Chapter 384: Expenditure and Crisis
Translator: Yukidaruma Translations Editor: Yukidaruma Translations
In the Sacred Land's training room, Fang Xingjian continued to sense the state of his body.
He first healed his eyes. For his case, his loss of sight was primarily due to the vision-related regions of his brain being damaged back when he had been attacked by poison.
Although he could now see further through the light via his Heaven's Perception, his blindness was still a flaw. If he were to leave it untreated, it would affect his condensing of specialty seeds.
After one day and one night, Fang Xingjian opened his eyes once again. His eyes had turned pitch-black. This was due to the effect of his specialty, Darkness Sword Sense, after his blindness had been treated. However, with him controlling his vision cells, he quickly removed such anomalies and seemed to be back to normal.
Fang Xingjian then started to sense his specialties.
He had already possessed 14 specialties in the beginning, and now, he could sense his entire body and even control the cells in his body. This allowed him to be capable of changing his physical body to a certain degree.
This was different from the ability he had gained when he reached level 23 which allowed him to have a vague sense of particles. That was a blurry feeling, and he could only sense it but not control it. Therefore, he could only violently absorb thunderbolts in order to strengthen the heavenly thunders and terrestrial magnetism forces between the particles.
Right now, at level 25, the ability to control cells allowed him to be able to freely control the movements of the cells in his body.
While sensing carefully, Fang Xingjian could sense a hint of a strange glow circulating through his body and incessantly increasing his powers. As he looked deeper into it, he discovered that there was a total of six auras in his body which were constantly rising at his head, chest, arms, waist, and back, respectively.
Specialties were specific abilities which a person gained through tough external training to stimulate the powers of the specialty seeds in their body.
There were 1,440 internal specialties and 9,270 external specialties in total.
The 1,440 internal specialties referred to specialty seeds which all Conferred Knights were capable of condensing, while the 9,270 external specialties were specialties which were related to weapons and tools. However, not all external specialties required one to cultivate in order to get it.
Fang Xingjian's Unparalleled Sword Intent - Apex, Sword Bones, Swordless Path, Darkness Sword Sense, and Heavenly Sword Imprint were all external specialties.
Meanwhile, his Elementary Survival Instincts, Internal Healing, Internal Training, Heightened Reflexes, Perfect Muscles, and others were internal specialties.
If one was able to condense 1,440 internal specialties, their physical body would become extremely powerful, and the person would be considered as having achieved perfect mastery.
This was also a long term goal which Conferred Knights would be working on achieving, but it was something which was hard to achieve even if they had reached level 29.
"The more specialty seeds one condenses, the stronger the physical body. Comparatively, one would also be able to unleash a stronger prowess with their five attributes.
"Recently, my Zenith Light Sword Formation, Prodigious Demolition Sword, and Ether Sword Ripples have all reached a bottleneck. Even after I've synthesized them with many sets of Killing techniques, their prowess haven't raised by much. It's probably impossible to raise their prowess any further unless I manage to get my hands on a few sets of unrivalled sword techniques.
"From now onward, I might as well focus on condensing my specialty seeds. Before I get more powerful sword techniques, there's no need for me to cultivate my sword arts anymore."
Thinking of this, Fang Xingjian headed out. He was going to prepare condensing his specialty seeds.
One day later, countless heavenly and earthly treasures appeared in his room.
"10 kilograms of Dragon Snake Grass. It can increase the user's strength tremendously. If used as a medicinal bath with 152 other precious medicinal herbs, one can gain the Intermediate Berkserkness."
Robert continued with the introductions, "There's also this bottle of Abyss Demonic Blood. If it's used as the main ingredient for a blood bath, it can bring it up one notch higher, allowing one to attain Expert Beserkness."
Fang Xingjian nodded. Looking at the variety of items in the room, he smiled. All these things cost him the entirety of his 350,000 gold. However, he would be able to condense at least 50 specialty seeds.
If he were to rely on his own hard work to slowly control his cells and change his body to obtain these specialties, it would take him at least two to three years.
"Let's begin." Fang Xingjian picked up the Dragon Snake Grass and combined it with other medicinal herbs to have a medicinal bath.
A few minutes later, he felt a surge of medicinal powers gush wildly into his body. He tried to control his cells, causing the medicinal powers to reach the specialty seeds at his chest as he continued to stimulate the prowess of the specialty seeds.
Right now, Fang Xingjian could control his cells to accelerate the stimulation of his specialty seeds, and the Elementary Berserkness continued to progress toward Intermediate Berserkness. This was a training at the cellular level, and it was many times more powerful compared to purely external training and medicinal baths.
Fang Xingjian could sense that at the location of his heart, streams of faint auras were rising gradually. These auras were from a new specialty.
Elementary Berserkness, Intermediate Berserkness, Expert Beserkness... A total of three specialty seeds were all at the location of his heart.
The Elementary Berserkness strengthened the cultivator's physical strength and recovery abilities, and also stimulated the creation of a specialty seed. Intermediate Bersekness could stimulate the second specialty seed and further strengthen one's physical strength and recovery abilities. As long as one had sufficient energy in their body, just the simple change of their way of breathing could allow them to recover their physical strength and make it as strong as that of a ferocious beast.
In the days to follow, Fang Xingjian almost never left his place. He devoted all of his efforts into condensing specialty seeds, tempering his attributes, and increasing his ether synchronization rate.
He continued such days all the way into mid-December. Other than occasionally getting someone to bring him the Knight's handbook for him to have a look at the latest topnotch sword arts research, he was pretty much secluded from the rest of the world. Even Robert and the others were only able to meet him one to two times.
In December, another one million gold entered his account. Fang Xingjian wanted to cultivate the fifth level of the mystical prints as well as purchase new ingredients to condense his specialties.
The only person who had the most contact with him was possibly Head of Department James. It was because Fang Xingjian often requested for James to spar with him.
However, after attaining the fifth level of the mystical prints, Fang Xingjian's aptitude once again went through an overwhelming progress. The aura throughout his body seemed to have gotten increasingly unfathomable, and even James, the Governor from two generation ago, sometimes could not feel if Fang Xingjian had given it his all during their spars.
There was one thing which James was sure about. This was that when Fang Xingjian had entered level 25, his abilities seemed to go through changes almost daily, as if on an exponential rate.
When ordinary people entered the level 25 phase and were able to condense specialty seeds, their abilities could increase tremendously.
However, when that rapid rate of improvement was compared with the current Fang Xingjian, the difference was beyond compare.
However, the way he fully devoted all his efforts and energy into training in the Sacred Land also made some people anxious.
...
In a small alley inside the Great Western City, two figures stood next to each other.
One of them spoke in an aged voice, "Fang Xingjian keeps himself hidden in the Sacred Land all the time. We have no way to come into contact with him, let alone capture him."
"We've already waited for one month. The lord won't allow us to continue waiting on like this." The voice this time around was crisp, and it seemed to be from a lady.
The old man said, "Then what do we do? We can't possibly barge into the Regional Academy directly, right?"
"The Regional Academy has many hidden talents. They even have James, who was the Governor from two generations back, as well as Devitt, who is the current Governor. Of course, we can't just barge in." The lady said, "That means the only way is to lure him out."
"Lure him out? How?" The old man asked.
"There's a good saying which goes 'when the young is hit, the elder arrives'. Fang Xingjian is the elder one, and of course, those people under him are the young ones. Moreover, it isn't as if he has no one related to him at all." The lady smiled. "I heard that he has a female disciple who is studying in an academy in the Great Western City, right?"
"If we do this... would we be alerting the enemies?" The old man asked with some hesitation. "It's just a lady. At Fang Xingjian's level, what kind of ladies won't he be able to get his hands on?"
"Hmph. I heard that that female student was taught directly by him in the past. I don't believe that if we catch her now, he won't appear."
"But with Governor Devitt around..."
"Then think of a way. Even a Divine level expert will have times when he is off his guard, let alone Devitt. There'll be a way out somehow."
The old man stood in the light, revealing his brown skin and yellow eyes which were unique to the people from the Sand Country.
"In order to get back Lord Domirov's remains, this is the only way."
...
Elsewhere, in a luxurious manor in the Great Western City, a young master was laughing happily as with his hands around a maid. He continued to stroke her body as he said, "That coward Fang Xingjian has been hiding for over a month and refuses to come out."
An old man next to him bowed and said, "He has offended so many people of influence. Of course, he wouldn't dare to appear recklessly now."
"But I can't possibly play it out with him just like that." The young man shook his head. With tender skin and flushed red lips, his appearance gave him a soft feminine touch. He spoke out in a shrill voice, "The Archbishop has requested of me to return before the end of the year. How can I possibly let it drag it on like this?
"All I can do is try to find a way to lure him out."