Dragon Sword

Xue Yi looked at the sword sent by the manor lord for a long time before understanding it.

This was a treasured sword forged from Hanshan Divine Iron, with the words "Dragon Slayer" engraved on the blade - that was its name.

It would be an understatement to say this Dragon Slayer treasured sword could "cut iron like mud".

It could easily slice through the even harder profound iron.

Hanshan Divine Iron was extremely precious. Not only was it extremely sharp, it also specialized in breaking Gang Qi.

When practitioners at the Gang Qi level battled, their protective Gang Qi could reduce at least 70% of injuries. Ordinary swords couldn't penetrate it, and profound iron swords could barely manage.

But Hanshan Divine Iron could easily slice through Gang Qi defenses and cut directly into the flesh, causing fatal wounds!

This kind of divine iron was extremely rare. It was usually used for arrowheads, shot out with a divine bow to pierce through an enemy's Gang Qi and body.

Using it to forge a sword was truly extravagant.

Judging by value alone, even a practitioner at the Cave Heaven Realm might not necessarily be able to afford this sword. For the manor lord to gift this, he could be said to be extremely, extremely generous. Its value was no less than a top-grade martial art!

With the Dragon Slayer sword, his previous guard's ornamental swords could basically be thrown away.

Xue Yi put away the weapon, then returned to his side room and put some of his own things back into the wooden box, locking the cabinet again.

Then he sat down and began cultivating.

Xiao Qingruo returned to her room in low spirits for a while, then also came out and continued reading her book.

Unknowingly, the sun sank in the west and the moon rose in the southeast.

Another night arrived.

Xue Yi cultivated very seriously, as if wanting to make up for all the time he had lost before.

It wasn't until close to midnight that he stopped to rest.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that the young miss had fallen asleep on the table at some unknown time without putting away her book. It looked like she had read until she fell asleep.

"What's the point of working so hard when you can't cultivate?"

Xue Yi criticized inwardly.

He patted Xiao Qingruo's shoulder and found her sleep very deep, without any vigilance at all. So he simply picked her up, carried her into the inner room, and laid her on the bed.

The inner room had no lights. Borrowing the faint moonlight seeping in from outside, one could see the perfect contours of the girl's face.

Xue Yi enjoyed it alone for a while, inwardly ridiculing, "With such poor vigilance, you should have died long ago. Could it be you're pretending to sleep to test me?"

But his whisper did not get a response.

Having cultivated so late into the night, he was tired too. So he returned to his own room to sleep.

After he left, the "fast asleep" Xiao Qingruo opened her eyes, a faint smile at the corner of her mouth.

She then closed her eyes again and continued sleeping.

...

The next day, Xue Yi got up early to cultivate.

After sweating all over from practice, he enjoyed a comfortable bath and ate a sumptuous breakfast.

"Young miss, there's no need to go out today right?" he asked while eating.

Xiao Qingruo elegantly ate and gave an "mm" of agreement.

"Then this subordinate will not go anywhere today either, and concentrate on cultivating!"

Being able to seize time and cultivate unrestrained was truly blissful.

This would have been impossible before. Guards had time off in rotations, but on average, excluding eating, drinking, expelling waste, sleeping and other daily necessities, the truly free time that could be used for cultivation was probably less than 4 hours a day.

And now he could cultivate for at least 16 hours a day!

Four times more time, plus the Emperial Five Spirit Formula being at least 5 times faster than ordinary arts. His strength could grow by about 20 times compared to before!

After the meal, Xue Yi and Xiao Qingruo both returned to their rooms.

He took out the medicinal ingredients prepared yesterday. First he ate the mixture of red ginseng and dragon claw grass with thousand-year cinnabar.

Then he crazily swallowed three mouthfuls of crushed frostleaf grass.

"Phew, so unpalatable!"

The frostleaf grass was dug out of a tomb, and though it felt icy to the touch, it had an inherent stench that nearly made him vomit. But for the sake of his strength, he could only force it down.

The fiery power of the cinnabar spread within his body.

With the cold energy of the frostleaf grass neutralizing it this time, he didn't feel as uncomfortable.

The harmonious energy transformed into lively and abundant vitality, then drop by drop condensed into Gang Qi.

Buzz~

After half an hour, a wave of energy spread from Xue Yi's body. His protective Gang Qi grew much thicker and stronger.

"Gang Qi has peaked."

He opened his eyes, feeling happy.

With the strength of the five-colored Gang Qi from the Imperial Five Spirit Formula, his current ability should be stronger than Second Young Miss Xu Lingzhi.

If he could break through to the Cave Heaven Realm with a third dose of medicine tomorrow, then even facing Xu Lingtian of the third level of Cave Heaven Realm, he might not necessarily lose!

Because the Cave Heaven Realm of the Imperial Five Spirit Formula was completely different from the ordinary Cave Heaven Realm!

"Try practicing the Great Sage Indestructible Golden Body while you have time. It's quite powerful," Xiao Qingruo reminded him.

"Okay, I'll try it today."

Xue Yi didn't waste time and started pondering the near-free saint-grade martial art he had obtained yesterday.

The learned Xiao Qingruo had already explained the profound mysteries of this ancient martial art to him.

The first move, "Golden Light Body Protection", worked by first compressing one's own Gang Qi or Zhen Qi, then suddenly erupting it outward to cover the whole body, forming a thick Gang Qi barrier to block the enemy's attacks.

Compressing before erupting could enhance the toughness of the protective barrier and effectively reduce damage. But at the same time, such an eruption was also short-lived. If the practitioner's strength was insufficient, it might only last a blink before disappearing. So the timing of release was also very important.

"First to the bent bone, then pivot the central pole... this walks the Ren channel once."

Xue Yi circulated his Gang Qi according to the chant's guidance.

After a short while, all the Gang Qi was compressed at the Tanzhong acupoint on his chest.

But when he tried to release the Golden Light Body Protection, he failed. Instead it was like a deflating balloon, stirring up wind as the Gang Qi dispersed around him without forming a defense.

Seeing this, Xiao Qingruo laughed at him, "Pig brain, you can't even learn such a simple martial art."

Xue Yi retorted in annoyance, "If you can do it, show me instead of taunting!"

She dared call a saint-grade martial art simple. She really wasn't afraid of the wind making her bite her tongue.

Failing once didn't discourage Xue Yi. He continued practicing, again and again, four times, five times...

On the fifth time, his Gang Qi was starting to run low.

He squeezed out a bit more, practicing two more times, before being completely drained. With his Gang Qi temporarily exhausted, he had to sit down and slowly recover.

Cultivating Gang Qi was difficult, but recovering it was relatively simple.

The Gang Qi circulating within the body was actually not "qi" but "gangyuan". Once obtained through cultivation, it would not disappear unless seriously injured at the fundamental level.

With gangyuan as the foundation, recovering Gang Qi was just a process of sitting still, drawing energy from nature or from food and spiritual medicine to replenish it.

This was like feeling hungry and eating a meal - a process of recovering strength.

Cultivation, on the other hand, was exhausting the body to increase strength.

After sitting quietly for over half an hour, Xue Yi's Gang Qi gradually recovered to its peak state.

He was about to continue practicing Golden Light Body Protection, when the maid's voice came from outside.