Chapter 339: Advancement! Top-grade Spirit Embryo! |
The Third Realm Eastern and Western Continents’ Grand Competition thus came to an end with the death of an Imperial Nobility.
This was the most shocking Champion’s Duel in hundreds of years.
It was also the bloodiest Champion’s Duel in these hundreds of years!
Perhaps, even many years later, there would still be those unaware of the truth who would feel regret over the death of Qin Xuanxiao.
After all, the strength he displayed in this competition was exceedingly terrifying. The internal strife of the Xuanhuang had cost them such a prodigy—it was a loss for the entire Xuanhuang Realm.
As for any possible waves of public opinion that might arise afterward, Chu Huaixu did not care in the slightest.
He had never cared about others gossiping behind his back.
After all, there was a good chance that what he said behind others’ backs was even harsher.
As for why he did not publicly reveal the matter of the Ancestor Emperor’s possession, he had his own considerations.
This way, it also made it easier to keep the Moon Country royal family in check.
For the matter to conclude in such a manner was already very good.
At present, Chu Huaixu was only at the Third Realm. When he acted, he still left himself some room for maneuver.
Moreover, strictly speaking, this matter did not have that much to do with the other three great sects.
It was precisely because Chu Huaixu knew where to draw the line that they were so willing to lend a hand.
They were also happy to see the Moon Country royal family have their teeth shattered, yet still forced to swallow the pain themselves.
At this moment, although the Eastern and Western Continents’ Grand Competition had ended, the Four Great Sects would not leave immediately. Instead, they would remain in the Imperial Capital for three days.
The reason was simple—they still needed to receive their rewards.
Contestants with good rankings could all claim rewards.
As the Xuanhuang Champion, Chu Huaixu could even choose any one item from the Moon Country treasury.
It must be known that Moon Country controlled the entire Western Continent. In a sense, the strength of its national treasury far surpassed that of any one of the Four Great Sects.
Yet he was somewhat too lazy to choose.
Because he had already decided what he wanted.
Among heavenly materials and earthly treasures, an extremely rare supreme treasure—Holy Water!
That day, during the clash between the Ancestor Emperor and the Evil Sword, when the opponent produced a drop of Holy Water, Chu Huaixu had instantly coveted it.
“This treasure is destined for me!”
He had been worrying about how to resolve the issue of the Accursed Pill.
Now it was perfect—he originally didn’t know how to solve this problem, and the answer had been handed to him!
—Thank you, Ancestor Emperor teacher.
And after these three days passed, the Four Great Sects would set out together and return to the Eastern Continent.
This way, they could look after one another along the journey.
Of course, from the bigger picture, if any major cultivator from Moon Country dared to make a move against Chu Huaixu at this time, they would undoubtedly be classified as an Evil Cultivator.
At this stage, he was the best candidate to enter the second layer of the Origin Spirit Realm.
The burden would once again fall upon his shoulders.
After the Dao Gate’s group returned to their residence, Mo Qingmei glanced at Chu Huaixu, as if she wanted to speak but hesitated.
In the end, Chu Huaixu spoke first.
This second-ranked player on the Must-Eat List of Play Companions did not offer any comforting words, only saying: “Steward Mo, you’ve been busy running around these days—everyone has seen it. Now that things here are settled, you should hurry back and get some proper rest.”
She did look excessively worn out.
Mo Qingmei opened her mouth, but in the end only smiled with relief. “Alright.”
Just as she was about to turn around, she looked up at the sky.
The snow that had fallen all day had actually stopped at this moment.
After returning to their residence, Chu Huaixu’s family of three each went back to their own rooms.
After witnessing the Sword Sovereign’s Might—Myriad Swords Converge, Han Shuangjiang and Xu Ziqing had both gained insights and needed to sit in meditation to digest them.
Moreover, for Han Shuangjiang, the competition had ended, and there was no need to suppress her realm anymore. Upon returning to the sect, she could break through to the Fourth Realm.
As for Chu Huaixu, he naturally returned to his room to sort through the gains from this competition.
“It’s time to make full preparations for entering the next Origin Spirit Realm.”
After sitting on the meditation cushion, he opened his Character Panel.
“In the final Champion’s Duel, the system only rewarded experience points for defeating Qin Xuanxiao.”
“Killing the Heir of Prince Rui and destroying four strands of divine sense did not grant additional experience points.”
But he soon smiled, feeling relieved.
“Well, that makes sense. After all, he’s a World Protagonist—he can’t exactly be treated as a red-named wild monster.”
Chu Huaixu glanced at his remaining free experience points—there were still nearly three million.
“Upgrading the Sword Heart costs too much.”
Even now, he still felt a bit pained thinking about it.
But there was no helping it—it was the most suitable killing move he could think of.
“And although the system hasn’t stated it explicitly, I have my own guess.”
“The higher my Sword Heart level, the greater the probability that I can comprehend Myriad Swords Converge (Advanced).”
He felt that his Sword Heart was practically born for this technique!
Even though he had witnessed the Sword Sovereign’s version of Myriad Swords Converge today, he still remained calm.
“Same old rule—every time I accumulate ten million experience points, I’ll take a shot.”
Everyone has a bit of a gambler’s mentality, but fortunately, his wasn’t too strong.
Chu Huaixu opened his Backpack, preparing to open the Heaven-grade Treasure Chest first.
He began rubbing his hands excitedly, as if possessed by Li Chunsong.
“I wonder if that dead gambler set up a betting pool before we came down the mountain?” he thought with curiosity.
“If he did, I wonder what he bet on me this time.” He smiled knowingly.
As the key figure in every betting pool, he actually found it quite interesting.
He personally liked the Dao Gate’s atmosphere—lacking any pretentious airs.
If everyone acted unfathomable, unreadable, and spoke in riddles all the time, he would probably be annoyed to death.
“I’ve become the Xuanhuang Champion again this time. Master and the others will definitely be happy when they hear about it.”
He smiled.
Even Chu Yinyin had given him a thumbs-up earlier.
After rubbing his hands, Chu Huaixu opened the Heaven-grade Treasure Chest.
To him, Earth-grade chests already contained nothing but good items—so Heaven-grade chests contained only supreme treasures!
Previously, his body-training divine ability had come from one.
Body training was a slow and grinding process, and it was extremely difficult to develop divine abilities.
If he had to rely on leveling up gradually, he likely wouldn’t have gained such an ability until level fifty or later.
Moreover, it was such a heaven-defying ability—Flesh Becomes Saint!
Additionally, once treasure chests reached Earth-grade or above, the prize pool would change based on one’s overall strength.
Some items did not exist in the pool when he was at the Second Realm.
Now that he had reached the Third Realm, new rewards might appear.
Thus, the Dead Fox was quite excited.
“All that effort in the competition—it’s all for this moment!”
“Heaven-grade Treasure Chest—open for me!”
A special effect scene visible only to him instantly appeared before his eyes.
A blinding golden light flashed, forcing him to shut his eyes.
When his vision returned, a special virtual item floated in midair, waiting to be stored in his Backpack.
Chu Huaixu’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at it.
“What the hell?”
“A Heaven-grade Treasure Chest can contain something like this!?” He was stunned.
The item was called—Absolute Defense!
Its description was extremely simple, containing only a few words: Duration: three seconds.
There was nothing else.
Yet the less detailed the description, the more powerful Chu Huaixu felt it was.
Because it meant all the crucial information was in its name.
Absolute Defense—it was truly absolute!
The description did not include exceptions, nor did it explain applicable scenarios.
“So it should be able to block even divine sense techniques—or even something like a possession formation.”
“It should be able to withstand all power within the Xuanhuang Realm!”
“No divine ability or method can break it!”
Chu Huaixu was overjoyed.
Although this reward did not directly increase his combat strength like a divine ability, he was very satisfied.
After his experience at the Imperial Pool, he had essentially gone through death once.
That feeling was terrible—completely different from when he was just a player.
Even though he was now invincible within his realm and could easily kill across realms, when facing true cultivation powerhouses, he had very few life-saving methods.
Dao Birth One had incredible defensive power.
But due to his limited cultivation, its development was still very low.
“This is now my greatest trump card!”
“And in some cases, its usage might not be limited to just my personal safety.”
“If it’s truly absolute defense, then it should transcend all power—even some catastrophic disasters might be blocked?” he thought.
He immediately stored it in his Backpack.
For a moment, he felt his confidence surge.
Originally, he had planned to wait until returning to the Dao Gate before adding his 1 point of Spirit Embryo Attribute.
But now, he felt that was being too stingy!
After thinking about it, Chu Huaixu directly added the point.
He closed his eyes and carefully sensed the changes.
Though it was only 1 point, it allowed him to officially advance from a Mid-grade Spirit Embryo to a Top-grade Spirit Embryo!
Oh ho! He finally qualified to be possessed!
If the Ancestor Emperor hadn’t prepared a “feast of the flesh” in advance and improved the Spirit Embryo quality early on, he would have been completely dumbfounded at the start of the possession.
What use was a trash-tier Mid-grade Spirit Embryo?
As the Spirit Embryo attribute rose, Chu Huaixu clearly felt that the first to become excited was the Heart Sword.
After all, his Spirit Embryo was called Heart Sword—it was born from it.
Back when he only had a False Spirit Embryo, that small black sword looked like it had one foot in the grave, barely clinging to life.
As the Spirit Embryo upgraded, it gradually evolved from near death to a sickly state.
Now, upon reaching Top-grade Spirit Embryo, that sickly aura had completely vanished!
This meant its condition and power had undergone a massive improvement!
Even more terrifyingly, the strand of Origin Power surrounding it seemed to be drawn by the Heart Sword.
A faint connection formed between the two!
Chu Huaixu clearly remembered that Jiang Zhi and the others had told him that before reaching the Fifth Realm, Origin Power was basically useless to him.
Its rank was too high—he couldn’t utilize it yet.
But now, it felt as if it was merging with the Heart Sword.
This sense of resonance was extremely familiar to him.
When he awakened his body-training divine ability, it had been the same.
In the next moment, enlightenment struck him, and he entered a familiar mysterious state.
The Imperial Capital of Moon Country was extremely prosperous.
A sword cultivator disciple from the Eastern Continent, who had achieved good results in the competition, had just finished drinking with friends at a tavern.
The gathering had just ended.
He staggered toward his residence, holding his longsword.
Today, the tavern had been filled with sword cultivators.
They had witnessed Chu Huaixu’s life-and-death battle wielding the Nation-Suppressing Sword, and witnessed the Sword Sovereign’s Myriad Swords Converge!
Such grand elegance deserved a drink!
Sword cultivators, when they drank, were utterly unrestrained.
This young sword cultivator was completely drunk, staring hazily at his sword.
“Hm?”
He thought his vision was blurry.
Why did his Life-bound Sword seem to have an afterimage?
After staring for a while, he realized—
His sword was trembling!
It looked exactly like what had happened earlier when the Sword Sovereign used Myriad Swords Converge.
Except back then, the swords only trembled briefly before turning into streaks of light and flying away.
Now, his sword kept trembling continuously.
“W-what’s going on?” he hiccupped, sobering slightly.
After about three breaths, his Life-bound Sword suddenly shot into the sky!
He was stunned.
Then, still drunk, he became wildly excited.
“Myriad Swords Converge!”
“It must be the Sword Sovereign using it again!”
Looking up, he saw streaks of light crossing the sky.
Something big was happening again!
How could a sword cultivator miss such a grand spectacle?
He immediately ran toward the direction his sword had flown.
Along the way, he encountered many other sword cultivators doing the same.
The Imperial Capital turned into a massive parkour scene of sword cultivators.
They used all kinds of movement techniques, rushing at full speed toward the gathering point.
“That direction—it’s the Academy!”
“Yes, the Academy!”
“The Sword Sovereign used Myriad Swords Converge twice in one day!”
“This trip to the Imperial Capital was worth it!”
“Once we return, we can brag endlessly, hahaha!”
If this were Earth, their usernames would probably include a tag: (Has Seen Myriad Swords Converge).
Meanwhile, the sword cultivators of Moon Country had mixed feelings.
Myriad Swords Converge was like a pilgrimage for all sword cultivators.
But if it was being used again…
Then it was probably another battle.
And the opponent was likely a Moon Country powerhouse.
Thus their emotions were complicated.
Meanwhile, it wasn’t just sword cultivators who were stirred.
Countless cultivators rushed toward the Academy.
Even major cultivators were no exception.
Within the State Preceptor’s Residence, the Lin Qingci was bathing.
The warm water filled the tub, just covering her chest.
Her shoulders and collarbone were exposed, her skin glistening with droplets, radiating a jade-like luster.
She had only just begun bathing.
Her eyes had just closed.
Yet the disturbance outside immediately caught her attention.
“Hmm?”
“This is… Myriad Swords Converge?”
Unlike the others, she felt confusion.
Because this phenomenon seemed slightly different.
But regardless, something major was happening in the Imperial Capital.
As the State Preceptor and an Eighth Realm powerhouse, she had to investigate immediately.
If something went wrong, ordinary people would suffer.
She rose from the tub instantly.
With a thought, all water droplets vanished.
After putting on her robes, still barefoot, she turned into a streak of light and disappeared.
At the same time, other Moon Country powerhouses also rushed toward the Academy.
The Guardian of the Nation and Blade Bearer sped over as well.
But their expressions were even uglier.
Everyone knew that only the Sword Sovereign of the Sword Sect could use Myriad Swords Converge.
Yet using it twice in one day in their Imperial Capital—what did that mean!?
Utter humiliation!
Had he grown arrogant after entering the Ninth Realm?
When they arrived above the Academy—
They were all stunned.
Because that middle-aged scholar stood in midair, looking down with interest at the gathering swords.
And the cultivators within the Academy had already come out, staring at the sky.
The swords hovered at a relatively low altitude.
The Sword Sovereign and Jiang Zhi stood not far away.
More and more cultivators gathered, densely packed!
“Th-this doesn’t seem to be the Sword Sovereign!” many realized in shock.
Then who!?
Who could it be!!?
