chapter 27 Spring comes out of dead trees

These seventeen small wooden pieces represented seventeen primal spirit charms. They were based on the powers of thunder and fire. The thunder was the divine thunder of heavenly tribulation! The fire was the divine flame of the Endless Wood! Andrew Qi selected two of them, one thunder charm and one fire charm, and then used spirit energy runes to further nurture and polish them. Spirit charms differed from magic charms. The real value of a spirit charm lay in its "spirituality," so one should never recklessly polish or carve them. A skilled talisman master would develop and stimulate the material according to its innate spirituality, allowing its spiritual element and power to further manifest, even letting the spirit charm absorb spiritual energy for cultivation. Deep in his cultivation of talismanic arts, Andrew Qi naturally knew how to stimulate the spiritual power of the spirit charms. He continuously infused runes made of spiritual energy into one of the thunder charms, making its golden wood grain clearer and more distinct, as if there were lightning bolts moving across it. "Master, be careful, this is the divine thunder of heavenly tribulation!" Ulysses, the dim-witted dragon spirit who had hidden inside the Dragon charm of Well Constellation, had once been shattered by the divine thunder of heavenly tribulation and was still traumatized. Andrew Qi ignored the timid dragon spirit and continued to refine the spirit charm until the golden wood grain on it was fully "released," looking like lively golden threads moving on the wooden piece, vaguely resembling a little person made of lightning. This was the so-called Thunder Spirit. Only with a spirit could it be called a spirit charm! Once the thunder charm was completed, although Andrew Qi had spent a portion of his primal energy, his interest was not diminished in the slightest. He immediately began to replicate the process, successfully polishing the fire charm. The fire charm was completed, and similarly, there was a small person-like flame dancing on it, vividly alive. With these two spirit charms completed, Andrew Qi was confident. Even if he faced a master at the pinnacle of the ancient martial arts world, he could fight them! At this moment, Ulysses appeared, transforming into his dragon form, acting like a senior and seemingly communicating with the little thunder and fire spirits. After a moment, both little beings seemed to have been subdued by him. After completing the thunder and fire charms, Andrew Qi did not continue making charms. He hadn't decided what to do with the remaining fifteen spirit charms. As for the larger piece of wood, it was material for making a truthful charm. With his current level of cultivation, Andrew Qi couldn't make truthful charms. If he didn't already possess a truthful charm, even making a spirit charm would have been difficult for him. But Andrew Qi was now wavering whether to actually make it into a truthful charm. Indeed, this piece of wood was an excellent material for making truthful charms! But it still retained the entire life force of this divine tree, meaning its life seed was still here. It had been stubbornly resisting the divine thunder of heavenly tribulation. Now, as Andrew Qi decoded the wood with charms, breaking it down, it was like prematurely unlocking its shackles, completely separating its life seed from the divine thunder. This also gave Andrew Qi another choice—to let it be reborn! It wasn't that Andrew Qi was soft-hearted, but rather that this piece of wood's experience somewhat resembled his own. It had barely preserved its life seed under the divine thunder, having a chance to start anew. Why should he refine its vitality into a charm? "Well then, reborn from thunder and fire! Lucky for you to encounter me!" After hesitating for a moment, Andrew Qi made his decision. He picked up a brush, gathered the spiritual energy of heaven and earth at the tip, and wrote a large character ‘life’ in mid-air. The character was formed! It transformed into small drops of spiritual rain, falling onto the piece of wood. The ebony wood turned green. The dead wood came to life! Only Ulysses sighed at Andrew Qi's wastefulness! This was material for a truthful charm! ＊＊＊ Three days after the auction. Alisa Lin called Andrew Qi, asking if he was sure about participating in the duel between Nolan Chu and “Mr. Ye”, Jaxon Ye of Yuzhou. Actually, Alisa Lin had planned to persuade Andrew Qi. Being so young and having a boundless future ahead of him, it was not worth fighting with ruthless people from the underworld. But Andrew Qi had guessed her intentions and said directly, "This matter is related to me, I cannot ignore it. Moreover, real masters are made in battle, not just through practice!" "Alright then! I'll pick you up at six o'clock tonight!" Alisa Lin decisively gave up on persuading him. At six o'clock, Alisa Lin personally went and pick Andrew Qi up. After a forty-minute drive, the car entered a private club. On the way, Alisa Lin had already briefly explained to Andrew Qi that such underground fights were quite common in the underworld. After two major underworld forces became enemies, they usually wouldn't resolve their issues through open conflict but through underground boxing duels! Not only does the losing side have to apologize, but also lose a huge amount of money on bets! Of course, since it was an underground boxing match, it would attract many wealthy people to place their bets outside the ring. The winning side could naturally reap a huge harvest. But this boxing match was not simple. On the surface, it looked like Mr. Ye was standing up for his friend Dominic Yan, hence the challenge to Nolan Chu. But in reality, Dominic Yan was just a pawn. The real reason was that the Ye family could no longer bear the solitude and wanted to extend their reach into Jiangzhou Province. Even Jose Zhou had secretly colluded with the Ye family, showing that even he was more optimistic about the Ye family's prospects. Because of this, the Ye family would definitely come aggressively to this duel, which was the main reason Alisa Lin wanted to persuade Andrew Qi to withdraw. When Andrew Qi had arrived, Nolan Chu and two other underworld bosses of Jiangzhou Province, Caleb Lu and Isaiah Lin, were waiting at the entrance. Andrew Qi was, after all, the "Master Andrew" Nolan Chu had invited to boost their morale, so the other two bosses naturally offered their respects. However, when Andrew Qi got out of the car, the expressions of the two bosses changed, with Caleb Lu looking particularly angry. Isaiah Lin smiled after his initial surprise and said, "Master Andrew, a hero indeed emerges from youth!" "I hope Master Andrew is truly skilled!" Caleb Lu huffed. He had bet business deals which worth over a hundred million as stakes, thinking that with Nolan Chu's reputation and background, they would have invited a renowned boxer, not expecting a young student. Andrew Qi didn't explain much and went straight to the resting room. Subsequently, underworld bosses and elites from Jin Cheng City and even the entire Jiangzhou Province arrived one after another. They were either interested in the underworld conflict or the betting. Regardless of which, the three boxers representing the underworld of Jiangzhou Province were bound to attract attention, and Andrew Qi was one of them. Apart from Andrew Qi, the boxer invited by Caleb Lu was a Tai Chi master named Daniel Sun, Isaiah Lin invited a martial arts gym owner skilled in Eight Extremes Fist named Keith Liu. At this time, most people's attention was focused on the other two boxers, especially Daniel Sun, who was wearing a white Tai Chi outfit and exuded a master’s air. Daniel Sun was introducing his Tai Chi to several CEOs, "You must think that Tai Chi looks slow and lacks power, right? Not at all! Tai Chi is slow when practiced to cultivate spirit and strength, but during a fight, it is extremely powerful. This is the difference between practicing and fighting in martial arts. If Tai Chi weren't powerful, how could the Tai Chi Grandmaster Henry Yang have earned the title of 'Undefeated Yang even with a hundred fists'!" "Listening to Master Sun, we've really learned something. How about Master Sun show us a few moves?" one of the female CEOs encouraged, and several other ladies echoed her. "Well... that's not quite appropriate, is it? I still have to meet my friends from Yuzhou later... But I'll show a few moves!" Unable to resist the persuasion, Daniel Sun actually decided to demonstrate in the resting room. He shook his arms, sank his qi to the dantian, and pressed his right palm on the tea table, immediately leaving a one-centimetre-deep palm print. This was Internal strength! The surroundings erupted in cheers, and Daniel Sun was quite pleased, nodding frequently. Beside him, the master of Eight Extremes Fist, Keith Liu frowned, perhaps thinking that Daniel Sun was too arrogant. Even before the fight, he was not conserving his energy and even wasting his internal strength, which was quite unwise. However, Caleb Lu was very happy. Daniel Sun was the boxer he had invited. He was really arrogant. In contrast, Nolan Chu had invited a student this time, which basically went unnoticed, just adding to the number of participants! This was good in a way, to dampen Nolan Chu's spirit a bit. Recently, Nolan Chu had been a bit too aggressive, overshadowing the other underworld bosses of Jiangzhou Province. Just then, Dominic Yan and the people from the Ye family entered the arena. However, they had only brought one boxer!