The salty sea breeze, day after day, swept across Black Reef Island's jagged rocks and over Lin Feng's increasingly steady face.
Five full days had passed since his first hunt of the three Ironclad Crabs.
These five days, Lin Feng's life had become exceptionally regular and fulfilling. At dawn, as the first hint of fish-belly white appeared where the sea met the sky, he would quietly leave his simple stone house, like a hunter merging with the shadows of the reefs, and stealthily head towards the eastern area, where jagged rocks intertwined and waves roared.
He was no longer as reckless as he had been initially. Divine Power was precious, recovering only one point a day, so he dared not easily use the high-cost, one-hit-kill active skill of Zhanyao. More often, he relied on the natural suppression provided by Zhanyao's passive effect, combined with his increasingly skilled Treading Wave Step movement technique and Qingfeng Slash sword art.
“Entice!”
With a low shout, Lin Feng's figure moved agilely among the slippery reefs. The cracked wooden sword in his hand emitted a faint green glow, its edge wrapped in an almost imperceptible faint golden radiance, accurately piercing the relatively soft neck joint of a Reefback Turtle, which was the size of a millstone and had sharp spines on its back. The Reefback Turtle was slow but incredibly defensive, possessing the strength of a second-level Qi Condensation cultivator.
Pfft!
The sword edge bit three fen deep into the flesh, the dark golden light, which suppressed demonic energy, tearing through the tough hide. Foul demonic blood seeped out. The Reefback Turtle cried out in pain, letting out a muffled roar, and clumsily twisted its body, attempting to ram Lin Feng with its spiny carapace.
Lin Feng's footwork was as swift as the wind. With a nimble sidestep, he moved to the side, avoiding the impact. His eyes were sharp, and his breathing steady. The practical combat of the past few days had worn away most of his initial awkwardness and tension. He no longer sought a one-hit kill but instead used the terrain and speed to continuously create wounds on the Yao Beast, exhausting its physical strength and demonic power.
“Qingfeng Slash!” The sword wind rose again, this time targeting the slightly clumsy hind leg joint of the Reefback Turtle that had extended from its shell.
Puff! With its joint injured, the Reefback Turtle's movement faltered.
Now! A cold glint flashed in Lin Feng's eyes. The Spiritual Qi within his body circulated faster, and his figure suddenly lunged forward. The wooden sword transformed into a swift blur, thrusting fiercely into the Reefback Turtle's mouth, which had slightly opened due to pain and was its most vulnerable point of defense!
“Woo…” The Reefback Turtle let out a short, mournful cry, and its massive body crashed to the ground, its eight legs twitching a few times before falling still. A wisp of pure, pale green energy quickly escaped from the corpse and merged into Lin Feng's glabella.
A familiar, pure warm current, several times more potent than what he gained from his own arduous cultivation, surged into his Dantian and was quickly refined and absorbed by the Qi Induction Technique. Lin Feng let out a long breath, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, and felt the satisfying sensation of his Meridians' Spiritual Qi thickening by another thread. The Qi Sea in his Dantian churned, and it seemed only a thin, final barrier remained before the invisible threshold of the fifth level of Qi Condensation.
“Second-level Qi Condensation, replenishing about half a day of arduous cultivation… The efficiency is acceptable,” Lin Feng murmured to himself, his voice particularly clear in the empty reefs. He skillfully crouched down and began to process the Reefback Turtle’s corpse.
The giant pincers, the sharp spines of the carapace, the toughest parts of the turtle shell's edge, and a small piece of soft flesh near the turtle's heart containing faint Spiritual Qi… After several days, Lin Feng was no longer the clumsy novice who struggled with a crab carcass. Although he was not valued in his Family, he had done a lot of miscellaneous work processing low-level Yao Beast Materials, and his technique was clean and efficient. A dark dagger, carefully polished from the sharpest edge of an Ironclad Crab's shell, became his good helper for dissection.
Soon, a pile of valuable Materials was categorized and put into the half-worn Storage Pouch. In the corner, there were also several broken pincers of Ironclad Crabs, a few sharp fish scales, and a few barbed Yao fish bones… These were his “trophies” from the past few days.
Back in the stone house, Lin Feng did not rest immediately. He sat cross-legged on the stone bed, closing his eyes in contemplation. In his Sea of Consciousness, the three points of faint light representing Divine Power, two of them had already fully recovered, floating quietly like warm stars. The third point was dim and would not recover until tomorrow's dawn.
One point of Divine Power, ready to be used. Lin Feng's gaze fell upon the Qi-shrouded Rain Prayer fruit. This Divine Ability, which initially seemed the most useless, had always been a mystery in his heart. It was time to unveil it.
He got up and walked to the ten mu of grayish-yellow, withered spiritual fields behind the house. The spiritual rice in the fields was still sickly, its leaves curled and yellow, with a few black iron borers slowly crawling on them. Zhang Youtian and the others had been strictly forbidden by him from approaching this place. At this moment, the surroundings were silent, with only the rustling of the wind through the sparse rice leaves.
“Let’s give it a try.” Lin Feng took a deep breath, his consciousness sinking into his Sea of Consciousness, locking onto the Rain Prayer fruit.
Thought activated!
Divine Power -1!
The faint light representing Divine Power in his Sea of Consciousness instantly extinguished. A strange fluctuation, as if connecting with the water elemental power of heaven and earth, rippled out from him as the center, its range seemingly only covering these ten mu of spiritual fields.
There were no earth-shattering phenomena; the sky remained gloomy and gray. However, the moment Lin Feng's thought descended—
Whoosh!
A dense, vibrant cloud of green Qi, without any warning, condensed above the ten mu of spiritual fields! This cloud Qi was not water vapor; it was more like pure Wood Spiritual Qi and some kind of creation and vitality condensed together!
Immediately after, a strange “rain” fell.
It was not ordinary rainwater, but drops of spiritual liquid emitting a soft, verdant light, as if concentrated with the essence of plants and trees! They silently sprinkled down, precisely moistening every inch of the dry, barren grayish-yellow soil, nourishing every drooping spiritual rice plant, and even falling onto the black iron borers gnawing on the leaves.
A miracle unfolded in silence!
Lin Feng’s pupils suddenly contracted, his breathing instantly halted, as he watched everything before him in disbelief.
He saw that the spiritual rice, originally short and withered yellow, as if infused with endless vitality under the moistening of the green spiritual liquid! The leaves unfurled and stood erect at a speed visible to the naked eye, shedding their withered yellow and taking on a vibrant emerald green! The rice stalks grew taller section by section, becoming thick and tough! What was even more shocking was that the rice ears, which originally required slow growth and at least several more months to emerge, actually emerged from their leaf sheaths, bloomed, filled with grain, became plump, and finally bent down heavily in just a few breaths, like a fast-forwarded video! The plump grains gently swayed in the breeze, emitting a faint fragrance of spiritual rice!
And those black iron borers crawling on the leaves, after being hit by the green spiritual liquid, made a faint “sizzle” sound as if splashed with hot oil, quickly curling up, charring, and turning into insignificant dust!
In just half a cup of tea’s time!
The ten mu of spiritual fields transformed from a sickly, hopeless grayish-yellow into a vibrant, emerald green ocean with drooping rice ears and swirling Spiritual Qi! A thick, unresolvable fragrance of plants and trees permeated the air, refreshing the mind!
“This… this…” Lin Feng’s throat was dry, and his heart pounded, almost leaping out of his chest! The immense shock left him speechless for a moment. He had guessed that Rain Prayer might be beneficial to spiritual plants, but he never expected it to be such a Heaven-Defying—ripening ! And it was an immediate ripening that leaped across the growth cycle!
How was this Rain Prayer? This was clearly a Divine Ability of creation that turned stone into gold and decay into wonder!