Chapter 287: The Second Mysterious Seed
Old Mu had intended to stroll around Jingdu City with Jiang He and get closer to him, but he found it hard to suggest that after Jiang He had spoken.
As he escorted Jiang He off the research facility, he smiled, “Rest well, Mister Jiang. I’ll inform you immediately once we finish the initiation pellets.”
It was only after Jiang He left that Old Mu turned to Mu Wanqiu and asked in surprise, “Is Jiang He still farming?”
“Let him talk.”
Mu Wanqiu smirked. “He’s the type who is as lazy as a pig and would only wake up when the sun is high above their heads. Moreover, his yard has just one Mu worth of farmland—who does he think he’s fooling!”
Nonetheless, Old Mu could not help smiling knowingly when he saw his granddaughter’s tone and expression.
She stamped her feet at that. “Gramps! There’s nothing between Jiang He and I!”
“Why would you deny it? I hadn’t said a word.”
Old Mu smiled, twiddling his beard. “Anyway, visit home for a bit since you hardly ever come back. The frontlines have been freed up recently and your father is incidentally at home.”
Mu Wanqiu’s father was a rank-eight martial artist and a ranked official in the military, although he would be leading his forces in field operations most of the year. Indeed, it was thanks to Jiang He that he could obtain leave and return home.
Meanwhile, Jiang He found a hotel as soon as he entered Jingdu City. He then booked a room, bathed, and slept.
Beside him, both Dumbo and Trumbo were a little restless and seeked permission to go out and play.
Though Jiang He did bring them along the last time he came to Jingdu City, they were kept in the farm at the time and did not come out.
“Going out?”
Jiang He thought about it and said, “Sure, but don’t cause trouble.”
“By the way, here are two Spatial Rings I got from the Sky Demon Cult’s Saint and cardinal. Use them.”
He took out the two Spatial Rings nonchalantly. Then, Jiang He also stuffed dozens of golden Yuan Bao and several thousand RMB. He did not actually have much cash and that money had all been plucked from his money-growing tree.
As for his bank account…it might have contained three to five billion? Jiang He himself had long since forgotten the specific number or where his bank card was since it was just a few billion and inconsequential to him—it was just numbers even if it was a dozen more.
“Thanks, Master!”
Delighted, both Dumbo and Trumbo quickly left the hotel.
Meanwhile, Jiang He lay in his bed and let his drowsiness brew…
And somehow did not fall asleep.
Sitting up on his bed, he shook his head with a pained smiled.
He actually could not fall asleep after farming overnight!
Most importantly, he had no targets now even if he wanted to let loose his Twenty-Three Swords on some Feral King, having learned that most of the Hua Nation Feral Kings had gone into hiding following the culling of their ranks.
“The Sky Demon Cult!” Jiang He muttered a little helplessly.
He was having trouble sleeping before because the Sky Demon Cult had been coming after him every other day, leaving him feeling wary every single day.
“And here I was thinking that my poor sleep quality would improve after I wiped out the Sky Demon Cult…it seems that I’ve been overthinking on that front.”
Leaving his bed, Jiang He walked to the window. Whipping out a bottle of rank-nine Origin Fluid worth dozens of billions and gently shaking it, he sighed after having a few sips. “But even with the Sky Demon Cult gone, the sky demons are coming right after them. It would have been nice if they could come from another location, but how am I supposed to sleep when they’re arriving near Lingzhou City?”
“Fortunately, there is still time before the sky demon legion arrives. I shall develop myself steadily over the next few days, and I just might find a solution to the threat they pose.”
Jiang He then quietly counted the time.
He had gone to the Sky Demon Cult’s base on the twenty-eighth, did he not?
Weren’t the cultists bragging about the sky demon legion arriving in twelve days’ time?
After doing some math…
“Is today the thirtieth of October?”
“Huh… it’s already the thirty-first? Does that mean there are nine days more before the sky demon legion arrives?’
Finishing the entire bottle of rank-nine Origin Fluid, he was about to throw it away when he saw that there was some left…closing the bottle cap once more, he decided he would give it to Cheng Dongfeng when he returned to Lingzhou City.
“Okay!”
“Nine days is enough.”
“When I reach home today, I’ll try planting the initiation pellets and if the Farm Points earned is high, I’ll head overseas to capture two Feral Kings. That way, the Superpower Research Department’s medicinal pellet division could help me cook up another batch of initiation pellets as soon as they can and I just might reach Yuan Spirit by the time the sky demons arrive…”
“Right now, I’ve mastered the Blind Princess’s Eight Practices the least…but I can give up on that cultivation method now since it’s just a form technique. Being a Sword Sage, cutting down my foes with a sword from over hundreds of miles away is now the norm and form techniques are unnecessary.”
“That said, my Dragon-Elephant Prajna has improved with the Nine Heavenly Stars Body Formula to mastery. Additionally, I’ve also learned the seventh fold of the Ninefold Thunderblade and the eighth tier of the Strengthened Nine Yang Technique!”
Taking a deep breath, Jiang He sat crossed legged on his bed as he began to cultivate the Strengthened Nine Yang Technique.
He had made up his mind to bear with the loneliness this time…and cultivate for over an hour at the very least!
“I fall short a lot in terms of martial talent and have cultivated little over ten minutes on average during the last few occasions without getting much…” Jiang He muttered, recognizing his shortcoming.
Lacking talent must be made up for with double the effort.
Though he was diligent in farming, he could try cultivating too.
Charging his Strengthened Nine Yang Technique, the True Qi in his body promptly flowed. Then, the sounds of a tidal storm could be heard and after around half an hour later, Jiang He’s aura stirred…and actually strengthened considerably!
Well…
Was he divine-tempest already?
Jiang He was a little speechless.
I wanted to cultivate the Strengthened Nine Yang Techniques because I intend to make a breakthrough and gain mastery over it…but I’ve somehow ascended from the first level of divine-tier to the second? What does that even mean?
Moreover, this little bit of improvement in martial art rank would not affect my current combat strength by much.
Nonetheless, Jiang He continued cultivating after calming his impulse to complain.
But after another half hour of cultivation, his aura stirred once more.
He had reached union, the third level of divine-tier.
What the hell!
Jiang He was furious now.
His cultivation technique did not develop but his martial arts rank had somehow improved again!
Was the technique glitching?
“I quit…Nine Yang Technique, my foot. I’ll train my Ninefold Thunderblade outside.”
Leaving his hotel, Jiang He took to the air and arrived at the wildlands fifty kilometers away from Jingdu City.
He had to cultivate out in the wildlands since the Ninefold Thunderblade was exceedingly fearsome and devastating, destroying several towers at once with just a few strikes.
Standing in front of a mountain, Jiang He whipped out his Dragon-Slaying Saber and cut down on it.
Boom!
A seventy-meter-long thunder slash burst forth, a slash that left the very air shaking.
“Not bad. Thunder slashes really are cooler when they extend over dozens of meters.”
Be that as it may, Jiang He sighed.
It felt like…this was the first time he trained with his blade in the two months since he started cultivating martial arts, was it not?
Jiang He was still unsure about how he actually should cultivate. All he remembered was that novels often depicted protagonists repeatedly practicing a blade or sword technique over thousands or even dozen thousand times, after of which the technique would be inscribed in their very bones.
“Perhaps the same principle applies in practicing the Ninefold Thunderblade too…”
With that, Jiang He started releasing slash after slash, slicing out multiple times in each second. Every 70-meter thunder slash would erupt in the air, startling Ferals across five kilometers and sending them fleeing.
Though his thunder slash was just 70 meters long and the mountain ahead over 500 meters away, the Blade Qi firing out of the thunder slash sliced through the mountain endlessly.
Boom-crack!
Out of the blue, one of Jiang He’s 70 meters turned into 80 meters…
Ka-boom!
Jiang He was delighted as the mountain ahead collapsed…
It seems that in the end, the Ninefold Thunderblade was more reliable. So, a blade technique that he had read about in a novel was actually reliable?
Unbeknownst to him…
That cultivation technique was only suitable for novices of blade or sword techniques…
Moreover, blade techniques like the Ninefold Thunderblade utilized extreme amounts of True Qi with each slash, which was an equivalent to an ultimate technique for divine-union martial artists. It was already exhausting to let loose several slashes and they would have killed themselves from overexertion if they had trained the way Jiang He did.
However, that was not a problem for Jiang He since his True Qi was exceedingly abundant. Coupled with the fact that he was so rich, he could recharge with rank-nine Origin Fluid and absorb Yuan Qi from Orirocks if he was worn out…
And come afternoon, Jiang He was done mastering the Ninefold Thunderblade.
Be that as it may, the wildlands before him was now a mess. There were ditches sliced through with his Blade Qi and the earth’s crust was actually turned upside down, just as the occasional cracking of thunder could be heard in the air.
Jiang He broke out in cold sweat then…
Fortunately, no one cared about the wild following the Revival of Qi or he would definitely be punished for destroying the environment…
Then, he received a call from Old Mu at around six in the evening.
The man appeared extremely excited as he exclaimed, “We did it, Mister Jiang! We did it!”
***
Twenty minutes later, at the medicinal pellet development center of the Superpower Research Department, 200 porcelain bottles were placed in front of Jiang He.
Gratitude was written all over Old Mu’s face and he thanked Jiang He many times, saying, “Mister Jiang, every initial pellet that we’ve developed is basically here.”
Before this, some of the half-finished pellets were used for research, but a lot of those were lost in the research process.
More were lost in today’s concoction process as well, just as some were used for clinical trials, leaving just 200 pellets.
“Do I have to spare you some for research?” Jiang He asked then, but Old Mu shook his head, saying, “We’ve recorded the process of research and development in detail. All that is needed now is to invest into production, though we lack the raw materials.”
“I can’t help with other materials aside from the essence of Feral Kings. I would definitely help you capture a Feral King when my work at the moment is done.”
Jiang He left the Superpower Research Department at around seven.
He found Dumbo and Trumbo and gave Mu Wanqiu a call before returning to Lingzhou City when he learned that she was not going back for now.
Once home, Jiang He told Sora to cook him dinner while he returned to his farm. After plucking the ripe batch of Doom Shrooms, he took out ten initiation pellets and planted them.
Indeed, Jiang He was a little expectant.
There was no telling if he could hoard Farm Points with the initiation pellets.
He then turned around and looked towards a corner of the farm where two fresh sprouts had grown out of the ground.
Jiang He frowned.
Why was the mysterious seed growing so slowly?
He had a total of three Mysterious Seeds, the first of which he had planted Boa Hancock from.
As dawn arrived, he planted the second…
There was no telling what he could get from it.
It would not be another living person, would it?
