144: Stubborn and unreliable, against each other?

"Could it be that I am a Genius born in the wrong era?"

Mo Fan's head buzzed, feeling that this was somewhat surreal.

But soon, he felt that this was truly a possibility!

After all, his Comprehension Ability was outstanding.

Yet his cultivation talent was almost zero.

Such an extreme mismatch normally wouldn't happen.

"What a sin—"

Mo Fan looked at the sky speechlessly.

If his Physique hadn't been born in the wrong era, he would likely be a top-tier Genius.

"Fortunately, I have the pendant, which activated the point addition panel and compensated for my defects..."

Mo Fan shook his head and stopped wasting time, preparing to Cultivate.

Since he could finally experience the pleasure of leveling up through cultivation, he was naturally enthusiastic.

However, just then, a black phantom rushed out from a nearby ruined house, heading straight for Mo Fan.

A terrifying and gloomy aura instantly enveloped the space several meters around him, the temperature dropped sharply, and his hair stood on end.

Mo Fan's expression darkened slightly as he sensed the phantom's aura.

"It's strong, comparable to the three super Yao Beasts I encountered at Huilong Mountain!"

While Mo Fan felt apprehensive, he also felt a strange sense of anticipation.

Foundation Building Peak strength!

He wanted to test if his current self could rival a Foundation Building Peak!

Swoosh!

The phantom's speed was extremely fast, arriving in front of Mo Fan in the blink of an eye and throwing a fierce palm strike.

Buzz!

As the palm struck, the space itself emitted a booming sound, slightly distorting as if it were about to collapse!

Mo Fan focused his mind, and with a single thought, he activated the Vajra Fist breathing technique. His fist instantly glowed with golden light as he smashed it fiercely toward the phantom.

Bang!

Like a sun exploding, the space vibrated violently. Light rained down and mist steamed as the phantom was sent flying by a single punch.

Eek!

A sharp sound rang out, and the black shadow exploded mid-air, turning into wisps of black light that slowly dissipated.

"Solved with one punch? It seems a bit weak—"

Mo Fan was dumbfounded.

Although he had thought his current combat power wouldn't be inferior to a Foundation Building Peak.

Seeing himself defeat a mysterious creature at the Foundation Building Peak level with one punch still felt a bit unreal.

Back in Demon Severing Valley, when facing a Yao Beast of this level, he could only flee in embarrassment.

Now, three or four months later, he had grown to the point of being able to insta-kill it with one punch.

While marveling, Mo Fan checked the virtual panel.

In fact, the moment the phantom appeared, Mo Fan had instinctively cast an Appraisal Technique on it.

It was just that the battle was so urgent he hadn't had time to look at the information on the virtual panel.

Low-Tier Spirit Body, a special type of living being. It is extremely fast, elusive, and has a mysterious presence. It excels at sneak attacks and strengthens itself by devouring various negative emotions. At its strongest, it can possess Foundation Building Peak combat power.

Looking at this appraisal information, Mo Fan frowned slightly.

"A legendary Spirit Body?"

"Looking at this description, it's somewhat similar to the Demon Race—"

Soon, Mo Fan focused his attention on the words 'Low Grade'.

"In that case, above Low Grade Spirit Bodies, are there Medium Grade Spirit Bodies, or even High-Tier Spirit Bodies?"

"A Low-Tier Spirit Body can grow to the Foundation Building Peak."

"Wouldn't a Medium-Grade Spirit Body be able to grow to the Peak Transcendent level?"

"And High-Tier Spirit Bodies... Peak of Heavenly Mandate?"

Thinking of this, Mo Fan went numb.

"Didn't they say there was no danger in the Secret Realm?"

"How did I encounter such a fierce thing as soon as I entered?"

After complaining for a bit, Mo Fan stopped wasting time and quickly set up several warning Magic Arrays nearby.

After doing this, he immediately sat cross-legged, focused his mind, circulated the Innate Art, and began to absorb the mysterious factors in the air to Cultivate.

Time passed minute by minute.

In the blink of an eye, half an hour had passed.

Mo Fan woke up from his cultivation state with a frown.

"The mysterious factors are too thin—"

"In just half an hour, the mysterious factors in this area were almost completely consumed. Continuing to Cultivate wouldn't have much effect."

Mo Fan breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, removed the Magic Arrays, and looked around, thinking seriously.

A moment later, he made a decision and walked toward the dilapidated buildings with a wary expression.

"I'll investigate first before deciding."

This was a small village, a few kilometers across, with three or four hundred households.

The architectural style was a bit like ancient China.

But it didn't match any specific dynasty.

According to the previous appraisal information, the era this space belonged to was countless eons away from the present.

Through the shifting of the world, Spiritual Qi had withered and been restored, having gone through Reincarnation countless times.

Mo Fan walked into the village with a wary expression; he wanted to investigate the situation.

Possessing the Appraisal Technique.

Perhaps he could find some different clues or even obtain some Opportunity... Two hours later, Mo Fan walked out of the ruins looking disheveled.

During the exploration, he was ambushed by black shadows three times.

Those three black shadows were all at the Foundation Building Peak level, each more ferocious than the last.

Even though Mo Fan eventually dealt with them easily, he inevitably collapsed some buildings and ended up covered in dust.

Fortunately, he had gains.

First, a map.

Second, two inconspicuous green stones.

Although the map was tattered beyond repair.

He could still vaguely make out general directions and some special locations.

After checking the map, Mo Fan locked onto the main city, which was not too far from here.

In reality, the so-called Secret Realm was an entire city, including nearby villages and satellite towns.

For a Xuanhuan world, the city wasn't very large, covering an area of only over five thousand square kilometers.

Besides the map, Mo Fan also obtained two green stones the size of marbles.

At first glance, these things looked like the most ordinary stones imaginable.

But holding them in his hand and sensing carefully, he could discover that these stones contained rich mysterious energy factors.

They were somewhat like Spirit Stones.

But they weren't Spirit Stones.

Mo Fan cast an Appraisal Technique on them.

The azure virtual panel flashed, and the appraisal information for the green stones immediately surfaced.

Origin Stone, a solid crystal formed after precipitation and compression in a place with extremely dense Origin Qi, containing rich origin energy, can be used for cultivation.

When injured, using Origin Stones can speed up recovery. When fighting others and internal energy is exhausted, Origin Stones can be used to recover. When encountering a cultivation Bottleneck, consuming Origin Stones can increase the chance of a Breakthrough.

Yes, this thing was called an Origin Stone. It could be used for cultivation, and its effects were equivalent to a Spirit Stone!

Of course, that wasn't the main point.

The main point was that behind the appraisal information, there was also a prompt box!

Found low grade origin stone *2, can be absorbed and converted into attribute points. Absorb?

Yes, this thing, like Spirit Stones, could be converted into attribute points!

Taking a deep breath, Mo Fan immediately focused his mind, enveloped one of the Origin Stones with his Mental Energy, and chose to absorb it.

With a flash of the virtual panel, Mo Fan's attribute panel quietly changed.

Name: Mo Fan

Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Second Level (+)

[...] (Click to expand)

Available attribute points: 1000

Seeing this result, Mo Fan couldn't help but open his mouth, his eyes widening.

"One Origin Stone can actually be converted into 100 attribute points?"

Even after confirming it several times, Mo Fan still found it hard to believe.

A Low-Grade Spirit Stone could only convert into 1 attribute point.

But one Origin Stone could convert into 100 attribute points!

A direct difference of a hundred times!

And this was just a low grade origin stone.

What if it were a Medium Grade Origin Stone?

Or a High Grade Origin Stone?

Or even a Top Grade Origin Stone?

Wouldn't he achieve attribute point freedom just by getting a few?

"Could this be my Opportunity?" Mo Fan began to look forward to the rest of the Secret Realm journey.

Of course, he wasn't actually sure if there would be Medium Grade, High Grade, or Top Grade Origin Stones in the Secret Realm.

He hadn't even known that Origin Stones existed in the Secret Realm.

During this time, Mo Fan had been in secluded cultivation studying Field and Magic Array knowledge. His understanding of the Secret Realm was limited to those few conversations with Mo Yingying.

And Yingying had a special Physique; she didn't care about Origin Stones, Spirit Stones, or anything else. As soon as she entered the Secret Realm, she went chasing after the so-called indestructible substance.

Therefore, Mo Fan's intelligence on the Secret Realm was limited.

Besides that, even for Spirit Stones, the outside world didn't actually have distinctions like Low Grade, Medium Grade, High Grade, or Top Grade.

At least, all the Spirit Stones Mo Fan had encountered so far were of the same quality.

For this reason, he had even looked up relevant information.

The records showed that Spirit Stones on Planet Blue were not graded and always had only one quality.

In other words, the entire Planet Blue only had the Low-Grade Spirit Stones mentioned in the appraisal prompts.

Higher quality Spirit Stones might exist.

But either they hadn't been made public, or they hadn't been discovered yet.

So, he wasn't sure if there would be higher quality Origin Stones in the Secret Realm.

Of course, having said that, low grade origin stones were enough.

After all, a low grade origin stone was a hundred times the quality of a Low-Grade Spirit Stone!

One of his goals for coming to the Secret Realm was to find a higher-level substitute for Spirit Stones.

Now that Origin Stones had appeared, he could be considered to have gotten his wish.

"The next goal is to scavenge as many Origin Stones as possible and strive to achieve attribute point freedom!"

"One Origin Stone converts to a hundred attribute points. I only need a hundred Origin Stones for my attribute points to break ten thousand!"

"In such a large Secret Realm, it's impossible that I can't even collect a hundred Origin Stones, right?"

"If I collect a thousand..."

Thinking of this, Mo Fan smiled.

"I'm getting a bit ahead of myself..."

He quickly calmed down.

Steadying his mind, Mo Fan held the remaining Origin Stone, circulated his Cultivation Technique, absorbed the mysterious factors within, and began to Cultivate seriously.

He wanted to test whether it was more cost-effective to absorb the Origin Stone or to convert it into attribute points for point addition... One hour later.

Mo Fan woke up from his cultivation state.

At this point, the Origin Stone in his palm had been completely consumed.

Sensing carefully, Mo Fan clearly felt that he had become a bit stronger.

Focusing his mind, he thought seriously.

"The next point addition requires 2400 attribute points, and one Origin Stone can convert into 100 attribute points... Based on the cultivation progress just now, simply using Origin Stones to Cultivate would also require about 24 stones to break through... Calculating it this way, it seems the point addition panel isn't making a profit on the price difference?"

After a serious comparison, Mo Fan couldn't help but be surprised.

He had always thought the point addition panel was a dishonest merchant that would take a cut.

If not for that, he wouldn't have needed so many Spirit Stones for a single point addition.

But now, upon comparison, he found that he seemed to have misunderstood the point addition panel!

"Is it because the energy level of Spirit Stones is too low, causing a certain amount of loss during conversion into attribute points?" Mo Fan frowned and speculated.

However, he soon shook his head and stopped dwelling on this issue.

Regardless of whether the point addition panel took a cut from Spirit Stones.

Outside, he could only level up through the point addition panel.

Because he simply had no other choice... even if the point addition panel took a huge cut, he could only accept it!

Of course, now that he had confirmed that absorbing Origin Stones wouldn't involve a price difference.

Then converting Origin Stones into attribute points and then adding points to level up was the most convenient, fastest, and most cost-effective method.

After all, absorbing Origin Stones took time, while adding points took only an instant.

Even including the time for the strengthening transformation, it was much more worthwhile.

Thinking this, Mo Fan stood up, oriented himself slightly, and headed toward the main city.

"Two Origin Stones could be found even in a dilapidated village."

"Wouldn't the main city be full of treasures?" Mo Fan looked forward with anticipation... All the way forward, Mo Fan would occasionally encounter a few Spirit Bodies.

Although he didn't want to provoke these Spirit Bodies.

The Spirit Bodies had no intention of letting him go.

Even using the Breath Concealment Art to hide his aura was useless.

Therefore, he was forced to fight, wasting a lot of time along the way.

What surprised Mo Fan a bit was.

After leaving the initial village, the Spirit Bodies he encountered were relatively average in strength, with combat power basically at the early and middle stages of Foundation Establishment; there wasn't a single Foundation Building Peak one.

After walking so far, he hadn't encountered another Spirit Body with Foundation Building Peak combat power.

Soon, Mo Fan arrived at a somewhat strange stone forest.

The stone forest was widespread, with stones of various shapes, tall and short, thick and thin, scattered here and there without any apparent pattern, looking quite chaotic.

Of course, it only looked chaotic.

But from Mo Fan's perspective as a Field Grandmaster, he could still discover that these stones contained certain patterns; it was a natural Field.

Pity that after so much time and the shifting of the world, the world had long since changed, and the once peerless Field no longer possessed its power.

"After crossing this stone forest, I should be able to see the main city. I can't let my guard down; I must be vigilant."

Thinking this, Mo Fan steadied his mind and stepped into the stone forest.

Because of the special terrain, as Mo Fan walked, he concentrated his mind and released the Appraisal Technique, casting it toward every corner.

Under normal circumstances, as long as Spirit Bodies remained in hiding, they wouldn't emit any aura.

And the stone forest was full of giant rocks, making it easy for Spirit Bodies to hide within.

Without the Appraisal Technique, it would be hard to discover them.

Although Mo Fan didn't fear them.

Being ambushed or besieged would still be quite troublesome.

As such, he could only go to the extra trouble of investigating.

However, before he had gone far, Mo Fan's expression froze.

Not far away, there was a milky-white stone about a meter high.

Mo Fan focused his gaze and cast an Appraisal Technique.

Ordinary stone, hard texture, commonly seen.

Of course, that wasn't the point.

The point was the information appraised behind the stone.

Gu Shuiyue, a newly promoted Core Disciple of Flowing Light Peak at Yuxu Academy. She has a Transcendent Third Level cultivation, keen perception, and extraordinary movement technique.

"I've encountered Senior Sister so soon?"

But before Mo Fan could finish being happy, his brow furrowed, and his expression turned several degrees colder.

In his perception, Gu Shuiyue was currently covered in wounds, her white dress stained bright red. Her face was pale to the extreme, and her aura was weak, as if she could collapse at any moment.

"Did she encounter a Medium-Grade Spirit Body?" Mo Fan frowned and was about to walk over.

However, just then, another figure appeared in his perception.

At the same time, a sharp and cold voice came from that figure's mouth.

"Gu Shuiyue, hand the item over, and I might still spare your life. Otherwise, don't blame me for disregarding our bond as fellow disciples."

"Cough, cough—"

"Aren't you afraid of being punished by the academy for attacking me in the Secret Realm?" This was Gu Shuiyue's voice.

"Humph! Punishment? Do you think I still care about that? My cultivation is higher than yours, my combat power is stronger, and my assessment results were better, yet the academy chose you to be a Core Disciple... Why?"

"Besides, if I kill you in the Secret Realm without anyone knowing, who will find out? Heh."

"The selection of Core Disciples isn't limited to cultivation and com—" Gu Shuiyue attempted to explain.

But the person interrupted her.

"Since you are stubbornly resistant and refuse to cooperate, then go and die..."

(PS: Sorry, sorry, I finished writing yesterday but forgot to upload it. I only found it sitting in the drafts folder when I woke up this morning—)