Chapter 326: Sand Castle's First Rule—What a Razor-Sharp Saber Technique!

One month later, in the dead of night when everyone was fast asleep, a pair of golden beast pupils slowly opened, and within the pupils a translucent panel flickered in and out of view.

【Name: Baichuan】

【Energy: 500】

【Core: Environment Assimilation (Locked)】

【Ability: Agility LV3 (Banzhu)……】

【Ability Library: ……】

"Not easy at all."

Looking at the energy count above, Baichuan inwardly sighed with a sense of how not-easy it had been.

Even with ample food supplies afterward, he had still needed a full month to scrape together enough energy to strengthen 【Digestion & Absorption LV3 (Banzhu)】—500 points of energy!

No other reason.

The body of a tabby cat, after all, still fell a little short in potential.

Even if in others' eyes he was a super-creature carrying the bloodline of a wild beast, a fierce beast that would be invincible within its tier and easily leap across tiers once it grew!

But he knew his own situation best—how could that possibly be a normal wild-beast bloodline?!

It was entirely a product of all sorts of chance coincidences—snatched from his beast body like forcing the innocent into prostitution, and at a critical moment there was no time to expel it, so it was suppressed and born upon his claws.

But fortunately, he had finally endured through it now!

The first bucket of gold had appeared.

Once this ability was strengthened, his cat body's digestion and absorption of energy would undergo a qualitative leap from now on!

Thoughts flickering in his mind, Baichuan opened the Ability Library, selected 【Digestion & Absorption】, and immediately tapped 【Confirm】!

In an instant, a blood-colored Crystal no larger than a walnut at some location within his body began to writhe. Under the infusion of dense energy, the surrounding tissue structures resembling pipelines began to stir, slowly generating, with the support of energy, a blood-colored transparent substance like a test tube. Bit by bit, proteins, enzymes and various peculiar substances gathered like liquid and dripped into the "test tube," producing all manner of wondrous reactions.

And Baichuan, after slowly gathering his entire body's vitality near the blood-colored Crystal, gradually fell into a half-asleep, half-awake state, observing the birth of the ability reagent.

His ability-strengthening procedure had long since been systematized; only when accidents occurred would his consciousness need to intervene personally.

Time began to slowly pass……

At the end of the night, just before dawn, as the last drop of peculiar liquid fell into the "test tube," the entire blood-colored transparent "test tube" shattered with a rumble, and all the liquid within instantly vanished into the surrounding body tissues and cells.

A startling mutation began within Baichuan's body, at the location of his stomach!

……

The next day, early morning.

After Zhou Yun and his sister rose, they glanced at Mao Mao, who was still sleeping, and paid no particular attention.

Because during this period of accumulating points, Baichuan had laid groundwork for the abnormalities during strengthening, and the Zhou Yun siblings had long since grown used to it.

After a hasty wash-up, the two siblings left the room and headed toward the ship's cabin.

On this Hunting Ship, no useless people were kept—even though the survivors of Lingdi Gucheng still had very weak physiques, completely frail like the children of Sand Castle, or even worse, that was no excuse for them to slack off.

There were always odd jobs on the Hunting Ship suited for them. Even Zhou Yun and his sister, whom Uncle Dan thought most highly of, were no exception.

Only Baichuan, a single cat with a wild-beast bloodline, was a bit special—after all, he wasn't human!

After finishing their usual morning odd jobs as per routine, Zhou Yun and his sister each took up their own weapons and came to the Lianwuchang, beginning today's training. Between each stance and each slash, they carefully savored the wondrous rhythm and mystery in the way Mao Mao swung his claws.

There was no helping it—during this month, Uncle Dan had later gathered once more those Lingdi survivors who worked diligently and honestly, and spoke to them about the special qualities of Lingdi.

All Lingdi survivors' bodies, because at the moment of arrival the flow of time they were in differed from the outside world, had thus gained the aptitude to grow rapidly in the short term.

Within this period—short as two years, long as three or four years—one day's ordinary effort could equal the bitter training of others for several days, or even a month, or a year. So if one wished to grow strong and firmly establish oneself in this world, one had only to seize this special period.

This was also why the strong of this world would casually save them—not only could they serve as labor, but if their talent was passable, they could also serve as living forces to defend one's settlement.

Otherwise, once this period passed, the fate of survivors who still couldn't compare to Sand Castle children—surely no one would want to know.

After all, in this vast and dangerous world, no place would take in good-for-nothings who only knew how to produce waste.

And this temporary talent was perhaps this cruel world's final gentleness toward outsiders!

Recalling Uncle Dan's words, even Zhou Yun's heart tightened, and he couldn't help but swing the long saber in his hands more earnestly, making the saber in his hands hum and whistle as it cut through the air.

Although his current rate of growth in strength counted as the cream of the crop among all survivors, reaching in merely one month the Outer Strengthening realm that Sand Castle children only possessed after training for a long time—even Uncle Dan regarded the siblings with special favor.

But he never considered himself any kind of genius—Outer Strengthening realm? Without the peculiar training method taught by Mao Mao, and without having mooched the powerful beast meat Uncle Dan gave to Mao Mao, how could he have had any chance of stepping into this realm.

He and his sister had merely ridden on their own cat's good fortune; without Mao Mao, he and his sister would have long since died silently in that building.

A lucky but ordinary lad.

That was the truest perception he had of himself.

And an ordinary self like him—whether wanting to firmly establish himself in this world, or waiting for the day his mother's city fell so he had the ability to rescue her—needed powerful strength!

And strength—an ordinary self like him could only possess it by redoubling efforts beyond what ordinary people put in!

"Ha!"

The snow-white long saber danced continuously; with every swing, sweat splattered, the saber wind howled, like a fierce beast in the jungle lashing out deadly claws to hunt!

"Shwa!"

In the end, his gaze sharpened, his pupils contracting like a cat's locking onto prey. With the muscles of both arms surging, he stepped out and, carrying a fierce and vicious momentum, slashed at the massive log before him—the log fell at the sound.

"Young Zhou, you're in fine form today!"

"Judging by your momentum, it looks like you'll soon reach the peak of Outer Strengthening."

A somewhat lean man nearby, who had finished watching Zhou Yun practice his saber, said in surprise—although the peak of Outer Strengthening was nothing special to someone at the Transparent realm like him.

But how long had this young man been training?

One month!

In one month he had stepped into Outer Strengthening, and now was about to reach its peak—did that mean he would soon enter Inner Strengthening?

And Inner Strengthening was the strength normal adults in their settlement possessed!

The arrivals of Lingdi—truly, this talent was beyond what ordinary people could compare to!

Just half a year of lifespan lost, and he could obtain such a powerful talent.

Outside, you'd search high and low with a lantern and still never find such a good deal!

If it could be traded, who knows how many people would be willing to offer half a year of lifespan in exchange for this talent—even if only temporarily—even five years of lifespan, there'd be plenty willing to trade.

"Huh? Not at all, Brother You, you're too kind."

Zhou Yun withdrew his blade, wiped away some sweat, and waved his hand with a touch of modesty.

He recognized this lean man before him—one of Uncle Shan's elite Earth-Sand Beast squad, surname You, given name Fei, whose strength had already reached Transparent, very likely to step into Rank 1, becoming one of the top powerhouses of Sand Castle.

"Haha," You Fei laughed gently a few times, neither accepting nor rejecting the young man's modesty. After laughing a bit, he then looked directly into the young man's eyes. "Young man, care to spar? I won't hide it from you—after just now seeing your blade practice, I'm feeling a bit eager to test myself."

After speaking, You perhaps felt that with his own strength, saying this might give the impression of bullying the weak. After all, he, a Transparent realm fighter, bullying an Outer Strengthening one—wouldn't that be a cinch? At the end, he added: "Of course, I'll suppress my strength to your level. Me, I mainly want to see how exactly you managed to escape alone from such a dangerous place as Lingdi. That place—even if I were trapped deep in it, escaping would be quite difficult."

Zhou Yun was stunned for a moment, said nothing. A Transparent realm fighter hitting him, an Outer Strengthening one?

He carefully studied the other's expression, that full two-meter height, confirmed the other wasn't messing with him, then decisively nodded. "No problem."

After speaking, Zhou Yun gripped his blade with both hands again. The blade was slender like a rice seedling, combining the features of both saber and spear, five chi long. Named Miao Blade, it looked extraordinarily gorgeous.

Compared to Zhou Yun, You Fei's weapon looked rather plain. In the hands of his two-meter-tall lean frame was gripped a bone spear, grey-white and rough all over, shaped like a staff but with one end sharpened—a 21-chi-long bone spear that seemed a bit long to Zhou Yun, but fit perfectly in his hands.

As the two began to face off, the surrounding crowd also quieted down, silently watching this seemingly rather uneven battle.

However, the gazes of those around were, for the two people present, as if unheard.

The next instant, Zhou Yun moved first. His foot stepped out like a charging bull, then paused, using that force with his waist as the axis, twisting and transmitting it to his shoulder, driving his forearm and the one-meter-five-long blade in his hand into a sweeping slash across the world…

……

'Comfortable, finally done strengthening.'

Past noon, Baichuan slowly opened his eyes, arched his body like a bow, continuously stretching his whole body, producing a series of crackling sounds. Then, feeling his somewhat rumbling stomach, he leaped up onto the table in a single bound.

On the table, his dried beast meat still sat quietly in place.

Without hesitation, Baichuan opened his panel to look at the Energy column while starting to wolf it down in big bites.

"Let me see the current energy growth rate!"

Baichuan muttered in his heart. As the dried meat entered his mouth and slid down his throat and esophagus into his stomach, he felt his entire stomach instantly like an exploding frying pan—extremely high-concentration gastric acid began secreting in large amounts. As the dried meat submerged into it, it began melting and disappearing within minutes, transforming into a large amount of nutrients.

The Energy column also began jumping wildly. At first it was just +1, +1 increases, within a few minutes it became +2, +2.5, finally settling at +3!

In just a few minutes, Baichuan discovered his Energy column had increased by nearly 30 points!

If converted to before, this would be energy that took over two days to accumulate! And that was only achieved under a slight restriction on the devouring of his mutated right claw.

Now, without him restricting his right claw, the Energy Point growth rate had reached this speed. Looks like his path to strength was just around the corner!

Thinking this, Baichuan ate even more freely.

In less than ten minutes, Baichuan stopped his eating pace, because his stored food had been completely wiped out by him…

Those dried meats were all saved from the dried meats that Shan had been supplying him alone, after those two siblings had started doing odd jobs and finally had their own points to exchange for supplies.

After all, in this place, there's no such thing as getting something for nothing. For food, for all kinds of supplies, one must contribute to this collective and earn points to exchange for them.

Even he couldn't get something for nothing. The previous supply was only because they valued his precious bloodline, an investment in the siblings who owned him. But once that pair of siblings started having points, this investment was gone.

Here, even Shan couldn't just keep supplying others without reason.

Give to receive—this is the first rule that has allowed Sand Castle to endure so long.

In other words, those dried meats from before were his final "little treasury."

But now, all gone, and he still barely felt seventy percent full…

At this moment, on the table.

A tabby cat with smooth, glossy fur sat on the table like a wooden carving, staring blankly at the empty food bowl before it. A pair of golden cat pupils were filled with bewilderment.

Mao Mao is so hungry, Mao Mao has no food left, Mao Mao wants delicious little dried meats…

The next instant, he collapsed like a cat pancake, like ashes that had burned out, a salted fish that had lost its dreams.

Never expected that he, Baichuan, would one day be stumped by food.

The key thing is, currently on the Hunting Ship, even if he wanted to jump down to hunt some wild game, he couldn't!

Given the Hunting Ship's speed, once he jumped down, in this vast Desert with scarce life, he could forget about getting back on.

After all, sand terrain isn't like flat ground—sand is soft and mushy, hard to find a place to push off from.

After a while, he jumped back up again.

He decided to go out and see if he could sneak around and steal…oh no, what does Mao Mao's business have to do with stealing? It's seeing if he could borrow some food.

As for after borrowing it, who cares.

As long as he isn't discovered, there's no problem.

And even if discovered, he's just a cat with wild beast bloodline that doesn't understand anything.

They wouldn't just throw him off, would they?

Surely not, really surely not.

He, Baichuan, still knows his limits, as long as he doesn't cross that line.

Besides, even if he strengthened 【Digestion & Absorption】, how much could he eat?

Baichuan suddenly recalled that brief glimpse from before—each meal those Earth-Sand Beasts on the Hunting Ship ate was almost equal to several days' worth for him.

Speaking of which, if he went to secretly eat, to snatch those Earth-Sand Beasts' food, would there be any gain?

Thinking this and that in his mind, the unfed Baichuan also wandered out unsteadily.

"Clang!"

Sparks flew, a snow-white slender blade like a rice seedling spun high into the air, then trembling, stabbed into the Lianwuchang covered with dirt.

"Ha~~ha~~"

Zhou Yun, head covered in sweat, collapsed powerlessly to the ground, letting beads of sweat like a waterfall slide down his cheeks, splattering drops of dirt. Before him was You Fei, who looked like nothing was wrong, yet one large hand was touching his cheek, his eyes full of shock. At the spot his index finger was touching, a faint line of blood was slowly blooming open.

The surrounding crowd was utterly silent.

No one could have imagined that a master of the Transparent realm would actually be wounded by a young man who had been training for less than a month.

"Good, what a razor-sharp blade technique!"

(End of this chapter)