Chapter 49: Oculus Talisman
When the group arrived at the legion camp, it was already evening.
Each disciple found an empty tent to settle in to wait for instructions from the legion commander.
"What do you think?" Jiang Yue asked.
Yu Nianzhen was silent for a moment before he spoke, "We still don’t know how contribution points will be calculated."
After earning zero contribution points in the past five years, Yu Nianzhen was very concerned.
He had already comprehended the ten arts he had previously redeemed, and he needed points to exchange for more.
Other than that, he needed to earn enough points to earn a place to enter the thousand herbs garden.
Although he could enter without a token, his master was already planning to earn spirit stones.
If Yu Nianzhen failed to meet his master’s expectations, he had a feeling that his life would take a turn for the worse.
When he thought about the red robe he was forced to wear, he didn’t dare to take risks. He was afraid that his master would force him to dye his hair red to match his robe.
"We can inquire tomorrow."
Jiang Yue knew Yu Nianzhen’s worries and was tempted to tease him.
However, he also had the same worries.
Now that he was familiar with master Yang, he was worried that the master would be indiscriminate and punish him along with Yu Nianzhen.
"Good." Yu Nianzhen answered.
After that, the two settled across from each other to cultivate.
Yu Nianzhen sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
His consciousness sunk into his dantian and faced a sword that was floating above his qi ocean.
’What am I missing?’ He wondered as he looked at the black sword.
In the first year of seclusion, Yu Nianzhen did nothing but practice the one hundred and eight sword variations.
At first, he could only swing his sword a hundred times in a day.
However, this number increased as he became more familiar with the sword variations. By the end of the first year, he would swing his sword at least ten thousand times in a day.
Because of this tireless practice, he soon realised that each sword variation contained a sword essence.
The sword essence wasn’t a tangible thing, but a mysterious feeling that was hidden in each sword variation.
Yu Nianzhen had a vague understanding of this mysterious feeling, but the more he practised, the more he felt that the meaning was endless.
He realised that a sword art was formed by a combination of sword essence.
However, he could practice a sword art and even recognise the sword essence contained within, but he couldn’t figure out how the sword essence was combined to form the sword art.
In fact, this knowledge wasn’t necessary to practice a sword art and didn’t hinder him in any way.
However, Yu Nianzhen had a feeling that something would change if he could figure it out.
He felt that figuring it out was the key to evolving his swordship.
Because of this, he had spent a long time trying to figure it out, but everything was in vain.
His basic sword moves were practised to perfection, but he hadn’t made any progress on the problem.
At this time, he stared at his sword origin, but nothing had changed.
His mind was still filled with fog, and no ideas came to mind.
’Maybe the time is not right.’ He sighed in resignation and forced his thoughts to stop.
After his mind calmed down, he once again looked at his origin sword.
When he broke through, his origin sword was only the size of dust.
With every breakthrough, it would grow by one centimetre, and it was currently five centimetres long.
’Since my swordsmanship is at a bottleneck, I should increase my cultivation base.’
.....
On the other side of the room, Jiang Yue’s consciousness had also sunk into his dantian.
Above his qi ocean was a cloudy moon pearl.
The moon pearl was nine centimetres at the widest part and white light radiated from its centre.
’I need to make a decision soon.’ He thought.
Jiang Yue was at the ninth level of the origin forging realm and only needed to accumulate a little more to reach the peak.
If he was lucky to find some appropriate herbs in the thousand herbs garden, he would break through to the qi transformation realm before he was twenty.
However, Jiang Yue wasn’t too excited about that!
When breaking through to the qi transformation realm, a cultivator needed a trigger.
This trigger was something related to their origin.
Since his master had an illusion origin and could give a strand of qi, Jiang Yue wasn’t worried about not having a trigger.
However, his cultivation technique required a blue monarch butterfly as the trigger.
Blue monarch butterflies were a kind of mutated monarch butterfly that was often born in a colony.
However, blue monarch butterflies had a very short lifespan, and finding them was a matter of luck.
This, however, was not the main problem.
The main issue was that the bite of a blue monarch butterfly was fatal!
Because of this, Jiang Yue was very conflicted.
Although he suspected that the technique had a way to prevent death when the butterfly bit him, he was a little hesitant about taking such a risk.
After thinking about it for a long time, Jiang Yue couldn’t come up with a solution.
’I will talk to Nianzhen about it.’ He thought and put the matter aside.
For now, he still needed to accumulate and solidify his cultivation.
.....
At dawn, two people opened their eyes.
They sat across from each other and noticed each other at about the same time.
"You should be able to break through to the sixth level of the origin forging realm in less than a month." Jiang Yue commented as he looked at the other.
"I should if nothing happens in the meantime."
"That’s true. If the sea beasts invade before then, it will be difficult to find a spare moment to cultivate."
The two talked for a while and then left their tent to look around the camp. Because their tent was near the edge, they walked towards the centre.
They had just walked a few metres when they saw a group of five standing outside a large tent.
The five were standing in a circle and seemed to be joking with each other.
Yu Nianzhen and Jiang Yue hesitated for a moment and then walked toward the group.
"Do the sect brothers need something?" One of the five asked.
The speaker was a woman who was in the third level of the origin forging realm.
When travelling to the camp, the disciples learned a little more about the Sea Cloud sect army.
Originally, the members were also disciples of the Sea Cloud Sect.
Most of them were odd job disciples who couldn’t be promoted to proper disciples or proper disciples that were demoted for one reason or another.
Rather than becoming servants, those disciples chose to join the Sea Cloud sect army as soldiers.
Although the risk was higher, the benefits were better than being a servant.
"If the seniors don’t mind, these junior brothers have a few questions." The five looked at each other and then looked at the two.
"Please ask."
Jiang Yue took a moment to arrange his thoughts before he spoke.
"We were wondering about the war...?"
He didn’t ask a clear question because he wanted as much information as he could get.
"When the sea beasts invade, everyone will move out and fight the sea beasts just beyond the island’s array." The woman answered.
"The sect disciples will act alone, and the army will use formations to fight."
Sect disciples were generally stronger than the cultivators in the army.
This was because they had better weapons and martial arts, which meant that they could fight one on one with same level sea beasts.
For army cultivators, they required formations to consolidate the strength of many.
"Do the seniors know how contribution points are recorded?"
The five looked at each other and then laughed.
Some of them had been in the army for more than one decade.
In most cases, the question of contribution points was the most important when facing sect disciples.
Rather than answer, the woman waved her hand, and a talisman appeared in her hand.
"This is an oculus talisman."
Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen looked at the talisman in the woman’s hand.
The talisman was made of beast skin, and an eye was drawn on the surface.
"It can’t be activated before the beast tide starts. When the time is right, it can be refined, and the eye will record the kills."
"Where can we get one?"
"You can get one for one low-grade spirit stone."
"Walk towards the centre tent. You will find someone selling them in one of the tents."
"Thank you, seniors." Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen bowed to the five and then walked away.
