Chapter 140: Improvement, Attribute Gathering

Instantly, sword qi filled the cave.

The insects came like a tide, but before they could get close to Xu Ning, they were slashed into pieces by the sword qi.

In just a few seconds, hundreds of blade-mouthed insects were completely wiped out by Xu Ning.

Xu Ning looked at the fluorescent stone on the ground and picked it up one by one, then absorbed its energy.

‘Almost 350 units of energy!’

Xu Ning absorbed all the fluorescent stones in the body of those insects. He had gained a lot.

‘I just entered the mystic realm, but I have already gained such a rich harvest. If I continue to explore this mystic realm more, there will definitely be more energy to absorb.’

Xu Ning continued to explore.

But this time Xu Ning was more cautious.

Although that group consisting of 300 blade-mouthed insects were only in the middle level of the mortal realm, there were a lot of them.

Their numbers would definitely pose a threat to weaker void realm martial artists.

Xu Ning didn’t know if there would be greater dangers.

‘I wonder where the exit is…’

Xu Ning didn’t know what the mystic realm looked like.

He didn’t know where the treasure was, or where the danger was lurking.

Dong! Dong! Dong…

Xu Ning walked along the widest tunnel, when he suddenly heard a muffled sound.

‘What’s going on…’

Xu Ning followed the sound carefully.

Soon, Xu Ning saw a black mass at the end of a spacious tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, the blade-mouthed insects he had just encountered were resting all over the stone wall.

The buzzing insects were all silent.

In the deepest part of the cave, the dark green meatball that hung on the wall suddenly trembled.

Every time it trembled, it made a thumping sound.

‘What is this…’

When Xu Ning looked at the wall full of blade-mouthed insects, he had a deep urge to swing his sword and kill them all.

He estimated that there were more than 2000 blade-mouthed insects.

However, although Xu Ning wanted to eradicate those blade-mouthed insects, the thumping dark green meatball gave Xu Ning a sense of danger, but this sense of danger was not very strong.

Squeak!

An opening suddenly appeared on the dark green meat dumpling.

He saw a dark green scythe slowly reach out from it, and soon a triangular head was revealed.

“A giant mantis? Is it also a demon beast?”

Xu Ning clenched the two swords in his hands.

Although the mantis demon beast had not completely crawled out of its dwelling, Xu Ning could already feel its tyrannical and terrifying aura.

Xu Ning even felt that he had been targeted by the mantis demon beast.

Once it crawled out, it would immediately attack him.

When Xu Ning saw this, he stepped forward with his sword, ready to kill the mantis demon beast in advance.

But before Xu Ning could get close, the silent insects on the wall suddenly began to explode, and they instantly surrounded Xu Ning.

Seeing this, Xu Ning did not panic. He just released his true qi to protect his body, causing the blade-mouthed insects to not be able to touch Xu Ning at all.

Water Cross Sword, cut, Bright Fire Sword, annihilate!

Xu Ning swung his sword with both hands and slashed at the blade-mouthed insects around him.

Hua! Hua!

Xu Ning eliminated the insects one by one.

Xu Ning’s swords killed dozens of blade-mouthed insects.

‘Being surrounded by so many mid level mortal realm insects, if I didn’t have true qi to protect my body, even a void realm martial artist would have died!’

The insects kept falling under Xu Ning’s sword light, eventually covering the ground with a thick layer of insect carcasses.

Soon, more than half of the large group of blade-mouthed insects were killed by Xu Ning.

But doing this also delayed Xu Ning.

Plop!

The giant mantis finally came out of the meatball, but instead of immediately attacking Xu Ning, it first swallowed the meatball.

This scene was a little like a newborn animal eating its eggshells to absorb nutrients.

“It is a newborn demon beast?”

Xu Ning felt that this was not that simple.

Xu Ning could see that there were irreparable wounds on the exoskeleton of the mantis demon beast.

This meant that this mantis demon beast had previously gone through a battle.

Therefore, Xu Ning speculated that the meat dumpling was the place where it rested and slept.

Shua! Shua!

The mantis demon beast looked at Xu Ning, who was slashing the blade-mouthed insect, when a misty green light appeared in its compound eyes.

Afterwards, it waved its sickle and slashed towards Xu Ning.

Seeing this, Xu Ning’s true qi surged violently. He jumped away the blade-mouthed bug that was still around him, then slashed at the mantis demon beast’s scythes with both swords.

After the sound of weapons colliding, Xu Ning noticed that there was only a small wound on the mantis demon beast’s scythes.

“So tough!”

If his opponent was another qualitative change realm martial artist, Xu Ning’s two strikes would definitely break through their defenses.

Whoosh!

Xu Ning dodged a scythe and slashed at the demon mantis’s back.

Inside Xu Ning’s body, the four qi currents kept changing—cutting, annihilating, corroding, and penetrating. Several different types of attacks hit the mantis demon beast.

Pfft!

Soon, dozens of wounds on the mantis demon beast’s body were opened, as green blood flowed out.

‘Sure enough, its exoskeleton is far weaker than its scythes!’

Xu Ning used his agile body to break the exoskeleton of the mantis.

The injuries on the mantis demon beast became more and more severe, and its attacks became more and more violent.

Finally, when it realized that it was no match for this human, the mantis demon beast jumped over Xu Ning and fled towards the other end of the tunnel.

Xu Ning didn’t give it a chance to escape. He chased after it furiously.

The two swords waved, and the sky was soon filled with sword shadows. Soon after that, the body of the mantis demon beast was completely decimated.

“Done.”

Xu Ning looked at the body of the mantis demon beast and thought to himself,?‘This mantis demon beast should be in the middle level of the void realm, so it should have an attribute-based ability, but just now, it didn’t show any.’

‘However, although it seemingly does not have any attribute-based ability, its body is clearly stronger than its peers. If the scythes are cut and harvested, it could be used to create a pair of dual knives that even a void realm martial artist desires.’

Xu Ning waved his sword and slashed at the mantis demon beast, slicing its body apart.

“That is…”

After a while, Xu Ning found a fluorescent stone in the body of the mantis demon beast, which looked exactly the same as the one in the body of the blade-mouthed insects.

However, this fluorescent stone was the size of a few fists.

Xu Ning suddenly had a glimmer of expectation. He put away the two swords and grabbed the fluorescent stone.

…

Discovered 3000 units of energy, absorb?

Yes / No

…

3000 units!?

Xu Ning smiled.

“Yes!”

Xu Ning absorbed the 3000 units of energy without hesitation.

The fluorescent stone in his hands gradually turned into powder and flowed out of Xu Ning’s hands.

This was not the end of his harvest, as Xu Ning turned around and walked towards the carcasses of the blade-mouthed insects.

Although after killing the mantis demon beast, the blade-mouthed insects scattered, there were still more than a thousand insect carcasses left on the ground.

Xu Ning didn’t find scavenging for the fluorescent stones troublesome at all. After smashing the insect carcasses on the ground, he picked up all the fluorescent stones.

After working for 15 minutes, Xu Ning absorbed more than 1,500 units.

Xu Ning’s energy reserves were now more than 5,300 units.

‘This mystic realm is full of dangers, but also full of opportunities!’

Now that Xu Ning had gathered 5000 units of energy, he could break through to the void realm fifth stage.

Once he broke through to the materialization realm, Xu Ning could directly use the surrounding aura to create fire and water.

Xu Ning opened the Martial Arts Panel.

…

Name: Xu Ning

Martial Arts:

Cold Flame Dual Source Scroll (Void realm fourth stage: qualitative change realm) +

Water cross sword (Fifth level) +

Bright Fire sword (Fifth level) +

Tidal Fist (Fifth level) +

Flame Breath Bone Sutra (Fifth level) +

Available energy: 5280 units

…

‘Advance the Cold Flame Dual Source Scroll.’

5000 units of energy were instantly consumed, and Xu Ning advanced from the void realm fourth stage to the void realm fifth stage.

Xu Ning put his hands in the air, and a ball of water and a ball of fire suddenly appeared in his two palms.

‘Being in the materialization realm will allow me to directly materialize my attributes!’

Once the attributes were materialized, the power of his techniques would be increased greatly.

‘Wow!’

Xu Ning put away the balls of fire and water in his palms. He then turned his hand into a sword and slashed at the stone wall next to him.

But first, Xu Ning activated his internal qi and attached a line of water to his internal qi.

Whoosh!

A line of water was drawn.

A huge cut appeared on the stone wall. Although it was just a casual blow, the cut was deep and wide. Its terrifying power could be clearly seen.

Even a void realm martial artist in the spirit realm couldn’t resist this casual sword strike.

If they took the attack head-on, they might just be torn apart.

The four qi currents in his body had condensed even more, and they were even going to liquefy soon…

Xu Ning also noticed the changes in his body.

When he first entered the mystic realm and advanced his four secret techniques to level five, the qi currents representing the four nature of his attributes had condensed and thickened again. Now, water droplets could be seen condensing in the middle of the four qi currents.

The shape of the water droplets was similar to the shape of the four qi currents.

“Although I have broken through to the materialization realm, there is still no way to transform the characteristics of my attributes.”

Xu Ning estimated that only when he was in the void realm sixth stage could he reach that level of strength.

After feeling his strength increasing, Xu Ning was ready to walk out of the cave of the mantis demon beast.

Before leaving, Xu Ning glanced back.

In just a short time, the mantis demon beast and the blade-mouthed insects already had signs of decay.

‘There is something strange about this mystic realm…’

Xu Ning suspected that the mantis demon beast and the blade-mouthed bug were not demon beasts.

This might be related to the fluorescent stones in their bodies.

Xu Ning guessed that the fluorescent stones were not produced from their bodies, but were absorbed through ingesting.

‘I’ll continue to walk around and see if I can find another group of insects or find traces of those fluorescent stones.’

Xu Ning walked out of the resting place of the mantis demon beast.

Time slowly passed by.

Xu Ning continued to explore the cave tunnel for several hours, but he couldn’t find anything else.

It seemed that there were no other living creatures in the tunnel.

Xu Ning was a little annoyed.

Not only did he not find another group of insects or resources, but he also seemed to be unable to find a way out.

‘The terrain in this cave is so complicated. Am I trapped here?’

Xu Ning began to worry.

However, after walking for a while, Xu Ning heard the sound of wind passing through the cave.

“It’s the exit!”

Xu Ning walked faster.

Since there was nothing left in the stone tunnel, he would go out and take a look.

Sure enough, after walking a few hundred meters, Xu Ning came to the end of the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, there was an opening that led to the outside.

‘Outside the cave, it seems like it’s night.’

Xu Ning looked at the exit.

It was pitch black outside the cave. There were also no stars. It was definitely not the same sky as the outside world.

Xu Ning could only see the color gray.

“Let’s go outside first.”

Xu Ning jumped up and climbed up the tunnel. He then bent his body and crawled out of the cave tunnel.

“This is…”

After coming out of the tunnel, Xu Ning saw an area covered in darkness.

The area was covered with gravel and dead trees, with white bones everywhere.

There were some human bones and also some animal bones.

In addition, there were dried blood stains on the ground.

As soon as he got closer, he felt a strong sense of oppression.

‘What is this place?’

Even the experienced Xu Ning felt uncomfortable.

He didn’t even want to step into this wilderness.

“This looks like a battlefield left behind by humans and demon beasts.”

Xu Ning remembered that in the history of State Jifeng, there had been a terrifying beast tide.

The beast tide brought a huge impact to State Jifeng.

‘Could this secret realm have some kind of connection with the demon beast tide back then?’

Xu Ning guessed.

Xu Ning didn’t know where the pond came from.

Xu Ning even wondered if he had been transported to another time and space after passing through the barrier.

Xu Ning stepped into the wilderness.

“On this battlefield, although many years have passed, some of the bones are still bright and smooth. It looks like these bones can still be exchanged for money.”

While walking in the gloomy wilderness, Xu Ning looked around. “It’s just that carrying these animal bones will affect my movements. It will be rather inconvenient.”

After stepping into the wilderness, Xu Ning just walked in a straight line.

Xu Ning’s ears suddenly twitched.

“There’s a sound!”

Xu Ning immediately looked to his right.

He saw two figures, one chasing and one fleeing, flying across the wilderness.

“They should be disciples of the Yuelan Sect!”

Xu Ning rushed over.

He was getting closer and closer to the two.

Soon, Xu Ning figured out their identities.

“Bao Ruyuan and Xie Wenyue?”

In this scene, Bao Ruyuan was chasing after Xie Wenyue.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep