His Insights, My Advantage

Looking at the flickering floor tile before him, Jiang Che steadied himself, then stepped forward and touched it.

Scenes from his latest experience flashed across the tile, finally freezing at the moment he turned insubstantial and left.

[Grade Yi Rating]

[Reward: Cultivation Insights (Jiang Yunwei)]

Receiving a grade Yi rating was within his expectations.

Although he still had not changed the instance's ending, he had at least survived until it ended. This was the longest he had lasted in any of his four trips.

Moreover, he could safely say that he had uncovered most of this instance's secrets.

A grade Yi rating was hardly excessive.

But the reward was cultivation insights?

What could he do with those?

While he was still puzzling over it, a flood of information suddenly poured into his spiritual body.

It was somewhat like when he had obtained the Azure Heaven Wind Dew Embryonic Breath Method: knowledge and understanding appeared directly in his mind.

The difference was that this influx was rather jumbled.

After sorting through it a little, Jiang Che realized that these were the experiences Jiang Yunwei had accumulated over many years of cultivation.

Understanding one thing opened the way to others. Although these cultivation insights contained no specific cultivation method, the experience, understanding, and knowledge within them could all help Jiang Che practice his own cultivation method and sword art.

In particular, the more closely Jiang Che's cultivation method or sword art resembled Jiang Yunwei's, the greater the benefits would be.

The method Jiang Yunwei had cultivated was the Azure Heaven Wind Dew Embryonic Breath Method.

He had been a genuine mid Embryonic Breath cultivator, steeped in it for many years. From refining inner force to employing transforming force, all the understanding that should have been accumulated slowly, one painstaking step at a time, now poured into Jiang Che's mind.

Without question, it would be tremendously helpful when Jiang Che resumed cultivating. His efficiency would climb a whole major step above what it had been!

Even if he practiced Upper Azure Smoke Clouds rather than Azurefall Wind Dew, he would still benefit. After all, the two methods were very similar.

The sword art Jiang Yunwei practiced, however, was not the Azure Torrent Sword Art.

But that did not matter either. In many aspects of swordsmanship, grasping one principle opened the way to a hundred others. With Jiang Yunwei's insights, his progress in swordsmanship would also become faster.

Leaving the consciousness space and returning to the real world, Jiang Che immediately felt the difference.

Many questions and obstacles he had encountered while cultivating suddenly resolved themselves. Crucial points that had once required deliberate attention had now become instinctive.

This boost to his cultivation should last for quite some time. Only once he had fully absorbed these insights and surpassed Jiang Yunwei in cultivation and swordsmanship would they cease to help him.

This was first-rate stuff!

So far, all three things the instance had yielded had proved immensely useful!

Even if he could not reach a grade Jia rating for quite a while, simply earning grade Yi ratings consistently would still bring considerable rewards.

The only problem was that opportunities to enter were far too hard to come by.

To replenish them, he had to loot Embryonic Breath cultivators' corpses, and it took three to exchange for a single attempt. A bit of a pain.

But there was no need to think so far ahead. Simply using up his seven remaining attempts should yield tremendous benefits.

Over the next half month, Jiang Che kept his doors closed to visitors and devoted himself to cultivation.

Jiang Weichuan supplied his daily meals, so those posed no problem. As for the resources he needed for cultivation, however, he could forget about them. Spirit food, pills, treasures that aided cultivation... he had none of those!

Jiang Weichuan himself was only an outer disciple. After so many years of cultivation, he had only reached early Embryonic Breath and had long since abandoned any hope of further attainment in pursuing the Dao. He had never earned much money to begin with, and the savings he had accumulated over the years had all gone into worldly things such as houses, gold, fine food, fine wine, and beautiful women. He had no means of obtaining cultivation resources for Jiang Che.

Jiang Che did not insist.

In fact, even without additional resources, Jiang Che felt that he was progressing very quickly.

His talent was already good, and with the cultivation insights of a mid Embryonic Breath cultivator on top of that, his progress was naturally swift.

Besides, it was not as though he truly had no cultivation resources at all.

During that half month, he ran the instance twice more.

First, he tried advancing the story in a different way, but in the end, he still could not save Liu Bingyuan.

He took the risk of exploiting the fact that everyone wanted to kill Liu Bingyuan, yet none knew of the others' intentions. He hoped to use the battle at the cave entrance to engineer the deaths of everyone except Liu Bingyuan, but that attempt also failed.

Although he made no substantial new progress, he still managed to scrape a grade Yi rating by luck.

That time, his completion reward was the [Blazing Fire Spirit Talisman], which was essentially the secret technique attached to the [Copper-Flame Talisman Mirror].

However, the [Copper-Flame Talisman Mirror] was a treasure that could be used twice a day, replenish itself, and remain usable indefinitely. The [Blazing Fire Spirit Talisman], on the other hand, was a paper talisman-a single-use consumable. It could unleash one blast of scorching gang force with a range of thirty feet and power equivalent to a strike from a late Embryonic Breath cultivator at the "full aperture" stage.

With this item, Jiang Che finally had something that could save his life.

Against an enemy at the "full aperture" stage, this alone probably would not suffice. But against a mid Embryonic Breath enemy who had mastered transforming force, this one attack would be lethal.

Once he had it, a bold idea immediately occurred to Jiang Che.

He entered the instance for the sixth time.

The story progressed all the way to the battle at the cave entrance. He first helped kill the Jiang Brothers, then continued on with Liu Bingyuan and Liu Bingyi.

Judging that it was nearly time, Jiang Che kept watching Liu Bingyi. The moment he saw him make a suspicious move, he shouted, "Young master, watch out!"

At the same time, he rushed forward himself and blocked Liu Bingyi's surprise sword strike.

Liu Bingyuan spun around, furious. "You're a traitor too!"

Liu Bingyi's face darkened. He could not understand how Jiang Che had seen through his actions.

But things had already reached this point, and he had no way back. Ignoring Liu Bingyuan's furious curses entirely, he advanced with his sword, every move brimming with killing intent!

Jiang Che fought shoulder to shoulder with Liu Bingyuan, but they were no match at all for Liu Bingyi, who had mastered transforming force. They were completely overwhelmed.

It was just like when the two of them had fought Jiang Yunwei.

And the outcome of the battle was much the same.

Jiang Che suddenly retreated, leaving Liu Bingyuan to face their opponent alone.

At the same time, he activated the [Blazing Fire Spirit Talisman] tucked inside the lining of his clothes with all his might. A beam of searing golden light shot straight out and burned through Liu Bingyi's chest.

The transforming force expert fell, but Liu Bingyuan did not dare lower his guard in the slightest. He turned around, disbelief written all over his face.

"How do you have that?"

Jiang Che offered no explanation, merely urging him, "Young master, I just saved your life. Don't ask about anything else. Hurry up and leave. Who knows whether there are other dangers?"

Seeing that Liu Bingyuan still looked wary, Jiang Che added, "If I wanted to kill you, all I had to do was aim that blazing golden light at you. Even if you still have doubts, we can keep our distance as we leave. Surely that would put your fears to rest?"

"Then let's do as you say."

Keeping more than a hundred feet between them, the two headed north, away from Willow Source.

As dawn approached, the familiar sensation of being pulled away returned, and Jiang Che's latest journey through the instance came to an end.