Geng Metal Finger Upgraded

Getting rid of pests was not an easy task.

They were aggressive as well. If driven into a corner, they would bite. Their tiny claws could tear flesh open, and some spirit insects even carried deadly venom within their bodies.

Therefore, when cultivators dealt with pests, they had to be careful, killing the spirit insects without alerting them.

Zhou Changwang planted his feet firmly, held his breath, controlled the spiritual power within his body, and gathered the spell.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

A full seven breaths later.

The spell took shape, and then he swiftly pointed forward!

Soundlessly, a streak of golden light flashed and vanished.

A green-armored beetle stiffened, then fell to the ground.

Geng Metal Finger +1

At the same time, a great deal of cultivation experience related to the Geng Metal Finger surfaced in Zhou Changwang's mind.

It was as though, in that instant, he had practiced the Geng Metal Finger hundreds or thousands of times.

Having experienced this before, he immediately understood.

The Geng Metal Finger had advanced.

It had gone directly from the beginner stage to the proficient level.

His gaze fell upon the attribute panel.

Sure enough, under the spells section, the designation behind Geng Metal Finger had changed from beginner to proficient.

Geng Metal Finger (Proficient 1/200).

It had leveled up.

Zhou Changwang clenched his fist, his heart surging with excitement.

It might only be a proficient-level spell.

But in truth, not many spirit farmers could cultivate the Geng Metal Finger to this level.

There was no other reason—the limitations of spiritual roots and comprehension.

Among them, spiritual roots referred to one's innate bone structure.

Yet not every spirit farmer possessed a metal spiritual root. Most who became spirit farmers had water, wood, or earth spiritual roots, and cultivated corresponding techniques such as the Water Spirit Formula, Evergreen Formula, and Thick Earth Formula... At most, they might possess other attributes such as metal or fire among their spiritual roots, but those were not their primary cultivation techniques and offered no corresponding enhancement or strengthening effects.

Thus, for an ordinary spirit farmer, reaching the beginner stage in the Geng Metal Finger was already quite good.

Not to mention needing sufficient comprehension to gain special insights into the spell and deepen their mastery without end.

Zhou Changwang's innate bone structure might not have been good, but he possessed all five elements, and they were relatively balanced. He cultivated the Five Elements Formula as well, with spiritual power containing multiple attributes, allowing him to learn spells of any attribute.

Of course, there was nothing particularly remarkable about his comprehension either. It was utterly ordinary; he was no genius.

But he had the attribute panel.

Every practice session allowed him to improve.

More importantly, he could ignore bottlenecks. As long as his experience points were full, he could naturally break through into the next spell realm, without worrying about his realm declining.

After all, whether practicing martial arts or cultivating immortality, there was a saying: skip practice for a day and your hands and feet grow sluggish; neglect diligence for a year and your realm regresses.

"These are the two traits of my attribute panel.

Heaven Rewards Diligence and One Proof, Eternal Proof!"

By now, Zhou Changwang had thoroughly uncovered the characteristics of his attribute panel.

However, though his spell realm had improved, he still forcibly resisted the urge to immediately cast the proficient-level Geng Metal Finger and test its power.

After all, spiritual power was precious and could not be wasted.

So, he carefully searched the spirit field again. Several minutes later, he finally discovered another spirit insect.

A Burrowing Cicada!

He was not sure whether this Burrowing Cicada was the one he had seen earlier, but after several encounters, he knew that Burrowing Cicadas were extremely vigilant. Though he had spotted it several times before, it had always escaped before he could cast his spell.

This time, having raised the Geng Metal Finger to the proficient level, he naturally wanted to try killing it.

Zhou Changwang cautiously approached, stopping only when he was more than a zhang away. Then he guided the spiritual power within his body, swiftly condensing it into one rune structure after another.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Perhaps because the spell had advanced, his casting speed was noticeably faster.

In merely five breaths, he completed all the rune structures, and the spell took shape.

Geng Metal Finger +1

At the same time, the Burrowing Cicada that had been chewing on the roots and stalks of spirit grain seemed to sense something. It immediately stopped moving and was about to burrow rapidly into the ground, when a flash of golden light pierced through its head. The remaining force did not diminish, plunging straight into the earth and leaving a small pit more than seven inches deep.

The Burrowing Cicada naturally dropped to the ground as well, its life extinguished.

"Success."

Delight appeared on Zhou Changwang's face.

He could not help marveling inwardly. The proficient-level Geng Metal Finger truly had extraordinary power.

Not only was its casting speed faster, decreasing from seven breaths to five, its power had also increased by more than double.

And most importantly, its casting range.

It had expanded from roughly one zhang to more than two zhang.

One could say that it had improved in every aspect.

"Besides, the spiritual power required to cast it does not seem to have increased by much—only a little, almost negligible.

I can even use the Geng Metal Finger in 'practice mode' to produce killing power comparable to the beginner-level 'casting mode.'"

Zhou Changwang quickly made another discovery, and was immediately overjoyed.

He knew full well what this meant.

First, it saved spiritual power.

Second, with the same total amount of spiritual power, the number of spirit insects he could kill would directly double.

"Ai, it really will not do to refuse to admit I am old.

This has worn me out..."

Old Xu rubbed his aching lower back and slowly walked over to Zhou Changwang. He plopped down onto the field ridge beside him. "Changwang, how was your haul today?

There are more and more spirit insects in these spirit fields.

If this keeps up, in a few days I will probably have to ask people from the Spirit Plant Hall to come clean them up."

"Not bad. Nine spirit insects."

Zhou Changwang answered without paying attention to his complaints.

He knew that all of this actually stemmed from the spirit insects in Xu Zhong's spirit field across the river.

Although the spirit plant masters from the Spirit Plant Hall had cleaned it up, Xu Zhong had only hired them for one day. The next day, he could not bear to spend spirit stones to hire them again.

Now, his spirit field had once again become a thriving scene of spirit insects everywhere. It was even affecting the growth of the spirit grain in his field. Many leaves had visibly begun to wither and yellow; a reduction in spirit rice yield was inevitable.

If it was not dealt with soon, he might even lose the entire harvest.

Their spirit fields were fairly close together, so it was perfectly normal for spirit insects to migrate over.

That was also why, despite clearing spirit insects every day, the number of insects in their spirit field continued to increase day by day.

"So many? Let me see."

Hearing this, Old Xu was somewhat shocked. He hurriedly rummaged through the cloth bag Zhou Changwang used to hold the spirit insects and peered inside. A startled look immediately appeared in his eyes. "There are even three Burrowing Cicadas?

These spirit insects are incredibly alert. Even I can only catch one occasionally. Most of the time, they escape before I can get close.

You have to cast a spell from at least one and a half zhang away for it to work against these things."

As he spoke, he seemed to recall something and hurriedly asked, "Changwang, your Geng Metal Finger, could it be..."