Chapter 73

Xu Jin knew the name Wang Wang Weisheng.

Among all the disciples of the Hu Jinshan Academy, he is the recognized senior brother, the one with the highest talent in last August's Star-Condensing Season, achieving star-condensing in two and a half days.

Less than three months after the Star-Condensing Season ended last August, his cultivation reached the peak of the seventh layer of the Meal of Mist Realm, but for some reason, he had not yet forged a star.

He is currently the recognized number one in cultivation, combat power, and star arts in the entire Hu Jinshan Academy.

The Hu Jinshan Academy's monthly mountain-harvest leaderboard has been dominated by him since last December.

Having dominated the leaderboard for seven consecutive months, he is now about to dominate it for the eighth month.

Similarly, there is the disciples' recognized second senior brother, Zhang Han, who was also the second most talented in last August's Star-Condensing Season, achieving star-condensing in seven days. His cultivation also reached the peak of the seventh layer of the Meal of Mist Realm half a year ago, but likewise, for unknown reasons, he has not yet forged a star.

He has also been dominating the mountain-harvest leaderboard, but he dominates the second place.

Yu Yu Xianghua and Zhang Ming are the same, but these two are both at the peak of the seventh layer of the Meal of Mist Realm and have also not forged a star. These two are also dominating the leaderboard, occupying the third and fourth places, fluctuating between the two.

At first, Xu Jin had no expectations for this harvest leaderboard at the Hu Jinshan Academy.

Without experience in mountain harvesting, and with strength inferior to the senior brothers from the previous Star-Condensing Season, not to mention his background, what could he use to compete with them?

Even though the rewards for the top twenty were very good, Xu Jin only wanted to earn some silver to cultivate and accumulate some experience, intending to compete for the leaderboard next month.

Xu Jin still had a bit of self-awareness.

But Instructor Zheng's reminder today gave Xu Jin the heart to compete for the leaderboard.

After all, he was already close to the top twenty, and might have even reached it.

According to the Hu Jinshan Academy's rules, the first place on the monthly harvest leaderboard can choose one first-tier star weapon, with an additional reward of fifty wisps of starlight from the Star-Picking Tower. The second and third places also get a first-tier star weapon, but the starlight reward becomes forty and thirty wisps respectively.

Fourth to tenth place are rewarded with twenty wisps of starlight and one Star-Picking Token; if unavailable, it can be converted into starlight from the Star-Picking Tower.

Eleventh to twentieth place are rewarded with ten wisps of starlight, the qualification to purchase a Star-Picking Token, and one bottle of Spirit-Refreshing Pills.

Twenty-first to fiftieth place are all rewarded with the qualification to purchase a Star-Picking Token and one bottle of Spirit-Awakening Pills.

There are no rewards after fiftieth place.

Xu Jin didn't care for the rewards after twentieth place; it was only fifty taels of silver.

But the rewards before twentieth place, especially the top ten, were very tempting.

As for the top three rewards, they were extremely tempting; a star weapon is worth at least two thousand taels, and thirty wisps of starlight are worth three thousand taels.

"Give it a try, keep within the top twenty, and strive to break into the top ten."

"As for the top three, it's very, very difficult."

Along the way, Xu Jin only explored while on the move, with meager gains, and quickly headed outside of Golden Eagle Peak.

Xu Jin had already discovered that the safe range on the map provided by the academy was safe, but the harvest was relatively low.

The disciples searching in this range were the most numerous; although over three hundred disciples were thrown in every month, it wasn't many, but it happened every month.

If one wants a large harvest, one must break through the safe boundary set by the academy.

The Star-Fragment Mushrooms that Xu Jin was still nurturing under the star lamps were one of the foundations for Xu Jin to enter the top twenty. By tomorrow afternoon, when the nurturing was complete, he would have a harvest of at least over a thousand taels, and if he could find another batch of precious medicinal herbs, breaking into the top ten was possible.

In one afternoon, Xu Jin killed a few fierce beasts and gained over four hundred taels.

He continued his hard cultivation at night.

Because he couldn't enter the Star-Picking Tower for practice these past few days, he could only find a place to stay once it got dark; besides focusing on cultivation, there was nothing else to do.

Xu Jin's progress in inscribing the Great Star-Gathering Pattern was also constantly improving.

By this morning, the success rate of inscribing the Great Star-Gathering Pattern within the star lamp had already exceeded eighty percent.

After another two hours of hard cultivation in the star lamp at night, Xu Jin's success rate in inscribing the Great Star-Gathering Pattern was already close to one hundred percent.

Xu Jin knew that the time for formally inscribing the Great Star-Gathering Pattern had arrived.

But when inscribing star patterns, one must be in the most perfect state for the highest success rate.

Early on the morning of July 12th, Xu Jin, having slept well, ate some dry rations with water, blocked the cave entrance with a giant rock, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to formally inscribe the star pattern.

Just like when he inscribed the Small Star-Gathering Pattern before, everything was a matter of course.

After all, he had practiced it thousands of times within the star lamp.

The only difference was that after successfully outlining it with star power, he had to continuously flush and solidify it with star power to form a perfect circuit, without any stagnation in between.

And all the failure factors had already been discovered and excluded during the thousands of practice sessions.

Half an hour later, a perfect lotus ball appeared on Xu Jin's chest.

Preliminary inscription successful.

Continue to solidify.

For others in this process, if their star power was insufficient or their preparation was inadequate, there was a possibility of failure, but Xu Jin did not.

Because when his star power was insufficient, Xu Jin only needed to slightly activate the Arena of Battle, and his star power would be replenished.

An hour later, a perfect lotus ball appeared on both his chest and back, as if it had grown there, beautiful and magnificent, with starlight shining.

Great Star-Gathering Pattern inscription successful.

Almost the moment the Great Star-Gathering Pattern inscription was successful, Xu Jin felt that the lotus star pattern was empty, so he assumed the Meal of Mist posture, and a large amount of star power surged in.

In just a quarter of an hour, the Great Star-Gathering Pattern sent a feeling of swelling; his star power was full.

Sure enough!

After the Great Star-Gathering Pattern was successfully condensed, his total star power surged by fifty percent from the original foundation, and the speed of absorbing and recovering star power also doubled.

It was precisely because of this that after his star power surged by fifty percent, the time to operate the Meal of Mist posture to recover star power was shortened. Bang!

Xu Jin exploded a Star Ray on the ground.

In an instant, it blasted a two-foot-deep pit. As his star power became more robust, the power of his basic star arts also improved; whether it was the Star Shield or the Star-Light Shield, they became a bit thicker.

But the most obvious ones were the Star Arrow and the Star Ring.

Before the breakthrough, Xu Jin, at the fifth layer of the Meal of Mist Realm, would fire a Star Arrow that would disappear after flying five feet from his body, and the Star Ring would swing out at most two feet.

But now, after the successful inscription of the Great Star-Gathering Pattern, the Star Arrow actually flew over six feet after leaving his body, and the shooting speed also increased, while the Star Ring could swing out three feet with Xu Jin's body as the center, and its power was enhanced again.

This strength was already equivalent to a cultivator at the sixth layer of the Meal of Mist Realm.

But compared to those cultivators who had successfully inscribed the Great Star-Gathering Pattern and broken through to the sixth layer of the Meal of Mist Realm, there was still a gap.

Subsequently, Xu Jin switched to cultivating the Myriad Gold Chapter.

The progress of his cultivation pleasantly surprised Xu Jin.

Previously, it took two hours of hard cultivation for the starlight to cover half a centimeter toward his head, but now, after only one hour of cultivation, the starlight had covered more than half a centimeter toward his head.

The cultivation speed of the sixth layer of the Meal of Mist Realm had directly doubled.

Counting it up, it had been seven days since Xu Jin broke through to the fifth layer of the Meal of Mist Realm, but the starlight had only just reached his chin and hadn't climbed past it. According to the previous progress, it would take at least another twenty days to break through.

But after the successful inscription of the Great Star-Gathering Pattern, the cultivation speed of the Myriad Gold Chapter doubled; ten days.

In ten days at most, Xu Jin would be able to break through to the sixth layer of the Meal of Mist Realm.

After cultivating, Xu Jin calculated the time again.

Previously, Lu Lu Xianbing, Han Yue Han Yue Daqi, and others took about ten days to inscribe the Small Star-Gathering Pattern. According to Ning Ning Yuchan's judgment, it would take them at least a month to successfully condense the Great Star-Gathering Pattern.

Xu Jin had already decided that he could not report the success of his Great Star-Gathering Pattern inscription too early this time.

Since it took geniuses like Lu Lu Xianbing about thirty days to inscribe the Great Star-Gathering Pattern, Xu Jin would control the reporting time to about twenty-five days.

He should be able to lock in the reward for being the first to inscribe the Great Star-Gathering Pattern—the Spirit-Stabilizing Golden Pill.

It had been half a month since Xu Jin successfully inscribed the Small Star-Gathering Pattern, so he would go report this news in ten days.

He needed to appear talented enough to surpass top geniuses like Lu Lu Xianbing, but not so monstrously so.

Leave the cave, continue harvesting!

Not long after, Xu Jin discovered that the significant increase in total star power also slightly enhanced the power of the Flying Star Step.

It was about the saying "the bold are skilled"; the improvement in strength gave Xu Jin the ability to explore further outward.

Of course, the most important thing was the "Spirit-Sensing Star Pattern."

The Spirit-Sensing Star Pattern he obtained increased Xu Jin's early warning for danger by more than tenfold.

In just half a day, the Spirit-Sensing Star Pattern had already allowed Xu Jin to avoid star beasts twice.

Although Xu Jin had the record of killing the star beast Green Snake, Xu Jin felt that this record had a certain element of luck and was not replicable.

Unless absolutely necessary, one must not risk challenging star beasts.

After all, they were a major realm and a half higher than him.

One must not be reckless.

For most of this day, Xu Jin had another harvest of over five hundred taels.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Xu Jin's nose twitched slightly, and a very complex scent appeared.

It was the smell of blood, the smell of human blood.

And it wasn't just one kind.

Someone?

Xu Jin feigned searching for medicinal herbs and soon discovered the general direction of the scent.

In a mountain hollow, he couldn't see it, but the scent was indeed coming from there.

Not only was there the scent of blood from multiple people, but there was also the smell of living people, at least two of them.

"Definitely not academy disciples!"

Xu Jin immediately made a judgment; if they were academy disciples, they would have come out to greet him by now instead of hiding in the mountain hollow.

"Is someone targeting me?"

His gaze swept across the mountain hollow inadvertently, and Xu Jin pretended to search, turning toward another direction.

Inside the mountain hollow, two men wearing grass cloaks were crawling in the grass, staring at Xu Jin from afar, whispering to each other.

"Brother Yang, when should we make a move? I think this location is very suitable. Even if the academy's experts rush over, it will probably take them a quarter of an hour," Jiang Long, who was short, whispered.

"What's the rush? No one is competing with us. In a while, we'll lure one or two fierce beasts over to consume this kid's strength first.

Be steady," Yang Ba said.

"Right, be steady, only then can we live..."

*Whoosh! *

A sharp, piercing sound of air being torn rang out without warning. Yang Ba, being experienced, instantly rolled to the side, while Jiang Long, who was speaking, subconsciously looked back, only to see a Star Arrow just arriving.

*Bang! *

Jiang Long's head exploded like a watermelon!

(End of chapter)