Upon hearing Chen Ping’s words, Zhang Chen smiled triumphantly: "What a coincidence, I just happen to have mastered a Sealing Divine Technique, sealing that fellow for seven or eight days is not a problem."
"Brother, such good skills, you’ve kept me in the dark," Chen Ping responded with a bitter smile.
"Eat meat." Zhang Chen served Chen Ping a bowl of meat: "You never asked me, did you? Our family of five travels the Martial World and can live well; naturally, we have outstanding skills. It’s your fault for not expecting it, how could you blame me?"
The bitterness on Chen Ping’s lips grew, but he simply said: "Being alive is good! Being alive is good! I originally planned to return to Jinling to repay you, but seeing now, where do you need my repayment? In the future, I’ll need your protection instead."
As they spoke, Chen Ping ate all the stew and then looked at Zhang Chen: "Brother Zhang, let’s part ways here."
Zhang Chen was taken aback by these words: "You’re not coming back to Jinling with me?"
"I lost the escorted item; I need to find it." Chen Ping drained the last mouthful of soup, a sharp gleam in his eyes.
Concern flashed in Zhang Chen’s eyes; just as he was about to speak, Chen Ping said: "Good brother, you don’t need to worry about me. In the Pingbei Marquis’ territory, there’s my branch of Dragon Tiger Escort Agency. I’ll naturally have experts to support me at that time, but I can’t accompany you to Jinling. With your current skills, going to Jinling isn’t difficult, just remember to find me when you arrive, so I can fulfill my role as host."
"I certainly will remember." Zhang Chen nodded.
"I’m heading off now!" Chen Ping slowly stood up.
Zhang Chen did not persuade him further, knowing Chen Ping’s physical condition had mostly recovered after taking Xu Erniu’s refined elixir.
That was an elixir refined by Xu Erniu, hardly an ordinary item!
Chen Ping bid farewell and left, the young girl gently supporting him, the two disappeared into the darkness, leaving Zhang Chen gazing at the campfire, no longer needing to worry like when he was in Prince Pingbian’s territory where even lighting a campfire was feared.
The dark was filled with the calls of birds and the roars of unknown beasts in the night. Although it felt eerie, Zhang Chen felt incredibly at peace, no longer needing to worry about Demon Beasts lingering in the shadows.
Zhang Chen sat cross-legged before the campfire, tightening his skin of beasts, his gaze thoughtful, he then looked at his Golden Finger Interface:
[Skill 19 (Eighth Rank): A Particle of Sun True Flame Ashes (1,000,000,000/100,000,000)]
A drop of Emperor’s Liquid can be converted into 100,000 Sun Embers experience points, and ten drops of Emperor’s Liquid convert into 50,000 points. Zhang Chen could roughly absorb ten drops of Emperor’s Liquid a day. After several months, excluding rainy days, feeding royal jelly to the hornets, occasional time delays—after all, one cannot continuously absorb Great Sun Essence all day long—having half the time for absorbing Sun Essence was already fortunate.
Today, having just passed through Tiger Soul Pass, Zhang Chen’s experience points reached Perfection, converting to a billion experience points.
A million a day, calculating thus, upgrading this skill with Emperor’s Liquid as support wouldn’t take long.
From the start in the small Northern Land village to the current time, counting the delays along the journey, approximately over two hundred days, just enough to accumulate the points.
[Skill 19 (Eighth Rank): A Particle of Sun True Flame Ashes (1,000,000,000/100,000,000)]
[Status: Upgradeable]
Looking at the Golden Finger Interface, Zhang Chen didn’t hesitate and clicked: "Upgrade."
[Skill 19 (Ninth Rank): A Particle of Sun Charcoal (1,000,000,000/)]
A simple introduction, yet Zhang Chen’s eyes lit up, Sun Charcoal?
Charcoal is much better than ashes! They’re practically different states!
Although charcoal is the state of extinguished flames, adding fuel can easily rekindle it, and charcoal has a very high internal temperature. Though it doesn’t have the scattering might of flames, its internal temperature isn’t lower than flames, only hasn’t reached the ignition point. But it doesn’t fall far below the ignition point either.
"This is my first Ninth Rank skill, I wonder how powerful it is." Looking at the Golden Finger Interface, Zhang Chen was somewhat dazed. In this damned world, he finally gained a shred of self-preservation power, even faced with a Ninth Rank Yang God True Man, Zhang Chen wasn’t entirely a helpless ant scurrying on the ground.
"Not easy! If I had mastered this skill initially, I wouldn’t have been so miserable in the Northern Land." Zhang Chen sighed deeply, the voice filled with an inexplicable sentiment, telling a weariness beyond words.
Wrapping his tiger-skin coat tighter and putting more wood in the campfire, Zhang Chen turned and entered the scavenged tent: "Not practicing today, going to sleep soundly, consider it a celebration."
He felt delighted; at this current rate, in a few years, he might liver out his first Tenth Tier skill.
He spent two hundred days liverying a Ninth Rank skill, whereas stepping into the Tenth Tier of Sun Charcoal would require ten billion experience points, meaning if he persevered for another two thousand days, he might achieve a Tenth Tier skill.
Two thousand days are only seven or eight years!
Others still struggle in the Yang God realm for seven or eight years, and what about him?
He has already mastered Tenth Tier power, how could Zhang Chen not be excited?
"I’ll linger in Jiangnan for ten years, when I liver out a Tenth Tier skill, let’s see who dares to speak loudly to me." Zhang Chen thought happily, while he hadn’t tested the power of his Sun Charcoal, the potency was surely not weak.
"Reaching Tenth Tier, if nothing goes wrong, I should be able to liver out Sun True Flame." Zhang Chen speculated in his heart.
Regarding keeping watch?
Is there a need to keep watch?
With the Blood God Child’s clone present, there was no need for Zhang Chen to keep watch at night. In the past, Zhang Chen only kept watch to absorb more Sun and Moon Essence.
The Blood God Child transformed into a drop of blood, hiding outside the tent on the grass, hanging like a drop of crimson dew on the blades.
At dawn the next day, Zhang Chen had already climbed out of the tent and ran to an open space to absorb the Great Sun Purple Qi. His skill had now reached the Ninth Rank, a time when he was ambitious and full of energy.
Mrs. Zhang and others gradually woke up, and instead of directly making breakfast, they first practiced Martial Dao or Visualization Technique. Only after finishing cultivation did they prepare breakfast.
Today’s breakfast was still meat soup.
"Big brother, can we stop eating meat? We’ve been eating meat every day on this journey, and I’m about to throw up. Can we have some rice? Now that we’ve left Prince Pingbian’s territory, why not go to the town to exchange meat for some rice?" Zhang Fei complained, drinking meat soup, finding it hard to endure.
"We are vagabonds, not allowed in towns, so where can we exchange for rice?" Zhang Chen replied irritably.
The term vagabond here refers to someone without a fixed residence or official job.
This is how the world defines the term vagabond.
"We can exchange a bit in the nearby village," Mrs. Zhang rarely interjected, indicating she too was tired of meat.
Looking at the stew in his hand, Zhang Chen felt disgusted; after all, eating meat every day is unbearable for anyone.
"We’ll see as we go!" Zhang Chen said helplessly.
He knew those villages were extremely xenophobic, and with the slightest mistake, they’d report you to the authorities.
In every place, for stability, the crackdown on vagabonds is especially severe.
Vagabonds are best at committing crimes and are the most unstable element. Once caught by the government, they are branded as slaves, with no hope of redemption.
The person reporting them would receive a large reward from selling slaves, a way to get rich and an effective management system in ancient times.
After having breakfast, the family drove off in their carriage. Half a day later, Zhang Chen encountered another problem: "No sense of direction!"
The path to the south was easy to find; just keep heading south. But finding Jinling without taking wrong turns was extremely difficult.
As for asking someone for directions?
The common people of this era seldom visited even their county towns, let alone knew about Jinling a thousand miles away.
Thus, during a noon break, Zhang Chen stood under the sun absorbing Great Sun Essence, with a puzzled look: "I need a guide now."
Meanwhile, the other migrating folks heading south had no specific destinations; they were just swarming southward, aiming only to reach Jiangnan Water Village, not knowing which city in Jiangnan.
"It’s a tough situation!" Zhang Chen fondly remembered the satellite maps from his past life.
"Are you facing a problem?" Mrs. Zhang saw Zhang Chen standing under the sun with a troubled expression, put down her spoon, and walked over to inquire.
"I’m lost, and don’t know the way south to Jinling." Zhang Chen replied bitterly.
Mrs. Zhang was taken aback, responding after a moment: "You’ll need to find a guide for this."
"Where can I find a guide?" Zhang Chen asked.
"Escort Masters who walk the land or local merchants should know the routes north and south; perhaps they can point us in the right direction," Mrs. Zhang suggested.
Zhang Chen scratched his head, his pockets empty, having no money to hire someone for guidance.
"It’d be great to have a map." Zhang Chen murmured to himself.
If there was a map, he could roughly follow it and seek direction.
"I need to enter the city tomorrow and purchase a map to Jinling." Zhang Chen decided.
Regarding his vagabond problem?
It’s not a concern! With his Escape Technique, who could catch him? Who would have the skill to trace his origins?
Silently plotting, Zhang Chen continued on his journey after lunch.
As for money matters? It’s not a big issue; I just need to find some prey and sell them for Silver Coins.
Regarding theft, Zhang Chen disdained to do so, not aligning with his Dao.
This time assisting folks across Tiger Soul Pass, Zhang Chen became aware of the changes in his mindset, sensing the mysteries of ’Practice’ and ’Witnessing Dao.’
He already attained Enlightenment; once True Yang is birthed, next comes continuous practice, upholding his inherent path, ensuring his True Yang remains untainted.