Chapter 55

In the mountains, time seems to stand still, and before he knew it, another month had passed.

On this day, Li Wenjun began preparing for his cultivation. After preparing the herbs, he poured them into a clay pot and carefully opened a red cloth package. His movements were extremely gentle, as if he were caressing a lover's cheek.

When the cloth was opened, the object inside was revealed. It was small, about the size of an adult's finger, and its color was a mix of yellow and black.

Li Wenjun looked at the small object and sighed deeply. This was the last bit of wild mountain essence. He had only recently realized that his decision to seclude himself in the cave for intense cultivation was a bit too one-sided. He had considered many aspects beforehand, but he had overlooked one crucial point: he only had one piece of wild mountain essence to use as a medicinal guide.

Initially, the wild mountain essence was about the size of a palm. Each time he used it, he only needed to cut off a tiny piece, no larger or thicker than a fingernail. However, no matter how small the pieces were, they couldn't withstand being cut daily.

The wild mountain essence had been shrinking every day, and just a few days ago, Li Wenjun suddenly realized the severity of the situation. Even though he faced this problem head-on, he couldn't find a solution. There were definitely herbs over a hundred years old in the Five Peaks Mountain, but the question was how to find them. Moreover, even if he encountered them, he might not be able to recognize them. His experience in identifying herbs was still somewhat lacking.

Li Wenjun decided that after using the last bit of wild mountain essence, he would temporarily leave the cave and return to the county town of San Shan to see if he could find another herb over a hundred years old. He wasn't short of money; even if someone asked for ten thousand taels of silver to buy such a herb, he would immediately agree without hesitation.

Li Wenjun cut the last piece of wild mountain essence into three equal parts, mixed each part with a portion of herbs, poured water into the clay pot, and began to simmer the medicinal broth.

As he watched the red flames licking the bottom of the pot, Li Wenjun recalled the past one and a half months.

During this period, Li Wenjun mainly focused on two things: exploring the patterns of the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber's blade aura and cultivating.

Every day, except for sleeping and eating, the rest of his time was divided into two parts, with the largest portion dedicated to cultivation. At first, he would prepare two doses of medicine, but later, he found that the effects were not ideal, so he gritted his teeth and added another dose, making it three doses a day.

Each time he sat in the pool to cultivate, he felt as if his meridians were being severed, and the excruciating pain never ceased. Apart from relying on his strong willpower to persist, the most he could do when the pain became unbearable was to shout a few times and then fall into a deep sleep, using the green light to heal his internal injuries. When he woke up, he would continue his intense cultivation with the medicinal bath.

The three medicinal baths took about four and a half hours in total. After these grueling sessions, Li Wenjun would temporarily stop and turn to studying the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber.

After a long period of exploration, Li Wenjun had gained a deep understanding of the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber and discovered many patterns.

He found that when he held the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber and channeled his mana into it, the more mana he input, the stronger the blade aura became, and the greater the force of its vibration. When he swung the saber to release the blade aura, the damage it caused was directly proportional to the amount of mana he input.

Li Wenjun also discovered that the time between channeling mana into the blade aura and releasing it could be shortened to almost negligible. In other words, he could control the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber to release the blade aura with just a slight input of mana. However, doing so resulted in a weak blade aura that caused minimal damage. If he wanted a more powerful blade aura, he had to spend more time channeling mana into the saber.

The time it took to channel mana into the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber and release the blade aura was slightly shorter than the preparation time for a fireball spell. He had carefully calculated this time, and the difference was about one breath. Of course, if he didn't care about the blade aura's power, the time difference would be more significant.

Additionally, during multiple trials, Li Wenjun had noticed that the silver-white gem embedded in the hilt of the saber sometimes emitted a faint light. Li Wenjun wasn't sure if there was any direct connection between the gem's light and the blade aura, but he had an immature hypothesis that there might be a causal relationship.

Whether this hypothesis was correct, no one could answer.

The Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber wasn't without its flaws. Li Wenjun discovered a shortcoming that, if not carefully managed, could cause significant trouble at times.

He found that once he channeled mana into the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber, he couldn't make the mana flow back into his body. In other words, the mana that flowed into the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber could only go in, not out.

If Li Wenjun wanted to cause minimal damage but ended up channeling too much mana, the final damage would definitely exceed his intention. If he wanted to adhere to his intention, the solution was to direct the blade aura elsewhere and then re-channel the appropriate amount of mana into the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber. The mana used in this process could not be recovered and would be wasted.

This was a serious issue for Li Wenjun, who had relatively weak mana. However, he had no good solution. This was a problem inherent to the saber itself, and unless he stopped using it, he would have to continue dealing with this issue.

What Li Wenjun didn't know was that the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber was a low-tier magical weapon, and all low-tier magical weapons had their own issues. One of the most common problems was the inability to recover excess mana. Magical weapons that could solve this problem were not classified as low-tier.

The Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber was originally the weapon of a wandering cultivator. After losing hope in cultivation, he gave up and started a family, hoping to pass on his lineage. However, none of his descendants had spiritual roots, and the family gradually declined. His descendants even forgot about their ancestor, the cultivator, and sold many of his belongings to pawnshops. In the end, only the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber remained.

Later, one of the cultivator's descendants, after drinking too much, boasted about having a precious saber that could cut through iron like butter. Wang Yonggui overheard this and subsequently wiped out the cultivator's family, taking the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber.

Even the cultivator himself had not been able to solve the problem with the Dragon-Headed Goose Feather Saber during his lifetime.