Chapter Eighty-Two: Starlight Body Refining, Seven Stars Treading the Moon

However, he still didn’t dare to directly use that bottle of spirit water to cleanse his eyes. He couldn’t be sure whether it truly was the Eye-Clearing Elixir—if it turned out not to be, and instead harmed his eyes, he would regret it forever. He planned that next time he went out, he would visit a reputable shop to buy some Eye-Clearing Elixir, compare it, and then decide whether to use it. Otherwise, he’d rather wait and forgo practicing the Spiritual Eye Technique for now.

Of course, he absolutely wouldn’t step outside in the near future. He had just killed someone—would he really walk brazenly into the streets, tempting fate and courting death? Even if he couldn’t be sure whether anyone else knew about the group’s failed ambush, four people disappearing at once would inevitably draw the attention of the Rakshasa Gang. As a major faction with numerous members and powerful cultivators, there was no telling if they had experts skilled in tracking and soul-searching. He thought it best to remain cautious and quietly stay within his own courtyard.

There were, after all, certain rules in the marketplace. For the Rakshasa Gang to forcibly break into a residential district and kill in broad daylight? Even if they had the audacity, he doubted they would dare. Though the Bai family had withdrawn, it didn’t mean they were absent from the marketplace. Such overt provocation would surely prompt them to act. As for the Chen family, even if they permitted chaos, they could hardly tolerate such flagrant lawlessness from a gang.

Most of the marketplace’s inhabitants were ordinary cultivators. If everyone lived in fear, even if the Chen family did seize power, they would rule over a divided, alienated populace.

“But before all that, I must first clear away what needs to be cleared,” Zhou Changwang thought. He hurried to burn all the miscellaneous items the attackers had left behind, including the identity token marking one as a disciple of the Rakshasa Gang. After cleansing everything with his Cleanse technique, he finally set his gaze on the spoils taken from Wei Yong, the body cultivator.

First, there was a conical magic weapon. After a brief examination, Zhou Changwang was a little disappointed. Its quality was on par with his flying sword—just a low-grade magical tool. Since he already possessed a sword, this spike would serve only as a backup.

Next, he looked at the storage pouch. He probed it with his spiritual sense and, as expected, encountered a barrier. But having erased the spiritual imprint from a storage pouch once before, and being far stronger now, it only took him an hour to wipe it away.

With a thought, he delved inside:

“Fifty-two low-grade spirit stones, thirteen talismans, five jade slips, three bottles of elixirs, a pile of medicinal herbs... and another identity token.”

Zhou Changwang fell silent. Was this body cultivator so poor? Of the thirteen talismans, only three were high quality. The three elixirs were Blood Vitality Pills, Strengthening Blood Pills, and Body-Tempering Pills—each bottle contained just three to five pills. Clearly, these elixirs were all for boosting blood energy and tempering the body—still useful to him, as he was now also cultivating the Eight Stances of Primordial Origin, a body-cultivation technique. While repeated practice could slowly strengthen his physique, elixirs like these were far more direct and efficient.

He then examined the jade slips:

“Starlight Body Refinement Art,” “Great Luo Vajra Hand,” “Seven Stars Treading the Moon,” “Blood Fiend Pill Recipe,” “Golden Broth Spirit-Locking Recipe.”

He reviewed them one by one. The Starlight Body Refinement Art was a body-cultivation method: during cultivation, one absorbed starlight to temper the body. Entry was easy, and it was not difficult to practice, but unlike the Eight Stances of Primordial Origin, it was a passive art—one only needed to bathe in starlight at night and circulate the method to gradually absorb its power. However, it still required a spiritual root, for starlight was a form of spiritual energy. Without a spiritual root, one couldn’t draw upon it at all.

In this sense, the Eight Stances of Primordial Origin was actually superior—it used the body's movements to harmonize with the world, using heaven and earth as a furnace, the body as the material, leveraging external forces, thereby passively drawing spiritual energy into the body. Though slower, it was rare in that it could be cultivated even by those without a spiritual root.

As for the Great Luo Vajra Hand, despite its grand name, it was simply a body-cultivation technique: channeling force into both hands until they became hard as diamond, able to shatter stone and break mountains.

The Seven Stars Treading the Moon was likewise a body-cultivation technique, this one for movement—by mobilizing inner strength, one could step upon the “seven stars” and move as quickly as lightning.

“But this Blood Fiend Pill Recipe... using beast blood as a guide, human blood as the thread, nurturing blood fiend energy, then supplementing with Heaven-Turn Flower and Earth-Spirit Grass... This doesn’t sound like a proper elixir recipe. Is it one of those infamous demonic recipes?” Zhou Changwang was startled and found it rather troublesome. But, after some thought, it was just a jade slip—there shouldn’t be any real danger. He set it aside; he had no intention of learning alchemy for now, so the recipe would simply gather dust in a corner.

The last, the Golden Broth Spirit-Locking Recipe, was a medicinal bath method. Ordinary elixirs, when taken, often suffered from inefficiency—like the Yellow Spirit Pill he’d consumed, which equaled about twenty days of cultivation, but much of its medicinal power was wasted. The spirit-locking bath allowed one to soak in a golden medicinal broth, locking in more spiritual energy and thus increasing the amount the body could absorb and refine. In general, it could improve efficiency by ten to twenty percent.

“This Golden Broth Spirit-Locking Recipe is quite good. Though it requires many supplementary herbs and is costly, it will be of tangible benefit to my cultivation.” Zhou Changwang felt invigorated. No wonder Wei Yong’s storage pouch had contained so many herbs—they were for this very recipe.

After this inventory, Zhou Changwang felt greatly enriched. Even though he’d only gained a little under a hundred low-grade spirit stones, the various spells and arts, not to mention the inheritance of formation and body-cultivation techniques, were priceless.

For the next several days, Zhou Changwang remained constantly on edge, afraid that members of the Rakshasa Gang would come looking for him. Even when cultivating, he never dared exhaust his mind, lest something unforeseen occur. After all, his ability to cast several perfected Metal Yang Finger spells depended on the strength of his mind. If he were mentally fatigued, he could not summon or maintain as many spell seeds.

Fortunately, all was calm. Nothing happened; no one came to his door.

“Then again, it makes sense. They were furtive when they made their move, even setting up soundproofing and confusion arrays to avoid detection. Since I turned the tables, no one likely saw what happened,” Zhou Changwang mused, feeling much relieved.

Life settled back into its normal rhythm. By day, Zhou Changwang busied himself in the spirit fields. The Gathering Spirit Grass grew rapidly—he estimated that in just over a month, he could harvest it, a full twenty days ahead of the original three-month schedule. This was thanks to the abundant spiritual energy in his five acres of fields, as well as his daily application of Spirit Rain and occasional Accelerated Growth spells—both of which he had mastered.

At the perfected stage, his Spirit Rain spell not only covered a much wider area, but each drop of rain contained several times more spiritual power than before. The spirit plants, nourished by such rain, naturally flourished. Combined with the Accelerated Growth spell, which could hasten any plant’s development, the effect was far more than the sum of its parts. The plants grew at a tremendous pace. If he had only a dozen or so Gathering Spirit Grass plants, he was confident he could use the spell to mature them in just a few days. But with over three thousand plants, this was not feasible.

As for the Thunder Spirit Rice trees—

Zhou Changwang stood in a corner of the spirit fields. Five hundred and two Thunder Spirit Rice trees stood side by side, each now reaching up to his calves. Though they hadn’t yet reached the ideal height of his waist, he felt they were robust enough to withstand the baptism of lightning.

Of course, the main reason was that his Thousand Thunder Flash spell was not overly powerful. Calming his mind, he stirred the spiritual energy within him. The structure of the spell’s runes took shape, drawn by his spiritual power and will.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths… After ten breaths in total—

Rumble!

The void trembled. Countless tendrils of lightning gathered above, forming a dense thundercloud. Within it, countless lightning bolts, thin yet terrifying, flickered and danced.

“Go!” Zhou Changwang pointed forward.

Crack!

Blinding light erupted as bolts of lightning, like myriad silver serpents, spread through the air and crashed down in their thousands.

Sizzle, sizzle…

All the bolts struck the Thunder Spirit Rice trees. The plants, sensing the torrent of electricity, stretched themselves upward, welcoming the cleansing storm.

After a while, the spell faded. Faint traces of lightning still danced among the Thunder Spirit Rice trees, but Zhou Changwang could clearly sense that they had changed. They were sturdier, more vigorous, and even taller.

“As expected, Thunder Spirit Rice trees need to be irrigated with lightning to grow faster,” Zhou Changwang confirmed with delight. He could already see that this crop would flower, bear fruit, and produce Thunder Spirit Rice, with each tree yielding more than before.

This was only natural. The first generation of Thunder Spirit Rice trees had been cultivated from “dead seeds” whose vitality was nearly exhausted after eight centuries; their survival was due to his tireless use of the Accelerated Growth spell. The second generation, however, had seeds brimming with inherent energy, and with his practiced hand nurturing them, their growth was not only faster, but their yield of spirit rice would be far greater.

(End of this chapter)