Trade-in for New

Jiang Feng crouched in a corner of the cave, pulling out some dried rations and chewing them bite by bite.

He was constantly wounded, and constantly healed. His ability to recover came from that trace of golden bloodline, activating on its own.

Each time he healed, some energy was consumed—drawn from the Ming force within him and from his own body.

This battle had lasted two and a half hours. Though his mind was still sharp, his body felt depleted.

He was so hungry that he felt lightheaded and dizzy, so he had no choice but to stop for food and a bit of rest.

As he gnawed at his rations, he took stock of his recent gains.

In two and a half hours, he had killed four Level Five Crimson-Armored Lizards—impressive efficiency.

The cores he dug from the hearts of these Level Five Ming Beasts were all intact, all of the fire element, and he had thrown them into his leather pouch.

Besides that, following the descriptions in the “Compendium of Exotic Beasts from Taiwu,” he further processed the Crimson-Armored Lizards. Their most valuable parts were the teeth and a patch of skin at the back of the neck, so those were the only parts Jiang Feng kept.

Yet these tangible spoils were secondary; the most crucial thing was that, through his recent attempts, Jiang Feng had already grasped some of the essentials for controlling Ming force.

He finished his rations and was just about to stand when he suddenly looked up at the sky.

A strange fluctuation descended from above—a strong surge of Ming force!

In an instant, he realized: it was noon.

Ever since he had fused with the Heavenly Heart Seed, Jiang Feng hadn’t missed a single midday cultivation session.

Each time, he sat in an open space, basking in the sunlight.

Fortunately, the weather had been clear this whole time, never overcast or rainy.

He sometimes wondered: could Ming force cultivation only be performed under the sun? If the weather turned bad, or he was somewhere without sunlight, would he be unable to absorb Ming force properly?

He cherished every moment of cultivation, so he had never dared experiment. Today, entering the cave to hunt, the opportunity presented itself.

He hadn’t expected that, even with a mountain between him and the sky, not a sliver of daylight in sight, the powerful Ming force still descended from above, enveloping him.

Jiang Feng immediately sat cross-legged, opened the Heavenly Heart Seed, and began to absorb the Ming force.

During his dawn cultivation, he had already replenished all the Ming force he had consumed yesterday. The Yuan branches were completely filled, and the fifth segment had even extended a little further.

This session was just like all the others: intense, powerful Ming force pressed down, as if forcibly pouring into the Heavenly Heart Seed.

The seed’s conversion speed was undiminished, swiftly refining the incoming Ming force and channeling it into the Yuan branches.

He watched as the fifth segment of the Yuan branch gradually filled, and began to assault the fifth aperture!

Wave after wave of Ming force surged like the tide, crashing against the solid barrier ahead.

The wall of the aperture was strong, unmoved.

The waves kept piling up below, growing ever higher. Suddenly, another massive surge pounded forward with force!

The mighty wave of Ming force slammed against the wall, and finally, a crack appeared.

The Ming force, as if sentient, hammered at the fissure. The crack widened, and at last, it spread outward from that point, shattering the barrier to fragments.

A vast flow of Ming force flooded into the fifth aperture, sweeping through, expanding and filling it.

At last, the torrent calmed, flowing smoothly and sending energy to the other side.

The newly added Ming force seeped into the golden bloodline, from which a thread of vital energy was generated and flowed into Jiang Feng’s veins.

Seeing this, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Last time, in order to save Chong Fan, he had forced the golden vital energy out of his body. It had vanished, never to appear again.

By rights, it should have recovered after a day, but two days had passed and there was still no sign of it.

Jiang Feng had felt some regret; without that golden vital energy, he had lost a life-saving trump card.

Now, after opening the fifth aperture, the vital energy had reappeared, putting his mind at ease.

Just then, having slain four Crimson-Armored Lizards, he had four fire-element cores at hand. He embedded one directly into the new aperture.

The moment he did so, he felt a clear difference.

The fire core from a Level Five Ming Beast was obviously much more potent than the ones before!

Did the level of the Ming Beast determine the quality of the core?

Inspired, he picked up another core and absorbed it in the blink of an eye.

This core reached the outside of the Heavenly Heart Seed and settled near the fourth aperture, which already held a Level Four Ming Beast core. That core suddenly shattered, its energy sucked into the seed and vanishing, leaving the aperture empty.

The Level Five core was immediately enveloped by the aperture, and Jiang Feng felt an obvious change in himself.

Excellent—the embedded cores could be replaced, though the previous one would be destroyed and could not be reused.

Since he’d fused with the Heavenly Heart Seed, aside from the young lady’s handwritten notes, he’d never received systematic instruction—he had to figure most things out on his own.

This matter of replacing cores, for example, was something most teachers would teach their students, but few would actually do.

The reason was simple: the cores were just too precious.

Jiang Feng had always been gifted in martial techniques, and under the young lady’s tutelage, he’d possessed impressive combat ability even before fusing with the seed. His innate bloodline made his self-healing extraordinarily strong.

Combined, these advantages gave him the confidence to come into the mountains to hunt Ming Beasts alone, right after opening his first aperture.

Ordinary martial cultivators didn’t open apertures as fast as he did, and their combat strength was far inferior. Usually, only after opening two apertures would they form teams to enter the mountains, under the guidance of more advanced warriors, to attempt group combat and hunt Level One or Two Ming Beasts.

At those levels, beasts only yielded fragments—twenty fragments were needed to fuse a single core.

A battle squad typically had four to five members, meaning the fragments had to be divided, and it would take a long time to accumulate enough for a single core.

Stronger Ming Beasts were even more formidable.

Level Five was the dividing line between low and high-tier Ming Beasts; normally, it would take five cultivators with five apertures, working together and thoroughly prepared, to bring one down.

Given how rare the cores were, it was extremely uncommon for ordinary cultivators—lacking full family support—to have enough cores to match the speed at which they opened apertures.

For Jiang Feng, with no guidance, acting alone, opening an aperture and embedding a core each time, even able to replace old with new, this would have astonished the masses if anyone knew.

But Jiang Feng had no concept of this. He simply embedded all four newly acquired Level Five fire cores, paying no mind to the ones that were ruined in the process.

Clenching his fists, he sensed the new power—the fire-element cores surged through his veins, filling his body with energy.

After tidying up, he shot from the corner like an arrow, leaping off the stone wall and landing precisely between two Crimson-Armored Lizards!

Startled, the lizards lunged at him from left and right, trying to trap him.

Jiang Feng had only ever fought single lizards before; he’d never dealt with two at once.

He stamped the ground and sprang upward, sweeping his palms to strike the lizards’ tails. The force sent both lizards hurtling forward, unable to stop, crashing into each other with a thunderous bang.

With a shout, Jiang Feng brought his palm down.

His hand traced a diagonal arc through the air, causing the very atmosphere to ripple.

Faint thunder rumbled in the air, each sound deep and heavy.

His palm gently fell atop the lizards’ heads, one on the left, one on the right.

Borrowing the momentum, he flipped backward, tapped the cave ceiling, and landed lightly.

The two lizards froze where they were, unmoving. Moments later, a bubbling sound came from within their bodies. After a few heartbeats, it was as if a bomb exploded deep within their heads—both burst open with a deafening blast!

Blood and flesh, propelled by massive force, slammed against the cave walls, splattering everywhere.

Jiang Feng had anticipated this and dodged the spray in time. When the chaos subsided, he surveyed the scene and smiled in satisfaction.

With two swift palms, he had achieved a double kill, using only half the Ming force he would have before!

In other words, he could repeat this feat once more with the same resources.

In this way, his explosive power was undiminished, but his sustained combat ability had quadrupled.

This was partly because he had opened the fifth aperture and embedded higher-level cores, but most importantly, it was because he was gradually mastering the art of controlling Ming force.

The first time he’d killed a Crimson-Armored Lizard instantly, he had simply unleashed all his Ming force with the Thunderfall Palm in a single burst. Much of it had been wasted, not harming the enemy but shaking the cave walls and almost putting himself in danger.

After repeated attempts, he could now focus his Ming force into a single point, driving it into the lizard’s body to trigger an explosion.

In other words, where once his attack covered not only the lizard but a wide surrounding area, this time he struck only a palm-sized part of the lizard’s head.

With greater concentration and efficiency, he blasted their heads apart in a single move, killing them instantly.

Jiang Feng reviewed his technique several times, confirming there were no mistakes, and grinned with ease.

Martial arts powered by Ming force were indeed fascinating!

After dealing with the corpses, he replaced the fifth embedded core with another Level Five.

With five apertures now, it still took him a quarter of an hour to fully restore half his Ming force.

Jiang Feng made a mental note of these details and realized he had cleared out all the Crimson-Armored Lizards nearby.

He proceeded along the cave, searching for another group, and after two turns, he suddenly stopped.

By the moss’s faint glow along the wall, he caught sight of a crevice to his right, extending deeper into the rock. Something appeared to be lurking within.

He narrowed his eyes to look more closely. Suddenly, a red light flashed, illuminating the space.

It was a black lizard, larger than the Crimson-Armored ones. The red light came from its eyes, which opened to fix on Jiang Feng.

The crimson glow was intense, carrying a palpable scent of blood.

In a flash, the black lizard sprang forward on four legs, shooting from the crevice toward Jiang Feng like lightning!

A Level Six Fire-Eyed Shadow Lizard!