Chapter 108 - 70: 3 Days, 90 Years!

Chapter 108: Chapter 70: 3 Days, 90 Years!

The youth from Huang Bamboo Temple and Lu Kuan behind him bowed at almost the same time. Li Yinsheng smiled and waved his hand, signaling for the three of them to dispense with the formalities.

Mu Xiaoyu squatted on the ground, puffing her cheeks as she glared at Li Yinsheng. "Senior Brother, you’re falsely accusing me! I was clearly staying alert to my surroundings. You’re just too elusive!"

Ever since she was frightened by the Black-Scaled Python her senior brother had found on the mountain near Xuanzhen Peak, she had learned her lesson. While traveling in the wild, she never dared to let her guard down. Otherwise, when Li Yinsheng hung the Green Velvet Monkey from a tree yesterday, she wouldn’t have noticed it so quickly. But expecting her to detect her senior brother’s sneak attack was asking a bit too much.

"Oh? Are you really that alert?" Li Yinsheng asked.

"Of course!" Mu Xiaoyu stood up, her tone brimming with absolute certainty. Her Divine Sense had been slightly spread out the entire time, keeping a vigilant watch over her surroundings.

"Then you should have noticed the bug on your shoulder," Li Yinsheng said, holding back a laugh as he pointed at her left shoulder.

Mu Xiaoyu stiffened all over. Inch by inch, she twisted her rigid neck to look at her left shoulder. Perched right there was a bug the size of a small chick, looking like a cross between a cicada and an ant.

"WAAAH!"

Mu Xiaoyu leaped into the air, winding her arm like a windmill to violently fling the bug off her shoulder. In the same fluid motion, she snatched her Cold Leaf Sword from her Qiankun Bag and unleashed over a dozen azure Sword Lights, sending them hurtling toward the mid-air insect.

Her Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword had indeed reached a certain degree of mastery. The dozen or so streaks of azure light struck true with unerring precision, solidly slicing the bug into a cloud of tiny fragments before it could even hit the ground.

"HUFF, HUFF, HUFF..."

After sending the bug to its maker with her Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword, Mu Xiaoyu was still visibly shaken.

Li Yinsheng looked at the shifting faint Golden Characters hovering before him. His expression remained nonchalant, but a surge of pleasant surprise welled up in his heart.

[Current Magic Cultivation Time: 73 Days]

Before his junior sister had killed that bug, his Magic Cultivation Time had been seventy days. This single insect was actually worth three full days of Magic Cultivation Time. There were tens of thousands of these bugs on this mountain. Added together, that would equate to a total of thirty thousand days of Magic Cultivation Time—roughly eighty-two years. Factoring in the seven or eight years of Magic Cultivation Time he could gain from killing other demonic creatures over the past half-month, he should be able to amass a total of ninety years.

A Daoist only had a hundred years of Cultivation. These bugs, combined with the other demonic creatures, were actually worth ninety years of Magic Cultivation Time! What Realm would his Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword reach with that?! By then, even his Martial Uncle’s Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword probably wouldn’t compare to his, right?

When the time came, he could personally guide his junior sister in cultivating the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword. Coupled with the White Rainbow Sword and the Shifeng Spirit Charm, wouldn’t her progress skyrocket? As long as he could help her cultivate the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword to produce one hundred and twenty-eight Sword Lights within three years, that would be another one hundred and twelve years of Cultivation.

Before that, however, he still needed to make a trip to Zulu Temple. The Blood Refining Core had to be swapped for a superior Magical Artifact of the same type before he claimed his next Cultivation reward. Moreover, aside from Black Stone Magical Artifacts, Zulu Temple—as the Daoist Temple within the Dharma Vein most adept at forging Magical Artifacts—was the most likely place to repair the White Rainbow Sword.

However...

Li Yinsheng reined in his wandering thoughts as he suddenly realized something else. Cultivation was typically measured in years, so the rewards were calculated accordingly. But Magic shouldn’t work like that, right? When a typical Cultivator gauged the profundity of someone’s Magic, they generally used terms like Beginner, Small Success, and Great Success, or evaluated it based on the number of Sword Lights, as was the case with the Yin Yang Light-Splitting Sword.

So what did this "ninety years" mean...?

Surely it wouldn’t literally force him to practice Magic day and night, without a moment’s rest, for ninety consecutive years?

Li Yinsheng rubbed the space between his brows, his emotions suddenly complicated.

"Senior Brother!" Mu Xiaoyu’s voice snapped Li Yinsheng out of his reverie. "Did you secretly put that bug on me to mess with me?"

She glared at him, her cheeks puffed out in anger. Her Divine Sense had clearly been enveloping her entire body the whole time! How could a bug have crawled onto her—especially one that huge?! Ever since Li Yinsheng had set her up with the Black-Scaled Python, she found it incredibly difficult to trust him when it came to these matters. Building trust took a very, very long time, but destroying it only took an instant.

"Hmm..." Li Yinsheng’s gaze fell on Mu Xiaoyu. Instead of answering her question, he stared intently at her and suddenly raised an eyebrow. "Junior Sister, it seems your Qingxuan Scripture has reached the Fourth Layer. Congratulations."

Through her recent Cultivation and Refinement of peaches, his junior sister’s Cultivation had already reached the bottleneck of the Third Layer. The sudden fright from the insect had caused her Qi Blood and Magical Power to surge simultaneously, propelling her smoothly into the Fourth Layer.

"Really?!"

Mu Xiaoyu’s eyes lit up, instantly forgetting her interrogation of her senior brother. She closed her eyes to carefully sense her internal state, then reopened them, her face beaming with delightful surprise. "It really is the Fourth Layer! Yay! I don’t have to wear the Quenching Essence Lock anymore!"

"Indeed. The Quenching Essence Lock is useless to you now, so there’s no need to wear it," Li Yinsheng nodded.

Mu Xiaoyu was overjoyed. Li Yinsheng gave a slight nod, his face displaying a gratified expression.

It was also the perfect time to retire the Blood Refining Core. He had previously considered giving it to his junior sister, but using the Blood Refining Core consumed an immense amount of Heart and Spirit, which would only drag down her normal Cultivation speed. It was better to directly use Heavenly and Earthly Treasures to assist in Refining her Body, so he had quietly scrapped that idea.

But now...

Thinking of that giant, fleshy bug underground—which possessed extremely pure energy but was incredibly difficult to subject to Refinement—Li Yinsheng had a new idea. This Blood Refining Core might just come in handy.