Chapter 72: Survival Divine Technique

“Third-rank snake spirit? Offering?”

The additional information on the Candou Platform’s jade tablet left Xu Jin deeply puzzled.

With a thought to try it out, he focused his mind and immediately absorbed the freshly acquired, still-warm green snake star-core into the Candou Platform.

A faint flash of light appeared, and the green snake star-core materialized above the Candou Platform.

But its position was beneath the offering table—at the very front of the platform!

Wasn’t this supposed to be an offering?

Why did it end up under the table?

Surprised, Xu Jin refocused his mind on the green snake star-core beneath the offering table; instantly, a flood of information surged into his mind, revealing its usage.

【Offering Spirit Item One: Third-rank Low-grade Snake Spirit. Consuming one strand of starlight grants protection or allows replacement of the spirit. When fully charged with star power, it unleashes the spirit’s peak attack, accompanied by a slight soul strike; after activation, the spirit vanishes.】

【Available Protections: Spirit-Scent Star Pattern, Concealment Star Pattern】

These lines of text brought a smile to Xu Jin’s face.

This granted him an additional star pattern ability—by his understanding, something like a passive skill.

More than that, he gained another survival technique: unleashing a full star-power burst, a one-time use.

After use, the item vanishes, but at a critical moment, it’s a lifesaver.

Crucially, this third-rank snake spirit offered better value than the Star Seal; at least, the cost didn’t sting as much.

Ning Yuchan’s Spiral Blade Seal sold for four thousand taels on the market.

This kind of star-beast star-core typically ranged from one to two thousand taels.

Of course, its power should be weaker than the Spiral Blade Seal.

Not bad.

The Candou Platform’s functions kept surprising Xu Jin.

He wondered what other surprises it might bring in the future.

And this was only Offering Spirit Item One.

A second-rank Candou Platform could offer two spirit items.

Offering one spirit grants one star pattern—so what if he upgraded the platform to third-rank or fourth-rank?

The two star patterns he’d obtained so far were passive skills—would future ones be active?

【Spirit-Scent Star Pattern: Enhances perception of surrounding environmental changes; extremely sensitive to scent and temperature shifts】

【Concealment Star Pattern: Suppresses all life signatures; if motionless, nearly undetectable. Slower movement reduces effectiveness; rapid movement nullifies it entirely】

The two star patterns granted by the third-rank snake spirit brought another wave of delight.

These two star patterns were truly survival techniques.

One detects hidden dangers; the other conceals one’s own aura—both extremely practical.

But unfortunately, only one could be active at a time—or replaced by the other.

After a moment’s thought, Xu Jin unhesitatingly infused a strand of starlight and selected the “Spirit-Scent Star Pattern.”

Almost the instant he chose the Spirit-Scent Star Pattern’s protection, an odd sensation spread through his body; after sneezing, Xu Jin realized his perception of the surroundings had changed completely.

Suddenly, Xu Jin leapt backward a step.

Shit.

Above him, on the vines, a dark green spider was swinging toward him—he hadn’t noticed it before.

The thing could be crushed with one slap, but Xu Jin found it utterly repulsive.

A few breaths later, his expression turned grim.

Too sensitive a perception wasn’t good.

Previously, he’d thought this patch of grass was just plain grass.

Now, he detected hundreds, even thousands of insects—and worse, rats.

This was a lingering phobia from his past life; his mother had told a story she’d witnessed: a village woman working in the fields, her trousers loose at the ankles, suddenly screamed, clamped both hands over her inner thighs, and froze.

After great effort, they pried her hands open and found a crushed rat inside her loose pants, lodged at the base of her thigh.

After waking, the woman’s mind was never right again.

From then on, she developed a deep aversion to rats.

Besides detecting all kinds of small animals, Xu Jin also sensed dozens of distinct auras.

Strangely, he could roughly identify the type of creature each aura belonged to.

There were snake auras, leopard auras, night owl auras—and more snake auras.

Human?

Suddenly, one particular aura made Xu Jin frown.

Someone had passed through here—more than one person?

Had Dao Yuan classmates been here and missed the Star-Shattered Mushrooms?

Or…?

Admittedly, this Spirit-Scent Star Pattern greatly enhanced Xu Jin’s ability to detect danger in the wild.

Unlike before, when he relied entirely on sight.

Footprints can be hidden, but scent and body heat are nearly impossible to conceal.

True divine technique.

Looking at the third-rank green snake spirit beneath the Candou Platform’s offering table, Xu Jin suddenly chuckled.

It’s under the table, and you can summon or destroy it at will—how is this an offering?

The art of language!

Xu Jin took some fresh snake meat for dinner, then before leaving, placed all the Star-Shattered Mushrooms beneath the Star Lamp to cultivate. The common Lichen Moss he’d placed inside earlier, after a full day and night of cultivation, had all turned into one-star; the two one-star specimens now glowed with thick, swirling starlight—they’d become two-star Lichen Moss.

This was entirely normal.

Ordinary Lichen Moss was typically one or two years old; one-star was ten years old; two-star was twenty years old.

Theoretically, one day and night of cultivation would raise ordinary moss to one-star, and one-star to two-star.

But to elevate two-star to three-star would likely take four or five days.

Because three-star Lichen Moss was fifty years old.

The night passed without incident; deep in the ancient forest, with the Star-Picking Order outside service range, there was nothing but cultivation.

Hard cultivation! Hard cultivation!

Early the next morning, after cultivation, Xu Jin slung the heavy snake hide over his back and headed for the nearest supply point on the map.

After days of relentless practice within the Star Lamp, Xu Jin had fully mastered the Flying Star Step.

Without relying on physical strength, he could launch the Flying Star Step from a standstill, leaping ten meters upward and twenty meters forward.

With physical strength added, he could leap thirteen to fourteen meters upward and nearly thirty meters forward.

This multiplied his efficiency crossing mountains and traversing terrain.

What had previously taken two hours now took him only one.

This was the outermost supply point of the Jinshan Dao Yuan, deep within the Great Green Mountains.

Guarding it was Instructor Zheng, a member of the Forging Hall—his body bulging with muscle, dark and sturdy as a water buffalo, standing out unmistakably.

From afar, Instructor Zheng spotted Xu Jin.

When he saw the enormous pile of scaled snake hide on Xu Jin’s back, he was startled.

In an instant, he shot forward like lightning, snatched the scaled hide from Xu Jin’s back, and exclaimed, “Kid, did you encounter a star-beast? A low-tier green snake at the Star Refining stage—why didn’t you call for help? Are you hurt?”

As he pressed with further questions, Instructor Zheng circled Xu Jin, then placed a hand on his shoulder and probed with star power. “Huh? Only minor injuries—and they’re nearly healed? Did you kill it alone?”

Xu Jin nodded.

“Impressive. Even if you used some treasure, you’ve got guts—and taking down a beast this big is worth it.”

Instructor Zheng nodded approvingly.

Xu Jin could tell Instructor Zheng assumed he’d used a protective seal—he didn’t correct him, letting the assumption stand.

Then Instructor Zheng pulled out his Star-Picking Order and swiftly logged Xu Jin’s harvest, which surprised Xu Jin.

“Hey, Instructor, your Star-Picking Order works here?” Xu Jin asked, then realized he’d spoken carelessly—his ability to use the Star-Picking Order at Qi-Exhalation Fifth Layer hadn’t been revealed yet.

But Instructor Zheng, busy tallying Xu Jin’s harvest, didn’t notice; perhaps to them, using a Star-Picking Order was perfectly normal.

“Can’t use it here—mine’s a two-star Star-Picking Order. Here, you need at least a three-star to activate. But it still works for logging and recording harvest values—most convenient, and fair, eliminating all cheating.”

As he counted, Instructor Zheng continued, “Kid, you’ve hit the jackpot! Holy hell, so much one-star Lichen Moss—did you find the motherlode?”

“And two-star too? You’re impressive.”

“These Stone Spikes have one-star ones too—good job.”

“But when storing these, you should stack them—less risk of damaging the edges.”

“Your snake gallbladder isn’t preserved well—next time, wrap gallbladders and fangs separately.”

Xu Jin realized Instructor Zheng was a chatterbox.

Since Xu Jin arrived, the man hadn’t stopped talking.

Black Ox, the chatterbox.

Luckily, Xu Jin only had to nod—he’d have been parched otherwise.

“What about the snake blood? You didn’t bring back any snake blood?” Instructor Zheng’s voice suddenly rose.

“Didn’t have a suitable container,” Xu Jin said, embarrassed.

“Next time, bring more water skins—half a catty of snake blood is worth at least twenty taels.”

"Your harvest of pine moss, stone spines, and snake gallbladders and fangs totals 1,600 taels of silver; this scaled snake skin, over a meter wide and ten meters long, is intact and valued at 2,100 taels. In just a day and a half, you’ve gathered 3,700 taels—you’re not bad, kid."

Suddenly, Instructor Zheng froze. "Something feels missing?"

"Right—the star core! Where’s the star beast’s star core? That’s a valuable item! It’s your first kill; you didn’t forget to extract the star core, did you?" Instructor Zheng exclaimed urgently.

Xu Jin was just struggling to answer when Instructor Zheng had already found the answer for him.

"You fool! That third-rank low-grade star core is worth at least 1,500 taels. Go, go find it in the snake’s corpse!"

Xu Jin spread his hands helplessly. "I killed it last night. I came over this morning—the snake’s corpse was gone. Probably eaten by wild beasts."

"Ah, you fool, you’ve got no experience!" Instructor Zheng sighed, returning the empty backpack to Xu Jin after tallying the harvest.

"Be careful. Stay alert. Blood God Cult heretics have appeared—two disciples have already been killed." As he left, Instructor Zheng suddenly gave a solemn warning.

"By the way, I think your harvest volume could push you into the top twenty of the Harvest Rankings. The rewards for the top twenty aren’t bad."

Just as Xu Jin was about to leave, he turned back. "Instructor Zheng, what’s my current ranking?"

"According to the message I received on the Star-Picking Token when I took over this morning, the top spot is Wang Weisheng with 4,600 taels; the twentieth place has 3,100 taels. But that’s the morning’s count—it’s certainly higher now."

"If you push yourself, you can make it," Instructor Zheng said.

"Understood. I’ll work hard. Thank you, Instructor!"

Watching Xu Jin rapidly disappear into the distance, Instructor Zheng suddenly shouted loudly, "Remember—safety first! Safety first!"

(End of Chapter)