Chapter 147: Choice

A life-extension card does not extend a person's lifespan, but rather their vitality.

Unsealing it releases a mighty surge of vitality capable of making withered trees turn green and ancient branches blossom.

It is effective at slowing down natural aging and revitalizing human cells.

However, its effect is limited when it comes to organs that are shattered, diseased, or missing.

The latter require regeneration cards to fix.

The life-extension card only provides vitality.

Even so, Su Jingxing was quite pleasantly surprised.

The Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree!

He wouldn't need the life-extension card anytime soon. Instead, would the mighty vitality obtained from unsealing this card be useful to the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree? Could it accelerate its maturation?

Vigorous plant vitality would inevitably have some impact on growth.

For instance, a larger size and better quality.

As for whether it could accelerate maturation, Su Jingxing did not know.

Although uncertain, this did not prevent Su Jingxing from using the life-extension card on the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree.

Because it was a Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree, a heavenly treasure, not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill plant!

Of course, whether injecting a massive amount of vitality into the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree all at once would be good or bad remained unknown.

If it failed to accelerate maturation and instead caused the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree to mutate, Su Jingxing would suffer a massive loss.

He truly would have thrown good money after bad.

Conversely, if it really did accelerate maturation, the harvest would be immense.

Energy-gathering stones were difficult to come by after all, with most controlled by major factions, and rogue cultivators possessing very few.

Even if the scope were expanded to the entire Qinghe City, there were very few who possessed energy-gathering stones.

Even if Su Jingxing bought every single one available, it wouldn't provide much growth assistance to the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree.

Therefore, this was a choice—a gamble-like choice.

Either harvest the concentrating spirit fruits early, or waste a life-extension card, and potentially ruin the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree in the process.

Which one to choose?

Su Jingxing pondered, put away the life-extension card, and decided not to use it for the time being.

Now was not the time to dwell on other matters.

An exotic beast had appeared at the garbage power plant. Amidst the panic, terror, and screams earlier, someone had already called the Martial Suppression Office, the Security Team, and even an ambulance.

Vehicles were already on the road, speeding toward the power plant.

Su Jingxing's current attire was hardly suitable for public view.

Without hesitation, he descended from the sky, put away "Thunderbolt," and retrieved the three flying soul-weapons.

Then, finding an uninhabited corner, he stowed away his cloak and mask, and ran back to the area where the corpse transport vehicles were parked.

Smearing some dirt on his face, he imitated the others and lay prone on the ground, pretending to be unconscious.

Although the battle with the earthworm exotic beast had ended quickly, the consecutive roars and sonic waves released by the beast had still knocked everyone inside and outside the power plant—except for Su Jingxing—senseless and unconscious.

Fortunately, very few people had died, and Su Jingxing hadn't been able to pick up many cards.

This was precisely why he felt relieved.

By comparison, Su Jingxing was quite pleased with the application effect of his True Qi cultivation.

Just now, when he mobilized all his cultivation to suppress the earthworm exotic beast and render it immobile, it was the first time he had ever executed this minor secret technique.

The origin of this secret technique came from an ancient book titled *In-Depth Application of True Qi*.

Su Jingxing had accidentally discovered it while searching for information about the Concentrating Spirit Fruit Tree on the top floor of the Xuantian University library. He had flipped through a few pages back then and memorized this little trick.

*In-Depth Application of True Qi*—as the title suggested, this was an ancient book detailing how to utilize True Qi.

Mobilizing True Qi cultivation to exert a suppression effect sounds simple, but it actually has an extremely difficult prerequisite.

One hundred years!

Only when one's True Qi cultivation reaches a hundred years or more can one control True Qi without external release, forming a terrifying might capable of powerfully suppressing others.

Those with less than a hundred years of cultivation simply could not pull it off.

This was also the reason why this secret technique was called "minor."

How many people possessed a hundred years of True Qi cultivation?

It could be said that this secret technique provided a way to judge the strength of a Fourth-Grade martial artist.

Sixty years of cultivation and a hundred years of cultivation both fell within the Fourth-Grade realm, but would their strengths be identical or roughly the same?

Obviously, a hundred years of cultivation was stronger!

Forty years of True Qi cultivation was enough to bridge the gap in most other factors.

And the difference between a hundred years of cultivation and two hundred years of cultivation was even greater.

With Su Jingxing's three hundred and fifty-one years of True Qi cultivation, it was no exaggeration to say he could thrash all Fourth-Graders!

Cough, cough~

...

He hadn't been lying on the ground pretending to be unconscious for long.

The vehicles of the ambulance, the Security Team, and the Martial Suppression Office arrived at the power plant one after another.

The arrival of the group quickly transformed the entire plant area from dead silence to bustling noise.

Those cleaning up, those saving lives, those searching...

Dozens of people shuttled back and forth inside the power plant, entering and exiting.

Listening to the commotion, Su Jingxing slowly "woke up" with the help of the medical staff.

Then, testing his limbs to "confirm" he was fine, he declined a trip to the hospital. Taking the place of Gu Bo, who was heavily injured and still unconscious, he loaded the dead bodies onto the corpse transport vehicle and drove back to the crematorium first.

Upon returning to the crematorium, after handing over the corpses and explaining the sequence of events to the manager, he rushed to the hospital to visit Gu Bo.

When he reached the hospital, Gu Bo had already regained consciousness. The examination results showed a slight concussion and some damage to his eardrums, meaning his hearing would decline for the next six months or so.

All things considered, it wasn't too bad. Compared to the others who had lost their lives, this was the greatest misfortune among fortunes.

Unsurprisingly, Su Jingxing was subsequently interrogated by the Martial Suppression Office.

The questioning mainly revolved around the situation of the exotic beast and the expert who had slain it.

To this, Su Jingxing naturally "spoke the truth," claiming he had only heard the roar and then passed out, having no idea what happened afterward.

Where the exotic beast came from, what it looked like, who killed it, and what the killer looked like—he was completely clueless.

This was the truth.

Aside from Su Jingxing, everyone else who had been in the power plant at the time—save for a few who caught a glimpse of the earthworm beast's massive body—had only heard the roar.

And then, there was no then.

Moreover, those few who had seen it were all dead.

Being able to see the earthworm beast meant they were right beside it.

With an earth-dragon that swallowed electricity roaring so terrifyingly, suffering the sonic wave impact at close range, it would be a miracle if they hadn't died.

Consequently, the investigation results of the Martial Suppression Office yielded very little content.

The earthworm exotic beast could be identified through the shattered remains left at the scene.

As for who killed the earthworm beast, there was absolute zero clue.

Such matters were better left for Li Linzhou to rack his brains over.

...

Returning to the small courtyard at the foot of the mountain, Su Jingxing eagerly took out "Thunderbolt" and sensed the energy reserve of this blood-spirit weapon to see how much had accumulated.

One-tenth... no, one-twentieth!

Having absorbed the electricity from the earthworm exotic beast, "Thunderbolt's" energy reserve was roughly at one-twentieth.

It didn't sound like much, but Su Jingxing calculated that this energy was enough for him to use seven or eight times.

Of course, not for attacks, but as a speed auxiliary to experience true lightning teleportation!

...

Ding-dong~

The text message notification chime on his phone rang.

Su Jingxing put away "Thunderbolt," unlocked his phone, and took a look.

"Senior, there is news about the energy-gathering stone!"