Chapter 20: Awakening

Seeing the joyful expressions of Gao Dakuan and Qu Yuan, Zhang Nuo felt a bit embarrassed. He took two quick steps to stand before them, gave an honest smile, scratched his head, and said:

"I only just advanced!"

"You're at the Fourth Layer realm now, right?"

Qu Yuan circled around Zhang Nuo several times with a grin, the joy on his face plain to see. He truly had not expected that Zhang Nuo, having remained at the Third Layer of the Qi Refining Stage for so long, would actually have a breakthrough recently.

"Yes, just reached the Fourth Layer!"

Zhang Nuo answered softly. At this, Gao Dakuan was even happier; it seemed that his hope of participating in the Chief Disciple Assembly finally had some promise.

"Junior Brother, I still have a few bottles of Pill at my place. I'll give them all to you in a moment. There are still over four years left; you must cultivate diligently and strive to reach the Sixth Layer as soon as possible!"

"Don't worry, Senior Brother, I have confidence!"

Looking at Gao Dakuan's expression, Zhang Nuo was also very happy in his heart. Previously, his cultivation had made no progress. Although this Senior Brother had not said it explicitly, he had felt somewhat disappointed; after all, the Chief Disciple Assembly was a rare opportunity that no one wanted to miss.

Just as the three fellow disciples were chatting, the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" that had been sleeping in Zhang Nuo's embrace suddenly moved. At the same time, a wave of mental connection transmitted into Zhang Nuo's mind.

"The Spirit Insect is waking up!"

Zhang Nuo said to himself. This insect had slept for over half a month. Although Zhang Nuo was not worried, he felt as if something was gestating within the insect's body. Without delay, he said a few words to Gao Dakuan and then ducked into his own room.

After entering the room and closing the stone door, Zhang Nuo took the Spirit Insect from his embrace and held it in his palm. He saw the insect lazily flap its wings a few times, then its gaze shifted slightly to look at the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" placed on the stone bed!

Zhang Nuo's eyes also lit up with brilliance. Last time, after the crystal produced by the Spirit Insect was absorbed by the sword case, the main body of the sword case had gained the ability to gather Spiritual Qi. If it absorbed the crystal produced by the Spirit Insect again, what kind of miracle would occur?

With no time to think, Zhang Nuo ran to the stone bed and placed the "Mysterious Heaven Gold-Devouring Insect" onto the "Nine Dragon Sword Case". Before long, the Spirit Insect indeed produced a snow-white crystal just like last time, and the dragon carving on the sword case suddenly came to life, opening its mouth wide to swallow the crystal in one gulp.

Zhang Nuo watched everything before him, his face full of excitement. The white crystal produced by the Spirit Insect this time was much larger than the last one; he believed it would be of even greater help to the sword case. After producing the crystal, the Spirit Insect flew back into Zhang Nuo's embrace, appearing extremely exhausted.

Soon, everything returned to calm. Zhang Nuo picked up the sword case and examined it for a long time. This sword case was his treasure; as long as the sword case was there, he would possess dense Spiritual Qi, and advancing would only be a matter of time.

To verify the ability of the sword case after absorbing the white crystal again, Zhang Nuo specifically waited until late at night. He sat cross-legged on the stone bed, sensing the surrounding Spiritual Qi, and to Zhang Nuo's surprise, he discovered that the time it took for the sword case to gather Spiritual Qi had advanced, and when it reached its peak, the concentration of Spiritual Qi was several times stronger than before.

Opening his eyes in wild joy, Zhang Nuo looked at the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" beside him. Now he could be certain of at least one thing: the larger the white crystal produced by the Spirit Insect, the more helpful it was to the sword case.

The next day, Zhang Nuo let the Spirit Insect out of the Cave Abode again. This time he did not go too far; he released the Spirit Insect to fly away just after leaving the Cave Abode. Before releasing it, he gave the Spirit Insect repeated instructions not to go to the sect's weapon vault to steal and eat Magic Treasure again.

The Spirit Insect nodded as if it understood and yet did not, then quickly flew into the depths of the great mountains. Watching the direction in which the Spirit Insect flew, Zhang Nuo prayed in his heart that nothing would happen; this Spirit Insect was truly too precious!

After returning to the Cave Abode, Zhang Nuo prepared plenty of food in his room. He was going to begin closed-door cultivation. Now that the sword case's ability to gather Spiritual Qi had increased, it would be of great help to his cultivation, so he wanted to use this period of closed-door cultivation to advance again!

Since his master Lin Fan was not in the cave, Zhang Nuo told Gao Dakuan, then returned to his room. After the stone door closed, he began his arduous training.

This closed-door cultivation of Zhang Nuo's lasted for half a year. During these six months, he never left the room, sitting beside the sword case every day to engage in arduous training.

The "Sword Control Art" was the basic cultivation technique for disciples of the Divine Sword Sect. Its content was not very difficult to understand; as long as a disciple had decent aptitude, they could master it completely within a few years. There was one most important prerequisite for this: the Spiritual Qi had to be sufficient. As long as there was enough Spiritual Qi, the speed of cultivation would increase even further.

Late at night on this day, Zhang Nuo slowly opened his eyes. His face was filled with an extremely joyful smile, and a sharp light also bloomed from the depths of his pupils.

Sixth Layer! Qi Refining Stage Sixth Layer! Zhang Nuo had only used half a year to charge from the Fourth Layer of the Qi Refining Stage to the Sixth Layer. In fact, this speed was not impossible for cultivation geniuses within the sect, but given Zhang Nuo's aptitude, being able to reach this speed was already quite surprising.

Having entered the Sixth Layer of the Qi Refining Stage, his Divine Sense had initially formed, which meant that Zhang Nuo could use Magic Treasure. The first thing he had to do now was to communicate with the "Nine Dragon Sword Case" via Divine Sense, draw out the Flying Sword within the sword case, and see exactly what it looked like!