Food gives me an entry, I will be invincible if I stay alive

Chapter 255 The World of Humans, The World of Demons

This year's autumn imperial examination is scheduled for the fifth day of the seventh lunar month.

In other words, the provincial examination will officially begin in a full month.

Having heard the latest news about the Records of the Glory of Dali that day, and witnessed the public opinion battle among his fellow examinees, Chen Xu actually had another thought in his mind:
He certainly wouldn't do what Mo Huaizhang did, using distant relatives to spread his reputation in the marketplace and belittle his fellow students, but... he had "The Splendor of Dali"!

If one truly wants to stand out in this war of public opinion, the best way is not to have countless mouths praising oneself in the marketplace, but to have the "Records of the Splendor of Dali" undergo another change on the first day of next month.

If the rankings could move up a few more steps, wouldn't that be better than a thousand words of debate?
Of course, ideas are one thing, but in practice, Chen Xu was neither hasty nor impatient.

Ranking up is also a matter of chance, and Chen Xu had no intention of taking risks at crucial moments.

Let it be as fate dictates.

Whenever he gets a chance, he always strives to be the best.

If we really don't have one, then we can make another one... cough, it's not too late to make another one.

That night, Chen Xu entered the kitchen to take stock of all his recent achievements.

Leaving aside the various exotic spiritual materials, let's just talk about the various auxiliary materials that were previously missing. After collecting them for some time, Chen Xu has obtained two: [Midnight Rootless Water] and [Noon Water].

We are still missing a few strange items, including [Tears of the Literary Sea and Ink Pond], [Blood of the Deer Crying Scholar], [Snow from the Previous Year], and [Volcanic Spring].

The following year, he planned to go to Lingxi Snow Mountain to search for snow early the next morning.

As for the volcanic springs, it was said that several extinct volcanoes also existed in the Lingxi Mountains. Chen Xu then planned to travel along the Lingxi Mountains after resting tonight.

Then, ask Wei Yuan to use his earth-遁 (earth-遁) technique to take him into the center of those extinct volcanoes.

Let's see if we can find a volcanic spring.

In short, Chen Xu must refine the Leaping Dragon Pill, which has the power to bind dragons and reverse waves, and the Water Spirit Crystal, which can enhance his understanding of water-attribute magic.

In addition, the kitchen also contains a pound of rare and precious wine, a gift from the monkey demon.

Having already drunk the Thousand Treasures Brew, Chen Xu had no use for the Hundred Treasures Brew.

Recently, Chen Xuchang has been brewing a variety of rare wines and feeding them to the hedgehogs and mice in small amounts. Wei Yuan didn't react much to the wine, but the mice became increasingly stronger after drinking it, which is great news.

After more than half a month of diligent cultivation, Chen Xu's cultivation level has increased from 93.9% of the late stage of the Meridian Opening Realm to 97.6% of the late stage of the Meridian Opening Realm.

He is only one step away from reaching the perfect state of the Meridian Opening Realm.

Chen Xu had recently been experiencing a feeling of swelling in his dantian, which made him realize that the refinement of his true qi had actually reached a certain level of perfection.

Once he overcomes this hurdle, he will be able to progress from the Meridian Opening stage to the Core Formation stage!

The inner elixir formed from the primordial Qi is also known as the Golden Elixir.

At that time, Chen Xu, who possesses a Golden Core and is also at the Core Formation stage, will likely be many times stronger than an ordinary Core Formation cultivator in terms of combat power.

In fact, even though he was still in the Meridian Opening Realm, Chen Xu didn't actually spend much effort killing Zhu Xianpo, who was in the Core Formation Realm.

However, accumulating true energy is easy, but breaking through the bottleneck is difficult.

Recently, Chen Xu has found his cultivation increasingly difficult. Especially after reaching 97% progress, every tiny step forward has become ten times more difficult than before.

Fortunately, Chen Xu was calm and composed, so he was not anxious.

He has his own firm goals and knows that as long as he takes one step at a time, he will eventually be able to cross those goals and reach the other side.

Then there's the issue of "accumulated likes".

However, there has been little progress in this area.

Now that he's far from Yunjiang Prefecture, Chen Xu's previously accumulated channels for receiving likes are no longer receiving them. In the past half month or so, Chen Xu's increase in likes has mainly come from the little mouse, the little hedgehog, and his two trips to the Ghost Market.

Yes, on the night of June 1st, Chen Xu summoned the tray ghost again and had it lead the Taoist soldiers into the ghost market once more.

This time, we entered a little-known ghost market.

It's even worse than the oil-fried ghost market.

Interestingly, the little ghost market is called "Hungry Dream Ghost Market," and most of those who enter it are starving ghosts.

Hey, that matches up!

Therefore, although this was a small ghost market, as soon as the Taoist soldier set up his small pot and stall, exclamations of amazement immediately rang out.

The Taoist soldier and the tray ghost actually did a very legitimate business in this Hungry Dream Ghost Market.

There's nothing else to sell but white rice porridge infused with the essence of the Yellow Springs.

If you sprinkle a few more grains of cinnabar into it, that will be enough to make the starving ghosts in the Hungry Ghost Market rush to buy it.

If we're talking about doing business well, the Hungry Dream Ghost Market is far superior to the Oil Pot Ghost Market, and even surpasses the Yellow Springs Ghost Market by many times.

This trip to the Hungry Ghost Market directly increased Chen Xu's accumulated likes by 9,000 points, making up for the loss he suffered from the difficulty of getting likes in late May.

Chen Xu really hoped that if he used the Netherworld Matching Ghost Market again next time, he could randomly get to the Hungry Dream Ghost Market again.

If there's no Hungry Dream Ghost Market, the Oil Pot Ghost Market is also a good option.

After the Taoist soldiers blasted it, the foundation of the Taoist priest increased significantly.

Originally, as Chen Xu's cultivation level increased, the Dao soldiers could only withstand 30% of Chen Xu's own strength.

After being deep-fried, the Dao soldiers' ability to withstand the infusion of power increased dramatically to 50%.

The best part is that this infusion of 50% of his strength is not "instantaneous," meaning that Chen Xu can store a portion of his innate Qi within the Dao soldier's body through daily cultivation.

Dao soldiers use this portion of true energy in their daily operations, without needing Chen Xu's physical body to constantly transfer energy.

This is equivalent to Chen Xu adding a 50% power booster to himself.

When released during battle, the pendant's energy can be replenished through daily use after it's depleted, without affecting Chen Xu's own true energy reserves. It's truly a win-win situation, absolutely wonderful.

Chen Xu was originally troubled by the fact that his Daoist soldier abilities had reached a bottleneck, but the oil pot in the Oil Pot Ghost Market directly solved this problem for him.

If they can bomb it again in the future, there might be some surprises.

At the same time, after being deep-fried, the Daobing's original weakness of being afraid of water was also resolved, and Chen Xu no longer needed to frequently replace the water-repelling talisman for it.

That saved me a lot of trouble.

In addition, during his time traveling in the countryside, Chen Xu encountered several more demons.

The cute and elfin creatures include little colorful birds, deer demons, rabbit demons, and so on, while the fierce and ruthless ones include wolf demons, snake demons, and so on.

However, whether they are fierce or small and cute, they can only be considered minor demons, not worthy of attention, and their intelligence is not even fully developed.

Great demons like the Grey Monkey King are actually quite rare, and little demons like the hedgehog and mouse, who can communicate freely and are exceptionally intelligent, are equally hard to find.

Avoiding crowds and traveling through the mountains and fields may involve some hardship of being exposed to the elements, but it also offers a unique kind of scenery.

Chen Xu entrusted his soul to the kitchen and devoted himself to cultivation, reaching a new level of proficiency.

I'm just waiting to climb the snow mountain tomorrow morning.

(End of this chapter)