Morning.

“Finally, they’re awake. And here I thought I was gonna wait for a bit more,” muttered Arthur as he utilized [Spirit Sense] in its entirety, watching the reactions of the two as they gradually noticed that the range of [Spirit Aura] had expanded far beyond what they could have imagined.

After being amused by their reactions for a while, he went ahead and activated [Spirit Aura: Infusion], infusing a point of qi into Jian’s body, prompting him to ignore his wife’s question as he hastily sat down cross-legged on their front porch.

Left at a loss for words at the sudden turn of events, Qin could only idly watch Jian assimilate the great amount of qi she had sensed enter his body as she could not help but wonder as to why the qi in their surroundings had become denser all of a sudden.

At first, she thought that Jian had crushed some high-grade Spirit Slag, allowing the trace amounts of qi it exuded to meld with the surrounding ambient qi. However, as she continued to mull over this, she quickly came to the conclusion that her husband wouldn’t do something like that. First, she knew it wasn’t in his nature to be wasteful. And second…

They had given all of the Spirit Slag the budding spirit vein had amassed yesterday to Guang Zhenqiang.

Just as she was about to ponder over other reasons for the increase in density, a soft boom resounded within Jian’s body as the aura he was exuding had gotten slightly more powerful, prompting her to become excited as her husband had now broken through the 8th Stage of Essence Gathering. However…

Whoosh!

Out of nowhere, a great amount of qi was sent into Jian’s body yet again, leaving him with no choice but to assimilate the qi he had been given.

“Huh?” At this point, Qin was truly stupefied. Although she knew that the qi being infused into Jian’s body was coming from the budding spirit vein not far away from them, she knew very well that the spirit vein back then had only infused Jian with qi once. After that, there was no more.

As she thought about this, something eventually clicked in her mind, as if she had now made sense of the current situation. The greater density of qi in the area, Jian being infused with qi two times in a row… although such incidents did not have a connection if one were to look at them separately, after living in this place for a while, Qin was certain of this thought of hers.

‘The spirit vein is growing!’

With this thought in mind, Qin went ahead and kneeled down on their front porch, looking up at the skies as she praised the God of Spirit Slag for being benevolent as it allowed the budding spirit vein near their house to grow more powerful.

On the other hand, Arthur was looking at the current situation with interest, making sure to be careful while using [Spirit Aura: Infusion] as he did not want a repeat of the incident back then. Currently, he had already infused 2 points of qi into Jian’s body, allowing him to break through the 8th Stage of Essence Condensing and…

Bang!

Smoothly break through to the 9th Stage of Essence Condensing.

“Let’s infuse another point,” said Arthur as he sent qi into Jian’s body a third time. Naturally, the couple could not help but have appalled reactions at this point, especially Qin, as she saw this unfold before her very eyes. Though, that did not mean that Jian wasn’t surprised as well. In fact, he was much more surprised than his wife, making him ponder, ‘Has the God of Spirit Slag finally decided to help us?’

Deciding to place this question at the back of his head for now, Jian assiduously assimilated the qi he had been given yet again into his cultivation. In the meantime, Arthur attentively watched the whole process through his [Spirit Sense], his goal being to help Jian break through to the next realm of cultivation.

Fortunately, it did not take long for Arthur’s goal to be achieved.

Bang!

Unlike before, where a soft explosion would resound inside Jian’s body, what happened instead was that all of the qi in his body had decided to condense itself into something more tangible. Eventually, all of the qi inside his body had become tangible, prompting a slightly louder explosion to resound throughout his body as his aura had undergone a sharp increase in pressure.

Slowly opening his eyes as he became slightly wary that more qi would enter his body out of nowhere, Jian slowly stood up from his cross-legged position and looked at his wife, who was looking at him with surprise and happiness written all over her face.

Seeing the wide smile on her face, Jian could not help but lightly smile as well as he released a bit of his qi, condensing a small ball of it above his palm before saying, “I’ve broken through, dear.”

“I do have eyes, you know?” replied Qin in response, instantly dispelling the tender atmosphere surrounding the two of them. Soon after, the two of them could not help but let out a light peal of laughter as the two of them knew in their minds that the main reason why Jian could break through to the 1st Stage of Essence Condensing in such a short time was all due to the God of Spirit Slag.

…

Sitting at the stairs of their front porch, Jian could not help but look at the skies as he muttered, “Since I’m now at the Essence Condensing Realm, I can finally say that I have enough strength to protect you. To protect our future.”

“I guess so,” replied Qin as she leaned her head on his shoulder with a smile. “However, to really say you have the strength to protect me, you have to learn some martial techniques first. What’s the point of having the strength if you don’t know how to use it, no?”

“Well, that kinda hurts,” said Jian in response, prompting Qin to lightly chuckle soon after. “In any case, you’re right. I’ll make a trip to the nearby town once Lady Guang returns with the money from selling the Spirit Slag.”

Although she nodded in response to his words, something else was occupying Qin’s mind, which Jian quickly noticed. “What’s wrong, Qin?”

“It’s kind of unfair if you think about it,” replied Qin, which only confused Jian even further. Seeing that her husband was only becoming more confused, she then asked him, “Why did the God of Spirit Slag only help you break through to the Essence Condensing Realm?”

Whoosh!

Just as she said that, a great amount of qi entered her body, prompting a surprised expression to appear on her face as she quickly closed her eyes and sat cross-legged. In response, Jian could not help but let out a chuckle, murmuring with a religious expression, “As always, the God of Spirit Slag is benevolent.”

…

“And with that, the final requirement for the quest is done,” said Arthur in a tone of slight satisfaction as he continued, “To be honest, I thought the process was going to take longer than that.”

Hearing that, Sisa replied, “Well, it’s because of your Qi Purity. If it was still at Tier 1, then it would have probably taken Jian around a day or so to assimilate all of the qi you gave him to break through to the next realm. But since your Qi Purity is at Tier 2, the process was shortened to a couple of hours.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense,” Arthur said in response, commanding the system to bring up the notifications he had just received.

Ding!

You have completed the quest [System Quest: The Makings of a True Spirit Vein (3)].

You have received 2500 System Points.

You have unlocked the Assistant Advancement Module.

“Sisa?” he asked not long after he was done reading through the notifications. “Got any clue on what the Assistant Advancement Module is?”

Sisa replied, “I could explain it to you while you keep an eye on Qin. After all, you also infused her with qi recently.”

“It’s going to take a while until she assimilates the one point of qi I sent into her body,” said Arthur in response. “So, care to explain?”

“Well, from the name itself, I’m pretty sure you already know what the module does.” Seeing that Arthur seemed to have everything under control, Sisa started to explain. “It’s a module that more or less allows the system’s assistant, in this case, me, to do more tasks to help you.”

“In other words, it’s a roundabout way for the system to tell me that you’ve been useless all this time, so here’s a module that makes you less useless,” Arthur could not help but say in response with a chuckle, to which Sisa replied, “And who would’ve died of boredom if not for me interacting with you?”

“Of course, I was just kidding,” replied Arthur.

“Doesn’t sound like it,” responded Sisa.

Realizing that the conversation would eventually turn into an argument between the two of them, Arthur decided to change the topic as he figuratively cleared his throat, asking once more, “So, what does the Assistant Advancement Module do?”

“I’d suggest you take a look at it yourself,” answered Sisa, prompting Arthur to inwardly let out a light sigh as he commanded the system to show him the new module he had just unlocked.

Whoosh!

In less than an instant, a screen appeared in front of his field of vision, filled to the brim with text. However, as he read through the contents of the screen, only one thought surfaced in his mind.

“…well then.”