He decided to experiment a bit and moved the abstruse gemstone pendant into the processing chamber. It was a beautiful blue gemstone with a moving nebula inside. That nebula gave it the ability to gather the energy around it and agitate it, increasing the speed of cultivation. It nourished and trained its owner's soul force constantly.
They appeared this way naturally and processing them was not an easy task. If slightly damaged they lost their power. And dividing it into different parts was usually impossible. But with the help of Starlight Crafting Plate and Heavenly Energy Crystal Nie Li may have a chance.
After an hour of work, Nie Li was able to separate it into three parts. They were weaker than the original but each of them had their own smaller nebulas. Then Nie Li remembered from Robert's memories that the colors of gems were related to the minerals in them. And Nie Li had many metals and other gemstones with him. After many experiments and all of his knowledge of inscriptions, he got three different pendant artifacts.
He took out one with a dark gemstone with a black nebula. It had a simple cord that he put around his neck. And he could feel his soul force stirring. He calculated that it would raise his cultivation speed by 1.5 times because it was not very useful with his cultivation method with the Demon Spirit Concentration array. But the fact it could nourish and train even during idle hours made a great difference.
For girls, it should be more effective because they cultivated normally. It may increase their speed of cultivation by two times. Nie Li took out another two necklaces. He prepared them for the girls. These ones had elegant gold chains instead of a cord. And gemstones in them were blue and green colored respectively. He put them in his interspatial ring and cleared his workspace. He must not miss his daily cultivation sessions.
Before setting up his cultivation tent he scanned the camp. Unexpectedly he found that both girls were in one tent still awake. It looked like they were having a conversation. He was curious about what they were talking about this late at night, but that was their private conversation. So he activated his Cultivation tent and began his training.
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This time it had taken him just above five hours instead of six to absorb the power of four demon spirits. It looks like Kong Ming's inheritance improved his talent by 15-16%. This was good. He will need to add one more demon spirit in his next session. He ended his meditation and took out a soul crystal to test his soul force. It was 259 and his abstruse pendant and the remnant page of the Temporal Demon Spirit Book would add another 10-12 during the day without even cultivating. This was great. This was much better than his novel counterpart let alone his old self.
It was too early so he decided to sleep for a bit. Even though it wasn't needed because meditation could replace sleep for cultivators, sleep had its upsides. One of those was dreams. After inheriting Robert's memories his dreams were very vivid. Some of his memories weren't fully integrated yet, so when he got those memories fully he had dreams related to them.
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After some time he was awakened by his alarm clock from his dream about how he was flying on a broom. Flying broom. That reminded him that he should make some flying artifact. Not broom of course, but something like star shuttles from a novel called Martial Peak could be useful. That was another novel Robert didn't finish.
Nie Li stood up and noticed that the girls were awake too. They were preparing breakfast? They usually ate pre-prepared food. All of them gathered enough of it in their interspatial rings. So why they were bothering with cooking? He left his tent and yes, Ye Ziyun and Xiao Ning'er were really cooking something.
"Hello, girls. What's the occasion?" Nie Li asked approaching them.
"Oh, Nie Li you're awake," said Xiao Ning'er smiling happily. "Wait for a bit everything would be ready."
Whatever she was preparing, it smelled delicious.
"Nie Li do you like Red Been Bun or Egg Tarts?" Ye Ziyun asked from the side. It looked like she was preparing desserts.
"Umm, both?" Nie Li replied still a bit puzzled by the girls' behavior.
"Okay, they will be ready in a minute," she said smiling.
"Then I will prepare the table," he said. It would be a shame to eat breakfast on the ground after girls have gone through so much trouble to prepare it.
He took out a table and chairs from his interspatial ring. Considering he had more than 1000 cubic meters of space inside his ring he had prepared almost everything for this expedition. He put a lamp on the table activating it. He also took out some tableware in case girls needed it. Everything was ready for their romantic breakfast. On the word 'romantic', Nie Li froze for a moment looking towards the girls. Could this be? Nah, he shook his head, dismissing the idea as unplausible.
Not long after girls brought the food they prepared. Their delicious smell wafted around the underground chamber. Girls sat at both sides of him and they began their breakfast. The girls were very talkative today so they spent almost an hour eating breakfast. Both of them were very caring towards Nie Li making his suspicions grow. Only when they finished their breakfast did Nie Li remember about the necklaces.
"Oh, I almost forgot,' said Nie Li and took out the necklaces. He cursed himself for not preparing jewelry boxes for them. How incredible it would have been. But he missed that opportunity. But still, he put the necklaces around the girls' necks personally. The blue gemstone with a dark blue-purple nebula inside was for Ye Ziyun. The green one with an orange-reddish nebula was for Xiao Ning'er. He took so many pains to get the colors right yesterday, so he hoped that girls liked them.
"Thank you," the girls thanked him getting a bit emotional. The necklaces were breathtaking.
"It's an abstruse gemstone. Wearing it can increase your training speed at least two-fold and can also nourish your soul force at the same time. Even while walking it will train your soul force." Nie Li explained to them the gemstone's abilities.
Girls looked at the necklace with wonder, then Ye Ziyun reluctantly said "I cannot accept such a precious thing."
Xia Ning'er also wanted to remove the pendant from their neck. It was too expensive a gift to accept.
"No need, I have my own here" He showed them his black gemstone pendant around his neck. "Those ones I have specifically made for you."
Only now have girls noticed that the colors of their pendants were different.
"You made them?" Xiao Ning'er asked.
"Yes, they are the parts of a single abstruse gemstone I found inside Kong Ming's coffin. So you could say that these are your share of the treasure."
Girls didn't know anything about abstruse gemstone, so they thought it was normal for it to have different colors when separated.
It was so romantic to share pieces of a single gemstone with the boy they had feelings for. It was also so lovely and useful. For a moment, they had a dreamy, faraway look in their eyes. Then they met each other's eyes.
Coincidentally they had a discussion about Nie Li only yesterday after he went to sleep. They both admitted to each other their feelings for Nie Li. They didn't want to lose him or their recently restored friendship. So they came to an agreement. They will let Nie Li choose which one he wants to be with. And the other side will accept his choice without protest.
Nie Li wasn't aware of their thoughts but could feel that there was something strange going on with the way girls were looking at each other. He was curious but decided to wait a bit and observe them. Directly asking them about it may be a wrong decision.
Meanwhile, both of the girls hugged him in thanks blushing in the process, even more raising his suspicions. Even if they developed feelings towards him, they wouldn't initiate physical contact so soon, especially Ye Ziyun. But he will take whatever he can, so he is not going to complain anyway.