DS 10

Chapter – 10

The Incense Burner Mutation

Looking at the little white tiger’s lively, intelligent eyes, Li Yu felt a twinge of shame.

After all, the last time he’d given it a Qi Condensation Pill, he’d had ulterior motives—using it as a guinea pig to test the medicine.

The little white tiger, clearly unaware of this, let out a series of low growls, urging Li Yu on impatiently.

Li Yu leaped down and plucked the Vermilion Fruit. The moment it left the branch, the plant began to wither, eventually turning to dust and scattering in the wind.

A Vermilion Fruit tree bore only one fruit in its lifetime, the culmination of all its spiritual energy. Once the fruit was picked, the tree would wither away.

The spiritual fruit in his hand radiated waves of warmth, and Li Yu’s heart burned with excitement. *Five hundred spirit coins!* That was a small fortune to him—enough to trade with Elder Sun for many things: defensive talismans, magical artifacts, and maybe even allow him to take on slightly more advanced missions in the future.

But just as this thought crossed his mind, Li Yu felt a faint warmth at his chest. Then, before his eyes, the Vermilion Fruit shriveled at a visible speed, turning into a stream of hot energy that flowed into the incense burner mark on his chest…

“What the—”

Li Yu stood frozen, watching helplessly as the spiritual fruit in his hand crumbled into powder.

Infinite sorrow and indignation welled up inside him. He blurted out, “No! My medicine! My spirit coins!”

All Li Yu knew was that the incense burner could absorb ghosts—he never imagined it would absorb spiritual herbs too! This Vermilion Fruit, with at least a century’s worth of medicinal potency, had barely warmed his hand before it became someone else’s gain…

If he’d known the incense burner was so sinister, he never would have reached for it!

But before Li Yu could dwell on his loss, his body suddenly trembled.

He keenly sensed that the stream of energy from the Vermilion Fruit hadn’t been completely absorbed by the mark on his chest. A small portion of it had circulated through his body once before surging into his meridians.

Then, to his pleasant surprise, Li Yu discovered that the Shaofu acupoint—which he’d been trying to break through for ages without any success—had actually been forced open by this surge of energy!

At this moment, both his Shaochong and Shaofu acupoints were filled with spiritual energy. Of the eight acupoints in the first layer of Qi Condensation, he had now opened two.

Li Yu stood there, stunned. So the incense burner could do *this* too?

The medicinal power of spiritual herbs was too violent to consume directly; it usually had to be neutralized and refined into pills before ingestion. This method of directly absorbing the medicinal power effectively skipped the entire pill-refining process, and could even preserve the herb’s potency to the greatest extent possible.

While Li Yu was frozen in shock, so was the little white tiger. With its intelligence, it couldn’t quite comprehend how the fruit it had been drooling over for so long had suddenly vanished.

But since it had intended the fruit as a token of gratitude anyway, it didn’t dwell on it. It growled at Li Yu again and ran off in another direction.

Li Yu followed closely behind. Before long, the duo stopped at a valley.

Li Yu could clearly tell that the vegetation in this valley grew extremely lush—unnaturally so. The entire valley was thick with plants, and in the most overgrown clearing, Li Yu spotted a green medicinal herb.

It had slender, orchid-like leaves, with small purple flowers blooming on top.

He didn’t recognize this herb, but he could feel the incredibly dense spiritual energy emanating from it.

This was clearly another spiritual herb. The little white tiger nudged its chin toward it, indicating it was also a gift for him.

At the same time, Li Yu felt a sense of longing from the incense burner mark on his chest.

Drawing from his earlier experience, Li Yu slowly walked up to the spiritual herb and lightly touched its leaf with his finger. The next moment, the herb wilted into ash and transformed into a stream of energy that flowed from his finger to his chest.

Unlike the violent energy of the Vermilion Fruit, this one was far gentler, brimming with vibrant, life-giving energy—clearly from a Wood-attributed spirit herb.

As before, most of the herb’s energy flowed into the mark on his chest, while a small portion rampaged around inside Li Yu’s body. He was full of anticipation, hoping to use this spiritual energy to break through his third acupoint—but the result wasn’t what he’d hoped for.

That wisp of energy passed by his Fire Meridian three times without entering, then finally charged fiercely toward another acupoint in his body.

Li Yu’s expression changed drastically. He cried out in alarm, “No! Not there!”

That acupoint didn’t belong to any of the seventy-two points on the Fire Meridian. Forcing it open could have serious consequences.

*Boom!*

Li Yu’s head rang as if it had been struck by a gong. The acupoint was forcefully opened by the surge of energy, and a trace of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. However, Li Yu didn’t feel much pain—on the contrary, he felt quite comfortable.

Standing in this valley, he could sense the vibrant life force of the plants around him.

A possibility instantly struck Li Yu. *Could the acupoint just opened belong to the Wood Meridian?*

He looked down and noticed more black impurities had seeped out of his skin. Li Yu was all too familiar with this scene—it seemed he had undergone another Qi Condensation…

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Qi Condensation meant using spiritual energy to open meridians. Every person possessed five meridians, all sealed at birth. So in theory, a person could undergo Qi Condensation five times—but very few actually did.

The path of cultivation was arduous and harsh. Every cultivator raced against fate itself, each wishing they could live another five hundred years. Just cultivating a single meridian was already incredibly difficult; many couldn’t break through to the next realm before their lifespan ran out. Unless they were true geniuses, very few would waste time cultivating other meridians.

For cultivators, wasting time was truly wasting life.

Of course, cultivating multiple meridians came with enormous benefits—it meant deeper reserves of magical power compared to peers of the same level. A Qi Condensation cultivator who had cultivated five meridians was incomparable in strength to one who had cultivated only one.

Moreover, cultivating two or more meridians simultaneously could unleash power far beyond that of a single meridian.

Those who cultivated both Fire and Water Meridians, upon reaching Foundation Establishment, could practice Thunder Techniques, which were even more violent than Fire-attribute spells.

Those who cultivated both Water and Wood Meridians, after Foundation Establishment, could fuse them to gain Wind attributes—making them so fast that even cultivators a full major realm above them would struggle to give chase.

Additionally, high-level alchemists, in order to better control fire temperature and medicinal properties, had to cultivate both Fire and Wood Meridians. Skilled artifact refiners, on the other hand, had to cultivate both Fire and Metal Meridians…

Although, given Li Yu’s natural aptitude, cultivating two meridians simultaneously might not necessarily be a good thing, the extra magical power was essentially free—it hadn’t cost him any of his own time.

Before Li Yu could think further, the little white tiger was already calling him to the next location.

Li Yu’s face lit up with joy. “There’s more?”

Another half-hour later, beside a waterfall in a mountain stream.

A waterfall dozens of zhang high cascaded from the peak, forming a deep pool in the valley. The little white tiger gestured toward the waterfall with its head, and Li Yu immediately understood. He flew up and passed through the curtain of water, discovering a hidden world behind it.

It was a water cavern several zhang in diameter, with some accumulated water on the floor. At the center, on a stone platform, grew a pure white lotus.

*Another spiritual herb!*

The little white tiger gave a light leap, crossing the several-zhang span to land inside as well.

Li Yu glanced back. Treasures like these usually only grew in blessed or mystical lands; they were rarely found out in the wild. He had no idea where this little tiger kept finding one after another…

This time, Li Yu was smarter. Instead of touching it directly, he reached out through his sleeve. The lotus showed no abnormal reaction.

It seemed the incense burner’s effect only triggered upon direct skin contact with a spiritual herb.

Then, he extended his bare hand and touched the lotus directly.

As expected, with a flicker of the mark on his chest, the spiritual herb was drained of its energy and crumbled into dust.

At the same time, a gentle force began circulating through his body. Unlike the violent nature of Fire-attributed spiritual power, or the vibrant life force of Wood-attributed power, this one was defined by its endless, unceasing flow. After making a full circuit through Li Yu’s body, it slammed into an acupoint and burst it open, allowing Li Yu to experience the sensation of Qi Condensation for the third time…

However, this time, the impurities expelled from his body were already minimal. Li Yu jumped into the pool, washed himself, scrubbed his clothes, put them back on, and circulated his magical power. A wave of heat radiated from within, quickly drying his damp clothes.

He then guided his magical power to touch the incense burner mark on his chest, once again entering the space where the incense burner resided.

This space was exactly as before. The incense burner stood there, its surface covered in dense, web-like cracks. Li Yu circled it several times before finally noticing something unusual.

He remembered that the last time he’d entered, on the front of the burner, at the first stroke of the character  Qian  in the phrase  Qian Kun , there had been a tiny, hairline crack. Li Yu had stared at those two characters for a long time back then, so the detail was fresh in his memory.

But now, that crack—thinner than a strand of hair—had vanished.

That horizontal stroke was now perfectly intact, without a single flaw.

This thing can repair itself…

It seemed capable of absorbing spiritual energy from herbs to mend its own cracks.

Still, after absorbing three spiritual herbs, it had only repaired a hair’s breadth of damage. Li Yu couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would take to fully restore this incense burner…