Chapter 117 - 102: Beauty Fades, Heroes Age

Chapter 117: Chapter 102: Beauty Fades, Heroes Age

Stepping out of the Home Travel agency, he immediately felt refreshed and invigorated. Thirty-six spirit stones for a five-year long-term lease. Originally, it was forty spirit stones, but the remaining half-year of rent offset the cost, bringing it down to thirty-six. Leasing for five years didn’t mean he only planned to stay in the Qinghe Marketplace for that long; rather, he simply didn’t have many spirit stones left on hand. After paying the rent, he only had twenty-three spirit stones and ten grains of spiritual sand remaining.

"We don’t need to move anymore," Chen Jianghe transmitted a message to Little Black.

"Huh? Oh." Little Black’s voice sounded somewhat disappointed. Clearly, he missed his previously fulfilling life and didn’t want to spend his days idling away in the Qinghe Marketplace.

"Your most pressing task right now is cultivation. I’ll handle earning spirit stones. Once we grow strong enough, we can go wherever we want, and we won’t have to worry about being stewed into soup ever again," Chen Jianghe consoled him.

Returning to Qingping Lane, he arrived at Courtyard 512. He placed the array disc into the slot and, with a mere thought, opened the courtyard gate. For a very long time to come, this would be his home. He hung up the "In Seclusion" sign, activated the defense array, and released Little Black and Fur Ball from the spirit beast space.

SPLASH!

Fur Ball obediently hopped into the pool, preparing to continue its cultivation by absorbing the dense spiritual qi.

"Fur Ball."

"Squeak..."

Fur Ball hopped in front of Chen Jianghe, obediently clasping its paws together in a respectful bow, acting just like a cultivator. Chen Jianghe couldn’t help but glance at Little Black. He didn’t even need to ask; this was definitely Little Black’s doing.

"These are your cultivation resources for the year. Cultivate hard," Chen Jianghe said, taking four spirit-encompassing flowers from his storage pouch.

"Squeak~"

This time, Fur Ball didn’t take the spirit-encompassing flowers. Instead, it conveyed through the spirit beast circle that it was too much and that two stalks would be enough. Recently, Little Black hadn’t bothered Chen Jianghe with voice transmissions, but he had communicated quite a bit with Fur Ball. Because of this, Fur Ball also knew that Chen Jianghe was short on spirit stones and didn’t dare to ask for too many cultivation resources.

"Times are getting better. Just focus on your cultivation." Chen Jianghe smiled and handed the spirit-encompassing flowers to Fur Ball.

"Squeak~"

Taking the spirit-encompassing flowers, Fur Ball once again bowed deeply to Chen Jianghe in a surprisingly human-like expression of gratitude.

"Spirit-encompassing flowers are useless to me. Take them and eat them yourself." Seeing Fur Ball approaching him, Little Black waved his short little claws, shooing Fur Ball back to the pool to cultivate.

With a SPLASH, Fur Ball obediently dove to the bottom of the pool to cultivate.

"Little Black, aren’t you bullying Fur Ball a bit too much?" Chen Jianghe chuckled, bringing out two bottles of Red Mist True Dew.

"Don’t be fooled by its act, Master. Fur Ball’s divine technique is ’Illusion God.’ It can raise or lower its aura by a small realm. Spirit beasts like this are usually the best at acting cute and playing the victim.

"Fortunately, under my training, Fur Ball doesn’t dare to step out of line. But it’s in the nature of such spirit beasts; it’s very hard to change them.

"Just like how you are naturally cautious, Master, and I have a gentle personality. These traits are hard to change," Little Black warned as he tucked the Red Mist True Dew away.

"..." Chen Jianghe rolled his eyes at Little Black. The first half made sense, but why did he have to drag him into it at the end? And gentle personality, my foot!

Without wasting any more words on Little Black, Chen Jianghe returned to his room and sat down cross-legged. He took out a jade bottle and poured out a True Spirit Pill. A faint, refreshing fragrance immediately wafted out, soothing his mind and body. He popped the True Spirit Pill into his mouth and swallowed it. A wave of refreshing energy spread throughout his body, followed closely by a vigorous burst of Rising Sun Qi surging into his Shenque. As Chen Jianghe circulated the Ten Thousand Waters Scripture to purify his magical power, the medicinal efficacy of the True Spirit Pill overflowed from his Shenque, making his magical power even purer.

He thought to himself, "During the three-plus years since I switched cultivation techniques, the magical power in my qi sea dantian hasn’t just increased; it has also been relatively purified. This must be what they mean by having a solid foundation.

"With the aid of the True Spirit Pill, I should be able to cultivate to the eighth-layer of Qi Refining within four years."

He circulated the Ten Thousand Waters Scripture for three grand circulations.

Four hours quietly slipped by.

Chen Jianghe opened his eyes, exhaled a breath of stale air, and stood up, walking over to his desk to begin talisman painting.

With his cultivation technique switch complete, all he had to do next was normally circulate the Ten Thousand Waters Scripture to purify his magical power. Circulating it for three grand circulations a day was the optimal cultivation duration. As a result, he now had much more time for talisman painting. Furthermore, with his purified magical power and thirty percent magic power amplification, the number of times he could paint spirit talismans had also increased. Maintaining the equilibrium of his magical power during the process would also enhance his spiritual power. Therefore, talisman painting was essentially another form of cultivation.

If he extended his divine sense to its maximum limit now, it could reach thirty-one feet—one foot further than when he had first broken through to the seventh-layer of Qi Refining. In terms of divine sense, he was already comparable to an eighth-layer Qi Refining cultivator.

Discarding all distracting thoughts, he calmed his heart and mind. He brought out all the necessary materials and began painting lower-grade Five Elements Escape Talismans.

Three months later.

He had completely used up his lower-grade talisman-painting materials, gaining nineteen lower-grade Five Elements Escape Talismans in return. Although his talisman success rate for the lower-grade Five Elements Escape Talisman hadn’t improved, his thirty percent magic power amplification and its increased purity allowed him to paint three additional times a month.

Moreover, the strength of his soul essence was also increasing. Naturally, his heart and mind divine power had grown stronger as well.

The lower-grade peach wood talisman pen could still be used eighty or ninety more times. If he were back at Jingyue Lake, he could have sold it as a "fairy’s firsthand talisman pen." But now, he could only keep it for the time being and decide what to do with it later.

Afterward, he brought out all the black pig hide and cut it into ninety pieces of spirit blood pig hide.