Soaring Dragon Spear

(Forget Worry)

The four Qiankun Bags belonged to Huang Nian's four guards. Though they were all Qiankun Bags, these four were clearly much higher-grade than the one Chu Xiaotian had.

Chu Xiaotian's bag was about the size of a travel pack and couldn't hold much. Each of these four bags, however, contained a space one meter long, wide, and high—enough to hold nearly ten times as much as the one he had.

He didn't know exactly how much a Qiankun Bag like this was worth, but he was sure it wouldn't come cheap. Even the most basic Qiankun Bag, like the one Chu Xiaotian had, cost at least ten low-grade Spirit Stones to buy. He figured each of these four would cost at least a hundred low-grade Spirit Stones. That alone was quite a haul, and it made him feel that killing Huang Nian and his four guards had been absolutely the right decision.

Besides the four Qiankun Bags, there was something else that excited Chu Xiaotian even more: the white bracelet. It was translucent from end to end, flawless and seamless, as if carved from pure white jade. But when Chu Xiaotian sent his spiritual sense into the jade bracelet, he discovered a space inside, ten meters long, wide, and high—far larger than the space in a Qiankun Bag.

"I've struck it rich! I've really struck it rich this time! I can't believe I got a Qiankun Bracelet too!" Chu Xiaotian trembled with excitement. He stroked the Qiankun Bags, then turned the white jade bracelet over and over in his hands, grinning from ear to ear. A Qiankun Bracelet was a higher-grade item than a Qiankun Bag, with a space several times larger, sometimes even dozens of times larger. Naturally, it was worth at least ten times as much.

Four Qiankun Bags and one Qiankun Bracelet—Chu Xiaotian reckoned they must be worth at least a thousand low-grade Spirit Stones. And that was only the value of the five items themselves. He hadn't even checked what was inside them yet.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Chu Xiaotian emptied all five storage items onto the ground. The first things he saw were piles of clothes. He shook them all out, and after finding nothing hidden inside, tossed them aside to deal with later. Then he examined the other assorted items. There were a thousand white stones that looked much like Origin Stones. Of course, they clearly weren't Origin Stones. As he held them, he could sense the immense spiritual power within. These were low-grade Spirit Stones.

"Low-grade Spirit Stones, a thousand of them. Mine," Chu Xiaotian muttered, putting them into one of the newly acquired Qiankun Bags. There were also more than ten small porcelain bottles filled with all kinds of pills. He had no idea what the pills did, so he set them aside to have Xia Xue identify them. Once he had sorted through everything, there was little left on the ground.

Five three-foot-long swords, a spear a full zhang in length, two jade slips, a yellowed old book, and more than ten plants he had never seen before. The plants were probably spirit herbs. Chu Xiaotian left them alone and put them with the porcelain bottles, intending to have Xia Xue identify them all. Then he picked up one of the jade slips and sent his spiritual sense into it.

"Qi-Transforming Slash, high-grade Human-Rank combat art." The words surfaced in his mind, followed by the art's specific cultivation method. This was the combat art that let a Pi-Hai Realm cultivator unleash Sword Qi. Chu Xiaotian read on with great interest, but soon lost it. Using half your spiritual power to unleash a slash of Sword Qi that no one at the same realm can withstand? To Chu Xiaotian, that was pure nonsense. He was only at the Purple Corpse Realm, which at most made him equivalent to a Tongmai Realm cultivator, yet that guard's slash hadn't even hurt him. Besides, losing half your spiritual energy in one go would be suicide if you ran into a group of enemies.

"What a useless combat art, and it still brags. What good is it?" he muttered. He didn't even finish reading it before tucking the jade slip into a Qiankun Bag. He had no intention of cultivating it. What he didn't know was that he was wrong to blame the Qi-Transforming Slash; it wasn't nearly as useless as he imagined. The guard hadn't hurt him partly because the layer of purple fur produced by the Heavenly Corpse Art had such strong defenses, and partly because the guard had already wasted a great deal of spiritual energy forcing out the poison, which had greatly weakened the slash. Otherwise, even if Chu Xiaotian had managed to block it, he would probably have spent ten or twenty days flat on his back.

Chu Xiaotian picked up the second jade slip and sent his spiritual sense into it.

"Spring Breeze Art, high-grade Human-Rank cultivation method..." As soon as Chu Xiaotian saw the words, he tossed the jade slip aside without a second thought. Human-Rank items were all worthless. That was the conclusion he had drawn after reading the Qi-Transforming Slash. Besides, in his current state, he couldn't cultivate anything other than the Heavenly Corpse Art. The high-grade Human-Rank Spring Breeze Art was trash in his eyes, and he casually put it away.

He reached for the only thing left besides the weapons: a yellowed old book. Please let this be something useful, Chu Xiaotian prayed silently. A powerful combat art would be best. Though he had looked down on the guard's Qi-Transforming Slash, he still desperately wanted a powerful combat art. Something like that could make a person's combat strength soar.

The old book barely qualified as a book. It was only two or three pages of paper, so light in his hand that Chu Xiaotian felt a little disappointed. How good could something only two or three pages long possibly be? Still, since he had it, he might as well take a look.

He opened the yellowed cover. Three ancient characters appeared before him, written in a bold, sweeping hand: Soaring Dragon Spear. They were simple characters, yet Chu Xiaotian seemed to see a giant dragon roaring toward him, ready to swallow him whole. His mind almost faltered.

"What a domineering Soaring Dragon Spear! What a treasure! My luck really is out of this world!" He had only seen three characters and didn't know the combat art's rank, but just from their imposing force, Chu Xiaotian knew it had to be countless times better than the Qi-Transforming Slash.

Unable to wait, Chu Xiaotian turned to the next page. It was covered in dense, tiny writing.

"Guide the spear with energy, guide energy with spirit, merge spirit with the spear, merge spirit with heaven and earth. Advance without retreat, let the spear burst forth like a dragon; nothing can withstand it, not even Gods and Devils." After reading the first line on the second page, Chu Xiaotian's mind shook with excitement, and his anticipation for the Soaring Dragon Spear grew even stronger. He didn't stop to ponder the words. Instead, he continued reading until he had finished every line on the first sheet of paper. Only then did he let out a long breath, his eyes flashing.

The page described the Soaring Dragon Spear's general cultivation method and gave an overview of the art, like an introduction. It had four realms: guiding the spear with energy, guiding the spear with spirit, spear and spirit as one, and unity with heaven and man. It was a spear art with tremendous offensive power that placed great emphasis on momentum. To bring out its full power, one needed an unstoppable, forward-driving force. Strike first and seize the advantage: with this spear art, the opponent could be overwhelmed by its terrifying momentum before the attack even landed, paving the way for what followed.

Without hesitation, Chu Xiaotian turned to the third page of the Soaring Dragon Spear manual. It showed a diagram of the energy circulation route for cultivating the first move, the Electric Dragon Spear. One had to circulate the spiritual energy within the body through the acupoints marked along the route, then use it to drive the spear in an unstoppable thrust, killing the enemy in an instant. The Electric Dragon Spear was a technique that relied on speed. It was called the Electric Dragon because, once unleashed, it struck with the force of thunder and lightning, leaving an opponent no time to dodge before they were hit and sent to the grave.

If the first move was already so powerful, the later ones had to be even more terrifying. But this spear manual was clearly incomplete; its contents ended abruptly here. Chu Xiaotian turned the page, but there were no more leaves—only ragged edges where the paper had been torn away. The damage was ancient, not recent. Looking at those tears, he could picture people fighting over the book in some distant age, then tearing it apart. He wanted to beat his chest in frustration. If ever there was a case of wanton destruction, this was it.

Such a fine spear art had been torn to pieces. If Chu Xiaotian ever met the people who had ripped it up, he would point at their noses and give them a good scolding. But after a while, he slowly calmed down. It was only natural that such an unparalleled spear art had been fought over. He could only regret that he hadn't been born in that era, so he could have seized the whole art for himself.

Besides, even with only three pages, the instructions were enough for him to cultivate the first move, which comforted him somewhat. If even one more page had been missing, Chu Xiaotian might have gone berserk on the spot.

Chu Xiaotian had no combat art right now. In a fight, he relied entirely on speed and instinct, so the Electric Dragon Spear was exactly what he needed; it filled the gap. After repeatedly studying the three pages and memorizing the energy circulation route in particular, he decided to try cultivating it and see if he could master the first move.

The Soaring Dragon Spear manual had come from the Qiankun Bracelet of Huang Nian. The sword and spear had come from Huang Nian's Qiankun Bracelet as well.

This showed that Huang Nian had intended to cultivate the spear art when he first obtained it. Chu Xiaotian had no idea how Huang Nian had found it or whether he had successfully cultivated it. After all, he had been killed by Chu Xiaotian through a sneak attack, dying an ignoble death before he could do anything.

But after looking at the other sword in Huang Nian's Qiankun Bracelet, Chu Xiaotian felt he probably hadn't succeeded in cultivating the spear art. Otherwise, with an unparalleled spear art like that in hand, why would he have bothered carrying a sword?