Chapter 43: Inventory Check

Li Zhen couldn’t quite describe his current state of mind; it was as if he had ridden a roller coaster from unparalleled disappointment straight into elation.

The most pressing issue remained: finding himself in an unknown world, he needed more spiritual artifacts to build confidence for enduring this new reality.

Within his storage pouch, one particular object stood out—a cube that nearly occupied half the space within its two-cubic-foot capacity.

“A martial fighter armor!” The name involuntarily slipped from his lips upon seeing the cube-shaped artifact.

If rune darts were the coveted weapons every child in the Xian Nation dreamed of obtaining, then martial fighter armor represented their ultimate aspiration.

Martial fighter armor embodied the pinnacle of technological craftsmanship. The piece inside Li Zhen’s bag was of first-rank quality.

Any cultivator wearing such first-rank armor would see their combat prowess elevated to the Late Qi Refining stage. For those already at that stage, donning the armor could propel them even higher, reaching the very peak of Qi Refining mastery or beyond.

Of course, such formidable power came with drawbacks. Crafting these armors was exceedingly complex and prohibitively expensive. Moreover, the Xian Nation strictly forbade private ownership of martial fighter armor.

“What a pity—it’s just for show!” Li Zhen said, shaking his head as he placed the martial fighter armor on the ground before him.

He knew well that even if an ordinary cultivator obtained such armor, they wouldn’t be able to bond with it. Due to its technological nature, bonding a piece of martial fighter armor required not only mastery but also identity verification—a process far more stringent than simply refining other magical artifacts.

Just as Li Zhen was about to give up hope of bonding the armor, he placed his hand upon it. Regardless of whether I can bond with it or not, he thought, I must try.

As soon as his hand made contact, the authentication ring on his finger began to shimmer faintly.

The message appeared directly on his retinal display, leaving him feeling rather perplexed.

No matter where this fighter armor came from, it shouldn’t be undergoing its first activation. Such an event indicated that no previous owner had ever used this particular suit.

However, upon seeing the full name of the armor, he surmised that it likely belonged to the Yunxi County Security Bureau.

“Unable to connect to network, unable to connect to network, unable to connect to network…!” A series of red warnings flashed before his eyes.

“Scanning current environment: suspected alternate space detected. Initiating wartime emergency protocol. Xian Nation cultivator Li Zhen meets master recognition criteria. Commencing master imprinting sequence… Master imprinting successful!”

“Greetings, Commander Li Zhen, wielder of Police Model A30 Martial Fighter Armor! Intelligent Combat Assistant Tai Chi at your service!”

“Warning: Current energy levels below 2%. Only basic functionality of fighter armor sustained. Immediate recharging required. Place armor on spirit vein for energizing!”

The continuous stream of messages left Li Zhen both astonished and elated.

His delight stemmed from the fact that this martial fighter armor had successfully recognized him as its master—a true treasure, and one of the most powerful magical artifacts available to those in the Qi Refining stage.

In the Xian Nation, let alone a first-year student like himself, even security officers from the Security Bureau would require exceptional justification to use such an armor.

It was only because Li Zhen found himself transported to this unknown world that the armor’s intelligent system, Tai Chi, perceived him to be in imminent danger. Consequently, it activated the wartime emergency protocol, granting him access to this remarkable advantage.

In the world of immortals, it was simply impossible for an individual to claim ownership of a fighter armor.

Of course, all of this hinged on the fact that the demonic entity had used a ‘Clear Spirit Pearl’ to reset all the data within the fighter armor.

Unfortunately, despite possessing such a formidable weapon as the fighter armor, Shi found himself back at square one—still in dire need of spiritual energy.

He first stored the fighter armor in his Dragon Heart Space. Keeping important items here felt far more secure than placing them in his storage pouch.

Next, he retrieved from his bag a flying sword—a top-tier first-rank custom-made blade, not mass-produced.

With eager fingers, he caressed the surface of the top-tier first-rank flying sword. Its quality surpassed the two top-tier first-rank magical artifacts he’d acquired from the battlefield; those were both mass-produced models.

Most crucially, although the owners of those two artifacts had perished, their mental imprints within hadn’t been completely erased.

The flying sword in his hand, however, either never had an owner or its previous master—an unknown powerful being—had purged any residual imprint after killing said owner.

In any case, once he recovered his spiritual energy, he could claim ownership of this first-class high-grade flying sword.

Although his current cultivation realm couldn’t harness the full power of such a blade, its exceptional sharpness alone would enable him to penetrate the defenses of late-stage qi refining cultivators.

Despite having various techniques at his disposal—rune darts, mid-grade talismans, and the Nine Heavens C045-type mid-grade flying sword—these were essentially useless against opponents in the late stages of qi refinement.

Li Zhen happily stored away the first-class high-grade flying sword. As for who might have wielded it before or potential complications from using someone else’s weapon, why worry about that when he was already in another world?

Among the other items were twenty-five blood-red beads identical to those he’d found in the Demon-Worship Cult’s secret hideout.

Lastly, there was a data card. It was clear this bag had been repurposed; instead of containing cultivation resources, it held something far less useful to Li Zhen.

A few medicinal pills, even just one, would’ve allowed him to restore some of his lost spiritual energy through ingestion.

Li Zhen extracted a data card from his bag of holding. Resembling a USB drive from his previous life, it served as a medium for storing information.

The advantage of this data card was its independence from the network, ensuring it couldn’t be monitored by the Xian Nation’s surveillance systems and providing greater confidentiality.

He inserted the card into his identity bracelet, and its contents materialized before his retinal display.

Before him appeared a cultivation technique named ‘Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique’.

“This is actually a physical refinement cultivation method!” Li Zhen murmured, astonished.

In the Xian Nation, ordinary immortal cultivation knowledge adhered to principles of openness. As long as one’s cultivation reached a certain level and they possessed sufficient merit points, they could purchase their preferred cultivation techniques using credit points.

Significant disparities existed in this regard based on the tier of school attended.

Regardless, any standard cultivation knowledge appropriate to a cultivator’s rank was attainable with diligence.

Physical refinement techniques, however, were different. During middle and high school years, such methods were strictly off-limits to cultivators.

The primary reason for this lay in the vast resources required by these techniques. If openly shared, even the Xian Nation’s abundant resources would struggle to meet demand.

Li Zhen was merely curious about the ‘Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique’ technique; if he were to return to the Xian Nation, possessing such a cultivation method with distinct demonic characteristics could potentially bring him trouble.

He spent some time examining its contents, though this brief period only allowed for a superficial review.

The Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique is a rather malevolent physical refinement technique. Unlike conventional methods that use spiritual artifacts or even demonic blood, this approach requires the essence-blood of cultivators for practice.

The best resource for cultivating the Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique is a spirit object called the ‘Blood Refinement Pill.’ These pills are byproducts resulting from sacrificing living human cultivators to the demon gods. After accepting such offerings, the demon gods retain a small portion of the cultivator’s essence-blood, condensing it into Blood Refinement Pills compatible with the aforementioned physique.

As Li Zhen examined those crimson beads once more, he realized they were indeed Blood Refinement Pills.

Each ‘Blood Refinement Pill’ represented a sacrificed cultivator. Holding thirty-one pills meant the lives of thirty-one human cultivators.

Li Zhen suppressed his revulsion and carefully stored away the data card.

The Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique was indeed immensely powerful; with a steady supply of Blood Refinement Pills, one could continually ascend through the body refinement realms.

Body refinement was another path for cultivators, focusing on transforming the physical body into something transcendent.

However, no cultivator in the Xian Nation had ever reached exceedingly high realms through this path, primarily due to resource limitations. Body refinement required dozens to hundreds of times more resources compared to cultivating spiritual energy alone.

At lower levels, some wealthier individuals could sustain the practice, but as one progressed to higher stages of body refinement, even immense riches would struggle to cover the vast consumption of materials.

“If I can’t find a spirit vein and need to stay here long-term, then I’ll cultivate the Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique!” Li Zhen decided firmly, gritting his teeth.

The Blood Refinement Saint Demon Physique was undeniably a heretical technique, especially since it involved consuming the essence and blood of human cultivators. Practicing such a method would make any human cultivator an archenemy to all others who followed traditional paths.