Lu Yu wanted to obtain the Earth Spirit Bead, not because he thought it was valuable and wished to possess it.

But because of the Earth Escape Secret Technique.

He hadn't cultivated earth elemental power, and even after learning the Earth Escape Secret Technique, he couldn't use it. Using earthly treasures to perform earth escape required a long casting time, which wasn't very practical.

However, owning the Earth Spirit Bead made it possible to perform earth escape with external objects, significantly reducing casting time.

If the spiritual qi in ordinary earthly treasures is like a motley militia, the spiritual qi within the Spirit Bead is a regular army, and not just any regular army but an elite unit, which is not only easier to command but also countless times stronger in quality than a motley militia.

Due to the strong quality of the spiritual qi, only experts at the pinnacle of the Qi Sea Realm could absorb the spiritual qi within the Spirit Bead; others couldn't refine the pure spiritual qi within it.

After obtaining the Earth Spirit Bead, Lu Yu pulled out the Earth Escape Secret Technique he originally intended to sell. Given the current situation, the earth escape's utility greatly increased, and with Yu Xiaoman guiding him, Lu Yu wasn't afraid of getting lost underground.

[Detecting player is learning Earth Escape Secret Technique, Earth Escape Secret Technique skill template loading 1%...2%...]

Soon, Lu Yu finished learning the Earth Escape Secret Technique, and the words and pictures on the secret technique book disappeared, leaving it blank.

If Lu Yu wanted, he could still recreate it word by word, but that was too much trouble. Why would he do something so thankless when he had nothing to do?

[Name: Lu Yu]

[Realm: Body Refinement Stage Level 9 (Peak)]

[Qi Blood: 321]

[Spiritual Qi: 254 (Ice 127, Fire 127)]

[Cultivation Technique: Seven Layers of Ice and Fire (Ice and Fire Polar Body 10%), Bladeless Blade Technique (Third Level)]

[Skills: Ice Spiritual Qi (Ice Elemental Martial Arts Power +35%), Fire Spiritual Qi (Fire Elemental Martial Arts Power +35%)]

Fire Demon Eyes (Not Mastered)

Fierce Tiger Fist*Tiger's Might (Peerlessly Extraordinary)

Eight Steps to Catch Cicadas (Peerlessly Extraordinary)

Bladeless Swordsmanship - Celestial Collapse (Accomplished)

Blood Burning Secret Technique (Consumes 30% Qi Blood, Attack Speed +70%, Martial Arts Power +70%) (Slight Achievement)

Earth Escape (Not Mastered, Unlocking skill requires 5000 experience points)]

[Experience Points: 2341]

After converting to the Ice Spirit Body, Lu Yu's Qi Blood increased again, and the total amount of spiritual qi greatly improved.

But in terms of combat power increase brought by spiritual qi, the enhancement wasn't substantial. Lu Yu could only unleash the power of one type of spiritual qi at a time, and the upper limit of a single type of spiritual qi didn't increase significantly.

However, having an additional attribute of spiritual qi provided Lu Yu with more combat options, which was an enhancement to his power.

The 10% cultivation progress in Ice and Fire Polar Body was a surprise to Lu Yu. He discovered the additional cultivation progress while reviewing his attribute panel.

The system notification stated that "there's a slight gain in cultivating Seven Layers of Ice and Fire", but he didn't know when it increased as it hadn't increased further since then. Lu Yu was confused about cultivating the Ice and Fire Polar Body.

Lu Yu glanced at the Earth Escape skill, which required 5000 experience points to master, but his current experience points were insufficient, preventing him from performing earth escape.

Obtaining the Earth Spirit Bead but being unable to perform earth escape due to lack of experience points made Lu Yu slightly frustrated. However, upon recalling that he was in a place with many monsters to grind experience, he felt better.

Rustling~ The sound of crawling arthropods reached him, and Lu Yu saw several centipede demons crawling toward him.

The centipede demons, upon seeing the Earth Spirit Bead in Lu Yu's hand, flashed excitement in their eyes, accelerating their crawl, and leaping toward Lu Yu from five or six meters away. Their bodies soared in the air like a long carpet fluttering in the wind.

Lu Yu stowed the Earth Spirit Bead into his backpack, drew out the Overlord Blade, and said to Yu Xiaoman behind him, "Stand behind me, don't stray too far."

"Mm-hmm." Yu Xiaoman nodded like a pecking chick and hid behind Lu Yu, not daring to look at the approaching centipede demons.

Fire Spiritual Qi infused into the Overlord Blade, causing it to radiate a fiery red glow from within. Lu Yu swung the blade at the oncoming centipede demon.

Sizzle~ The centipede demon's body was sliced apart. Its bodily fluid splattered on the Overlord Blade, producing a sizzling sound. Lu Yu continuously swung the blade to fend off the leaping centipede demons, smashing their bodies to pieces.

With a single strike, he shattered the centipede demon's shell, and the Fire Spiritual Qi invaded inside, incinerating its brain into ashes.

Against these centipede demons, which were only as strong as Level 7 or 8 of the Body Refinement Stage, Lu Yu could easily slay them.

[Killed a centipede demon, gained 723 experience points]

[Killed a centipede demon, gained 812 experience points]

[Killed a centipede demon, gained 792 experience points]

...

The system notifications flooded the screen, and soon Lu Yu accumulated enough experience points to unlock Earth Escape. While slaying the centipede demons, he multitasked to unlock the Earth Escape skill.

After unlocking the skill, the complete process of performing Earth Escape appeared in Lu Yu's mind. Using his own cultivated earthen spiritual power, he could perform Earth Escape in 3.2 seconds in his novice realm, whereas using external items for Earth Escape required 30 seconds.

Lu Yu knew there was a huge difference between the two methods of executing Earth Escape, but he hadn't expected the difference to be tenfold. Even with the Earth Spirit Pearl, Lu Yu wasn't confident he could use Earth Escape in battle. He hadn't tried using the Earth Spirit Pearl for Earth Escape, and his mind didn't contain any experience or cast time for using the Earth Spirit Pearl for Earth Escape.

Upgrading Earth Escape to the next level required 16,000 experience points, making it the skill that consumed the least experience points for upgrading among Lu Yu's current abilities. 16,000 wasn't much, and Lu Yu considered leveling up Earth Escape again to shorten the casting time.

Clang!

The Overlord Saber couldn't shatter the carapace of the centipede demon, and the fire spiritual energy only left a scorched mark on its shell. After feeling the sensation transmitted from the Overlord Saber, Lu Yu focused his mind entirely on dealing with the centipede demon before him.

Although the centipede demon's shell wasn't shattered, under Lu Yu's immense strength, the demon's head became dizzy, unable to distinguish directions, its upper body raised in midair, swaying back and forth.

Lu Yu expended half of his Qi Blood to deliver a powerful strike, shattering the centipede demon's skull. With Lu Yu's urging, the fire spiritual energy surged along the Overlord Saber into the centipede demon's head, reducing its not-so-large brain to ashes, resulting in its instant death.

When a centipede demon appeared that could withstand Lu Yu's regular attacks, his pressure increased sharply, forcing him to fight as he retreated.

After retreating with Yu Xiaoman to a wide underground cavern, the situation became dire. Earlier, in the passageway, Lu Yu could rely on a single Overlord Saber to slay the relatively few centipede demons one by one.

Now, surrounded by centipede demons from all directions, Lu Yu, lacking three heads and six arms, found it challenging to contend with the centipede demons enclosing from every side.

Ss~

A few purple centipede demons raised their bodies and sprayed poison mist at Lu Yu, who quickly pulled Yu Xiaoman to perform Eight-Step Cicada Leap, dodging the poison mist. He used the Overlord Saber as a fan, wielding it to dispel the mist.

Though effective for a short time, as more poison mist spewed by the centipede demons filled the underground space, even having an Overlord Fan in hand was to no avail, as the mist surrounded Lu Yu from all directions.

Amidst the spreading poison mist, the rustling sound of centipede demons grew louder and closer.

Checking his remaining experience points, already at 12,325, Lu Yu was just shy of upgrading Earth Escape. He gathered half of his Qi Blood into the Overlord Saber, channeling all the remaining fire spiritual energy into it.

The Overlord Saber glowed a fiery red, seeming on the brink of melting!

With full force, he hurled the Overlord Saber towards the area with the densest sound.

Whoosh~ The Overlord Saber, laden with violent power, pierced a hollow path through the poison mist, extending deep into the mist.

Boom~ The ground trembled, Yu Xiaoman clutched Lu Yu's clothes, thinking another earthquake had occurred.

Flames erupted from the mist as the last remnants of Lu Yu's fire spiritual energy violently exploded upon striking the swarms of centipede demons, engulfing all nearby.

Kill notifications flooded in quickly, with seven or eight appearing instantly and then a few more intermittently, possibly from centipede demons whose bodies were invaded by the fire spiritual energy but weren't killed instantly.

With enough experience, Lu Yu immediately initiated the Earth Escape upgrade.

[Skill Upgrade! Earth Escape (Novice) → Earth Escape (Proficient)]

The next upgrade would require 40,000 experience points.

After upgrading, Earth Escape's casting time shortened to 2 seconds, and using external items reduced to 20 seconds, a substantial enhancement.

Seeing the post-upgrade Earth Escape still required 20 seconds with external items, Lu Yu frowned, hoping the Earth Spirit Pearl could manifest its prowess.

Taking out the Earth Spirit Pearl, Lu Yu held the softly glowing earth-yellow pearl in his right hand, using his mind to connect with its power to cast the Earth Escape skill.

The power within the Earth Spirit Pearl was surprisingly easy to communicate with, feeling even more controllable than his own internal spiritual energy, able to draw out precisely the amount needed, no more, no less, perfect manipulation.

Earth yellow luminescence emerged from Lu Yu's body, swiftly extending to Yu Xiaoman, enveloping her. Yu Xiaoman curiously touched the emerging light but found it was visible yet intangible.

Drawing power from the Earth Spirit Pearl and forming seals to cast Earth Escape took just 1 second, surpassing Lu Yu's expectations. He had hoped only to save half the casting time with the Earth Spirit Pearl, but instead, it directly enhanced the speed by 20 times.

From another perspective, the Earth Spirit Pearl indeed met Lu Yu's expectation, halving the casting time.

After being shrouded entirely in the radiant light from the Earth Spirit Pearl, Lu Yu felt the surrounding soil transform into a water-like medium, differing only in that he could manipulate the "buoyancy" of the 'water' on himself.

Wherever he wished to move, he manipulated the soil's buoyancy to point in that direction.

With a thought, Lu Yu commanded the "buoyancy" downward, and he and Yu Xiaoman sank into the earth.

Fss~ A few centipede demons rushed to the spot where he and Yu Xiaoman disappeared, circling around, failing to find any trace of Lu Yu, as the surface appeared unchanged, like water before entering.

Once immersed in the soil, eyes could only see the glow from his body; all else was pitch black.

While soil and water differ, within the soil, light couldn't penetrate, rendering Lu Yu's vision dark during Earth Escape, leaving gravity as the sole guide.

Gravity indicated to Lu Yu where to exit the earth, though this didn't assure his departure.

"Do you feel where to exit?" Lu Yu's voice reached Yu Xiaoman's ears; she couldn't see him, only a glow.

"I feel that direction is the exit." Seeing a glowing stick pointed in a direction, Lu Yu knew it represented Yu Xiaoman's arm, though he couldn't see her.

Controlling the "buoyancy" propelled himself toward Yu Xiaoman's indicated direction.

Traversing through the soil relied solely on "buoyancy," its strength dictated by the intensity of spiritual energy output from the Earth Spirit Pearl.

Lu Yu pushed the Earth Spirit Pearl's energy output to the max, but constrained by his not-so-strong spiritual power, their movement through the soil was slow.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.