[Grade Jia Rating] [Reward: primordial origin first spirit (nine wisps)]
He had finally earned a Grade Jia Rating!
Looking at the result, Jiang Che was a little dazed.
He had thought he would have to grow strong enough to contend with Transforming Force before he could clear it. Who would have thought that a life-saving talisman alone would do the trick!
Earning a Grade Jia Rating essentially meant he had cleared this instance.
It seemed Jiang Che's earlier guess had been largely correct. An instance's rating depended primarily on how deeply he explored its story and how much he changed the fate of its central figures.
For this instance, that boiled down to keeping Liu Bingyuan alive.
Jiang Che did not like the man either, but for the sake of the instance rating, he had held his nose and done it.
As for the reward, it was actually the same thing he had received for his Grade Bing Rating: [Primordial origin first spirit].
The quantity, however, was vastly different.
A Grade Bing Rating had yielded only a single wisp, while a Grade Jia Rating gave him as many as nine.
[Primordial origin first spirit] was an exceptional cultivation resource. That earlier wisp of spirit essence had played an enormous role in helping Jiang Che enter the Dao in a single day.
Setting aside the direct descendants of great houses and the personal disciples of powerful masters, even ordinary members of major lineages would surely struggle to spend precious spirit essence on cultivation.
Moreover, Jiang Che had learned that ordinary spirit essence had elemental affinities to consider.
For example, Willow Source produced [river source spirit qi] and [forest ravine essence qi]. The former arose in the Willow River, while the latter could be found in the forests of North Luan Mountain. The former was water-aspected spirit essence, the latter wood-aspected. They worked best when used to aid techniques of the corresponding affinity, though they also benefited other techniques so long as their affinities did not clash.
But [primordial origin first spirit]... what was it?
He had no memory of anything like it and dared not ask around blindly. Even the book from Uncle Chuan's home that discussed all sorts of cultivation treasures made no mention of it.
Jiang Che might have lacked knowledge, but he was no fool.
Both of Jiang Che's techniques, Upper Azure Smoke Clouds and Azurefall Wind Dew, were wood-aspected. When he first entered the Dao, the [primordial origin first spirit] had stirred on its own, displaying a gentle wood affinity. Before that, however, the wisp of spirit essence sitting inside him had shown no sign of a wood affinity.
At the time, the [primordial origin first spirit] had clearly transformed into wood-aspected essence, then propelled Jiang Che into the Dao in a single day.
Could [primordial origin first spirit], which could freely transform into other affinities, possibly be anything ordinary?
Jiang Che even suspected that his current way of using [primordial origin first spirit] might amount to squandering a heavenly treasure.
Transforming it, using it to aid cultivation... those certainly could not be its best uses. If he could extract it, sell it, and exchange it for other cultivation resources, he could probably get far more in return.
Unfortunately, Jiang Che dared not do that.
The more precious and rare [primordial origin first spirit] was, the more suspicious it would be for a nobody like Jiang Che to produce it. He would draw unwanted attention far too easily.
At that thought, he essentially abandoned the idea of trading it for more resources.
Perhaps it would have other uses in the future, but he had to have a future first.
He would simply stick to using [primordial origin first spirit] freely to aid his subsequent cultivation.
Over half a month, Jiang Che consumed six wisps and made tremendous progress.
Though he had yet to reach Transforming Force, his internal qi had become much more enduring and stable. He did not seem like someone who had only just entered the Dao at all; he was nearly on par with Jiang Weichuan, who had spent years at Embryonic Breath.
That rate of progress was terrifying.
As for why he had saved three wisps, it was because Jiang Che had confirmed a theory after finishing this instance.
The [Blazing Fire Spirit Talisman] he had activated once inside the instance was still safely tucked against his chest, inside his clothing!
He had used the [Blazing Fire Spirit Talisman] in the instance for more than merely killing Liu Bingyi and securing a Grade Jia Rating.
He had wanted to conduct a test.
When traveling into a time fragment, Jiang Che could bring his belongings with him. His clothes and weapons all came along, and talismans were naturally included.
Other items aside, if he used a consumable in the instance, would its real-world counterpart be consumed as well?
Jiang Che had already suspected it would not. After all, he had died in the instance and been fine afterward; he had been disarmed and lost his weapon, yet his sword was still beside him when he returned; his clothes had been pierced and bloodstained when he died, but his real-world clothes had not been dirtied.
Based on that, it stood to reason that taking something he already possessed in reality into an instance and using it up would not affect the item's condition in the real world, did it not?
Once his test confirmed this, Jiang Che was quite excited.
It meant he would have plenty of room to maneuver in future instances!
Precious single-use talismans; techniques and spells that damaged the body or even endangered one's life; pills with severe side effects... things he dared not use lightly in the real world, whether because they were precious or because their cost was too steep, could all be used freely within time fragments!
He had saved three wisps of [primordial origin first spirit] for the same purpose.
Aside from consuming spirit essence during cultivation, there was another, even more wasteful way to use it: detonating it in battle. This would immediately fill the body with abundant, high-quality spiritual power, vastly enhancing all of a cultivator's attributes as well as the power of their spells and sword techniques.
No one would use precious spirit essence this way, but inside an instance, Jiang Che had no such reservations.
Both the single-use [Blazing Fire Spirit Talisman] and detonating [primordial origin first spirit] would greatly improve Jiang Che's combat strength inside instances, helping him conquer other time fragments in the future.
As for how to obtain other time fragments, Jiang Che already had a rough idea: he could visit places where particular major events had occurred and look for similar white lights.
At that thought, he began looking forward to his future journey to the Azure Mystic Sect.
The Azure Mystic Sect was a great sect with a thousand-year history. Who knew how many major events had taken place within its immortal grounds? Even the life or death of a lineage's young direct descendant forty years ago, in a tiny county like Willow Source, could become an instance. Surely the Azure Mystic Sect would have heaps of similar ones?
Hmm? No, that wasn't quite right.
Even now, Jiang Che had yet to understand the rules governing how instances formed.
Did certain events in history really become instances simply because they had happened? That could not be right, could it? Something on the scale of Liu Bingyuan's death barely qualified as significant within Willow Source's little patch of land. What did it amount to in the vast river of history?
Could that alone generate an instance?
Jiang Che felt there had to be other factors involved. Otherwise, should instances not be scattered everywhere?
Yet so far, Jiang Che had encountered only this one throughout all of Willow Source.
There had to be some other restriction.
He would have to find another instance before he could begin identifying and piecing together the conditions behind their formation.
And so, over a little more than half a month, Jiang Che ran the instance twice and made gratifying progress in his own cultivation.
Then the time came for Jiang Che to leave Willow Source.
Luo Wenling, the Main Gate disciple temporarily overseeing Willow Source's outer sect, sent someone with a message for the first time, telling Jiang Che to be ready tomorrow. Luo Wenling would be leaving Willow Source to return to the sect, and Jiang Che was to come along.
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