by Translator: BornToBe; Author: Ordinary Magician (平凡魔术师); Licensed From: 17k
The Xuan Master shook his head. “I don’t feel like you gave me a burden. I just feel like you were too conservative. Continuing like this isn’t beneficial to the Xuantian Dao Sect’s development.”
“Alright, let’s not talk about these things. I’m going into seclusion, and I won’t be coming out until I break through. I don’t want to think about these troublesome things. Wait, what? What is Long Chen doing?” The ancient voice suddenly became full of shock.
The Xuan Master also looked at the wall. He saw Long Chen had taken out gold coins and was giving them one by one to the ghosts. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“This rotten brat, he dares to even buy them? These ghosts have a certain spirituality, and they’ve seen the Hall Masters comprehend the Xuantian Catalog. Looking at Long Chen’s expression, he definitely obtained some useful information,” said the Xuan Master helplessly.
“Thank you all, you can go back. I’m going to go comprehend this thing.” Long Chen distributed several hundred gold coins to the ghosts. He was full of excitement.
“So each line can be comprehended with the soul to grasp it. It’s indistinct and unfathomable just like the Heavenly Daos.”
This was what Long Chen had concluded through the countless clues the ghosts had told him.
He took a deep breath and expelled his random thoughts. Focusing completely, he placed all his attention on one of the lines of the symbol.
When his mind sank into that line, the line suddenly unleashed a burst of light.
The Xuan Master’s expression changed. The Xuantian Catalog was not something just any disciple could comprehend, especially not the original Xuantian Catalog.
Normally, disciples would first have to gradually cultivate one of the Dao-paths of the Xuantian Catalog. Once their comprehension of that Dao-path was enough, then under their teacher’s guidance, they would come to learn which line of the Xuantian Catalog referred to their Dao-path.
This process would take several years for even geniuses. And to form a resonance with the Xuantian Catalog like this would take decades to centuries. In the Xuantian Dao Sect, amongst the thousands of Elders, there were only a few dozen who could form a resonance with the Xuantian Catalog.
And even those Elders would require a few hours to start that resonance. But Long Chen had succeeded in resonating with the first line in just a few breaths.
There were a total of thirty-six thousand lines in the Xuantian Catalog, which referred to thirty-six thousand types of cultivation. It encompassed tens of thousands of laws and Daos. It was wide-ranging and profound, a secret canon of the immortal era. The Xuantian Dao Sect’s inheritance was based on it.
Once Long Chen chose a line, he encountered a strange space. This space was filled with countless revolving runes. At the same time, he saw a scene in front of him. There was a maiden playing a zither, and its sound was like stones falling into a clear spring. It was refreshing, cleaning the mind and soul.
“This line is the Music Dao. You want a manly man like me to play the zither?” Long Chen retreated from that strange space with just a thought, once more choosing a new line.
This time, he entered a desert. Sand blew through the air, covering the sun. Long Chen was lost for a while before he realized this was an extremely rare style amongst earth cultivators, sand cultivators. The sand was like a furious dragon roaring toward the sky.
“This is also not suitable for me.”
Long Chen once more retreated and chose a new line. This time, he entered a space filled with flying snow and countless ice stalactites soaring out of the ground. This was the Ice Dao, also not what he wanted.
He tried several lines, and each time, he would leave after just a few breaths. That made the Xuan Master speechless.
“Master, do you have any opinion?” he asked after a long moment.
“It’s very likely due to his cultivation technique. It might be on an even higher level than the Xuantian Catalog, making it so the Xuantian Catalog cannot hide any of its Dao-paths.”
The two of them descended into silence. That was too shocking. It had to be known that the Xuantian Catalog’s Dao-paths were all shockingly profound. A genius might spend a lifetime studying it and not even comprehend a tenth.
Furthermore, each Dao-path required a disciple to have the right qualifications to reveal itself to them. Only ice attribute disciples could open the corresponding Dao-paths. It was like a key opening a lock.
But now, Long Chen was opening each Dao-path one after another, shocking both the Xuan Master and his master.
Originally, the Xuan Master had just been wanting to see if Long Chen could cause a resonance with the Xuantian Catalog and find his corresponding Dao-path.
But he hadn’t thought that Long Chen didn’t need such luck. He could go through all of them as he pleased. It was too shocking.
Long Chen went through many Dao-paths without finding one that suited him. Either it was useless or he wasn’t able to cultivate it. Finally, he entered a space filled with roaring flames.
“Finally, I’ve found this place.” Long Chen was delighted. This space was definitely the place to comprehend the Flame Dao.
Although he had his Pill Sovereign memories, they were very incomplete. His ways to circulate flames were limited to alchemy techniques, and there was basically nothing about fighting.
The Flame Dao here was perfectly suited to him. The Flame Dao was not the Pill Dao. The flames here were used for combat, just what he needed.
He immediately sat lotus-style within the flames. Those flames were formed of the Dao-path, and from it, he could sense many things that he had overlooked before.
Fighting with flames was different from using flames for alchemy. It was pure flames without the slightest wood spiritual energy. Such flames were even more berserk and much more powerful.
But because Huo Long had always been helping him to refine pills, it had formed a resonance with his trace of wood spiritual energy. As a result, it was no exception even when fighting.
Now when he thought about that, he felt he really was stupid. If he extracted that wood spiritual energy, Huo Long’s power would become even greater in combat.
Within this strange space, the flames were constantly changing, and there were also various flame runes revolving. Long Chen randomly reached out to grab one.
That flame rune exploded violently, shooting out flame arrows at Long Chen. Long Chen jumped in shock and hastily dodged, but some flame arrows were still shooting toward him. He hastily took out Blooddrinker.
Those flame arrows caused his arm to turn numb when he blocked them. Long Chen was shocked by how powerful this flame attack was.
After the explosion of flame arrows was over, they transformed back into the exact same rune as before.
“Could it be… is every rune here a flame magical art?!”
Long Chen looked at the various runes floating in the air with absolute delight.
“I’ve definitely struck gold now.”
Long Chen arrived in front of that rune and once more grabbed it. The rune instantly exploded, but this time, he sensed the way and the rules of how the flames had circulated and how the energy was accumulated before erupting.
“So that’s what it was.”
Blooddrinker blew apart the rain of flames. He had finally realized the secrets of this place.
Each of these runes was a magical art’s most primal rune. When activated, it would display the principles behind it. However, it would only display it for an instant, and without intentionally paying attention, it was very difficult to remember it.
However, it wasn’t able to pose a problem for someone with Spiritual Strength as strong as Long Chen’s. After two tests, he had memorized its principles. He took a deep breath and formed hand seals. A translucent rune condensed over his palm.
“Meteor Rain of Arrows.”
Once that rune was formed, he involuntarily shouted its name.
Following
that, a huge ball of flames condensed above his head, and then countless flame arrows shot out.
Each flame arrow caused a huge explosion upon striking the ground. Even Long Chen was shocked by its power.
That had just been a small test. Because he had just learned it, he had been afraid of a backlash and only used a small amount of flame energy. He hadn’t expected it to have such a terrifying effect.
“The Xuantian Catalog is truly worthy of being one of the Xuantian Dao Sect’s core treasures. No good, I can’t be this excited. I have to quickly learn all of this. Why was I only imprisoned for ten days?! It should have been at least a month!”
Long Chen reached his hand out to the next rune.
Chapter 1077 Terrifying Rune
Long Chen repeatedly grabbed seven runes, learning seven different flame magical arts. There were defensive ones, offensive ones, single-target ones, and large-area ones.
This made Long Chen ecstatic. He had his Pill Sovereign memories, which made him a pro at controlling flames. Cultivating flame magical arts was as easy as eating food to him.
Furthermore, these magical arts were so powerful that they surpassed his expectations. His flagging confidence once more increased.
The Nine Star Hegemon Body Art’s fifth pill formula still hadn’t come to him. Therefore, he had no way of condensing the fifth star and was stuck at the fourth star.
Once he had arrived at the Central Plains, he found that his trump cards were far from enough. Although the third form of Split the Heavens’ divine runes had been fully condensed, raising its power to a shocking point, it was too exhausting, and he was unable to instantly unleash it like the first and second forms. Against an opponent around the same level as him, unleashing it would be extremely difficult.
But now it was different. He had learned many flame magical arts and was capable of attacking and defending. He would no longer have to always fight head-on.
“Raging Flames Devour the Heavens!”
Long Chen formed hand seals, and flames erupted out of him, filling the entire world.
“Damn, what a huge attack area, and what supreme density! However, it’s also exhausting. Hehe, but once Huo Long and I work together, with my ocean’s worth of spiritual yuan, we should be able to keep it up for a long time,” Long Chen laughed wickedly.
There were actually many magical arts named something along the lines of Raging Flames Devour the Heavens. But they weren’t magical arts that could really devour the heavens. Long Chen’s estimate was that if he went all-out with it, the flame domain would cover three hundred miles. Compared to those magical arts only capable of covering a range of a few hundred meters, this was truly devouring the heavens.
Furthermore, he had noticed a secret. The runes here with a darker color were stronger. For example, this Raging Flames Devour the Heavens was a dark red.
After learning it, he didn’t bother with the ordinary runes any longer. He searched for a dark rune again.
This strange space seemed to have no end, like the starry sky. As he swam through this space, countless runes flew by him.
Long Chen was shocked to see so many magical arts. These were all flame related. The Xuantian Catalog was terrifying.
It was no wonder there were so many disciples in the Xuantian Dao Sect, and why it was all-encompassing. It was due to the Xuantian Catalog.
“Haha, another powerful rune.”
Long Chen suddenly saw another dark red rune. Its color was the same as the Raging Flames Devour the Heavens.
He was just about to touch it when he suddenly saw a rune that was an even darker color. It was blood-red. And its bright color was dazzling to the eye.
“That one’s definitely even more badass!”
Long Chen charged over to it. On the way to the rune, his heart skipped a beat. This rune was definitely a supremely powerful magical art.
Just as he was about to touch it, his eyes suddenly narrowed. Just a bit further than this rune was another rune that was even darker red. It was practically turning violet. Furthermore, the space around it was shuddering. Seeing that rune, Long Chen’s heart stopped beating.
“That’s definitely a priceless treasure!”
A greedy roar came from the depths of Long Chen’s soul. His See A Treasure And Can’t Walk Away Disease once more erupted out of his control.
Long Chen didn’t even know how he had arrived in front of that rune. When he was right in front of it, his hair stood on end.
He sensed a terrifying destructive aura within this rune. It was like a volcano on the verge of exploding. Once touched, it could destroy heaven and earth.
“I wouldn’t die from this, right?”
Long Chen was uncertain now. He sensed a fatal danger that was too terrifying.
“This is the Xuantian Catalog, a place for disciples to cultivate. There shouldn’t be any danger.” Long Chen carefully extended a finger. At the same time, he summoned the Green Dragon Battle Armor, raising his defense as high as possible. The tip of his finger touched the violet-red rune.
Buzz!
“Crap!” Long Chen’s expression completely changed, and he hastily retreated. But it was too late. The violet-red rune transformed into a ball which then exploded.
Long Chen was struck by its shockwaves, and he felt like his body was about to be instantly torn apart. In fact, he seemed to be able to see his body being blown to bits.
“I died!”
Long Chen let out a startled cry as the space before him disappeared. He returned to within the Ghost Prison.
He panted for breath. His clothes were drenched in sweat, and his face was pale. A wave of weakness washed over him, almost causing him to collapse.
“Fuck, that was too realistic. I really thought I was dead.”
Long Chen sighed and wiped off some cold sweat. He took out another gold coin.
“Who can tell me how many days it has been?”
Long Chen quickly learned the reply. It was already the eighth day, so he only had two days left.
“Time’s tight.” Long Chen took a deep breath and once more found that line. His mind sank into it again, and he returned to the world of flames.
Now he realized that this was not his true self. Although he could use Blooddrinker and magical arts here, he had lost his connection to the primal chaos bead.
His guess was that the Xuantian Catalog had replicated his body, but it was unable to replicate the primal chaos bead. That made him feel like he was here in his true body.
That feeling of being killed just now had been too realistic. Even though he hadn’t died, he felt like he had half-died.
When he once more arrived in front of the violet-red rune, he completely focused himself. He slowly reached a finger toward it.
Once more there was an explosion, and he was blown apart again. He returned to within the Ghost Prison, covered in sweat.
“The feeling of death… really isn’t good!”
Long Chen took a deep breath and charged back into that space, once more touching the violet-red rune.
The violet-red rune only expressed the principles behind it for a thousandth of the blink of an eye right before exploding. It happened so fast that even Long Chen was unable to grasp it.
Furthermore, there was also the fear of death. Even knowing that this was an illusion, it was too realistic, and anyone would find it hard to overcome their nervousness at dying once more.
...
BOOM!
Long Chen was once more killed. But this time, he didn’t reappear in the Ghost Prison, but inside a large and tidy room.
Atop a rug, there was a simple table with a few cups of tea on it. The Xuan Master was currently leisurely drinking some tea.
Long Chen wiped off some sweat and walked right over to the table. Sitting on his butt, he poured a cup of tea for himself and swallowed it in one gulp. Just one cup wasn’t enough, and he drank three cups before feeling slightly better. Sensing there were also some refreshment
s on the table, he didn’t stand on courtesy and directly stuffed his mouth.
Seeing Long Chen acting like this was his home, the Xuan Master was speechless. Just how taut had his nerves been for him to act so unbridled?
He was the sect master, but Long Chen didn’t act the slightest bit restrained in front of him. He had never seen such a disciple, nor had he ever heard of one.
“How moving, to eat and drink to prove I am alive.” Long Chen sighed deeply with a joyful expression.
The Xuan Master didn’t mind Long Chen’s lack of courtesy. In reality, he was shocked by Long Chen’s perseverance. The feeling of dying in the Xuantian Catalog was so realistic that it caused people to easily crumble.
In just one day, Long Chen experienced what it felt like to die hundreds of times. Any disciple would go insane after just experiencing it for a few times. That meant Long Chen’s willpower had reached a shocking level.
“How were your gains?” asked the Xuan Master with a smile.
Long Chen hastily stood up and bowed toward him, respectfully saying, “Many thanks for your help, Xuan Master.”
The Xuan Master shook his head. “This was just an opportunity. What you obtained was all thanks to yourself.”
“Can disciple gain another opportunity to comprehend the Xuantian Catalog?” asked Long Chen carefully.
“Even if you kill Fan Song and Hu Guishan, I won’t give you this kind of punishment,” said the Xuan Master.
Long Chen immediately felt embarrassed. He hastily said, “Disciple’s willfulness has brought you trouble.”
“Whether or not you caused trouble isn’t important. Rules are always biased toward the strong. If you weren’t of benefit to the Xuantian Dao Sect, you might already be dead,” said the Xuan Master directly.
Long Chen smiled slightly. “Disciple understands. I’m not someone to forget favors.”
The Xuan Master nodded. There was no need for him to beat around the bush with someone like Long Chen. “Leave Fan Song and Hu Guishan alive for me. I have some use for them.”
Long Chen was startled. He didn’t quite understand what the Xuan Master was saying. On the surface, he just meant that Long Chen shouldn’t kill the two of them…