I've become the emperor of humanity, and only now is spiritual energy reviving?

"die!"

The burly man strode forward.

His muscles were bulging, and he swung his sword swiftly, clearly having unleashed all the true energy within him.

But An Sheng has more true qi and a stronger physique than him.

Naturally, it needs to be faster and more powerful!

Facing a life-or-death struggle up close for the first time, An Sheng, with his adrenaline pumping, felt as if the whole world had slowed down.

Slide to the left, feeling the cold blade slice through your hair against your skin, then circulate your inner energy to make your muscles swell in an exaggerated way.

An Sheng exhaled excitedly.

Then, he raised his leg and delivered a powerful groin kick to the strong man's crotch!

In the blink of an eye, their invincible, burly leader had fallen to the ground, howling in pain and rolling around.

Run, run!

If even the leader can't withstand a single blow, why are they risking their lives?

The remaining two henchmen, one tall and one thin, were shaking so badly they could barely hold their knives. Their teeth chattered, and without a word, they hurriedly fled towards cover.

"Hmph, trying to escape?"

An Sheng didn't even need to turn his head; he simply summoned another crossbow and pulled the trigger twice.

The next moment, two even more piercing howls, mixed with pleas for mercy, echoed out.

"It's so noisy! Can't you just go die quietly?"

An Sheng rubbed his temples, which were throbbing from the noise, and then took the crossbow and fired five more arrows at each of the two men and the short bandit from before, in order to prevent the risk of them reviving.

In the end, only the burly man wearing a burlap overcoat and empty-handed remained.

The burly man glanced at the large knife that had slipped from his hand, then at An Sheng standing between them, exhaled, and his muscles rapidly withered away.

He resignedly closed his eyes.

"I never expected that a delicate-skinned brat like you could cultivate innate Qi... I've truly lost today!"

But to everyone's surprise, An Sheng threw the knife in front of him and said, "Pick up the knife."

The handsome young man smiled and said,

"Use every trick in the book to kill me so you can continue living."

Real-world experience is the best teacher.

An Sheng is now going to use the strong man in front of him to hone his skills.

The burly man was stunned for a moment, then his expression became quite interesting after he realized he could actually pick up the knife.

He was surprised, delighted, and angry all at once.

He revealed a bloodthirsty expression, grinning maliciously as he pounced.

"You brat, just wait till I chop you into mincemeat!"

Ten minutes later.

"Kid! If you've got the guts, come and fight me head-on!"

One hour later.

"Young hero, stop playing around, I'm begging you, just kill me already..."

An Sheng, his face glowing, exhaled scorching hot true qi. He looked down at the burly man who had become emaciated, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly, almost weeping bitterly.

He swung his sword and beheaded the strong man, giving him a quick death.

An Sheng shook her head.

"That's it? All you can do is talk tough, that's not enough."

Even so, the gains from fighting back and forth with the nameless strong man dozens of times were still significant.

This not only helped An Sheng gradually desensitize himself from the intense emotions he initially felt when facing the blade, but also deepened his understanding of the Qi cultivation method in actual combat.

Even the consumption of true qi has decreased by three points.

They even learned how to straighten the blade and use the knife in a simple way.

Cheap teacher, so useful!

[Oh, you new emperor with such a twisted sense of humor, your actions are truly astonishing.]

[This group of bandits is lawless and commits all sorts of evil deeds, yet you managed to awaken the goodness in the heart of the most wicked among them, making him vow to repent and reform, and then you made him yearn for death in his deepest despair...]

[You have earned the title: Enemy of Villains!]

[Enemy of the Villain (Rank D Title)]

[Effect: When wearing this title, your damage to those you perceive as "evil" increases by 10%. It also inflicts some hostility on those "evil" individuals.]

Upon seeing these lines of text, An Sheng rubbed his head against the ground.

It seems that there was such a thing.

An Sheng vaguely remembered that halfway through the fight, the burly man said he swore to repent and be kind to others, and that all he had to do was kill him quickly.

Saying things like that during a fight is just ridiculous.

An Sheng naturally dismissed it as the burly man's nonsense and ignored it completely.

So it really is true.

The crisp sound of gold coins hitting the ground rang out.

[Gate of Babylon activated! Your title "Enemy of the Villain" has been upgraded!]

Upon closer inspection, An Sheng discovered that the title's damage increase for villains had reached "20%", while the villain's hostility, which was a negative effect to some extent, had not increased.

The numerical increase is simple and straightforward.

What are you waiting for? Just put it on with one hand.

An Sheng skillfully touched the four corpses again, but found nothing. He cursed them under his breath and continued on his way.

Along the way, apart from a few locusts, An Sheng didn't even encounter a single moving creature.

Fortunately, he had anticipated this and treated the journey as a form of spiritual practice, and prepared ample food and water.

When feeling mentally exhausted during the journey, I would stop to practice the Imperial Heavenly Netherworld Divine Technique; when feeling physically tired, I would eat voraciously while walking to replenish my vital energy and alleviate the fatigue.

It can be described as a youthful version of a perpetual motion machine.

Even after reaching the "minor success" stage, the difficulty of increasing proficiency in the Hou Tu Nourishing Qi Method suddenly increases.

An Sheng still worked tirelessly on it until it was almost complete.

【Hou Tu Nourishing Qi Method (Minor Success 410/500)】

An Sheng only chose to leave Lostbelt after she had pushed herself to her absolute limit and could no longer stand.

……

[Gate of Babylon activates...]

Perhaps because Ansei hadn't noticed it in the Lostbelt, the words about the King's Treasury came to mind again.

But this time, there was more than just the clinking of gold coins falling to the ground.

Dangdang Dangdang!

A celebratory electronic sound, like someone winning a big prize on a slot machine, rang out, instantly banishing An Sheng's drowsy eyelids.

[Newborn, inexperienced emperor, the doors of the Royal Treasury have slightly opened as you receive your first "Follower"-related reward!]

You've been given the opportunity to choose even more rare rewards!

The door was slightly ajar?

In other words, those things before weren't even considered scraps?

Before An Sheng could even complain, an option with a completely different color from the previous one appeared in her mind again.

[Normal Reward - Spirit of Plants: You will receive a second "Spirit of Plants".]

[Rare Rewards - More Spirits: You will receive additional "Water Spirit", "Rock Spirit", and "Fire Spirit".]

[Rare Reward - Essence of Plants: The life essence of little spirits born among natural plants will evolve, becoming true "essences".]

[Note: "精" is a lower-ranking race of "妖", rarely seen, but with high growth potential.]

Aside from the first normal reward, the "More Spirits" option is a mixture of red, blue, and yellow, while the "Spirits of Plants" option is a deep dark green.

Without making a hasty decision, An Sheng first washed her face thoroughly with cold water before taking the essence of plants out of her backpack.

The newly emerged plant spirit was clearly still confused. It spun around in An Sheng's palm a few times, then let out a puzzled chirp.

"Gurgle?"

An Sheng plugged the faucet and turned it to the maximum: "Don't talk, drink."

As a result, the body, which was originally a gel-like substance of plant essence, grew taller and larger at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly changing from the size of a fist to the size of a head, and its color became as bright as a slippery green jelly.

A while later, after the "Water Deprivation" debuff on the plant spirit panel disappeared in An Sheng's eyes, he turned off the tap.

"Snoring... snoring~"

Water that you can never finish drinking...

Is this heaven?

The spirits of plants and trees lay comfortably in the washbasin, making strange noises.

That's right, the little monsters in An Sheng's eyes also have their own independent panel, just slightly different—

【The Essence of Plants and Trees (Name to be chosen)】

[Realm: None (Just a little sprite you can see anywhere by the roadside)]

[Potential: Extremely Low]

[Skill: Vigorous Life]

After a full minute of deep thought, An Sheng decisively chose the reward: "The Essence of Plants and Trees".

There's nothing to hesitate about.

What's the point of having so many low-potential Pokémon? It's not like we're playing Pokémon battles. Are we supposed to have some kind of Water, Fire, and Grass type advantage/disadvantage system?

The original purpose of collecting the essence of plants was to nourish the life force of my family, and secondly, to see if it could help with planting trees.

If you can accomplish these two things, that's enough.

[You have chosen the rare reward: the essence of plants!]

Your follower "Spirit of Plants" has evolved into Spirit of Plants!

The moment the words appeared, the essence of plants in the washbasin burst into an extremely dazzling green light, filling the entire bathroom to the brim!