The battle of defense and attack in the Northern Luocheng ended at nightfall.
Despite the timely offensive launched by Dantai Xuan, he couldn't change the situation.
Nian Zhao, alone against four grandmaster martial artists, even severed the legs of Feng Shi, a fierce general of the Northern County, and captured him alive in front of Dantai Prefect.
The momentum of the Northern County's army was severely defeated.
On the contrary, the defending army of Northern Luocheng became more and more spirited, with war drums beating as if infused with energy.
The confrontation between the grandmaster martial artists resulted in a complete victory for Northern Luocheng, making every soldier feel proud.
Moreover, Lü Changkong, who sat firmly on the head of Northern Luocheng, was like an unmovable pillar, bringing calmness to everyone.
The siege of the Northern County army ultimately ended in failure.
The besieging army, which had attacked for a long time without success, left behind thousands of corpses and disappeared into the horizon of the night like receding tide.
Night fell.
A bright moon hung high in the sky, and the pale moonlight shone through the red-carved windows, sprinkling on the ground like white snowflakes.
Lü Fan sat in a wheelchair, bathing in the moonlight, with vacant eyes, contemplating something.
Across from Lü Fan's room, Nian Zhao sat on the roof covered with blue tiles, wearing a white dress, her black hair scattered, and the moonlight sprinkled on her, as if emitting a shimmering light.
Beautiful, like a freehand brushwork painting.
However, despite her picturesque appearance, Nian Zhao's mood was not beautiful at the moment.
Her gaze passed through the window and looked at Lü Fan, who was sitting by the window in a daze.
There was a hint of worry in her eyes.
Today, on the city wall, the young master transmitted a wisp of Qi to her from a distance, resulting in him looking pale and weak all the way back, with no strength or energy.
Nian Zhao was truly worried about the young master's health.
As a grandmaster martial artist, Nian Zhao could clearly feel how poor the young master's physical condition was.
If a normal person's vitality and blood were compared to ten, then the young master's vitality and blood... were only five.
Nian Zhao sighed, looked at the moonlight, and her gaze became more misty.
The young master suffered because of her, so she must become stronger and not let down the opportunities given to her by the young master! Then, she sat cross-legged on the roof, guarding Lü Fan, and began to study the two strands of Qi in her dantian.
The young master said that humans are the spirits of heaven and earth, containing refined qualities.
The physical body is a furnace that can condense more Qi.
Nian Zhao also had this feeling.
If she could condense an additional strand of Qi, she felt that her Qi Dan realm would improve.
Perhaps, this was the cultivation method of the Qi Dan realm.
However, Nian Zhao could sense that her dantian had reached its limit, and could store a maximum of nine strands of Qi.
If her dantian was full, Nian Zhao didn't know how to continue her cultivation.
Perhaps, tomorrow, she should ask the young master about it.
As for Lü Fan inside the room at this moment, he wasn't actually in a daze.
He was just studying the system panel.
Tasks have evaluations, and different evaluations result in different rewards.
The salvation task in Northern Luocheng was completed with a B-grade evaluation, but the rewards were not as bountiful as Lü Fan had imagined.
He thought that the task reward would include hundreds or thousands of strands of Qi.
As a result, he only received two attribute points and the permission to use the "Dao Transmission Platform." As for Qi, there wasn't even a single strand, which was stingy.
What Lü Fan currently needed was not something else, but Qi.
Qi was the foundation for him to reshape the world.
However, Lü Fan wasn't too disheartened either, because the previous transformation reward was a Qi refining technique book called "Creation Mystery Qi Refining Technique."
With such a treasure, Qi would come sooner or later. Lü Fan's mind moved, and the system panel popped up.
Host: Lu Fan
Title: Qi Refiner (Permanent)
Qi Refining Level: 1
Soul Strength: 05
Physical Strength: 05
Spiritual Energy: 8 strands
Transformation Reward: "Creation of Profound Qi Refinement"
World Rating: Five Phoenix Continent [Low Martial]
Permissions: [Mission], [Preaching Platform], [Spiritual Energy Release]
Available Attribute Rewards: 2
Looking at the system panel, Lu Fan fell into contemplation. Although he only had 2 available attribute points, he still needed to consider how to use them.
After a long period of contemplation, Lu Fan's eyes brightened slightly, and he finally made a decision.
"System, add all 2 attribute points to the Qi Refining Level."
Lu Fan said.
However, just as he had this idea,
The system's warning prompt popped up.
"Host, you're not good-looking, so don't think too highly of yourself. Be down-to-earth and refine your Qi honestly. Refine it to a hundred levels and surpass everyone."
Lu Fan: "???"
This ** black-bellied system.
Lu Fan felt a chill in his heart. The system's prompt undoubtedly cut off his idea of using attribute points to improve the Qi Refining Level.
Qi refinement still had to rely on his own efforts, and there were no shortcuts available.
What made him even more frustrated was the meaning behind the phrase "Refine it to a hundred levels"?
In those fantasy novels, didn't breaking through to the tenth level already mean reaching the peak?
What does it mean to refine it to a hundred levels?!
Lu Fan was conflicted. He asked the system for half a while, but there was no response.
He could only continue to study the attribute points.
Since the attribute points couldn't be added to the Qi Refining Level column, they could only be added to the Soul Strength and Physical Strength.
Pondering, Lu Fan realized that today, when he projected a strand of spiritual energy to Ning Zhao from Beiluo City, it consumed 05 of his Soul Strength. Obviously, Soul Strength was closely related to the release of spiritual energy.
The [Spiritual Energy Release] permission was very important to Lu Fan. It was the tool for him to reshape the world.
At the very least, he couldn't lack the ability to use the tool.
Therefore, after hesitating for a while, Lu Fan added both attribute points to the Soul Strength column.
Soon, his Soul Strength underwent a change and became 25.
Boom!
Lu Fan felt a rumble in his mind.
It was like a person covered in mud rolling in a muddy pit suddenly being washed by water with a jasmine fragrance!
He felt refreshed, and the emptiness in his body disappeared.
There seemed to be radiance flowing in his eyes.
The enhancement of Soul Strength made Lu Fan's spirit vigorous.
Feeling energized, Lu Fan became even more curious about the system.
His attention turned to the "Creation of Profound Qi Refinement," a reward he hadn't explored yet.
In the surge of his mind,
Lu Fan felt as if a book was slowly flipping and opening in front of him.
On the cover of the book, the three golden words "Qi Refinement" almost blinded his eyes.
It gave him a feeling of a secret manual one would find on a peddler's stall.
However, as the book turned its pages, it seemed as if the voice of the Great Dao echoed in his ears, rumbling, and the golden text in the book seemed to come alive, dancing in front of Lu Fan's eyes and reflecting in his heart.
The words became alive, and Lu Fan became enlightened.
"Consumes 1 Soul Strength to refine 10 strands of spiritual energy."
"This Qi Refinement manual, please use it with the [Preaching Platform] permission."
After a series of flashy operations, Lu Fan finally understood this sentence.
What a sad story.
Is this how Qi refinement is done?
Exchanging Soul Strength for spiritual energy, isn't that no different from selling one's body for money?
He, Lu Fan... would never become such a person!
Lu Fan felt like he had been harmed by a counterfeit product.
This is definitely a fake Qi refinement manual.
However, Lu Fan did notice that after reading the "Creation of Profound Qi Refinement," the system panel underwent another change.
Host: Lu Fan
Title: Qi Refiner (permanent)
Qi Refining Level: 1 (Progress to Level 2: 10,100 strands)
Soul Strength: 25
Physical Strength: 05
Spiritual Qi: 8 strands
Transformation Reward: "Creation of Profound Qi Refinement"
World Rating: Five Phoenix Continent [Low Martial]
Permissions: [Mission], [Preaching Platform], [Spiritual Qi Distribution]
Lu Fan squinted his eyes, staring at the system panel.
There wasn't much change, except for an additional progress column in the Qi Refining Level section.
The appearance of this progress allowed Lu Fan to intuitively understand the conditions required to reach the second level of Qi Refining.
In other words, he needed to refine 100 strands of spiritual qi to step into the second level of Qi Refining.
What if he had 10,000 strands of spiritual qi?
It seemed like a lot, but if it was actually distributed using the [Spiritual Qi Distribution] permission, it was almost as insignificant as a fart.
This realization served as a reminder to Lu Fan.
He couldn't aim too high!
Transforming a low martial world into a fantasy world would take time and couldn't be accomplished in one go.
With his current spiritual qi, if it radiated throughout the entire world, it would be completely assimilated, just like a drop of urine being poured into the ocean, unable to make any impact.
Therefore, Lu Fan could only follow the system's prompt.
He had to be down-to-earth and diligently refine his qi.
First, set a small goal of refining qi to a hundred levels.
He rubbed his forehead.
Lu Fan temporarily put aside these worries.
His gaze fell on the newly opened [Preaching Platform] permission.
To be honest, Lu Fan was very curious about the Preaching Platform.
Out of the three permissions, [Mission], [Spiritual Qi Distribution], and [Preaching Platform], only the opening conditions for the Preaching Platform seemed the most stringent, giving him a sense of grandeur.
Moreover, this thing seemed to be related to his qi refining.
He took a deep breath.
Lu Fan muttered slowly.
"Open the [Preaching Platform] permission!"
As he finished speaking, a line of system prompts appeared.
"[Preaching Platform] opened, deducting 1 soul strength automatically (note: if the host's soul strength is lower than 1, the [Preaching Platform] permission will be automatically closed)."
When Lu Fan saw this prompt, his heart suddenly tightened.
What a swindler!
This thing... also had a handling fee?!