The cultivation realms Wang Hao knew of in the Primordial World were divided into three levels: Heaven, Earth, and Mortal. Certain divine weapons and sharp blades also corresponded to these cultivation realms.
Treasure Artifacts corresponded to the Heaven Realm, Law Artifacts to the Earth Realm, and Spirit Artifacts to the Mortal Realm.
He knew only the names of Law Artifacts and Treasure Artifacts. He had no idea what they were actually like or what powers they possessed.
He did, however, understand the lowest grade, Spirit Artifacts. The "spirit" in Spirit Artifact referred to a kind of spirituality, and the spirituality of such weapons and objects could arise in two ways.
The first was to forge weapons and objects directly from ores and spiritual materials that already possessed a degree of spirituality, transforming their original spirituality into that of the finished objects. This was also known as Innate Spirituality.
Since there was Innate Spirituality, there was naturally Acquired Spirituality as well!
The second was spirituality born from an inanimate object after its creation. A finished weapon or object could be stored in a certain treasured place, allowing heaven and earth to nurture the spirituality within it, or its owner could continually nurture it personally until spirituality was born.
Spirituality nurtured from an inanimate object after its creation, whether through human effort or with the help of heaven and earth, was known as Acquired Spirituality.
In terms of power alone, neither Innate Spirituality nor Acquired Spirituality was stronger than the other. Innate Spirituality, however, had greater potential for growth and was also a prerequisite for a Spirit Artifact to advance into a Law Artifact.
Of course, under certain special conditions, Acquired Spirituality could also be transformed into Innate Spirituality. Although doing so was extremely difficult, there was at least a possibility.
But whether Innate Spirituality or Acquired Spirituality, both were immensely precious. They might not amount to much in a mythical world like the Primordial Wilderness, but in a low-martial world like The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, they were absolute treasures.
"Uncle, do you think I'd joke about something like this?"
Inside the system space, Xiao Mengmeng puckered her little mouth in displeasure. Clearly, Wang Hao's doubt had made her angry.
"Don't be angry. I was just too excited. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have doubted our honest, adorable little Xiao Mengmeng!"
Hearing the little loli's displeasure, Wang Hao hurriedly apologized, though his eyes remained fixed on the treasured sword in the courtyard.
I probably can't just take it. After all, that big shot Dugu Qiubai must be watching from the shadows right now. I need an excuse.
After a moment's thought, Wang Hao came up with a plan. He walked over and picked up the sword, gently stroking its sheath as though he were facing a lover. In a tender whisper, he said, "This sword's malice is too heavy. It isn't suitable for you, miss. Oh well, I'll take it with me. Whenever I see it, I'll think of you."
With that, Wang Hao didn't linger. He hurried out of the courtyard and strode toward the entrance to the town.
This hideout of their assassin organization was situated in a secluded corner of town, with hardly anyone around. Thus, even though a brutal battle had just taken place inside, it hadn't alerted anyone else in town.
A little while after Wang Hao left, the old man emerged from a corner of the courtyard. Looking toward the main gate, he murmured to himself in puzzlement.
"Too much malice? Is there such a thing? Come to think of it, the sword Dao notes left by my ancestor seemed to record that the Crape Myrtle Soft Sword accidentally wounded a righteous man. My ancestor considered it inauspicious and abandoned it in a deep valley. Could Grandfather have been wrong to retrieve it all those years ago?"
Gently stroking his long, snow-white beard, the old man-no, the Dugu Qiubai of this generation-was filled with doubt.
Dugu Qiubai had originally been just one person's name. But as later generations of the Dugu Lineage cultivated Dugu Qiubai's sword Dao inheritance, they adopted it as a title, a spiritual symbol passed down from generation to generation.
He was already the eighth generation!
With that thought, Dugu Qiubai abandoned the idea of retrieving the Crape Myrtle Soft Sword.
Although the Crape Myrtle Soft Sword was a relic of their ancestor, he had abandoned it long ago. Perhaps his descendants should never have retrieved it in the first place. Letting that lad take it away was a decent choice.
Besides...
At that thought, Dugu Qiubai looked toward his precious disciple, who had emerged from a room nearby on unsteady feet. Forget it. Let the younger generation settle their own affairs. This old man has no mind to interfere!
"Thank you for saving my life and granting me medicine, Master!"
The moment Dongfang Bai saw her master standing in the courtyard, inspiration flashed through her mind and her earlier doubts were immediately resolved. She hurriedly thanked him.
She wasn't very surprised to find her master here. After all, he had known she was coming to seek revenge, and secretly following her to stand guard was very much in keeping with his nature.
Now her internal injuries had healed, the poison had been expelled from her body, and a great deal of medicinal power had accumulated inside her. Clearly, her master had brought out some precious spiritual pill to save her.
"..."
Standing in the courtyard, Dugu Qiubai was utterly dumbfounded. But he quickly recovered, stroked his long beard, and smiled. "As your master, it was my duty to save you. Now, quickly sit down and circulate your cultivation. Refine the medicinal power in your body into internal force as soon as possible, so it doesn't go to waste."
"Yes, Master!"
Dongfang Bai obeyed, immediately sitting cross-legged and circulating her cultivation to refine the medicinal power within her.
Lad, you took the Crape Myrtle Soft Sword this old man bestowed, so I'll steal the credit for this and call us even!
Watching his disciple cultivate, Dugu Qiubai chuckled inwardly. His displeasure at Wang Hao taking the Crape Myrtle Soft Sword immediately eased considerably.
Still, he rather admired Wang Hao's resolve. That had been Shaolin Temple's supreme sacred medicine, the Great Rejuvenation Pill, capable of bringing the dead back to life and putting flesh on bare bones.
It could also increase a cultivator's internal force by sixty years without side effects, cleanse their meridians and marrow, improve their aptitude, and give them a body immune to all poisons. Besides that, it had many other wondrous uses.
Even Shaolin Temple, hailed as the foremost sect under heaven, had little of such a supreme sacred medicine in stock. Over the course of its inheritance, it had even lost the Pill Formula. In several hundred years, it had managed to develop only the Small Return Pill, which was countless times weaker.
Every Great Rejuvenation Pill used now was one fewer left in the world. Shaolin Temple probably had no more than three remaining.
In terms of value, one was far more precious than a Crape Myrtle Soft Sword. Yet that lad had been willing to give it to his disciple. Now that was true love!
Wang Hao had no idea that an old fellow who showed no respect for his age had stolen his credit. If he had known, he would surely have spat out a mouthful of old blood in anger.
After leaving the hideout, he found an ox cart and quickly departed the small town, heading for the nearest city, Chaoyang City.
As for a high-class conveyance like a horse carriage...
Sorry, this was just a remote little town. It had no such luxury.
He absolutely couldn't stay in town. He couldn't guarantee that Dongfang Bai wouldn't come after him again once she woke up. It was best to get far away from that place.
"Ding-dong! The host assisted the heroine of the era, Dongfang Bai, in breaking through to Peak Super-First-Rate and greatly increasing her potential. Reward: two hundred Fortune Points. After deducting the hundred points owed for the previous treasure search, the host has one hundred Fortune Points remaining."
While Wang Hao was sitting in the carriage on the road, Xiao Mengmeng's mischievous voice suddenly rang out in his mind. Clearly, the little loli was deliberately imitating the sound.
He didn't know whether it was his imagination, but Wang Hao felt that the little girl's voice seemed a little fuller than before.
Without dwelling on it, Wang Hao recalled the contents of the notification and grew excited.
He had actually obtained Fortune Points, two hundred of them at once.
Suppressing his excitement, he hurriedly pulled up his status panel.
Host: Wang Hao Cultivation: Mortal Realm First Layer Spirit: unawakened Soul: unawakened Corporeal soul: unawakened Mind: unawakened Qi: unawakened Essence: Mortal Realm First Layer (1/100) Fortune Points: 100
"Sure enough, I have a hundred Fortune Points!"
Wang Hao's gaze immediately turned to the last line of the status panel. Sure enough, the zero after Fortune Points had changed to one hundred. Xiao Mengmeng had presumably deducted the other hundred directly as payment for his earlier use of the Treasure-Seeking Function.
No, to be precise, he should have received four hundred Fortune Points this time. Xiao Mengmeng had directly deducted half as the fee they had agreed on before he transmigrated for changing the person he possessed. She hadn't mentioned that portion, giving a notification only for the two hundred Fortune Points remaining after the deduction.
"Mengmeng, if I spent all hundred Fortune Points activating the Dao Comprehension Function, how high would my comprehension reach?"
He had already experienced the system's Treasure-Seeking Function. Now only the Dao Comprehension Function, which increased comprehension to assist cultivation, remained.
"The Dao Comprehension Function raises your comprehension to the level you would have after advancing one major realm from your current cultivation, Uncle. Taking your present cultivation as an example, if you spent all hundred Fortune Points activating it, you could gain the comprehension of an Earth Realm First Layer Heaven expert for roughly a hundred seconds."
Xiao Mengmeng responded quickly, but Wang Hao was somewhat dissatisfied with her answer.
"A hundred seconds! Isn't that too short?"
A hundred seconds sounded long, but it was less than two minutes. What could he do in two minutes?
He had earned that reward by giving Miss Dongfang a Great Rejuvenation Pill, helping her cultivation reach Peak Super-First-Rate and greatly increasing her potential. Yet all he got was such a paltry effect.
What a rip-off!
Xiao Mengmeng said disdainfully, "Don't measure the system's mighty power with your ignorance. Take Zhang Sanfeng for comparison. In concrete terms, the Zhang Sanfeng of this world has comprehension at only about the Mortal Realm Sixth Layer, yet even that made him a grandmaster of his generation.
"And the higher the cultivation realm, the greater the increase in comprehension. The standard comprehension of an Earth Realm First Layer expert is over ten thousand times that of the Mortal Realm Sixth Layer.
"That's more than ten thousand times the comprehension of this world's Zhang Sanfeng. What do you have to complain about?"
"Uh! That's how it works? I can accept that."
Wang Hao was taken aback, then nodded to show that he accepted the explanation.
He didn't know what Zhang Sanfeng's comprehension had been like in real history, but the Zhang Sanfeng in Old Master Jin's writings was quite remarkable, a figure who could stand alongside Shaolin Temple's Patriarch Damo.
He had single-handedly founded the Wudang lineage, which stood on equal footing with Shaolin Temple. In the martial world today, there was even a saying: Shaolin in the south, Wudang in the north.
That showed just how dazzlingly talented he was. If Wang Hao could gain comprehension more than ten thousand times greater than Zhang Sanfeng's, even for a mere hundred seconds, it would be incredibly useful.
Moreover, his cultivation could continue to rise. Once he reached the Mortal Realm Second Layer or even the Mortal Realm Third Layer, the increase in comprehension would rise accordingly.
Besides, he could obtain more fortune, allowing him to extend the Dao Comprehension Function's duration.
So the Dao Comprehension Function really was quite heaven-defying.
Once he found a way to obtain some martial arts manuals in this world, he would immediately use the function to assist his cultivation. He would surely grow stronger quickly.
"Mengmeng, why did I get Fortune Points after helping Dongfang Bai increase her cultivation and potential? Is that how the system obtains Fortune Points?"
After considering this function of the system, Wang Hao turned his attention to the source of the Fortune Points he had just received.
Xiao Mengmeng's earlier notification had said that he received Fortune Points because Dongfang Bai's cultivation had risen to Peak Super-First-Rate.
"Yes. The system's first designated target is the heroine with the greatest fortune in this world. Such a person is also called the protagonist of the era. The world itself consumes origin energy and bestows it upon the heroine in the form of fortune, helping her grow to the limit this world can accommodate.
"The fortune allocated for the protagonist's growth was determined long ago and is fixed. By giving her the Great Rejuvenation Pill to increase her cultivation, Uncle, you saved the world a portion of that fortune.
"The system then intercepted that portion through the close karmic connection between you and the heroine."
Xiao Mengmeng explained in great detail. After all, this concerned Wang Hao's future path of development, so she couldn't be careless.
"That girl is the protagonist of the era?"
Wang Hao was startled at first, then seemed to understand something and nodded in realization.
"That's right. Miss Dongfang Bai was the most popular character in Yu Ma's version of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, and this world was constructed from that version. She really could be called the protagonist."
"You're wrong about that, Uncle!"
As soon as Wang Hao finished speaking, Xiao Mengmeng's voice rang out.