"Sir, is there any weapon here you're interested in buying? We can actually give you a 10% discount since you exchanged your Spirit Core for our Spirit Coins!" the female shop attendant still followed Zhen, now bringing up the discount.
10%—that was quite a lot for Zhen.
He quickly decided what he wanted to buy.
"That sword. I want that one. Is it included in the discount?" Zhen asked, pointing to a sword that wasn't very long but exuded a clearly sharp aura.
Even just by looking at it, Zhen could sense a threat from it.
He thought his attacks would become much stronger with that sword.
However, its price was 5,000 Spirit Coins, making him hesitate.
But with a 10% discount, it would only cost 4,500 Spirit Coins. He would still have 500 left.
"Yes, that sword also gets the 10% discount," the shop attendant replied.
She waved her hand toward the sword, and strangely, it floated on its own toward Zhen.
It seemed to be controlled by a formation within the store.
When it hovered in front of him, Zhen felt as though he and the sword were perfectly in sync.
"Alright, I'll take it," he said.
"Please make your payment at the cashier, sir!" the shop attendant responded.
Zhen nodded, returned to the counter, and handed over his 4,500 Spirit Coins.
After that, he was finally able to take the sword.
As soon as he held it, the sword and the Qi in his body instantly connected.
Tier 2 weapons were different from Tier 1 ones—they possessed their own spiritual power that could merge with the user's Qi.
Zhen felt like he didn't need anything else now that he had this sword.
He left the cultivation shop and headed to a small inn.
There, he sat cross-legged and laid out all the broken eggshell pieces from the Golden Crow in front of him.
The Golden Crow still followed him, but it hadn't spoken again so far.
Inside the inn, it returned to its normal size, standing on the table and staring at Zhen with curious eyes.
"By the way, can your eggshells be eaten like Flowing Qi Pills?" Zhen asked.
Flowing Qi Pills could be consumed directly so the Qi within would flow into the body without needing absorption first.
But eggshells—Zhen wasn't sure how to eat them.
"You have to eat them, of course. Don't worry, they're not hard and have no taste. If you want it to be more pleasant, you can add some salt," the Golden Crow replied.
Zhen rolled his eyes at that, shaking his head.
He didn't have salt with him and couldn't be bothered to go looking for it.
Since that was the only way, he braced himself, gathered all the eggshells, and stacked them together like layered cake.
Crack!
He took a bite, and sure enough, it wasn't hard—more like a snack—but his teeth still trembled slightly as he chewed since it was an eggshell.
At this point, he could only close his eyes and keep feeding himself the eggshells, chewing nonstop.
Once all the shells were in his mouth, he felt a burst of Qi that seemed endless, flooding his body and making his eyes widen.
He then saw his Qi rising rapidly.
[Qi: 5,000 / 10,000]
[Qi: 10,000 / 10,000]
DING!
(You have successfully broken through to the Tenth Stage of the Qi Master Realm. You gained 20 System Points!)
He advanced quickly, but even after the breakthrough, his Qi kept rising drastically at an unimaginable speed—it even seemed to accelerate over time.
[Name: Xia Zhen]
[Cultivation: Tenth Stage of the Qi Master Realm]
[Qi: 90,000 / 100,000]
[System Points: 27]
When he had finished absorbing all the Qi from the eggshells, his total Qi reached 90,000—just 10,000 more to go before his next breakthrough.
What mattered most now was his understanding of the Scripture as a foundation, then he could step into the Earth Master Realm.
Zhen checked the time and saw that only 13 minutes had passed.
That was incredibly fast for gaining 90,000 Qi.
Crack! Crack!
Zhen's bones creaked as he stretched.
BANG!
He transformed his hands into dragon hands.
His aura became stronger, producing a shockwave as it surged, surprising the Golden Crow.
Its eyes widened when it saw Zhen's hands.
"According to my ancestor's memories, only the Eternal Dragon Scripture can turn someone into a dragon. It's a legendary scripture created by the oldest ancestor of the Dragon Clan for humans who were close allies of dragons," it said.
"Boy, where did you get that scripture? It was lost even before the other dragon power scriptures disappeared."
Zhen: "…"
He wondered what he should say in response to the Golden Crow's words. Even he was confused himself.
"Stop asking so many questions!" In the end, that's all he could say.
"So you want to keep secrets, huh? Hmph!" the Golden Crow pouted.
Zhen couldn't be bothered to deal with it.
He went back outside, feeling somewhat lazy about cultivating now that he was so close to the next stage.
"Did you hear? The Miao Family from Hong Kong has posted a mission to rescue their Old Madam, who was captured by disciples of the Hundred Flame Sect in Spring City. They're offering 200,000 dollars to anyone who can succeed. Apparently, the Old Madam didn't make it out when the fire broke out."
"Really? What if we take the mission?"
"Idiot. You think it's that easy? The disciples of the Hundred Flame Sect are really strong. Besides, they purposely captured everyone from Spring City because they suspect one of them stole their missing egg. They're furious right now."
The conversation of two players walking past stunned Zhen.
He immediately remembered the old woman he had helped get to Spring City.
Her name was Miao Yu, and she was clearly an Old Madam from a wealthy family.
Zhen wondered if this mission was about rescuing her.
He was surprised by the reward mentioned.
200,000 dollars just to rescue a game character? After all, if someone died, they could just create a new character and start over.
Was the Old Madam really that afraid of dying in a game?
'Yeah… maybe she can't log out right now,' Zhen thought.
In dangerous situations, logging out was impossible. If you tried to force a logout, the character wouldn't disappear—just fall asleep, making them an easy kill.
This mission was now the topic of conversation among many players. Zhen approached a group of them to listen more closely.
"I heard the Miao Family is buying up Spirit Coins from players at 1 dollar per coin. They want to hire a powerful NPC to save their Old Madam!"
"Really? That's great! I'll sell all my Spirit Coins! Hahaha, I have 1,000 Spirit Coins—that means I can get 1,000 dollars!"
"Hey, how about we raise the price? I bet they won't say no if we bump it to 2 dollars!"
"Good idea. I agree. We should raise the price!"
"Where is the Miao Family right now?"
"They're at the city park!"
"Let's go!"
"…"