Star Martial Era: The Way of Star Light Cultivation

77: Chapter 73: Just mentioned living longer and then got blasted

77 -73: Just mentioned living longer and then got blasted

Wang Weisheng’s name was known to Xu Jin.

Among all the disciples of Jinshan Taoist Institute, he was recognized as the senior brother, the top talent of the Star-pointing Season last August, having completed Star Pointing in two and a half days.

Three months after the end of last August’s Star-pointing Season, his cultivation level had reached the peak of the Seventh Layer of Dining Dawn, but for some unknown reason, he hadn’t proceeded with Star Casting.

Now, he was recognized by the entire Jinshan Taoist Institute as first in cultivation level, first in combat power, and first in Star Skill.

Since last December, he had continuously topped the monthly harvesting ranking list of Jinshan Taoist Institute, and was now about to top it for the eighth month.

Another disciple, recognized as the second senior brother, Zhang Han, also from last August’s Star-pointing Season, had ranked second in talent.

It took him seven days to complete Star Pointing, and his cultivation had also reached the peak of the Seventh Layer of Dining Dawn for over half a year, but, similarly, he hadn’t proceeded with Star Casting.

He had also continuously topped the ranks, but consistently in second place.

Yu Xianghua and Zhang Ming were similar; both at the Seventh Layer peak of Dining Dawn, they also hadn’t cast stars, and they were dominating the third and fourth places on the rankings, fluctuating up and down.

Initially, Xu Jin didn’t have high hopes for the harvesting list of Jinshan Daoist Institute.

Lacking mountain-gathering experience and strength compared to the previous Star-pointing Season’s senior brothers, and even less to say about their background, what could he use to compete with them?

Even though the rewards for the top twenty were very appealing, Xu Jin simply wanted to earn more silver for cultivation and gain experience, aiming for a better rank next month.

Xu Jin had some self-awareness.

However, today’s reminder from Instructor Zheng had kindled Xu Jin’s competitive spirit.

After all, he was already close to the top twenty, perhaps even reached it.

According to the rules of the Jinshan Taoist Institute, the first place in the monthly harvesting list could choose any First Tier Star Weapon and would receive an additional reward of fifty strands of Starlight from the Star-picking Tower; second and third place would also receive a First Tier Star Weapon but with forty and thirty strands of Starlight, respectively.

Ranks four to ten received twenty strands of Starlight and a Star-picking Order, which if available, could be converted to Starlight from the Star-picking Tower.

The eleventh to twentieth ranks were rewarded with ten strands of Starlight, qualification to purchase a Star-picking Order, and a bottle of the Rejuvenation Pill.

Ranks twenty-one to fifty each received the qualification to purchase a Star-picking Order and a bottle of the Mental Awakening Pill.

There were no rewards after the fiftieth rank.

The rewards after the twentieth rank did not interest Xu Jin—merely fifty taels of silver.

But the rewards before the twentieth rank, especially the top ten, were very tempting.

As for the top three rewards, they were extremely tempting: a Star Weapon, worth at least two thousand taels alone, and thirty strands of Starlight, valued at three thousand taels.

“Go all out, stay within the top twenty, and strive to break into the top ten.”

“As for the top three, that’s very, very difficult.”

Along the way, Xu Jin merely explored the route and gathered scarce resources, then quickly headed beyond Golden Eagle Peak.

Xu Jin had discovered that within the safe range marked on the map provided by the institute, while safe, the yields were rather low.

This area was where most disciples searched, and although three hundred-plus disciples a month wasn’t many, the process was relentless each month.

To achieve major gains, one must break through the safety margins set by the institute.

Under the Star Lamp, Xu Jin was nurturing Shattered Star Mushrooms, which was one of his confidences for entering the top twenty.

By tomorrow afternoon, once the Shattered Star Mushroom cultivation was complete, he’d have a yield of at least over a thousand taels, and if he could find a batch of rare herbs, breaking into the top ten was still possible.

One afternoon, Xu Jin killed several fierce beasts, harvesting just over 400 taels.

He continued to diligently cultivate through the night.

These days, unable to enter the Star-picking Tower for Martial Learning, as night fell, he could only find a place to stay.

Apart from wholeheartedly immersing himself in cultivation, there was nothing else he could do.

The progress of engraving the Great Gathering Star Pattern under Xu Jin also continuously advanced.

This morning, inside the Star Lamp, his success rate of engraving the Great Gathering Star Pattern had already exceeded eighty percent.

After two more hours of diligent cultivation under the Star Lamp in the evening, Xu Jin’s success rate of engraving the Great Gathering Star Pattern had nearly reached a hundred percent.

Xu Jin knew, the time to officially engrave the Great Gathering Star Pattern had come.

But engraving star patterns had to be done in the most perfect condition possible to achieve the highest success rate.

Early on the morning of July 12, after a full night’s sleep, Xu Jin ate some dry food with plain water.

He blocked the cave entrance with a huge rock, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to officially engrave the star pattern.

Just like when he engraved the Small Gathering Star Pattern before, everything flowed naturally and logically.

After all, he had practiced it thousands of times inside the Star Lamp.

The only difference was that after successfully outlining with Star Power, it must be continuously and repeatedly flushed and solidified with Star Power to form a perfect circuit without any pauses.

And all potential sources of failure had been identified and eliminated during the thousands of practices.

An hour later, a perfect lotus orb surfaced on Xu Jin’s chest.

Initial engraving success.

Continue to solidify it.

For others, there might be a risk of failure if they ran out of Star Power midway or weren’t well-prepared, but Xu Jin didn’t face this issue.

Because whenever his Star Power was low, Xu Jin simply had to align with the Candou Platform slightly, and his Star Power would be refilled.

Two hours later, a perfect lotus orb appeared on both the front and back of Xu Jin’s chest as if growing within, extremely beautiful and shining with starlight.

The Great Gathering Star Pattern was successfully engraved.

Almost the moment the Great Gathering Star Pattern was successfully engraved, Xu Jin felt an emptiness within the lotus star pattern.

He deployed the Dining Dawn Form and a massive amount of Star Power surged in.

In just 15 minutes, Xu Jin’s Great Gathering Star Pattern transmitted a swelling sensation, filled with Star Power.

As expected!

After the successful condensation of the Great Gathering Star Pattern, the total amount of Star Power outrageously increased by fifty percent over the original basis, and the speed of absorbing and recovering Star Power also doubled.

Because of this, after the surge in Star Power by fifty percent, the time it took to recover Star Power using the Dining Dawn Form had shortened.

Bang!

Xu Jin released a Star Radiance Burst on the ground.

In an instant, it blasted a hole two feet deep.

As the Star Power grew denser, the power of basic Star Skills also enhanced, thickening the Star Shield and the Starlight Shield slightly.

But the most noticeable improvements were in Star Arrow and Star Ring.

Before the breakthrough, when Xu Jin at the Fifth Layer of Dining Dawn released a Star Arrow, it would disappear after traveling five feet, and the Star Ring could only swing out to around two feet.

But now, after successfully engraving the Great Gathering Star Pattern, the Star Arrow traveled over six feet upon leaving his body, with increased shooting speed, and the Star Ring could swirl out three feet from his body, its power significantly enhanced.

This strength was already comparable to a cultivator at the Sixth Layer of Dining Dawn.

However, he still had a gap compared to those who had successfully engraved the Great Gathering Star Pattern and broke through to the Sixth Layer of Dining Dawn.

Afterward, Xu Jin switched to practicing the Golden Spreading Chapter.

The progress in his cultivation was surprisingly delightful.

Previously, two hours of arduous cultivation only allowed the Starlight to cover half a centimeter towards his head, but now, just an hour of cultivation extended the Starlight over half a centimeter.

The speed of cultivation at the Sixth Layer of Dining Dawn had doubled.

Calculating it, it had been seven days since Xu Jin broke through to the Fifth Layer of Dining Dawn, but the Starlight had only just reached his chin, not yet climbing over.

According to the previous progress, it would take at least twenty more days to break through.

But after engraving the Great Gathering Star Pattern, the cultivation speed of the Golden Spreading Chapter had doubled, ten days.

In at most ten days, Xu Jin could break through to the Sixth Layer of Dining Dawn.

After completing his cultivation, Xu Jin calculated the time again.

Previously, individuals like Lu Xianbing and Yue Daqi who engraved the Small Gathering Star Pattern took about ten days.

According to Ning Yuchan’s estimation, they would need at least a month to successfully condense the Great Gathering Star Pattern.

Xu Jin had already decided; the timing of his report on successfully engraving the Great Gathering Star Pattern had to be controlled.

Since it took about thirty days for talents like Lu Xianbing to engrave the Great Gathering Star Pattern, Xu Jin planned to report his success in about twenty-five days.

That should secure him the reward for being the first to engrave the Great Gathering Star Pattern — a Mental-locking Golden Pill.

Now, as half a month had passed since Xu Jin successfully engraved the Small Gathering Star Pattern, he would report this news in another ten days.

He had to perform well enough to surpass those top talents like Lu Xianbing, but not so extraordinarily as to seem freakish.

He exited the cave to continue gathering!

Soon enough, Xu Jin discovered that the substantial increase in the total amount of Star Power even slightly elevated the power of Flying Star Step.

It’s roughly the saying that “the better the skill, the bolder the performer.” The increase in strength allowed Xu Jin to explore further afield.

Of course, the most important factor was the “Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern.”

The obtained Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern enhanced Xu Jin’s ability to preemptively sense danger by more than tenfold.

In just half a day, the Spirit Sniffing Star Pattern had helped Xu Jin avoid two Star Beasts.

Although Xu Jin had the achievement of killing the Green Snake Star Beast, he felt that this achievement had some elements of luck and was not replicable.

He shouldn’t risk challenging Star Beasts unless absolutely necessary.

He was still one and a half realms below them.

He mustn’t act recklessly.

In this half-day, Xu Jin had gathered over 400 taels.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly, Xu Jin’s nose twitched slightly as a complex scent arose.

It was the smell of blood, specifically human blood.

And not just one kind.

People?

Xu Jin pretended to be searching for medicinal herbs and quickly located the general direction of the scent.

In a small valley out of sight, but the scents unmistakably came from there.

There were not only multiple human blood scents but also live human scents, at least two people.

“Definitely not disciples from the Taoist Institute!”

Xu Jin immediately made a judgement, if they were disciples from the Taoist Institute, they should have come out to greet him by now, not hide in the valley.

“Is someone targeting me?”

While his gaze casually swept over the valley, Xu Jin pretended to search and turned in a different direction.

In the valley, two men clad in grass cloaks were crouched in the bushes, watching Xu Jin from a distance and whispered to each other.

“Brother Yang, when do we make our move?

I think this spot is quite suitable, even if an expert from the institute rushes over, it should take them at least 15 minutes, right?” the short Jiang Long whispered.

“Why rush?

No one is competing with us.

Let’s lure one or two Fierce Beasts over here to wear this kid down a bit first.

We need to be careful,” Yang Ba said.

“Yes, being careful is the way to stay alive…”

Shoo!

The piercing sound of a break in the air arose unexpectedly.

Yang Ba, experienced as he was, instantly rolled to the side like a dodging donkey, while Jiang Long, who was speaking, instinctively turned his head just to see a Star Arrow shooting towards him.

Bang!

Jiang Long’s head burst open like a watermelon!