But then again, with great expenditure came extremely astonishing effects.
Jing Yan wasn't actually feeling a heartache over the Nine Yin Fruit he had used. After all, the very reason he had bought them was to aid his cultivation progress.
He would have no issue with using even more if it meant furthering his cultivation.
He only frowned because he was burning through his supplies at a much faster rate than he had anticipated.
One Nine Yin Fruit cost 1100 Spiritual Stones, which meant that he had burned through nearly 20,000 Spiritual Stones worth of materials over the last two weeks.
It was a rate of expenditure that would have frightened even a Precelestial warrior.
"The stones..." He then turned his attention at the Spiritual Stones.
He initially had about 10,200 Spiritual Stones in physical form. After Jing Tianying took the 2700 that were owed to him, there were more than 7000 Spiritual Stones left.
At present, however, there were only about half of those 7000 Spiritual Stones left before Jing Yan. The others had been reduced to a pile of white powder on the ground.
That was to say that Jing Yan had spent over 20,000 Spiritual Stones in only half a month.
His rank had risen from the Seventh Heaven to the Eighth Heaven. When he entered isolation, his Vital Qi had been rampaging through his body constantly from where he had absorbed the Soul Crystal too quickly. Now, he no longer felt that sensation.
If he fought another warrior again, he could go all out with his Vital Qi.
If he fought Li Tianfu again, he was certain that he could defeat the man within just 10 moves. And he would truly beat his opponent instead of just throwing him out of the ring.
However, Jing Yan was able to vaguely sense that his body still contained Soul Crystal energy that he hadn't managed to absorb.
With the help of the Nine Yin Fruit, Jing Yan had put the Arch of Heaven to work subduing a good amount of the Soul Crystal energy in order to rise to the Eighth Heaven. However, there was still about 40 percent of the original Soul Crystal energy left hidden in his body.
Jing Yan wouldn't have been able to sense the hidden energies if he was still at the Seventh Heaven. However, given that he was now an Eighth Heaven warrior, he could faintly sense all those hidden energies.
"I'll probably be able to absorb every bit of the Soul Crystal energy once I reach the Ninth Heaven," Jing Yan said to himself as he nodded.
Without a doubt, the Soul Crystal energy had been very, very helpful to Jing Yan.
Jing Yan wouldn't have been about to progress from the Fourth Heaven to the Eighth Heaven in such a short amount of time if it hadn't been for that Soul Crystal boosting his progress.
"The Eighth Heaven..."
Jing Yan glanced around his room and cranked his Vital Qi up. Under his precise manipulation, he gathered the Spiritual Stone dust into the shape of a smiley face. He then flashed and went out of the room.
The moon outside felt like water.
The autumn night had a special serenity to it.
The creaking of bugs made everything feel tranquil.
"The Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves and Moon-Freezing Triple Waves seemed to be showing signs of fusion when I was fighting Li Tianfu. A Low-grade martial system and a Middle-grade martial system were actually fusing to become a new martial system, eh?"
Jing Yan's gaze looked especially bright in the night.
Because Jing Yan had spent all his time since returning home on healing his injuries and elevating his rank, he hadn't had the time to think about fusing martial systems.
He felt that it was the right time to try it out at the moment. He wanted to see what was actually happening.
Jing Yan was sure of one thing—he had the Arch of Heaven to thank for the fusion of the two different martial systems.
He then slowly started up the Arch of Heaven, and at the same time, he brought up those two martial systems in his mind.
"Hmm, looks like they actually could fuse."
"The product of the fusion would have its powers boosted exponentially. During the fight, I didn't have enough time to do more than fuse a few small parts of the martial systems. But then again, despite only having fused small sections of the skills, I was still able to win against Li Tianfu in that fight."
"Well then, let's continue fusing the systems." A smile crossed Jing Yan's face.
He landed on the compound.
"Fusing the martial systems will require Vital Qi..."
He sensed the Vital Qi in his body being drained speedily by the fusion process.
"I'll have to absorb more Spiritual Stones, then." Jing Yan took out some Spiritual Stones after pausing for a bit, then he continued fusing the martial systems as he absorbed Vital Qi.
Time gradually passed.
The night seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
Jing Yan stopped fusing the systems when dawn was near.
"Fusion complete."
Jing Yan carefully swung Moonbeam Sword, drawing streaks in the air before him.
"The fused system still resembles Moon-Freezing Triple Waves, but the power seems to have risen by 30 percent." Jing Yan nodded.
He was pleased with the might of the fused martial system.
It was worth knowing that despite being a Middle-grade martial system, the power exhibited by the Moon-Freezing Triple Waves was on par with that of Top-grade martial systems. After the power of that system was boosted by 30 percent, its power was notably higher than that of Top-grade martial systems.
Although the strength of the martial system was still nowhere near that of Legendary-grade martial systems, it was nonetheless somewhere between Top-grade and Legendary-grade.
He made a rough count of the remaining Spiritual Stones and found that the process of fusing the systems had cost him about 1000 Spiritual Stones.
Modifications done to the Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves hadn't cost many Spiritual Stones, yet modifying Moon-Freezing Triple Waves had cost hundreds. Fusing the two skills together then cost him about 1000 Spiritual Stones.
"Time to modify Moon-Cutting Sword Methods then." Jing Yan grinned.
Moon-Cutting Sword Methods was something that Jing Yan had once practiced, and it was a Top-grade martial system.
Jing Yan had been able to use parts of the skill when he was back at the Seventh Heaven, yet he had never actually had a chance to use it for real.
If Jing Yan had used Moon-Cutting Sword Methods when he was fighting Li Tianfu, he would have definitely lost. He would have only been able to use part of the skill's power. In addition, the skill hadn't been modified before, so it was actually far weaker than Moon-Freezing Triple Waves.
Now that Jing Yan had reached the Eighth Heaven, things were different. If he modified the Moon-Cutting Sword Methods with the Arch of Heaven and his Vital Qi, which was far more formidable than a common Eighth Heaven warrior's, then the skill would probably grow to truly frightening levels of power.
Jing Yan was feeling rather excited, and he wanted to use the Arch of Heaven to modify the Moon-Cutting Sword Methods right away.
Four hours later.
"Eleven weaknesses in the Moon-Cutting Sword Methods."
Finding weaknesses and flaws in martial systems was a comparatively easy task.
Both the Stance of Autumn Wind and Falling Leaves and Moon-Freezing Triple Waves had more than 13 weaknesses each. The Moon-Cutting Sword Methods had comparatively few weaknesses.
Jing Yan shook his head.
If it hadn't been for the Arch of Heaven, there was no way he would have discovered those flaws in the first place.
He wondered if even Legendary-grade martial systems of frighteningly high value would have such flaws as well.
But then again, that wouldn't be something he could find out for the time being. Even when he was a Precelestial warrior all those years ago, he had never learned any Legendary-grade martial systems.
There had only been one Legendary-grade martial system in the entire Jing Clan, which was considered their clan treasure.
He wondered if the repaired version of Moon-Cutting Sword Methods would exhibit powers comparable to a Legendary-grade martial system.
Jing Yan's gaze was fiery as he looked forward to seeing what the improved skill could do.