Before the weasel spirit could activate its innate skill, Qiu Xia unleashed a sudden "One Thousand Years of Death." He followed up immediately by hurling the Golden Brick, which slammed directly into the weasel's head.
A spectral figure behind him raised the Universe Bow and pierced the creature's heart. Finally, he threw out the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover, sealing the weasel within as multicolored flames began to incinerate it.
The entire process was incredibly fast. The old woman had barely reverted to her true form before being struck; she didn't even have time to scream before she was finished.
The reason for this efficiency was simple: the Spirit Mask required the user to "act out" a deity to unleash its power. When Qiu Xia performed as Guan Gong, he was only at the first stage of acting because he wasn't tall enough.
However, when performing as Nezha, his current age was a perfect fit. He was currently a child, and his mind from his past life wasn't exactly mature either, making him a natural match for Nezha's persona. This allowed the Nezha portrayed by the Spirit Mask to exert massive power.
Despite this power, Nezha was still a child at heart and loved to play, which was why Qiu Xia had been messing around with the old woman initially. However, the moment he realized she was trying to flee and was about to let out a stun-fart before running the "bratty child"
Nezha lost interest. Without a word, he unleashed his ultimate move, taking the old woman out in one combo and reducing her to ashes with the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover.
After the old woman was dealt with, Qiu Xia wiped his face and retracted the Spirit Mask. His face was a bit pale. When he performed as Guan Gong earlier, he had used less than a tenth of his mana from start to finish. But while acting as Nezha, he had consumed 8.9 out of his remaining nine-tenths of mana. He was just a hair's breadth away from being completely tapped out.
"Hiss, the consumption of this Spirit Mask is really high!"
"Qiu Xia, what was that talisman you used just now, and what was that face paint?" Uncle Jiu walked over after finishing off the surrounding weasels, asking with visible curiosity.
"That talisman is something I realized after learning all the other talismans. It's called The Talisman of Heaven. As for the face paint, that's the Spirit Mask, which I adapted from the Deity Invitation Technique.
I had actually written the details down earlier, but I forgot about it because of the ghosts in Wang Family Village." As he spoke, Qiu Xia took out two notebooks from his Space Ring and handed them over.
If they hadn't been standing outside the Yi Zhuang, Uncle Jiu would have wanted to open the books immediately. Regarding the Spirit Mask, Uncle Jiu loved listening to and performing opera, so it suited him perfectly.
As for talismans, Uncle Jiu's cultivation in that field was among the best in Maoshan, so The Talisman of Heaven was also a great fit. He reckoned that if he had possessed these two techniques earlier, he could have taken down the entire pack of weasels all by himself.
They gathered the dead weasels from outside and brought them back to the Yi Zhuang. The blood and pelts of these "yellow-skins" were excellent materials for making talisman brushes and high-grade talisman paper; they certainly couldn't let them go to waste.
After storing the weasels at the Yi Zhuang, Qiu Xia began to recover in the courtyard. Once his mana was restored, he intended to enter a meditative state. As for the three men they had saved, he left that for Uncle Jiu to worry about.
By the time Uncle Jiu returned to the ancestral hall, the three men were already fast asleep inside. Uncle Jiu didn't disturb them. After lighting a stick of incense for the patriarchs, he went to his room to study The Talisman of Heaven and the Spirit Mask.
The three men didn't leave the Yi Zhuang until the next morning. They didn't just walk away empty-handed either; they left behind three silver dollars. A single silver dollar was enough to feed an ordinary person for months. Combined with the large haul of weasels from the night before, Uncle Jiu had turned quite a profit.
Of course, if they could have kept the body of the large weasel the old woman it would have been an even bigger windfall. Unfortunately, the playful Nezha had burned her into useless ash.
Several more days passed in a flash. On the day the thirty-day limit was reached, Qiu Xia chose not to cultivate outside and instead went to his room early to rest.
As the familiar sensation of drowsiness washed over him, Qiu Xia returned to the Naruto World. The familiar spiritual energy reappeared around him; that surge of unending energy, which he could feel even without mental perception, was truly wonderful.
After releasing some paper figures to gather news about Konoha, Qiu Xia collected some ancient wood from the clan grounds. He used Divine Machine to refine the array foundations and upgrade the formations in his courtyard. Then, he began to run Sage's Theft and the Star Visualization Method to level himself up.
Qiu Xia could have entered the Three Souls Realm the day after he obtained the Star Visualization Method, but he had been worried about startling Uncle Jiu. Thus, he had spent his time at the Yi Zhuang controlling
his cultivation growth and focusing on tempering his seven spirits. Over those thirty days, under the refinement of stellar power, his seven spirits had become even more tangible than his Three Souls, looking no different from his physical self.
Upon his return to the Naruto World and after setting up the protections for his courtyard, Qiu Xia immediately broke through to the Three Souls Realm. As he did, the sunlight in the entire courtyard was swallowed up; except for Qiu Xia, there wasn't a single ray of light in the yard.
If not for the array he had set up in advance, the zone of darkness would have been even larger, and Qiu Xia would have certainly been discovered. Although he was strong enough now that he didn't fear discovery, he hated trouble.
He cultivated until evening before stopping to listen to the intelligence gathered by his paper figures. First, time had progressed by only one night since he left the Naruto World, consistent with previous trips.
However, throughout the day, the Anbu and Root of Konoha, along with many other ninjas, were seen scurrying about everywhere. Even the ninjas monitoring the Uchiha had mostly disappeared, leaving only a few behind.
This situation made both the civilians and the noble clans nervous. They wondered what was happening was there a new threat to the village, or was war about to break out again? It had only been a few years since the last war; was a new one starting already?
Because of Konoha's movements, the villagers were in a panic. Spies from the four other villages stationed in Konoha sent reports back to their respective homes, putting them on high alert. They didn't understand Konoha's angle.
Was the Leaf trying to start a new round of war? Previously, the other four villages had always been the ones to initiate conflict; was Konoha trying to be the aggressor this time? Had they finally finished their recovery?
That didn't make sense. Setting aside general war fatigue, the losses Konoha suffered during the Nine-Tails attack couldn't have been recovered from so quickly. So, what exactly was Konoha up to?
While they didn't know what Konoha was planning, they remained vigilant to avoid being caught off guard by an attack. They began preparing patrols along the borders; if Konoha dared to strike, they would launch a counter-offensive immediately.
Qiu Xia was unaware of the outside situation, and even if he knew, he wouldn't have cared. Since returning to Konoha, he spent every moment except for eating and basic needs on his cultivation. On his first day back,
he used the stellar power converted from sunlight to elevate his rank to the Three Souls Realm, using it to temper his Human Soul. On the second day, he reached the Earth Soul Realm, tempering his Earth Soul. On the third day, he reached the Heaven Soul Realm, tempering his Heaven Soul.
Three days, one realm per day. In just three days, Qiu Xia jumped from an Earth Master Level 7 to Level 10. If he wished, he could even condense his Three Hun and Seven Po together to form a Yin Spirit and advance to become a Celestial Master.
The Celestial Master rank above Earth Master is divided into the Yin Spirit and Yang Spirit stages. The Yin Spirit stage requires merging the Three Hun and Seven Po together, using one of the three souls as the core.
Each spirit or soul merged increases the rank by one level. By the tenth level, the Three Hun and Seven Po are completely fused into a Yin Spirit. Once that step is reached, one needs to refine the Yin Spirit into Pure Yang to transform it into a Yang Spirit.
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