Chapter 3

"This thing..."

Xu Qing's eyes shone with intense light, and in his mind, he recalled the intact corpse before the purple crystal was taken away.

"Can it preserve a corpse and rapidly heal the wounds of the living?"

Xu Qing tightly gripped the purple crystal in his hand, his heart racing as he quickly looked around.

Although he knew there should be no other living beings in this place, he instinctively remained vigilant after obtaining such a treasure.

Without further delay, he sprinted at full speed toward the cave where he was hiding.

On the way, he noticed that his wounds were healing rapidly, and even his physical fatigue seemed to have diminished significantly.

In the past, he would need to rest after running for about half an hour, but now, well past that time, he felt warm and full of energy.

He even managed to catch a fallen bird on his way back.

He did not kill it but knocked it unconscious, as living creatures could be stored for a longer time.

Despite these actions, the time it took him to return to the cave was significantly reduced. He could already see his cave from a distance, with some time before nightfall.

Xu Qing's mood improved like never before, but he did not let his guard down.

He knew that due to the formation of the restricted area and the gods opening their eyes, strange entities would appear in this region at night, along with the awakening of strange beasts.

He had heard from people in the slums that many places with a high concentration of death would form such strange phenomena.

For example, the laughter heard outside at night was emitted by such entities.

The general consensus was to avoid seeing, touching, or encountering these strange beings.

Although these entities usually appeared at night, Xu Qing was uncertain if they might occasionally appear during the day.

Thus, he did not slow down and soon approached the cave, quickly entering and blocking the crack.

He then sat cross-legged and opened his tightly clenched hand.

Purple light spread from his palm, illuminating the small cave, and his face and eyes were also tinged purple under the light.

He stared intently at the purple crystal in his palm.

The crystal was elongated, about the size of his finger, with some fibrous material inside, emitting the purple light.

"Healing wounds..." After observing for a long time, Xu Qing undid his shirt and looked at the wound on his chest, finding it had healed to about ninety percent.

The remaining part seemed to need only a short time to fully heal, and even the surrounding scars were fading.

Considering how much less fatigued he felt on his way back, Xu Qing had a preliminary understanding of the purple crystal's effects.

Its function was clearly restoration.

Restoring wounds, restoring energy, and restoring vitality!

"I wonder if it has other effects." Xu Qing muttered, his eyes filled with contemplation.

He was unsure if the purple crystal was related to the gods opening their eyes, but it was likely so.

Regardless, this was a great treasure. Xu Qing had never heard of any item with such astonishing restorative power from his childhood to now.

Such an item by his side was equivalent to a second life.

But Xu Qing was well aware that he could only possess this item because there were no other living beings in the city.

Once the blood rain ended and he ventured out... he would likely be unable to protect such a treasure.

Therefore, the only method was to hide the purple crystal...

Xu Qing pondered for a while, glanced at the unconscious bird he had brought back, and reached out to grab it.

Holding its beak to prevent it from making a sound, he drew a dagger from his calf and made a cut on the bird's body.

As the bird struggled, Xu Qing inserted the purple crystal into the wound.

He watched closely without blinking.

At first, the bird continued to struggle, but soon, dark currents surged around it. Spiritual energy seemed to be attracted, even more than when Xu Qing practiced, rushing into the bird's body.

The bird's struggling strength suddenly increased, and Xu Qing's grip seemed insufficient to hold it.

This scene made Xu Qing's eyes shine brightly.

A bird that he could easily crush with one hand now required several attempts to break its neck.

He quickly retrieved the purple crystal from the bird's body, wiped it clean, and closed his eyes to think.

"The bird didn't die, and spiritual energy flowed into it, and its strength suddenly increased... It should be fine."

After a moment, Xu Qing opened his eyes, his gaze resolute, and directly inserted the purple crystal into the nearly healed wound on his chest.

The process was painful, but Xu Qing gritted his teeth and endured.

There was no safer place than inside his own body.

He had also tested it and found that the crystal seemed to work better when placed inside his body.

As the purple crystal integrated, and his chest wound healed, before Xu Qing could examine it closely, a rumbling sound came from within his body.

A more powerful surge of spiritual energy than what the bird had attracted rushed from all directions, penetrating the soil and rushing toward him.

The spiritual energy was so overwhelming that Xu Qing's body instantly turned a pale green, and an indescribable coldness spread throughout.

This was due to the high concentration of impurities in the spiritual energy.

But Xu Qing was prepared and immediately began to circulate the Hai Shan Jue.

As he circulated it, a large amount of impurities in the spiritual energy entering his body was separated.

The remaining pure spiritual energy flowed through his meridians, nourishing and refining his flesh and blood, causing his body to emit a thumping sound.

It was as if some blockages within him were instantly opened, and his muscles and flesh were nourished and refined.

The mental image of the Xiao figure in his mind seemed to come to life, assuming various postures.

The Hai Shan Jue, though a cultivation technique, was not a method of cultivation but a form of body refinement.

It was divided into ten levels, corresponding to the ten levels of the Qi Condensation stage.

The bamboo slip provided a clear description: each level could increase a cultivator's strength by one tiger's power, and five tigers equaled one Xiao, and two Xiaos equaled one Kui.

It was said that a Xiao could move mountains, and a Kui could shift seas, hence the name Hai Shan Jue.

At this moment, the purple crystal embedded in his chest acted like a vortex, continuously drawing in spiritual energy, which poured into him like a waterfall.

Xu Qing's cultivation speed increased dramatically.

After an unknown amount of time, the thumping sound in his body intensified, and a large amount of impurities flowed out through his pores.

A pungent smell filled the cave.

As the impurities flowed out, Xu Qing's body became more translucent, and his face, previously obscured by dirt, became increasingly clear and handsome.

After a while, as the sounds and the influx of spiritual energy gradually subsided, Xu Qing's eyes suddenly opened.

A flash of purple light appeared in his eyes.

After returning to normal, Xu Qing's expression was dazed.

In the dark cave, everything became clearer in his eyes. He quickly looked down at himself, his expression gradually showing disbelief.

"This feeling..."

Xu Qing's expression was tinged with excitement as he stood up and threw a punch, which produced a sharp whistling sound.

Due to the small size of the cave, he could not test his speed, but the feeling of lifting his leg and throwing a punch told him that he had improved significantly in all aspects compared to before.

He immediately rolled up the sleeve on his left arm.

Seeing a black dot the size of a fingernail on his forearm, Xu Qing took a deep breath and suppressed his excitement.

"So, this is the first level of Qi Condensation!"

According to the bamboo slip, this black dot was a mutation point, and the mutation points of the Hai Shan Jue appeared on the left arm, with one added for each level.

Touching the mutation point on his arm, Xu Qing felt a surge of excitement at his obvious increase in strength. He looked up at the crack in the entrance, contemplating testing his speed when it was light.

But soon, Xu Qing's expression turned puzzled as he approached the crack and listened carefully.

Outside, it was still dark, but there was not a single unusual sound.

This was something he had never encountered in the days he had been here.

In the past, even after dawn, when the strange beasts and eerie sounds disappeared, the rain continued to fall.

But now, the sound of rain was gone.

"Could it be..."

Xu Qing's mind was shaken, and a guess formed in his heart.

As he waited, a beam of dazzling light shone through the crack in the cave entrance, illuminating his dark eyes, as if lighting up his world.

Seeing the light, Xu Qing's body visibly trembled.

He raised his hand, slowly approaching the beam of sunlight, and held it in his palm, feeling the long-awaited warmth slowly awaken his dormant soul.

"Sunlight..."

After a while, Xu Qing's eyes sparkled, and he pushed aside the debris blocking the crack, allowing more light to flood in as he slowly emerged.

As he stepped out of the entrance, he looked up and saw not the dense, dark clouds but a bright, radiant sun.

It was as if an old man, who had been ill for many days, had regained his vitality, slowly pulling back the curtain and bringing freshness back to the world.

"The rain has stopped."

Xu Qing took a deep breath of the air, now infused with sunlight, and silently gazed at the city bathed in the morning glow.

Everything in the city, under the brilliant red sun, seemed to exude a different kind of vitality.

The red morning light from the sky, shining through the clouds, was like countless whales spouting golden waterfalls, gradually washing away the city's gloom and revealing the scars left behind.

The collapsed houses, the dark blue corpses, and the bloodstained puddles all seemed to remind Xu Qing of the disaster that had occurred here.

Xu Qing's eyes showed a hint of complexity. He had lived in the slums outside the city for six years and had seen this city for six years.

Although he had not entered often, this place was where he had most desired to live for the past six years.

"I obtained the cultivation technique here."

"I found the purple crystal here."

"I survived here..." Xu Qing muttered, falling silent.

After a long while, he sighed softly, walked to a dark blue corpse, and after looking at it for a while, picked it up and carried it forward.

He walked to a nearby square and placed the corpse down, then turned around and carried the second, third, and fourth...

Some corpses were scattered on the streets, and some were trapped under the rubble.

After he had carried all the corpses in the nearby area to the square, the pile of bodies was like a mountain, some intact, some fragmented.

Xu Qing stood there and set the pile on fire. Perhaps due to the impurities, the flames burned more intensely, producing thick smoke...

In the thick smoke, Xu Qing watched for a long time, then silently walked away to the next area, and soon another plume of smoke rose, more and more...

On the first day the sun shone on this ruined city, the city was filled with light and the black smoke from the burning corpses.

The black smoke rose into the sky, blocking the sunlight, and the morning glow, at this moment, seemed powerless, turning a dull red, as if hiding a deep sigh.

It seemed that the plumes of smoke had become its tears, and the shadows on the ground had turned into the earth's tear marks.

The last tear mark was where Xu Qing had found the purple light.

There, Xu Qing placed the old man's corpse from the pharmacy, and as the pile of bodies burned, the heat waves washed over him. He stood silently by the fire, the rolling flames reflecting in his dark pupils, flickering continuously.

His disheveled hair, due to the heat, curled, and after a while, Xu Qing's body also bent, and he bowed his head in respect.

"May you... rest in peace."

At that moment, the flames suddenly burned more intensely, becoming more and more fierce, scattering countless fireflies-like sparks into the wind.

But the rising smoke, carrying the deceased's unfulfilled regrets and sorrows, could not be dispersed by the wind.

Rising higher and higher, like a few scars in the sky.

Insignificant, full of helplessness.

...

After a long time, accompanied by disordered footsteps, a strange voice suddenly came from behind the youth.

"I wondered why I didn't see any corpses on my way here. It turns out there's a foolish boy who, despite exhausting his own strength, has moved the corpses here to cremate them."

"Fine, since you are so attached, I'll help you by throwing you in to keep them company."

Xu Qing suddenly turned around.