Terran Guardian

From Shen Changqing's past experiences in upgrading, the cost of the upgrade would only increase when it was fully mastered, or when breaking past the limits.

Before that, the cost was maintained at an average level.

That was to say, until Shen Changqing reached Level 15 of the [Impregnable Golden Body], the upgrade cost would stay the same.

For scale, Level 5 of the [Impregnable Golden Body] was already stronger than Level 20 of the [Thirteen Cross Practice]. Level 6 completely surpasses the latter.

Although the fusion cost Shen Changqing 20 points now, in the long run, his upgrades would be cheaper.

"The cost of upgrading the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi] is only 8 points when it broke through its limit."

"Meaning, the level of this Martial Art has already surpassed the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi]!"

After spending some time looking at the panel, Shen Changqing gained a lot of insights.

The most intuitive way to determine the level of a Martial Art was to see how much Killing Value it costs to upgrade.

The [Impregnable Golden Body] consumed a lot, so it was naturally much higher-leveled than the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi].

Shen Changqing silently felt the surging Qi and blood in his body.

He then shifted his attention to the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi].

The [Impregnable Golden Body] was strong, but Internal Strength was still the main thing. Unfortunately, from the current situation, it seemed that he had no way of integrating Internal Strength into it.

However, as long as he had Killing Value, it not being integrated with Internal Strength wouldn't have too big of an impact.

He'll just use Killing Value to upgrade it.

"Only by understanding True Intent, can one enter the Grandmaster Realm. So if I upgrade the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi] in the future, will I only be able to increase the total amount of True Qi? Or is it possible that I could comprehend True Intent through it as well?"

This thought came to Shen Changqing's mind.

There was no rule that True Intent cannot be comprehended from Internal Strength.

It's just that...

Shen Changqing wasn't sure if he would be able to comprehend True Intent when the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi] was raised to a higher level.

Dispelling the miscellaneous thoughts, Shen Changqing began the next round of upgrades.

Killing Value was consumed...

The [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi] leveled up to Level 14.

Shen Changqing's Qi and blood was frantically depleted, transforming the liquefied True Qi in his dantian.

With such a depletion, even with the Level 6 [Impregnable Golden Body], Shen Changqing was still a little overwhelmed.

In the end, he had to grab a bottle of Qi and Blood Pills, devouring it.

One Qi and Blood Pill could replenish all of the Qi and blood of a Cultivator in the Body Forging Realm.

If it were an ordinary person, naturally, they would not dare to eat this pill indiscriminately.

But for Shen Changqing, the eight Qi and Blood Pills only filled a part of his depleted Qi and blood.

Soon, he grabbed another bottle of Qi and Blood Pills.

After a long time, the movement gradually subsided.

At this time, Shen Changqing exhaled heavily.

"It's over!"

Raising the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi] to Level 14 consumed much more than he thought.

Even with a higher level of the [Impregnable Golden Body], Level 6, it was still not able to fully balance the consumption.

If he was still using the [Thirteen Cross Practice], then he would have to at least upgrade it by two levels to achieve the same effect.

"I bought 42 bottles of Qi and Blood Pills, a total of 96 pills, and I have already consumed 20..." [T/N: Important note after the chapter about this paragraph]

"I need to balance this consumption by upgrading my External Martial Art. I would need to upgrade several levels of the External Martial Art in order to upgrade one level of my Internal Martial Art."

"But that would consume more Killing Value, and the strength that can be improved is much less."

Shen Changqing frowned.

The strength that can be improved by upgrading his External Martial Art was not much, and far less than the growth of his Internal Martial Art.

Feeling that his body was still in a deficit, Shen Changqing ate a few Satiety Pills instead of continuing to eat Qi and Blood Pills. He then used True Qi to help turn the energy of the pills into Qi and blood.

Soon, Shen Changqing was able to compare the difference.

"A bottle of Satiety Pill is not comparable to a Qi and Blood Pill. There is also a certain time interval required for grinding and transforming the former into Qi and blood. Unlike the Qi and Blood Pills, that would turn into Qi and blood directly."

"During a breakthrough in the Internal Martial Art, Satiety Pills wouldn't be able to offset the consumption in time."

"On the other end--"

"In the External Martial Art breakthrough, Satiety Pills would suffice in offsetting the consumption."

The effect of the two pills was the same as Shen Changqing had expected.

It's just that the Qi and Blood Pill was mainly used for Internal Martial Arts, replenishing the consumption of Qi and blood. While the Satiety Pill was mainly used for External Martial Arts.

Of course, if Shen Changqing just had a deficit of Qi and blood, he could also use the Satiety Pills. But if he's using Killing Value to break through, he has to use Qi and Blood Pills.

"I'll just use Satiety Pills during normal Cultivation, then only use Qi and Blood Pills for when I use Killing Value. After all, a bottle of Qi and Blood Pills costs 40 taels of silver. Even though I still have more than 20,000 taels left, I can't just squander it."

Shen Changqing calculated his miscellaneous expenses, plus the 1,000 taels of silver he used to purchase the pills and then subtracted it from his savings of 30,000 taels.

Now, he had 28,000 taels left.

"Sure enough, there is some truth to ‘literature is for the poor and Martial Arts is for the rich'. This high expense is not something ordinary people can afford."

Shen Changqing shook his head.

He then pulled out his old sword and sliced his palm again. Now, there was only a cold touch, and there was no small wound like last time.

The upgrade of the [Impregnable Golden Body] increased his defense to a new level.

However, he dare not use the Cold Moon Sword to try.

After all, it was a very sharp sword. There was no way for the Level 6 [Impregnable Golden Body] to resist.

He'll wait until he completed the [Impregnable Golden Body], then Shen Changqing would try it.

"Level 12 of the [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi allowed me to cross into the Outer Astral Innate Realm. Level 13 is almost at the peak..."

"So now that I've reached Level 14, I'm officially at the Peak of the Innate Realm."

"I don't know if it is possible to break the barrier of Innate Realm and reach the Grandmaster Realm..."

With the Level 14 [Heavenly Martial Astral Qi], he could be sure that he was at the Peak of the Innate Realm.

After all, Level 12 was the Outer Astral Innate Realm.

After upgrading two more levels, the concentration of True Qi in his dantian was much stronger than Level 12.

It was probably an understatement to say that he was at the Peak of Innate Realm.

If it wasn't for the fact that he hadn't realized True Intent, Shen Changqing suspected that he could already be comparable to a Grandmaster.

"I'm still a bit short away from the Grandmaster Realm, but I don't think I will have any problem facing ordinary Innate Realm Cultivators."

"Unfortunately, I only have 7 points left and can't upgrade further."

---

After the upgrades, Shen Changqing left his courtyard and went to the Library.

The purpose of his visit to the Library was not for Martial Arts.

Perfecting the Martial Arts one already had was better than having more.

As for the fusion of Martial Arts, he currently doesn't have much Killing Value nor did he have the intention to do so.

Instead, he was here to research information about Mo Zijin.

Shen Changqing had seen many demons and monsters, but he had never seen such a strange existence as Mo Zijin.

Entering the Library, he did not go to the second floor, but stayed on the first floor.

The second floor was filled with Martial Arts, while the first floor had Martial Arts, along with various records about demons and monsters.

Looking through the memories in his mind, Shen Changqing walked to a bookshelf and then picked up a book.

Turning the page, he saw the contents of the book.

"In the Year 132 of the Great Qin, there was an Evil Calamity in the Guangyuan Province, and the Demon Suppression Division sent experts to suppress it."

"In the battle, seven Guardians died, along with countless Slayers."

"The demons destroyed 21 cities, and countless people died in their hands. Later, the Demon Suppression Division, despite the casualties, either killed the demons and monsters, or expelled them to solve the crisis in Guangyuan."

"In that battle, many people died. The corpses piled up into mountains, which eventually bred a plague that infected a large number of people."

"The plague lasted for four years and was only eliminated when the last person infected with the plague died in the Year 136 of the Great Qin."

"According to statistics, in four years, the number of people in Guangyuan Province that were killed and injured reached nearly ten million, of which, millions died in the plague, while the rest died by the hands of demons."

Looking at the text, Shen Changqing could imagine how devastating it was.

He does not know much about the population of the Great Qin, but the death and injury of nearly ten million people was definitely a big dent.

"Long ago..."

Shen Changqing inadvertently turned the page to this. After taking a glance, he only understood part of the content.

It was only after reading it again did he understand the whole text.

Unfortunately, he still couldn't find any info on Mo Zijin.

Putting the book back, Shen Changqing continued to look through other books.

---

The next three days, Shen Changqing stayed in the Library, constantly flipping through the books, to expand his knowledge of demons and monsters, as well as filling in the gaps of his basic knowledge.

However, there was nothing about Mo Zijin, or similar demons or monsters recorded.

"Since books are not reliable, I can only ask Jiang Fu..."

Shen Changqing put down the book in his hand, stood up and looked at the spacious first floor. He was helpless.

The Library was too big and had countless books stored.

It was undoubtedly a difficult thing for Shen Changqing to find what he specifically wanted by himself.

The past three days allowed Shen Changqing to realize and give up his intention to solve his own puzzles.

Leaving the Library, he went back to the Yellow Court and knocked on the Steward's door.

[Tuk Tuk~]!

Soon, the door opened.

When Jiang Fu saw who the visitor was, he turned straight back.

"Come in first, then we'll talk!"

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[T/N: this is confusing so bear with me. In the raws in the previous chapter, Shen Changqing ordered 20 Qi and Blood Pills and 100 Satiety Pills, totalling to 960 taels of silver. He gave the deacon 1,000 taels, then bought an additional Qi and Blood Pill bottle to make the whole purchase total as 1,000. However, when Shen Changqing left the store and recounted his purchases, the author suddenly changed 21 to 42. Naturally, I corrected it since it doesn't make sense price-wise. But now, the author's using 42 again and he even changed how many pills were inside one bottle. To make sense of this, I'll just follow the author. My guess as to why this is, is that the author probably updated/changed the raws, but the website I got the raw from didn't update their copy, hence this confusing situation. Or I could just be dead wrong from the very beginning.]