Chapter 18: Soul-Breaking Nail, Soul-Calming Incense

The history between Luo Chen and Wang Yuan was actually not complicated.

Back then, both were loose cultivators who entered Dahe Market around the same time.

But unlike Luo Chen, who only had the strength of the first layer of Qi Refining, Wang Yuan was a secular Grandmaster of Innate Martial Arts who, by a stroke of luck, transitioned from martial arts to the immortal path.

Therefore, upon first entering Dahe Market, Wang Yuan displayed impressive combat power.

He even joined a hunting squad, daring to enter the mountains to hunt low-grade demonic beasts.

Luo Chen had no strength back then, but to make a living, he followed along to help with odd jobs and carrying things.

At that time, due to his personality and experiences, Wang Yuan was different from the cautious loose cultivators; he did things in a bold and unrestrained way, possessing the spirit of a martial arts Grandmaster.

But this spirit brought him disaster in Dahe Market.

Several mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators robbed him, took everything he had, and beat him into a severe injury.

After Wang Yuan recovered, his personality changed.

To prepare cultivation resources, he planned to enter the mountains again.

Several close friends lent him some things, and Luo Chen, who could already refine Grain Bigu Pills by then, also lent him a few bottles.

In the million mountains of the Eastern Wilderness, there were countless demonic beasts.

Cultivators entering the mountains basically never dared to light fires to cook, so Grain Bigu Pills were still very useful.

That time, Wang Yuan went alone, silently stepping into the Guyuan Mountain Range.

A month later, he returned, bringing back the corpse of a first-order demonic beast.

Not long after that, the cultivators who had robbed Wang Yuan died one after another, and everyone knew it must have been Wang Yuan who had secretly struck.

But no one dared to give him trouble because Wang Yuan had joined the Poshan Gang.

As the largest loose cultivator force in the area, the Poshan Gang had a bit of a reputation, and coupled with Wang Yuan’s ruthlessness, he could be considered to have firmly established himself in the outer city.

Especially in the days that followed, Wang Yuan would sell magic tools and cultivation techniques at the market every few days.

Those were all items of unknown origin, and combined with the various rumors from when Wang Yuan started, everyone feared him even more.

It was somewhat poignant to say that Luo Chen and Wang Yuan arrived at Dahe Market around the same time.

Ten years passed.

Luo Chen had barely reached the third layer of Qi Refining, but Wang Yuan was already a late-stage loose cultivator at the seventh layer of Qi Refining.

It had to be said that the gap between people was even greater than the gap between people and dogs.

"He asked me to join the Poshan Gang and said he would protect me in the future. Why such a sudden move?"

After Luo Chen set up the herbs, he sat at the door, playing with the iron token engraved with the word "Mountain."

"For the sake of past friendship?"

"Or because I killed that fifth-layer Qi Refining short-lived ghost across realms?"

Luo Chen couldn't know, so he could only carefully put the token away.

The days that followed were somewhat monotonous.

Processing various raw materials, practicing the Changchun Technique, and healing.

Like this, it wasn't until nine days later that the wound on Luo Chen’s abdomen completely healed.

According to his previous plan, he could officially start refining the Zhongmiao Pills tomorrow.

But Luo Chen’s attention was on something else.

"This Soul-Breaking Nail is actually a high-grade magic tool!"

In his hand was a pair of heavy, pitch-black long nails, with sharp front ends and large, heavy back ends.

Both long nails carried a rich scent of blood, and wisps of blood-red color, hidden in the black, were a bit creepy.

He continuously injected magic power, and the Soul-Breaking Nail buzzed, then suddenly flew out.

Chi!

One Soul-Breaking Nail, with lightning speed, sank into a large rock in front of the small courtyard, deep and bottomless.

"Actually this sharp!"

"If nothing goes wrong, it must have a Armor-Breaking Formation engraved on it!"

Magic tools had grades: high, mid, and low.

The standard for determining the grade was the number and quality of the engraved formations.

This pair of Soul-Breaking Nails only had one formation engraved, but the Armor-Breaking Formation was a second-order formation, so its power was incredibly great.

"No wonder I was severely injured without any power to fight back at that time."

"According to the short-lived ghost’s words before he died, even Wang Yuan couldn't defend against it, which shows that the armor-breaking attribute has reached the extreme among magic tools."

Wang Yuan was no weakling; before transitioning to the immortal path, he was a Grandmaster of secular martial arts.

After stepping onto the path of cultivation, he had killed countless people and demonic beasts.

High realm, strong practical combat ability.

That the short-lived ghost could injure Wang Yuan at the fifth layer of Qi Refining was truly thanks to the Soul-Breaking Nail.

"However, the drawbacks seem very obvious too."

"Releasing one Soul-Breaking Nail actually consumed half of my spiritual power. If both were fired at once, wouldn't I be instantly drained of all spiritual power?"

"And!"

Luo Chen continuously urged his spiritual power, but the Soul-Breaking Nail inside the large rock remained motionless.

No return!

The pros and cons of this high-grade magic tool were simply too obvious.

Armor-breaking ability could be called top-tier.

Magic power consumption was huge, and it couldn't be controlled; once fired, it couldn't be summoned back with magic power.

It was only because the material was hard enough that it wouldn't be easily damaged; otherwise, it could be considered a one-time consumable magic tool.

Perhaps that was exactly why, despite having a second-order formation engraved, it could only be a high-grade magic tool, not the legendary top-grade magic tool.

Luo Chen broke the rock, dug out the Soul-Breaking Nail, and happily put it into the storage bag.

"No return isn't really a drawback for me, because I never learned the Traction Technique anyway."

"Compared to that rusty low-grade magic sword from before, this is like upgrading from a bird gun to a cannon."

After a moment of joy, Luo Chen returned to the room and lit a stick of Soul-Calming Incense.

Under the orchid-and-musk-like fragrance, his restless soul gradually became peaceful.

A sense of comfort from the depths of his soul almost made him moan out loud.

But Luo Chen didn't have time to enjoy it; he seized the time to run the Changchun Technique.

One stick of Soul-Calming Incense a day was enough to allow a cultivator to practice their core cultivation technique five more times on top of the original foundation.

Based on Luo Chen’s original limit of two to three times, he could now run the Changchun Technique eight times!

What was the concept of eight times?

One time restored 20% of spiritual power; eight times was 160%, enough to release thirty-two Fireball Techniques.

It could be said that the value of the Soul-Calming Incense in this haul was second only to the storage bag and the Soul-Breaking Nail.

It was higher than that low-grade magic robe, that bottle of Qi-Nurturing Pills, and other things.

Because this box of Soul-Calming Incense allowed him to practice multiple times, refreshing the proficiency of the Changchun Technique, and could also be used to brush up the proficiency of other skills.

"When I have money in the future, not only will I buy a house, but I will also buy lots and lots of Soul-Calming Incense!"

After finishing his practice, feeling that half of the magic power consumed by releasing the Soul-Breaking Nail just now had recovered a small half, Luo Chen sighed with emotion.

After the emotion, under the quiet, peaceful, and focused state brought by the Soul-Calming Incense, he recalled the situation of that night ten days ago.

It could be said that for the past ten days, he had been recalling it almost all the time.

Even in his dreams, the scene had been replayed several times.

That was the first time he had faced death since he transmigrated!

Constant recollection wasn't because of fear, but because he wanted to remember the situation at that time to prevent facing such things again in the future.

With the help of the Soul-Calming Incense, Luo Chen suddenly realized that he could have actually handled that battle better.

The Soul-Breaking Nail was fast, but he had practiced the Carefree Travel, so he could have completely tried to dodge.

Even if he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't have been so severely injured, almost dying on the spot.

And the enemy was in a terrible state at the time; what if he had struck first?

Could he have caught the other party off guard?

Strike first to gain the advantage, strike later to suffer disaster; he was still indecisive and held onto luck.

Even during the later head-on battle, there were great shortcomings.

Clearly, the third fireball had already broken the other party’s defense, and he only needed to add at most two more fireballs.

But in his excitement, he had squandered all his magic power in one go.

So much so that after that, he had no combat power at all.

It was just good luck that he met Wang Yuan.

What if he had met someone else?

Would others also know him? Would they also let him go?

Heh, even if it were someone he knew, I’m afraid they would be tempted too!

The assets of two Qi Refining cultivators could definitely be considered a rich harvest.

"My combat experience is really too little!" ===== CHAPTER 19 =====