After leaving the Scripture Archive, Xia Li went straight back to his territory because he noticed someone was watching him.
He didn't know if it was the Third Elder's people or others with ulterior motives.
Back in his territory, facing the great lake, Xia Li quickly had the Heaven Chip continue explaining what bargain was available for him.
"Heaven Chip, tell me—what bargain could possibly fall to me?"
[According to the Records of Man Continent: In ancient times, a Golden Crow ran rampant. The Lord of Man Continent paid a great price to summon the martial realm great power Yi.]
[Yi drew his great bow and shot the Golden Crow. Though grievously wounded, the Golden Crow did not die. It fell to earth and burned mountains into valleys, named Burning Sun Valley.]
[Seeing this, Yi said the Golden Crow had stayed to leave behind its heritage. Forcibly killing it would bring calamity—scorched earth for thousands of miles and great droughts.]
[Thereafter, Yi decided to seal and trap the Golden Crow. To prevent future greedy ones from breaking the seal, he used bloodline as the key.]
[Saying: Those whose blood is dark and yellow may break my seal.]
[This action was despised by later generations. All said Yi's behavior was to leave it for his own bloodline's descendants.]
The Heaven Chip revealed a historical record that Xia Li had overlooked while speed-reading in the Scripture Archive. The information contained within was significant.
"Yi? As in Hou Yi?..."
Xia Li couldn't help but frown. Even more remarkable was that ancient texts recorded Hou Yi as a "great power of the martial realm."
This aligned with Earth's archaeological findings—the more ancient the cultivation methods, the more they leaned toward martial dao.
In other words, ancient Earth was founded on martial dao.
[There is a ninety percent probability that the martial realm great power Yi is indeed Hou Yi.]
This was the Heaven Chip's assessment. And the seal Hou Yi left seemed to require dark-yellow blood to break. As spiritual energy faded and the Dharma Ending Age arrived, the dark-yellow bloodline had become the Yan-Huang bloodline.
Becoming a mortal clan on Earth.
So anyone who inherited this bloodline could potentially open the seal.
[Based on the verbal hint, those who can break the seal should be the main ethnic group historically active in East Asia. Your condition matches the ethnic characteristics. Therefore, it's assessed that you likely can break the seal.]
"Alright..."
So there really was a bargain to pick up. The Heaven Chip wasn't lying—this was all documented in historical records.
Then he needed to make a long journey. This was Qian Continent, countless miles from Man Continent. Even with continuous teleportation array transfers, it would take a month or two to arrive.
"But well... I do need to go. I just need to make some preparations first."
Xia Li planned to obtain a fire-based body tempering martial technique to improve his body's compatibility. But getting a good technique required sufficient contribution points. Xia Li didn't want to waste time working for them.
So...
Xia Li contacted the Third Elder, asking if he had any good fire-path body tempering methods.
Ten-plus minutes later.
The Third Elder personally came to Xia Li's territory and directly tossed over a jade slip from his storage ring.
"Earth-grade lower-rank martial technique, Profound Fire Body Tempering Method. Make do with it for practice. If you want better... I don't have any, but I know where to find one."
"Please enlighten me, Third Elder!"
"The Vajra Temple in Huang Continent possesses a heaven-grade supreme body tempering method, the Great Sun Golden Body Scripture. If you can satisfy those monks, they'll let you learn it."
"May I ask how to satisfy them?"
"You'll know when you get there. I hear the Buddhist sect also teaches outsiders, speaking of karmic connections. I'm curious what 'karmic connection' means. Tell me about it when you return."
The Third Elder sensed that Xia Li was also someone blessed with fortune. Perhaps he really could succeed.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
His current attitude toward Xia Li was gratitude, since Xia Li had saved his granddaughter. So he would provide whatever help he could.
"Thank you, Third Elder!"
"No need for thanks. Your martial foundation is so weak—why the sudden interest in martial cultivation?"
The Third Elder's eye was quite sharp. If Lin Ye said he wanted to cultivate martial arts, the Third Elder would find it perfectly natural.
But Xia Li...
Really quite lacking.
Weak blood energy, incomplete body, innate deficiencies, feeble vital essence.
Outsiders said body tempering didn't require talent, only effort. While true, talent could effectively reduce tedious, unnecessary effort.
"Precisely because my body is weak, I want to cultivate martial arts."
"But your body really isn't suited for martial cultivation. With physical impairments, blood energy can never be perfected. Your apertures are four missing, three leaking. I think you should regrow your limbs first before discussing this."
"Thank you for the reminder, Third Elder, but I still want to try."
Xia Li wasn't planning to cultivate to any profound degree. The key was tempering his existing body parts. His prosthetics were far more durable than his actual body.
Worst case, next time he returned to Earth for new prosthetics, he could customize simulated meridians and apertures. This wasn't a big problem.
"Fine, suit yourself."
The Third Elder nodded and left directly. Xia Li then began considering whether to make do with the Profound Fire Body Tempering Method or make a trip to Huang Continent's Vajra Temple.
[Recommend seeking a better body tempering method. If using Golden Crow materials for the prefabricated Golden Core, the Stellarator Core will be more powerful while also placing higher demands on the body.]
"Troublesome..."
Xia Li truly found this troublesome after hearing the Heaven Chip's suggestion.
[Then may I suggest the High-Energy Plasma Golden Core? That one isn't troublesome.]
"Why do you keep pushing that thing? Has a backdoor program been implanted in you?"
[Your current Heaven Chip has a built-in promotional program. I cannot refuse—I must make recommendations according to promotional logic.]
"Damn!"
Xia Li couldn't help but frown. His current Heaven Chip was Yayoi Military Industries' Sword Demon X2. The Hidden Hacker Heaven Chip he'd used before didn't have this problem.
After that...
Xia Li sat by the lake planning his long journey. Huang Continent and Man Continent were also far apart—this trip wouldn't allow him to return anytime soon.
And the biggest fear when traveling was running out of spirit stones.
So Xia Li took out a transmission jade slip and contacted Lin Ye, planning to squeeze some spirit stones from him.
"Brother Lin, I'm heading out on a long journey. The road is far and my pockets are empty. Could you lend me some spirit stones?"
Shortly...
Lin Ye replied to Xia Li.
"Well... I also need a lot of spirit stones soon. I haven't been earning any lately. If you're really short, I can temporarily produce a hundred thousand. Is that enough?"
"Plenty, plenty!"
Xia Li immediately replied. He'd thought Lin Ye could only produce a few hundred or thousand. A hundred thousand spirit stones was more than enough for travel and various expenses.
He'd won over three hundred thousand spirit stones from Earth's competitions. The Psychic Association had also gifted a hundred thousand. Plus the fifty thousand from Lin Ye—it seemed like a lot...
But then came satellite activation, new prosthetics and weapons. Before he knew it, he'd spent down to only forty or fifty thousand spirit stones. After all, his blade and gun combined cost nearly three hundred thousand.
"If you still need more... maybe ask Lin Ge for some? She's quite wealthy too."
"No, no..."
Xia Li didn't dare ask Lin Ge for spirit stones. If he did, he'd probably have to pay with his body.
