by <unknown>
This was something they never saw in the other Heavenly Dharma elders. They usually appear to be incredibly strong, but when compared to Zhong Yue, their strength felt somewhat vacuous; it was akin to the difference between a hollow metal pipe and solid metal cylinder.
Zhong Yue smiled, "This is the difference between yours and not yours."
Ting Lanyue was puzzled, but Qiu Jin'er pondered deeply.
After all these days of experiences, attaining the principles of life and the world, Zhong Yue was able to push his【Celestial Demon Tai Chi Art】to the Heavenly Dharma level.
The other Swords Gate elders walked the path that had already been trodden by their seniors. Their attainments in the Heavenly Dharma also stemmed from their seniors with few to no insights that were unique to them. Thus, Zhong Yue said ‘yours and not yours.'
Zhong Yue's cultivation was unique to him, he carved his own path and had nothing to rely on save for his own talent and perception. It was natural that attainments would be more profound than the other Heavenly Dharma elders'.
One was learning the knowledge of others, while the other was deducing the knowledge himself.
One had to say that the number of Qi Practitioners who surpassed his attainments on the Heavenly Dharma level within the whole Ancestral Star could be counted on one hand!
Although his cultivation had not broken through to Heavenly Dharma yet, Zhong Yue was no longer in the same rush he was before. He understood that building his cultivation base was a process of gradual accumulation, not something that he could achieve overnight.
As long as he has stepped into the level of Heavenly Dharma, he would be able to take his place in the summit of the power pyramid in this Ancestral Star!
……
Faraway from the Great Wilderness, in the East Barren Xian Kong Saint City, Long Yue's body shuddered lightly as Zhong Yue attained the Heavenly Dharma level. A faint resonant aura then rose from within his body.
"Long Yue, are you breaking through to the level of Heavenly Dharma?" Shi Buyi asked in surprise.
Long Yue was in the lord's manor, reporting his duties to Shi Buyi. Other than himself, Lang Qingyun and Qiu Qingshan were also here to report for duty as well. As they heard Shi Buyi's question, Lang Qingyun and Qiu Qingshan were both shocked, and they turned and stared at Long Yue in disbelief.
Long Yue then nodded lightly and answered placidly, "Just a sudden thought that had dawned on me. I am now clear of my path, and it is only a matter of time."
Rays flashed across Shi Buyi's eyes, and he covered it with a loud laugh, "Good, good! You are indeed my excellent disciple! For you to cultivate to the Heavenly Dharma level in such a short period, I'm very proud of you…"
He looked at Long Yue's eyes as a gush of killing intent suddenly filled his heart, I still can't cultivate the Ming King Divine Eye, one day this problem isn't solved, one day I will have to carry such a deadly flaw with me. That Old Brat Feng Shang took advantage of this flaw and gave me a huge blow. However, this little child Long Yue has cultivated the Yin pupil and Yang pupil in place of the Ming King Divine Eye. It seems like that can fix this flaw perfectly! The time is near, patience Shi Buyi, he is going into the Heavenly Dharma level, the time is near…
Shi Buyi had already planned on extracting Long Yue's eyes and implanting them on himself!
As Long Yue was going into the Heavenly Dharma level, the time to reap what he had sown was drawing nearer. How could he not be excited?
However, Long Yue's cultivation progress was incredibly shocking. It was even faster than his during his young age!
It needs to be taken care of before he reaches the Imminent Deity level, I will have to claim his eyes when he ascends into the True Spirit level. Otherwise, I might not be able to fight against him once he becomes an Imminent Deity Qi Practitioner.
The cogs of machination turned in Shi Buyi's mind as his face maintained its warm, bright smile.
Shi Buyi glanced at his three disciples, and he sighed, "I have a total of five disciples. But both Chi Lian and Lian Xin were lost in the unfortunate events. All I have left now are the three of you. And now, because of that Feng Shan, I am plagued with constant pain that is worsening as time goes by. I … I don't know how much longer I can live. The only thing that keeps me alive is the monster race. If the three of you can't cooperate for the future of the monster race, I will not have peace even after death." As he finished his words, a series of loud coughs escaped his mouth with blood trickling out of it.
Lang Qingyuan, Long Yue, and Qiu Qingshan were all moved, they quickly comforted their teacher and swore that they would work together for the future of the monster race.
Shi Buyi was satisfied and he laughed, "Only by joining hands together can the monster race rise high in this world."
The teacher and three disciples looked at one another, and laughter resounded through the lord's manor.
……
Demon Race, Mister Bo Xun's outstanding power had garnered him considerable fame. He was now considered to be able to stand on par with demon grand ancestors like Shura and Yanmo. In addition to Demon Queen, they were the new Ten Talents of the demon race.
The demon race Eight Barren was now in a mess, wars waged across the different races in bids to expand their territories and protect their resources. Blood soaked the ground and corpses lay across the demon land.
Tian Mo Concubine, Ji Xiang Concubine, and the other ladies had been furtively helping Bo Xun with conquering land and commanding armies. He raised a strong force and claimed a sacred land of the Eight Barren as his own, naming it the Desire Realm while giving himself a title – the God of Free Will – while the demon race referred to him as the Demon Bo Xun.
One of the notable facts of his faction was that he had the highest number of beauties. This could most probably be attributed to their natural inclination to gravitate toward the most handsome male of the demon race.
On that day, Bo Xun sensed something awakening within his body, and he then suddenly laughed out loud and told the ladies, "I'm entering the Heavenly Dharma level. Do not disturb me!" As he finished his sentence, he then went into closed-door cultivation.
After two months of time, Mister Bo Xun had stepped out from closed-door cultivation as a Heavenly Dharma Qi Practitioner. He then challenged the renowned cultivators of the demon races, and the news had greatly shocked the demon race. The name of Demon Bo Xun soon became synonymous with legend.
……
Great Wilderness, Swords Gate.
In stark contrast to his other two incarnations, Zhong Yue's activities were rather tame.
The border fortresses had finished construction, and the other three fortresses were temporarily being guarded by the elders of the Elder Council. As for the six sculptures that Zhong Yue made, Jun Sixie decided to use them in place of the old Swords Gate visualization arts. Countless replicas of the first Swords Gate sculpture were sent out to the tribes, and everyone was given a chance to embark on cultivation regardless of age or gender.
Henceforth, the Qi Practitioners of Swords Gate had a new task on their hands. They were to go around in the Great Wilderness from time to time to spread their knowledge and skills to the people.
Then, Jun Sixie gave an order that greatly shocked the human race: Swords Gate would no longer be accepting any student disciples and would only allow Qi Practitioners to join its ranks. Everyone that had cultivated to Qi Practitioner could join to Swords Gate and be taken in as a Swords Gate disciple.
Back then, being taken in as a student disciple was the prerequisite for one to become a Qi Practitioner. The number of student disciples far outstripped the number of Qi Practitioners under the previous regime. But now, Swords Gate had stopped taking in any more student disciples, and only those that had cultivated to the level of Qi Practitioner would be taken in. This was truly an earth-shattering reformation of Swords Gate.
However, the order Jun Sixie gave was appropriate; with the new Swords Gate c
ultivation technique, the human tribesmen and clansmen were now able to cultivate to the level of Qi Practitioner by themselves, after which, they could enter Swords Gate to attain a superior visualization art. Swords Gate would definitely see an increase of Qi Practitioners in the near future!
The four border fortresses now not only acted as a trade market, but they were also the strongholds in which the humans that escaped from the other barren could take refuge.
For example, the North Fortress would intermittently receive a human tribe with over thousands of tribesmen that escaped from the Gu Xia City.
On the other hand, the East Fortress was built on the border that connected the dragon race and monster race. Oftentimes, there would be dragon race merchant ships sailing over for trade, and that had slowly increased economic activity in the region of the East Fortress. This then resulted in a positive cycle where even more merchants from other races sought to conduct business there.
The Great Wilderness human race had finally shown signs of its rise.
But this rise also invariably attracted the vigilance of the other races. The Great Wilderness only had Swords Gate, but now, with the emergence of four new fortresses, it was clear that the human race was no longer interested in maintaining the status quo.
“Junior Martial Brother Zhong, he is really a blessing to the human race.”
Jun Sixie watched as the Great Wilderness' transformation unfolded before her eyes. Her heart was also filled with joy, and she said to the grand elder, "Look at this, at this rate, we can one day break the chains of slavery that the other races had put on us."
But Shui Zian shook his head as he answered, "Headmaster, that is only a wild dream we all hope for. The monster race can only have their status now because of their ancestors. And the monster gods have fought their lives for it. That is how the celestial races have acknowledged their status, If humanity is to rise like them, a war of gods is inevitable. This is the only way for the celestial races to acknowledge us."
Great Wilderness was the of all the other barrens. If the human race wanted to expand its territory to be on par with the other celestial races, they would also have to go through a war of gods!
But even with the great strides that the human race had made until now, there was still no human god at all. If they did not slow their speed of advance soon, the celestial races would declare war on the human race and push the humans back into their Great Wilderness, or even worse, totally annihilate them!
No matter how high the human race was slated to rise, a single god was enough to wipe out every achievement they had and kill the experts off, annihilating the whole human race!
Thus, to the human race now, this was a like a sword dangling above their heads, one that could never be taken away without the existence of a human god!
Shui Zian then continued, "The Great Wilderness can be developed, the human race can rise, but all of this must be done at a rate that doesn't cross the other races' threshold of tolerance. Otherwise, not only will the other races stand out, but even the gods hiding in the Ancestral Star will come out and put a stop to our progress. What we have now is more than enough, we should just maintain what is there now and keep a low-profile for the time being. The day a human god rises from among us is when humanity can rise as high as we desire!"
Jun Sixie nodded heavily and said, "Elder Shui is right. I will send out our goodwill to the other races. Stating that we will not cross the line and that we are happy with what we have now. Elder Shui, you have diplomatic relations with the many races. You will be sending the letters to their leaders."
Shui Zian then praised, "The late headmaster was truly right in choosing you to inherit his position. Fang Jiange stubborn nature wouldn't be able to accept the truth of our precarious position."
Jun Sixie was placid as she said, "Our weakness and inferiority may be a hard pill to swallow now, but we will now have the opportunity to rise to the world throne. This is definitely a worthwhile deal. Also, keep an eye on Junior Martial Brother Zhong and stop him from leaving Swords Gate at all costs. Every time he leaves, he causes a huge commotion that even I'm afraid of."
An unreadable expression climbed across Shui Zian's face, and he said, "Headmaster, it seems like you don't know that he just left, right?"
Jun Sixie then exclaimed in shock, "What? He just left? Is this brat a rabbit? Can he not just stay in his cave and avoid stirring trouble for once!"
Shui Zian then answered, "I saw him leaving on my way here. He is with the Qiu Tan Clan girl, and from what he told me, he said he is going to have a vacation to the West Barren. Headmaster, what trouble did he cause again?"
Jun Sixie then said through gritted teeth, "I ... Can't ... Say!"
Chapter 423: Thieves on Training |
Zhong Yue and Qiu Jin'er sat on a leaf of a green vine as they were carried toward the West Barren. Qiu Jin'er asked, "Senior martial brother, why are we going to West Barren?"
"For adventure and training!" Zhong Yue replied as if he were really going for training.
“By the way, how’s everything with the【Mystical Infinite Transformation】I taught to you?”
Recently, he merged the【Million Gods Saint Ice Saint Art】with the Immortal Body technique of the Kui Long Celestial Race, selecting 108 patterns from the million gods picture to create the【Mystical Infinite Transformation】.
Qiu Jin'er had previously cultivated the immortal body technique when both of them studied the Kui Long's hide, so she also possessed quite a considerable amount of knowledge of this art. She might not be as strong as Zhong Yue was but only by a fine margin.
After all, as the Innate Wood Spirit Body, she had an abundance of life essence, and her unique physique granted her extraordinary advantages in cultivating this technique. The only reason she was not as strong as Zhong Yue was that she lacked the precious herbs, like the saint herb lotus, that Zhong Yue had access to.
In other words, if Zhong Yue had not obtained the saint herb lotus, his progress would be slower than Qiu Jin'er's; that was the incredible advantage of possessing any type of innate spirit body.
Qiu Jin'er then laughed and replied, "This art that senior martial brother taught me is more like an art designed for combat, which is incredible! But it's not as smooth as I expected when I cultivated this art because I am not creative enough."
Zhong Yue then advised, "Which is why you need to practice more. Go out and experience things to broaden your horizons. I too struggled for a very long time, but I stood up on my feet again and again whenever I fell. Only with such perseverance did I manage to cultivate to this point. Now, we will go to West Barren, and once we are there, you and I will go on an adventure and train ourselves."
His words filled Qiu Jin'er with happiness, and she thought, Senior martial brother will accompany me to train. This is great! But why must we go to the West Barren?
A few days later, the duo arrived at the West Barren, and after alighting from Qiu Jin'er's green vine, they continued on foot. Zhong Yue opened up his divine third eye and peered into the distance. He smiled, "We will now train ourselves in the Gui Shen Celestial Race. Jin'er, disguise as one of them right now."
"Then, the duo walked into the Gui Shen Celestial Race's territory and entered their sacred ground.
As a huge clan that was no weaker than the Shan Shen and Xiao Mang Celestial Race, the Gui Shen Celestial Race had quite a number of celestial temples. After all, they have been here for at least five million years, the number of experts they had guarding the sacred grounds was beyond imagination.
Qiu Jin'er looked around carefully as she tried her best to act as naturally as possible while trying to conceal her worry. As she looked around, she noticed that the guards' faces revealed no emotion, and she carefully stared at the Gui Shen Qi Practitioners' movements. She then quickly asked Zhong Yue through a voice transmission, "Senior martial brother, what are we doing where?"
"We are, of course, here to train ourselves. The【Mystical In
finite Transformation】I taught you revolves around the word "transformation." If you don't try to transform, how can you expect yourself to be able to control this art?"
Ling You Garden!
Suddenly, Zhong Yue saw a huge door with a board that read "Ling You Garden," and he heard shouting and smelled thick herb scents from there.
“Jin’er, follow me.”
Under Zhong Yue's lead, they entered the celestial temple where many Gui Shen priests were passing on their teachings to their people. They stood there for a while to listen to them, and Zhong Yue signaled Qiu Jin'er to take a careful note one of the female priest's appearance, voice, behavior, and aura before they walked out of the celestial temple.
The two then changed their appearance where Qiu Jin'er disguised herself as the female priest through the【Mystical Infinite Transformation】, and Zhong Yue disguised as another male priest before they walked towards the Ling You Garden.
Upon seeing them, the guards of Ling You Garden saluted to them and asked, "Priests, may I know your purpose in coming here?"
Zhong Yue glanced at him, and he said, "We need some top-grade herbs."
The guard immediately laughed and replied, "My priests, please tell me what herbs you need, and I will go get them for you."
"There's no need for that," replied Zhong Yue as he walked towards the door and said, "You will know the recipe of my medicinal pellets after I tell you the names of the ingredients. I will go get it myself!"
Hesitantly, the guard had half a mind to stop him, but he didn't dare to, so all he did was follow them into the garden. On the other hand, Qiu Jin'er was by Zhong Yue's side, trying to restrain her body from betraying the worry she felt in her heart.
“Jin’er, this is the training I’m talking about.”
"At first, you may not get it, but with every additional attempt, you will eventually get better. Soon, you will master the【Mystical Infinite Transformation】in no time!"