Qi-Bursting Pill

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!

The spirit spring churned.

Wisps of spiritual qi drifted from the gushing spring water, drawn by Kong Jiao toward the two spirit apertures within his body as he sat at the edge of the spring.

Refined by the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture, it eventually became pure spiritual power, returning to his dantian to nourish his spiritual wheel.

He did not know how long he had cultivated before Kong Jiao emerged from meditation and rose to his full, slender height.

Compared to half a month ago, his aura had grown subtly stronger.

This rate of cultivation was nearly surpassing that of ordinary disciples with three spirit apertures.

"No wonder it's a spirit spring. No wonder every outer sect disciple wants to enter the inner sect. With a spirit eye assisting cultivation, the results are twice as great for half the effort."

Kong Jiao was in high spirits, and a smile unconsciously surfaced on his face.

His cultivation over the past half month had almost equaled an entire month of his usual progress.

At this rate, reaching the fourth level of the Wheel-Nourishing Realm would not take a year at all. Half a year would be enough.

"And that is assuming this spirit spring is not very large. The spirit eyes that assist the inner sect disciples' cultivation are probably more than twice the size of this one."

"It seems I'll have to do my utmost to enter the inner sect in the future."

Having experienced the benefits of a spirit eye, Kong Jiao had already begun longing for the inner sect's spirit eyes.

But that was a matter for the distant future.

The inner sect was exceedingly strict in selecting disciples. Those who could enter were all exceptionally gifted talents.

At the very least, Kong Jiao's current strength was still a long way from that.

After stretching lazily, Kong Jiao took two steps and lay down on a stone bed beside the cave wall.

Then he casually pulled a bottle of pills from his robes and held it beneath his nose for a careful sniff.

A strong, pungent smell wafted from the bottle, irritating Kong Jiao until he could not help sneezing.

"Achoo!"

Kong Jiao seemed long accustomed to the smell of the pills inside. He rubbed his nose without concern and peered into the bottle through its mouth.

Three dark-red pills lay quietly within.

These three pills were part of Chu Jianghe's belongings.

Kong Jiao had selected them together with the longbow Bee Whisper half a month ago.

"Qi-Bursting Pills. Taking one can agitate the spiritual power within a Wheel-Nourishing Realm cultivator, temporarily raising their cultivation."

"Disciples who enjoy fighting usually stockpile some to take when risking their lives against others. The side effects are severe and can damage the meridians. The medicine only lasts the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. Once it wears off, the spiritual qi in the body is drained away, leaving one at another's mercy."

Recalling what he had learned in the alchemy room about these three pills' effects and side effects,

Kong Jiao pursed his lips.

A pill that could damage the meridians—its potency was easy enough to imagine.

The side effects were obvious, but the advantage was that it temporarily gave its user the means to contend with enemies whose cultivation exceeded their own.

Of course, it only lasted the time it took to drink a cup of tea. Once that time passed, death was certain.

Even so, Qi-Bursting Pills remained one of the alchemy room's hottest commodities, selling for as much as thirty spirit crystals each.

The outside world was dangerous. When traveling abroad, one would inevitably encounter powerful enemies, and what one feared most was a sudden crisis that left no room even to fight back.

Even if a Qi-Bursting Pill could not help you win, it could at least buy you the time it took to drink a cup of tea to escape with your life.

"I can keep one in reserve and sell the other two." Kong Jiao began calculating.

With his current cultivation, he could probably only withstand the side effects of one Qi-Bursting Pill. If he took a second, his meridians would likely be completely ruined.

Chu Jianghe had probably only carried one Drifting Rain Sword on him as well.

Selling off the remaining two pills and exchanging them for other cultivation resources would work perfectly well.

After carefully considering how to deal with the Qi-Bursting Pills, Kong Jiao climbed off the stone bed and slowly headed out of the cave.

It was already time for his appointment with Mu Tian.

He would go see just what opportunity awaited him in that spirit field.

"This opportunity is far more worthwhile than the Miscellaneous Books Pavilion. Five spirit crystals per trip."

Kong Jiao's money-grubbing mutter echoed through the cave.

The sky had not yet fully brightened.

Mu Tian, who had been a spirit farmer for twenty years, was already sitting beside the spirit field. He raised his sun-darkened face and stared blankly at the patch of wilted spirit rice, its leaves yellow and withered.

The nourishment of yesterday's heavy rain had not restored these spirit rice plants to glowing health.

The culprits were those black Marrow-Eating Locusts, each the size of a finger and sporting long, translucent wings.

They flew and hopped through the fields, clinging to the stalks of spirit rice and greedily sucking their sap.

At first, Mu Tian had tried to drive them away, even catching them one by one, but eventually he became numb to it.

Those Marrow-Eating Insects simply could not be driven away or killed off. Catching them individually could not possibly keep up with their breeding rate.

Mu Tian knew some spells as well, but he did not dare use them for fear of destroying the spirit rice along with the insects.

Just as he had told Kong Jiao yesterday, he had not even dared invite other disciples who cultivated ice-type techniques, because their killing aura was too heavy for the spirit rice to endure.

"I wonder whether Junior Brother Kong will come!" Mu Tian frowned deeply, pulling a strip of dried tobacco from his robes and taking uneven puffs from it.

When he had been young, he too had been a high-spirited outer sect disciple. Restricted by his talent and unable to break through for years, he had ultimately become a spirit farmer.

He had farmed land in the Cangwu Sect for a full twenty years.

This was all his life would amount to.

But a few years ago, his child had also been found to possess spirit apertures and would be sent to the Cangwu Sect for cultivation next year.

He had planned to retire and return home after finishing this year's work, to enjoy his remaining days in comfort. The spirit crystals he had earned over twenty years would all be left to his child.

Yet here he was, in his final year, and heaven had been so cruel as to leave him without a single grain to harvest.

The sect's punishment would certainly not be light.

Mu Tian's thoughts drifted farther and farther away.

He did not notice the morning light spilling down from the horizon, illuminating the increasingly close figure of a slender youth.

"Senior Brother Mu, I'm here!" The youth's clear voice rang through the fields.

Kong Jiao did not mind the mud in the spirit field. He stood right in the middle of it, bent down, and stared without blinking at a Marrow-Eating Insect clinging to a stalk of spirit rice.

The insect was utterly unaware of the approaching danger. It had inserted its mouthparts into the spirit rice and was savoring its sweet sap to its heart's content.

Kong Jiao reached out and pinched the Marrow-Eating Insect, which had ignored him completely, between two fingers. After examining it for a moment, he looked toward Mu Tian, who was following close behind him.

"Is this thing really that troublesome?"

Mu Tian sighed and nodded with a face full of gloom.

Kong Jiao asked no more. He silently stirred his spiritual power, sending it flowing toward the space between his fingers.

The Marrow-Eating Insect, which had been lively and wriggling, sensed the approaching danger and tried to spread its wings and fly away, but it could not break free from Kong Jiao's grip no matter what it did.

In the end, it was enveloped by the spiritual power of the Frostfall Wheel-Nourishing Scripture and became an insect corpse coated in white frost.

Crack! Kong Jiao exerted a little force with his two fingers and slowly crushed the Marrow-Eating Insect's corpse.

It did not move in the slightest.

Only after doing all this did Kong Jiao gain some confidence.

"There shouldn't be a problem!" Kong Jiao nodded toward Mu Tian behind him and made a cautious judgment.

Mu Tian's face lit up with wild delight as he said sincerely, "Then I'll have to trouble you, Junior Brother Kong."

With that, he hurriedly left the spirit field, leaving Kong Jiao alone.

Standing amid spirit rice that reached his waist, Kong Jiao gazed with narrow eyes over the field filled with Marrow-Eating Insects fluttering their wings and slowly drew in a breath.

Inhale! As the breath entered, his chest swelled.

At the same time, the spiritual qi within his dantian, used to nourish his spiritual wheel, began rushing swiftly through his meridians.

Unlike when he had broken the Scarlet Radiance Formation, this time he spent some time gathering power for the Frost Breath Technique.

When the breath in his chest and the spiritual power circulating through his body reached a certain threshold, he slightly opened his mouth.

Hoo!

A gentle cold breath spread from his mouth like mist.

The pale chill instantly enveloped Kong Jiao's entire body.

The standing water beneath the spirit rice at his feet was covered in a layer of frost at a visible rate.

From there, the frost rapidly spread across the spirit field.

Everywhere it passed, the Marrow-Eating Insects clinging to the spirit rice and sucking its sap naturally could not escape being engulfed by the chill.

Their dark insect bodies were, without exception, frozen onto the spirit rice by the cold air, turning into ice sculptures and extinguishing all life within them.

As for the spirit rice, it too was covered in frost.

Spirit rice differed from ordinary rice. It could withstand both cold and heat; only insects were its bane.

Moreover, Kong Jiao had deliberately controlled the Frost Breath Technique's power, intentionally reducing its lethality and converting it into coverage.

Thus, it did not damage the spirit rice at its roots.

Within a few breaths, most of the spirit field had already been shrouded in the mist of the Frost Breath Technique.

As the Frost Breath Technique continued, Kong Jiao, standing at the center of the chill, could clearly feel the spiritual power within his body being consumed at a terrifying speed.

This was his first time using the Frost Breath Technique over such a wide area.

"My cultivation is still too low." Kong Jiao muttered, but he did not interrupt the technique's release.

He exhaled another breath, desperately controlling his spiritual power as he maintained the Frost Breath Technique's spread.

Until the entire spirit field was enveloped by the Frost Breath Technique.

At the edge of the spirit field, Mu Tian anxiously looked toward Kong Jiao's figure at its center, obscured within a vast expanse of pale white that the naked eye could not penetrate.

"It has to succeed."

.