Jin Zhouheng stared at Jiang Hao without a word.
Instead, he sank briefly into his memories.
He could no longer leave this place alive. Perhaps he would truly never have another chance to think of Junior Sister Yun Ruo.
For a moment, scenes of Junior Sister Yun Ruo keeping him company and encouraging him flashed through his mind.
"Senior Brother Jin, if you beat this demon beast, I'll cook for you."
"How could nobody like you, Senior Brother Jin? I like you very much."
"Senior Brother, look. Do I look good in these sect robes?"
As he recalled these moments, a smile unconsciously touched Jin Zhouheng's lips. At that same instant, a streak of blade light swept past.
Whoosh!
The Silver Blade Light bloomed like moonlight, piercing through everything and extinguishing the candle flames before all fell still.
Even Jin Zhouheng's thoughts came to a halt.
Before his eyes, Jiang Hao slowly sheathed his saber.
"You..."
He could say no more.
His life was draining away at terrifying speed.
Clang!
Jiang Hao put away Half-Moon and looked calmly at the man before him.
"Let this be the end."
At those words, Jin Zhouheng's vision began to blur, and his entire body toppled backward.
With a thud, he hit the ground hard.
He saw sunlight shining down.
His final thought lingered on his junior sister smiling at him.
Let... this be the end.
Watching him fall, Jiang Hao breathed a sigh of relief.
He did not know whether Senior Sister Yun Ruo had truly treated this man well, but all the man remembered was her kindness.
True or false, it was all in the past now.
Jiang Hao was not heartless, but just as others wanted to live, so did he.
That was why he could never lay down the saber in his hand.
Only after following up with several Myriad Sword Talismans did Jiang Hao confirm that the man was truly dead.
He stood there for a long time. Reaching Golden Core felt unreal. In less than a year, he had gone from the early stage of Foundation Establishment to early Golden Core.
After calming himself, he went to find his master.
This time, he had used the strength of the middle stage of Foundation Establishment, and his saber technique had been Heavenly Saber First Form: Moon-Splitting Slash.
Everything had gone as expected.
Without the surprise attack, it would have been difficult.
A short while later.
Ku Wuchang stared at the Golden Core cultivator's corpse in silence for a long time.
Then he examined the fatal saber wound before turning toward Jiang Hao, his voice low.
"You killed him?"
"Yes." Jiang Hao nodded.
"You've reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment?" Ku Wuchang asked.
The cultivation Jiang Hao currently displayed was indeed the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. He nodded slightly.
"It was a fortuitous encounter in the Demon Grotto."
"And the saber technique?" Ku Wuchang asked again.
"An unnamed saber form I obtained in the Demon Grotto," Jiang Hao answered.
If his master wanted it, he could only write out the Heavenly Blade First Form.
That woman had never said he could not teach it to others. Fortunately, it was only the first form.
But he could not keep claiming fortuitous encounters like this, or his master would surely grow suspicious.
Fortunately, his master asked no further questions about it and merely had him explain what had happened.
He then gave a rough account.
He concealed almost nothing.
Except the matter of his cultivation.
"You weren't confident, so you chose a surprise attack anyway?" Ku Wuchang asked, staring at Jiang Hao.
Under his master's gaze, Jiang Hao nodded and answered, "Yes."
Afterward, Ku Wuchang took the corpse away and told Jiang Hao to be careful over the next few days. People from the Law Enforcement Hall would probably come looking for him again.
Seeing his master leave, Jiang Hao let out a breath.
He did feel some regret. If his master were willing to take him as a true disciple...
He would be much safer.
At least that person from the Heavenly Joy Pavilion would find it difficult to do anything to him.
For now, he could only rely on himself.
Returning to the courtyard, he looked at the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower and frowned slightly.
There were no bubbles.
Before the sun rose, he had assumed he needed to wait a little longer. But now the sun was fully up, and the bubbles still had not appeared.
What was going on?
Aside from this, there was another matter he was curious about.
Did his master know he was growing the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower in his courtyard?
A moment later, he gave up thinking about it. Unless he asked, it would be difficult to learn the answer.
The next day.
Jiang Hao looked at the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower in the courtyard, but still saw no bubbles.
On the third day, the bubbles appeared.
[Cultivation +1] [Qi-Blood +1]
"Has it changed to once every three days?"
Another three days passed.
Sure enough, he collected bubbles again.
That proved it had indeed changed to once every three days.
It was not just the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower. The interval between the Snow Lotus's blue bubbles had also grown longer.
Previously, they had appeared once every three days. Now, only green and white bubbles appeared after three days.
A blue bubble did not appear until the ninth day.
This...
Left Jiang Hao utterly astonished.
One month after reaching Golden Core.
Seeing that his cultivation and blood essence had both exceeded ten, Jiang Hao began extracting them to cultivate.
He wanted to see whether ten points now differed from ten points before.
After he extracted the cultivation, an immense surge of spiritual energy poured into his body, incomparably denser and more vast than the ten points he had absorbed in the past.
Not daring to dwell on it, Jiang Hao began consolidating his cultivation.
The Primordial Chaos Heart Scripture circulated, absorbing the spiritual energy and blood essence.
A long while later, Jiang Hao slowly opened his eyes.
By now, he had fully consolidated his cultivation and understood that the decrease in bubbles was related to his cultivation realm.
Previously, accumulating a hundred points had allowed him to advance directly. It was probably still the same now.
As long as he accumulated the full amount four times, he could attempt to reach the primordial spirit realm.
It was simply slower now.
But it was still much better than at the beginning.
Previously, it had taken him several years to accumulate the full amount once. Now, it would take a year at most. That was actually still very fast.
It was just that...
With a blade hanging over his head, failing to advance as quickly as possible always left him feeling in danger.
Coming into the courtyard, he looked at the Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flower and thought, If only I had three Heavenly Fragrance Dao Flowers.
But he could buy other spirit herbs to make up for it.
He just lacked spirit stones.
During this period, he had earned around five hundred from selling spirit talismans. Together with what he had before, he had a thousand in total.
A thousand seemed like a lot, but for a Golden Core cultivator, it was far too little.
Last time, he had looked at Golden Core-grade magical treasures. Even a passable saber cost eight thousand...
A good one cost ten or twenty thousand.
How long would he have to save?
Where did other Golden Core cultivators get their spirit stones?
When he went to the Spirit Medicine Garden today, he casually asked Cheng Chou, who tended the garden. Cheng Chou answered with just two words.
"Rob people."
So that was it.
"Oh, right. There's something I need your help with, Senior Brother." Cheng Chou pointed at the spirit field.
"Some spirit beast seems to have turned up in the field and keeps darting around. We can't catch it."
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