King of Ten Thousand Years

Silver Pavilion. Practice Room.

Luo Tian sat cross-legged and took out a Spiritual Essence Coin, his expression pensive.

Suddenly, the Spiritual Essence Coin in his hand dimmed. Dense cracks spread across its surface before it crumbled into a pile of powder.

At the same time, the Celestial Book in Luo Tian’s mind filled with one-fifth of a page’s worth of power.

’The effect isn’t that great.’

Luo Tian frowned slightly.

’A single Spiritual Essence Coin is worth far more than the few stalks of Spiritual Grass the Celestial Book devoured before.’

But on second thought...

’The Celestial Book accumulates a ”page” of power every ten days. That much is fixed.’

’Back when I first reached the First Layer of Meridian Opening, a page of accumulated Celestial Book Power was nowhere near as effective as it is now.’

”Boy... hurry up and let this god out.”

A scorched, smoking crow emerged from the pages of the Celestial Book, squawking loudly.

”You swore an oath to the Celestial Book. You can’t trick this god this time!”

The crow said pompously.

Luo Tian was taken aback, recalling the agreement he made with the Ugly Bird two days ago. He had indeed successfully cultivated the Breaking Sky Sword Qi using its method.

”Go on! You have three days. Come back on your own.”

Luo Tian waved his hand, controlling the Celestial Book to release the chatterbox.

WHOOSH!

The crow let out a strange caw and excitedly flew out of the room, quickly vanishing into the sky.

「On Sunrise Peak, amidst the clouds at its summit.」

The crow, trailing black smoke from its body, revealed a cunning and smug expression.

”CAW CAW... Three days? I’m going to be out for at least three *years*! What’s a little brat like you going to do about it?”

With this thought, the crow smugly flew away from Sunrise Peak.

A short while later, it flew away from the Sun Chasing Holy Mansion.

「An hour later.」

Even though the crow had been gone for a while, Luo Tian could still faintly feel a subtle connection to it.

’The Celestial Book did say that as long as I don’t break the seal, there’s no harm in letting it out. I’ll just let it go and relax for a bit.’

Luo Tian thought to himself and didn’t dwell on it.

VWOOM!

Luo Tian mobilized the True Qi from the five Qi Veins in his body and began his cultivation.

After advancing to the Fifth Layer of Meridian Opening, Luo Tian felt that opening new Qi Veins was becoming increasingly slower than it had been for the first three layers.

Meridian Opening is divided into nine layers. The further one progresses, the deeper the Qi Veins are located in the body, and the difficulty of opening them constantly increases.

Of course, the deeper the Qi Vein, the greater the vitality and potential it could unlock once opened.

A Martial Disciple in the Body Tempering Realm has a lifespan of about one hundred years.

However, an expert at the Ninth Layer of Meridian Opening could live for a hundred and fifty years.

...

「Three days later.」

Luo Tian’s cultivation at the Fifth Layer of Meridian Opening was completely stabilized, and his True Qi was sharp yet smooth.

’In three days, I haven’t even managed to open one-tenth of my fifth Qi Vein.’

Luo Tian frowned slightly.

’And this is in the Silver Student Area, where cultivation is twice as effective as in the Bronze Area.’

In reality, Luo Tian’s cultivation progress was already considered extremely fast.

In the Bronze Area, a big name like Cao Yang had spent two or three years there.

After all, the further one progressed in the Meridian Opening Realm, the harder it was to open Qi Veins; this was a common phenomenon.

’I’ve heard Spiritual Essence Coins can aid cultivation. I should give it a try.’

An idea struck Luo Tian.

Spiritual Essence Coins contained pure and vast Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, which could help Martial Artists cultivate.

He took out a Spiritual Essence Coin, held it in his hand, and began to cultivate.

Instantly, a stream of pure, cool Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was drawn out by Luo Tian’s Divine Vein and surged rapidly into his Qi Veins.

’This cultivation speed is so much faster!’

A flicker of joy crossed Luo Tian’s face.

’He felt that cultivating with a Spiritual Essence Coin was almost half as effective as cultivating in the Spirit Pool.’

This was also thanks to the effects of his Divine Vein.

However, Luo Tian also consumed Spiritual Essence Coins extremely quickly. A single coin wasn’t enough to last for a full day of cultivation.

In the blink of an eye, another seven days passed.

Luo Tian had also used up nearly all of his Spiritual Essence Coins.

By this time, Luo Tian had opened a full two-thirds of his fifth Qi Vein. He was very satisfied with this progress.

But once his Spiritual Essence Coins were gone, his cultivation slowed down again.

’It’ll be the start of the month soon. Silver Students get to cultivate in the Spirit Pool for free for one day.’

Luo Tian smiled faintly.

At the Sun Chasing Holy Mansion, all student benefits and resources were redistributed at the beginning of each month.

Aside from cultivation, another urgent problem lay before Luo Tian.

That was the matter of the Star Condensing Sword Point. Previously, he had only managed to infer and perfect the first three layers; the subsequent layers were missing.

Currently, Luo Tian had cultivated the Star Condensing Sword Point to the Third-Layer, which allowed him to form the Breaking Sky Sword Qi. But there was nothing to practice beyond that, leaving him short on offensive techniques.

”Celestial Book, can you infer the rest of the Star Condensing Sword Point?”

Luo Tian asked inwardly.

In these past few days, the Celestial Book had accumulated almost two pages of power.

”Insufficient Celestial Book Power. The remaining, missing parts are at the Spirit Sea Realm level. At least five pages of power are required.”

A line of words appeared on the Celestial Book.

Luo Tian was a little surprised by this result.

’The last time I fused martial skills, upgrading one from Spirit Tier Low Grade to Middle Grade, it didn’t consume nearly this much power.’

However, the two martial skills he’d fused back then were both complete and had elements in common, which was why the cost was so much lower.

”Celestial Book, if I find similar martial skills, would that reduce the cost of inferring the rest of it?”

An idea suddenly struck Luo Tian.

”Yes.”

The Celestial Book replied.

Luo Tian was overjoyed. ’Finger technique martial skills are relatively rare.’

’But I shouldn’t forget. This Star Condensing Sword Point is both a finger technique and a branch of swordsmanship.’

’And sword-based martial skills are the most common type!’

’If I go to the Martial City and grab a bunch of sword-based martial skills, I should be able to lower the inference cost. I might even be able to perfect it into a more powerful attack skill!’

Luo Tian grew more and more excited at the thought.

Feeling cooped up after ten days of cultivation, Luo Tian decided to take a trip to the Martial City.

Just as he stepped out the door, Luo Tian ran into an acquaintance.

She was a graceful young woman dressed in a silver-white robe. Her noble and elegant bearing drew the admiring gazes of the other Silver Students.

”Princess Yunxiu?”

Luo Tian paused, noticing she had already advanced to the Seventh Layer of Meridian Opening and become a Silver Student.

”Senior Luo, have you forgotten our agreement? You’ve kept Yunxiu waiting for a very long time.”

A dimple graced Princess Yunxiu’s cheek as she spoke, her tone a mixture of playfulness and feigned complaint.

’An agreement?’

Luo Tian recalled that he had promised to pay her a formal visit, but he had been preoccupied with Chen Haofei’s situation and ended up brushing her aside.

Ten days had now passed without him making good on his promise; it was indeed rather poor of him.

”It was my oversight. If Your Highness doesn’t mind, we can speak today.”

Luo Tian said apologetically.

”Very well. Let’s talk at my residence then.”

A spark of anticipation and excitement flashed in Princess Yunxiu’s lovely eyes.

For the past several days, she had truly been waiting for Luo Tian’s visit. Her heart sank when he never appeared.

And so, under the envious gazes of several Silver Students, Luo Tian stepped into Princess Yunxiu’s private chambers.

As it happened, Princess Yunxiu’s residence was right next to Luo Tian’s.

Though it was also a Silver Pavilion, Princess Yunxiu’s rooms were far more exquisitely furnished, complete with a foyer, elegant curtains, landscape murals, a vanity, and more.

In the main room.

With graceful skill, Princess Yunxiu prepared a pot of tea for Luo Tian.

Savoring the aroma of the expensive tea and catching the faint, elegant scent of the royal noble lady, Luo Tian felt his mood inexplicably relax.

”Your Highness invited me. May I ask what it is about?”

Once Princess Yunxiu was seated, Luo Tian put down his teacup and got straight to the point.