[Last Emperor] Chapter 21  - Purity and Upgrade (Patreon)

Tao Zi stared at the flashing system notification. He waited until it was done before he decided to go over it in more detail. It had been scrolling and changing too fast for him to keep up with previously. Plus his frayed mental state made it hard to focus for a moment. 

But he was much calmer now. 

A system message meant that the fight was over now. 

He sat up and took a few deep breaths. Considering the size and how many popped up, he doubted that it was anything bad. He expected a ton of experience of both types, rewards galore with at least one that would help his situation better, and finally a breakthrough into the Journeyman stages. He recognized that expectations could lead to a bad taste in his mouth if it wasn’t at least something good enough, but he couldn’t help it. 

It was the largest task he had completed. Got the most amount of monsters killed in the process as well. 

Tao Zi focused on the system notifications. 

Congratulations on your exceptional action!

Executed your first Superior Level Plot/Trap!

Reward 193 Qi Exp

Reward 301 Qi Exp

Battle Concluded!

Adjacent Experience and Battle Involvement Detected!

2x HellHound kills - 

225x Mortal Stage Goblins

1x Mortal Stage Orc

1x Journeyman Stage Orcs

4x Orc Kills - 

1x HellHound

1x Goblin Chief

39x Goblins

493x Goblins Kills - 

1x Mortal Stage Orc

164x Goblins

1x Injured Goblin Shaman

1x HellHound Claims - 

1x Burned, filthy, stained Contamination Spear Banner

1x Orc Claims - 

1x Body of a HellHound

1x Goblin Chiefs Head

1x Core of a HellHound

…

…

…

Total Rewards Received - 

500 Qi Exp

554 Body Tempering Exp

He stared with his mouth open as it kept going. Totaling an amount of experience he had not imagined at all, much less considered even a possibility from a battle. Five hundred of each type was ridiculous. He was afraid to even check his status page in case the overabundance of experience would be wasted and turn into nothingness because he didn’t have the capacity to hold it all. 

That didn’t mean he gained an incredible amount of physical rewards though. Three items dropped into his lap as soon as he was thinking about them. Unlike all the previous rewards, these were actually worth something to him. 

Each one would help him beyond just this day. 

A manual was the first thing he picked up. Rubbing his hands across the hard cover, the designs of a serpentine dragon were bumpy. Blue and white were its main colors. Very eye catching and pleasing to look at too. It was the first thing he noticed between the other items. 

Reward - 

Azure Flames of the Dragon Ancestor - Tier C+

Flames of a True Dragon are nigh impossible for the lower stages of existence, but that does not mean they could not harness its power. It may not be as strong, or fierce, not even as intimidating, but it still has dragonic essence within it. 

It didn’t seem like much, but compared to his current cultivation manual, it was miraculous. Just opening it to the first pages already showed it was of a much higher quality. Tao Zi doubted if his current one was anything above the F+ rank. The lowest initiate manuals weren’t meant to be good or special. They were meant to build a very basic foundation for the next manual coming up in the process. 

Not anything incredible on their lonesome. 

Tiger approached. Jumping on the bed and sniffing the items in his lap. Eventually attempting to bite the corner of his brand spanking new cultivation manual. 

He nearly jumped trying to get it away from the orange rascal, who for whatever reason was intent on damaging that specific corner of the book. It didn’t stop until Tao Zi threw it into his ring pocket. Keeping it hidden and safe from the cat. 

It sat down and began to clean its stomach fur directly in front of him. Leg stretched out. Not a care in the world that it had almost ruined his best source of growth. Well, maybe the safest considering there was no way it would provide him with a total of one thousand experience split into both Qi and Body Tempering.

Tao Zi sighed as he moved to the other items. Three pills that came bundled together in a bottle and a strangely glowing yellow stone. He picked up the bottle and studied the variously colored pills. Blue, green, and red.

Reward - 

1x Spiritual Roots Purification (Perfect)

1x Spiritual Roots Upgrade (Perfect)

1x Spiritual Roots Repair (Perfect)

Effectiveness Expiration/Deterioration - 

23m 59s

… 58s

… 57s

… 56s

He blinked at the notification. He knew that he had Spiritual Roots and they were the deciding factor in if he was trash or not, but he had never seen items like this. Not even mentioned by anyone in the sect. Just from reading, he understood that they were valuable. Yet, how valuable were they? 

Tao Zi frowned. It almost felt wasteful to get something like this so early on. 

Plus the timer meant he had to take them now before they lost whatever level of effectiveness that made the perfect. It would not be wise to waste an opportunity like this being indecisive or over thinking the matter. 

He put them to the side as he picked up the last stone—

Reward Activated - 

Rift Portal ripped open in space continuum back to reality… 

World - Cultivation world affiliated with Host…

Location on world undetermined…

Duration - 

01m 30s

Location - 

Within 2 square miles radius of current location

Tao Z stared at the message. Unable to wrap his head around the possibility of escaping being ripped out of his hands without a moment to prepare. He would be lucky to get out of the cave and take a few steps in thirty seconds with the boulder in the way. But, he wasn’t completely upset. 

He had gained too much already to be disappointed now. 

It proved that escape was possible. An alternative path than to murder every single moving thing in the entire rift including the monsters in the Foundation Establishment Realm. The same ones his own sect patriarch had been terrified of and refused to take a step into the rift while throwing him in. None of the elders either.

He stowed away the look and everything else he could remember as the stone turned into motes of white light. The timer finished and he was left in silence once more. Just staring at what could have been an important milestone to return with the system in hand and him in the Journeyman Stage.

Would I return to the Azure Dragon Sect? No. No I would not. They kicked me out and threw me here to die. If I ever returned, there would be hell to pay for attempting to murder me.

Tao Zi shook his head. He felt steam coming out of his head just from thinking about his ex-sect. What they did to him and how they went about it. He wasn’t perfect by any means, but to resort to murder was beyond what was right. 

Good thoughts, Tao Zi. Good thoughts. 

Again, he forced himself to focus on the benefits he received today. 

He popped the three pills into his mouth one by one. Gagging each time at the horrible tastes. Tiger jumped up and bolted away from him as though he was about to be covered in filthy sludge again. Tao Zi laughed at the rascal. 

This was a Spiritual Root process. Not a Body Tempering and Cleansing process. Wrong type of—

He dropped back into his pillows. Unconscious as the pills went into effect and began their jobs in earnest. Working in tandem to purify and repair his spiritual roots before the upgrade could activate. Tiger sniffed from a distance, it gagged.