Chapter 320: Shou Messes with Spirit Array

Duo Ling Inn.

This was the name of the next inn that Xu Xiaoshou found after Duo Jin Inn.

The place had a beautiful environment, attentive service, and an incredibly sturdy protective barrier. In terms of actual quality, it was about the same as Duo Jin Inn, but it probably benefited from better feng shui. Over the past few days, there had been some minor tremors here and there, but thankfully, no major explosions had occurred.

Buzz—

The protective barrier on one of the second-floor VIP rooms trembled again, startling the uneasy attendant downstairs into jumping up. But once he realized nothing else was happening, he settled back down. Still, it felt like sitting on pins and needles.

“When exactly will this Xu surname guest leave...”

The attendant was deeply troubled.

Seven days ago, he had welcomed a wealthy man and woman who directly booked two top-tier suites. They had stayed peacefully for two days, went out for a trip, and everything changed when they returned.

The young woman's room was fine—just like any normal person's.

But that man...

What a disaster!

The protective barrier in his room was nearly blasted three or four times every hour. Who knew how one person alone in there could cause such a racket? And he never even called anyone in...

The attendant was extremely annoyed. After the most intense explosion, the barrier almost shattered, and even neighbors complained. But the guy was loaded.

With a simple “It's fine, I'll pay for it,” he killed any thought of kicking him out.

These intermittent explosions over the past five days had the attendant wondering if this kid was somehow connected to the earlier Dan Ta blast.

After all, timing-wise, it matched perfectly.

They went out, and then Dan Ta exploded.

That incident was still the talk of the town, with everyone buzzing about it!

The attendant propped up his face with his hands, pondering when this force of destruction might leave, while secretly hoping this god of wealth would stick around a bit longer.

“Ah, if it weren't for making a living, who would want to be so torn...”

He sighed, then suddenly noticed three young swordsmen entering through the door, and his eyes lit up.

“Hey,”

“This way, gentlemen.”

In the room,

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes were bloodshot as he stared intently at the two palm-sized array disks in his hand, a carving knife gripped tightly.

He was sprawled unceremoniously on the floor, surrounded by a mess of shattered array disks, with a scorched smell lingering in the air.

Nearby, within easy reach, lay a thick, well-worn ancient book.

It was stacked up, its cover bearing large characters:

“Ling Zhen Ji Chu: Cong Ru Men Dao Jing Tong (Li Qi).”

Yes, Xu Xiaoshou had developed an interest in the way of ling zhen.

Strictly speaking, this interest had sparked seven days earlier.

That's when he saw the terrifying array disk in killer Li Qi's ring and came up with a once-and-for-all battle strategy.

It was so typically Xu Xiaoshou!

Just prepare the array disks in advance, and in a fight, hurl them all at once—who could withstand that?

As for ling zhen being even more spirit crystal-draining than ling dan?

Heh.

The day Xu Xiaoshou got his alchemy master badge, he sold off his various ill-gotten gains at a fair price and directly obtained a “Zhi Zun Jin Ka” from Duo Jin Merchant House.

Holders of that card were worth at least several million!

Was several million spirit crystals a lot?

Not really, if you thought about it.

Just Xiao Shiliu's ring alone was worth over a million.

That guy didn't mess with any side professions; he was a traditional ling refinement master.

As a killer, his ring contained almost every category of ling techniques under the sun—how he got them goes without saying.

There were innate ones, master-level ones, and Xu Xiaoshou even spotted a throne-level assassination ling technique.

That technique alone, if auctioned, might fetch more than a million spirit crystals.

Xu Xiaoshou didn't have the energy to deal with all that nonsense; he left it all to Duo Jin Merchant House to handle. After all, for him, Xu Xiaoshou...

He didn't need any of it!

Selling that ring turned him from a ten-thousand spirit crystal rich man into a millionaire overnight.

Zhang Xin Xiong's ring, by comparison, wasn't worth much.

A guy with a family backing him wouldn't carry that many ling techniques around.

His skills and resources were all with the Zhang family.

That ring wouldn't fetch much, and the same went for Li Qi's.

The valuable stuff was all in Xu Xiaoshou's hands.

“Ling zhen...”

It was an incredibly expensive profession, and truthfully, it cost more than ling dan.

Alchemy required herbs and skill—you could learn the skill, and herbs could be gathered, with ten-year or hundred-year ones usually sufficing.

Truly rare thousand-year or ten-thousand-year herbs were priceless.

But ling zhen was different.

Even for the most basic array disks, you needed “Qing Ming Yan Gang.”

This rock gang was extremely precious; you couldn't mine it without at least a ten-thousand-year-old vein.

It had the ability to gather spiritual energy and seal ling patterns.

It was the ideal material for making array disks.

Of course, something that could seal spiritual energy was incredibly tough, but if it exploded, the power wouldn't be any less than a regular furnace blast.

Boom!

An explosion erupted on the spot, blackening Xu Xiaoshou's face.

The fragments hit him but embedded into the floor from the shock.

Blocked by his face, the blast wave spread outward, slamming fiercely into the walls.

Instantly, the room's barrier flickered again.

“Dammit, without ‘Ling Zhen Jing Tong,’ there's no way I can carve even a tenth-grade ling zhen with my current skills!”

Xu Xiaoshou grumbled as he set down the carving knife, stood up, and cracked his knuckles with a series of pops.

He wasn't learning ling zhen just for fun.

And it wasn't because he'd suddenly lost his lazy streak and wanted to strive on his own.

Mainly...

“The ‘Cooking Proficiency’ appeared during alchemy, so that crappy system probably only gives a new path once it senses I'm heading that way...”

“Ling zhen...”

Xu Xiaoshou muttered to himself. He'd never touched this before, or if he had, it was just blowing some up.

Relying solely on the system's random draw for “Ling Zhen Jing Tong” was way too hard—he hadn't gotten it last time, just ended up with “Toughness.”

So, he needed to give it some external push!

Once he got his foot in the door, even just halfway, and the system noticed, it might spit out a “Ling Zhen Jing Tong.”

Then, he could just level it up and be done with this mess.

Xu Xiaoshou looked at the array disk fragments on the floor and felt a headache coming on.

“Even a simple ‘Small Gathering Array’ is this tough—if I want to make one that can seal ‘Great Fireball Technique,’ who'd know how long it'd take on my own? It might be monkey years from now!”

He flopped back onto the big bed, and suddenly, a surge of foreboding hit him, making his body shudder.

“Again?”

Xu Xiaoshou frowned. This was the eighteenth time in the past five days.

The “Perception” skill's death warning function had already proven reliable in previous fights.

But back then, it was sneezing.

This time...

Xu Xiaoshou clutched his chest, his expression darkening.

“Who wants to kill me?”

He glanced at the info panel, and sure enough, for the eighteenth time, it displayed:

“Under surveillance, passive value: 1.”