Seeing everyone enhancing their strength for the Ascension Tournament, Lin Jichen also settled down and began planning for his own realm advancement.
He needed to break through to the Golden Core Realm; otherwise, it would be tough to compete against the elites from other sects in the tournament.
"Alright then, disciple will take my leave."
Lin Jichen cupped his hands and bid farewell to Elder Tianyuan.
"Wait a moment," Tianyuan called out to him.
"Is there something else, Elder?" Lin Jichen turned back to ask.
Elder Tianyuan's face was stern as he said, "Although the Sword Sect suffered heavy losses this time, thanks to your warning, I was able to rush over and provide support. Otherwise, more disciples might have perished. You performed exceptionally well in the Land of Sealing Demons, slaying numerous demonic cultivators. After a meeting with the twelve Grand Elders, we decided to reward you."
Lin Jichen's eyes lit up; the benefits were coming!
Elder Tianyuan tossed a jade slip and a token to Lin Jichen.
"These are your rewards. Don't get complacent, brat. You need to keep working hard; your cultivation is still too low, understood?"
"Disciple understands. Thank you, Grand Elder."
Satisfied, Lin Jichen took the items and left.
As soon as Lin Jichen left, Elder Tianyuan's stern expression broke into a smile.
"This brat, hahaha..."
At this moment, Nangong Wu walked out from behind, puzzled. "Father, I remember the meeting only mentioned rewarding him with sect contribution points. Why did you give him a sword technique as well?"
Elder Tianyuan laughed heartily, "He saved your daughter this time. If it weren't for him calling me over, who knows how many more Sword Sect disciples would have died? Yue'er might not have been able to retreat safely. What's a sword technique compared to that?"
"That's true, but you were too generous, giving him an Earth Grade Ultimate Technique. My disciple Chen Yuan is also very talented. How about giving him one too?"
Nangong Wu tried to get some benefits for his beloved disciple.
Unexpectedly, Elder Tianyuan instantly turned into a stingy miser, "Get lost!"
Nangong Wu walked away dejectedly, like a wilted eggplant.
If this continued, his father would become more and more fond of Lin Jichen.
He had hoped to matchmake his disciple Chen Yuan with his daughter. After all, Chen Yuan was truly like one of his own family.
But now, it seemed that his only supporter, his father, was about to defect.
As for Nangong Yue, there was no need to mention her. Out of the four family members, two had already defected.
The only one left was Nangong Yue's mother, Nangong Wu's wife.
Hmm, he needed to find time to discuss this with his wife in the Law Sect. She would definitely support him.
Lin Jichen left Spirit Beast Mountain and finally took out the two items to examine them closely.
First was the jade slip. Lin Jichen used mana to open it, revealing an Ultimate Technique, and it was Earth Grade!
[Earth Grade Ultimate Technique: Mountain-Splitting Sea-Cutting Sword]: With one sword, I can split mountains and cut seas, sweeping away all disturbances!
Gather all sword momentum and intent, and slash forward, dealing base skill damage to the enemy and 50% splash damage to all targets within 200 meters. All hit targets will suffer from a 30-second tendon-severing and 30-second healing-ban effect.
Tendon-severing effect: Each skill release by the opponent will cause a 1-second stiffness, interrupting skill continuity.
Healing-ban effect: Prevents health recovery.
Cooldown: 3 days, Mana Cost: 10000 points.
Requirement: Sword Cultivator in the Crystal Realm with a bone root of 90 or above.
Seeing this Ultimate Technique, Lin Jichen almost drooled.
Compared to Li Chang'an's Shattered Sky Demon Seal Palm, this was on a whole different level.
Most Ultimate Techniques only had single-target damage, including the Shattered Sky Demon Seal Palm and the Hell Dragon Spear he picked up from Sui Wei's Soul Burial Mound.
But this Ultimate Technique had area damage.
50% skill damage within 200 meters, meaning group damage of over 10,000 points.
This was simply amazing, my dear!
Lin Jichen quickly learned the Ultimate Technique. He was no longer just a Sword Cultivator with only one demonic Ultimate Technique, sob sob.
Besides the Ultimate Technique, there was also a token, which turned out to be a contribution token.
[Tianyan Sword Sect Contribution Token:10000 points.]
Lin Jichen grinned. With 10,000 contribution points, he could exchange for some good stuff in the sect's Scripture Repository!
Without delay, Lin Jichen immediately headed to the sect's treasure vault, carefully selecting and finally choosing an Earth Grade Martial Arts Technique, just enough for his contribution points.
[Earth Grade Martial Arts Technique: Heavenly Light Slash]: Condense Sword Qi and slash forward within a 50-meter range, dealing 2500 base skill damage to a single target, with additional bleeding and silence effects.
Bleeding: 100% chance to cause bleeding, losing 5% of current health over 30 seconds.
Silence: 30% chance to cause a 10-second silence effect, but cannot interrupt the opponent's skills.
Cooldown: 40 seconds, Mana Cost: 1200 points.
Requirement: Sword Cultivator in the Crystal Realm with a bone root of 70 or above.
Honestly, if it weren't for the high damage, this Earth Grade Martial Arts Technique wouldn't compare to Lin Jichen's Phoenix Feather and Wind Thunder Sword.
But this was a public resource in the sect's treasure vault, available to any player with enough contribution points.
It was already considered a good attribute.
However, since Lin Jichen received the skill book from Leng Feiyan, his standards had become quite high.
Despite this skill being highly sought after by many players in the sect, the high contribution points made it accessible only to a few task maniacs.
Other Mysterious Grade and Spirit Grade Martial Arts Techniques were much cheaper, but Lin Jichen didn't even consider them.
Honestly, many of his Martial Arts Techniques couldn't keep up with his realm.
Take the Gu Sword Qi, for example. Even at its peak, it only dealt two to three hundred points of damage, which was useful in the Qi Refining Realm but insufficient in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Not to mention, Lin Jichen was already in the Crystal Realm, and his skill damage often matched his normal attack damage.
Even the Frost Moon Slash, a supreme skill, only dealt eight hundred points of damage, while his opponents often had tens of thousands of health points.
Eight hundred points of damage were simply not enough.
The passive effect of the skill was useful; otherwise, Lin Jichen wouldn't even bother using it.
With the Falling Thunder Sword Technique, his normal attack damage sometimes surpassed his skill damage.
In a battle, you don't have much time to throw skills; you need to deal the highest damage in the limited time to defeat your opponent.
This wasn't a turn-based game, stronger skills meant higher win rates.
Lin Jichen needed to update his skills, seeking better and stronger ones with higher damage and effects.
He decided to save the remaining contribution points for now and planned to do more tasks to exchange for a few more skills.
Before that, Lin Jichen took the supreme-grade Body Refining Elixir and prepared to break through to the mid-stage of the Crystal Realm!
[Ding! Breakthrough to mid-stage of Crystal Formation, all base attributes +40 points, vitality +4000, mana +4000!]
[Ding! Consumed supreme-grade Body Refining Elixir, free attributes +80 points!]