Firmament Sword

Feeling his empty Dantian, Xu Luo couldn’t help but give a bitter smile. He sighed softly, ”The martial world is treacherous...”

If he hadn’t just sent Yuan Yi flying with a single slap and stunned Yuan Ren, Xu Luo had no idea how today’s events would have turned out.

”If the Shaking Light Star Soul hadn’t given me strength at the critical moment, I’m afraid I would have died silently in this forest!”

As he spoke, Xu Luo shouldered the large backpack on the ground and headed deeper into the dense forest.

After encountering barbaric, shameless robber Adventurers and a dangerous assassination attempt all in one day, the sixteen-year-old boy finally understood a principle he had known before but never truly grasped: don’t flash your wealth!

He traveled through the dense forest for over two hours, venturing more than a hundred li deeper. Xu Luo finally felt exhausted. By then, he had already climbed to the top of a mountain peak in the Black Forest.

The mountain wind was strong, whipping at Xu Luo’s robes. Near the summit, he found a cave sheltered from the wind and facing the sun.

The cave wasn’t deep, just big enough to accommodate him and his backpack.

He took out some dry rations and had a quick bite. Then, Xu Luo eagerly opened the notebook Huangfu Chongzhi had given him and began to search through it.

Finally, in the middle of the notebook, he found the entries for the Golden King Snake and the plant.

”Golden King Snake: grows to one zhang in length as an adult. Vicious and highly aggressive. Extremely venomous!”

”Its hide is incredibly tough, a top-grade material for making scabbards and close-fitting Soft Armor. The meat, blood, gallbladder, and bones can all be used in medicine. They are powerful restorative tonics and, if prepared correctly, can have near-resurrection effects!”

”Golden King Snakes are extremely rare. Ordinary weapons can hardly scratch them, and their venom is too potent, making them incredibly expensive. A single adult Golden King Snake is worth at least three thousand taels of Gold on the market!”

”A suit of close-fitting Soft Armor made from a complete Golden King Snake hide is impervious to blades and spears, and its value is immeasurable.”

’Three thousand taels of Gold...’ Xu Luo shook his head slightly. The memory of the greedy looks in the eyes of those Black Wind Gang members made anger blaze within him.

”You bastards from the Black Wind Gang, just you wait,” Xu Luo muttered. ”So you like to kill people for their treasures, huh? I’ll make every last one of you regret this!”

Then, Xu Luo’s gaze fell upon the entry for the plant.

”Blue Dragon Fruit, one of the world’s exotic medicinal materials.”

”The Blue Dragon Tree grows to about a chi in height. Its gnarled branches resemble a ferocious dragon. It is leafless, and its fruit is a dull, lusterless blue.”

”It bears a little over ten fruits at most, and only once every hundred years. Before ripening, the fruit is shiny. After ripening, it becomes dull and lusterless as its light retracts. It will fall off on its own after three days.”

”A single Blue Dragon Fruit can increase one’s cultivation by five years. It is one of the very few Top-Grade Medicinal Materials in the world that can be consumed directly to increase power, without needing to be refined into a pill.”

”Someone once discovered a Blue Dragon Tree in the Black Forest and attempted to transplant it, but failed, proving that this tree can only grow in the Black Forest. Very few people have ever managed to harvest its fruit.”

”Any medicinal material that can directly advance a Martial Artist’s cultivation is of immeasurable value.”

’Immeasurable value...’ Xu Luo narrowed his eyes, gazing at the four dull, lusterless, ox-eye-sized blue fruits hanging on the Blue Dragon Tree. A happy smile finally appeared on his somewhat weary face.

”Finally, a decent harvest!” Xu Luo said softly. He then plucked a Blue Dragon Fruit from the tree, and after a moment’s thought, tossed it directly into his mouth.

The moment he bit into it, an intense bitterness spread from his tongue, instantly flooding his entire mouth.

”Agh!”

Xu Luo’s face scrunched up instantly. The bitterness was even more intense than chewing on coptis root!

Xu Luo felt his mouth go completely numb, paralyzed by the intense bitterness.

His mind even went a little blank.

’Blech... How... how can it be so bitter?!’ Xu Luo subconsciously tried to spit out the Blue Dragon Fruit.

Just then, the juice from the part of the Blue Dragon Fruit he had swallowed reached his stomach, and the Shaking Light Star Soul in his Dantian suddenly flashed.

Immediately, a suction force absorbed this power directly.

Then, the suction force emanating from the Shaking Light Star Soul quickly spread throughout Xu Luo’s entire body, and the bitter taste in his mouth receded as quickly as a tide.

Soon, the Blue Dragon Fruit was completely absorbed by the Shaking Light Star Soul.

From start to finish, aside from nearly dying from the bitterness when he bit into the Blue Dragon Fruit, Xu Luo felt nothing at all!

It was completely unlike when he absorbed the Seven-Turn Foundation Establishment Pill and the Lieyang Grass, where he could clearly feel a vast and surging power.

The only sensation the Blue Dragon Fruit gave him, besides extreme bitterness, was... nothing.

At that moment, Xu Luo’s gaze fell on Huangfu Chongzhi’s notebook again. He saw a line of small text at the very bottom of the Blue Dragon Fruit entry.

”To use a Blue Dragon Fruit, simply hold it in your hand and circulate your Heart Method to automatically absorb its essence. It can also be consumed orally, but the fruit is incredibly bitter and unbearable for most people... Therefore, if consuming orally, it is best to swallow it whole.”

”I... I...” Staring at the line of small text, Xu Luo felt the urge to die. ’But I can’t blame anyone else. Who told me to be so impatient and bite into one without reading everything first?’

For the remaining three Blue Dragon Fruits, Xu Luo wisely chose to swallow them whole. He really didn’t want to experience that mouth-puckering, near-death bitterness a second time.

The Shaking Light Star Soul quickly absorbed all three Blue Dragon Fruits.

Xu Luo looked into his Dantian and discovered that the light from his Shaking Light Star Soul had not only returned to its previous state but was now even brighter than before.

Xu Luo no longer had any doubts. He knew these four Blue Dragon Fruits were true treasures.

Just then, Xu Luo suddenly felt the True Essence in his Dantian faintly showing signs of coalescing.

Slightly alarmed, he muttered to himself, ’Could it be... I’m finally about to break through?’

BOOM!

A powerful force erupted from the Shaking Light Star Soul, instantly flooding Xu Luo’s entire Dantian.

The True Essence in his Dantian, which had been as thin and sparse as mist, slowly began to gather in one place. Under the pressure of the force erupting from the Shaking Light Star Soul, it finally fused together.

The True Essence in his Dantian instantly became much denser.

If the True Essence in his Dantian was like a sparse and wispy water vapor before, it had now transformed into a water cloud.

The condensation of his True Essence brought about a qualitative change in the power within Xu Luo’s Dantian.

Xu Luo felt the fatigue in his body completely vanish, replaced by abundant energy. He couldn’t help but exclaim in pleasant surprise, ”I’ve finally broken through to the Swordsman realm! Haha, this is great!”

The power that the Shaking Light Star Soul had released into his Dantian was now retracted. The star’s light twinkled, and a happy smile spread across the young man’s face.

Xu Luo now finally had reason to believe that although the Shaking Light Star Soul in his body didn’t communicate with him, it was by no means a lifeless, unconscious thing.

’Otherwise, how could it have saved my life at the critical moment? And how could it have helped me condense my True Essence just when I needed to break through the most?’

Xu Luo had no idea what it truly meant to break through from nothing to the Swordsman realm in just over two months of total cultivation time.

At this moment, he wasn’t concerned with any of that. He was only thinking about gathering more Spirit Medicine in the Black Forest to make his Shaking Light Star Soul shine brighter. At the same time, he too would grow stronger along with it!

”Let’s grow strong together!”

Xu Luo walked out of the cave and looked down at the rolling mountain ranges. His heart swelled with heroic ambition as he said softly, ”One day, I, Xu Luo, will also become one of this world’s top experts!”

The Shaking Light Star Soul flickered, as if giving the radiant young man its silent encouragement.

In the following six days, Xu Luo’s footprints covered an area of over five hundred li in the Black Forest. He managed to gather well over a hundred different kinds of Spirit Medicine!

It had to be said, the Shaking Light Star Soul was simply too powerful. As it absorbed more and more Spirit Medicine, its abilities grew stronger. It went from only being able to sense Spirit Medicine within a few meters, to over ten meters, and then to several dozen meters...

Now, it could sense any Spirit Medicine within a sixty-meter radius. Combined with Xu Luo’s eyes that could see through objects, his speed at finding Spirit Medicine was many times faster!

And Xu Luo’s own strength, in just six short days, had broken through from a Tier One Swordsman to a Tier Five Swordsman!

This was simply a god-like breakthrough speed!

Even the oblivious Xu Luo himself felt that this speed was a bit excessive.

Young prodigies from the Imperial Capital like Xu Jie and Sui Yan had cultivated for over a decade just to reach the level of Eighth to Ninth Tier Swordsmen.

And yet, in less than three months, Xu Luo was already about to catch up to them!

’If they knew my current cultivation level, would they be too shocked to believe it?’ The newly-promoted Tier Five Swordsman, Xu Luo, felt the powerful energy in his Dantian and a smile spread across his face.

What Xu Luo didn’t know was that if others learned of his cultivation speed, their first reaction wouldn’t be disbelief, but flat-out denial.

Because in this world, there was almost no one else who could directly absorb the essence from Spirit Medicine as he did.

Not even the disciples of the great sects could do it!

Spirit Medicine was called Spirit Medicine precisely because it contained a large amount of energy, and the attributes of this energy... were not all the same.

For example, the energy contained in Lieyang Grass was of a pure-yang attribute, ultimate in its heat and hardness.

For example, the Blue Dragon Fruit that had almost killed Xu Luo with its bitterness was pure energy with no attribute.

Among the Spirit Medicines he had absorbed these past few days, there had been a wide variety of attributes.

Water-attribute, fire-attribute, wind-attribute...

For anyone else, a conflict between the attributes of the Spirit Medicine and their own Cultivation Technique could have severe consequences. Certain potent, attribute-heavy Spirit Medicines could even cause a person’s body to explode from the sheer power.

Just like that Lieyang Grass from before!

But because Xu Luo had the Shaking Light Star Soul, absorbing these Spirit Medicines—which Huangfu Chongzhi’s notes claimed must be used with extreme caution—was completely effortless for him!

Because the Shaking Light Star Soul was truly a bottomless pit that accepted all comers!