Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

by Fiery Moon

  This was because Xiao Chen finally exhausted all the Essence in his body. Swallowing another Essence Nurturing Pill, Xiao Chen sat once again in a cross-legged position and cultivated. After the Purple Thunder Divine Incantation reached the second layer, Xiao Chen’s rate of absorption of Spiritual Energy increased once more. The three white clouds by the Azure Dragon rapidly filled up once again.

  Xiao Chen used to think that Essence came from the Azure Dragon Martial Spirit. It was only much later, after he became more familiar with Essence, that he realized such was not the case. The nucleus of his Essence was the three white clouds beside the Azure Dragon.

  These white clouds were not actually white clouds; as a matter of fact, each was simply a cloud shaped substance formed of Essence. Floating by the Azure Dragon, the two of them had a faint connection. With Xiao Chen’s current realm, he was still unable to figure out what that connection was.

  The only thing Xiao Chen was clear on was that when the fourth cloud appeared, he would have stepped into the Medial Grade Martial Disciple realm. When that time came, his Essence capacity would increase once more.

  ……

  On the morning of the second day, Xiao Chen opened his eyes and stretched his body. Sending out his Spiritual Sense, he did not discover anyone within 500 meters.

  His Spiritual Sense was indeed useful. Not only could it differentiate herbs, it could even be used to scan his surroundings to check for hidden enemies. This was much stronger than the perception of regular cultivators.

  “Gravity Spell!”

  He chanted the spell name in his heart and began to float up shortly after. He was now much more familiar with this spell than he was yesterday. Xiao Chen, who was in midair, looked at the ground beneath his feet and shouted lightly.

  “Heavenly Lightning Shield!”

  A triangular Lightning Shield appeared, protecting Xiao Chen. The Lightning Shield was purple and gave off a faint red glow. This was the result of forming it with a pure lightning-attributed energy. Xiao Chen estimated that it could withstand the full force blow of a Martial Grand Master.

  “Lightning Descend!”

  Xiao Chen, still in the air, pointed with his finger as a lightning bolt as thick as a bowl descended from the heavens. A thick tree on the ground was immediately blasted apart with a boom. Its might was rivaled a Profound Grade Martial Technique. Furthermore, it descended from the skies. With its speed, it would be difficult for the target to evade.

  “Lightning Evasion!”

  He executed the final spell. Xiao Chen’s body immediately disappeared and there was a loud thunder roar about a hundred meters in front, as a bright bolt of lightning fell from the sky. Xiao Chen’s figure appeared from the electrical light in midair, unharmed.

  After he practiced the four spells once, Xiao Chen slowly descended and stopped practicing. This was because he had more important things to do today:

  Forging! To forge something that Xiao Chen had desired for a really long time—a Spatial Ring…

  Chapter 32: Universe Ring

  "Si!"

  A strand of purple flames appeared on Xiao Chen’s palm before suddenly erupting. The thin flame turned into a raging inferno. He raised his hands gently, and the flames soared into the air and hovered there.

  This was the advantage of having Spiritual Sense. After attaining Spiritual Sense, Xiao Chen gained a firmer control over the Purple Thunder True Fire. The flames, which were controlled by Spiritual Sense, were like an extension of Xiao Chen’s arms. The sensation and control involved was incomparable.

  Afterwards, he took out a broken sword and shifted his gaze away from the flames. This broken sword was the one he had obtained from the Thunder Emperor’s cave. Xiao Chen had investigated it for a long time, but aside from it being sharp, he could not unearth anything special about it.

  However, he could not deny that the quality of the sword’s make was very good. The forging of the Universe Ring constituted high criteria for the materials involved. Coincidentally, this broken sword was able to meet those strict demands.

  Perhaps it was once a divine-level Spirit Weapon, but at present it was merely a broken sword, so there was not much use to it. However, using it to forge the Universe Ring was no different from treating it as trash.

  Thus, Thunder Emperor, please don’t blame me for this, Xiao Chen thought in his heart.

  He tossed the broken sword into the middle of the purple fire. Immediately after, he controlled the purple fire to burn vigorously. At this point in time, he needed the temperature of the purple flames to continue rising all the way to an extreme heat. Such was the only method by which he could melt the broken sword.

  Without any question, this exhausted a lot of Essence. As the temperature of the purple fire continued to rise, its color turned deeper and deeper purple. However, there were no changes to the broken sword; it remained quietly within the purple fire.

  Very soon, out of the three white clouds beside the Azure Dragon, one faded away. Xiao Chen wiped the sweat off his forehead and continued to raise the temperature of the Purple Thunder True Fire. Xiao Chen wanted to turn it into a liquid form by the end of the day.

  When the three clouds were all close to fading away, the azure broken sword finally underwent some change. It slowly started to melt from one end and began to turn into an azure, viscous fluid that changed into its molten form shortly after.

  Xiao Chen’s expression turned warm as he swallowed a Qi Returning Pill, rapidly recovering the Essence in his body. As time went by, more of the broken sword’s surface turned into the thick, azure fluid. Drop by drop, the blue, molten metal gathered within the purple flames.

  After a long time, he had finally, thoroughly melted this mysterious broken sword down to liquefied ore.

  Using his Spiritual Sense, he controlled the blazing hot liquid made from the broken sword and gathered it into a liquid ball. As he continued to refine it, columns of azure smoke came out of the purple flames. As he did this, all of the remaining impurities were expunged, purifying the liquid even further.

  After he cleared out the impurities, Xiao Chen pictured the image of a ring in his sea of consciousness. The azure, molten metal, made by melting the broken sword in the purple flames, continuously changed its shape and eventually resembled a crudely-made ring.

  The next step was to establish a space. What Xiao Chen intended to forge was not a Spatial Ring with a large space. Thus, it was not difficult to establish the space, so all he had to do was inscribe a spatial formation on the ring.

  Gathering his Spiritual Sense in the ring, a vast world appeared before Xiao Chen’s eyes. It seemed as though his whole body had merged with the purple flames. At this moment, the Spiritual Sense was like the embodiment of Xiao Chen. It stood within the ring, incessantly carving the talisman scripts used for laying down formations.

  Within the inner wall of the ring inside the purple fire, all sorts of talisman scripts began to appear, engraved with extreme granularity. As Xiao Chen carved them, he tried to remember the talisman scripts for Spatial Formations recorded in the Compendium of Cultivation. If he carved just one part of it incorrectly, he would have to redo the entire thing. Therefore, Xiao Chen took his time with it rather than rushing and inadvertently making a mistake.

  After completing the talisman script carvings on the inner wall, Xiao Chen withdrew his consciousness and designed the final look of the ring as the purple fire slowly burned on ever-steady. After a short moment of adjustments, Xiao Chen extinguished the Purple Thunder True Fire and stretched out his hand, catching the Universe Ring that was falling out of the air.

  Making a cut on his index finger, he dripped a drop of fresh blood onto the ring. When the blood came into contact with the Universe Ring, it would be bound to him.

  “Ha Ha!”

  In the instant the blood was completely absorbed Xiao Chen was shunted into a dazed state of mind for a brief second. He could have sworn he h
eard a melodious laugh. However, by the time he was fully alert, the sound was gone.

  Could I be hallucinating? Xian Chen looked at the azure ring in his hand and muttered, Doesn’t matter, so long as it was successful.

  A Universe Ring with a hundred cubic meters of space. According to the records of the Compendium of Cultivation, this was not difficult to forge. It was only the first step on the road of craftsmanship for an Immortal Cultivator. Back when Earth still had Immortal Cultivators, every cultivator in their foundational stage would forge a Universe Ring as their first forging.

  Wearing the Yin-Yang ring on the index finger of his right hand, Xiao Chen sent out a strand of Spiritual Sense, entering into it. A pitch-black space appeared before his eyes. This was the space within the Universe Ring.

  Although it was only a hundred cubic meters, Xiao Chen was still more than satisfied. He no longer had to be envious of the First Elder’s and Feng Feixue’s spatial rings anymore.

  Coming to the place where the Red Nascent Fruit was, Xiao Chen first went to pick the few blades of Wind Spirit Grass and placed them into the Yin-Yang Ring. Looking at the recently matured Red Nascent Fruit, Xiao Chen revealed a smile on his face, I can no longer wait for you to grow anymore; this Young Master will harvest you today!

  The Universe Ring had a sealed space within it. When removing the things inside it, the items in question would be exactly as they were when they were placed within, even if it were after ten thousand years. Thus, Xiao Chen felt assured when he placed these herbs inside it.

  In the instant that Xiao Chen got up, he picked up the sound of faint footsteps in the vicinity. After attaining his Spiritual Sense, his six senses had turned exceptionally sensitive. They were definitely not at this level in the past.

  Xiao Chen frowned slightly and immediately sent out his Spiritual Sense. Everything within a radius of 500 meters around Xiao Chen clearly appeared within his mind. A group of cultivators had stopped by the skeleton of the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear and were discussing something in low voices.

  They were actually individuals from the Tang Clan. What were they doing here? After getting a clear visual on their attire, suspicions began to take root in Xiao Chen’s heart. There was a group of ten Tang Clan disciples, and each one of them was at least a Superior Grade Martial Disciple. Amongst them, there was an old man who gave off the fluctuations of a Martial Grand Master.

  Out of the three great clans of Mohe City, the Tang Clan was the most low-key and silent. Many years ago they were just a small clan. When those local clans did their best to attack the Xiao Clan, the Tang Clan simply ignored both sides.

  Of the few large-scale battles with the local clans, the Tang Clan had not participated. As those big local clans slowly exhausted their strength and began to gradually lose their influence, the Tang Clan quietly grew and expanded until it became one of the three great clans of Mohe City.

  In every battle for the rights to Seven Horn Mountain during the Promise of Ten Years, the Tang Clan would choose to forfeit. In the open rivalry and veiled strife between the Xiao Clan and Zhang Clan, the attitude of the Tang Clan was elusive.

  The Tang Clan was an oddly low-key clan within Mohe City.

  When the old man saw the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear’s skeleton hanging on the tree, there was a slight change in his expression. He faced one of the young men and spoke with caution, “First Young Master, I think we better leave soon. Our mission is important, and something is wrong here.”

  Xiao Chen recognized the young man leading the group. He was the first son of the Tang Clan clan head—Tang Yuan. Normally, he was very low-profile and would avoid overstepping his boundaries.

  Tang Yuan took a look at the skeleton of the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear hanging on the tree, but he held little regard for it. It was merely a Rank 2 Spirit Beast... something he could kill by himself as well. He replied with a smile, “Second Uncle, I have been here before in the past and have discovered a Red Nascent Fruit that had yet to mature. After such a long period of time, I believe it should be ready for harvesting.”

  When the old man heard the words ‘Red Nascent Fruit’ his face immediately revealed an excited expression. The technique he practiced was fire-attributed. This Red Nascent Fruit would be of great help to him. If he was fortunate, after consuming it, his cultivation might even advance by a grade.

  The only issue was that, when he saw the skeleton of the Bloodmoon Demonic Bear, he felt some distress in his heart. He himself cultivated fire-attributed techniques, thus he could immediately tell that this Bloodmoon Demonic Bear was burned clean by an extremely tyrannical flame. Furthermore, it was burned alive! Aside from the very solid bones, the rest was turned into ashes.

  With his current strength, he was barely able to create a flame of this level.

  Tang Yuan noticed the old man’s hesitation and smiled, “Second Uncle, there are so many of us here. Aside from you, a Martial Grand Master, we still have seven Superior Grade Martial Disciples. As long as it’s not a Martial Saint, we won’t be in any danger. Furthermore, the location of the Red Nascent Fruit is rather well-hidden. There should not be anyone else discovering it.”

  The Old Man was, in fact, thinking the same thing in his heart. Now that the young man advised the same, he stopped hesitating, “Then let’s hurry up and make sure there are no accidents. Our mission is the most important.”

  A smile blossomed on Tang Yuan’s face, as he thought in his heart, Now that the Second Elder has gained benefits from me and the Third Elder is already on my side, it means that two out of the three elders are supporting me. I wonder how you are going to compete with me?

  Under the leadership of Tang Yuan, the group of people made their way to the location of the Red Nascent Fruit in a grandiose manner. With a smile on his face, Tang Yuan parted a group of weeds. When he saw nothing but an empty spot of soil, the smile on his face froze.

  What’s going on? Tang Yuan thought suspiciously. One must know that the last time he found the Red Nascent Fruit, it was by a coincidence that was extremely hard to come by. If it was not for the fact that it was not mature when he first found it, he would have picked it for himself long ago.

  How could anyone else ever conceive that there would be a Red Nascent Fruit behind a bunch of weeds?

  The old man behind Tang Yuan looked at the freshly upturned ground with a gloomy expression before coldly stating, “This was just newly harvested; the smell of the earth is still quite fresh.”

  Tang Yuan angrily pounded on the ground a few times, turning around to apologize, “Second Uncle, I’m sorry to have made you come all this way for nothing. Had I known earlier, I would have just picked it regardless of its state of maturity.”

  The old man shook his head and revealed a faint smile, “We might not have made this trip for nothing.”

  “Boom!”

  After he said this, the old man pointed his finger at a location he had been looking towards. A flaming bird erupted from his body, instantly turning into a huge, fiery bird that gave off a melodious cry. Immediately after, it flew towards a large tree in front of them, while emitting powerful waves of heat.

  Before the flaming bird managed to approach the tree, the heat waves it gave off caused the tree to burn up. Xiao Chen, who was hiding behind it, quickly revealed himself and jumped to another tree.

  Before he could steady himself, the flaming bird gave off another cry, and both increased in size and accelerated in speed by an entire fold. A heat wave split apart the air, creating a long, blazing tail as it rapidly zeroed in on Xiao Chen.

  Xiao Chen jumped down from the tree in a hurry before a violent explosion occurred behind him. An intense wave of heat struck him from behind. Under such tremendous force, Xiao Chen fell to the ground in a sorry state.

  When he looked at the big tree again, it was already blasted into smithereens. Under the high temperature, it was immediately burned to ashes. A large plume of white smoke scattered from it i
n every direction.

  The white smoke entered Xiao Chen’s nose. Xiao Chen, who had just risen to his feet, started to cough. Amidst the smoke, the fiery bird cried out again, and its size and speed increased by another fold. At this point, it reached a terrifying level of speed. After the smoke parted, Xiao Chen could see that the flaming bird was now the size of a small car.

  Damn! It’s coming again!

  Looking at the blazing bird chasing him closely, Xiao Chen cursed in his heart. Are they truly treating me as a pushover? Trying to bully me like this!

  “Heavenly Lightning Shield!”

  Chapter 33: How Could It Be?

  “Boom!”

  The huge flaming bird smashed mercilessly against Xiao Chen’s Heavenly Lightning Shield. There was a loud explosion, before the sky was filled with sparks. After a while, all the sparks flew towards the old man, entering back into his body. The scene resembled a field of fireflies gravitating towards him.

  A deep pit about five meters wide appeared on the ground. The rocks had been blasted into powder, filling the surroundings with dust. Xiao Chen, who was in the deep pit, turned incredibly pale but was uninjured.

  With dust flying everywhere, no one was able to clearly see the situation inside the pit. When Tang Yuan saw this, he laughed, “Second Uncle, after being hit by your Triple Burst Flaming Bird, even if he isn’t dead, he is seriously injured.”

  The old man revealed a smug expression. The Triple Burst Flaming Bird was a Profound Ranked Martial Technique that he was very proud of. It used his ability to control his Martial Spirit, making it leave his body and attack the enemy.

  Each time the flaming bird cried out, it rapidly absorbed the fire-attributed energy from its surroundings, resulting in the doubling of its might and speed. After the third cry, even if a regular Martial Disciple used everything they had, they would still be burnt to ashes.