A World Worth Protecting

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

After leaving a legend in the Combat faculty, Wang Baole returned to his cave abode in the Dharmic Armament faculty. He sat on the veranda in satisfaction as he looked at the beautiful blue sky. He felt good as he picked up a bag of snacks and began chomping on its contents.

I’m already so thin; I need some nourishment. Wang Baole sighed as he caressed his tiny fat face and his bulging belly. Although his weight-loss plan had ultimately allowed him to lose all the spirit fat, he still was in the shape of a fatty. However, Wang Baole was already satisfied with this outcome.

“Those Grandpa Fatties are unlikely to catch me now.” Wang Baole chuckled as he felt the mighty Blood Qi in him. As he reeled in his delight, he took out another bag of snacks and began eating.

Only when dusk fell did Wang Baole fill himself with snacks. He ignored the tiny pile of empty snack wrappers on the veranda and returned to his cave abode to begin refining Spirit Stones.

With his prior experience, he soon managed to gather the surrounding Spirit Qi through the circulation of the Great Void Qi Devouring Art. After he sucked the Spirit Qi, he condensed it in his right hand and finally formed a chestnut-shaped Spirit Stone!

This Spirit Stone was not especially crystalline but was still rather translucent. It felt like a valuable treasure in hand, making Wang Baole grin from both ends.

A purity of 75%. I need to work harder and quickly achieve a purity of more than 90%. In Wang Baole’s excitement, he turned passionate just from the thought of the position and power the position of Head Prefect entailed. He hurriedly cultivated.

Seven days quickly passed.

In those seven days, Wang Baole would occasionally attend classes in Spirit Stones Hall and not be as diligent as before. However, he still spent most of his time cultivating the Great Void Qi Devouring Art until he discovered a problem.

After the Spirit Stones’ purity reached 75%, it was very difficult to make any progress. It was as though he had met a bottleneck, and no amount of hard work seemed to rectify the problem.

This made Wang Baole anxious. After several days of attempts with no progress, he patted his stomach vexingly. He took out the black mask and grumbled.

Did I cultivate wrong? Did I not discover something due to the blurry text? With that thought, Wang Baole felt that he was out of solutions. He took out the Hallucination Pillow and entered the Hallucination realm again.

It was still the ice plain with snow fluttering and biting cold wind. Wang Baole was not in the mood to experience the pleasant cold feeling as he hurriedly looked at the blurry mask in his hand.

Moments later, he saw the words again. After careful perusal, he finally determined that he had not made any mistakes in his cultivation.

Odd… There’s no mistake, but why am I stuck at 75%? Wang Baole was feeling even more depressed as he sighed after grumbling. Just as he was about to leave the Hallucination realm to think of other solutions, the black mask seemed to hear his words and began warping rapidly.

This scene shocked Wang Baole as he looked over. He was astonished to discover that the Great Void Qi Devouring Art was gone. Replacing it were new words.

And those words actually gave him the answer to solving the problem of the Spirit Stones’ purity!

Such a scene astounded Wang Baole. He rubbed his eyes and glared at the mask, roaring, “Come out. Who’s in there? I see you. Come on out!”

With that said, Wang Baole braced himself and stared intently at the mask. However, the mask remained unchanged. Finally, Wang Baole looked suspiciously at the words that had appeared as his eyes gradually lit up.

Cleansing Pill…

The words on the mask told Wang Baole clearly that to obtain higher-purity Spirit Stones, he needed pills known as Cleansing Pills. Only such a pill could selectively remove the impurities in his body, allowing Spirit Qi to flow unobstructed in his body. As such, he could raise the purity.

Wang Baole fell into a dilemma when he saw this. He was intrigued by the solution, but he also found the mask strange. He remained hesitant even when he left the Hallucination realm. After logging into the Spirit Intranet, he began investigating what Cleansing Pills were.

Not long later, he found an introduction to Cleansing Pills on the school’s Spirit Intranet. The pill was harmless to people and had excellent effects. It could cleanse a person’s body of impurities, causing Ancient Martial realm warriors to be agiler.

However, the pill was extremely expensive, and the difficulty of refining it was extremely high. It was not something ordinary Alchemy faculty students could refine. Only the Alchemy faculty Head Prefect might be able to luckily refine one. Typically, he would eat it for himself.

As the herbal ingredients used were precious, even a Head Prefect would bemoan at his financial inadequacies. Only an Alchemy faculty teacher could refine one at great cost.

Basically, such Cleansing Pills were pretty much priceless in all of Ethereal Dao College’s Lower Academy.

Upon seeing the Cleansing Pill’s introduction, Wang Baole no longer hesitated. He felt that even if the mask was odd, the pill was still something beneficial to him. He was immediately overcome with burning passion.

In the following days, apart from classes and cultivation, he spent nearly all his time investigating the pill. He even contacted Bunny and Du Min, who had entered the Alchemy faculty. He got them to help him seek out information, but their search turned up nothing as well. He was left at a loss.

After all, the pill was rare and valuable. Even if someone wanted to sell it, it was not something ordinary students like Bunny or Du Min would learn of. Although Wang Baole was a specially-recruited student, he had not yet been at the school for even a year. It was still difficult for him to come into contact with things of that level.

Hard work paid off eventually. Bunny placed great emphasis on Wang Baole’s request. She kept feeling that Wang Baole had saved her life. Even though she had learned the truth about the test, she could never forget Wang Baole’s bloody figure just like Liu Daobin.

Therefore, she handled Wang Baole’s matter with great seriousness. Furthermore, with her sweet and adorable looks, coupled with her bubbly character, she managed to learn of something a month later.

“Baole! There’s an auction in half a month’s time in Ethereal City. They will be selling one Cleansing Pill there!”

When Wang Baole received Bunny’s voice transmission, he immediately turned excited and kissed his transmission ring.

“Xiaoya, I love you!”

Inside the Alchemy faculty’s dormitories, Bunny was sitting on her bed. When she heard Wang Baole’s kissing sound from the voice transmission ring, she blushed instantly. Du Min, who was opposite her, looked over suspiciously.

“Xiaoya, what’s the matter with you?”

“No… Nothing…” Bunny immediately lowered her head, her heart pounding. While feeling embarrassed, she had strange, indescribable thoughts.

As for Wang Baole, he circled his cave abode in excitement, pumping his fists into the air at times. His eyes were filled with excitement and eagerness.

The auction requires Spirit Stones, but they are too easy for me. Spirit Stones with 75% purity are worth a lot. Most importantly, I don’t need any capital. Wang Baole laughed out loud. He felt like the Cleansing Pill was already his. This was because he had accumulated quite a number of Spirit Stones from his prior refinements.

And he did not require a lot of Spirit Stones; they were basically unnecessary to him. Even if he used all of them in exchange for Cleansing Pills, he would not flinch at all.

However, I can’t be careless. The high officials’ autobiographies have mentioned that one should never underestimate one’s enemy. With this thought in mind, Wang Baole immediately decided to refine more Spirit Stones in the remaining half month.

Therefore, in the next half month, Wang Baole spent most of his time refining Spirit Stones. Time passed, and the day of the auction came. That morning, Wang Baole walked out his cave abode brimming with spirit.

The Green Forest Lake, where Ethereal Dao College stood, was on the eastern outskirts of Ethereal City. Ethereal Dao College’s students were usually not restricted from entering the city. Although it was Wang Baole’s first time heading there, he was no stranger to it. He took a boat, and after reaching the lake bank, he ran straight for Ethereal City.

He soon arrived and compared to his hometown—Phoenix City—Ethereal City was way bigger. It was more than a hundred times bigger than Phoenix City. After all, Phoenix City was only one of the countless tiny cities in the Federation. As for Ethereal City, it was one of the seventeen main cities of the Federation!

Outside the city, there were giant walls that resembled metal plates. They were lined with countless sharp spikes that twinkled. When the sunlight bounced off them, they exuded a stern feeling of death.

Apart from that, there was a massive array formation surrounding it. It was only activated at normal strength and not pushed to its limits. Even so, it was still able to effused a stunning feeling that enveloped the region.

From afar, one could see many pagodas towering over the city walls. Each one of them had a giant spinning ball at the top, intermittently releasing lightning out of it. It contained terrifying force and seemed like it could handle all enemies in the sky.

All of this was a result of the ancient greenish-bronze sword that had come from the cosmos. After it penetrated the Sun, its hilt had shattered into fragments that landed on Earth, its fragments spreading across the globe. Many of the factions of yesteryear had searched and gained control of them. Cultivation techniques had begun forming different schools of thoughts. Like a bed of flowers blooming across the land, it had changed the situation across the entire Federation.

Although the main body of power was the Federation, it was comprised of four major factions. Many tinier factions had dependent relations with them. If not for the beast war early in the Spirit Inception era, the Federation might have dissolved long ago.

And it was due to the beast war that, despite the Federation appearing peaceful, there was some friction between large and small factions occasionally. However, they only kept each other in check to certain limits. There was just no large-scale conflict.

After all, the beast war of yesteryear had been a calamity for all humans in the Federation. The Federation had faced the risk of extinction simply because of the sudden appearance of Spirit Qi.

The appearance of Spirit Qi had not only given humans the opportunity to cultivate; it had also included wild beasts and vegetation. The rich Spirit Qi had caused a large number of wild beasts, vegetation, and avian creatures to mutate. Some far exceeded humans, making them extremely powerful.

The beast war had been a result of that.

Although that battle had ended with the Federation gaining a stronghold in the cities, be it the desolate wilderness or the ocean, all of them were where the land and flying beasts ruled.

Therefore, cities needed strong defenses. In addition, due to the dangers that lurked outside the city walls, most people lived their entire lives in the cities. Venturing out had to be done with others or with specially hired combat cultivation escorts.

Just like how Wang Baole and the students had traveled to the Dao College.

At that moment, Wang Baole stood outside Ethereal City as he took in the lofty city. He took a deep breath, looked up, and puffed his chest before walking in.