As stories told, this planet was rich in natural energy in ancient times. Even the vegetation was so energized that Golden Crows who fed on them had refined bodies upon birth, and would easily reach the third or fourth rank with minimal training.
At the moment, however, Su Ping had quite a big problem with the beginning of his study.
This world was currently so full of humans who sought to cultivate their bodies that all available herbs and medicines helpful for body forging were almost exhausted. Since the natural energy in the environment also underwent a decrease as time went by, people had to find materials from newly-discovered space fractures.
Luckily for Su Ping, there were some valuable elixirs and similar things he could use in the settlers’ base. By spending all of his remaining merit points, he purchased several mid to low rank ones.
Wonder how these will work out…
Since he still had to wait for his items to be delivered, he planned to spend a few days in the shop to train his augmentation skills first. Still, the workers in the base were faster than he expected. On the second day after he placed his order, a team consisting of eight uniformed guards and a settler reached his shop in a large black van that looked more fortified than armored vehicles used by banks.
It seemed this settler had decided to retire and become a deliveryman instead of risking his life day and night in expeditions.
“Greetings, sir. This is what you requested yesterday. ‘Millennium Wyrm Weed’, ‘Godfire Cypress’…”
The old settler carried several secured coffers made out of special alloys into his shop. Su Ping simply needed to enter the password he learned when shopping to open them. Anyone else who attempted to break the coffers open would only destroy the contents instead.
Su Ping picked a random one and checked the rich energy leaking through the opened lid, before he sent the workers away.
Meanwhile, the owners of shops nearby and some pedestrians all curiously looked Su Ping’s way.
“Look at that. Those guys are from the federal government, aren’t they?”
“Here to close the bastard down, I wonder? Serves him right. Not even the feds can stand this scammer.”
“Yeah. I went there once. Man those are some crazy prices, I tell you. Thank god I got away before he forced me to buy stuff.”
“Seriously? That’s so lame.”
Su Ping accidentally heard those words and couldn’t help shaking his head in embarrassment. For the moment, he did need to close the shop since he needed time to look at the medicines.
“See that? He went out of business.”
“That’s what happens to a loser like him!”
“Let’s just get out of here.”
…
Meanwhile, Su Ping went inside the pet room, closed the door, and began looking through all four coffers. As soon as he unlocked all of them, Little Skeleton, who had been resting in a nursing pen, woke up upon sensing the overwhelming energy that filled the room.
The first merchandise was a handful of Millennium Wyrm Weed recovered from a new space fracture. This particular plant, tagged “120,000 merit points”, was said to contain the condensed life aura left behind by powerful dragons.
Su Ping took a moment and noticed that the energy was not astral power, but spiritual power. This was just what he needed to train on Solar Bulwark. The nursing pens in the pet room were supposed to be built out of spirit stones which could slowly enhance the bodies of pets. Su Ping was going to overhaul himself by directly consuming items full of spiritual power.
Following the instructions he remembered, he slowly compressed his astral power and used it to wrap up the weed, before grounding the material into fine powder so he could absorb the spiritual energy.
From this point on, he could keep the spiritual energy inside him and start using it bit by bit. It sounded simple but was actually a taxing job for him. Unlike Golden Crows, he couldn’t directly digest the spiritual power as if having a meal.
Under his control, the spiritual power entered all the astral power vortices all over his body and enlarged them, while enhancing his body cells at the same time.
Half an hour later, Su Ping opened his eyes and saw the weed had turned into a pile of spent ash. His entire body was covered in a thick film of black substance that reeked badly.
“Ughhh. Guess this stuff is what was washed off from the inside, right?”
He quickly went into the bathroom to deal with the new hygienic problem. And it felt good! He felt lighter and more vigorous than ever after that.
His skin looked tender. Some of the random scars from bug bites had vanished.
“Ah… I’m looking a whole lot cooler!” He felt rather satisfied when looking at his reflection in a mirror. His then better eyesight and hearing suggested that the merit points had been well spent.
Not wasting any time, he opened the second coffer and immediately continued.
The second item was weaker compared to the wyrm weed. Copying what he did before, he soon finished consuming it. Also like the previous time, more black filth was filtered out of his body.
He just found another problem—both sets of outfits he took that day required cleaning. He had nothing to wear.
Helpless, he did some quick work washing his clothes and hanging them to dry, before he went on to use the third item bare-bodied.
It was a piece of bright-red log this time which was hot to the touch. The energy he absorbed also felt like burning which caused him to shudder all of a sudden. At the end of his work, he felt his entire body was getting hotter.
It wasn’t bad though, the warmth made him feel relaxed. Moreover, there was less black stuff seeping out as the fiery energy helped cleanse it.
It took him another hour to empty all four coffers. After that, only remains of the medicine were left on the floor.
Despite being a shut-in who barely worked out, he began to look somewhat muscular. The brawns on his arms and his chest appeared pretty outstanding, giving him a sports boy look.
“Ha…” He breathed deeply and felt the new strength he had just gained. He felt like a superman who could easily jump onto roofs or dash across insane distances in the blink of an eye.
Still, he could tell he was pretty far from achieving the first rank of Solar Bulwark. He was about 60% there, at most. Though what he did that day had already displayed the method’s potential. By fortifying his body with astral power, he would be invulnerable against common swords and knives, unless it was someone good who could use really expensive blades that could still harm him.
Su Ping inspected his skin and concluded, “This should be enough to withstand the attack of a fourth-rank opponent.”
While traveling and dying inside the Chaotic Realm of the Undead, he learned the different extents of monster attacks so he was pretty good at estimating his defense.
Human bodies were generally weaker compared to Astral Pets of the same rank, since the latter usually had thick fur or scales as protection. Without careful preparation, even a titled battle pet warrior could get killed by a stray bullet in the head. Although such things did not happen often because someone experienced as titled battle pet warriors all knew how to keep themselves secured twenty-four seven. Even when sleeping, they’d constantly cover their bodies with astral power.