Chapter 988: Devil Lord's Seven Strikes; Three Cultivators Head North |
The anomaly above Surging Lake lasted only an instant in Ding Yi's eyes, yet he remained by the lakeside for another full two hours. Only after receiving a transmission through divine consciousness did he finally turn to leave.
We're leaving in half a month, you say?
Even as he walked away, he kept looking back toward the mist-shrouded lake, uncertainty lingering in his eyes as if he could still faintly sense some monstrous existence lurking within.
***
Meanwhile, inside the Starry Palace, Luo Chen opened his status panel for the first time in a very long while.
[Status Panel]
Name: Luo Chen
Lifespan: 165/800
Spirit Roots: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth
Achievement Points: 334
[Techniques]
Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture: Perfection (457/500)
Myriad Path Convergence: Perfected Mastery
Myriad Beast Sutra: Grandmaster (500/1000)
[Spells]
Fourth-Tier
Dragon-Slaying Art: Perfected Mastery
Nascent Core Art: Perfected Mastery
Infinite Blaze Prison: Perfection (317/500)
Third-Tier
Sevenfold Skyblaze Ring: Perfected Mastery
Life-Severing Finger: Beginner (15/100)
Perfected Mastery Spells (click to view details)
[Martial Arts]
Voidburst Step: Perfected Mastery
Devil Lord's Seven Strikes:
Cloud-Seizing Divine Claw: Perfected Mastery
Overlord Stripped Bare: Proficient (201/300)
Lightning Kick: Perfection (350/500)
Mountain-Stabilizing Form: Grandmaster (510/1000)
Mountain-Lifting Form: Perfection (460/500)
Mountain-Breaking Form: Grandmaster (501/1000)
Mountain-Smashing Form: Perfection (390/500)
At that, he revealed a satisfied smile. These were the gains he had accumulated during nearly thirty years within the Society, and this only recounted the cultivation side of things. If he opened the panels for alchemy, artifact creation, and formations, the results would be even more astonishing.
Then, his attention settled on a three-digit number, and the smile on his face widened further. Eight hundred years! Even Sages were said to live only around 1,000 years; yet he, a mere Adept, already possessed a lifespan of 800. Among cultivators in this current era, who could really compare? Naturally, that increase came from his recent breakthrough in Physique Refinement. Advancing into the fourth tier had granted him an additional 300 years of lifespan. Even if it hadn't been for all the other advantages of his advancement, this change of a single digit, from a 5 to an 8, would have been enough to justify the investment.
Although Luo Chen had expected something like that to happen, seeing it displayed so clearly before his eyes still left him unable to suppress his delight.
It was entirely worth it, every bit of it!
Over the years, the resources he had poured into Physique Refinement had been no less than what he spent on Qi Refinement. Just refining the Black Sovereign Paste alone had consumed over a thousand second-tier demonic crabs and more than a dozen Crab Kings. That did not even include the countless low-tier demonic beasts he had refined with his primordial true fire throughout the years. The market price of all these resources had long since exceeded 100 million spirit stones, and it was precisely this frightening number that had created the cultivation freak he was today. Gaining an additional 300 years of lifespan felt entirely justified.
If there was one thing Luo Chen found regrettable, it was the progress in Qi Refinement. Over the past few years, most of his attention had gone toward reaching the fourth tier of Physique Refinement, which had inevitably slowed his qi cultivation. What should have been a breakthrough into the seventh stage of Golden Core had instead stalled midway through the sixth stage.
Of course, Physique Refinement was not entirely to blame. During those same years, he had poured enormous effort into artifact creation, venturing out in search of treasures, and continuously using the mana-draining Infinite Blaze Prison. All of it had taken a tremendous amount of time and energy, slowing his cultivation progress considerably. After all, no matter how skilled he was at multitasking, he still could not split himself apart and manage everything at once.
Still, that was only minor. No matter how many paths cultivation branched into, they all ultimately led toward the same destination: immortality. And immortality ultimately came down to lifespan. Now that he had successfully advanced in Physique Refinement and it had granted him such a tangible increase in lifespan, what reason did he have to feel dissatisfied? Especially when the breakthrough had also greatly increased his strength! He had always believed that a lifespan increase was pointless unless he had the power to defend himself; now, he had gotten both at once.
He had reached Perfected Mastery in his fourth-tier spells and Dragon-Slaying Art, while also reaching Perfection for the Infinite Blaze Prison during the battles in the Sunken Sea. He could now unleash it at will. As for his hand-to-hand combat techniques, he had spent years piecing together a number of fragmented techniques and organizing them into a complete system of his own, under the collective name of Devil Lord's Seven Strikes.
As the name implied, it consisted of only seven techniques. The Cloud-Seizing Divine Claw was elusive and unpredictable, while Overlord Stripped Bare was intricate and difficult to guard against. When the two were used together, they connected seamlessly and could strip away an enemy's defenses. Lightning Kick focused entirely on explosive speed and destructive power, and it became even more powerful when paired with Voidburst Step. Han Zhan had once said that such a move would never strike a Sage, but now that he had advanced to the fourth tier, he genuinely wanted to know whether any Sage would dare take that kick head-on.
As for the mountain techniques, they all originated from the Six Forms of Extreme Mountain, but in Luo Chen's hands, they had evolved far beyond what he had found recorded in the manual. Over the years, he had integrated the principles of countless low-tier techniques he once excelled at and reconstructed them according to his own understanding and needs. Hence, their power no longer resembled the original versions at all.
Naturally, merely stitching together a few techniques and claiming to have created some combat art would indeed have been rather shameless. What truly mattered was that, over the past few years, he had practiced these techniques obsessively while refining his physique, pushing his mastery to astonishing heights. Thus, aside from the exceedingly complex Overlord Stripped Bare, which remained at the Proficient level, every other move had already reached either Perfection or even Grandmaster level.
More importantly, the system's evaluations were far stricter than ordinary standards. A Grandmaster level on the status panel would likely already be considered absolute perfection in the outside world. Even Skilled and Proficient, which the panel treated merely as beginner levels, would qualify as true mastery in the eyes of most cultivators.
With the Devil Lord's Seven Strikes, I should finally be able to bring out the full power of this body.
Luo Chen's eyes brightened with anticipation. In the Sky Roc True Form, his attacks had always been too straightforward and lacked versatility. In the past, he could still swing the Primordial Unity Cauldron and smash enemies with it. But now the Primordial Unity Cauldron had to assist his Golden Core in maintaining the Infinite Blaze Prison and could not be used casually.
He had also considered using Hundred Craft Mountain, the treasure left behind by Liang Baizao, as an offensive means. Unfortunately, this mountain had originally been Liang Baizao's life-bound treasure, and after his death, its spirituality and power had declined considerably. Luo Chen had never found the time to properly refine it afterward, so as things stood, he simply could not bring out its true power.
Compared to that, these killing moves he had painstakingly collected and reorganized suited him far better. They were simpler, more direct, and far easier to use. And if opportunities arose in the future, he could simply add more techniques to his repertoire. Seven Strikes could eventually become Eight Strikes, Twelve Strikes, or even Twenty-Three Strikes.
The more Luo Chen thought about it, the brighter the future seemed.
At last, his attention shifted toward the achievement points section. The number was so large that it almost felt unreal. He had not used achievement points in a very long time, yet throughout the years, he had never stopped refining pills, creating artifacts, studying formations, and practicing techniques. Without him even noticing, the total had gradually climbed to 334! He remembered clearly that the last time he actually checked it, the number had only been around 150. Now, it had more than doubled!
More than surprised, however, he felt reassured. If he ever encountered high-tier alchemical formulas, cultivation arts, or spells he could not fully comprehend in the future, these achievement points would become universal keys capable of forcefully opening those doors for him. If he had enough of them, then perhaps even an incomplete cultivation art could be restored to its full form—for example, the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture!
Nether Spring claimed this art led directly to the Divine Transformation Stage, yet she'd only given Luo Chen the Golden Core chapter. But even just that chapter was filled with profundities. It could alter spirit root attributes, purify mana, greatly enhance control over flames, and so much more. Of course, the Golden Core chapter was sufficient for the time being. In Luo Chen's opinion, the mysteries contained within this scripture could even support his cultivation as a Sage. Still, he had not yet reached that realm and had no idea how cultivation truly differed from his cultivation now; because of that, that incompleteness remained a hidden concern.
Originally, he had planned to practice the art to Perfected Mastery and see whether the system would automatically deduce the missing portions, much like how it had once evolved the Yi Wood Medicine King Codex into the Eternal Youth Evergreen Sutra. Unfortunately, he advanced far too slowly. Even after several decades of practice, he had only reached the Perfection level and had yet to touch the Grandmaster level. That plan, however, had only ever been a backup. The art was simply too high-grade. If the system ultimately failed to deduce the latter portions on its own, then he would have no choice but to consider forcefully completing it with the achievement points.
Truthfully, he had once considered changing cultivation arts after reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, but after careful thought, he eventually abandoned the idea. Frequently changing the main cultivation art placed tremendous strain on the spirit roots. Ideally, a cultivator should follow a single art from beginning to end.
Spirit roots were not something tangible, nor could they be physically identified within the body, yet they undeniably existed within every cultivator. To put it more accurately, spirit roots were a cultivator's affinity toward particular types of heaven and earth spirit energy. So, why did cultivators with fewer spirit roots cultivate faster? The answer was simple: the fewer spirit roots a cultivator possessed, the stronger their affinity toward the corresponding type of spirit energy became. As the number of spirit roots increased, that affinity was divided and diluted, which greatly reduced cultivation efficiency.
A cultivator who spent decades or centuries practicing a cultivation art with a particular attribute would gradually bring both body and spirit roots into harmony with that type of spirit energy. The body would even become accustomed to the circulation patterns of that specific cultivation art. Thus, if the cultivator decided to change it, that balance would be shattered, inevitably resulting in backlash. If the new cultivation art belonged to a similar attribute or category, the damage would be smaller, but it could never be completely avoided.
Luo Chen possessed all five elemental spirit roots, which theoretically gave him the freedom to practice any of the five elemental systems. Yet the higher his cultivation rose, the less willing he became to casually switch cultivation arts. After all, none of his spirit roots possessed exceptionally high affinity toward the spirit energy of heaven and earth to begin with. If he disrupted the fragile balance he had painstakingly established over the years, the consequences would be difficult to predict.
Unless, of course, he could achieve the legendary Primordial Embryo Dao Body that had disappeared since ancient times but was desired by certain lunatics of the modern day. That mythical physique was said to be capable of directly absorbing primal qi for cultivation even while drifting through chaotic void currents. Someone with such a universally compatible body would naturally never need to worry about problems with changing cultivation arts.
The thought stirred a trace of envy in Luo Chen's heart, but he quickly suppressed it. He shook his head and gradually calmed himself from his earlier ecstasy. Now that everything is ready, it's time to go. Those two must be tired of waiting.
Luo Chen let out a soft laugh. The restless sense of power coursing through his entire body filled him with overwhelming confidence, as though the world had suddenly become far smaller in his eyes.
***
Half a month later, two figures stood waiting quietly on the mist-shrouded shore of Surging Lake. A gentle breeze suddenly swept across the water. Moments later, a crimson-robed Daoist crossed the lake atop a flood dragon, with a sword case strapped across his back. When he reached the shore, he stepped down lightly and raised the spirit beast pouch in his hand. "Get in!"
Black King let out an unwilling grumble but still obediently shrank down and flew into the pouch. After fastening it to his waist, Luo Chen turned toward the two waiting men and cupped his hands with a smile. "Fellow Daoist Ding, Fellow Daoist Devil's Cloud, I apologize for keeping you waiting."
And truly, he had kept them waiting. The celestial signs above the Sunken Sea had appeared more than a year back. Those intending to head there had long since departed, while the three of them, despite preparing for years, had been delayed entirely because of Luo Chen. Ding Yi had already grown deeply dissatisfied during that time. Earlier on, he had nearly lost patience altogether and forced his way into Surging Lake. Yet now that Luo Chen finally stood before him, he merely gave a cold snort and said nothing. Only the wariness in his eyes remained impossible to hide.
That overwhelming aura he had sensed back then had definitely not been an illusion. Yet now, no matter how carefully he observed, Luo Chen appeared perfectly normal, and he had unquestionably not reached the seventh stage. So where had that aura come from? Some kind of secret killing move? Or perhaps the effect of Surging Lake's grand formation? Surely Luo Chen had not deliberately tried to intimidate him.
Meanwhile, Devil's Cloud had also been observing Luo Chen. At first glance, nothing seemed unusual, but the longer he looked, the more he felt something was subtly off. "Hm? Devil Lord, what's with your face?"
It had finally struck him—the flush Luo Chen's complexion once carried had completely disappeared! Ding Yi noticed it as well. Earlier, he had focused too much on what his divine consciousness sensed and had overlooked what was plainly before his eyes. Luo Chen's skin was now pale and flawless as jade, smooth enough to resemble a newborn infant's, while his pitch-black eyes were deep and still like frozen abyssal pools, as though they could reflect the filth hidden within a person's heart. By the lakeshore, amidst morning mist, he seemed less like a human cultivator and more like an immortal exiled to the mortal world
Luo Chen merely laughed and waved his hand dismissively. "It's only a slight change in appearance. As cultivators, we shouldn't care so much about things like that. Come, I can barely wait any longer!"
With that, he strode past the two and headed north. Ding Yi and Devil's Cloud exchanged a glance before hurriedly following behind him. Watching Luo Chen's back, both of them could feel that some unimaginable transformation had taken place within him, though neither could say exactly what it was.
Four hours after the three departed, dawn fully broke over Surging Lake. The rising sun cast warm golden light across the clear waters, making the lake appear incomparably beautiful. The local cultivators rowed quietly across the surface, leaving ripples trailing behind them and adding even more life to the tranquil scenery. No one commented on the fact that the dense mist that had shrouded Surging Lake for years had completely vanished that day, and neither did anyone realize that the master of Surging Lake had departed.