12: Chapter 12 Level Seven Fiery Eyes!

Early the next morning, Tang Long still handed over the required amount of spirit residue, including Vulture's share, though his complexion looked terrible.

Vulture looked at him and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong? Is someone bullying you?"

Tang Long shook his head. "I accidentally injured myself during my Breathing Technique practice; my chest hurts quite a bit."

Vulture nodded slightly and gave a quiet warning.

"Don't be impatient. The Breathing Method you all practice puts a heavy load on the heart and eyes. If you feel a swelling pain, you must stop. Take this pill when you get back, and pay more attention to resting over the next few days."

"So that's how it is. Thank you, sir."

Accepting the pill from Vulture, Tang Long couldn't help but feel a sense of irony.

Sometimes, a community of shared interests was more reliable.

Even if he wanted to skin you alive a few days ago, as long as you could create profit for him today, he would look after you.

Once the inspection and handover were complete, Tang Long returned to his own mine shaft as usual.

Even though no one was monitoring or restricting him anymore, he didn't have the time to wander around aimlessly.

As it turned out, some of Heizi's words weren't lies; using spirit residue for cultivation did indeed significantly increase psionic intensity.

Tang Long had tried it when he was at level one, but back then, his limited vitality meant he only scratched the surface.

After his hard work over the past few days, he had now reached level five, and his Fire Eye had simultaneously risen to level five.

To meet the requirements for upgrading Fire Eye, he had allocated three of his five attribute points to Spirit and the other two to Endurance.

His foundation was now more substantial, and his recovery ability was growing stronger. He wasn't afraid of minor injuries, and he no longer felt so apprehensive about consuming some vitality.

Furthermore, the increase in Spirit was not just a number on a status panel.

Spirit could comprehensively boost one's senses, reaction time, and mental capacity.

However, cultivation remained extremely difficult.

Once the psionic energy was extracted from the spirit residue, it would immediately burst apart and dissipate in an explosive manner. It was impossible to absorb it all, and the psionic impact was strong, making it both inefficient and dangerous.

If he continued to cultivate this way in the future, it would not only consume vitality, but his demand for spirit residue would likely skyrocket, which would be a massive expense.

He could feel that he was very close to a certain threshold, but his progress was becoming slower and slower, making him slightly anxious.

After all, there was no 'psionic intensity' entry on the panel, so Tang Long could only keep his Fire Eye active to directly monitor the changes in his dantian.

He was truly pushing himself; if one piece of spirit residue wasn't enough, he'd use two; if two weren't enough, he'd use three. This also helped recover psionic energy faster.

His psionic energy was drained time and again, and he was injured over and over. Finally, on the following night, he suddenly felt a certain throbbing sensation.

Under the gaze of the Fire Eye, he saw a wisp of psionic energy at his dantian begin to transform into a mist-like state, and his psionic intensity instantly reached an unprecedented height.

"This... so that's how it is!"

Tang Long suddenly understood.

Original psionic energy was like invisible air. Only after being compressed to a certain intensity would it undergo a morphological change, manifesting stable plasticity.

He immediately began to guide this wisp of mist, causing it to gradually form a ring shape.

The moment the head and tail connected, this psionic energy instantly began to circulate on its own and maintained itself at that intensity.

[Your realm has advanced to Qi Manipulation Stage One! Vitality increased by 1000, Vitality Recovery increased by 100/hour, Psionic Limit increased by 100, obtained 10 Free Attribute Points, and 5 Skill Points!]

[Tang Long: Normal]

[Realm: Qi Manipulation {Stage One}]

[Level LV5: 297/1600]

[Psionic {High}: 425/600]

[Attributes {Unallocated 10}: Strength 10, Agility 5, Endurance 10, Spirit 15, Charisma 6, Spirituality 2, Legend 1]

[Vitality {High}: 3822/5868]

[Trait: Vitality Recovery {Medium} 600/hour]

[Cultivation Method: Torch Spirit Breathing Method {Fragmented} {443/3000}]

[Skills {Unallocated 5}: Detection LV9 {12/9999}, Fire Eye LV5 {38/5000}, Sprint LV2 {22/200}]

[Life: Mining {Master}, Gathering {Apprentice}]

[Quest Issuance Authority LV1: Max quests issuable 1, Max quest tags 1, Max completions 100.]

10 attribute points and 5 skill points per stage???!!!

Seeing this notification, Tang Long could hardly believe his eyes. After several seconds, he couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"I've definitely got a BOSS template, haha!!"

He immediately snatched up the Mining shovel beside him and swung it with a powerful whoosh. But after a few swings, it still didn't feel quite right.

Having entered Qi Manipulation Stage One, he clearly felt that the psionic energy was much more obedient, but it didn't directly apply to the weapon as he had imagined.

He thought for a moment, put down the shovel, and punched the cave wall directly.

With a thud, a pit about two inches deep was smashed into the earth and stone.

Tang Long withdrew his fist, his gaze full of joy.

Psionic energy had indeed taken effect, but for now, it was limited to his muscles, bones, and skin.

For instance, with that heavy punch just now, he normally wouldn't have been able to hit such a deep hole, and it would have been easy to injure his fist. But with the enhancement of psionic energy, not only was the punch's power increased by twenty to thirty percent, but under the protection of the psionic energy, it was completely undamaged, and he barely even felt any pain.

He tried a few more times. At full strength, he could smash a rock the size of a ball with one punch. It felt quite good, somewhat like the internal strength in martial arts novels.

However, Tang Long knew that what Blue Star martial artists could achieve went far beyond this.

True Blue Star martial artists were terrifying; he had once seen a powerful individual shatter a hundred-story skyscraper with a single punch.

Above Qi Manipulation, there were many realms like Blood Refining, Open Origin, Spirit Map, and Huagai Realm, while he was only at Qi Manipulation Stage One.

On the path of martial arts, he still had a long way to go.

At the very least, he no longer had to worry about people like Heizi.

Back when he was a thief, combat was an essential skill. As a top performer in that trade, his level was naturally very high; he could be said to be proficient in over eighty percent of the world's boxing styles and combat skills.

If he couldn't handle Blue Star powerhouses, could he not even deal with a few mine slaves?

Even if they all came at him together, Tang Long had nothing to fear.

Moreover, he had five skill points in his hand again; he was just considering whether to continue recklessly leveling up Fire Eye.

Level 6 Fire Eye required 18 Spirit points, and the requirement for Level 7 would likely increase again, needing at least four more points. So the 10 attribute points in his hand could probably only raise it to level seven at most, leaving nothing left after that.

But only leveling Fire Eye and adding to Spirit wouldn't work either. Currently, Strength and Endurance had reached 10, but Agility at 5 was indeed too low. If any accident occurred, his speed might hold him back.

After careful consideration, he still added to Spirit.

Mining wasn't urgent work anyway. Even if something happened, he had Sprint to bolster his speed, so he could wait a bit longer.

Level six cost 3 points, and as expected, the requirement for level seven increased again, costing 4 points.

He felt some hesitation while allocating the points, but once he leveled up and opened his eyes again, he knew he had made the right choice.

Level 7 Fire Eye allowed his vision to suddenly leap into another level.

The earth and stone of the mine shaft all became phantom images, and the meridians of psionic energy were as brilliant as nebulae. He could see the sky through the several-meter-thick cave roof, and he could see anything emitting spiritual light through the cave walls in any direction.

Every piece of spirit residue and spirit stone had nowhere to hide. Based on the density of the spiritual networks, it wasn't hard to distinguish between earth, stone, and open space.

Consequently, the overall situation within the East Eight mine shaft was quickly grasped by him, naturally including an abnormal distribution of spiritual networks at the edge.

Like a corridor, the spiritual networks were dissipating toward an entrance that shouldn't exist.

"That should be a tunnel, right? Heizi's doing? No wonder they were acting so suspiciously and restricted my freedom a few days ago."

Actually, Tang Long had anticipated this long ago, even thinking that they were very likely digging a tunnel.

Because there were only a few methods mine slaves could use.

Also, he discovered he could see some things he couldn't see before.

It should be... people?

He couldn't directly see the person in the adjacent cave, but he could see the silhouette of the spiritual light that person emitted, especially at the dantian position. Some looked like a ball of flame, and for others, he could directly see a Spirit Ring.

The guy with the Spirit Ring should be Heizi, right?

If he concentrated his spirit enough, he could even vaguely see Heizi's face.

And he suddenly noticed that in a certain part of Heizi's mine shaft, there was a cluster of golden light. Both in brightness and color, it formed a sharp contrast with a spirit stone about half a foot below it.

What was that thing?

The spirit stone underneath it was probably Heizi's private stash?

Tang Long closed his Fire Eye and smiled slightly, feeling... that he should change mine shafts.

Aside from the two spirit stones he had intentionally left unmined, the shallow-layer spirit residue in this cave had been almost entirely cleared by him. To increase output further, he would have to dig through at least two meters of earth and stone on the walls, which would be a massive project.