Heavenly Dao Talisman: Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talisman!

He had not told his younger brother about his true condition for acknowledging an owner. He knew his brother too well. If his brother found out, he would definitely hide it from him and charge into the secret realm, or use other means to earn Spirit Stones for him.

But his younger brother was naturally slow-witted, and his strength was average. How could he contend against people who treated deception and scheming as everyday fare?

Ever since he had fled while heavily injured, he had been afflicted with Bone-Eroding Poison and possessed no combat strength at all, only a few opportunistic tricks.

"..."

Scholar remained silent. Still sitting cross-legged where he was, he looked up at the clouds rolling and unfurling across the sky. He once had a few close friends; if he went to them and invoked his former standing, he might be able to borrow three thousand Spirit Stones.

But first, the risk was too great. He could not be sure whether those old friends would report him. The bounty on his head was not low.

Second—

He had once been Great Xia's foremost sword cultivator.

He had his own pride.

He was unwilling to let those who had once known him see him in such a bedraggled state.

If not for his younger brother, he would rather die standing than sit at the edge of Heaven-Question Market's cliff like a cripple and a piece of trash, being watched by passersby.

Haggling with the factions trying to recruit him.

"Enough."

Scholar glanced at his younger brother beside him, whose face was anxious as his mouth kept opening and closing without producing a single word. He said softly, "I have a plan. Don't worry."

His younger brother was somewhat slow-witted and had no concept of how much Spirit Stones were worth. He thought most people could easily pay the price he wanted, and that as long as someone crouched down to speak with him, he would acknowledge them as his owner.

But in reality—

Three thousand Spirit Stones was a sum that many factions within a hundred-mile radius could not afford.

Those who could afford it did not think highly of him.

Nor did he dare reveal that his teleportation range was two hundred miles. A Golden Core Realm cultivator proficient in movement techniques could fly a hundred miles in ten breaths at full speed, so a hundred miles was often considered the immediate striking range of Golden Core Realm cultivators.

More than two hundred miles meant he had already surpassed the immediate striking range of two Golden Core Realm cultivators.

The factions that would be drawn over then would be no small matter, and those factions knew him.

Even though he had changed his appearance, certain ingrained habits that could not be changed would always expose him, thereby dragging his younger brother into danger as well.

If he claimed ten thousand miles—

Then perhaps the Great Xia Imperial House itself would come.

Unfortunately, when he had fled heavily wounded that day, all his spiritual treasures and storage rings had been taken. Only this natal spiritual treasure that had accompanied him for so long remained. As his cultivation fell, it too had become an ordinary Yellow Grade, Middle Class spiritual treasure.

It was worth very little.

Back in those days—

When Azure Edge left its sheath, who did not know him in white?

Within three breaths, where under heaven could he not go?

How could those have been child's play? How could they have been empty words?

Yet now, all that glory of bygone days existed only in the little picture book he treasured in his arms. It had been drawn by a scholar who took him as its protagonist when his name had shaken the world, recording all his mighty deeds.

Its title was "White-Clad Sword Cultivator."

What it recorded was not his whole life, yet it was his life, brief as an epiphyllum bloom.

Meanwhile, Chen Qiu at the bottom of the gorge kept striking the ground with his blade, drawing the attention of the Human-Faced Spiders within the stone caves. The caves in the cliff face were exceedingly cramped; he could not possibly crawl inside to fight, as that would be extremely disadvantageous to him.

Very soon—

Countless pairs of pale blue eyes slowly appeared at the openings of the stone caves along the cliff face. Before long, the first Human-Faced Spider crawled out and climbed onto a transparent web suspended in the air.

Its eyes stared fixedly at him, its eyeballs constantly rolling.

It looked utterly creepy.

The spider was a full three feet wide, with the face of an infant embedded in its head. It continually let out cries like a wailing baby that drifted wildly through the depths of the gorge, as though driving them away.

Then the second and third Human-Faced Spiders crawled out as well.

Only then did Chen Qiu discover that transparent spiderwebs covered the area around the stone caves in the cliff face. Even under the sunlight, they were nearly impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.

"Hu."

Chen Qiu slowly drew a breath and waved his right hand, releasing every Wraith he had stored away. In an instant, the surroundings turned chilly. Ten Sixth Level of the Qi Refining Realm Wraiths, one Eighth Level of the Qi Refining Realm Wraith, and the Wraiths of the demon beasts he had killed in Heaven-Question Market all charged toward the stone caves at once!

They wildly destroyed the webs and provoked the Human-Faced Spiders.

These Human-Faced Spiders were not low in cultivation, and they loved to swarm their enemies. He did not dare let down his guard in the slightest.

"Vengeful Spirit Summoning" was merely a Green Trait, yet it was extraordinarily useful. Creatures killed by his Wraiths could likewise be transformed into his Wraiths. He had no idea why such a useful trait was only a Green Trait.

He felt it should at least have been Yellow Trait.

But he had no time to think about that now.

Provoked by the Wraiths, the Human-Faced Spiders let out shrieks like crying infants and charged straight at them.

"Good timing."

Chen Qiu gripped Huang Shikai by the collar with his left hand and held his saber in his right, bending his knees slightly. When the first Human-Faced Spider rushed before him, he suddenly gave a low shout and used Huang Shikai to block the spider as it pounced through the air, then slashed out with his saber!

With that single strike, the Human-Faced Spider was severely wounded and fell to the ground.

He stepped forward once more and delivered another slash. Streams of white light floated from the Human-Faced Spider's corpse and entered his body. Before he could celebrate this small harvest, even more Human-Faced Spiders had already come shrieking toward him.

"Die!"

Just as Chen Qiu, covered in blood, killed another Human-Faced Spider rushing at him, he instinctively swept his gaze around with his saber in hand, searching for his next target. Yet—

There was no longer a single living creature standing in the entire gorge apart from him.

Human-Faced Spider corpses littered the ground beneath his feet, their scarlet blood splashed throughout the depths of the gorge.

Fat Dragon had collapsed limply to one side, gasping for breath. For him, the intensity of this battle had been downright absurd. Neither of them had suffered much injury; Huang Shikai was extremely useful, and nearly all the blood on their bodies came from the Human-Faced Spiders.

And just as he killed this final Human-Faced Spider—

He suddenly felt a warm current surge through his body. Looking inward with a stir in his heart, he saw another panel shrouded in mist emerge above his dantian.

"Cultivation greatly increased. Officially entered the Eighth Level of the Qi Refining Realm."

"Please choose one of the three random traits below within ten breaths."

1:

"Trait Name": Every Blade of Grass and Every Tree.

"Trait Grade": White Trait.

"Trait Effect": Each time you break through a minor realm, you may obtain three Spirit Stones.

2:

"Trait Name": Start Over.

"Trait Grade": White Trait.

"Trait Effect": The quality of your Foundation Establishment will increase slightly. Each time Foundation Establishment fails, your cultivation realm will fall to the First Level of the Qi Refining Realm.

3:

"Trait Name": Never Lose Heart.

"Trait Grade": White Trait.

"Trait Effect": When your Foundation Establishment fails and your cultivation falls, the cultivation progress gained from killing demon beasts within the Qi Refining Realm will increase a hundredfold.

"..."

Chen Qiu looked at the three traits that had appeared before him. His mouth could not help opening slightly, a trace of anguish flashing through his eyes as his expression twisted. The veins on his right hand, which clutched the saber, bulged violently.

Taken individually, each of these three White Traits was fairly ordinary.

They were the sort that had some use, but not much use.

For mortals with no great aspirations toward cultivation, the first trait was absolutely comparable to a Rainbow Trait. The three Spirit Stones gained every time they broke through a minor realm would be enough to let a mortal live a prosperous life.

The second trait could only slightly increase the quality of Foundation Establishment, but if Foundation Establishment failed, one would have to start over from the First Level of the Qi Refining Realm.

As for the third trait, it was practically better than nothing. Even if Foundation Establishment failed, one's cultivation would only fall to the Early Ninth Level of the Qi Refining Realm, just a step away from Great Perfection. Even if the cultivation progress gained from killing demon beasts became a hundred times faster during that period, it would at most save a few days before returning to Qi Refining Great Perfection and preparing for Foundation Establishment again.

But—

If he could possess all three traits at once, then with just a bit of starting capital, it was simply too incredible to imagine!

As long as he had enough time, and if there was no limit on the number of Foundation Establishment attempts, the Spirit Stones he produced daily might exceed even what a Spirit Stone mine yielded!

If he could receive traits again after breaking through anew following a cultivation drop, then he would truly soar into the heavens. But just thinking about it, he could roughly guess that was unrealistic.

But why?!

Why could he only choose one out of three traits? Why could he not take them all?!

He did not make a choice within the ten breaths. Instead, with a pained expression, he turned his head and looked at Fat Dragon with a final trace of hope. "Fat Dragon, is there any heavenly treasure that can let someone choose traits they previously discarded?"

In this world, everyone received their first trait at the First Level of the Qi Refining Realm without any chance to choose. Whatever they were given was what they used; if their luck was bad, they could only accept their misfortune.

After the Foundation Establishment Realm, however, every major realm breakthrough gave them a choice of one out of three traits.

That gave cultivators enough room to choose and assemble the trait combination most suitable for themselves.

"I think there is."

Although Fat Dragon did not understand why Chen Qiu suddenly looked like this, he quickly frowned in thought before answering, "There definitely is. I saw it on the list of auction items at an auction in Heaven-Question Market. There's a type of talisman that can only be produced in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm, called the 'Heavenly Dao Retrospection Talisman.'"

"It allows cultivators to choose traits they previously discarded."

"But its price is not low. Nothing that comes out of the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm is cheap, and it can only select traits discarded during the most recent one-out-of-three choice."

"For example, if you are a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, then after using this item, you can only choose from the two remaining traits you discarded when breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm. You cannot choose traits discarded when breaking through to the Golden Core Realm."

"If, after breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, you encountered another opportunity during that period and gained another one-out-of-three trait selection, then you could not even choose the two traits discarded during your Nascent Soul Realm breakthrough. You could only select traits discarded in the most recent one-out-of-three choice."

"As for below Foundation Establishment—"

"The Qi Refining Realm has no one-out-of-three choices at all. You use whatever you get."

"At most, you can choose one discarded trait at a time. If you want both discarded traits, then you have to buy two."

"What's wrong?"

Fat Dragon looked at Chen Qiu in confusion. "Brother Chen Qiu, why are you suddenly asking about this?"