Chapter 164: Chapter 164: Magical Transformation (Vote for us with your monthly tickets, part 3)

Feng Jun absorbed this Spirit Stone, taking roughly seven minutes from start to finish.

When the Spirit Stone finally turned to powder, he let out a breath and leaned against the stone wall lazily.

At this moment, he didn’t want to move at all, feeling nothing but exhaustion and an aching all over.

It was known that when he absorbed the first Spirit Stone, his body had already suffered a cultivation injury.

Although he had immediately borrowed a Meridian Opening Pill from the Tian Family members, he had yet to take it.

Then he was frantically mining rocks, digging with all his might, non-stop digging, aside from eating and drinking, he never rested.

In such a condition, even a High-Rank Martial Master would be half-dead from exhaustion.

Afterward, he absorbed the second Spirit Stone, and the internal injury worsened. Now, the fact that he could still forcefully sit leaning against the stone wall was already quite remarkable.

He gasped for dozens of breaths, then suddenly felt something off. With the dwindling daylight, he reached out, only to draw in a sharp breath, “What the… mushrooms?”

On the stone wall of the hole he had just dug out today, there was a mushroom that had grown, with a cap the size of a goose egg!

Without a doubt, this part of the stone wall was exactly where the Spirit Stone had sprayed out energy,

and this mushroom was able to grow so large in just a few minutes, and still be attached to the stone wall, clearly because it had been bathed in Spiritual Energy.

This thing could not be seen by others! Feng Jun applied some force with his hand and yanked the mushroom off, carefully stuffing it into his backpack while taking out his mobile phone, turning on the flashlight to see if there was anything left on the stone wall.

There truly was nothing remaining, he couldn’t see any traces, nor could he feel any reaction of energy when he touched it with his left hand.

However, after this incident, he no longer wanted to stay at the bottom of the hole. With a few pushes off with his legs, he easily leaped out of the twenty-plus meter pit.

Then, with a few waves of his hands, he pushed the various sized rocks toward the hole. This wasn’t so much about destroying the evidence as it was about not drawing too much attention to the pit. After all, pushing them downwards didn’t require much effort.

As he pushed the rocks, the noise was loud and startling, especially the larger ones that fell into the deep pit, which could even shake the ground a bit.

The Tian Family members in the distance noticed, and they chose a loud-mouthed fellow to yell out a question, “Divine Doctor, do you need our help?”

“No need,” Feng Jun replied in a deep voice, shoving more stones down. When it was nearly done, he lit a cigarette with a flick of his hand and, making use of the fading light, quickly departed.

Today’s gains were quite substantial. He planned to go back and have a good rest and recovery for a couple of days, then walk around to see if he could find other Spirit Stones.

To be honest, the test he had conducted with the second Spirit Stone today was a bit disappointing. He felt that he could have done better, but nightfall and the increased presence of Tian Family members around made it inconvenient.

The journey back was silent, and he returned to the small courtyard built of Jade.

Lang Zhen was very diligent, standing guard outside the study. When he saw Tian Yangni accompanying Feng Jun as he walked in, Lang Zhen glanced at Feng Jun’s complexion and couldn’t help but express his surprise, “Divine Doctor, what… what happened to you?”

Several lamps lit the courtyard as bright as day, and anyone could see that the Divine Doctor’s face was off.

Feng Jun didn’t mention that he hadn’t taken the Meridian Opening Pill, not wanting to cause unnecessary speculation from Tian Laoqi, and simply responded indifferently, “Today I conducted some tests, well, it’s nothing serious, go and prepare the meal.”

Then he went into his bedroom, took out a Meridian Opening Pill, and handed it back to Tian Yangni.

Tian Yangni really wanted to refuse it, but Feng Jun’s expression darkened, and he obediently took it.

During the meal, the Deng Family Brothers also returned. When they saw Feng Jun’s complexion, they were both slightly shocked — they knew the Divine Doctor had been on a certain hilltop all day, conducting some tests, but the Tian Family had kept it under tight wraps, preventing ordinary people from going there.

The brothers didn’t expect that the Divine Doctor’s complexion would be so poor. They couldn’t help but voice their concern, asking what had happened.

Feng Jun didn’t bother to answer, simply stating that these matters didn’t concern them and if they had that time, they might as well help him out.

The help he needed was, of course, the laying of cables and installation of a surveillance system. In the morning, it wasn’t advisable for him to reveal these things, but after an entire day, there was no need to keep them hidden any longer.

Particularly fortunate was that from this moment to the end of the Hai watch, the Deng Family Brothers had no guard duties; they typically only started their shifts at midnight. With nothing else to do at present, they joined Lang Zhen in listening to the Divine Doctor’s explanations.

In fact, among the three, Deng Lao Er was the most receptive to new things; he was the first to grasp Feng Jun’s explanations.

However, the surveillance system from Earth Realm was still a bit too complex for the natives of this plane. In fact, they had no concept of what insulation meant, let alone terms like “shielding.”

Deng Lao Er didn’t grasp it either, but when he tried to operate it, he immediately ran into problems. In the end, he even asked indignantly, “If the wires have to be stripped to be twisted together, why bother putting a cover on them in the first place?”

Lang Zhen subtly suggested — actually, hiring a few more people wouldn’t cost much.

This statement… was accurate. In this realm, the cost of labor was very low, and hiring people was much cheaper than installing surveillance equipment.

Feng Jun was talked to the edge of a rampage by their words but in the end, he could only sigh, “Alright, tomorrow we’ll lay four lines at the four corners of the yard, and each of you take turns going over them by hand… It’s more effective to do it once yourself than to look at it a thousand times.”

Since that was the case, it was impossible to do any more work today. Feng Jun returned to his bedroom and closed the door, then he took the Meridian Opening Pill.

He had been impacted by Spiritual Energy twice today and had sustained not insignificant damage, but generally speaking, these were only potential problems. After taking the Meridian Opening Pill, a moist and nourishing energy arose, gently healing those tiny cracks.

It took only about three hours for his body to significantly recover. It was like having several small cuts, which could heal naturally over time, but if treated with hemostatic and anti-inflammatory medicine, the effect would be much better.

All he needed to do was to maintain a gentle recuperation over the next few days, and the cracks would heal without medication, leaving no underlying issues.

Truth be told, it was somewhat wasteful to use such a precious Meridian Opening Pill for this purpose.

It was around two o’clock in the morning, in the dead of night when Feng Jun stopped his Tun Na exercises, got up, and warmed up some leftover food in the microwave, eating hungrily.

After eating, he went outside and strolled around the yard to check if anything was amiss.

Due to the Wonderful Hand Pavilion martial master’s nocturnal intrusion a few days ago, the yard blazed with light at night, especially the additional searchlights facing outward, making it quite difficult for anyone to sneak in.

However, to be honest, Feng Jun didn’t need to make these nightly rounds. The “Nearby People” function on his mobile phone was sufficient for observing whether anyone was infiltrating the area.

Still, he felt it was necessary to take a walk outside.

Firstly, the detection range of “Nearby People” was too small, only thirty meters, which was not secure enough. Secondly, he wanted to disguise the fact that a lot of things had appeared in his room. Generating some activity would confuse anyone watching, making it easier to conceal the truth.

He wandered around the perimeter of the yard for about twenty minutes and encountered a three-person patrol squad from the Tian Family. Seeing that there was nothing to do, he returned to his room.

This little bit of activity was akin to aiding his digestion. Once back in his room, he continued to meditate and didn’t charge any devices. This wasn’t because he had found a way to look for Spirit Stones and deemed such a small amount of energy recharge insignificant. The fact was… he still had some minor injuries.

Moreover, the diesel fuel he had brought was running low. For the next few days, he planned to search thoroughly for Spirit Stones around the area. He didn’t want to return to Earth just yet, so it seemed wise to conserve what diesel he had left.

When dawn just started to break, Feng Jun finished his exercises and got up, intending to go out. After thinking for a moment, he took out his mobile phone instead.

He opened the “Nearby People” function — he wanted to see if his odd behavior from yesterday had prompted the Tian Family to secretly station someone nearby.

The next moment, he was startled: There were originally five red dots around me, so why have they turned into ten?

The five red dots were definitely Lang Zhen, the Deng Family Brothers, and the siblings Feifei and Huan Huan. But what was with the five additional red dots?

Upon closer inspection, he was overjoyed: It turned out that no one had stealthily invaded, but rather his detection range had expanded.

The light circle on the screen was still the size of a ping pong ball, but at this moment, he intuitively swiped on the screen, and as expected, the circle expanded to the size of a tennis ball in an instant.

However, this was the limit. It couldn’t be expanded further.

Feng Jun was marveling at this occurrence. He was eager to discover what changes two Spirit Stones had brought him, so he tapped on “Nearby Spirit Stones” to check on the one at the riverbed.

The Spirit Stone was no longer at the edge of the circle but was instead closer to the center.

After more testing, Feng Jun finally confirmed that his detection range had indeed doubled. The radius for detecting nearby people was around sixty meters, while the radius for detecting nearby minerals was up to six hundred meters.

Moreover, he could zoom in and out on the map. Although he could only zoom at a one-to-one ratio, it was still better than nothing, right?

“Finally, it’s not just ‘Nearby People’ anymore,” Feng Jun murmured softly. Then, he meticulously searched the vicinity again, only to be disappointed to find that, despite the doubled radius and quadrupled area, there was still only that one Spirit Stone.

He couldn’t help feeling a little unsatisfied, even though he was well aware that Spirit Stones were extremely rare in this realm. However, during these short few days, he had found three Spirit Stones.

Maybe lately, I’ve been having quite an easy time, Feng Jun thought to himself, reflecting on his attitude. Yet at the same time, he couldn’t help but click on the Spirit Stone again.

Then, a line of text appeared: “A coalescing Spirit Stone, time until formation: three to four thousand years.”

Immediately after that, the empty house he was in began to shake violently…

(Third update has arrived, summoning monthly tickets for the last two days.)