Luo Jiang was completely dumbfounded by the items inside this Storage Ring. It took him a long time to withdraw his Divine Sense, and it was quite a while before he finally recovered his wits.
Even as a child, he knew that with so many things inside this Storage Ring, its owner must have been much more powerful than the owner of the Storage Bag. He just couldn't figure out how the owner of this Storage Ring had been killed by the owner of the Storage Bag.
This question only flashed through his mind before he dismissed it. He used his Divine Sense again to take out all the jade slips on the shelf to examine them.
However, he could not recognize the characters in the jade slips at all—they were definitely not Dragon Kingdom characters. This left him deeply disappointed, feeling like someone staring at a piece of prime meat with no idea how to cook it. Yet, if he were to just give up, he wasn't willing.
Holding a jade slip, he pondered this back and forth. The owner of this ring was a visitor from beyond the heavens, so the language he spoke certainly wouldn't be the language of the Dragon Kingdom. Suddenly, he thought of the owner of that Storage Bag: how had he known that the owner of the ring was a visitor from beyond the heavens? Could it be that he knew these characters?
Remembering that there were still jade slips in the Storage Bag he hadn't checked, he hurriedly picked up the Storage Bag and took out the remaining jade slips to examine them.
Among these jade slips were introductions on how to make talisman paper, basic jade slips on array formations, and introductory jade slips on alchemy. Soon, he found one that was a language jade slip. The content introduced in this language jade slip was precisely how to learn the language and characters found in the jade slips inside the Storage Ring.
Great joy welled up in his heart. Not caring how this jade slip came to be—nor would he waste any thought on such a question—he hurriedly used his Divine Sense to examine it.
A few minutes later, having mastered the language and characters in the jade slip, he picked up the jade slips from the ring to compare them and discovered that they were all cultivation formula jade slips: the *Great Evolution Heavenly Origin Art*, the *Crimson Heaven Cinnabar Rosy Clouds Art*, the *Azure Moon Thousand Leaves Record*, the *Cloud-Fleeing Sword Technique Formula*...
Furthermore, the cultivation system in these cultivation formula jade slips was different from that of the *Purple Origin Formula*, consisting only of the Qi Refining Stage, Foundation Establishment Stage, Golden Core Stage, Nascent Soul Stage, Spirit Severing Stage, Void Refinement Stage, Body Integration Stage, Great Vehicle Stage, and Tribulation Transcendence Stage—which perfectly matched the Heavenly Dao's number of ninety-nine returning to one.
Moreover, the Qi Refining Stage also started from the 1st layer, totaling nine layers. After cultivating to the 9th layer Great Perfection, one could break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage. As for the subsequent cultivation ranks, they only had Early, Middle, and Late Stages of Great Perfection, which was much more streamlined than the Qi Refining Stage.
Looking at these cultivation formula jade slips, Luo Jiang wondered whether he should switch his cultivation formula. In his mind, the cultivation formula of the owner of this Storage Ring must be far more powerful than that of the Storage Bag's owner. To say nothing else, just the various items stored in the space of this Storage Ring made it hundreds of times wealthier than the owner of the Storage Bag.
With this thought in mind, he casually picked up a cultivation formula jade slip and saw it was the *Great Evolution Heavenly Origin Art*. This cultivation formula had the character "Heaven" in it, which happened to correspond somewhat with Tianyun Taoist Temple. Moreover, this cultivation formula could be cultivated directly all the way to the Tribulation Transcendence Stage without needing to switch to other cultivation formulas in between. Thus, he decided to try cultivating this formula first.
Now that his attainments in the Dao of Arrays had broken through to a Level 2 Array Master, he had also learned to set up some simple array formations. He took a few dozen spirit stones from the Storage Bag and quickly set up a Spirit-Gathering Array beside him, then began cultivating according to the new cultivation formula.
Fortunately, he was currently only at Qi Refining 1st Layer. After switching cultivation formulas, it was not very difficult to quickly adjust the spiritual power circulating in his meridians and acupoints to match the new formula.
Once he began cultivating this time, he discovered that while breaking through to Qi Refining 1st Layer was very easy, breaking through to Qi Refining 2nd Layer would not be as fast as before. He didn't know the reason, nor did he dwell on it—he just needed to cultivate.
Enveloped in dense spiritual Qi, after cultivating for five days, he felt he was close to breaking through to Qi Refining 2nd Layer. The spiritual power in his Dantian was saturated and faintly aching with fullness. He stopped running the cultivation formula and took off all his clothes.
Having examined many jade slips, he knew that the greasy substance on his body was impurities expelled from within. He did this simply to avoid having to wash his clothes.
Sitting cross-legged on the rush cushion once again, after running just a few cyclical circuits, he heard a sound from within his body: "Crack!" It sounded like an eggshell shattering. A formidable aura once again emanated from his body, but fortunately, he had put away the wooden racks beforehand. The burst of aura dispersed within the secret chamber without causing any damage.
Seeing that a layer of black, greasy grime had appeared on his body once again—though much less than before—Luo Jiang felt extremely fortunate that he had taken off his clothes beforehand. Thanks to his own foresight, otherwise he would have had to change clothes. He only had two sets of spring-and-autumn clothes; if he dirtied this set as well, he would have no choice but to wear his summer clothes.
He went to the kitchen and boiled a large pot of hot water. After cleaning his body thoroughly and putting on his clothes, he felt they were a bit shorter and smaller than before.
"Eh? Have I grown taller again?" He compared himself against the kitchen door and found that he really had grown taller. Previously, he was only around one meter twenty or thirty, but now he was well over one meter forty. In this era of food and clothing shortages, being able to grow this tall at age eleven made him quite tall in the eyes of ordinary people. As he grew older, his height would continue to increase.
The corn-flour buns and canned goods in the secret chamber had all been eaten, and there was no food left in the storeroom either, save for some soybeans which couldn't be eaten as a meal.
The game he had previously hunted was down to just two wild rabbits and one pheasant. This little bit of food simply wouldn't last through the entire winter.
Ever since he started cultivating, his appetite had also increased accordingly. Originally, this food should have lasted until next year, but now that it was all gone, he needed to prepare to go into the city to buy grain and salt—and if the opportunity arose, wipe out some Japs and plunder their grain and canned goods.
Walking out of the Taoist temple, he saw that the snow on the main road was over half a foot deep. He immediately remembered that on the way to the city, he could practice the Wind-Riding Technique along the way. He just didn't know how this Wind-Riding Technique compared to the "Snow-Trace No-Trace" lightness skill, and which lightness skill was actually better; he would have to test it out.
Driving the spiritual power within his body, he circulated it according to the method for practicing the Wind-Riding Technique, and his body instantly drifted more than two meters forward.
"Eh? Just starting to practice the Wind-Riding Technique, and it already feels faster than the Snow-Trace No-Trace lightness skill." A surge of joy rose in his heart, and he muttered quietly to himself, practicing the Wind-Riding Technique as he hurried along.
As he grew more and more proficient with the Wind-Riding Technique, his forward speed became faster and faster. Soon, he arrived before a grove of trees.
"I wonder how high this Wind-Riding Technique can leap if I jump up into a tree?" Seeing this grove of trees, a playful impulse immediately welled up in his heart.
Driving his spiritual power, he executed the Wind-Riding Technique and leaped upward fiercely. In an instant, he saw the treetops, yet his body was still floating higher. Terrified, he hurriedly reined in his spiritual power, and his body dropped straight down. This scared him out of his wits; in his panic, he hastily drove his spiritual power again, slowing down his rate of descent. Even though he managed to summon his spiritual power in time, he still took a tumble.
With a muffled "Thud!", the snow on the ground was sent flying in all directions as he crashed into it.
"Spit, spit! Ouch, damn it, what rotten luck." Spitting out the snow in his mouth, he climbed up from the ground, rubbed his backside, stomped his feet, and patted the snow clinging to his clothes.
Where you fall is where you get back up. No longer in a rush to head into the city, he stayed right in the grove to practice the Wind-Riding Technique. With his Divine Sense and spiritual power, he quickly became familiar with it.
Afterward, he tried practicing the Wind Blade technique. Driving the spiritual power within his body, he raised his hand and sent out an invisible blade. However, after this invisible blade was sent out, it dissipated before traveling even a meter.
Persisting, he continuously drove his spiritual power to unleash one invisible blade after another, going from one meter to two meters, then three meters, until his internal spiritual power was completely exhausted. Only then did he stop, realizing that the sky had already grown dark. The moment he stopped, hunger struck him. He took two spirit stones from his Storage Bag, held them in his hands, and sprinted toward Beiping City while running his cultivation formula.
With the replenishment of the spirit stones, his hunger wasn't quite as acute. As his cultivation formula circulated, the spiritual power within his body gradually recovered to its peak state, and he caught sight of the lights on the city walls.
A few minutes later, he arrived outside the city wall. Finding a dark spot and sweeping the area with his Divine Sense to confirm there were no Japanese soldiers on the wall, he drove his internal spiritual power, executed the Wind-Riding Technique, and quickly drifted up onto the city wall.
He didn't know what time it was. The watch he had looted earlier had long since stopped running; he had originally planned to wear it on his wrist, but his wrist was too thin and the watch kept slipping down, so he had tossed it into the Storage Bag.
Leaping down from the city wall and identifying his bearings, he had no idea where he was. After all, he hadn't visited Beiping City many times and couldn't remember the city's streets at all.
Figuring he should head toward the West City—having been there with his senior martial brothers and seen shops selling grain and salt—since he had entered from the northern wall, heading to the West City meant not only crossing several major roads but also navigating a maze of alley entrances.
After crossing two roads and just as he emerged from an alley entrance, he spotted a small squad of Japanese patrol soldiers walking down the main road. The leading Japanese soldier was holding a flashlight, and its beam happened to sweep across his figure.
Seeing a child appear ahead, that squad of Japanese patrol soldiers immediately raised their rifles and charged over.
Seeing the Japanese soldier's flashlight shining on him, Luo Jiang stood his ground. Reaching into the ring, he drew a spiritual short sword. Just as the Japanese patrol soldiers rushed up, before any of them could question him, his spiritual short sword was driven by his spiritual power, and a streak of white light flashed across.
"Swish, swish, swish..."
"Plop, plop, plop..." The sound of the short sword cutting through flesh rang out. In an instant, the heads of this ten-man Japanese patrol squad were severed by the short sword, and ten human heads rolled haphazardly across the ground. "Thud! Thud..." Their headless corpses crashed to the ground, and the rifles in their hands clattered into a messy scatter all over the earth.
It was Luo Jiang's first time killing Japanese soldiers with a spiritual short sword, and he was somewhat dazed by how effective it was. But he quickly regained his senses, first picking up the spiritual short sword to inspect it: not a single trace of blood stained the blade, nor was there the slightest mark of damage on it.
Stowing the short sword away, he began searching the corpses of the Japanese soldiers. Three of the ten rifles had been cut in two by the short sword, but the rest were gathered into his Storage Bag. He also collected the ammunition they carried and looted several dozen silver dollars along with two watches.
Having finished stripping them of their valuables, he immediately executed the Wind-Riding Technique and sprinted toward the West City. As for the bodies of the Japanese soldiers, he paid them no mind—mainly because he hadn't yet mastered the Fireball technique, leaving him with no choice but to kill without burying.