Chapter 13: Jade Marrow Pill_1
Translator: 549690339
[Thunderbolt Sword Skill +10]!
[Thunderbolt Sword Skill +10]!
[Thunderbolt Sword Skill +10]!
...
[Thunderbolt Sword Skill Proficient; 0/200]!
"Damn it!"
A sense of brutal hunger came from within. Xu Mu swallowed a whole bottle of Fasting Pill to alleviate the sensation.
"This swordsmanship consumes too much energy! Luckily, this is the cultivation world. If it was the real world, I wouldn't even have time to eat!"
Xu Mu was still in shock.
If he hadn't replenished his energy in time, he suspected that the system would directly absorb his life force.
Luckily, the rewards were substantial, equal to his tremendous efforts.
His muscles were now well-defined and full, clearly outlined. When he moved slightly, his power emerged continuously, an eruption waiting to happen.
He took out his Dark Iron Sword.
The previously heavy Dark Iron Sword now felt as light as a wooden sword in his hand.
Undoubtedly, his strength had increased considerably.
Xu Mu held the sword with one hand and started practicing the Thunderbolt Sword Skill in his room. Each move he made stirred up a wind, with shadows of his sword flickering everywhere, and its frosty glint lurking threateningly.
"Not bad!"
After fully digesting and absorbing his boost, Xu Mu retired to his room to rest.
In the following days, Xu Mu was immersed in alchemy and enhancing his strength. He had meant to spend some time bonding with his wife, but he never found the opportunity.
In a blink of an eye, two months had passed. Amid the storms outside, Xu Mu sat quietly in his little nest, as solid as a rock.
In these two months, after depleting a considerable amount of Luck Value, he had improved in various aspects to his limits.
Of course, he had also increased a small amount through practice apart from using the Luck Value!
His current attributes were:
[Name: Xu Mu]
[Lifespan: 62/104]
[Realm: Qi Cultivation, Tier 3; 399/400]
[Martial Method: Spirit Flame Jue, Perfection; 9/800]
[Skills:]
Alchemy:
Fasting Pill, Proficient; 312/400, Qi Gathering Pill, Master; 21/1600
Magic:
Fire-controlling Skill, Grandmaster; 3051/3200, Fireball Skill, Proficient; 10/400, Wind Blade Skill, Proficient; 108/200, Light Body Skill, Master; 0/1600, Invisibility Technique, Perfection; 0/800...
Swordsmanship:
Thunderbolt Sword Skill, Proficient; 247/800
Divine Skills: None
[Achievements:]
Delighted to Have a Daughter: Increases Luck Value by 10 every day!
[Luck Value: 955]
His Fire-controlling Skill was on the verge of breaking into the Grandmaster level, and the Thunderbolt Sword Skill that he had been focusing on improving had reached the Proficient level.
Only his cultivation was at the very edge of breaking through, and it hadn't changed for days.
But Xu Mu could tell - if he continued to grind like this, he would break through within a month.
This rate of progress was dozens of times his previous one.
But the cost was also substantial.
He felt as though his pocket was being stretched thin.
The Fasting Pills were already consumed, and so the Thunderbolt Sword skill had been stalled at the Proficient level.
The Qi Gathering Pills that he created through alchemy were mostly consumed by him and Ye Yingying, leaving just over a hundred left as a backup.
Not to mention the Spirit Rice and meat.
The speed at which he was spending Spirit Stones was, undoubtedly, dozens of times what he was used to as well.
"But, as long as it enhances my strength, it's worth it!"
Xu Mu felt that his power had increased several times compared to two months ago.
Being Proficient in the Thunderbolt Sword skill, he had a robust physique. His muscles, bones, and skin had all been honed to the extreme, and he could casually exert a force of four to five hundred pounds. Without using any spiritual power, he could easily lift up a woman of Ye Yingying's weight with a single hand.
However, the most impressive bit was that as his physique improved, the power of the Light Body Skill was finally showing.
With the support of the Light Body Skill, he could easily cut through steel and half an inch-thick stone with a single swing of his sword.
But without anyone to test his ability, he was unsure about the extent of his physical power.
Xu Mu was considering going to Baihe Forest to test his skill against a monster beast after his cultivation broke through to the fourth tier, which would also give him the opportunity to obtain some monster meat.
Due to his lack of strength, he had only visited the wilderness a few times in all these years after crossing into this world, and he had never strayed from the outer fringes.
While his swordsmanship had improved considerably, his Fire-controlling Skill had improved even more.
The explosive fireball that originally required some time to compress could now be condensed in an instant.
The weapons that he created using the concentrated flames had reached the toughness of standard weapons. Even if Xu Mu released his control, they could still maintain their form for a while.
Along with it, the impact and binding power of the Fire Bird and Fire Snake had also improved with the rise of the tide.
But an issue had also become prominent!
He was running low on spiritual power!
That's why Xu Mu has been holding back from breaking through to the transcendent realm.
While his Fire-controlling Skill was improving rapidly, he noticed something interesting.
The Fireball Skill, along with his Fire-controlling Skill, had unknowingly also been improved to the Proficient level.
Xu Mu suspected that this was likely what people referred to as learning by indirect exposure.
After all, both of them belonged to the Fire-type skills!
Xu Mu believed that in the future, any Fire-type skill that he practiced would likely receive significant boosts in cultivation.
He was already considering cultivating the Tier Two Fire-controlling Skill once his cultivation broke through to Tier Four, reaching mid Qi-Cultivation, and his Tier One Fire-controlling Skill reached transcendence.
Over these two months of seclusion, apart from the consumption of Spirit Stones, he also had to face another problem.
His Luck Value was running low!
Increasing his skill proficiency quickly wouldn't be as easy in the future.
"I must figure out a way to increase income and decrease expenditure!"
Decreasing expenditure means reducing the consumption of the Luck Value, refraining from using Luck Value to elevate skills that have little utility or are of a low level.
To increase income means to earn more achievements and enhance the amount of Luck Value obtained each day.
The simplest way Xu Mu came up with was to let Ye Yingying give birth to another child.
To have both a son and a daughter, and rejoice in the birth of a precious child.
However, the situation in White Stone City is not good at the moment, having another child now could potentially bring about a lot of danger in the future.
Moreover, Ye Yingying's body has not fully recovered. Having another child would cause harm to her body.
Therefore, this method won't work, at least not for now.
Another path would be to take in concubines!
Marry seven or eight women, attain the achievement of having three wives and four concubines.
But this method evidently doesn't work at the moment.
No other reason, just one —
He's broke!
His current earning ability is just enough to support his own cultivation. Adding a wife has already made him scraping by. If he were to marry a few more, it would not only fail to improve his cultivation speed but could potentially reduce it.
In the end, after a lot of pondering which resulted in a long sigh, he decided to take one step at a time!
Instructing Ye Yingying to activate the formation after his departure, Xu Mu left with the remaining one hundred and twenty Qi Gathering Pills.
When he passed by the Brothers of Li Family's house, he couldn't help but stop to take a look.
The doors were tightly shut!
He wasn't sure if the two had gone out or were merely hiding in the house to cultivate.
Without dwelling on it, he left the backstreet and walked quickly towards White Stone Marketplace.
On his way to the marketplace, he noticed that there were more people than there had been two months ago. Most of the previously vacant houses on both sides of the road were now inhabited.
The whole shantytown exhibited a vitality unlike before, a feeling that was especially prominent in the areas closer to the marketplace.
"It seems that a lot of cultivators have moved here from other places in the past two months! I wonder how the battle between the two factions is going? How much longer will it last?"
Xu Mu felt that if the population continued to increase at the current rate, there would inevitably be problems.
After all, White Stone City is a small place and its capacity is limited.
Upon entering the marketplace, the streets were filled with people, and cultivators were flying to and fro in the sky, as if there was some grand festival taking place. This prompted Xu Mu to once again recognize the gravity of the issue, causing him to feel somewhat uneasy.
Arriving at the Song Family Pharmacy, an unfamiliar maid greeted him and attempted to attend to him.
"Is Miss Su Qing here? I'm looking for her!"
"Uh? She is currently attending to a guest, you may have to wait a little."
"That's fine! Just let her know I'm waiting here!"
"Alright then!"
The maid turned and left, leaving Xu Mu waiting at the entrance.
Not long after, Su Qing hurriedly came over.
"Apologies for keeping you waiting, Friend Xu! Are you here to sell pills again?"
"Yes!"
"Please follow me!"
Su Qing led Xu Mu to the back hall.
"Friend Su, don't rush! I've been secluded in closed-door alchemy practice for the past few months, I'm not aware of what's been happening out there. Can you tell me about it?"
Xu Mu once again took out a bottle of Qi Gathering Pills and passed them to her.
Su Qing quickly pushed it away.
"You're too courteous, Friend Xu! Just the fact that you came to me to sell your pills, I'm already very grateful. Please, no more gifts! As for what's been happening in the marketplace recently, feel free to ask anything you'd like to know!"
Xu Mu specifically came to her to sell his pills, and she naturally had a commission from it, so accepting gifts would be somewhat inappropriate.
After all, long-term relationships require moderation.
"Alright then!"
Seeing her resolute attitude, Xu Mu didn't insist further and instead inquired about the battle between the Clear River Sword Sect and the Soul Forging Sect.
"It's not going well!"
Su Qing shook her head with worry on her delicate brows.
When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken.
If the Clear River Sword Sect falls, their own days would be hard as well.
She then told Xu Mu all the information she had gathered.
According to Su Qing, Clear River Sword Sect had been losing many of the recent battles and had lost substantial territory. They were now fundamentally in a passive defense stance, no longer initiating attacks.
Victory seems impossible unless the Nascent Soul Sect behind them intervenes, which may give the war a chance to turn around.
Having heard this news, Xu Mu was also filled with worry. He decided that the most important thing was to increase his cultivation level as soon as possible. He couldn't afford to stall.
After selling the pills, Xu Mu obtained three hundred and fifteen Lower-grade Spirit Stones.
The reason he received so much was due to the significant increase in the price of Qi Gathering Pills.
Naturally, the price of the raw materials also soared, reaching four Lower-grade Spirit Stones per unit.
Xu Mu purchased thirty portions of Qi Gathering Pill materials, costing one hundred and twenty Lower-grade Spirit Stones, and spent an additional one hundred and twenty Lower-grade Spirit Stones to purchase six units of Jade Marrow Pill materials.
He planned to start learning the process of concocting Jade Marrow Pills as soon as he got back.
On one hand, the Jade Marrow Pill could help him break through to the fourth level of Qi Cultivation faster, and on the other hand, it could establish a foundation to earn more money in the future.
As for Thunderbolt Sword Skill, he had to temporarily give it up.
As the level of the swordsmanship continues to rise, consumption has become increasingly high, which is somewhat unsustainable.
He spent the remaining spirit stones on rice and meat.
With the continuous rise in prices, the spirit stones that originally could be used for several months are now insufficient even for a month.
So, he had no choice but to make Jade Marrow Pills to increase his money-making speed.
When he got home, he took out the rice and meat, and spent some time with his wife and daughter.
Little Ling'er, who was three months old, could already close her fists, waft her hands, and show a smile. The baby's small face was fully developed, her skin was milky like milk, soft and white, her pure pupils were like two black cat's eye gems, extraordinarily adorable.
Xu Mu held her every time and could not bear to let go, kissing her over and over. The only pity was that this little thing was not interested in him. Holding her for a while would make her cry, and she had to be quickly handed over to Ye Yingying.
After he made his daughter cry again, Xu Mu left the bedroom with a bitter smile and went to the utility room to study the method of concocting Jade Marrow Pills.
Unlike swordsmanship and skills, the basics of alchemy are relatively simple.
When Xu Mu memorized all the steps and formulas of Jade Marrow Pill alchemy, the system displayed the skill of Jade Marrow Pill.
[Jade Marrow Pill: Beginner; 1/200]!