by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
Hundreds of miles away from Long Chen was an enormous tree. At the top of the tree was the forest god’s white-dressed figure which was now watching him.
“What a powerful foundational aura. It looks like the human race will gain another astounding figure.” After muttering that, her figure faded away.
Long Chen’s FengFu Star was incessantly trembling. This wasn’t out of Long Chen’s expectations.
This continued for three full days. Long Chen’s FengFu Star was beginning to circulate slower, and in the end, it completely paused. Long Chen couldn’t help but celebrate. This was the true sign he was about to make a breakthrough.
BOOM!
Suddenly, heaven and earth trembled. The twelve cyclones behind Long Chen slowly separated, revealing a thirteenth cyclone amongst them.
When this thirteenth cyclone appeared, the originally sunny and cloudless sky immediately turned dark with pitch-black clouds. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed. Everything within thousands of miles went completely dark.
“What’s going on?!” Long Chen was completely horrified. He realized that all those black clouds were like a huge whirlpool, and the whirlpool’s center was right above himself!
It looked like nothing more than a huge demonic eye focusing expressionlessly on him. At the same time, a terrifying destructive will pushed down upon him.
Long Chen immediately realized that he was unable to move an inch. He was unable to even blink.
He wildly cursed inside as he saw more and more black clouds gather in the sky. The lightning within the sky gradually converged at the center of the black clouds.
“Is it going to strike me?!” Even if Long Chen was stupid, he would still be able to predict what was about to happen. He madly struggled.
But it was as if his whole body was being pressed by a huge mountain. Despite his best efforts, his body merely trembled continuously.
The huge boulder beneath his foot cracked. Such a sturdy boulder was actually unable to bear the pressure.
Long Chen couldn’t help but tremble in fear. He tried running, but he felt as if a whole mountain was crushing him from every direction. He was only able to make very limited movements and was simply unable to flee.
“This is heavenly punishment. You are unable to flee. Gather your full strength to resist.”
As Long Chen was wildly cursing inside and was incredibly anxious, a voice suddenly rang in Long Chen’s ears.
“Forest god?” Long Chen immediately recognized that voice. But heavenly punishment? He was infuriated. How many evil people existed in the world, and yet the heavens decided to punish him?!
Hearing that voice, it seemed the forest god knew the origin of this terrifying heavenly punishment. Since she had given him a warning, she definitely wasn’t trying to hurt him.
Putting away his anger, he rubbed his ring and his broadsword appeared in his hands. He pushed his power to its peak.
The thirteen cyclones revolved around Long Chen as a halo of light enveloped him. It was as if a god from the heavens had reincarnated within him and was disdainfully looking up at the sky.
The forest god saw the thirteen cyclones and the halo of light from a distance. She was deep in thought.
Long Chen pushed his thirteen cyclones to the max. Energy from heaven and earth was continuously streaming into his body. Now that his meridians had been transformed by the forest god, he was able to control an even greater amount of energy.
The black clouds in the sky were becoming increasingly thick, and the lightning was becoming more and more concentrated.
Suddenly, the sky became completely silent. A bolt of lightning several feet wide shot straight down from the center of the black clouds towards Long Chen, its power seeming to want to destroy the heavens and exterminate the earth.
Long Chen watched as that terrifying lightning bolt descended. He felt an endless destructive will coming from it. Raising his broadsword with both hands, a strange light appeared over his sword.
“Split the Heavens!”
BOOM!
The mountain peak which was hundreds of meters tall was destroyed. Rocks crumbled as that one lightning bolt completely flattened the mountain.
Long Chen vomited three consecutive mouthfuls of blood. His body was charred all over, and he could even smell his own flesh roasting.
His full force blow was like an ant waving its antennae in front of an elephant. He was unable to shake that lightning bolt in the slightest. He had been essentially powerless.
This made him feel completely dispirited. In front of that lightning, he felt that he was completely insignificant. His joy from advancing to the thirteenth Heavenstage was immediately extinguished.
“You did very well.”
The sky once more returned to its sunny state as the black clouds scattered. It was as if everything before had been just an illusion. The white-robed woman appeared in front of Long Chen.
Long Chen was about to say something when he once more vomited more blood. That thunderbolt had greatly shaken his internal organs.
The forest god waved her hand and a drop of green liquid came from her body and fell into Long Chen’s mouth. Long Chen only managed to sense that it tasted sweet before it quickly slid down his throat and rapidly spread throughout his body. His wounds began to quickly heal.
The black burned parts of his skin slowly fell off. In less than the time it took for an incense stick to burn, his body had recovered eighty to ninety percent. This was much more miraculous than any healing pills!
“No need to be surprised. The first heavenly punishment is mostly focused on destroying your will. If your will wasn’t sturdy enough, your mind and soul would have been exterminated by the heavenly punishment,” explained the forest god.
“What is this heavenly punishment?” asked Long Chen.
“It is the will of the Heavenly Daos. Anyone that can threaten the Heavenly Daos will attract its punishment when advancing.”
Threaten the Heavenly Daos? Could that be pointing to the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art?
“There are some things that I can’t tell you too much about, or it wouldn’t be beneficial to you. Rest a while and consolidate your cultivation base. I will be returning.”
Without waiting for Long Chen’s response, her figure turned into a wisp of mist, slowly disappearing in front of Long Chen’s eyes.
Seeing her disappear, then looking at the flattened mountain peak, and then looking towards the completely cloudless sky, Long Chen felt as if he had been dreaming.
Thinking back to that bolt of lightning, Long Chen shivered. That lightning bolt was something he had been completely unable to resist. Why hadn’t it killed him?
Then was it really as that woman had said, and the first heavenly punishment only tested his will? If his will had broken down, would he have been destroyed beneath that heavenly punishment?
That heavenly punishment had released an unstoppable aura. He had been trying to flee originally, and it was only with the forest god’s warning that he had dared to face the heavenly punishment head-on.
Without her warning, perhaps he would have already been exterminated in both body and soul. Lingering fear filled him.
At the same time, he also understood just how important a powerful will was for martial cultivators. Cultivation was fundamentally a path of no retreat.
He took a deep breath. With the forest god’s warning, it seemed as if he was seeing an even vaster world unfurling before him.
Space trembled as Long Chen returned his thirteen cyclones into his body. He wanted to clearly test whether his cyclones had changed.
Long Chen noticed that they hadn’t grown any larger. But what amazed him was that after the heavenly punishment, there was now a link between all thirteen cyclones. They were completely tied together.
Now the thirteen cyclones had a ring of light connecting them. They were no longer independent but had formed a single entity. Spiritual qi flowed throughout it.
> Under Long Chen’s control, the ring of light, which was really his thirteen cyclones, lightly trembled and began to quickly revolve. The ring of light spun around, forming a huge whirlpool that madly absorbed heaven and earth’s spiritual qi.
The absorption speed was at least ten times greater than before. Even if Long Chen fought a powerful enemy again, he would not have to worry about running out of spiritual qi like before.
Back when he had fought alongside Wilde against Marquis Ying, it was precisely because the consumption had been too great that he had run out of spiritual qi, making it so he was unable to continue fighting. Now that his thirteen cyclones had linked together, he would basically never have to worry about that problem again.
Furthermore, he also noticed that when the mysterious ring had connected his thirteen cyclones, another thing had appeared in his body which was filling him with strength.
Slowly closing his eyes and examining his body, Long Chen suddenly shook and went crazy with joy.
Chapter 89 Three Style Parting Wind
When he slowly closed his eyes and examined his body, he realized that spiritual qi had appeared within his blood. Although it was very faint, he was sure that it was present.
“I’ve entered the Blood Condensation realm?
“So after reaching the thirteenth Heavenstage of Qi Condensation by using the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, you will automatically enter Blood Condensation.”
The Blood Condensation realm was the point where the spiritual qi in the body had been condensed to a pinnacle. Spiritual qi would be scattered throughout the blood, purifying the blood of its impurities, returning it to its true essence.
With such pure blood nourishing the body, the physical body would become much stronger and one’s strength would multiply.
Having entered the Blood Condensation realm, Long Chen was so excited that he almost cried. Although, at this point, he still didn’t feel his body immediately becoming stronger.
But as long as the impurities in his blood were continuously purified by his spiritual qi, his strength would quickly rise.
In any case, what the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art cultivated was the physical body. Now that he had entered the Blood Condensation realm, he would even be able to pose a threat to Marquis Ying who was in the Tendon Transformation realm.
Blood condensation was something that couldn’t be rushed. Since Long Chen had thirteen enormous cyclones, he didn’t need to deliberately focus on it to purify his blood. That meant his cultivation speed would be a dozen times faster than ordinary people.
What Long Chen wanted to do now wasn’t to condense his blood, but to increase his actual strength. A Battle Skill appeared in his hand. Long Chen smiled. It was time to see just how powerful an Earth class Battle Skill was.
This was the first Earth class Battle Skill Long Chen had ever obtained. Thinking back to the terrifying moves Marquis Ying had displayed, he was filled with a burning passion.
To Long Chen who lacked Battle Skills, this particular Battle Skill had come at an extremely opportune time. Speaking of which, he should really thank Xia Changfeng.
He opened the Battle Skill and carefully read over it. His expression became a bit strange. He originally thought that the Three Style Parting Wind had three different moves.
But as he read, he realized that it was just one move which had three variations. They were split into the Parting Wind Slash, Parting Wind Slice, and Parting Wind Stab.
The principles behind them were the exact same. It was just the final use of it that was different, making it ‘three styles’. It truly was deceptive.
Thinking back to how Yao Niqian had sold it back then and how she had acted as if it was completely unique and amazing, he was completely speechless and felt cheated.
According to this model, this Three Style Parting Wind could easily become Nine Styles. Parting Wind Chop, Parting Wind Thrust, even Parting Wind Swat… there could be as many ‘styles’ as you wanted.
Although he was a bit disappointed, Long Chen wasn’t a person who didn’t know how to be content with what he had. After all, he had obtained it without spending a single cent. The person who should be depressed about it should have been Xia Changfeng.
Reading through the Three Style Parting Wind’s usage of spiritual qi, Long Chen found out that it only used six acupuncture points. That was much inferior to the nine points required by Split the Heavens.
Each time the spiritual qi passed through an acupuncture point, it would require even greater control. It would be much more difficult with each point, but the power would also multiply drastically.
Originally, Long Chen had thought that Split the Heavens was a low grade Earth class Battle Skill, but now that he compared it to the Three Style Parting Wind, its difficulty was clearly much greater.
Wouldn’t that mean that Split the Heavens was at least in the mid grade Earth class, and perhaps even high grade Earth class?
No wonder Split the Heavens was so terrifying that he had been unable to control it!
He had used Split the Heavens against Marquis Ying before, but Long Chen knew that his usage was not the complete form.
He did not dare use its full strength because his meridians weren’t able to endure it. He also felt that even if he activated his FengFu Star to its peak, he would still be unable to fulfill Split the Heaven’s true requirements.
Split the Heavens was just like a bottomless pit. He was still far from being able to use its true power. Perhaps he had accidentally picked up a true treasure.
Long Chen’s sword whistled through the air and a wave of qi shot out, slashing apart a shrub ten meters away.
“It actually contains the wind’s force. Is this Sword Qi?”
Long Chen finally understood why this Earth class Battle Skill was called the Three Style Parting Wind. It actually was a wind-attribute Battle Skill.
Most Battle Skills used the superposition of multiple acupuncture points to increase the physical body’s strength, similar to how Marquis Ying had used his Battle Skill. Although that was powerful, it didn’t have any attributes.
The human body was just like a treasure trove of hidden treasures. Through continuous excavation, one could find endless hidden potential.
For example, Meng Qi used her powerful Spiritual Strength to control Magical Beasts. She could use her Spiritual Strength to open up space just like a spatial ring to store her housepets.
For example, pill cultivators used the physical body’s strength to condense a Pill Flame. Their flame’s potential was endless, capable of destruction and also of merging heaven and earth’s various treasures into medicinal pills.
For example, martial artists condensed qi and blood, tempered their muscles and bones, forging their originally frail bodies into bodies that were even more powerful than Magical Beasts.
All of this stemmed from the human body. The human body was filled with unknown mysteries. By following the methods that former generations left behind, people could strive to unlock their own hidden potential.
As for the Three Style Parting Wind, by running spiritual qi through six specific acupuncture points, it could actually release spiritual qi outside the body to form an astral wind.
The fact that Long Chen could summon an astral wind to blow apart a shrub ten meters away with just his initial comprehension of the Battle Skill was definitely a pleasant surprise to him.
Long Chen’s Pill Sovereign memories contained the exact routes of his meridians and locations of his acupuncture points, making it so that he was basically able to use a Battle Skill as soon as he learned it.
However, this didn’t mean he would be a master at it immediately. Using various Battle Skills required constant adaptation to find the best tempo and rhythm. Only then could he display its peak strength. That required constant testing and practice in order to do.
But even so, Long Chen’s cultivation speed was absolutely shocking. Even a Tendon Transformation expert like Marquis Ying wo
uld require several months of comprehension and practice just to be able to use an Earth class Battle Skill, and if he wanted to have a complete mastery of it, that would require years.
Although Long Chen couldn’t master it immediately, he was still able to gain an initial mastery in the Three Style Parting Wind due to his complete understanding of the meridians.
With his experience in cultivating Split the Heavens which required nine acupuncture points, the Three Style Parting Wind was much easier.
Furthermore, after obtaining the forest god’s help, his meridians had doubled in width and were much tougher. He was absolutely able to control an Earth class Battle Skill that normally only Tendon Transformation experts were capable of using.
The Three Style Parting Wind was actually just one move with three variations, split into a slash, slice, and stab.
The method of circulating spiritual qi in the body was the same for all three variations. It was only when the spiritual qi left the body that the method from which it entered the weapon was different. That was why Long Chen felt he would be able to change it into the Nine Style Parting Wind and perhaps sell it for an even higher price.
After testing it several times and becoming familiar with the meridians used, Long Chen paused his training of it and returned to the village.
He had truly advanced a great deal this time. He had broken through to the Blood Condensation realm, and his thirteen cyclones had joined together to form a divine ring. In the future, he would be able to summon it out and fight with his full strength.
He had been unable to do that when he had ten to twelve cyclones for fear of others being shocked by his anomaly. But the new divine ring was something that no one would guess was made of thirteen cyclones. They would only be able to assume that it was some supplementary Battle Skill.
The world of cultivation was boundless and there were countless Daos. Cultivation techniques and Battle Skills were as numerous as grains of sand. All kinds of rare and strange Battle Skills existed. As long as you didn’t ostentatiously show them off, rare Battle Skills wouldn’t cause too much of a ripple.