The battle of Beiluo City was over by nightfall.
Even though Tantai Xuan had launched his attack quickly, he couldn't turn the situation around.
Ning Zhao had taken down four Grandmasters by herself. She had even chopped the legs off of the fiercest general of the north, Feng Shi, right in front of Mayor Tantai. Then she had taken Feng Shi back into Beiluo City alive.
The morale of the northern troops had suffered a terrible blow.
On the other hand, the troops in Beiluo City were in high spirits. They beat their war drums hard, as if they had been given an extra dose of energy.
The battle between the Grandmasters and the final victory of Beiluo City made every single soldier guarding Beiluo City feel proud.
Moreover, the calm and immovable Lu Changkong was holding them all together. He was able to settle any chaotic situation and make important decisions firmly, and his firm control was mirrored in his people.
The troops from North County had attacked, but they had failed.
After a prolonged fight in which the northern troops tried to take the city wall, they were left with nothing but thousands upon thousands of dead soldiers. They retreated in the night like water receding in low tide and disappeared over the horizon.
That night, the moon was high in the sky. The bright moonlight shone in through the glass panes of the intricately carved redwood window, making snowflake-like patterns on the floor.
Lu Fan was sitting in his wheelchair and basking in the moonlight. He had a faraway look in his eyes, as if he was thinking about something.
Across from Lu Fan's room, Ning Zhao was sitting on the blue-tiled roof wearing a white dress, her hair loose around her shoulders. The moon shone on her skin, making her look like her body was glowing from within.
It was a scene as pretty as a picture.
But even though she looked lovely, Ning Zhao wasn't feeling that way at all.
She looked through Lu Fan's window and saw him sitting at his window in a daze.
Her eyes were clouded with worry.
Earlier that day, the Young Master had sent her a wisp of Spirit Qi as she prepared to fight in front of the city. But after the battle, his face had been all pale, and he had closed his eyes to rest all the way home, his whole body weak and listless.
Ning Zhao was really worried that something was wrong with the Young Master's physical health.
As a Grandmaster, Ning Zhao could feel how much weaker he was.
If a normal person's Qi and blood level were at ten, then the Young Master's Qi and blood level were only at around a five.
Ning Zhao sighed and looked back at the moon, her gaze becoming blurrier and blurrier.
The Young Master had suffered because of her, so she had to become stronger. She couldn't let the opportunity he'd given her go to waste!
She sat cross-legged on the roof and guarded Lu Fan. She also started to take a closer look at the two wisps of Spirit Qi within her dantian.
The Young Master had said that humans were the spirit of the universe. The soul was a medium for gathering Qi from nature, while the physical body was like a furnace that could form and refine that Spirit Qi.
Ning Zhao agreed with that opinion. If she could form and refine one wisp of Spirit Qi, she felt that she would level up in the Qi Core Realm.
Perhaps this was the Qi Core Realm's method of cultivation.
But Ning Zhao had also realized that there was a limit to her dantian. It could only take a maximum of nine wisps of Spirit Qi.
Once her dantian was full, Ning Zhao didn't know how she would continue cultivation.
Perhaps she should ask the Young Master the next day.
***
At the same time, Lu Fan was in his room.
He wasn't daydreaming. He was just looking at the stats page.
There was a rating given for completed quests, and he would get a different reward depending on his score.
He had completed the quest to save Beiluo City, but he had only gotten a B, so the reward was not as generous as Lu Fan had hoped.
He'd thought that the quest reward would be something like a hundred or even a thousand wisps of Spirit Qi.
In the end, all he got was two points and access to the Dao Imparting Platform.
As for Spirit Qi, the system didn't give him a single wisp. How stingy.
Lu Fan wasn't really interested in other rewards. What he needed most was Spirit Qi, because that was the key component for transforming the world.
But he wasn't too upset with what he had earned. After all, he had already received the Fantasy Creation Qi Refining Manual as a transformation reward. With this manual, he'd gain more Spirit Qi sooner or later.
Lu Fan shifted his consciousness.
The stats page popped up.
[Host: Lu Fan]
[Title: Qi Refiner (Permanent)]
[Refined Qi Level: 1]
[Soul Strength: 0.5]
[Physique Strength: 0.5]
[Spirit Qi: 8 wisps]
[Transformation Reward: Fantasy Creation Qi Refining Manual]
[Current World Ranking: Wuhuang Continent (Low-Level Martial World)]
[Access: Quests, Dao Imparting Platform, Spirit Qi Deployment]
[Available Points Awarded: 2]
After looking at the stats page, Lu Fan fell into deep thought. Since he only had two points available, Lu Fan had to use them wisely.
After thinking for a long time, his eyes lit up a little as he made his final decision.
"System, allocate the two points to my Refined Qi Level," Lu Fan instructed.
But just after he had given these instructions, a warning prompt from the system popped up.
[Host, you don't look like you're asleep, so stop dreaming. Please stop trying to take shortcuts and refine Spirit Qi seriously. Refine all 100 levels of Spirit Qi and strengthen everyone.]
Lu Fan leaned back in his wheelchair, eyebrows raised.
What was with this d*mned sarcastic system?
Lu Fan was disappointed. This prompt from the system had shut down any ideas about using the available points to increase his Refined Qi Level.
He had to put in actual effort to refine Spirit Qi. There was no easy way to do this.
But what shocked him more was the phrase "refine all 100 levels of Spirit Qi." What did the system mean by that?
In all the fantasy novels he had read, 10 levels of Refined Qi was plenty to conquer the universe!
So what did it mean by 100 levels?
Lu Fan tried asking the system about this, but he failed to get a response.
He could only think about the available points again.
Since he couldn't add them to the Refined Qi Level field, he had to add them to his Soul Strength or Physique Strength.
Lu Fan started to consider his options. Earlier at the city front, he had remotely deployed one wisp of Spirit Qi to Ning Zhao and consumed half a point of his Soul Strength. Clearly, his level of Soul Strength was closely connected to Spirit Qi Deployment.
Access to Spirit Qi Deployment was very important to Lu Fan. It was a tool he needed to transform the world.
The least he could do was make sure he had access to that important tool, right?
So after thinking for a while more, Lu Fan finally decided to add both points to the Soul Strength field.
A second later, his Soul Strength changed to 2.5 points.
Boom!
Lu Fan felt a loud resonance in his consciousness.
It was like being sprayed clean with a blast of jasmine-scented water after he had been rolling around in the mud.
He immediately became alert and refreshed. The weak, listless look on his face completely disappeared, and there seemed to be a glow in his eyes.
Increasing his Soul Strength had made Lu Fan more energetic.
He became even more curious about the system after being energized.
His consciousness fell on the transformation reward he hadn't looked through yet, the Fantasy Creation Qi Refining Manual.
As his consciousness focused on the manual, Lu Fan could feel a book slowly turning its pages before his eyes.
The three large golden words on the cover of the book, "Qi Refining Manual," nearly blinded him.
It was the déjà vu feeling of looking at a secret manual that he had chanced upon at some flea market.
But as the pages turned, there seemed to be a loud blast of philosophies ringing in his ears. The gold text seemed to have come alive and was dancing in front of Lu Fan, imprinting its meaning on his heart.
The words had come alive, and Lu Fan had gained insight as they moved within him.
[One point of Soul Strength can be exchanged for 10 wisps of Spirit Qi.]
[This Qi Refining Manual should be used in concert with the Dao Imparting Platform.]
After listening to a series of instructions from the book, Lu Fan finally understood what it was saying.
What a tragedy.
So this was how he was to refine Spirit Qi?
If he had to exchange his Soul Strength for Spirit Qi, how different was that from selling his body in return for money?
He wasn't going to become that sort of person!
Lu Fan glared at the manual. He felt like he had been sold a knock-off.
Surely this book couldn't be the real deal.
But Lu Fan realized that flipping through the Qi Refining Manual had caused a change in his stats page.
[Host: Lu Fan]
[Title: Qi Refiner (Permanent)]
[Refined Qi Level: 1 (Level 2 progress: 10/100 wisps)]
[Soul Strength: 2.5]
[Physique Strength: 0.5]
[Spirit Qi: 8 wisps]
[Transformation Reward: Fantasy Creation Qi Refining Manual]
[Current World Ranking: Wuhuang Continent (Low-Level Martial World)]
[Access: Quests, Dao Imparting Platform, Spirit Qi Deployment]
Lu Fan narrowed his eyes and stared at the stats page.
It wasn't a big change. There was just a progress update in the Refined Qi Level field.
But this addition allowed Lu Fan to see clearly what he needed to do to reach the next level of Refined Qi.
In other words, he had to refine 100 wisps of Spirit Qi before he could reach the next level.
One hundred wisps. If he used Spirit Qi Deployment to deploy them into objects rather than people, then they could multiply to become 10,000 wisps.
Was 10,000 wisps of Spirit Qi a lot?
It sounded like a lot, but if he had to spread those wisps to everyone in this world, then they would vanish like a fart on the wind.
This was a gentle reminder to Lu Fan: Don't set unrealistic goals!
Bringing a Low-Level Martial World to Fantasy World status was a long and slow process, and he couldn't do it overnight.
If he sent out the Spirit Qi he had now to the entire world, it would be like a drop of pee in the ocean, which would just dissolve without a trace.
So Lu Fan could only follow what the system prompt had told him earlier.
"Stop taking shortcuts, and refine Qi seriously."
He decided to set a small goal for himself first. Eventually, he would get to that d*mned 100th level of refined Qi.
He rubbed the space between his eyebrows.
Lu Fan put aside all these worries for the moment.
His eyes fell on the newly activated option under his Access section: the Dao Imparting Platform.
To be honest, Lu Fan was very curious about the Dao Imparting Platform.
Out of the three Accesses he had—Quests, Spirit Qi Deployment, and Dao Imparting Platform—the Dao Imparting Platform had required him to meet the most difficult conditions before activating. It sounded like it was really powerful.
Also, this platform seemed to be linked to the ability to refine Spirit Qi.
He took a deep breath, then muttered to himself, "Activate Access to Dao Imparting Platform!"
Immediately after he said that, a system message popped up.
[Dao Imparting Platform is now activated. One point of Soul Strength will be automatically deducted. (Note: If Host's Soul Strength falls below one point, access to Dao Imparting Platform will automatically deactivate).]
Lu Fan's heart skipped a beat immediately when he read this message.
What a despicable business!
This thing had administrative fees?!