Chapter 39: Chapter Thirty-Nine: Harvest

"Ownerless destiny!"

Lu Fang consumed the "one finger" of scholarly qi, his eyes fixed ahead.

After slaying the wild boar spirit, a fist-sized destiny emerged from its corpse.

Didn’t expect it to have so much destiny.

He took out his destiny stone, absorbed the ownerless destiny, then began dissecting the wild boar spirit—every part of a demon beast is valuable; its tusks, for instance, make excellent material for writing brushes, inkstones, paper, and inksticks.

High-grade treasures are typically forged from such rare materials; ordinary materials cannot withstand the refinement process.

While dissecting, Lu Fang found a storage pouch inside its belly, containing first-grade rare herbs: Seven-Heart Flower, Starlight Grass…

Also five or six porcelain vials of first-grade elixirs—Qi-Enhancing Pills and Minor Restoration Pills, totaling fifty to sixty pills.

These rare herbs and elixirs could replenish demonic qi, righteous qi, and primordial qi, though at a slightly slower rate.

Lu Fang had studied a compendium of rare herbs and elixirs in the Li household during his house arrest, so he recognized them.

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, the quality of rare herbs and elixirs is ranked from first to fifth grade, corresponding respectively to Confucian Scholar, Confucian Disciple, Master, Grand Master, and Semi-Sage.

A Confucian Scholar can fully metabolize the effects of first-grade herbs and elixirs.

Under certain conditions, consuming matching herbs and elixirs will not be wasted.

Besides these, the wild boar spirit’s storage pouch contained two low-grade Ten-Thousand-Path stones.

Ten-Thousand-Path stones are oval-shaped ores containing "Ten-Thousand Path Qi"; beings of all races absorb this qi to convert it into their own required energy, enhancing cultivation base and breaking through realms.

These are exceedingly rare, as precious as destiny stones.

The destiny stone referred to here is the one Master Wang Fu gave Lu Fang.

When a person absorbs destiny from a destiny stone into their body, they cannot fully extract it all; residual destiny condenses on the skin as a circular mark.

One circle equals first grade, up to five circles maximum.

Such graded destiny stones are luxury items in the Great Zhou Dynasty, favored by the powerful, as wearing them constantly allows absorption of residual destiny.

Of course, Lu Fang’s destiny stone is even more precious.

Inside the wild boar spirit’s storage pouch was also a white jade bone, inscribed with dense demonic script and demonic runes.

Likely a demonic cultivation technique.

Also some gold, silver, and jewels.

Seeing little of practical use, Lu Fang simply stuffed the wild boar spirit’s meat into the storage pouch too.

Nearby were dried thorn vines and wild boar meat; he released the Book Spirit Yan Chixia to guard, then began roasting the meat.

Boom!

The piled thorn vines ignited.

Soon, the wild boar leg skewered on a stick sizzled, oil dripping under the flame’s heat, releasing a rich aroma that made Lu Fang’s mouth water.

Even without salt or cumin, one bite was savory and not greasy—far tastier than any roast shop from his past life.

The ancients did not deceive.

Indeed, the meat of these spirits is exceptionally delicious.

"Burp!"

Lu Fang devoured the entire roasted boar leg, let out a satisfied burp, and stretched out luxuriously.

His entire body now burned with heat, limbs brimming with strength.

It seemed the records in books were true: eating spirit meat enhances the body.

Killing one wild boar spirit not only yielded abundant ownerless destiny, but also these other benefits.

Too bad his time in the Lesser Upper Realm lasted only one month.

Beyond that, the magical array branded onto his body would forcibly drag him away.

Lu Fang pondered for a moment, then sighed deeply.

He had been confident in his strength, yet even a random demon beast forced him to use the Dragon-Slaying Crescent Slash—the Soul-Striking technique.

His power was still lacking.

This time he won and seized the wild boar spirit’s destiny.

But what if the next one wasn’t a minor player, but a ruthless one?

If the wild boar spirit were alive and heard Lu Fang calling it a minor player, it would rage: "I didn’t call you minor—you call me?"

It was a rising star with the bloodline of the Golden-Haired Wild Boar King; in terms of strength ranking, it could easily rank among the top ten of seventh-grade demons.

This is a minor player?

Unfortunately, Lu Fang didn’t know any of this—he was now worrying about his own "insufficient strength," showing clear signs of distress.

"I must use scholarly qi to elevate my realm."

Lu Fang declared firmly.

Since the "Mimicry Method" appeared, no one in the Great Zhou Dynasty had yet gained transcendent power—but the number of those mimicking scholarly qi had surged.

This caused his scholarly qi to skyrocket.

He now had seven strands of scholarly qi; if he didn’t use them now to elevate his realm and ended up killed for weakness, wouldn’t he die in vain?

He made up his mind!

Lu Fang no longer hesitated; he took one strand of scholarly qi and chewed it slowly, sensing the changes in his realm.

After consuming half a strand,

a faint sound echoed.

He successfully entered eighth grade, second stage.

His rapid breakthrough was partly due to prior accumulation, and partly because the Lesser Upper Realm’s heavenly dao was incomplete, imposing no restrictions on him.

A good start!

Lu Fang did not stop—merely one stage up; in this Lesser Upper Realm, anyone he grabbed at random was seventh grade, third stage—he had no advantage.

The advantage lay with the opponent!

After finishing one strand—no change!

After finishing two strands—no change!

Just as he was halfway through the third strand, Lu Fang broke through again, successfully entering eighth grade, third stage.

Not enough! Keep consuming scholarly qi.

Finished the third strand!

Finished the fourth strand!

Finished the fifth strand!

"So hard to advance?"

Lu Fang couldn’t help complaining—he’d felt since consuming the fourth strand that he was just a hair’s breadth from entering seventh grade, first stage.

Yet after finishing the fifth strand, he still hadn’t broken through.

With only two strands left, Lu Fang couldn’t bear it—he’d settle for this for now. Though the Three Kingdoms Romance still released one chapter daily, providing endless scholarly qi,

he couldn’t use it so recklessly.

He still needed to keep some scholarly qi to replenish stamina and momentum during combat.

"Yan Chixia also reached seventh grade, third stage—shouldn’t the gap with others be smaller now? If I can’t win, I can at least run."

Lu Fang comforted himself.

If he’d been better informed—or asked one more question—he’d have known that He Zixuan, whom he defeated, wasn’t a second-generation heir, but a Confucian prodigy. He wouldn’t have thought this way.

He Zixuan and the wild boar spirit were simply too deceptive!

One was defeated by Xiao Yunru in six strikes.

One was a wild boar spirit.

Neither looked particularly impressive!

"Location talisman?"

As Lu Fang buried the fire with sand, he felt the location talisman in his sleeve grow hot; after pulling it out, one corner of the yellow talisman glowed with spiritual light.

Someone with a location talisman was to the east!

After brief hesitation, Lu Fang headed east.

He had no current goal anyway; since someone was nearby, it wouldn’t hurt to check—though his main focus remained killing things in the Lesser Upper Realm that bore destiny.

Whether this desert was remote or simply lacked many destiny-bearing entities,

Lu Fang encountered no such entities while searching for people, leaving him displeased.

Should he go kill those alien races instead?

Their destiny was quite substantial!

No one had told Lu Fang that one primary source of destiny in the Lesser Upper Realm was slaughter between races—a twisted rule unique to this realm.

"This aura feels familiar."

Lu Fang gazed at the righteous qi hovering in the distance, recalling He Zixuan’s figure—who was he fighting?

He didn’t linger; he summoned the Black Armor to cling to his body and glided like a phantom toward the battlefield.

The battlefield.

A massive sand pit, ten kilometers across, had been carved out by the combatants.

One side was He Zixuan, stout yet incredibly agile; the other, two barbarians.

One male, one female.

The male stood seven feet tall, wielding a massive spiked club taller than himself, his ferocious attacks tightly entangling He Zixuan.

Every time he swung his spiked club, the wind tore through space, emitting a piercing sonic boom.

Had He Zixuan not manifested a speed-based battle poem to dodge the spiked club repeatedly, one strike would have crushed him into pulp.

The barbarian women had only one eye, located at the center of their brows.

She stood at a distance, blowing a bone flute that emitted strange tones, making listeners feel deeply uneasy.

Lu Fang felt no danger, but from He Zixuan’s persistent attempts to abandon the barbarian man and kill the barbarian woman, he deduced that she posed the greater threat to him.

He Zixuan tried again to kill the barbarian woman.

The barbarian man seized his chance, roared loudly, stamped his feet hard, and vanished like a ghost to appear above He Zixuan; his spiked club, wrapped in sonic booms, slammed down toward He Zixuan’s skull.