Chapter 35: Xiao Jian's Secret (Part 2)

  Li Ran's heart was filled with frustration, one hand holding a small sword, and the other hand taking out that short crossbow.

  Although the short crossbow is a semi-spiritual instrument, its material is used to refine spiritual instruments, only because of the failure of refinement has lowered its rank.

  Li Ran Dao wasn't very clear about the art of refining equipment, nor did he understand the differences between various metal materials. He took out his short crossbow and small sword and placed them side by side for careful observation, wanting to distinguish the material of the small sword from that of the short crossbow.

  The short crossbow was a pale blue color, with a subtle glow that made it seem as if it were leaping about. In contrast, the small sword was dull and unremarkable, with no luster to speak of. The difference between the two was stark.

  The cyan secret pattern of the small crossbow is smooth and fluent in hand, with a metallic texture that makes people love it. The small sword is not gold, not stone, not wood, not jade, and it's really hard to tell what material it's made of.

  In terms of appearance and sales, no matter how you look at it, the short crossbow feels more pleasing to the eye than the small sword.

  Li Ran's heart was filled with bitter laughter, the "treasure" he had obtained after much hardship and effort was actually inferior to something in the hands of a minor young master from the Gong Sun family. This was unbearable.

  Li Ran let out a sigh and placed the small crossbow on top of the short sword, using it to compare the material differences between the two in more detail.

  Just then, something strange happened.

  At the moment when the short crossbow and the small sword were about to collide, Li Ran felt a surge of power suddenly appear between his two hands. The small sword seemed to transmit a huge suction force, and with a loud crash, it sucked the short crossbow onto its body, tightly adhering to each other.

  "Huh? How is this possible? The small sword actually has an attractive force on the short crossbow, could it be that the small sword was forged from a magnetite?"

  Li Ran's thoughts had not yet turned around when another stunning scene appeared before his eyes.

  Li Ran's eyes saw that the short crossbow was like melting, soft and twisted, slowly invading into the small sword, or rather, the small sword swallowed the short crossbow.

  The body of the short crossbow became more and more distorted, its essence flowing out towards the small sword's blade. In a moment, the volume of the short crossbow had shrunk by a whole size, its surface luster becoming increasingly dull, as the essence inside was swallowed up by the small sword without any courtesy, in big mouthfuls.

  Gradually, the short crossbow convulsed like a dead fish's corpse, its color dull and grayish, just like ordinary mountain rocks, without any energy sense. With a loud crash, the short crossbow fell off from the small sword.

  Li Ran's eyes were wide with amazement.

  The little sword had been absorbing the short crossbow for about ten breaths, but Li Ran's knife still couldn't react. The strange phenomenon in front of him was still incomprehensible to his two lifetimes as a human being.

  That short crossbow twisted into a heap of scrap iron, rolling from Li Ran's knee to the ground with a crash, shattering into pieces, apparently the energy inside was absorbed by the small sword too fiercely, dry and fragile to such an extent.

  Li Ran's eyes snapped open, and he looked at the "corpse" of his shortbow with a pang in his heart. That was a semi-spiritual artifact, after all! At the level of spiritual energy and physical strength, such a semi-spiritual artifact was extremely useful. He hadn't expected it to be devoured by this small sword.

  Li Ran Dao hastily raised his hand, holding the small sword in front of his eyes to examine it carefully. On the dull gray surface of the sword, there seemed to be a faint, almost imperceptible glimmer, but it was extremely subtle and would have been impossible to notice if he hadn't looked closely.

  "This... this... has devoured one of my spiritual bows, and yet it's only undergone such a tiny change. This little sword is really quite abnormal."

  Li Ruo's eyes widened, focusing his mind on the sword body of the small sword. A faint glow flowed unceasingly within it, like a thin, wispy cloud that might dissipate at any moment in the gloomy sky.

  Li Ran's eyes moved, staring tightly at the thread of light, wanting to see it more clearly. Suddenly, he felt a buzzing in his head, and his spirit was forcibly pulled into a strange space. The sky and earth were dull and lifeless, with only the flowing cloud being the only thing with "life" in this world.

  Li Ran's sword was stunned, and he looked at "himself" to find that he was just a small cluster of pale blue light floating quietly, with dull luster.

  "This is my primordial spirit?"

  Li Ran's heart was racing violently as he finally saw the appearance of his primordial spirit, realizing that his current level was low and his primordial spirit was still too weak, only a faint cyan glow.

  Looking into the distance, this green light unconsciously "flew" towards the flowing cloud. The flowing cloud in the gray and hazy space was faint, as if it would disperse at any moment. In the instant when his mind entered the cloud, Li Ran seemed to see a faint golden thread like a ripple of water flash by.

  Li Ran suddenly realized that the light golden thread was not ordinary, he flew up and chased after it from a distance, but how could he catch up, with a swooshing sound, the light golden thread came back again and flew far away from his side.

  Li Ruo's knife suddenly woke up and flew to the place where the light gold pattern had just passed, not long after, the light gold streamer flew back again, rapidly piercing through Li Ruo's primordial spirit.

  Li Ran's dagger suddenly felt extremely comfortable, as if his primordial spirit was being massaged by the flowing patterns, refreshing and invigorating, his mind clearing up a lot. The fatigue left in his mind from the previous battle of wits and strength with the man in green had dissipated completely, eliminating all of it.

  Li Ruo was overjoyed, knowing he had finally found his "treasure".

  In the instant that the pale golden mysterious pattern flew past his primordial spirit, Li Ran saw it clearly. The mysterious pattern was like three waves combined into one place, with a total of three wave crests and troughs, passing through his body and causing his primordial spirit to vibrate, as if making his own primordial spirit stronger.

  Li Ran stood there, letting the mysterious pattern revolve around him, constantly passing through his yuan Shen, feeling his yuan Shen gradually becoming stronger, as if he could feel a certain spiritual fluctuation in the heavens and earth.

  Li Ruo sat cross-legged in the mountain cave, his body as still as a stone statue. The small sword within him was tempering his primordial spirit with the secret pattern, but he didn't know how much time had passed. Li Ruo gradually realized that when the secret pattern circulated through his body again, he no longer felt anything. It seemed that the secret pattern was still too weak and its transformation of his primordial spirit was limited to this extent.

  With a loud hum, Li Ran's divine consciousness returned to his body, and he stared blankly for a while before suddenly bursting into wild joy.

  In his eyes, everything in the cave was so clear and vivid that even the grayish-brown walls seemed to have a deeper color, and the whole world seemed to have become brand new, incredibly alive.

  Li Ran's ears moved slightly, and the buzzing of wild bees not far away was like being close to his ears. He could more clearly distinguish how many wild bees there were and their flight trajectory.

  A gentle breeze blew into the cave, and Li Ran's body sensed the faint wind, his fingers feeling smooth, as if this gentle breeze had a texture.

  All of this has become so beautiful, Li Ruo suddenly realized his own change.

  In general, the power of the yuan Shen grows slowly with the increase in gong li. Li Ruo Dao had never heard of anyone who could cultivate their yuan Shen separately. Perhaps some extraordinary qigong methods can achieve this, but at least Li Ruo Dao did not know.

  It seems now that the secret pattern in Xiao Jian is actually cultivating his Yuan Shen's power.