147: Chapter 147 Golden Affix Spell Instant Cast

Heavenly Sword Sect. Chore Hall.

Li Hu sat upright on his chair, his expression terrifyingly gloomy.

Manager Ma Yingjie knelt on the cold floor tiles, his head hanging so low it almost touched the ground.

He trembled like chaff in the wind, not daring to even breathe loudly, let alone look up at Li Hu's furious face, as if meeting those eyes would mean being torn to shreds instantly.

After a full half-stick of incense, Li Hu finally spoke slowly.

"Why did Hu Nan appear at Qingyun Lake? How were you monitoring him?"

This sentence was like a thunderclap exploding in Manager Ma Yingjie's ears.

His body shuddered violently, and cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead, rolling down his cheeks and splashing onto the bluestone floor, creating a small damp patch.

He opened his mouth, his throat feeling incredibly dry, and stammered in reply: "Young Lord, this subordinate... this subordinate really doesn't know!"

"We followed your instructions and arranged three teams to watch Hu Nan's tent day and night. Hu Nan's figure never left the tent."

Manager Ma Yingjie was also completely bewildered at this moment.

He had not relaxed his monitoring of Hu Nan for even a moment.

He had even arranged for three teams to take turns watching.

Yet, even so, Hu Nan still appeared at Qingyun Lake.

"Hmph!" Li Hu let out a cold snort, filled with disdain and rage.

He slammed his hand on the armrest, and the heavy chair instantly emitted an unbearable creak, with the armrest actually denting inward from his strike.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!" Li Hu scolded sharply, the fire in his eyes burning even brighter, and he questioned again: "This time, how many people died?"

Manager Ma Yingjie was scared out of his wits by this scolding, hurriedly prostrating even lower, and replied with a trembling voice: "Rep-replying to the Young Lord, this operation resulted in fifteen deaths... and... and Elder Chen was also killed in one bite by that Golden Core Yao Beast."

The moment the words "Elder Chen" were spoken, the temperature in the hall seemed to drop a few degrees.

Li Hu's expression instantly became even uglier; his face, which was already gloomy, now turned a shade of iron-blue.

Elder Chen was a master of Formation, and many Great Arrays relied on him to be broken. Now that he had fallen at Qingyun Lake and died at the hands of a Golden Core Yao Beast, this was undoubtedly like cutting off one of his arms!

The reason Li Hu spared no manpower or resources to plan this trip to Qingyun Lake was for the Secret Treasure at the bottom of the lake that could help his strength greatly increase.

He had thought everything was under control and that he only needed to wait for the Golden Core Yao Beast to leave to easily take the Secret Treasure and achieve his own Golden Core path.

But he never expected that he would end up suffering a loss instead of gaining.

Not only did he lose fifteen subordinates and a major general like Elder Chen, but the Secret Treasure of Qingyun Lake was also snatched by Hu Nan.

That Hu Nan had clearly been watched closely by them in the Misty Forest, yet he had appeared at Qingyun Lake without anyone knowing, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the Golden Core Yao Beast to steal the Opportunity that should have belonged to him.

This time, not only did he fail to obtain the Secret Treasure, but he also suffered a double loss, becoming nothing more than a wedding dress for Hu Nan!

With the deaths of these dozen or so people, their Blood Demon Sect's undercover plan within the Heavenly Sword Sect had also completely failed.

At the same time, he was also very curious about the identity of that mysterious person.

Who exactly was that person?

Why did Hu Nan protect him like that?

...

In the blink of an eye, a year passed quietly.

Over this past year, Qin Changsheng had maintained an extreme low profile, never revealing his edge within the Sect.

He remained in that remote small courtyard, keeping the courtyard gate tightly shut during the day, setting up double concealment Arrays to isolate all outside disturbances, and putting his heart and soul into Cultivating.

With the blessing of Heavenly Dao - Cultivation "One part Cultivation, ten parts harvest", Qin Changsheng's Cultivation efficiency far exceeded the past. The Speed at which he absorbed Spiritual Qi and tempered his Meridians daily had reached several times what it used to be. Even when he occasionally rested, the Qi in his body accumulated slowly, never stagnating.

After a year of effort, Qin Changsheng had also raised his proficiency to 43,000 points.

He was only 17,000 points away from the proficiency needed for the fifth level of Foundation Establishment.

[Name: Qin Changsheng]

[Lifespan: 29 / + ∞]

[Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Fourth Level (43000 / 60000)]

[Cultivation Technique: Five Elements Spirit Gathering Technique (Perfection)]

[Spell: Fire Snake Technique (Perfection), Fire Shield Technique (Major Achievement 6000 / 10000)]

[Gale Sword Technique: Perfection]

[Smoke Shadow Evasive Footwork: Perfection]

[Sword Flight Technique: Perfection]

[Spiritual Root: Top-grade Five Spirit Roots]

[trait Extraction Count: 1]

[traits: Cultivation, Storage Space, External Incarnation, Immortality, Substitute Death, Breath Concealment, Exchange, Sword Heart Clarity, Sharing, Intelligence, Source of Mana, Fire Spells, Rebirth, Repair]

Over the past year, he had not only focused on his own Cultivation but had also not wasted the use of his Incarnation, Hu Nan.

Because of the blessing of the Heavenly Dao Trait 'Cultivation', Qin Changsheng let Hu Nan refine Qi Gathering Pills.

Thanks to the Alchemy techniques taught by Qin Changsheng, combined with the indirect blessing of Heavenly Dao - Cultivation, Hu Nan's success rate in Alchemy was extremely high. Refining one Qi Gathering Pill could yield ten, a staggering efficiency.

Over the year, Hu Nan had refined hundreds of batches of Qi Gathering Pills, and the accumulated output was countless.

Most of these Qi Gathering Pills were secretly sold by Hu Nan through hidden channels to Outer Sect Disciples within the Sect, or exchanged for other Cultivation resources, which had brought Qin Changsheng an income of tens of thousands of Spirit Stones.

Looking at the Spirit Stones piled up in his Storage Space, although Qin Changsheng was somewhat satisfied, he also knew that this was far from enough.

After all, just repairing that Earth-Grade High Grade spirit suppressing pearl would cost one million Spirit Stones.

However, Qin Changsheng was not considering these things now, but rather turning his attention to trait extraction.

Now that it was a new year, Qin Changsheng could extract new traits again.

"Extract trait!" Qin Changsheng did not hesitate at all.

As the words fell, countless tiny golden light spots on the attribute panel intertwined and gathered, gradually condensing into a blurry phantom of a trait.

In just a few breaths, the blurry phantom of the trait gradually became clear, and a line of golden characters slowly emerged, shining brightly, appearing clearly in the air above the Spirit Light Jade.

[Instant Spellcasting] - the four golden characters, carrying a faint Pressure, floated in mid-air, with light flowing between them, revealing a powerful aura of Spells.

[Ding! Congratulations on successfully extracting the Golden Trait — [Instant Spellcasting]!]

[Instant Spellcasting (Golden Trait) Passive: Release any learned Spell without hand seals, without incantations, instant casting, and Spell power is increased by 50%, mana consumption is reduced by 30%.]

Qin Changsheng closed his eyes, quietly digesting the information in his mind, the joy in his eyes growing even stronger.

A passive effect, no need to actively activate it. As long as it was a Spell he had already learned, whether it was the Fire Snake Technique, Fireball Talisman, or other Spells, he could achieve instant casting without spending time on hand seals or incantations.

In actual combat, this was undoubtedly a fatal advantage, often allowing him to seize the initiative and defeat the enemy by surprise.

What surprised him even more was that, in addition to the instant casting effect, the Spell power could also be increased by 50%, while mana consumption was reduced by 30%.

This meant that in the future, when he released Spells, not only would the Speed be faster and the power stronger, but he could also save a large amount of mana, greatly improving his endurance.

In the past, releasing a Fire Snake Technique consumed a lot of mana and required hand seals and incantations. Now, with the blessing of [Instant Spellcasting], he could release it in a single thought, with doubled power and less mana consumption, making it a true artifact for actual combat.

Qin Changsheng slowly opened his eyes, raised his hand, and flicked it, condensing a wisp of spiritual power, while silently chanting "Fire Snake Technique" in his heart.

There were no cumbersome hand seal movements, no obscure incantations; a scorching red light instantly erupted from his fingertips, and a fire snake burning with flames condensed in an instant, shooting towards the rocks in the corner of the courtyard, moving as fast as lightning.

"Boom!" With a soft sound, the fire snake hit the rock and exploded instantly. The scorching flames swallowed the rock, and after the thick smoke dissipated, the rock had already been burned to ashes.

A trace of satisfaction flashed in Qin Changsheng's eyes — this was the effect of [Instant Spellcasting], instant release, power far exceeding the past, and mana consumption was indeed much less.

Closing the attribute panel, Qin Changsheng sat at the stone table and sorted out his past accumulations and future plans one by one, finally setting three core goals. The most urgent matter at the moment was to proceed step by step.

The most urgent and core issue at present was to earn enough Spirit Stones.

He knew in his heart that whether it was repairing the spirit suppressing pearl, or subsequently finding the auxiliary items needed for refining his Lifebound Treasure, extracting more Golden Traits, or finding other heavenly dao fragments, none of it could be separated from the support of massive amounts of Spirit Stones.

Now that his Incarnation Hu Nan had been refining Alchemy for a year, he had only accumulated tens of thousands of Spirit Stones. He was still over nine hundred thousand away from his initial goal of one million Spirit Stones. At this Speed, it was far from enough to meet the needs of his subsequent plans.

Regarding earning Spirit Stones, Qin Changsheng already had a preliminary plan: to go to the Spirit Stone Mine to mine.

With the blessing of the Heavenly Dao Trait 'Cultivation', he would be able to obtain one million Spirit Stones in at most a few years.

After repairing the treasure, the next step was Qin Changsheng's core mid-to-long-term plan — finding the auxiliary items needed for refining his Lifebound Treasure.

On the path of Immortality, after Foundation Establishment, the Lifebound Treasure is the most core reliance of a Cultivator's combat power. Only by refining a Lifebound Treasure that fits oneself can one truly stand firm and impact higher Realms.

These auxiliary items were extremely rare, mostly hidden in famous mountains and rivers, Yao Beast nests, or collected by various Sects and Cultivators. Finding them was extremely difficult and required sufficient strength and Spirit Stones as support.

Besides this, Qin Changsheng also did not forget to continue searching for the remaining heavenly dao fragments, as well as strengthening existing traits. They were powerful, and if he could find heavenly dao fragments in the future and upgrade them to Heavenly Dao Entries, their power would definitely go to the next level.