43: Essence sublimation

“Oh, oh, oh~~~”

The morning light was just breaking, and the golden rooster announced the dawn.

Opening his eyes to the rooster’s loud crow, Yang Dian, whose consciousness was still a bit in Chaos, saw a starry sky.

Vast, boundless, brilliant, glorious.

“So beautiful.”

As he murmured, the entire starry sky began to sway.

The galaxy collapsed, and time and day fell silent.

A Starlight Jellyfish, seemingly nurturing a sea of stars, awoke from the darkness. As its tentacles swayed, it sprinkled strands of starlight, using them to paint a breathtaking picture in the silent darkness.

He reached up and scratched his hair, which was as messy as a bird’s nest.

Gradually regaining his senses, Yang Dian turned his head to look at the fish tank.

As expected, the jellyfish in the fish tank had escaped.

And it had grown larger.

When he first caught it, it was almost dried out, just a thin layer of skin.

After being kept in a small bucket for the journey, the jellyfish’s body recovered, its bell was about two thumb-widths in size, and its tentacles were five or six centimeters long.

But now, its bell was larger than a human head.

The length of the starlight tentacles under the bell had reached over 20 centimeters.

Feeling an inexplicable sense of closeness emanating from the jellyfish, Yang Dian frowned, propped himself up against the headboard, and tried waving at it.

The jellyfish seemed to sense his thoughts. Its bell, even more dazzling than last night, fluttered twice and floated in front of Yang Dian.

Looking at the sea of stars that seemed to be slowly rotating within the jellyfish.

Feeling the genuine and undeniable sense of closeness it radiated.

Yang Dian, having just woken up, was still a bit dazed.

“So, what exactly happened last night?”

He scratched his scalp in annoyance, then reached out to the jellyfish’s bell and rubbed it a couple of times.

Don’t even mention it.

Seriously, don’t even mention it.

The texture was exceptionally good.

Cool and elastic.

It was like touching a large jelly that had just been refrigerated for a while on a hot summer day, with just the right firmness and elasticity.

After prolonged contact, Yang Dian even felt a faint cool Qi flowing from the jellyfish into his fingers and palm.

He withdrew his hand, but the few strands of cool Qi that had entered his palm did not recede; they lingered in the flesh of his palm.

Feeling that something was amiss, Yang Dian instinctively wanted them to leave his body.

Then, something even more unexpected happened.

As the thought of expelling them arose, strands of starlight emerged within his flesh, slowly ascended into the air, and finally merged back into the jellyfish’s body.

“So, what exactly is this thing?”

Yang Dian finally understood why the first skill protagonists in online game novels usually learn is often an appraisal skill.

Not knowing the attributes of items, monsters, or even pets is truly inconvenient!

“Never mind, never mind.”

“Let’s first see what the benefit I intuitively sensed yesterday was.”

He touched his body, felt no difference from before, and then summoned the panel.

————

Cultivation Technique:

Dragon Claw Hand (Bronze Sinews and Iron Bones, 3.32%)

Heaven and Man Unity Skill (Not initiated, can be initiated by consuming 438 energy points)

Iron Shirt (13.37%)

Grass Tread Flight (77.3%)

Hun Yuan Strength (Not initiated, can be initiated by consuming 26 energy points)

Energy: 299.6

————

Looking at the data on the panel, Yang Dian couldn’t help but feel a bit confused.

The progress of several Martial Arts on the panel had greatly increased.

For example, the energy required to learn Heaven and Man Unity Skill had decreased by nearly 250 points.

The progress bars for Dragon Claw Hand, Iron Shirt, and Grass Tread Flight had all slightly increased, with Grass Tread Flight showing the most progress, over 50%.

And for Hun Yuan Strength, the energy required to master it had also decreased by over 100 points.

In other words, after just ‘sleeping’ for a night, he had saved nearly 400 energy points.

It was just that the energy balance didn’t quite add up.

Logically, after using 30 energy points to dispel his fatigue, his current energy balance should have been 348.3.

But the energy balance on the panel was only 299.6.

“So, who earned that 48.7 difference?”

After much thought, Yang Dian finally turned his gaze to the Starlight Jellyfish.

In the bedroom, besides him, the only thing that could move was the jellyfish.

And when he woke up early in the morning, the jellyfish was perched on his head.

Other than it, Yang Dian couldn’t find a second suspect!

“So, you little thing ate nearly 50 points of my energy, one-eighth of a golden cicada?”

Perhaps sensing Yang Dian’s annoyance, the Starlight Jellyfish swayed its tentacles, scattering specks of stardust.

As the stardust fell on Yang Dian’s skin, that faint, cool sensation once again surged through Yang Dian’s heart.

Frowning, Yang Dian watched the Starlight Jellyfish continuously scatter stardust, somewhat unsure of its reasons for doing so.

But as he watched, he noticed that the Starlight Jellyfish’s body was shrinking.

Although it wasn’t much, it had indeed become smaller.

‘So, is this stardust some kind of material energy within the Starlight Jellyfish’s body?’

As the thought arose, the Starlight Jellyfish also stopped scattering stardust.

If Yang Dian wasn’t mistaken, not only had the Starlight Jellyfish’s body shrunk, but the brightness of the sea of stars within it had also dimmed somewhat.

Even the density of the nebula within its body had become significantly sparser.

After a moment of hesitation, Yang Dian finally decided to trust his intuition and attempted to absorb the starlight energy that had merged into his flesh.

As the thought of absorbing the starlight energy arose, a cool sensation spread throughout Yang Dian’s body.

This feeling was like a long drought meeting sweet rain.

It was also like a traveler dying of thirst in the desert encountering a clear spring.

Even more, it was like the essence of Life moving towards a higher level.

This was an ineffable sublimation!

Unfortunately, the comfort came quickly and left just as quickly.

The stardust that had scattered from the Starlight Jellyfish and merged into his flesh was not much.

It lasted less than 10 seconds.

The energy contained within the stardust was completely digested by Yang Dian.

Opening his eyes after leaving that comfortable sensation.

A feeling of loss surged through his heart:

“How about a little more?”

As his voice fell, Yang Dian clearly sensed that the Starlight Jellyfish was emitting an emotion called Life Qi.

It was as if it was accusing Yang Dian of being greedy.

“Dudu~~”

He didn’t know where the sound came from.

In any case, after calling out twice, it opened and closed its bell once, then floated and settled steadily on Yang Dian’s head.

He reached out and tried to lift the Starlight Jellyfish.

But he couldn’t lift it.

The bell was wrapped around his head.

“What?”

“Are you planning to make my head your home?”

The jellyfish said nothing, only opened and closed its bell once.

“Hiss~~”

Feeling the pressure on his head as the jellyfish closed its bell, Yang Dian couldn’t help but gasp.

Don’t even mention it.

It was cool and soft.

Quite enjoyable.

He tried to lift the Starlight Jellyfish again.

Feeling that he couldn’t lift it without considerable force, Yang Dian simply let it be.

Anyway, he was the only one in the room.

If it wanted to be a hat, let it be a hat.

With nothing else to do, Yang Dian turned his attention back to the panel.

He wanted to see if, after the ‘sublimation,’ the panel would show any new changes...

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