Time slowly passes, and in the blink of an eye, Xiao Se has spent three months in the Magic Beast Mountain Range.
During these three months, Xiao Se first spent half a month training in the advanced Xuan-level fighting skill "Lion's Roar," and then spent the rest of the time challenging first-level magical beasts within the Beast Mountain Range to hone his combat skills and gather the medicinal materials he needed.
Occasionally, he would encounter second-level magical beasts. With his fighting skills and strategic advantages, he managed to handle them with ease and even defeated a few second-level magical beasts that were higher than his level.
Xiao Se still did not use the power of the Demon Sword in combat, only treating it as a regular long sword.
He came here to hone his combat skills, not to rely on external tools to crush his enemies.
In this bloody and cruel training environment, Xiao Se not only stabilized his previous two-star power increase but also, in the middle of the second month of training, broke through one more star, reaching the strength of an eight-star Dou Zhe.
Similarly, he did not give up on alchemy. With the soul forging from the "Return to Origin Soul Decision," he now has a good grasp of refining second-grade pills, and occasionally even manages to succeed once or twice in refining third-grade pills out of ten attempts.
He believes that once he formally breaks through to the Dou Zhe Realm, refining third-grade pills will no longer be a problem.
Aside from training, there were also three system exchanges during this period.
Since obtaining Dai Mubai's level ten soul power, his luck seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. The first month ended in an exchange failure, the second month only brought a pair of shoes, and it wasn't until the third month, yesterday, that he managed to exchange for the "Swordsmanship of the Ghost Valley," hidden by Guiguzi from the "Legend of Qin" world. With the system's synchronization, the manual was directly converted from a martial art to a Dou skill.
Xiao Se glanced through it. Although its power is not very high—the strongest moves, "Hundred-Step Flying Sword" and "Omnipresent Sword," are roughly equivalent to mid-level Xuan-tier techniques—their moves are quite ingenious.
This could further enhance Xiao Se's close combat abilities.
It was a kind of psychological comfort.
However, if he could use both the Hundred-Step Flying Sword and the Omnipresent Sword simultaneously, he might achieve a power surpassing high-level Xuan-tier fighting skills.
"Hoo," on the edge of the Beast Mountain Range, on a cliff covered by large trees, Xiao Se was slowly recovering the consumed fighting energy.
Not long ago, he had fought a fierce battle with a Blood Ring Snake, which was about to reach second-tier, for one of the main medicinal materials needed to refine the Blood Lotus Pill—the Blood Lotus Fruit. This magical beast, with a base strength comparable to a peak Dou Zhe, was incredibly tough, and Xiao Se was far from a match.
Both sides wanted the soon-to-be-ripened Blood Lotus Fruit.
The former wanted it to break through to the third level, while the latter wished to use it to refine the Blood Lotus Pill.
Neither side was willing to give up easily.
Facing a first-tier peak magical beast whose speed and power far exceeded his own, Xiao Se found the fight extremely frustrating. His Red Flame Sword attacks were unable to hit the snake due to its speed.
If it weren't for his advanced Xuan-tier body technique and keen soul perception, Xiao Se might not have lasted even three rounds.
Therefore, Xiao Se employed a strategy of circumvention, continually throwing beast fire to enrage the snake, and then led it to a nearby valley, luring it into a prearranged deep pit trap. There, he released the Red Flame Sword and used "Breaking Extremes" to target its most vulnerable mouth area, severely injuring and killing it.
"Brother, how are your injuries?" Long Kui's concerned voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
Xiao Se responded with a smile in his mind, "Don't worry, before the battle, I took protective pulse pills and bone regeneration pills. Although I endured a few attacks from the Blood Ring Snake, my meridians were not severely damaged, and the injuries are only superficial. After one or two hours of rest, I'll be fully recovered."
The protective pulse pills and bone regeneration pills are second-grade pills, with the former protecting the meridians from damage and the latter offering better healing effects than injury pills.
Hearing that Xiao Se was okay, Long Kui's anxious heart finally relaxed, and she asked with some confusion, "Brother, why didn't you use the Demon Sword's power during such a dangerous situation? If you had, killing the Blood Ring Snake would have been much easier."
Xiao Se smiled and said, "Although the Demon Sword is powerful, I still need more training. Relying on external tools while neglecting one's own growth isn't a long-term solution. As long as I can manage, I prefer not to use it. This is also part of the training."
Long Kui suddenly understood, "Then Brother, hurry up and recover. I'll guard for you."
Xiao Se replied, "Yes, also help me check on the Blood Lotus Tree below. The only Blood Lotus Fruit on the tree hasn't ripened yet, so I haven't harvested it. But I applied some growth-promoting liquid to it. It should ripen in a few hours."
The so-called growth-promoting liquid is naturally the liquid from the Heaven Controlling Vial. Xiao Se had already stored a full jar of green liquid when he was in the Xiao family's back mountain and then diluted it into jade bottles to avoid others discovering the secret of the Heaven Controlling Vial.
Now, the medicinal materials used for his current training pills are all grown to perfection with the liquid.
Of course, most of the time, Xiao Se would transplant some medicinal materials to his training location. Only in rare cases, like the current situation where the materials cannot be transplanted and are quite precious, would he stay and guard them.
Time for training passed quickly.
Two hours went by in a flash, and it was already afternoon before he knew it.
On the cliff, Xiao Se suddenly opened his tightly shut eyes, exhaled slowly, and said with surprise, "I'm about to break through."
He then took out a bottle of Spirit Liquid and swallowed it. After a brief period of calm, a faint stream of energy suddenly surged from Xiao Se's body, then crazily infused into him.
As the energy continued to pour in, Xiao Se's body emitted a faint blue-white glow. His skin, already nurtured by soul power, now became as smooth as warm jade.
Moments later, Xiao Se's eyes suddenly opened, his dark eyes shining with a tangible, sharp light.
Feeling the substantial increase in fighting energy within him, Xiao Se's delicate face broke into a brilliant smile, "I've finally broken through. It seems that the battle with the Blood Ring Snake gave me the opportunity to advance."
The difference between eight-star and nine-star Dou Zhe's might seem small, but the increase in speed and power brought by the breakthrough is incomparable.
With the few advanced Xuan-tier fighting skills in his hand and the Red Flame Sword's "Breaking Extremes," which is comparable to a low-level Earth-tier fighting skill, Xiao Se is confident that, at least in Qing Shan Town, no one can threaten him.
"Brother, congratulations on the breakthrough," Long Kui's light, cheerful voice suddenly rang out from the Demon Sword.
"Yes. It's time to harvest the Blood Lotus Fruit," Xiao Se nodded slightly.
Just as he was about to go down to pick the Blood Lotus Fruit, a few faint sounds came from the distance below the cliff.
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