thing: his strength was no longer weak. At the very least, he was formidable in a place like Greenwood Town.
Without another glance at Cheng Erhu's motionless body, Chu Xiaotian hurried over to Xia Xue, who was still lying helplessly on the ground. She could barely muster the strength to blink, so she hadn't seen the fight. But when Chu Xiaotian came into view, the helpless young woman's eyes immediately lit up with joy.
"Good girl, Xiaoxue. Are you all right?" He bent down and lifted Xia Xue into his arms. She looked relieved and drowsy, but didn't say a word, which worried him. But she had been poisoned with Bone-Softening Powder. She could barely blink, let alone answer him.
Chu Xiaotian didn't know what poison Xia Xue had taken. He asked her several times, but she didn't respond, only looking drowsy, and he grew frantic. He hurriedly carried her back to the room, laid her down, and tucked her under the covers. Then he rushed outside again, went to Cheng Erhu's corpse, and searched it with both hands.
It wasn't that Chu Xiaotian had any peculiar tastes. He was looking for an antidote or something similar on Cheng Erhu. The result was deeply disappointing: he found nothing.
There was nothing on Cheng Erhu, so Chu Xiaotian turned his attention to Cheng Dahu. Cheng Dahu had taken a punch from Chu Xiaotian that broke several of his ribs, and the cold Corpse Poison had invaded his body. He had died during their fight, and his body was already stiffening. Chu Xiaotian searched him and, at last, found a small cloth bag. It was only palm-sized, but it weighed far more than its size suggested.
A smile appeared on Chu Xiaotian's face when he saw it. He knew this kind of bag was called a Qiankun Bag, a storage item much like the fabled mustard-seed pouches from the world he had lived in before. Xia Xue and Ba Dao had used one when they traded pills. Though the bag in his hand was only palm-sized, it could hold as much as a travel bag from his old world. And this was still one of the worst kinds. Ba Dao had told him that some higher-grade ones could hold an entire mountain. It sounded unbelievable, but Chu Xiaotian didn't doubt it for a second.
For something so small to hold so much, the Qiankun Bag was incredibly convenient—an absolute must-have for travel and daily life. And so it was: nearly every cultivator on the Moon-Refining Continent had one. Of course, most were of the lowest grade. The higher-grade ones weren't something ordinary people could afford.
Chu Xiaotian took the Qiankun Bag from Cheng Dahu and easily emptied its contents. As for the bag itself, he accepted it without hesitation.
There was a yellow paper packet, a few changes of clothes, three small white porcelain bottles, and fifteen white stones about the size of his thumb. Chu Xiaotian didn't touch the yellow packet. He had seen Cheng Dahu holding a similar piece of paper earlier and knew it contained the poison that had left Xia Xue in that state.
"This stuff's useful. Used right, it could make even someone in the Sea-Breaking Realm suffer. Mm, can't let it go to waste." Chu Xiaotian muttered to himself as he tucked the yellow packet into his Qiankun Bag. Then he put away the fifteen white stones as well.
The little stones were called Origin Stones, the common currency of the Moon-Refining Continent, like dollars on Earth. The continent's currencies were Origin Stones and Spirit Stones. Origin Stones were the least valuable, worth about as much as a single dollar. Spirit Stones came in low, middle, high, and supreme grades. The higher the grade, the more precious they were. The exchange rate was one to a hundred: one hundred Origin Stones could be exchanged for a low-grade Spirit Stone, and one hundred low-grade Spirit Stones for a middle-grade one.
Origin Stones had no use beyond serving as currency. Spirit Stones were different: they contained a considerable amount of spiritual power, and the higher their grade, the more they held. Absorbing the spiritual power in a Spirit Stone was much faster than drawing it from the world around you. That made Spirit Stones every cultivator's favorite; no one ever complained about having too many. In that respect, they were just like money in Chu Xiaotian's old world—no one ever thought they had too much. Cheng Yuhu was only at the Body Refining Realm, so he naturally wouldn't have any Spirit Stones on him. Chu Xiaotian wasn't discouraged to find only a dozen or so Origin Stones. After all, what he needed now wasn't money, but an antidote.
He looked at the three white porcelain bottles and opened them with hope, hoping to find an antidote inside. But all three were empty. He felt like cursing. He tossed the bottles aside and shook out all the clothes, but found nothing there either. In the end, he could only spit angrily at Cheng Dahu's corpse and curse him under his breath. The bastard was rotten to the core; he hadn't even left behind an antidote, clearly never intending to do anything good.
Having failed to find an antidote, Chu Xiaotian was thoroughly annoyed, but there was no point dwelling on it now. He put away the Qiankun Bag and returned to the room to look after Xia Xue. Apart from her eyes, she couldn't move a thing, so the two of them could hardly communicate. Chu Xiaotian had no idea whether she was all right. After worrying for a while, he came up with a plan: he would ask questions, and Xia Xue would answer by blinking once for yes and twice for no.
Surprisingly, the method worked quite well. After asking her a while, Chu Xiaotian finally confirmed one thing: Xia Xue was all right, but her whole body was weak—even speaking was too much for her. At that, he finally relaxed.
"All right, good girl, Xiaoxue. Since you're fine, get some sleep. You'll feel better when you wake up. I'll go clean up the trash outside so they don't dirty our home." Seeing that Xia Xue was all right, Chu Xiaotian finally breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking of the two corpses outside, he decided to step away and bury them.
When she heard Chu Xiaotian say he was leaving, Xia Xue's expression changed, and worry flashed in her eyes. She couldn't even lift a finger. If she ran into someone like Cheng Dahu again, she'd be done for.
"Don't be afraid, Xiaoxue. I won't go far. I'll just take these two out of our place and leave them near the entrance to the valley. I'll be right back, so don't worry." Seeing the worry in her eyes, Chu Xiaotian knew what she was thinking. He smiled and spoke gently beside her ear. Xia Xue's expression finally eased. She struggled to curl her lips into a smile, offering him a tender grin.
Looking at Xia Xue's languid state, Chu Xiaotian couldn't resist kissing her on the cheek. Then, as her face flushed with embarrassment and reproach, he gave a mischievous laugh and went outside to deal with the bodies of Cheng Dahu and Cheng Erhu. He finished quickly. Just as he'd promised, he didn't go far, digging a pit in a patch of woods not far from the valley entrance and burying the two men before hurrying back to the valley. How could he feel at ease leaving Xia Xue alone in her current state?
Cheng Dahu and Cheng Erhu's Bone-Softening Powder had to be extremely potent. It took Xia Xue a full day and night to recover. During that time, Chu Xiaotian took care of her as attentively as she had once cared for him—if anything, even more attentively. He almost even bathed her.
According to him, this was what it meant to repay a drop of kindness with a spring of gratitude. Of course, he very much wanted to do that, but under Xia Xue's gaze, the idea could only remain an idea.
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