Chapter 43: Advancing To Medial Grade Martial Disciple
He could guess that his Sword Spirit that appeared out of nowhere was not as simple as she claimed to be. From her attitude, it was clear that she was not completely honest with Xiao Chen.
Also, no matter how much he called out for her, she refused to come out. Xiao Chen could only suppress the confusion in his heart. At that moment, the infant Spirit Fox came running and bounding out of the cave, going back into the Spirit Blood Jade.
Xiao Chen cast his gaze into the cave, sending his Spiritual Sense into it. He saw the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox trying to get up. It should be getting ready to leave the cave soon.
Quickly withdrawing his Spiritual Sense, Xiao Chen used the Gravity Spell and flew away. After a long period of time, he searched for a huge tree and landed right on top of it. Sitting there, cross-legged, he calmed himself down.
After swallowing an Essence Nurturing Pill, Xiao Chen calmly cultivated at the top of this huge tree. He had already broken through to the 2nd layer of the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation. The Purple Thunder Divine Incantation circulated in his body faster than it had ever done before. The surrounding Spiritual Energy frantically rushed into Xiao Chen’s body.
The thick Spiritual Energy became very dense in his body as he slowly circulated it in his meridians. After it completed a cycle, it entered into his Dantian. Under the effects of the Essence Nurturing Pill, the amount of Spiritual Energy he received after just one cycle was at least double of what most regular Martial Disciples would get.
The Azure Dragon, that was surrounded by white clouds, happily absorbed the large amount of Spiritual Energy into its body. Immediately, it was possible to see the three white clouds surrounding it becoming even more saturated, its color turning even closer to a pure white.
“Hu!”
The Azure Dragon Martial Spirit spat out a stream of pure Essence. After that, it entered Xiao Chen’s bone and muscles via the meridians, continually nourishing his body.
Most regular Cultivators would focus on cultivating their Martial Spirit, using all the Spiritual Energy they had absorbed. When the Martial Spirit increased their realm and improved, it would result in an improvement in their strength.
Xiao Yulan was a typical example. Due to an unceasing cultivation of her Martial Spirit, it had already reached an extremely intrepid level. The Poinsettia could create countless flower petals and toxic gas, enhancing Xiao Yulan’s battle prowess.
However, Xiao Chen’s cultivation method was quite different. The Spiritual Energy that he absorbed would be absorbed by the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit then spat out again. It could then be used a second time to temper his own meridians, bones, blood, and muscles.
He was not sure it this was due to an innate ability of the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit, however, every Martial Spirit had their own distinct abilities. Like the extreme poison of the Poinsettia or Zhang He’s Clear Sky Sword, which allowed him to use Sword Qi while in the Martial Master realm.
However, as for Xiao Chen's Azure Dragon Martial Spirit, its innate ability was still a mystery. With regards to the legacy of this inheritance, it could be said that the Xiao Clan had been severed from it. He could only rely on his own investigations and experiments to understand more.
Focusing himself and staying on guard, Xiao Chen continued the process of circulating, absorbing, and the spitting out of Spiritual Energy and Essence. After the Spiritual Energy had circulated in his body for 49 cycles, the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit in his Dantian started to swell up.
This sensation of swelling did not involve any pain. Instead, it made one feel excited. Xiao Chen felt joy in his heart; this was a sign that he was about to breakthrough.
Xiao Chen originally had a good foundation. During the past few days, he had been using the Essence Nurturing Pill to assist in his cultivation. In addition to having continuous large scale battles, it was natural that he would advance to the Medial Grade of the Martial Disciple realm.
“Boom!”
That swelling feeling suddenly turned into an explosion. His Dantian was in chaos. Spiritual Energy diffused everywhere like fog, leading Xiao Chen to carefully sort through the diffused Spiritual Energy.
After a short moment, the situation of the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit became clear. The white clouds that were floating around the Azure dragon had turned from three to five. Xiao Chen could feel an obvious increase in his capacity of Essence.
Suppressing the joy he felt in his heart, Xiao Chen continued to circulate the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation, consolidating his newly achieved cultivation realm. The Azure Dragon Martial Spirit also continued to spit out Essence, nourishing Xiao Chen’s body.
The next time Xiao Chen opened his eyes, the sky was already slightly bright. Dew pervaded the valley he was in, causing Xiao Chen to feel very refreshed. He took a deep breath, feeling refreshed and relaxed.
He gently jumped down from the tree in a stable manner before sending out his Spiritual Sense. He could feel that the distance he was able to sense had increased significantly once again.
Before doing anything further, Xiao Chen realized that he would have to hurry back soon. When Liu Fenglin returned to find that both he and the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox disappeared, he would have been very suspicious. The longer he stayed missing, the harder it would be to explain himself.
Although he had to go back quickly, Xiao Chen did not feel too anxious about it. He cast out his Spiritual Sense along the way, letting the green sphere in his sea of consciousness instantly locate any hidden medicinal herbs.
Xiao Chen had time and with such an opportunity, he would naturally not give up on picking these medicinal herbs.
Medicinal Herbs could be classified into nine grades, with one being the lowest and nine, the highest. Anything above grade four was considered as superior quality medicinal herbs. These medicinal herbs would be worth thousands of gold anywhere.
Grade six medicinal herbs and above were considered as top quality while grade eight and grade nine medicinal herbs were considered as peak quality.
However, there were no medicinal herbs above grade six in this Seven Horn Mountain. The main reason being that the Spiritual Energy in the mountain was not sufficient; there were no prime Spirit Veins around. Even the Red Nascent Fruit he obtained was just a grade six medicinal herb.
Along the way, every herb he went past, as long as it was a grade two and above, he would store it in his Universe Ring. After two hours, he had already amassed a large pile of medicinal herbs in his Universe Ring.
With such a big harvest, it was already similar to a full day of spoils from a person who came specially to search for medicinal herbs.
“How lucky, I actually found the grade five Earth Tuckahoe.” Xiao Chen in his heart as he carefully picked it and placed in into the Universe Ring?
Just as he was about to arrive at the Xiao Clan encampment, He unexpectedly found the grade five medicinal herb.
The grade five Earth Tuckahoe was of the cold attribute. Its medicinal properties were stable. It could be used in many pills as a supporting ingredient, raising the success rate of refining. When refining them individually, he could even cure poisons and improve blood circulation.
Raising his head to take a look, the Xiao Clan encampment was already right in front of his eyes. Xiao Chen stopped picked herbs and adjusted his mental state before slowly heading into the encampment.
The guards at the front of the encampment stared blankly for a moment before bursting into a joyful expression when they saw Xiao Chen suddenly appear. They quickly rushed over and said: “Second Young Master, you finally came back. The First Elder and the others had dispatched many people to search for you yesterday.”
The First Elder dispatched many people just to search for me?
Looks like he was going to have to spend some effort in explaining himself. He had to think of a good excuse.
After asking around for the location of the First Elder, he headed to the great hall. Sending out his Spiritual Sense, Xiao Chen quickly saw Liu Fenglin and some of the others in the great hall. It seemed that the complexation of the First Elder, Third Elder, Liu Fenglin, and the others were not very good. It looked like the situation that had occurred the previous night was causing them to worry.
Xiao Chen was also surprised to see Xiao Yulan standing in the corner, her face full of worry.
“First Elder, has the Second Young Master been found yet?” Liu Fenglin had a sullen expression as he said in a bland manner.
Xiao Qiang was starting to get annoyed. The men he sent out had search for an entire night but they did not manage to find any trace of Xiao Chen, but hearing Liu Fenglin’s tone, he felt very displeased.
However, Liu Fenglin was the Xiao Clan’s only Martial Saint. They still required him for many things. Thus, Xiao Qiang did not dare to vent his anger at him. He suppressed the anger in his heart as he said: “There is still no news. The men that I sent reported that they were no obvious traces at all.”
Though it would have been weird if they managed to find any trace. Xiao Chen’s Gravity Spell allowed him to fly through the air so how could there be any traces of him on the ground?
With this as an answer, Liu Fengling was not surprised. After all, the situation last night was indeed too strange. The severely injured Six-Tailed Spirit Fox actually disappeared together with Xiao Chen. Furthermore, they did not leave any trace behind.
When Xiao Yulan heard this, her expression turned even more worried. But in the instant she raised her head, she suddenly saw Xiao Chen standing outside the door smiling.
Xiao Yulan thought that she was seeing things and rubbed her eyes before she could believe that what she was seeing was real. She said happily: “Cousin Xiao Chen, you’ve returned.”
When everyone in the great hall heard this, they immediately looked towards the door. Only to see Xiao Chen slowly walking in, appearing to be unharmed.
“Xiao Chen, where is the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox? Where did you bring it?” After he saw Xiao Chen, Liu Fenglin immediately shouted.
Xiao Qiang frowned slightly before slowly saying: “Xiao Chen, take your time to tell us. What exactly happened last night? Where did the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox go?”
Xiao Chen had already thought of an answer long ago. He smiled as he said: “I’m not sure. After you all left, I felt that I was about to make a breakthrough so I went to find a place to cultivate. As for what happened after, I had just found out myself.”
“Breakthrough?”
Everyone just discovered that Xiao Chen already broke through from Inferior Grade Martial Disciple to Medial Grade Martial Disciple. They felt astonished in their hearts. The speed of Xiao Chen’s cultivation was too fast.
He had only condensed his Martial Spirit just a month back. Now, he is already a Medial Grade Martial Disciple. This speed was comparable to those geniuses of the big clans.
Xiao Qiang felt very joyful. With Xiao Chen’s rate of advancement, the chances of success would be greater in the Promise of Ten Years that would occur three months later. “Congratulations, Elder Liu, are you satisfied with this answer?” Xiao Qiang said as he smiled.
Liu Fenglin snorted coldly, “I don’t care about your breakthrough. Hand over the Spirit Blood Jade.”
Xiao Chen smiled indifferently, confidently took a seat, and took a sip of tea. He then threw the Spirit Blood Jade onto the table. Liu Fenglin joyfully stretched his hands out to take it.
Xiao Chen’s mouth curled up in a cold smile as he said in an unhurried manner: “Elder Liu, I have already used this Spirit Blood Jade to seal the infant Spirit Fox. You can have it if you want. However, I believe you will not be able to live long enough to see the Spirit Fox grow up.”
Liu Fenglin’s expression changed as he released his aura. He shouted in anger, “Insolent junior! Are you seeking death?”
The aura of a Martial Saint as well as Liu Fenglin's anger ruthlessly pressed down on Xiao Chen. The air around them seemed to turn thick and everyone found it harder to breathe.
Xiao Chen was still not afraid. This was not the first time he encountered the aura of a Martial Saint. The slight power that came from the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit easily blocked this surging aura.
With only a single thought, the infant Spirit Fox in the Spirit Blood Jade jumped out. Although this little fellow did not have any abilities at the moment, it was still the descendant of the Six-Tailed Spirit Fox. It being a naturally born Rank 6 Spirit Beast was not afraid of this aura.
It jumped gently into Xiao Chen’s embrace. Xiao Chen gently patted the pure white fur of the infant Spirit Fox as he said: “See, Elder Liu, I did not lie to you, right?”