Qin Shilei finally bid farewell to the last grain buyer after a busy morning.
Back in Villa Number Five, he counted carefully and found he had harvested 71,624 crystal cores.
"I'm rich," Qin Shilei exclaimed, looking at the small mountain of crystal cores in front of him.
Unfortunately, An Qian and the others had already crossed the river to kill zombies, and even Zhang Cheng and his group had just left.
At such an exciting moment, Qin Shilei had no one to share it with.
"Help!"
Just as Qin Shilei was about to absorb the crystal cores to level up, several miserable screams suddenly came from the backyard of the villa.
With a wave of his hand, he collected the crystal cores and walked towards the backyard.
Pushing open the back door, he saw several people struggling against the willow branches under the willow tree.
Further away, twenty to thirty people were attacking the willow tree with ranged attacks.
Fed by a large number of zombie corpses, the willow tree had now recovered to its initial appearance of lush foliage and had even improved slightly.
The tough willow branches whipped through the air with great force, and showed little damage even when clashing with the people's swords.
In a short while, several people were entangled and hung up.
"Qin, quickly make your willow tree release my brothers."
A burly man in the distance saw Qin Shilei and immediately shouted loudly.
"It's you, are you trying to take a back door and buy grain from me?" Qin Shilei asked with a sneer, recognizing the customer who had just bought five tons of grain from him.
Go through the back door, my ass!
"Release my brothers quickly if you know what's good for you, or your head will be cut off immediately," the burly man said grimly and threateningly.
"Boss, it seems he's the only one here. We can go around to the front, capture him, and then force him to release our brothers," suggested someone next to the burly man.
"No need to trouble you to walk so far," Qin Shilei said with a smile.
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Shilei suddenly disappeared from the burly man's sight.
"Ah!" With a scream, a figure flew up into the air towards the willow tree and was instantly entangled by its branches.
"Ah, ah, ah."
Screams continued to ring out as people were kicked into the air and slammed into the willow tree.
Only then did the burly man realize that an incredibly fast figure was constantly moving around them.
He wanted to counterattack, but found that his vision couldn't keep up with the opponent's movements.
The burly man immediately knew that he had run into a hard nut to crack this time.
Hearing the screams of his subordinates, the burly man's heart turned cold. He turned around and intended to abandon his brothers and escape alone.
"Don't be in such a hurry to leave, stay and keep your brothers company."
Suddenly, a voice sounded in his ear. The burly man felt a powerful force coming from his stomach, and his body involuntarily flew towards the willow tree.
Before he could react, he was tightly bound by the willow branches.
The willow branches tightened their grip, and countless small thorns grew and pierced the burly man's body.
The burly man felt his blood and strength rapidly draining away.
"This willow tree not only attacks people, but also eats them." This was the burly man's last thought.
In less than a moment.
The burly man and his subordinates, nearly thirty of them, were all sucked dry by the willow tree into mummies.
Immediately after, the mummies were placed on the ground by the willow tree and wandered around like zombies.
"So the willow tree can also create these mobile mummies." Qin Shilei suddenly realized.
In the village where he found the willow tree, there had been many zombies without crystal cores, which he presumed were created by the willow tree using living people.
"These mummies aren't very useful. I'll have Xiao Li order the willow tree not to create them," Qin Shilei thought to himself.
He turned and went back into the villa, took out the crystal cores, and began to absorb them.
Because he practiced the Heaven-grade cultivation technique "Thunderous Nine Heavens," Qin Shilei absorbed crystal cores three to four times faster than ordinary people.
With the supply of massive crystal cores, his experience points soared.
An hour later.
He easily advanced to Black Iron Six Stars.
A little over another hour.
He smoothly advanced to Black Iron Seven Stars.
...
By evening.
When An Qian and the others returned, Qin Shilei's experience points had just reached the peak of Black Iron Nine Stars.
With An Qian and the others acting as guardians, Qin Shilei could safely proceed with his advancement.
"Ding, to advance to the Silver realm, two conditions must be met. First, continue to absorb 20,000 ordinary crystal cores or absorb a certain amount of more refined crystal cores. Second, the cultivation technique must guide the internal vital energy to break through the body's meridians. The higher the grade of the cultivation technique, the easier it is to break through the meridians, and the greater the potential after advancement."
He hadn't expected that advancing to the Silver realm would require a cultivation technique.
"Fortunately, I've already learned a Heaven-grade cultivation technique."
Qin Shilei's lips curled up as he took out the crystal cores obtained from the mutant zombie.
Qin Shilei called the crystal cores produced by mutated zombies that aided promotion "Grade One Crystal Cores," and those from the Black Iron realm "Grade Two Crystal Cores."
As the crystal cores in his hand were continuously absorbed, the vital energy in his dantian grew.
Qin Shilei quickly activated the "Thunderous Nine Heavens" cultivation method, constantly washing away the meridians and acupoints throughout his body.
Advancing to the Silver realm meant breaking through one of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.
Qin Shilei chose the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian.
Sufficient vital energy and a Heaven-grade cultivation technique allowed Qin Shilei to break through acupoints like a hot knife through butter.
The meridians were continuously widened and strengthened, gradually becoming more resilient and facilitating the passage of vital energy.
The acupoints on the Yangwei Meridian were also continuously filled and nourished by vital energy, becoming acceleration transfer stations for vital energy.
Qin Shilei's cultivation level rose steadily, soon reaching a critical point.
As long as he broke through this critical point, he could advance to the Silver realm.
The lightning-element vital energy not only possessed strong offensive power but also had unparalleled advantages in breaking through acupoints.
Like sharp arrows, several consecutive impacts broke through the critical point.
Advancement to the Silver realm!
"Ding, a Silver realm human has appeared in the world. This system has enabled the world channel and leaderboard functions."
"Ding, a Silver realm human has appeared in the world. This system has enabled the world channel and leaderboard functions."
"Ding, a Silver realm human has appeared in the world. This system has enabled the world channel and leaderboard functions."
The long-lost system voice once again echoed in the minds of all humans on Planet Blue, stirring up a storm.
At the same time, Qin Shilei also received personal system prompts.
"Ding, in recognition of you being the first to advance to the Silver realm, you are specially rewarded with the Heaven-grade cultivation technique 'Phoenix Dance Nine Heavens'."
Next was the prompt from the All Things Refresh System.
[The daily refresh count of the All Things Refresh System has increased to 30 times, and the fixed refresh count has increased to 12 times per day.]
[The host can now fix three attributes.]
Qin Shilei temporarily ignored the system prompts and carefully savored his strength after advancing to the Silver realm.
After reaching the Silver realm, the total amount of vital energy in his body increased threefold, and its quality became more refined.
Through the opened Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian, Qin Shilei could more easily mobilize the vital energy in his dantian.
From now on, vital energy could not only be attached to weapons to increase attack power but could also be released from the body, emitting attacks like sword energy.
Qin Shilei's current sword energy could travel one meter from his body, and its attack power had yet to be tested.
His spiritual power also increased by about three times.