Test Subjects and Spirit Stones
Liu Yi stared at the three terrified human traffickers and sneered.
"Your crimes are so monstrous that even slicing you to pieces would not be too much.
But today, I'll give you a chance to live."
"Do you want to know the meaning of life? Do you want to contribute to the pursuit of cultivation?"
"I have a Cultivation Method here. If you can cultivate it successfully, I'll let you go. Die or try it-choose for yourselves."
With that, he raised a hand and unsealed the three men's mute acupoints.
"We're willing to cultivate it!" The three traffickers nodded frantically, their voices full of fear and ingratiation.
"Good," Liu Yi said. He casually grabbed one of them and dragged him into the courtyard.
The Yang-Devouring Cultivation Method was a cultivation technique he had devised to absorb solar power.
He motioned for the trafficker to sit cross-legged on the ground, then placed both hands against his back and injected spiritual power into his body, guiding him to circulate the method along the Yang-Devouring Cultivation Method's route.
Before long, solar power surged toward the trafficker like a rising tide.
The man's face turned crimson in an instant. Wisps of white smoke rose from his skin, and the smell of burning quickly spread through the air.
With a heart-rending scream, his body erupted in raging flames and turned to ash in an instant.
Liu Yi stared at the ashes on the ground, thoughtfully rubbing his chin as he recorded the data he had just gathered, point by point.
Half an hour later, after working through deductions and calculations, the newly improved Sun-Swallowing Art 2.0 took shape in his mind.
He entered the room and pulled over another trafficker, who was trembling all over like a sieve. A cold smile curled his lips. "Your turn."
An hour passed, and the brand-new Sun-Swallowing Art 4.0 was ready.
Those three traffickers, who had committed all manner of evil, had not died in vain. Their lives had brought about an improvement to the Cultivation Method, so they could be said to have made a small contribution to the world's pursuit of cultivation.
Unfortunately, there had still been too few test subjects. If he had known, he would not have been in such a hurry to kill those twenty-odd traffickers back then. How nice it would have been to keep them all as test subjects.
But on second thought, there were other groups of traffickers in the city. He could capture them and have them continue contributing to the improvement of the Cultivation Method.
Three months passed in the blink of an eye. Liu Yi packed his bags, preparing to leave Yunping City and return to Liu Household Village.
During that time, he had relied on the Spirit Stone fragments Qian Duoduo gave him to break through to the Qi Refining Eleventh Layer, and his control over the Spacetime Realm had reached 3.2%.
He had also iterated the Yang-Devouring Cultivation Method up to its fiftieth version. Now, cultivating it no longer caused immediate spontaneous combustion.
And none of these results would have been possible without the contributions of the traffickers and evildoers he had captured.
It was by using them as test subjects that he had made such astonishing progress.
Now, throughout Yunping City, people were praising a great hero who punished evil and championed good.
It was said that this person killed only traffickers and evildoers guilty of countless crimes, leaving every lawbreaker in the city fearing for their own safety and afraid to do evil.
As public order improved, Liu Yi could no longer find suitable test subjects. With no other choice, he decided to leave Yunping City.
As he walked, the sounds of fighting and the clang of clashing weapons suddenly came from ahead.
He hesitated briefly, then used a lightness technique and approached as silently as a wildcat.
He parted the bushes beside the road and saw more than thirty savage-looking bandits brandishing broadswords as they surrounded and attacked a merchant caravan.
Looking more closely, he saw the unmistakable emblem of the Ten Thousand Prosperities Trading House on the caravan's wagons. It was a business belonging to Qian Duoduo's family.
He thought of how much Qian Duoduo had helped him before, and how he had relied on the Spirit Stones Qian Duoduo gave him to break through in his cultivation.
Liu Yi immediately felt this was a good chance to repay the favor, and these bandits would make perfect subjects for testing his new Cultivation Method.
His mind made up, he flashed forward and appeared before the bandit leader in an instant.
His self-created Five Elements Fist thundered out. Five Elements runes flowed over his fist, and the spiritual power of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth formed illusory images that shot straight for the bandit leader's face.
Before the bandit leader could even scream, he flew backward like a kite with its string cut and struck the ground with a muffled thud.
He died on the spot.
Liu Yi moved as fast as lightning, darting back and forth among the bandits.
In mere moments, the bandits lay sprawled across the ground, unable to resist.
Clad in a luxurious brocade robe, Qian Zhen stared at everything happening before him, his face full of shock.
It took him quite a while to recover. He hurried forward and cupped his fists in salute. "I am Qian Zhen of the Ten Thousand Prosperities Trading House. Thank you for your help, young hero."
Liu Yi waved a hand and said dismissively, "No need to thank me. I only helped you for Qian Duoduo's sake."
Hearing this, Qian Zhen's expression grew even more respectful. "I didn't expect you to know my cousin. I suppose you must be an immortal master as well."
Liu Yi nodded noncommittally and paid Qian Zhen no further attention. He walked over to the bandits who had yet to breathe their last.
He planned to use a poison he had made himself to control these bandits and make them his test subjects.
After feeding the poison to each of the bandits, he used his methods to bring them completely to heel.
He turned to Qian Zhen and said, "Take care of these corpses. I still have a use for the fifteen bandits who are alive."
With that, he turned and led the fifteen bandits toward their stronghold.
Qian Zhen hurriedly replied with respect, "Of course, young hero. I'll make sure it's taken care of."
With the bandits guiding him, Liu Yi reached the stronghold in little time.
The stronghold was a cave in a perilous location, easy to defend and difficult to attack.
But with his strength, none of that amounted to much.
It took him little effort to subdue the eighteen bandits remaining in the stronghold. After feeding them poison, he locked them in its cells.
"Now it's time to loot! Let's see what good stuff I can find."
He then began searching around the stronghold.
The ordinary bandits had only a few copper coins in their rooms, and even the leader's bedchamber held little more than some extra silver, gradually causing him to lose interest.
Just as he turned to leave, a half-hidden wooden chest under the bed caught his attention.
"Huh? Could there be treasure hidden in this chest?"
He walked over and opened the chest. Inside were stones as clear and lustrous as jade.
His pupils contracted and his breathing quickened. Shocked by the sight before him, his eyes widened, and he could not help crying out:
"Spirit Stones! How can there be so many Spirit Stones in this stronghold?"
His eyes gleamed as he examined them carefully. There were a hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones and twenty Mid-Grade Spirit Stones.
"I've struck it rich!"
Unable to conceal his excitement, he lowered his voice and laughed, clutching the Spirit Stones tightly in his hand, his eyes full of wild joy.
But he soon calmed down, his face full of puzzlement.
How could so many Spirit Stones be in this unremarkable little mountain stronghold?
Holding a Spirit Stone, he strode toward the cells.
When he arrived, he held up the Spirit Stone, stared at the bandits inside, and asked coldly, "Where did these stones come from? Tell me, and I'll leave you as the last one to be used as a test subject."
A bandit who looked like a minor leader trembled all over with fear and stammered:
"These... we dug these out of the cave at the very back of the stronghold.
We saw how shiny the stones were and thought we could sell them for money, so we kept them to sell later."
"Oh? Are there any left inside?" Liu Yi's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly pressed for an answer.
"No, none at all! We dug them all out!" the bandit said, shaking his head frantically.
After hearing him out, Liu Yi nodded thoughtfully and turned to leave.
No matter what, he had to take a look inside the cave. If there were still Spirit Stones there, he would have struck it big, and there would be great hope of reaching Foundation Establishment.