Chapter 8 – Spirit Stone Augmentation (III)

Chapter 8

Spirit Stone Augmentation (III)

“Oh, Disciple~”

Long Tao slowly opened his eyes and looked forward at his Master’s descending figure. There was a bit of trepidation in his heart as he’d severely underestimated the Heart-Stitching Art. Though he assumed it would be extremely beneficial for his Heart-Curse, he had never considered the possibility of it doing what it did: making the curse go dormant.

It was almost unfathomable that there was a method on the entire Mortal Plane capable of doing that, as the Heart-Poison Curse was one of the most severely restricting taboos of the Immortal Plane, as evidenced by the fact that it had even followed him into reincarnation.

And yet…

It now lay dormant.

Per his quick estimates, it had bought him 200-300 years of relative peace. Though there would likely be occasional flare-ups, especially during breakthroughs, as his comprehension of Heart-Stitching Art grew, his ability to control it would, too. Until, of course, the Curse eventually became simply too strong.

By then, however, who knew what realm he would achieve?

“Yes, Master?” he greeted back.

“Per your earlier inquiry, I have rummaged through my possessions and found something,” the man said, taking out another tome. “I’d forgotten it since it’s been rotting in my belongings for years, and because I was nowhere near talented enough to covet it, but since you’ve understood the Heart-Stitching Art so quickly, I think you might understand this too!”

“… Spirit Stone Augmentation?” Long Tao casually picked up the tome and looked at the letters.

“Well then, feel free to peruse it. Ah! Please, do not disclose this to the Sect, he he. We are supposed to inform the Elders if we ever discover martial arts on the outside, but…”

“Don’t worry,” he said dismissively, already ignoring the figure at the front, too curious.

Flipping the pages casually, by the time he finished even perusing the book, night had descended. Closing it, he took in a cold breath as a glint shot through his eyes; it was… precisely what he needed.

And, in some minor ways, it was even more marvelous than the Heart-Stitching Art simply because, unlike the latter, it was universal. There were no conditions–even at the barest minimum, this art would increase not just the speed but also the quality of one’s cultivation exponentially. And the earlier they learned it, the better it would be.

And for Long Tao, who was learning it before even cultivating, it was akin to adding yet another layer of talent on top of the existing ones. This would allow him to save a lot of time and evade a lot of future headaches; there were several big thresholds in one’s cultivation journey, and the first one came upon reaching the ‘Shedding Mortality Realm’.