Chapter 106: Explosion!

After only a moment, Chen Xiang returned to the inn, and this time no one came looking to trouble him.

The moment he stepped into the inn, Chen Xiang headed straight for Li Hanwei’s room.

At the door, he noticed that the protective barrier he had set was still intact, which put his mind at ease.

Next, Chen Xiang deactivated the barrier and knocked on the door.

“Hey, little beauty, are you asleep? I’m back!” Chen Xiang called out in a flamboyant tone.

Even the door seemed to shudder slightly, as if shaking off goosebumps.

Yet there was no response from inside.

Chen Xiang called again, “Little beauty, if you don’t answer, I’m coming in! And if I catch you doing anything you shouldn’t, don’t try to make me marry you!”

Silence.

Chen Xiang frowned. Previously, Li Hanwei never replied when he called, but she would come open the door herself. Now, there was no sound at all.

Could something have happened? With that thought, he didn’t hesitate and pushed the door open.

He looked around but saw no sign of Li Hanwei.

“Damn! Impressive, sis. How did you manage to escape? Even the barrier I set didn’t register anything. Impressive!” Chen Xiang swore aloud.

Then he noticed something on the table — a yellow paper letter with a single character: “Chu.” It was clearly left for him.

Chen Xiang twitched the corner of his mouth. Damn it, you ran off and didn’t even leave a note?

He didn’t say anything further. First, he thoroughly scanned the envelope with his powerful spiritual sense. Finding nothing wrong, he took it up.

“Master Chu, I’ll be waiting for you to cause chaos in the Li family. Li family, see you then!”

The brief note was cryptic, only six characters long.

“Is she really hoping I stir up trouble for the Li family? What’s going on? Isn’t she part of the Li family? Hmm, something’s fishy,” Chen Xiang thought.

“Well, I think I won’t cause a scene after all. I’ll just quietly teach Li Youyuan a lesson. If you want me to make a fuss, who am I to disappoint? But that would be embarrassing,” Chen Xiang said with a sly smile.

After a moment, he sat down in a chair, deep in thought.

Li Hanwei was getting more mysterious by the day. He had suspected before that she might have been captured, as she never really resisted.

Clearly, she belonged to the Li family, and the family’s two elders seemed to care about her deeply.

Qin’er never mentioned her to him, and external forces seemed to know her name but not her true nature.

“I’d better be cautious,” Chen Xiang thought. After all, a mysterious woman was the most dangerous.

...

Chen Xiang didn’t bother renting another room. He stayed in the same one, planning to visit the Li family elders first thing in the morning.

He opened the system interface and accessed his inventory.

Right now, he was rolling in wealth.

His reputation points totaled a staggering sixteen thousand—probably the richest he’d been since acquiring the system.

He first clicked on the explanation for the “Second Nascent Soul.”

“Second Nascent Soul: The second life of a cultivator. A cultivator in the Nascent Soul stage can cultivate a second Nascent Soul within their Purple Mansion. This second Nascent Soul has the same functions as the original.

“Cultivating a second Nascent Soul requires a cultivation level above Nascent Soul stage four but below the Divine Transformation stage. It cannot be cultivated after breaking through to Divine Transformation.”

“The system offers a method to cultivate the second Nascent Soul for two thousand reputation points and requires a high-grade Nascent Soul.”

“High-grade Nascent Soul: formed by combining five mid-grade Nascent Souls.”

Reading this, Chen Xiang immediately understood how to proceed.

But obtaining a high-grade Nascent Soul was challenging. It required five mid-grade Nascent Souls, each formed from five low-grade Nascent Souls.

He had eight low-grade Nascent Souls and one mid-grade Nascent Soul in his inventory. To complete the set, he needed twelve more low-grade Nascent Souls.

Low-grade Nascent Souls came from killing Nascent Soul stage cultivators. Those under stage seven produced low-grade Nascent Souls, while those above stage seven but below Divine Transformation produced mid-grade Nascent Souls.

Though not a saint, Chen Xiang couldn’t just kill people without cause.

“Hey, system, do you sell Nascent Souls?” Chen Xiang asked on a whim.

“Buying!” the system replied.

Chen Xiang’s face lit up. “Great! How much for one?”

“Low-grade pure synthesized Nascent Soul: five hundred reputation points.

Mid-grade pure synthesized Nascent Soul: three thousand one hundred reputation points.

High-grade pure synthesized Nascent Soul: twenty thousand reputation points.”

“Damn, that’s expensive!” Chen Xiang exclaimed. “System, what’s this pure synthesized Nascent Soul? Did you synthesize it?”

“Produced by the system,” came the reply.

“Impressive, system! I didn’t expect you to have this ability!” Chen Xiang said in surprise.

“All right, give me twelve low-grade Nascent Souls,” he said with a grand gesture, exuding the air of a newly rich man.

“Ding! Congratulations, host. You have exchanged twelve low-grade pure synthesized Nascent Souls, costing six thousand reputation points!”

Twelve low-grade pure synthesized Nascent Souls appeared in his inventory.

Chen Xiang sat up, ready to combine them into mid-grade ones.

A new interface popped up: five circular slots arranged in a ring, with a button in the center labeled “Synthesize.”

He placed five low-grade pure synthesized Nascent Souls into the slots. Below the button appeared the message: “Synthesis success rate: 92.7%.”

“System, you can fail synthesis?” Chen Xiang asked, surprised.

“Ding! All synthesis attempts have a chance to fail,” the system responded.

“Uh, okay!” Chen Xiang sighed and clicked the button.

Special effects played, and after a moment, a glowing ring enveloped the “Synthesize” button.

“Ding! Congratulations, host. You have successfully synthesized a mid-grade pure synthesized Nascent Soul!”

“Awesome!” Chen Xiang pumped his fist and moved on to the next synthesis.

The next attempt succeeded, then the next.

This time, he combined two low-grade pure synthesized Nascent Souls with three low-grade Nascent Souls, but the success rate changed.

“Synthesis success rate: 85.2%.”

“System, why did the success rate drop?” Chen Xiang frowned.

“Ding! Host used three impure Nascent Souls; thus, the success rate decreased,” the system explained.

“Is that even allowed? Well, 85.2% is still pretty high. Synthesize!” Chen Xiang muttered and continued.

Luckily, it succeeded, but the resulting item was called a mid-grade semi-pure Nascent Soul.

Next, five low-grade Nascent Souls were synthesized, with a success rate of 90.3%, a slight increase. It succeeded again.

Now, he had five mid-grade Nascent Souls left.

Chen Xiang carefully placed all five mid-grade Nascent Souls into the slots.

He focused intently.

The success rate showed only 65.1%.

“Damn, this is low?” Chen Xiang muttered. This was a lot of reputation points—six thousand—and barely over sixty percent felt too risky.

“System, is there any way to increase the success rate?” he asked through gritted teeth.

“Luck Water: increases synthesis success rate by 5%.

Price: five hundred reputation points.

Luck Stone: increases synthesis success rate by 10%.

Price: eight hundred reputation points.”

“That’s it?” Chen Xiang frowned, but the system gave no further response. It seemed these were the only two options.

“All right, get me one of each,” Chen Xiang said, taking a deep breath.

“Ding! Congratulations, host. Lucky Water exchanged successfully, costing five hundred reputation points!”

“Ding! Congratulations, host. Lucky Stone exchanged successfully, costing eight hundred reputation points!”

Chen Xiang used both items immediately, raising the success chance to 80.1%.

He took a deep breath and pressed the synthesize button.

“Success, success, success…” he muttered silently.

The synthesize sound effects echoed in his mind.

Finally, with a “bang!”—

It exploded!

“To be continued...”