19: Chapter 19 Next, it's time to go buy more goods.

The next morning.

A delivery drone arrived at the villa door on time with a small box.

Lin Fan couldn't wait to open the box.

Two fist-sized crystal cores lay quietly in the shock-absorbing cotton.

The crystal cores were dark red all over, with turbid halos flowing on the surface. Even through the box, he could feel the violent and restless energy fluctuations within.

"So this is a beast crystal core..."

Lin Fan took a deep breath and took the crystal cores to the underground training room.

He sat cross-legged and held a crystal core in each hand.

"Void Breathing Technique, swallow for me!"

Boom!

As the technique operated, two incredibly violent hot currents instantly surged into his body through the Laogong acupoints.

This energy was more than a hundred times more violent than the Origin Qi in the air!

Moreover, it was mixed with a nauseating bloody aura and tyrannical emotions.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Countless hallucinations of roaring beasts instantly appeared in Lin Fan's mind. That was the baleful aura remaining in the crystal cores, attempting to assault his consciousness.

If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have been scared into a state of cultivation deviation by now.

But Lin Fan just gave a cold snort.

"Mere remnants of souls, you dare to act presumptuously?"

His Comprehension Ability at Lv17 turned into a spiritual sword, instantly shattering those hallucinations.

At the same time, the Origin Qi within his body turned into an invisible millstone, rolling that violent energy and the baleful aura into it together.

Creak, creak!

He could hear the sound of energy being crushed.

That baleful aura, which had originally tried to destroy his meridians, was unexpectedly swallowed and decomposed under the strange rhythm of the Void Breathing Technique, turning into the purest nourishment!

"Awesome!"

Lin Fan couldn't help but moan.

This feeling of energy flooding his body was ten thousand times better than drinking iced cola in the middle of summer!

His meridians were cheering, his bones were trembling.

The fiftieth cycle... The sixtieth cycle...

With the crystal cores providing a continuous stream of energy, his cultivation speed was soaring.

A few hours later.

Crack!

The two crystal cores in his hands made a crisp sound, completely losing their luster, and turned into two piles of grayish-white powder that slipped through his fingers.

And at the same moment.

Rumble!

A thunderous muffled sound came from within Lin Fan's body.

The eighty-first cycle!

Void Breathing Technique, Perfection!

A terrifying aura erupted from Lin Fan, and the surrounding air was instantly evacuated, forming a brief vacuum zone.

Lin Fan opened his eyes, and black holes seemed to be rotating deep within his pupils, capturing one's soul.

"Reached Perfection..."

Lin Fan clenched his fists, feeling the surging power like a sea within his body.

But there was not much joy on his face; instead, it was full of bitterness.

He glanced at the powder on the ground, then at the balance on his phone.

"One hundred thousand, and it only filled one-fifth of the progress bar?"

Lin Fan looked at the crystal cores that had turned into powder in his hands, then at the experience bar on the system panel that had only jumped a small section, and felt his gums aching.

Two second-grade crystal cores, that was a full one hundred thousand currency!

At this rate of consumption, to break through to the Sixth-Grade Body Tempering Realm, he would need at least eight more crystal cores, which meant four hundred thousand. And the one million scholarship in his hand was only enough to keep him going until the seventh grade at most.

"This isn't cultivation; this is burning money."

Lin Fan sighed. This was the domineering aspect of the Void Breathing Technique: it swallowed everything and had heaven-defying efficiency, but the prerequisite was that you had enough resources to fill this bottomless pit.

The poor study, the rich practice martial arts; the ancients did not deceive me.

"No, I can't just sit and eat away my savings."

Lin Fan gritted his teeth. "Sharpening the knife doesn't delay the work of chopping wood. First, raise my strength, then go to the wasteland to rob... oh no, to hunt beasts and recover my funds!"

Thinking of this, he no longer hesitated and directly opened the Martial Artist Mall, ordering eight second-grade crystal cores in one go.

【Payment successful! Deducted 400,000 currency.】

Looking at his balance shrinking by nearly half, Lin Fan clutched his chest. If this money were in his previous life, it would be enough for a down payment in a third-tier city, but now it was only enough for a few days of cultivation resources.

"Next is this 'Sword Drawing Art'."

In the interval while waiting for the express delivery, Lin Fan inserted the other chip into his tablet.

The projection light screen unfolded, but the content of this advanced martial skill, which the principal had praised to the high heavens, was shockingly simple.

There were no complex human meridian diagrams, no fancy move breakdowns, only a sketch—a person, holding a sword, drawing the sword.

Accompanied by a few lines of text:

"Sword Drawing Art, only cultivate one strike."

"Entry: Cut through steel."

"Small Success: Cut through fallen leaves."

"Great Success: Cut through gossamer."

"Perfection: Once the momentum is formed, it is a guaranteed kill; even ghosts and gods will be slain."

Lin Fan was stunned: "That's it? Where is the mental cultivation method? Where is the formula? Even a video demonstration would have been fine!"

This was even more perfunctory than a nine-point-nine free shipping tutorial on Pinduoduo.

"Forget it, Comprehension Ability Lv17, deduce it for me!"

Lin Fan sat cross-legged and stared at the sketch. Under the blessing of his extraordinary Comprehension Ability, that originally static sketch began to move.

He saw the little figure holding the sword thousands of times, adjusting his breathing thousands of times, and concentrating his spirit and energy into the scabbard thousands of times.

"Gathering momentum... explosion... a line fast to the extreme..."

Lin Fan stood up, holding an E-grade combat sword, and struck the sword-drawing pose.

"Clang!"

The sword left the scabbard, a cold light flashed.

On the special steel plate standing in front of him for testing hardness, there was an extra shallow white mark.

"Too slow, the power is too scattered."

Lin Fan shook his head and sheathed the sword.

Again!

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

In the empty underground training room, only the monotonous and dull sound of drawing the sword remained.

Sweat slid down Lin Fan's cheeks, wetting his clothes and pooling on the floor. His web between thumb and index finger cracked, and blood stained the sword hilt.

At this moment, he forgot time, forgot pain, and saw only that steel plate in his eyes.

One thousand times.

Two thousand times.

Five thousand times.

Not until late at night, when the delivery drone sounded a notification at the door, did Lin Fan wake up from that obsessive state.

He looked at the steel plate in front of him, which had been hacked into a pockmarked mess, and gripped the sword hilt tightly.

His entire spirit and energy were highly concentrated at this moment, his breathing and heartbeat merged into one.

"Slash!"

Lin Fan pushed the sword with his thumb, his wrist turned.

A shrill blade light cut through the darkness.

There was no harsh metallic clashing sound, only a slight "chi" sound.

That special steel plate, which was two centimeters thick, had its upper half slide slowly, and then it fell to the ground with a "clang". The cut surface was smooth as a mirror!

Entry: Cut through steel!

"Done."

Lin Fan looked at the broken steel plate. Although his arm was so sore he could barely lift it, the sense of accomplishment made him feel refreshed all over.

For the next five days, Lin Fan completely entered closed-door cultivation mode.

When hungry, he ate high-energy nutrition bars; when sleepy, he slept for a few hours; when he woke up, it was crazy cultivation.

Ten second-grade crystal cores were swallowed by him completely.

That speed of burning money, if seen by outsiders, would definitely make them curse him as a prodigal son.

But the results were also amazing.

The evening of the fifth day.

Boom!

A muffled sound came from the basement.

Lin Fan was bare-chested, his blood and energy like a dragon, and a faint jade-like luster flowed on the surface of his skin.

Sixth-Grade Body Tempering Realm!

And it was a Sixth-Grade with an extremely solid foundation!

"Hoo..."

Lin Fan exhaled a breath of turbid air and casually grabbed the combat sword placed to the side. At this moment, a withered yellow leaf happened to drift down from the ventilation duct.

Lin Fan didn't even look, backhanding a strike.

The blade light flashed and passed, the leaf paused slightly in the air, and then it was neatly divided into two halves from the middle, each drifting down.

Small Success: Cut through fallen leaves!

He had even faintly touched the threshold of the Great Success realm!

"This 'Sword Drawing Art' is truly perverted. Combined with the Perfection-level 'Lightning Saber', it's like adding wings to a tiger."

Lin Fan sheathed the sword with satisfaction.

He glanced at the empty crystal core box, then at the balance that only had six hundred thousand left, and the murderous aura in his eyes began to diffuse.

"The money is spent, and the strength is enough."

"Next, it's time to restock."

Trial Wasteland, fifty kilometers deep.

This place was already outside the novice safe zone and was an active area for first-grade mid-to-high-level beasts. The wild grass was a person's height, and white beast bones could be seen everywhere.