Chapter 54: Mysterious Object, Reward (I)
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The existence of the Mysterious Objects was not a secret. This world had a book named Book of Magical Items . It wrote about all sorts of Mysterious Objects that had appeared in the world, including their usage. Even those Mysterious Objects that appeared only in legends, and only heard of in name, never seen before by people, were also in this Book of Magical Items.
Junior Leopard in Qingyang Market could be said to have read all sorts of books. Naturally, he had read this Book of Magical Items before, he read it many times, and was very familiar with all the Mysterious Objects described within.
However, the reason why a Mysterious Object could become a Mysterious Object, the biggest reason was because they were too few. Many people in this world, even during their whole lives, would not know what kind of objects Mysterious Objects were.
Amongst the Mysterious Objects in this world, the most numerous ones, and most publicly known, were possibly the Spiritual Stones. These Spiritual Stones were actually just pieces of rock. On first look, it was not much different from normal pieces of stone. However, these kinds of stones contained pure Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. Even among the lowest graded Spiritual Stones, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi that was contained within was equivalent to the decades of bitter training of a normal person. From a certain perspective, this Spiritual Stone was the same as the 10,000-year-old fruit that Junior Leopard had read from wuxia novels. Eating one would make up for many years of training. Truth be told, this world was not lacking in this kind of fruit, these things were termed as Mysterious Objects.
However, this world’s cultivation system was, after all, not the same as wuxia novels. What was required was the cultivation of both the outside and inside. The outside and inside had to harmonize and rely on each other, supporting each other. Even if one was holding a Mysterious Object in one’s hands, one would also not dare to swallow it in one’s mouth. If swallowed, the body would certainly explode under the pressure of the Spiritual Qi. Speaking of that, these kinds of Mysterious Objects such as Spiritual Stones that helped to increase one’s strength seemed to be of no use!
Actually, that was not the case. Spiritual Stones contained pure Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, which was very easy to absorb. Just like practitioners of Qi, training day and night in inhalation and exhalation, the purpose was to refine the Qi. Inhaling and exhaling the essence of heaven and earth from the vast and immense heaven and earth, absorbing strands of the essence of pneuma, bringing it within the body, and refining it into Internal Qi — although the method was good, efficiency was too low. It had to be known that in inhalation and exhalation, out of ten parts of the time spent, nine parts were spent on refining the Spiritual Qi. With the Spiritual Stone things would be different. If there was a suitable Spiritual Stone in one’s hands, one wouldn’t be required to practice inhalation and exhalation for over ten years. He only needed to absorb Spiritual Qi directly from the stone and convert it into Internal Qi. What used to take one whole night to accomplish, now could be done with the time that it takes for half a ring. This kind of good deal, who didn’t want it?
However, a Mysterious Object, they really were too few in numbers. Spiritual Stones, though they were called the world’s most publicly known Mysterious Objects, there were not many either. Sometimes randomly there would be one piece, which had to be fought over till heads broke and blood flowed. Like Junior Leopard, who belonged to the lower strata of the Jianghu, naturally he would only hear of the name, and not see the object itself.
Apart from Spiritual Stones, the world had another kind of Mysterious Object, and that was the so-called Queer Pearl!
Queer Pearls — some were as big as a fist, some were as small as a yellow bean. Most of them came from all sorts of strange and evil beasts. Within the bodies of these strange and evil beasts, often there would be those Queer Pearls.
The most famous Queer Pearls were the Earth Pearls, Fire Pearls, and Water Pearls. Even though this category of pearl hadn’t been seen by many people, however, in those wilderness history books, they were mentioned often.
Compared to Spiritual Stones, the numbers of Queer Pearls was even smaller. Spiritual Stones, though they were few, they could always be encountered. In those deep mountains or big swamps where the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was dense, they could still be found, occasionally could even be revealed to the world. This Queer Pearl, however, was different. Queer Pearls had nothing to do with geography, had nothing to do with Spiritual Qi, and had nothing to do with strange and evil beasts. The only thing that it was linked with was moral standing.
This was a question of moral standing!
Legends foretold — there was once a fisherman, who caught a turtle the size of a bowl. On the turtle’s shell there was something protruding out. It was opened, and what was inside was a bright pearl the size of a pigeon egg. It was extremely dazzling, and was resistant against water and fire. It was an extremely precious pearl. Looking at the turtle, it was just an ordinary one, it was no different from the turtles that were usually caught. There was also once a peerless expert, Yu Dong, who slaughtered a Dragon Turtle in the eastern seas. This Dragon Turtle was extremely powerful, its Inner Elixir was big like a washbasin, with a pressurizing Spiritual Qi. The turtle armor was also tough beyond imagination, it couldn’t be broken by metal nor stone. That expert spent a great deal of effort to sever its limbs and open the shell. Other than the body of flesh and the Inner Elixir, there were no more items. There was a farmer who killed a bull, and discovered on this old yellow bull a piece of Queer Pearl, which was as big a fist, and could actually hurry the growth of grass and wood. That yellow bull didn’t live past ten years old, and had no special traits.
That was moral standing.
“Looks like today is really the day where my moral standing has a big explosion!” Junior Leopard bent his back and picked up the green-colored pearl. A cool-as-water feeling passed through his palm, followed his arm, and spread to his whole body. The sharp migraine that he felt earlier was rushed away by this cool and refreshing feeling, and actually, he got much better. The feeling of weariness had also subsided quite a lot.
Junior Leopard was stunned for a while, and was waiting to carefully observe. Suddenly from afar, there was a beast’s roar. He put the pearl into the bag with golden lines, and then dropped down and searched the Monster Toad’s corpse for a while. Finally, from within the pile of internal organs, he found one Inner Elixir. He conveniently took out a blood-red cloth and wiped the Inner Elixir. Similarly, he placed it into the black bag with gold texture. He turned and exited the steep valley, reaching the cave which he usually rested at. He threw the bag with golden lines to one side, and fell asleep.
This sleep lasted for one day and two nights. When he woke up, the sun was already high up in the sky.
“Hu—!” He lazily stretched his waist. Junior Leopard only felt a wave of refreshing feeling. He stood up, and his ears suddenly heard some noise outside of the cave. Junior Leopard’s heart trembled, and hurriedly walked to the cave entrance, dropping down to the side of the cliff. He bent his head and looked down. Under the bright sunlight, there were those that ran and walked, those that flew and jumped, flowers and deer, rabbits, wild boars, and monkeys. He even saw a few fierce tigers and leopards. All of them converged at the bottom of the waterfall by the river, drinking water. It was a peaceful scene.
“Strange, what is happening? A few days ago they will run far away. Today on the contrary, there are dozens here. Could it be they know that the Evil Toad in the valley is finished?!”
Junior Leopard was praising within his heart. He stretched and checked his own body. “Well, not bad. My Internal Qi has roughly been recovered. My head is no longer in pain, as well. This effect is definitely not bad!”
Actually, he didn’t suffer too much damage. He only used too much strength, resulting in him being extremely weary. Just like a person who had done a whole day of work, after being tired, went back home and ate a meal. And after he slept a good deal, whatever weariness he had vanished.
“Gugugu—!” When he was happy, his stomach produced a strange grumbling sound.
“Damn, I am really hungry!” Junior Leopard was thinking that he had not eaten any food for a very long time. He helplessly rubbed his stomach. Junior Leopard started laughing. “Okay, don’t call anymore, soon there will be food!”
Upon speaking, he raised his hand, and down flew two kunai. One shot into the artery of a wild boar, which was drinking by the river. The other pinned a small rabbit to the ground.
“Okay, the lunch problem is settled!” Junior Leopard jumped down. The surrounding wild beasts that came to drink water all scattered in one go. Even those tigers and fierce beasts were no exception.
Gathering a few sticks and twigs, starting a fire, he first stripped the rabbit and wild boar, and nestled them on top of the sticks and twigs to roast them. After half a ring, a dense fragrance wafted over his nose. The oil and fat dripped on the burning coal below, releasing crackling sounds. The firelight would dance from time to time, causing splashes of faint strands of fire stars.
“If only there was a little salt!” Junior Leopard bit on the meat in his hands. It was very fragrant, but it was tasteless. However, for Junior Leopard, who was in a hungry state, it was sufficient.
After eating and drinking to his fill, Junior Leopard wiped his mouth and raised his head to observe on all fours. In these surroundings, other than him, not even a bird existed.
Helplessly shaking his head, he leapt up, and returned to the cave by the cliff. With one look, he saw the black bag with golden lines lying in one corner.
This bag was brought into the cave by him, but he hadn’t had time to take a look at it. Now that he had eaten and drunk to his fill, he naturally couldn’t wait to open the bag.
Other than the green-colored Queer Pearl and the Inner Elixir of the Evil Toad, the bag still had three things inside, a rock, a book, and a goatskin scroll.
“Is this the legendary Spiritual Stone?!”
Junior Leopard picked up the stone in the bag, and held it in his palm. He slightly circulated his Qi, a wave of extremely cold Spiritual Qi followed his hand’s laogong acupoint straight into his Dantian.
“Si—!” Junior Leopard’s body heavily jerked. His hand swayed, and threw this rock far out of the cave entrance. The stone had left his hand, however, his body was still shivering repeatedly.
“Spiritual Stone, it really is a Spiritual Stone. Furthermore, inside it contains an extreme Yin Spiritual Qi. I practice fire attribute cultivation, which is totally incompatible!”
Sitting on the floor, after a full two hours, he then completely refined the strand of cold Qi that entered into his Dantian. He heaved out a long breath.
Theoretically speaking, the Spiritual Qi contained within a Spiritual Stone could increase one’s powers, waiving away the requirement of the inhalation and exhalation process. However, if the Spiritual Stone contained Spiritual Qi that was incompatible, the effort spent is not any less than just honestly sitting there and going through inhalation and exhalations. Most of the time, the effort was doubled while the results were halved. Like just now, just refining one strand of cold Qi wasted Junior Leopard’s two hours. Yet it didn’t let his own Internal Qi gain any increase.
“Aye, I thought I picked a treasure. I cannot use this thing, yet it is a pity to throw it away. Bringing it with me will also bring trouble. This is exactly like the legendary golden brand chicken rib!” Junior Leopard had a bitter face. He ran to the bottom of the cave, and picked up that Spiritual Stone and threw it into the bag. He then took out the two books and the ancient looking goatskin scroll.
” Blood Evil Harden Bone Fist ?! This is a punching skill to forge the bones?”
As he first flipped open the book, Junior Leopard became surprised. This book was not thick, and what was recorded was actually a punching skill to forge the bones. Looking at this fist method’s title, it should be the Dark Sect’s bone forging punching skill. Junior Leopard looked at it twice, and then returned it into the bag.
This was a bone forging punching skill that couldn’t even be bought with 10,000 gold. Given his body’s condition now, he would need at least three years before he could practice it, hence, he should keep it first.
He then flipped open another book. This book was thinner than the Blood Evil Harden Bone Fis t. There were only about a dozen pages, and what was recorded on it was a sword method.
” Silver Moon Sword Technique ?!” Looking at this sword technique’s title, Junior Leopard’s eyebrows twitched. He then continued flipping, until he flipped to the third page, he then stopped. “Star River Burning Completely?”
This move “Star River Burning Completely” was what Xue Wuya taught him previously, it was one of Silver Moon Sword Technique ‘s three killer moves.
“Keke, looks like this Xue Wuya didn’t completely comprehend this set of sword techniques. He only flimsily passed it down to me. If not, just based on this sword technique and the coal dagger, killing that Monster Toad would be extremely easy, there will be nothing left for me to do!”
As the old saying went, “Once human beings think, the Emperor will laugh”. What Junior Leopard thought of was only half right. Indeed, this sword technique was what Xue Wuya just obtained. It was also because of this set of sword techniques that he would kill everyone in the Yangzhou West County, incurring the wrath of The White Blademaster Lu Shaoyou. However on the other side, Junior Leopard only saw the power of Silver Moon Sword Technique , it’s extreme sharpness. Yet he didn’t notice that this sword technique’s requirements on the body were perverse. He forgot that Xue Wuya suffered serious injuries, and completely relied on the Bloodfire Gang to fight with the Evil Toad. He couldn’t exert his body movement. Even if he used this set of sword techniques, he couldn’t unleash this sword technique’s true strength. Dealing with the EvilToad, this was still too forced.
“This set of sword techniques could be practiced. Even though my Internal Qi isn’t enough, it is better to familiarize myself with the movements first!” Junior Leopard’s heart was silently happy. He carefully read through the whole sword technique. His attentive manner was as if he wanted to firmly memorize everything that was within the book.
After reading intensely for one hour, Junior Leopard finally regained his senses. “Now is not the time to be researching this!”
He hurriedly put the sword manual into the bag, and opened the goatskin scroll.
Actually, Junior Leopard couldn’t confirm if this piece of skin was goatskin, it only looked like it. This scroll had been stored for a countless number of years. He didn’t know how many times had it been flipped open by people. It was entirely covered with dust.
On careful observation, he saw that on the goatskin scroll was a figure of a naked body. On the figure were drawn lots of red lines and black dots. Junior Leopard naturally could recognize that. These red lines and black dots were the body’s tendons and vessels and acupuncture points. On the side of the figure, there were numerous little words. It was like a kind of secret martial arts skill. However, the words on it were something that Junior Leopard could not decipher.