Chapter 31: Innate Spells

"Golden Wind Saber Technique!"

Holding a fine iron sickle, Ning Feng actually swung it with such speed that it left afterimages, and even a saber qi emerged an inch ahead of the sickle's blade.

Only a Xiantian martial artist among mortals could achieve such mastery; it seemed Ning Feng's martial foundation was quite decent before he joined the immortal sect.

This sparked an idea in Lin Donglai: "I possess immense strength of a thousand catties, but I have no method to utilize it. However, if I can learn some of these mortal martial arts, I might have some means before I master offensive spells. For instance, lightness skills from martial arts would be quite useful."

However... watching Ning Feng perform his martial arts, although elegant, he was merely trading blows with this giant rat—which was suspected to be a demon beast. The sickle, even with its saber glow, only managed to graze the surface of the giant rat's flesh, stopped by its bones. Lin Donglai instantly felt it was underwhelming.

"Martial arts are, after all, just a minor path; they aren't even a hair compared to body cultivation. On Tengshe Peak, Old Man Ma, an outer sect deacon in charge of the Danmu Forest, is a body cultivator. When he was chopping trees before, I heard him say that tempering the physical body to a strength of ten thousand catties is the first level of Body Refinement, twenty thousand is the second level, and ninety thousand is the ninth level. If one can break through one hundred thousand catties of strength, it is equivalent to the Foundation Establishment realm, and innate physical divine abilities will arise naturally."

"Rather than delving into martial arts, I might as well study body refinement methods. In the future, even if I'm just chopping trees or forging iron to earn spirit stones, it will be easier than for others."

Just as he was thinking this, the giant rat seemed to notice Lin Donglai was distracted and began scurrying toward him.

Lin Donglai had a sudden flash of intuition. He gripped his fine iron hoe and swung it down in a single stroke—the exact soil-turning motion he had become incredibly proficient at during these past days.

With just this single move, the saber glow Ning Feng had produced with his Golden Wind Saber Technique couldn't even sever the rat's bones, yet this single hoe strike snapped them with a loud "crack."

Not only that, but the hoe strike also pierced into the internal organs. After a few twitches of its limbs, the giant rat breathed its last.

Ning Feng's eyes flickered: "Brother Lin, you are a man of hidden depths! Such great strength! And such a coincidental method of applying force!"

Lin Donglai felt the Spiritual Root Seed absorb the giant rat's life essence the moment it died to nourish himself. He replied, "Nothing special, just some farmhand tricks. Since this rat monster is dead, I shall head back."

"Brother Lin, don't be fooled by its ugly appearance; the fact that it can open its spiritual senses and cultivate means it holds some fortune. If we roast it and eat the meat, it will surely taste delicious!" Chen, who had been merely a bystander the whole time, expressed his profound excitement while inspecting the giant rat's corpse with a longing for gourmet food.

Lin Donglai had no interest in eating rat meat and shook his head. "Eat it if you want, no need to invite me."

Returning to his shack, Lin Donglai sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to observe his inner landscape.

Beside the Spiritual Root Seed, there was now an additional talisman seed that looked like a rat.

Without needing to think, the moment he saw it, he intuitively understood what kind of spell it was.

It was the innate spell awakened by the giant rat just now: Rat-Step Technique.

True to its name, it was a movement-type spell.

The Rat-Step Technique was an escape spell used by the rat race; it could explosively increase one's speed to several times the normal limit, allowing one to escape with its life.

"A new ability!"

What surprised Lin Donglai wasn't the seed absorbing the life essence of the killed rat—he had felt a similar, albeit much weaker, sensation when crushing insects while clearing land.

But the ability to obtain an innate spell by killing a demon beast was truly heaven-defying.

Lin Donglai carefully sensed the talisman seed and soon gained some comprehension.

First, this talisman seed could not exist indefinitely; it was merely a spell imprint that would slowly dissipate its divine intent. This dissipating intent would be absorbed by Lin Donglai's sea of consciousness, turning into nourishment for his soul.

Second, if fully comprehended, he could learn the spell.

Third, by actively activating this talisman seed, he could cast the spell directly, after which the seed would disappear.

Fourth, the leaves of the Spiritual Root Seed could carry spells that Lin Donglai had already learned. Once carried, he could cast the spell through the Spiritual Root Seed without consuming his own spiritual power.

Fifth, the talisman formed by the spell would become the veins of the leaf. As the Spiritual Root Seed grew, the leaves would become larger and their grade higher, gradually perfecting and even upgrading the spell.

"Though the name 'Rat-Step Technique' is unpleasant, it is an escape spell after all, making it very practical. It is worth studying."

"In the Hall of Merit, exchanging for a spell requires at least 10 merit points, which is 10 spirit stones. Rounding it off, it's like picking up spirit stones for free," Lin Donglai thought to himself.

Over the next three days, besides tending to the spiritual fields—pulling weeds and catching insects in a timely manner—and practicing the Renzi Water-Gathering Art, Lin Donglai spent his time comprehending this talisman seed.

However, the talisman seed grew more illusory day by day, until by the third day, it was almost invisible.

That said, the spell was not difficult; it could even be called simple. Lin Donglai reached the entry level on the first day.

He continued to study it for the next two days, aiming to reach the Small Success and even Great Success stages.

The principle of the Rat-Step Technique was actually to apply spiritual power to several acupoints on the feet. When activated, wind would naturally rise beneath the feet, causing a sudden burst of speed.

At the entry level, it could burst to twice the normal limit; Small Success allowed for four times, and Great Success allowed for eight times.

However, rats are naturally light and agile creatures that scurry on all fours; Lin Donglai couldn't exactly learn to scurry on all fours like a rat.

The sole benefit was that the spiritual power consumption was minimal; even someone at the first level of Qi Refinement could use it easily. It only required four wisps of spiritual power to burst over ten feet away in an instant, just like a rat.

The only drawback was that the extreme burst of speed placed a heavy burden on the bones and tendons of the legs. Without a physique as powerful as a demon beast, it would be difficult to use continuously.

Fortunately, Lin Donglai's Tendon-Changing and Marrow-Washing Stance was basically at Great Success. He had trained all his sinews and the twenty-four spiritual marrow bones capable of transformation; he had already transformed fifteen of them, two of which were the shin bones. Naturally, he wasn't afraid of the burden of an entry-level Rat-Step Technique.

Although he could immediately use the leaves of the seed to carry the spell after learning it, Lin Donglai was still reluctant to do so.

Currently, the Spiritual Root Seed only had two leaves in total, and they were only the size of spores.

But the main reason was that Lin Donglai felt a spell so easy to learn had too little value to be used on them.

His plan was to wait until he had learned the Sprout Germination Technique and the Sweet Dew Rain Incantation before using the two leaves to carry them. Only then could he maximize the value of the Spiritual Root Seed.

In any case, as a disciple of the Spiritual Plant Hall, he didn't need to take outer sect trial missions; he only needed to take farming missions.

As for learning offensive spells, Lin Donglai estimated he would need to reach at least the third level of Qi Refinement.

At that time, he would see if, after the successful construction of the Inner Landscape's blessed field and the rooting of the seed within it, more leaves would grow and provide extra space.

Even if there was space, he would have to be extremely selective, learning only suitable spells; he absolutely could not waste the positions.

Although the leaves had not yet grown, Lin Donglai was already counting them off on his fingers: one movement spell, one defensive spell, one offensive spell, one spiritual vision spell, one healing spell, one calming spell...

(End of Chapter)