Chapter 99: Perfection of the Undying Bones, the Startling Thunder Step

Chapter 99: Perfection of the Undying Bones, the Startling Thunder Step

"After tempering my body with the Earth Spirit Spring water just once, I actually gained 3 points in proficiency!"

Chu Ning was delighted as he observed the change in proficiency for the Undying Bones technique, and he quickly did the calculations in his mind.

There were a total of 18 Blood Mist Grass, one of which he had just given to Ling Xiaobai, and he had used one himself, leaving 16 remaining.

If he could maintain this level of effectiveness, by coming here consistently for half a month, he would be able to increase the proficiency of Undying Bones by 48 points.

That would bring it to over 300 points!

If his plan worked, once Undying Bones reached 300 points, it would face a bottleneck.

Then, in over ten days, he could consume the Seven Star Spirit Fruit and push for the perfection of Undying Bones.

A faint smile appeared on Chu Ning's face.

At that moment, a cold breeze blew by, causing a slight chill below his waist.

"Oh, I forgot to put on my clothes."

Chu Ning put on his clothes and took another turn around the cave to ensure he hadn't missed anything before leaving.

He called out to Ling Xiaobai and released the Chase Wind Shuttle, leaping onto it and flying away.

It had taken about half an hour to get here the first time using the Wind Riding Technique.

Now, with the Chase Wind Shuttle, it took much less time, and when Chu Ning returned to the spirit field, it had only been a quarter of an hour.

After restoring his appearance to its usual state, Chu Ning returned to the market street.

The first thing he did was head straight to Gu Xiaqing's shop.

"Sister Gu, please get me a bottle of Spirit Purification Pills."

Upon arriving at Gu Xiaqing's shop, Chu Ning got straight to the point.

From now on, he would be speeding up the cultivation of the Purple Crystal Bamboo in the spirit field and also tempering his body with the Earth Spirit Spring water every day.

He didn't want to waste time traveling back and forth every day, so he planned to buy some hunger-suppressing pills.

It would also be more convenient when he didn't return to the market street.

Gu Xiaqing glanced at Chu Ning and was about to reach for the pill when she paused and looked directly into his eyes.

"Brother Chu, have you reached the fifth layer of Qi Refinement?"

"Fifth Layer of Qi Refinement." This was the cultivation base that Chu Ning intentionally revealed at that moment.

In just a few months, he had progressed from the fourth to the fifth layer of Qi Refinement, and Chu Ning had his reasons for doing so.

During the beast disaster, Chu Ning had not only earned a substantial amount of spirit stones by selling a large number of talismans, but he had also established a good reputation for his talisman shop.

As a result, business had been thriving for the past two months.

Previously, Yanji Fang only had a middle-grade primary talisman master in the Wind Canyon Talisman Shop, and this talisman master named Lai Weiquan was not particularly amiable.

Now, not only were the talismans at Chu Ning's shop of better quality, but his service was also superior.

Naturally, those who came to buy talismans were more inclined to purchase from Chu Ning.

Aside from a few families affiliated with Wind Canyon who continued to buy from Lai Weiquan, the majority of the cultivator families and solitary cultivators preferred to buy from Chu Ning.

Even some families under Wind Canyon would secretly come to Chu Ning to purchase talismans.

Thus, Qingxi Zong and the others were well aware that Chu Ning had earned a significant number of spirit stones in the past few months.

Given these circumstances, it was only natural and reasonable that Chu Ning would use his spirit stones to improve his cultivation, rapidly advancing his realm.

Chu Ning understood that if he appeared to be hoarding his spirit stones, it would only make others more envious.

Not to mention others, he wasn't even sure if Lin Changqing or Du Han would harbor any covetous intentions.

During this period, Chu Ning had not only been buying pills from Gu Xiaqing.

He had also proactively purchased gray spirit rabbits, spirit chickens, and other edibles from various cultivator families.

He had also acquired a magical artifact from the sect through Lin Changqing.

He was deliberately portraying himself as someone who was wholeheartedly devoted to improving his strength.

In this way, even though everyone knew that Chu Ning's talisman shop had made some spirit stones recently,

they could also surmise that he hadn't hoarded too many.

As for Chu Ning's high success rate in talisman-making, he naturally wouldn't disclose that information to them.

At this moment, upon hearing Gu Xiaqing's question, he replied with a hint of delight:

"Thanks to Sister Gu's Gathering Yuan Dan and the spirit beast supplements I've been taking recently, my cultivation progress has indeed accelerated significantly."

Gu Xiaqing nodded after hearing his explanation but then furrowed her brows slightly and asked:

"Brother Chu, if I recall correctly, you bought three bottles of Gathering Yuan Dan two months ago. Have you finished consuming them all?"

Of course, Chu Ning wouldn't tell her the truth. He quickly waved his hand and said:

"No, I still have quite a few left."

"Don't take them too frequently," Gu Xiaqing advised.

"Even if you follow my suggestion and take one pill every three days, you should still take a break after a while.

After all, if the poison from the pills accumulates, there's still a chance it won't be completely purged.

Moreover, relying solely on pills for improvement can lead to an unstable foundation."

Although these weren't issues for Chu Ning, he still felt grateful that the gentle and considerate Senior Sister Gu had reminded him repeatedly.

Thus, he sincerely expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you for the reminder, Sister Gu. After I finish the ones I have, I don't plan on taking any more.

I intend to spend more time in the spirit field cultivating the Golden Origin Fruit, so I'm buying some hunger-suppressing pills as a precaution."

Upon hearing this, Gu Xiaqing nodded and handed a bottle of Spirit Purification Pills to Chu Ning.

Chu Ning had wanted to show her the Spirit Reviving Pill, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

The process of obtaining that pill was not something he could easily share with others.

Even though he felt that Gu Xiaqing was completely trustworthy after their interactions over the past few days, he didn't want to take any chances.

In the following days,

Chu Ning continued his routine of farming, talisman-making, and cultivation without any changes.

The only difference was that he spent an hour every day in the cave, tempering his body with the Earth Spirit Spring water and Blood Mist Grass.

As a result, the proficiency of his Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique was increasing at a visible rate.

In the blink of an eye, ten days passed.

One morning, as Chu Ning arrived at the spirit field and saw the Purple Crystal Bamboo that had turned completely purple, a smile appeared on his face.

With the constant maturation process carried out by him and Ling Xiaobai, the Purple Crystal Bamboo had reached the standard for making talisman paper.

And it had only taken half the time originally planned for the entire growth cycle.

With that, Chu Ning saw no reason to wait any longer.

He casually performed a Blade Edge Technique, cutting down several stalks of Purple Crystal Bamboo.

"Meow!"

Just then, a calling sound came from beside him.

Ling Xiaobai was staring at him with her eyes wide open.

"Want to eat!"

Upon receiving Ling Xiaobai's mental message, Chu Ning gently tapped her head, using the Beast Driving Technique to throw a freshly cut stalk of Purple Crystal Bamboo in front of her.

Ling Xiaobai immediately started munching on it happily.

He had noticed that Ling Xiaobai only ate spiritual plants and didn't touch meat at all.

For example, Chu Ning's usual purchases of spirit chickens and gray spirit rabbits were of no interest to her.

She only ate spirit rice.

Despite his musings, Chu Ning continued his task, cutting down the purple crystal bamboo one by one.

Now that he had reached the seventh layer of Qi Refinement, harvesting these spiritual plants was much easier than when he was at the third or fourth layer.

In less than half a day, all the purple crystal bamboo had been harvested by Chu Ning.

And during this process, Ling Xiaobai had devoured three whole stalks.

Chu Ning couldn't figure out how such a small creature could eat so much bamboo.

Upon returning to the market street by riding the wind, Chu Ning immediately began making talismans.

The process of making talismans from purple crystal bamboo was similar to that of ink spirit bamboo, but the former produced more pulp and had fewer impurities.

Therefore, with the same amount of bamboo, he could increase the yield of talismans significantly.

Having gone through two seasons of talisman-making, Chu Ning was already very familiar with the entire process. On top of that, both his spiritual power and spiritual sense had improved considerably.

As a result, the talisman-making process was now much faster.

In just five days, Chu Ning had turned all the purple crystal bamboo into talismans.

With nearly 50,000 talismans in his storage bag, Chu Ning had no immediate plans to sell them.

A year ago, he would have had to find ways to sell these talismans to earn spirit stones.

But now, even if these talismans could fetch him nearly 1,000 spirit stones, he chose to keep them.

After all, he spent a lot of effort in making them, and he didn't want to risk failing again due to poor-quality talismans.

After making all the talismans, Chu Ning returned to the table.

He wanted to try creating a low-grade superior talisman to see if he could do it.

Chu Ning decided to start with the Crimson Flame Fire Talisman.

Having already practiced with the inferior talismans, he was now familiar with the talisman's rune pattern.

He picked up the brush, infused it with spiritual power, dipped it in ink, and controlled it with his spiritual sense.

Then, Chu Ning began to draw on the talisman paper.

As he flawlessly executed the rune pattern in one go, the crimson light flashed.

The next moment, all the light retracted back into the rune.

This time, there were no mishaps.

A complete Crimson Flame Fire Talisman, emanating spiritual power, lay quietly on the table.

"It really was an issue with the talisman paper, not my ability."

Chu Ning smiled as he held the talisman, feeling pleased. With the Yin Wood Spirit Body, creating low-grade superior talismans was indeed possible.

With that confirmation, he continued to make more talismans.

After practicing the Crimson Flame Fire Talisman for a while, Chu Ning moved on to the Cloud-Riding Talisman and the Flowing Light Ice Shield Talisman.

Holding five talismans in his hands, Chu Ning paused.

With a thought, the talisman ring appeared in his palm.

He had already witnessed the power of low-grade superior talismans before, as the Flowing Light Ice Shield Talisman had withstood a full-powered attack from a cultivator at the seventh layer of Qi Refinement.

Now that he could create low-grade superior talismans, he naturally wanted to replace the talismans in his ring.

In the backyard, after using up the Diamond Talisman, the Shadow Thunder Talisman, and the Earth Escape Talisman, Chu Ning glanced at the two Metal-Cutting Sword Talismans and decided to keep one of them.

The Metal-Cutting Sword Talisman had decent offensive power, so he decided to retain one.

After all, talismans of different attributes had varying degrees of effectiveness.

A quarter of an hour later, Chu Ning took out a Flowing Light Ice Shield Talisman.

He brought the talisman close to the palm talisman ring, and the next moment, the talisman's rune lit up and fused into the ring.

"So I can use the talismans I made myself!"

Chu Ning muttered to himself, then took out two Crimson Flame Fire Talismans and a Cloud-Riding Talisman, integrating them into the ring as well.

At this moment, various colors of light flickered in Chu Ning's palm, different from before.

Then, with a thought, the lights disappeared.

"This is like having several low-grade superior spells at my disposal." Chu Ning smiled.

Then, he picked up the talisman brush again.

Having tasted the joy of creating low-grade superior talismans, Chu Ning began to practice with the three types of talismans to improve his success rate and refine his Soul Manipulation technique.

In two days, it would be market day again, and he intended to introduce the new low-grade superior talismans. He expected them to sell well.

If they sold well and attracted the attention of others in the sect, he planned to say that he obtained the talismans from the sect.

After all, the Spirit Talisman Pavilion regularly sent talisman ink, talisman paper, and other supplies, so no one would question it further.

However, Chu Ning's worries completely vanished by the next afternoon.

Along with it, his joy also disappeared.

"What's going on in Yanji Fang? Low-grade superior talismans are so hard to come by here, and they're not buying them?"

Chu Ning grumbled to himself as he looked at the pile of unsold low-grade superior talismans in his hand.

Because it was market day, Chu Ning specifically promoted the low-grade superior talismans to potential buyers.

Frustratingly, he only managed to sell one talisman the entire day.

"The price is only slightly higher.

But at twenty spirit stones per talisman, they still can't afford it. I guess the income level in Yanji Fang is indeed lower."

Chu Ning sighed and put the unsold talismans back into his storage bag.

It seemed that selling these low-grade superior talismans he had made with such enthusiasm wasn't going to be easy.

Previously, he thought that with these talismans, he could quickly accumulate a large number of spirit stones.

Now, it seemed that wasn't the case.

Looking at the low-grade superior talismans in his hand, Chu Ning frowned. He could either hand them all over to the sect for recycling or...

"Wind Canyon Market."

At that moment, an idea flashed through Chu Ning's mind.

Wind Canyon Market was a large market, and if he took these talismans to Yunhai Pavilion, such a big store would definitely be able to buy them all.

The price might not be as high as selling them individually, but if he sold a large quantity, he would still make a good profit.

If he accumulated more talismans, he could really live comfortably for three years.

"Once I've stockpiled more elementary superior-grade talismans, I'll consider making a trip to Wind Canyon Market."

Chu Ning made up his mind.

Fortunately, this wasn't an urgent matter for Chu Ning.

He didn't have many places where he urgently needed to spend spirit stones, and he had accumulated a substantial amount from selling talismans over the past few months.

Currently, his top priority was to undergo the Earth Spirit Spring water tempering one last time!

The next day, Chu Ning once again arrived at the cave.

As he glanced at his cultivation progress, his eyes flickered with anticipation.

【Green Wood Eternal Spring Art (Low-Grade Inferior), 3rd Layer (32/2100)】

【Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique, Volume 1, Undying Bones 299/600】

【Refine God Technique, 1st Layer 376/1000】

Over the past 15 days, by tempering his body with the Earth Spirit Spring water and Blood Mist Grass, Chu Ning had increased the proficiency of the Undying Bones technique by a total of 45 points.

At this moment, it had reached 299.

"Now, let's see if 300 is indeed the bottleneck."

With that thought in mind, Chu Ning took out the last Blood Mist Grass from his storage bag and threw it into the Earth Spirit Spring water.

In an instant, the spring water turned blood-red.

Without hesitation, Chu Ning stepped into the spring and soaked for an hour.

When the spring water returned to its clear state, Chu Ning's body reached its peak of scorching heat, prompting him to start cultivating the Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique immediately.

He continued cultivating until the scorching sensation in his body completely dissipated, then he checked his proficiency.

【Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique, Volume 1, Undying Bones 300/600】

As expected, the proficiency of Undying Bones only increased to 300, and it should have been 302 under normal circumstances.

Just as Chu Ning had anticipated, similar to his experience with the Undying Skin, the proficiency of Undying Bones seemed to have reached its halfway point, and further improvement couldn't be achieved through normal cultivation.

Not even the Earth Spirit Spring water tempering helped.

Undying Bones was facing a breakthrough bottleneck, and he needed something that could directly shatter this obstacle.

With that in mind, Chu Ning took out a Seven Star Spirit Fruit from his storage bag without hesitation and popped it into his mouth.

A dense spiritual energy immediately spread from his mouth and permeated his body.

A familiar scorching sensation emerged in his dantian.

Recalling his previous experience, Chu Ning didn't wait and immediately started cultivating the Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique as the scorching sensation appeared.

He hadn't forgotten how the scorching heat had almost burned his consciousness into a haze the last time.

Sure enough, in the next moment, the scorching sensation in his body spread from within, causing waves of heat to wash over him.

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans dripped down Chu Ning's body as he repeatedly cultivated the Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique without pause.

There wasn't the slightest hesitation in his actions.

Perhaps due to his previous experience of breaking through to perfection with the Undying Skin, Chu Ning felt that the torment he was enduring now was slightly more bearable than the last time.

Then, as he continued to cultivate, the scorching sensation gradually diminished, and his body became increasingly transparent.

After cultivating for a while, Chu Ning noticed that the scorching sensation in his body had disappeared.

This unexpected development puzzled him, and he paused to inspect his body's condition.

It seemed that the effects of the Seven Star Spirit Fruit had been completely absorbed and transformed.

However, he didn't feel the same sense of breakthrough as when his Undying Skin had reached perfection and broken through the bottleneck of Undying Bones.

Confused, Chu Ning focused his mind and observed his cultivation progress.

【Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique, Volume 1, Undying Bones 420/600】

"Hmm, this Seven Star Spirit Fruit didn't completely shatter the bottleneck, it only increased my body refining proficiency by 120 points?"

Chu Ning was slightly taken aback.

According to the jade slip's introduction, the Seven Star Spirit Fruit should be effective in breaking through bottlenecks for the Unbreakable Sinews and Indestructible Soul techniques as well.

Why was it that when it came to his Undying Bones, it couldn't even break through that barrier?

"Could it be that because I used the Seven Star Spirit Fruit during the Undying Skin stage, its effects have weakened now? Or is it that the combination of the Seven Star Spirit Fruit and the Earth Spirit Spring water has enhanced my body refining results beyond the average person, making the bottleneck even harder to break?"

Chu Ning wasn't sure of the exact reason, and he decided not to dwell on it for the time being.

Since one Seven Star Spirit Fruit wasn't enough, he would just take another! What's the harm in having a few extra?

Without further ado, Chu Ning took out another Seven Star Spirit Fruit and consumed it.

Then, gritting his teeth against the scorching sensation that threatened to incinerate even his consciousness, he continued to cultivate the Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique.

He repeated the technique over and over until the medicinal effects of this Seven Star Spirit Fruit were completely refined.

Still, there was no sign of a breakthrough, and Chu Ning checked his proficiency once more.

【Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique, Volume 1, Undying Bones 530/600】

Surprisingly, the previous Seven Star Spirit Fruit had only increased his proficiency by 100 points.

"Although I don't know the exact reason, it seems that the effects of the Seven Star Spirit Fruit are indeed weakening for me."

Chu Ning furrowed his brows slightly as he muttered to himself.

"However, with one more Seven Star Spirit Fruit, I should be able to break through Undying Bones without a problem."

As he spoke, he took out the third Seven Star Spirit Fruit from his storage bag and swallowed it.

The sensation it brought was almost identical to the previous two, except that Chu Ning felt that the scorching heat dissipated faster, indicating that his body was absorbing the medicinal effects at a quicker rate.

He continued to cultivate the Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique repeatedly until...

"Boom!"

That familiar feeling of his bodily constraints being released suddenly emerged once more.

Accompanying this sensation was an extreme sense of transparency throughout his body, prompting Chu Ning to hold back a long howl of exhilaration!

He immediately checked his proficiency.

【Nine Transformations Body Refining Technique, Volume 1, Undying Bones 600/600】

Undying Bones had been perfected!

This meant that, in theory, Chu Ning could use his physical body to withstand the force of a Law Technique cast by a Qi Refinement Stage Nine cultivator!

As Chu Ning's gaze shifted downward, his eyes lit up even brighter...

【Divine Ability Update: Obtained the Thunder Step Technique】

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(End of Chapter)

Chapter end