Chapter 18: Soul-Breaking Nail, Calming Incense

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

Both were loose cultivators who had entered the 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 Martial Arts who had transitioned from martial arts to the path of immortality by a stroke of luck.

Therefore, upon first entering the Dahe Market, Wang Yuan had 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 grand and open manner, possessing the spirit of a Grandmaster of Martial Arts.

But this spirit brought him disaster in the Dahe Market.

Several mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators robbed him, stealing everything he had and beating him into a heavy injury.

After Wang Yuan recovered, his personality changed.

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

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

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

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

That time, Wang Yuan went alone and silently stepped into the Ancient Plains Mountain Range.

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

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

But no one dared to trouble him because Wang Yuan had joined the Mountain-Breaking Gang.

As the largest loose cultivator force in the area, the Mountain-Breaking Gang had a bit of a reputation, and coupled with Wang Yuan's ruthlessness, he had firmly established himself in the outer city area.

Especially in later days, Wang Yuan would sell magic artifacts and cultivation techniques at the market every few days.

Those were all items of unknown origin, and thinking of the various rumors about Wang Yuan when he first started, everyone feared him even more.

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

Ten years had passed.

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

One had to say, the gap between people was even greater than the gap between people and dogs.

"He let me join the Mountain-Breaking Gang and said he'd protect me in the future. Why such a sudden move?"

After Luo Chen arranged the herbs, he sat at the doorway, fiddling with the iron token engraved with the word "Mountain."

"For the sake of past friendship?"

"Or because I killed that short-lived fifth-layer Qi Refining guy 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 Evergreen Technique, and healing.

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

According to his previous plan, he could officially begin refining the Myriad Wonders Pills tomorrow.

But Luo Chen's attention was focused on something else.

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

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

Both long nails carried a rich, bloody smell, and wisps of blood-red color, hidden under the black, were somewhat chilling.

He continuously injected mana, and the Soul-Breaking Nail hummed, then suddenly flew out.

*Swoosh! *

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

"Actually this sharp!"

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

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

The standard for determining the grade was the quantity and quality of the engraved arrays.

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

"No wonder I was heavily injured without any power to fight back at the time."

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

Wang Yuan was no weakling; before transitioning to the path of immortality, he was a secular Grandmaster of Martial Arts.

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

His realm was high, and his actual combat ability was strong.

That the short-lived guy 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 I fired both at once, wouldn't I be instantly drained of 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 artifact were truly too obvious.

Its armor-piercing ability could be called top-tier.

Its mana consumption was huge, and it couldn't be controlled; once fired, it couldn't be summoned back with mana.

It was only because the material was hard enough that it wouldn't be easily damaged; otherwise, it would count as a one-time consumable magic artifact.

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

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

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

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

After a burst of joy, Luo Chen returned to the room and lit a stick of 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 Evergreen Technique.

One stick of calming incense a day was enough to allow a cultivator to practice their core cultivation technique five more times on top of their original foundation.

With Luo Chen's original limit of two to three times, he could now run the Evergreen Technique eight times!

What was the concept of eight times?

Once recovers twenty percent of spiritual power; eight times is one hundred and sixty percent, enough to fire thirty-two fireballs.

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

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

Because this box of calming incense could allow him to practice many times, refreshing the proficiency of the Evergreen 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'll also buy lots and lots of calming incense!"

After finishing his practice, feeling that the half of his mana consumed by firing the Soul-Breaking Nail had recovered by a small portion, Luo Chen sighed with emotion.

After sighing, under the quiet, peaceful, and focused state brought by the calming incense, he recalled the situation of that night ten days ago.

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

Even when dreaming, he had replayed the scene several times.

That was the first time he had faced death directly since crossing over!

Constant recall 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 calming incense, Luo Chen suddenly realized that he could actually have responded better in that battle.

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

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

And the enemy's state was extremely poor at the time; what if he had struck first?

Could he have caught the opponent off guard?

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

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

Clearly, the third fireball had already broken the opponent's defense, and he only needed to follow up with at most two more fireballs.

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

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

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 off?

*Heh*, even if it were someone he knew, they would probably be tempted!

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

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