"Star-Shattering Finger"

Li Jun looked into his eyes and fell silent for several breaths.

"One last question." He pressed the short blade against Hu Dadao's throat. "Who else came to Fire Pond Town to take this job besides you?"

Hu Dadao's Adam's apple bobbed. He forced himself to endure the pain and not move wildly, terrified that one careless twitch would cost him his little life.

"There's Old Sun and One-Eyed Liu... I only saw those two take the job. I don't know if anyone else did, I really don't know!"

Hu Dadao's voice was already tinged with sobs, and pleading showed in his eyes.

"Spare me this once. I swear I won't say a word! I'll pretend today never happened and leave Fire Pond Town overnight..."

Li Jun drew the short blade sideways.

The edge sliced through his throat, sending a pillar of blood splashing up.

Hu Dadao's eyes suddenly widened. His lips moved a few times, and then he fell straight back.

Li Jun stood, wiped the short blade clean on Hu Dadao's robe, and slid it back into his waist.

He searched the man's body for a while and eventually obtained three mid-grade Spirit Stones, as well as a mottled ancient booklet.

"This looks like a map."

Li Jun glanced at it, then put it away.

Now was not the time to study it carefully. For the moment, he had to clean this place up first.

Li Jun dragged Hu Dadao's corpse away and threw it down the ten-thousand-zhang cliff.

In these wild mountains and barren ridges, even if someone found him, by then he would probably already be a pile of dry bones.

After taking care of everything, Li Jun returned to the cowshed.

"Dark Fragrance Hall... the sachet... Shen Xiyue..."

Li Jun sank into thought.

Dark Fragrance Hall.

An underground force in Fire Cloud City that specialized in taking these sorts of shady deals.

And the task Hu Dadao had received from Dark Fragrance Hall was to capture alive the person who possessed the sachet.

That sachet had been given to him by Huang Yi.

And Huang Yi was Shen Xiyue's person.

Shen Xiyue was the eldest senior sister of the Azure Cloud Sect. Her status in the Azure Cloud Sect was extremely high, and it was not strange for her to be able to mobilize resources at the deacon level.

But the problem was whether her sending him alone to Fire Pond Town to purchase supplies had been intentional, or an unthinking act.

If it had been unthinking, then that would be that.

If it had been intentional...

"Still, I can't be sure Huang Yi was telling the truth. Medicine Peak is probably more complicated than I imagined."

Regardless of whether the other party had meant it, he had been careless this time.

Without verifying anything, not only had he gone down the mountain completely unguarded, he had even directly exposed the sachet. That was what had brought this lethal disaster down on his head.

"From now on, I have to be careful, careful, and more careful. Otherwise, I won't even know how I died."

Li Jun made up his mind that when he left the mountain again in the future, he would definitely conceal his identity properly. He absolutely could not make the same mistake he had today.

"My attack methods are still too one-dimensional. I can't always count on setting an ambush in advance."

He recalled today's battle. If not for the trap he had left beforehand, it likely would not have been possible to take down Hu Dadao.

"I originally wanted to prioritize using Spirit Stones to guarantee my cultivation, but from the looks of it now, I still have to prepare the necessary offensive spells."

As for the spells he wanted to cultivate, Li Jun did not consider those basic spells.

Things like Fireball or Wind Blade—these fundamental spells would both consume his energy and have only average power.

For this reason, he fixed his attention on the spells attached to the Myriad Apertures Universe Art.

This cultivation method optimized by the entry actually also came with a spell called "Star-Shattering Finger."

According to the records of "Star-Shattering Finger," a Qi Refining Realm cultivator's meridians were initially opened throughout the body, but in an ordinary person's ten fingers, there were still many minute hidden apertures that remained blocked.

The core of this method was to break open the hidden apertures in the ten fingers one by one. Each time an aperture was opened, one stream of highly compressed spiritual energy could be stored within.

When facing an enemy, the spiritual energy stored in the finger aperture would be released in an instant and shoot out violently from the fingertip.

In the nine layers of the Qi Refining Realm, each layer could open one finger.

Once a cultivator stepped into the Foundation Establishment Realm, if the hidden apertures in all ten fingers were opened, they would obtain the complete form of "Star-Shattering Finger," with power approaching an entry-level divine ability!

The main reason Li Jun had not cultivated it was that opening the hidden apertures required a large supply of Spirit Stones to provide spiritual energy.

Moreover, opening a hidden aperture had a chance of failure. If it failed, those Spirit Stones would have been spent for nothing.

And right now, what he lacked most was Spirit Stones...

"With the Spirit Stones on Hu Dadao's body, plus the ones in the sachet, plus the cow's milk, it should be enough."

Li Jun took a deep breath and hesitated no longer.

He took out all his Spirit Stones, preparing to fight with his back to the river!

A week flashed by in the blink of an eye.

During the day, Li Jun fed the Spirit Ox as usual, inspected the cowshed, and arranged everything properly and neatly.

Once night fell, he sat cross-legged in the courtyard, gripping a Spirit Stone in his palm.

The first aperture: the thumb of his left hand.

Spiritual power flowed like needles, surging from his palm into the joint of his finger.

The hidden aperture had been blocked for many years, like a rusted-shut pass. Forcing it open was easier said than done.

"Whoosh, whoosh!"

The Myriad Apertures Universe Art circulated at full force, and the spiritual energy within the Spirit Stone continuously poured into Li Jun's body.

Every impact of spiritual energy felt as if someone were hammering his finger bones with an iron mallet.

Blue veins bulged on Li Jun's forehead, and his clenched teeth creaked.

"Bang!"

On the first attempt, the spiritual energy scattered, and a portion of the Spirit Stone dimmed.

He made no sound, switched to another one, and continued.

On the second attempt, a thin cut split open in the skin around his finger joint, and beads of blood seeped out.

On the third attempt, the spiritual energy finally stabbed into the place where the hidden aperture was, as if it had pierced through a layer of thick callus.

Agonizing pain exploded from his fingertip, and his entire body shuddered with it.

His thumb had swollen beyond recognition, but within the hidden aperture, a point of spiritual light had already lit up.

It was done!

Li Jun gave himself no time to catch his breath. The next night, he continued by attacking the thumb of his right hand.

With the experience from the first time, this attempt was much faster, but the pain did not lessen in the slightest.

Blood seeped from beneath his fingernail, staining his palm dark red.

He casually wrapped it a few times with a strip of cloth and continued.

On the third day, the thumb of his right hand was opened.

On the night of the sixth day, he attacked the index finger of his right hand.

This aperture was the most stubborn, and the Spirit Stones were consumed at a flying pace.

The three mid-grade Spirit Stones he had found on Hu Dadao had all been used up by this point.

There were not many Spirit Stones left in the sachet either.

Spiritual energy rampaged through his index finger, and the finger swelled by a visible ring.

The skin stretched until it shone, then split open into several bloody gashes.

Li Jun let out a muffled groan and forced the final surge of spiritual power inside.

The hidden aperture opened wide!

Three apertures shone together!

He lowered his head and looked at his bloodstained hands, his ten fingers slowly clenching tight.

Within the three apertures, each held a wisp of spiritual energy compressed to the utmost, lying dormant there. The moment his thoughts moved, they could shoot out.

Li Jun let out a long breath, looked at his hands, and a trace of delight spread across his face.

"I'll find a place to test it!"

He rose and went to the woods behind the cowshed, finally stopping before an open space.

"Come on, let me see your power."

Li Jun's gaze sharpened, and he thrust three fingers out directly!

"Star-Shattering Finger!"

"Bang!"

Three streams of incomparably condensed spiritual energy shot out violently, directly smashing a pit roughly ten meters wide into the open ground before him.

Li Jun's eyes shone, and his chest rose and fell slightly.

Although firing all three fingers had consumed almost half his spiritual power, this kind of might was not something a simple spell could achieve.

Those Spirit Stones had been worth every bit!