Chapter 189: Martial Arts Newbie, Novice Immortal
The sword danced at Jiang He’s thought, with the Scarlet Flame Sword hence turning into a scarlet sword flash streaking through the farm, causing a deafening air burst as it swished.
“Back!”
After playing with it for some time, Jiang He waved, and the Scarlet Flame Sword turned into a scarlet radiance and returned into the sea of swords between his brow.
Turning on his System Panel, Jiang He studied it carefully—
[Name: Jiang He]
[Cultivation: Immortal Path—perfect Qi-Refinist; Martial Arts—Rank-Eight Pinnacle]
[Ability: Royal Sword, fire]
[Martial Arts Cultivation: Indestructible Diamond (Mastery+), Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms (+), Blind Princess’s Eight Practices (Second Practice+), Strengthened Nine Yang Technique (Fifth Tier+), Ninefold Thunderblade (Third Fold+), Dragon-Elephant Prajna (Fifth Tier+), Nine Stars Heavenly Body Formula (First Tier), Three Thousand Calamities (First Level)]
[Owned Land: 3 Mu]
[Farm Level: 4 (EXP 10800/50000)]
[System Backpack: 18 boxes]
[System Shop: Unlocked]
[Farm Points: 62000]
The System Panel had changed a little. For one, the ‘Cultivation’ bar which used to display martial arts proficiency had an ‘Immortal Path’ added under it.
His Farm EXP and Farm Points had bloated too. Three Thousand Calamities and the two extra-large tufts of Twenty-Seven Leafed Sword Will Gra.s.s also earned Jiang He 40000 points and 4000 EXP.
“Mana, True Qi.”
Jiang He couldn’t help chuckling even as he felt the two energies coexisting within his body. “I’m now cultivating both martial arts and immortal arts at once, aren’t I? According to usual novel plots, those who cultivating martial arts with immortal arts at once or mana with martial arts would usually fall apart aside from the protagonist... but though I’m just a plain martial arts newbie and a novice in immortal arts, I don’t think martial-immortal cultivation is that difficult.”
“I’ll plant more stuff if necessary... and eventually cultivate up to the pinnacle.
How awesome does martial-immortal cultivation sound?
Of course...
Jiang He’s main objective was to hide a trump card.
Foul deeds are afoot in the world at the moment, and Jiang He understood that profoundly over the last month. The Sky Demon Cult, for example, keep sending waves of their elites after him, staring from Cordo the rank-four martial artist to most recently, the Sentinel of the Right and his goons...
Next time, it would perhaps be some Cardinal or Saint who come personally.
He would have died dozen times over if he hadn’t had some accomplishments in martial arts.
“From now on, I will focus on the immortal path, and martial arts comes second. However, I would only show my martial arts to others so that they a.s.sume I’m a plain and average martial artist... I would only cast my Royal Sword to kill in the right moment, bursting instantly and catching my opponent unawares!
“Now that I have perfect cultivation of the Qi Refinist level, I more or less count as a novice of the immortal path. Still, reaching that tier only would not do. I have to cultivate an immortal sword art to truly ascend from novice to newbie immortal.”
Even as the thought occurred to him, a System Notification jingled beside his ears—
[Ding!]
[Consume 50000 Farm Points to cultivate the First Style of Three Thousand Calamities: White Foal Crosses the Rift?]
“Yes!”
[Ding!]
[-50000 Farm Points]
[Congratulations, Host. You have gained mastery over the First Style of Three Thousand Calamities: White Foal Crosses the Rift.]
Complex information poured inside Jiang He’s mind then.
In that instant, Jiang He could sense that he had complete grasp over White Foal Crosses the Rift.
The reason he chose to cultivate it was because he thought that he was lacking when it came to a single-target damage... he did have to fight the newly ascended King Feral, the Black King Drake in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle over a dozen minutes, after all.
“Now that I’ve mastered White Foal Crosses the Rift, I could instakill trash like the Black King Drake with one swing of my sword, which reaches my goal of improving my ability by up to threefold.”
Jiang He nodded in satisfaction.
That being said, improving his ability by up to threefold was not much, and barely acceptable.
White Foal Crosses the Rift was now his strongest single-target offensive move.
As for AOE attacks... He just had to keep cultivating the Three Thousand Calamities. For now, he could make up for that lacking with his pea bombs.
Jiang He sighed a little when he glanced at his System Panel again then.
Farm Points were so easily spent. In just ten minutes, only 12000 points were left...
“I’ll start earning for now and stop spending. Martial arts cultivation will be kept as a guise and that’s enough, barely pa.s.sing since I’m rank-eight pinnacle now... I’ll find a new way of earning Farm Points before improving myself in all aspects.”
“Eh?”
Jiang He’s gaze shifted at that thought.
Earning Farm Points...
Dollars and gold Yuanbao could no longer keep up with his farm level, but...
What about the Orirocks?
He had received fourteen of them from the Lin clan, used ten to level his farm, meaning that he has 4 left...
Jiang He gave Dumbo a look at that, and understanding his intention, the dog pointed a claw at the ground.
Oom!
An earthen-yellow halation materialized over the dog’s body, streaming up to the tip of its claw and shooting into the ground.
The soil hence churned, and instantly formed a small hole.
Beaming, Dumbo chuckled in its Sichuan-Xibei accent, “Master, look, aren’t I awesome?”
Jiang He narrowed his eyes.
Shuddering in fright, Dumbo promptly pointed again to ‘dig’ three more holes on the ground.
After Jiang He threw the four Orirocks into the hole with pinpoint precision, Dumbo pointed with its paw again. The soil hence squirmed, burying all four holes before the dog breathed out a jet of water to wet the soil.
With that, the four Orirocks were planted with utmost simplicity.
In fact, Jiang He was quite envious of those moves...
The combination of earth-type and water-type powers was a very convenient mechanism for farming. As a genuine farmer, Jiang He thought that he must think of something to awaken those powers too.
“It would be so convenient for farming if I really could awaken earth-type and water-type superpowers...
“It’s said that consuming floral spirits holds a chance for awakening superpowers. I’ll ask Mu Wanqiu and Duan Tianhe later to see if the Superpower Research Department or the Martial Arts Department (MAD) have such floral spirits. If there isn’t, I’ll just have to try my luck by putting up a post on Warrior Home.”
Jiang He then checked the time.
It was almost midnight.
Returning inside the mansion, Jiang He had a bath and returned to his room, put on his silk pajamas and poured himself a cup of rank-nine Origin Fluid and a handful of sunflower seeds, the latter of which he baked with his fire-type powers as he resumed his dry, monotonous night life.
Those two items were treasures that improve spirit, and Jiang He thought that only him could be this extravagant on earth.
Getting his laptop, Jiang He then went online albeit with much difficulty.
“d.a.m.n it!”
“Why is the network connection suddenly so poor?”
Speechless, Jiang He called Duan Tianhe and asked him about it, only to learn that a nearby cellular tower had been destroyed for a Feral—incidentally, that was the cellular tower from which Jiang He’s network received its signal.
As for fiber optics?
Jinyintan Village did have fiber optics before, but some Ferals who happened to have much time on their hands dug out the pipes holding them and pulled them apart.
“I can’t carry my farm around with me, so I would have to stay in the farm for now... but having no internet would not do.”
Jiang He was feeling a little gloomy.
His mobile phone works and he could make calls, but the lag was very serious once he tried to surf the internet.
“For phones, I heard the military has developed new satellite phones that gets signals and internet even in remote places. I’ll have Commander Chen give me some of those when development is complete.”
“As for internet... should I ask the MAD so that they launch a personal satellite for me? Hmmm... that’s very embarra.s.sing, although they could help me set up a personal cellular tower nearby.”
That said, it was not nice troubling others.
“Forget it. I’ll compromise with the hotspots from the satellite phone. The bandwidth would not be that bad, and it’s not like I watch those shady videos.”
As a martial artist...
Wait, that’s not right.
As one involved in immortal-martial cultivation, it was not exactly right to call himself a martial artist—instead, it should be cultivator.
And as a cultivator, enduring hardship was a fundamental quality. Remembering how he had weathered the days of eating carrots and cuc.u.mbers every day, Jiang He decided that he just have to turn on his phone’s hotspot before going online and bear with it through clenched teeth, and it counts as a refinement of his martial artist heart.
Unable to surf the web, Jiang He could only kill time by munching on the purple-gold sunflower seeds.
As he munched on, he would have a sip of Origin Fluid when his throat felt dry, which really hit the spot.
Hence, then plate of purple-gold sunflower seeds slowly decreased, and Jiang He started to feel drowsy and was about to doze off...
Ooom!
A curious surge extended throughout his body.
In that split second, the drowsiness that Jiang He acc.u.mulated with much difficulty instantly faded...
“Eh?”
As he reached out with his senses, Jiang He found that his spirit appeared to have reached a limit. His thoughts seemed to have become much transparent and conducive as a feeling of epiphany arose...
“My spirit is... ascending?”
“I could probably match... divine-tier elites now?”
Oh, h.e.l.l!
Jiang He cursed, helpless.
Could that ascension not arrive at any other moment? Did it have to come when he was starting to feel a little sleepy?
How could he sleep now that his spirit was overflowing with all drowsiness gone?
“How could this be?”
Jiang He rose to his feet and put on his clothes, just as his eyes blankly viewed the night sky outside his window to find the sea of stars above while autumn chills billowed.
“Could I be too worried about the Sky Demon Cult’s next revenge to sleep? That’s what happened yesterday—I couldn’t sleep until the sun had risen, and woke up before six... Hmmm...”
Jiang He withdrew his gaze, blinking.
He felt that his serious lack of sleep was key.
‘After sleeping for an entire day, of course I won’t fall asleep at night!’
It was all caused by a reversal between day and night—an irregular lifestyle.
And the cause of all of that was...
“The Sky Demon Cult!”
“If they didn’t repet.i.tively attempt their a.s.similations and ambushes that left me fearing day after day, my biological clock wouldn’t have been that confused. All I would do everyday is peacefully mind my farm and punctually take a bath and sleep every evening.”
Killing intent arose within his heart.
Jiang He decided that he would go on the attack and settle the score with the Sky Demon Cult after his trip to Tantra was over.
He was not about to wait for his death!
“Since I’m not falling asleep, I’ll walk around the farm. Wonder if my Orirocks are fully grown yet.”
Jiang He hence headed downstairs.
His spirit radiated—he was about to test how far his spirit could ascend after its ascension.
500 meters, 600 meters...
He reached his previous limit soon enough.
Even so, Jiang He did not feel an ounce of discomfort. In fact, it was quite leisurely.
Meanwhile, his spirit continued to extend: 1000 meters, 1500 meters, 1800 meters...
And that was the limit.
“Eighteen hundred meters... less than two kilometers. Are the spirit of divine-tier elites that weak?”
“Eh?”
Jiang He’s gaze lit up abruptly then.
His spirit seemed to have picked up on something.
***
Meanwhile.
In the bright and s.p.a.cious house approximately 1500 meters away from Jiang He’s house, Three Blades Lin, who had been snoring away suddenly opened his eyes.