Star Martial Era: The Way of Star Light Cultivation

76: Chapter 72: Life-saving Divine Skill

76 -72: Life-saving Divine Skill

“Third-tier Snake Spirit?

Ritual Officer?”

The additional information on the Candou Platform’s Jade made Xu Jin quite puzzled.

With the idea of giving it a try, Xu Jin thought about it and immediately transferred the newly acquired, still warm Green Snake Star Core directly into the Candou Platform.

There was a faint flicker of light, and the Green Snake Star Core appeared above the Candou Platform.

But its position was beneath the front altar of the Candou Platform—beneath!

Wasn’t it the Ritual Officer?

Why did it go under the altar?

Surprised by this, Xu Jin focused his thoughts once more on the Green Snake Star Core under the altar.

In an instant, streams of information surged in his mind, and Xu Jin immediately understood how to use it.

“Ritual Spiritual Object One: Third-tier lower-grade Snake Spirit, consumes a strand of Starlight to obtain or replace Spiritual Protection.

Fill with Star Power to unleash the peak strongest strike of the current spiritual object, carrying a slight Divine Soul attack, after which, the spiritual object disappears.”

“Available Protections: Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern, Concealing Star Pattern”

This stream of information made Xu Jin visibly delighted.

It was like he had gained an additional Star Pattern ability, which, in Xu Jin’s understanding, seemed like a passive skill.

Not only that, but he also gained another means of preserving his life—unleashing when filled with Star Power, a one-off deal.

Once used, this object would disappear, but it could still be a lifesaving skill at a critical moment.

The key point was that this Third-tier Snake Spirit was more cost-effective than the Star Emblem, at least less painful to consume.

A Vortex Blade Emblem owned by Ning Yuchan would cost four thousand taels in the market.

While the market price of this type of Star Beast Star Core was only between one thousand and two thousand taels.

Of course, its power should be less than that of the Vortex Blade Emblem.

Not bad.

The functionalities of this Candou Platform were becoming increasingly surprising to Xu Jin.

He just didn’t know what other surprises it could bring him in the future.

And, this was just Ritual Spiritual Object One.

At the Second-tier Candou Platform, one can support Spiritual Object Two.

Offering one spiritual object allowed Xu Jin to obtain one Star Pattern, so what about upgrading the Candou Platform to Third-tier, Fourth-tier?

Currently, the two obtained Star Patterns were passive skills, but would there be active skills in the future?

“Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern: Enhanced sensitivity to changes in the surrounding environment, extremely sensitive to changes in smell and temperature.”

“Concealing Star Pattern: Can conceal all signs of life, nearly undetectable when stationary, effectiveness decreases when moving slowly, and is lost when moving fast.”

These two Star Patterns brought by the Third-tier Snake Spirit were another wave of surprises.

These two Star Patterns were divine skills for preserving life.

One for detecting hidden dangers, the other for concealing one’s own presence, both extremely practical.

However, regretfully, only one could be used or exchanged for another.

After thinking it over, Xu Jin unhesitatingly injected a strand of Starlight and chose the ‘Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern.’

Almost at the moment of choosing the protection of the Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern, an unusual sensation spread throughout his body.

After sneezing, Xu Jin found that his perception of the surrounding environment was completely transformed.

Suddenly, Xu Jin leaped backward.

Crap.

Above his head on the vine, a dark green spider was swaying as it lunged towards Xu Jin, something he hadn’t noticed before.

This thing could be killed with just a slap, but Xu Jin just found it repulsive.

A few moments later, Xu Jin’s expression turned slightly bitter.

Being too sensitive in perception was not necessarily good.

Before, Xu Jin thought this grassland was just a simple grassland.

But now, he found hundreds of insects and even rats, which he found even more repulsive.

This was a problem left over from his past life.

His mother had told him a story she had witnessed herself about a woman working in the fields, wearing loose trousers, when suddenly she screamed and clenched her thighs tightly, turning rigid.

It took great effort, but when they pried her hands open, they found a crushed rat at the root of her thigh inside the pants.

That woman, once awake, was a bit mentally unstable thereafter.

Since then, he had retained a repulsion for rats.

Aside from discovering various small animals, Xu Jin also smelled dozens of scents.

Oddly, Xu Jin was even able to roughly distinguish the categories of the scent’s owners based on these smells.

Some were snakes, leopards, owls, and even more snakes.

Humans?

Suddenly, one of the scents made Xu Jin slightly frown.

Here, there were human scents that had passed by, and more than one person?

Had brothers from the institute been here and not noticed the Shattered Star Mushrooms?

Or?

It’s undeniable that the Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern acquired now enhanced Xu Jin’s ability to preemptively warn of dangers in the wild.

Unlike before, relying solely on the naked eye to search.

Movements can be concealed, but the smell and body temperature are extraordinarily difficult to hide.

True Divine Skill.

Looking at the Third-tier Green Snake under the altar of the Candou Platform, Xu Jin suddenly chuckled to himself.

This section might be for an altar, but the way the items were taken and immediately made to disappear, is this really an act of offering?

Ah, the art of language!

Casually taking some tender snake meat for dinner, Xu Jin placed all the Shattered Star Mushrooms under the Star Lamp for nourishment before leaving.

The Songluo Grass that had been placed there the day before had, after a day and night of nourishment, all turned into one-star.

The two one-star plants, faintly surrounded by swirling starlight, had become very dense, likely turning into two-star Songluo Grass.

This was completely normal.

Because ordinary Songluo Grass is usually one or two years old, one-star is ten years old, and two-star is twenty years old.

Theoretically, one day and night of nourishment would elevate ordinary to one-star, and one-star to two-star.

But for two-star to become three-star, it would probably take another four to five days.

Because three-star Songluo Grass is fifty years old.

A night passed without words; deep in the mountains and forests, where the Star-picking Order was out of service area, there was nothing but cultivation.

Tough cultivation, tough cultivation!

The next day, having completed his morning cultivation, Xu Jin, carrying an immensely heavy snake skin, hurried to the nearest supply point on the map.

After several days of tough cultivation under the Star Lamp in the Martial Learning Hall, Xu Jin’s Flying Star Step had achieved Great Success.

Without relying on physical strength, he could execute the Flying Star Step on the spot, leaping up ten meters, or surging forward twenty meters.

With the aid of his physical strength, he could jump up to thirteen or fourteen meters and dart forward almost thirty meters.

This drastically increased the efficiency of Xu Jin traversing mountains and making his way.

What would have taken two hours to reach the supply point, Xu Jin arrived in just one.

This was a supply point on the outermost edge of Green Mountain, operated by Jinshan Taoist Institute.

Instructor Zheng from the Forging Hall was stationed here.

His body was all muscle, strong and dark, standing out like a huge water buffalo.

From afar, Instructor Zheng noticed Xu Jin.

Upon seeing the large bundle of scale armor snake skin Xu Jin was carrying, Instructor Zheng was taken aback.

With the speed of lightning, he took the scale armor snake skin from Xu Jin and exclaimed in surprise, “Kid, you encountered a Star Beast?

An early-stage Green Snake, why didn’t you call for help?

Are you injured?”

In between his rapid-fire questions, Instructor Zheng circled Xu Jin, put a hand on his shoulder, and sensed him with Star Power, “Eh, only slightly injured, and almost healed?

Did you kill it alone?”

Xu Jin nodded his head.

“Impressive, even if you used some treasure, you’ve got guts.

Plus, hunting such a big creature is certainly worthwhile.”

Instructor Zheng nodded and praised as he spoke.

Xu Jin could hear that Instructor Zheng implied he must have used a life-saving Emblem, so he didn’t argue and just accepted it.

Then, Instructor Zheng pulled out his Star-picking Order, quickly identified and recorded Xu Jin’s harvest, which surprised Xu Jin.

“Eh, Instructor, your Star-picking Order works here?” Xu Jin asked, then felt it was a bit inconsiderate since he hadn’t disclosed that he could use his Star-picking Order because of his five-tier Dining Dawn status.

However, as Instructor Zheng was tallying Xu Jin’s harvest, he didn’t seem to notice this detail, perhaps it was normal for him.

“It can’t be used; mine is a two-star Star-picking Order.

Here, you need a three-star Order to use it.

But it can still tally and record harvest values, which is convenient and fair, avoiding any possibility of cheating.”

As Instructor Zheng was counting, he commented, “Not bad, kid.

Oh my, so many one-star Songluo Grasses, did you stumble upon a Songluo Grass goldmine?”

“And two-star ones too, you’re impressive.”

“This Stone Shimmer is also one-star, good job.”

“But next time, you should stack them carefully to avoid damaging the edges.”

…

“Your snake gallbladder wasn’t preserved well enough; next time, wrap things like snake gallbladder and fangs separately.”

…

Xu Jin found that Instructor Zheng was quite the chatterbox.

Since his arrival, the man hadn’t stopped talking.

A real chatterbox.

Fortunately, all that was needed was to listen and nod; otherwise, he’d be parched.

“Where’s the snake blood?

You didn’t bring back snake blood?” Instructor Zheng suddenly raised his voice.

“I didn’t have anything handy…” Xu Jin said, somewhat embarrassed.

“Remember to bring more water bags next time.

A catty of snake blood is worth at least twenty taels of silver.”

“Your Songluo Grass, Stone Shimmer, snake gallbladder, and snake teeth harvest amounts to 1600 taels of silver.

This scale armor snake skin, over a meter wide and ten meters long, well-preserved, is valued at 2100 taels, making it 3700 taels for a day and half’s harvest.

Not bad, kid.”

All of a sudden, Instructor Zheng paused, “Feels like something’s missing?”

“That’s right, the Star Core, the Star Beast’s Core, where is it?

That’s a valuable thing!

It’s your first kill, you didn’t forget to harvest the Star Core, did you?” Instructor Zheng urgently said.

Xu Jin was pondering how to respond when Instructor Zheng found the answer for him.

“You fool, that third-tier lower-grade Star Core is worth at least 1500 taels.

Quick, go back and search the snake corpse.”

Xu Jin spread his hands helplessly, “I killed it last night and came over in the morning; the snake corpse was gone, probably eaten by wild animals.”

“Ah, you fool, no experience!” Instructor Zheng sighed, handed back the empty backpack he had finished tallying.

“Be careful, stay alert, there have been sightings of Blood God Sect’s Evil People, and two disciples have already been victimized,” Instructor Zheng solemnly warned as Xu Jin was leaving.

“By the way, I think with your harvest, you could aim for the top twenty in the harvest rankings.

The rewards for the top twenty are quite good,” Instructor Zheng added.

Just as Xu Jin was about to leave, he suddenly turned back and asked, “Instructor Zheng, what’s my current ranking?”

“Based on the information received from the Star-picking Order during my shift this morning, the first place is Wang Weisheng with 4600 taels, and the twentieth is 3100 taels.

But that was the count this morning; it’s definitely higher by now.

You should make an effort; you might reach it,” Instructor Zheng replied.

“Alright, I’ll try my best, thank you, Instructor!”

As he watched Xu Jin swiftly leave, Instructor Zheng suddenly called out urgently, “Remember, safety first, safety first!”