Ah! Ah! Ah!
Wang Chen felt like he was chugging an ice-cold cola under the scorching sun.
Refreshing from the top of his head down to the soles of his feet.
This was his first battle since he had transmigrated.
Although the enemy was just a little Earth Rhinoceros Beetle.
Long periods of focus, brewing, and accumulation had led to a moment of utter release.
It struck his soul!
The feeling truly could not be described in words.
[Geng Metal Finger·Experience +1]
Seeing the message prompt, Wang Chen habitually called up the cultivation panel.
His gaze swept across it, then suddenly sharpened!
[Geng Metal Finger (Mastery Level):0/200]
He leveled up!
His Geng Metal Finger had broken through a bottleneck, upgrading from beginner level to mastery level!!
Realization dawned in Wang Chen's heart.
Poor Root Bone and low Comprehension weren't incurable after all.
As the saying goes, even an iron rod can be ground to a needle with enough perseverance.
If one or two attempts don't break the bottleneck, then do it ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times!
There will always be a chance for a breakthrough.
This understanding greatly bolstered Wang Chen's confidence.
His fingers itched; he was eager to test the power of the mastery-level Geng Metal Finger.
But Wang Chen quickly suppressed the impulse.
The Geng Metal Finger was the only offensive technique he had.
It consumed a lot of Mana to use.
Currently, he didn't know how many more Earth Rhinoceros Beetles were in the Spirit Fields, and it wouldn't be smart to waste Mana carelessly now.
Wang Chen first picked up the two halves of the Beetle's body from the ground and stowed them in his Storage Bag hanging at his waist.
The Storage Bag was a gift from Wang Shaoyuan, a good friend from the sect.
Though it had a volume of only three cubic feet.
Pitifully small.
It was the only Magic Artifact Wang Chen possessed.
The dried powder made from toasting and grinding Earth Rhinoceros Beetles could be used as medicine, with the Cloud Mountain City pharmacies buying at a price of one Low Spirit stone for three pounds.
About twenty doses worth.
This Earth Rhinoceros Beetle he had just killed was equivalent to five Fragmented Spirit Stones!
Danger was an opportunity in disguise; the appearance of the Earth Rhinoceros Beetles definitely counted as a crisis but also was a chance to earn Spirit Stones.
Wang Chen continued to search the remaining Spirit Fields.
He recalled how he had discovered the Earth Rhinoceros Beetle earlier and tried to enter that state again.
He concentrated entirely on perceiving the rustling of the wind and the movement of the grass around him.
Perhaps because of his high Divine Soul attribute, or maybe because Wang Chen was focused enough, he quickly felt a mysterious resonance with the Spiritual Rice in the Spirit Fields.
The Spiritual Rice "told" Wang Chen, vying with each other,
Where the enemy was!
The second Earth Rhinoceros Beetle thus revealed itself easily within his line of sight.
Without a second thought, Wang Chen gathered his Qi into his fingers and unleashed the power of Geng Metal toward the new target.
The Qi Light pierced the air, instantly hitting the unsuspecting Earth Rhinoceros Beetle and cleanly slicing it in two.
What Wang Chen hadn't anticipated, however, was that after slaying the Earth Rhinoceros Beetle, the momentum of the Geng Metal Qi Light didn't stop, grazing a stalk of Spiritual Rice and stabbing into the soil.
Creating a deep hole!
Wang Chen got quite a start—he almost damaged the Spiritual Rice by mistake.
The mastery-level Geng Metal Finger was clearly much more powerful than the beginner level.
Faster speed, longer range, and stronger killing power!
And Wang Chen felt that his grasp and understanding of this technique had also deepened considerably.
Correspondingly, the Mana it consumed was also greater.
[Geng Metal Finger·Experience +1]
[Geng Metal Finger (Mastery Level):1/200]
Seeing the display on the cultivation panel, Wang Chen's heartbeat suddenly quickened.
Each activation added 1 point of experience.
So, did that mean he just had to perform the Geng Metal Finger technique 198 more times to hit another bottleneck?
That's like a boosted skill amulet!
Wang Chen believed that other cultivators might find it easier to practice techniques and break through bottlenecks more easily than himself.
But they definitely couldn't reach bottlenecks as quickly as he could.
And the higher the level of technique cultivation, the more difficult it would become.
Wang Chen couldn't help but clench his fists.
He realized he had unearthed a bit of mystery from the immortal cultivation panel.
Wang Chen's enthusiasm grew even stronger.
Relying on the bizarre perception shared with the Spiritual Rice, he successfully scoured all the Spirit Fields.
He killed a total of seven Earth Rhinoceros Beetles!
Wang Chen's Geng Metal Finger was not infallible, having missed twice during the process.
But he gained skill experience regardless.
However, he was so tired that he nearly collapsed, with his Dantian empty and his mana almost completely drained.
Just as Wang Chen was sitting in the shade of a tree, drinking mountain spring water and happily flipping through the spoils in his Storage Bag,
Old Sun hurried over with a tall and burly middle-aged man, followed closely by a teenager around seventeen or eighteen.
Wang Chen recognized the man as Zhang Ada from the Zhang Family.
Zhang Ada, with his Qi Cultivation at the sixth layer, had quite a reputation among the Spiritual Plant Farmers of the Cloud Sun sect's Outer Sect.
Not only was he an excellent farmer, but he had also married the niece of a Pill Master from Cloud Mountain City.
Pill Masters held a much higher status compared to Spiritual Plant Farmers.
Therefore, within dozens of miles around, Zhang Ada of the Zhang Family was considered quite an important figure.
Wang Chen did not know what price Old Sun had paid to actually get Zhang Ada to help with the Earth Rhinoceros Beetles.
He had never dealt with Zhang Ada before.
But he had had a bit of a clash with the teenager following behind, Zhang Xiaoshan.
Zhang Xiaoshan was Zhang Ada's son.
Old Sun, Zhang Ada, and Zhang Xiaoshan all noticed Wang Chen sitting under the shade of the tree.
Old Sun gave a nod as a greeting; Zhang Ada acted as if he saw nothing.
Zhang Xiaoshan snorted arrogantly, looking down his nose.
Idiot!
Wang Chen snickered to himself, watching them go to Old Sun's Spirit Fields.
Actually, Wang Chen was a bit curious to see how Zhang Ada dealt with the Earth Rhinoceros Beetles.
But with Zhang Xiaoshan there, he decided not to embarrass himself.
Seeing that the sun was nearing its zenith, Wang Chen returned to his own home.
He began to start a fire and cook.
He put the Spiritual Rice into the pot to cook and took out all the Earth Rhinoceros Beetles from the Storage Bag.
With a skinning knife, he meticulously extracted the white flesh from inside the beetle's abdomen.
Inside the Earth Rhinoceros Beetle was a stretch of lean meat, white and elastic like jade, with a rather good taste.
Moreover, it had to be removed before roasting, or it would affect the quality of the dried powder and it wouldn't sell for a good price.
After digging out all the insect meat, Wang Chen marinated it in soy sauce in a bowl to remove the gamey flavor.
When the Spiritual Rice in the pot was half-cooked, he placed the bowl on top to stew together.
Before long, the smell of rice mingled with the aroma of meat, wafting throughout the small kitchen.
It was so appetizing that one's mouth watered.
Wang Chen's saliva started to flow!
"Squeak squeak!"
Suddenly, a fine squeak drew his attention.
Wang Chen looked towards the sound and saw a white-furred mouse that had emerged from somewhere in the corner.
It squatted on the ground, clasping its paws and stroking its whiskers, its red nose sniffing at the fragrance of the rice and meat.
It looked quite amusing.
Wang Chen's finger twitched slightly, but he did not make a move.
If it had been an ugly black-furred mouse, his Geng Metal Finger would already have struck.
But this white-furred mouse was rather cute and hadn't bothered him.
So Wang Chen decided to let the little guy off the hook.
Unbeknownst to Wang Chen's lack of action, the white-furred mouse grew bolder and crawled two feet closer,
Then squatted down again.
A pair of small eyes stared longingly at Wang Chen.
Wang Chen was amused.
After thinking for a moment, he stood up, lifted the lid of the pot, and used chopsticks to pick up a nearly-cooked piece of insect meat.
He tossed it in front of the white-furred mouse.
"Squeak squeak!"
The white-furred mouse squealed happily twice.
It picked up the piece of insect meat from the ground and quickly vanished into a stack of firewood against the wall.
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