Chapter 585: Late Xianyang Stage, Scheming and Maneuvering |
If the Ice Abyss represented extreme cold;
then the Dark Realm was the pinnacle of silence.
Absolute stillness here was not just a figure of speech. If one had to use a single word to describe the silence of the Dark Realm, the word stillness would be the most accurate.
Everything existed in a motionless state: nearby trees and distant mountains alike seemed like textures pasted onto the world, utterly unmoving. The ghostly blue sky showed no air currents, let alone wind.
The dense forest Xia Hong was in did have vegetation. Earlier everything had appeared black to him; now, with the Soul-Illuminating Lamp, his vision returned to normal and he realized that over ninety percent of the plants were gray-white. A very small percentage shimmered with various spiritual lights, clearly extremely precious Dark Realm spirit-plants.
Spirit-plants that could grow in a high-tier world like the Dark Realm were, naturally, priceless.
Unfortunately, Xia Hong had no time to tend to these precious flora. His full attention was fixed on his cultivation.
The Soul-Illuminating Lamp above his head stayed lit. After his earlier encounter with those scattered spirits, he refused to be careless again.
The lamp cost ten points of Gold resources to produce. For someone who had just seized that batch of gold from the Dragon Palace, it was not expensive.
Xia Hong now sat cross-legged on a silver lotus platform with his eyes tightly shut, his face alight with excitement and even flushed slightly.
The reason lay in the dark-red skeletal manifestation behind him, much taller than before.
“Only one last sliver to nine zhang!”
When Xia Hong first used the skeletal manifestation to cultivate, he had vaguely sensed the Dark Realm’s terrifying cultivation efficiency. But after genuinely settling down to cultivate for half a day, he realized his previous impression had only been the tip of the iceberg.
This could hardly be called ordinary cultivation. Cultivation was supposed to be like grinding with a water mill, steady and methodical, a step at a time. The past half day had felt like an unrestrained burst of insane acceleration.
When he returned to Great Xia from Chencang last year, his Golden Body had reached eight zhang and five chi. That last half zhang, he had estimated, would require three to five years to finish even with the dual amplification of the Enlightenment Lotus Platform and the Martial Arts Pavilion.
Now, in only half a day, he had condensed that final half zhang of Golden Body. He was only a hair’s breadth away from a nine-zhang Golden Body—the late Sun Manifestation threshold!
Xia Hong held his breath, directing the remainder of his medicinal power into his bone marrow.
As the medicinal power penetrated deeper, the dark-red skeletal manifestation behind him once more emitted a faint golden light. The skeleton’s eyes shone with veins of phosphorescence that spread from its face to other parts. With the medicinal power and glow accelerating, the skeletal body seemed to breathe and began to grow at dizzying speed.
Of course “dizzying” was relative. While cultivating normally in the Ice Abyss, every fraction of growth in the skeletal manifestation had once cost enormous time; compared to then, this could indeed be called rapid.
Breath…
In less than a quarter hour, with Xia Hong’s final heavy inhalation, the last sliver was fully filled and the nine-zhang Golden Body abruptly formed.
Boom!
The moment the nine-zhang Golden Body was achieved, a tremendous resonant boom like a bell struck in his mind. Xia Hong’s closed eyes snapped open, while the skeletal manifestation behind him reflexively closed its newly opened eyes.
Sun Manifestation cultivation revolves entirely around the skeletal manifestation.
In early Sun Manifestation the skeletal form first emerges; in mid-stage meridians form; in the preceding stage flesh appears; at peak the skin membrane forms, and the skeletal manifestation is then complete, the Golden Body taking shape.
The Ice Abyss skeletal meridians had not been fully formed. At the breakthrough to four zhang, a layer of flesh buds immediately sprouted within the meridians. Nourished by the medicinal power, the buds rapidly expanded and transformed toward flesh.
“That extra half zhang only added two jun of power. Pre-peak Sun Manifestation at eighty jun of strength—this may not even be your limit. Whether that’s your limit or the human limit, we don’t yet know!”
Ice Abyss experienced a flash of confidence before measuring its own strength. I don’t yet have complete faith in my own aptitude. Even if eighty jun at pre-peak were the human maximum, the probability that it’s the absolute end for most people is low.
I haven’t finished an entire pre-peak Sun Manifestation stage’s cultivation. When I break Sun Manifestation peak and assault the Tribulation Body realm, my conservative estimate of strength could still be below one hundred jun. That aptitude is enough to look down on the hundreds of millions of humans across Mo'ao Chuan.
Xia Hong drew a breath, tamping down his excitement, though he still felt the surging power coursing through his body. His pupils sparkled with joy.
Half a day had saved him years of hard cultivation. How could he not be ecstatic!
“High-grade Molting Bone Pills used: fifty in total, thirty remaining. Also a hundred medium-grade and over four hundred low-grade. At this rate, it’s enough for another five to six days of this pace. As long as I have enough soul bodies to consume, I can keep this efficiency. At peak—no, if I keep at it for five more days I could directly break into the Tribulation Body realm...”
Xia Hong’s heart overflowed with desire. Seeing the glow in the skeletal manifestation’s pupils fade completely, he frowned slightly and rose to his feet.
The glow in the skeletal pupils represented the soul bodies he absorbed from slain spirit creatures. The Dark Realm’s extraordinary cultivation efficiency had been roughly mapped out in the past half day.
Two reasons explained it. First, the Dark Realm’s own special nature: the space’s stability here was outrageous. In the Ice Abyss, when he summoned the skeletal Golden Body there were generally two situations: full-power combat or deeply engrossed cultivation. Here, he could summon the skeletal Golden Body at will without the space interfering. Considering the Dark Realm was a habitat tailored for spirit life, and the skeletal manifestation itself was a vessel of the soul, this was hardly surprising.
A stable skeletal Golden Body meant he could focus entirely on absorbing medicinal power without environmental interference. Second, the stability prevented any medicinal overflow waste. Finally, this space itself had a powerful nourishing effect on the skeletal form. He did not yet know the origin of this effect, but earlier experiments had shown that simply manifesting the skeletal Golden Body—without cultivating or taking pills—would still produce growth rates higher than those in the Ice Abyss.
The other factor was the potency of those soul bodies themselves.
Xia Hong’s eyes shifted. He reached into the Yellow Mustard Bag, rummaged briefly, and produced a silver box. Opening it revealed a thirty-centimeter Qingyu jade statuette.
The statuette was the Six-Armed Green-Faced Abomination, its mouth full of fangs and pupils blood-red. The topmost pair of arms held a white long spear. This was the Six-Armed Cyan-Faced Evil Abomination he had slain after defeating Yang Zun.
Xia Hong took the evil-abomination statuette out of the box and held it in his hand, then asked, “What did you mean by infinite soul refinement back then?”
The silver box could not hold up forever. The Green-Faced Evil Abomination behaved obediently only because the box’s exterior had been smeared with Concentrated Fire Oil and because Xia Hong always carried it on his person.
The evil abomination’s injuries were severe and it had not recovered. Even when removed it remained in statuette form. Hearing Xia Hong’s question, it answered immediately: “When a human breaks through to the fifth turn of Tribulation Body, with a complete Golden Body and all organs, they can use the Golden Body as a base to sculpt a soul body, condense a revered form. To condense a revered-form Golden Body requires two strong media: one, Gold; two, soul bodies. Gold is rare in the Ice Abyss, and soul bodies are even more scarce. The Dark Realm is different… hmm?”
While answering, the Six-Armed Green-Faced Evil Abomination seemed to sense something and the voice stopped. The once motionless jade statuette suddenly revived into a tiny living abomination.
When the six arms revived and felt the surrounding change, it looked up at the sky. Its expression froze; then it turned to Xia Hong with a face of shock, pupils trembling: “You came into the Dark Realm with your flesh intact…”
Given what the scattered spirit had said earlier, Xia Hong was not surprised by the astonishment on the six-armed one’s face.
According to that scattered spirit, any entity with a physical body in the Dark Realm was at least Demon General tier. A mere Ice Abyss human bringing a flesh-and-blood body into the Dark Realm was, plainly, abnormal.
Xia Hong had no time to pacify it and continued in a low voice, “Why doesn’t the Ice Abyss have soul bodies? Aren’t soul bodies simply the human souls after death? You abominations are spirit-life of the Dark Realm; don’t you go into the Ice Abyss and kill to collect soul bodies?”
Once the six-armed creature appeared in the Dark Realm its once-withered body rapidly recovered. From that alone, Xia Hong could deduce that abominations like it, which ran rampant in the Ice Abyss, must have originated from the Dark Realm.
What he could not yet determine was how they descended to the lower world.
Xia Hong looked up. Behind the ghost-blue light above was most likely the Ice Abyss world. The two spaces corresponded vertically, but it was unclear how the abominations traveled between them.
“You’re right, sir, but soul bodies have distinctions. Ice Abyss humans produce human souls, which are mostly newly formed and extremely weak—we call these living souls. Living souls are hugely nourishing to us abominations, but useless to humans.
The Dark Realm is different. Its lineage is ancient. The soul bodies there are those that have survived since antiquity, and even now more soul bodies continually awaken. Even the weakest of those soul bodies can crush Ice Abyss humans. Such soul bodies are called dead souls. The energy needed to condense a revered form is enormous. If you used living souls, even billions or trillions of them couldn’t foster a single revered-form stronghold.”
Xia Hong had already sparred with some scattered spirits and nodded at the six-armed one’s words, then waited for more.
“You’ve already seen it. Some Ice Abyss abominations are indeed Dark Realm soul bodies smuggled across. They…”
“How do they smuggle across?”
Xia Hong could not help being anxious. This question determined how he would escape the Dark Realm and return to the Ice Abyss.
A look of puzzlement flickered across the six-armed one’s eyes. It seemed curious how Xia Hong had brought his flesh across, then, seeing Xia Hong’s grim face, shut up and after a moment answered.
“Smuggling usually happens two ways. One, blind luck—finding a spatial fissure connecting the Dark Realm and the Ice Abyss. Two, by brute force—finding a dome, breaking open space and crossing directly. The latter requires Demon General-tier strength and is fraught with risk, for every dome houses swarms of soul-devouring worms. If they detect you, survival is one in nine.”
“What’s a dome?”
Hearing Xia Hong’s question, the six-armed one pointed to the peak of Qishan to the east and replied, “Places like the top of Qishan—sky regions closest to the Ice Abyss world. The Dark Realm has many such spots.”
“How exactly did you come down into the Ice Abyss before? Don’t lie to me!”
Xia Hong’s final words carried a clear warning.
He remembered clearly that when the six-armed abomination had begged for mercy it had said it knew the way to the Dark Realm. Combined with its earlier answers, much could be inferred.
The six-armed one’s expression stiffened and it plainly struggled. Seeing the killing intent rising in Xia Hong’s eyes, it hurried to speak: “I do know the location of a spatial fissure, but that place is at least ten thousand kilometers from Qishan. You couldn’t possibly walk there… ah…”
Before the six-armed one finished, Xia Hong silently activated his Soul-Calming Cauldron.
Flames immediately rose from his palm. The six-armed creature in his grasp was burned first, letting out agonized screams.
“Spare me! Spare me, I truly don’t know!”
“Master, spare me, spare me! I really don’t know…”
“Stop! Stop! I remember! I remember! This place is the Misty Marsh Forest. To the west there’s White Bone Mountain. The host of White Bone Mountain, Madam Jade, has a cave that holds a spatial fissure that leads back to the Ice Abyss.”
Seeing half his body scorched and the flames about to reach his skull, the six-armed one finally collapsed under pain and terror and gave an answer Xia Hong found satisfactory.
Xia Hong’s expression darkened. The killing intent in his pupils did not ease.
This idiot had instantly recognized Qishan earlier, revealing familiarity with the region. Xia Hong could not trust the creature’s lies.
That claim about ten thousand kilometers was likely a lie.
Deliberately bringing up Madam Jade seemed an attempt to set a trap—use her as a pawn. Xia Hong wasn’t fooled.
But he could not ignore Xiahou Yong and Jiang Yiqing. He would indeed have to go to White Bone Mountain, and the six-armed one’s tip that Madam Jade’s cave contained a fissure back to the Ice Abyss made the path convenient.
Still, being manipulated by the six-armed one left Xia Hong a little annoyed. After deciding his plan, he asked one final question in a low voice,
“What did you mean earlier by Taixu Karmic Fire?”
When it begged for mercy the six-armed one had said many things: about the Dark Realm, about infinite soul refinement, about achieving the Supreme Revered Form. Those were not the reason Xia Hong spared it before.
What had kept Xia Hong from killing it immediately was that the creature had instantly recognized the fire of the Sacred Cauldron.
Taixu Karmic Fire!
Those four words had remained etched in Xia Hong’s mind.