A World Worth Protecting

A moment later, Little Missy’s distant voice sounded in his head.

“You’ve thought of some request and have decided to summon me again? Come on, tell me what you want.”

Wang Baole smiled upon hearing her words. There was a faint flicker in his eyes. Her words had exposed his exact motive for calling upon her. From that alone, he could immediately conclude one thing.

Little Missy undoubtedly was able to observe the external world, either through himself or through some other means. The fragment, for example, must have been something she had known about as soon as he acquired it.

But she hadn’t spoken a word about it…

“Little Missy, you’ve misunderstood me. Am I that sort of person? I’d planned to give this fragment to you as a birthday present,” Wang Baole blinked and said immediately, without hesitation.

“Birthday present?” Little Missy froze.

Wang Baole was inwardly pleased. He had chosen his earlier words to let the other ask exactly that question. He personally felt that he had almost fully grasped Little Missy’s character. It was the same as speaking to a girl. He would first have to say something to spark her interest or curiosity. The explanation that followed didn’t matter; what mattered was how sweet his words were.

“I don’t know when your birthday is, but I hope that every present I give you is a meaningful one, and is a pleasant surprise to you, like the flowers I got you previously…”

“I wish for you to be happy. I want to hear you laugh. This way… I’ll be happy too,” Wang Baole said gently.

Little Missy: “…”

Wang Baole was pleased upon discovering Little Missy’s silence. He mused about his skills and how he had started practicing them since he was in kindergarten. Even though it seemed that they had become less useful as he had grown older… after some practice those few years, he discovered that the skills had started to display their original impact and prowess once again.

Especially when used on Little Missy. It works every time. I’m guessing no one on her previous planet was as gifted as I am, Wang Baole thought and started feeling all pleased about himself. He pulled out the Hallucination Pillow and entered the Hallucination realm, picked up the black mask, and placed the black fragment on top of it.

Very quickly, the fragment seemingly melted and then fused with the black mask. What had been a damaged half-mask became slightly more complete with the fusion of the fragment.

A moment later, after Wang Baole’s patient waiting, Little Missy’s voice resounded in Wang Baole’s head with a strange timbre.

“… thank you.

“You’ve reached a pivotal point on your cultivation journey. The next level is the Foundation Establishment realm.

“You can see the Foundation Establishment realm as a kind of magnifying glass. It amplifies your original foundations multifold. As a result, two aspects determine your weaknesses and strengths after you reach the Foundation Establishment realm. One is how you reach the Foundation Establishment realm, and the other is the strength of your foundations.

“There are many ways to reach the Foundation Establishment realm, but you lack in many of the requirements now. I can’t help you with those, but if your foundations are extremely strong, when you reach the Foundation Establishment realm in the future, the augmentation of your abilities and your power will far surpass your peers.”

Wang Baole’s eyes lit up upon hearing what Little Missy said, and his heartbeat quickened. He had been waiting for her to say something like that as well as her guidance on the matter. He understood what she was trying to say.

“That means, if my foundation is a ten on the scale, and reaching the Foundation Establishment realm will magnify the original by, say, ten times, then when I reach the Foundation Establishment realm, I will score one hundred… Similarly, if my foundation before reaching the Foundation Establishment realm scores a hundred, then I’ll score a thousand when I reach the Foundation Establishment realm!”

“That is the principle of it. The method I’m teaching you is called the Compression Art. There are limits to the True Breath realm. Like a completely filled bottle, it’s impossible to pour anything else into it. But through the Compression Art, you’ll be able to compress your cultivation and carve out space for more cultivation. This will strengthen your foundation!”

“This method can be applied not only on your cultivation but also on the branding of inscriptions during your crafting,” Little Missy explained patiently—a rare thing for her to do—and finally taught Wang Baole the formula to the method. Then, her voice disappeared.

After memorizing the Compression Art’s mantra, Wang Baole was energized. He ran through the formula in his head, confirmed that everything was in order, and retreated from the Hallucination realm. He immediately began cultivation.

He didn’t try the method on himself first. After some deliberation, he decided to try it on the inscriptions on a Numinous Treasure. After he had familiarized himself with the method, he would then try it on himself.

Time passed one day at a time. Wang Baole retreated into seclusion, forwent sleep and forgot to eat, and practiced the Compression Art. The effects of the method were spectacular. Combined with his skills at crafting artifacts, Wang Baole managed to craft his first… supreme third-grade Numinous Treasure within half a month!

A supreme Numinous Treasure, a Numinous Treasure that was beyond perfect, was rare throughout the entire Federation.

The Federation knew the ways to refine supreme Numinous Treasures; however, the success rate was too low. The Numinous Treasure would be destroyed if there was any failure encountered during the crafting process. Wang Baole had worked on the foundations of a perfected third-grade Numinous Treasure, applied the Compression Art, and carved ten times the number of inscriptions on the Spirit Kernel. That amplified the power of the Numinous Treasure, forcibly transforming it into a supreme Numinous Treasure.

“This Compression Art can forcibly increase the level of a Numinous Treasure… but it’s only one level. Unless there’s a more advanced Compression Art, this is the best that I can do with what I know.”

Wang Baole muttered to himself. His eyes were bright with excitement. Even if what he had managed to achieve was merely the leveling up to the supreme grade, the impact was still extremely big to him. Especially when he was considering his advancement to the Foundation Establishment realm. His breakthrough in refining Numinous Treasures gave him greater confidence in and a greater chance at reaching the Foundation Establishment realm.

As a result, in the following days, Wang Baole gave it his all and comprehensively revamped his Numinous Treasures. He applied the Compression Art and enhanced more than half of his treasures to the third-grade supreme level. He became more familiar with the application of the Compression Art.

At that point, he finally made up his mind and began to apply the Compression Art to his own cultivation!

Wang Baole sat cross-legged in his cave abode and applied the Compression Art to his cultivation. In an instant, his body started to shudder. He felt an immense pressure from all corners of the room pushing down on his body, sinking deep through his flesh and blood, like targeted molecules that had honed in on his Spirit Qi and started compressing them without warning!

The compression was like a form of forceful cohesion. He could feel intense pain in his blood and flesh. Wang Baole started panting heavily, and his face turned white. Large beads of sweat started dripping from his body.

Why is it that every mystic technique Little Missy teaches is always so painful to learn… Wang Baole was torn, but he could clearly feel the effects of the method. He felt that as the Compression Art worked its magic, the Spirit Qi within his body gathered and clustered tightly together without stopping. It was as if there had been many gaps in his Spirit Qi that, with the application of the method, were being compressed and shrunk until there were fewer of them left.

With the contraction, Wang Baole’s cultivation level seemed to be dropping. However, his aura had instead grown stronger and stronger!

After the gaps within his Spirit Qi were compressed and reduced in number, the stability and resilience of his Spirit Qi grew to its peak. The change in the internal structure of his Spirit Qi also enhanced the viscosity of his Spirit Qi. It was akin to a transformation from iron to steel.

As a result, despite the extreme agony, Wang Baole still grit his teeth and persevered. It was after he had withstood two weeks’ of such torture and hammering… that his cultivation finally compressed to an extreme and was no longer at the peak of the True Breath realm, instead, appearing to be recently advanced into the fifth-level of the True Breath realm.

In reality, though, the spiritual aura he was exuding was t30% more powerful than it had been before. That was the same for his combat capabilities!

Even his meaty body had shrunk one size in those two weeks under the Compression Art. His originally round chubby face had slimmed down slightly.

When Wang Baole discovered that, he was both shocked and overjoyed. He stared at himself in the mirror, overwhelmed by excitement.

I see my chin!

It was impossible to describe how excited he was feeling at that moment. He stared into the mirror for a full two hours, touching his chin repeatedly. Finally, he raised his head skyward and burst out laughing.

I’m someone with a chin now! Overjoyed, Wang Baole walked to and fro in his cave abode. After quite a while, he slowly set aside the unexpected happiness and examined his cultivation. After noting the crystal inside his body, his eyes shone brightly.

The next step is to return to the peak of True Breath realm as soon as possible… this crystal is key. Looks like I have to make another trip to the Lightning Domain. The thought of that energized Wang Baole. On the one hand, he looked forward to returning to the peak of the True Breath realm. On the other, he looked forward even more to slimming down by one size more after leaving the Lightning Domain.

Let’s go! Level up cultivation, and burn calories! At the thought of that, Wang Baole charged out of his cave abode in a manly manner, racing straight for the Array Runes Pavilion… and its Lightning Domain!