Chapter 199: Only One Step Away from the Sixth Realm

"Waner, come~"

In another dense forest, Lu Xun used the celestial exotic species ahead to continue teaching Murong Wan hand in hand.

The hope of breaking through the Sword Intent to extinction level lies right before our eyes.

Lu Xun was naturally extremely proactive.

Murong Wan was equally proactive.

Her drive for improvement was very strong.

There was nothing to be done; although her physique was excellent, her awakening came a bit too late.

Just after her birthday passed, she had already turned 26.

Other geniuses with top-tier physiques had basically already broken through to the Fifth Realm by the age of 26.

And her?

As of now, she has only reached the Third Realm.

Murong Wan naturally wanted to catch up head-on.

"Lu Xun, I feel the time to open the hand apertures has come."

As they practiced, Murong Wan actually wanted to open her hand apertures.

"Great, Waner, I will stand guard for you."

Lu Xun's face lit up with joy; he directly cleared the celestial exotic species ahead, then took out and set up the Spirit Concealment Formation.

How could he not be happy?

No matter how many or how powerful other methods are, the realm remains the foundation.

Moreover, the realm of martial cultivators is somewhat special; at the Third Realm, Lu Xun and Murong Wan have always remained consistent, merely becoming stronger.

Murong Wan began to impact the hand apertures.

The hand apertures total twelve, divided into two major branches: the Hard Apertures and the Soft Apertures, each branch containing six.

The Hard Apertures govern attack, determining explosive power, destructive power, damage resistance, and so on.

The Soft Apertures govern control, determining precision, agility, nerve reflexes, and so on.

Among them, the Hard Apertures include the Collapsing Mountain Aperture, Seizing Dragon Aperture, Iron Bone Aperture, Piercing Armor Aperture, Congealing Blood Aperture, and Suppressing Mountain Aperture.

They are located at different parts of the palm.

Upon opening each aperture, one also gains certain abilities.

For example, after opening the Collapsing Mountain Aperture, regardless of the fist or palm technique used, power increases by over thirty percent; without using true qi, one can split blue stone, and the palm edge becomes like a dull axe.

One can also gain abilities such as the Open Monument Hand.

Well, these are merely abilities, not divine powers.

The Seizing Dragon Aperture is located at the finger joints; once opened, finger penetration strength increases, allowing one to easily crush refined iron arrowheads without true qi, and to shatter hard armor like tearing paper.

If true qi is used, the power naturally becomes greater.

These hard hand apertures all follow a fierce, forceful path.

The six soft hand apertures emphasize controllability.

For instance, the Spirit Thread Aperture is at the fingertip tips; once opened, tactile sensitivity increases severalfold, allowing one to blindly discern fabric weave and coin tooth marks.

Likewise, the Connecting Star Aperture lies on the palm lines; once opened, both hands cooperate in perfect sync, left and right combat without conflict, and even allows each hand to perform different martial techniques simultaneously without loss of proficiency.

Each secret aperture has its function.

It's merely a matter of greater or lesser effect.

In this context, the hand apertures are extremely important.

After all, combat mainly relies on the two hands.

However, divine abilities stemming from the hand apertures are actually few.

The most famous is the Three Heads Six Arms.

More precisely, it is six arms.

The complete Three Heads Six Arms divine ability requires opening the Ancestral Aperture—that is, the secret aperture in the brain—before it can possibly awaken.

Three Heads Six Arms does not actually mean growing three heads and six arms.

Rather, it is a manifestation produced when the divine ability is exercised.

Although illusory, its combat power is not inferior to real arms.

Furthermore, this divine ability truly shines only at the Seventh Realm.

The martial Seventh Realm is the Heavenly Phenomenon Realm, or the Dharma Aspect Realm.

In this realm, a martial cultivator with each breath can draw upon the power of heaven and earth, and can also condense the Heaven-Earth Dharma Aspect, embodying the law of heaven and earth!

At that point, if one possesses Three Heads Six Arms, that Heaven-Earth Dharma Aspect becomes formidable.

The Dharma Aspect of three heads and six arms is enough to make one's heart pound just by seeing it.

Hand aperture divine abilities also have one similar to Three Heads Six Arms, namely the Thousand Hand Divine Ability.

However, this divine ability has some useless aspects; its combat power is far inferior to that of Three Heads Six Arms.

Moreover, there are some obscure divine abilities.

Such as Overturning Rivers and Seas, and Pointing at Objects to Make Weapons.

These divine abilities sound impressive, but to truly unleash their power, one needs the Seventh Realm or higher.

Once one truly reaches above the Seventh Realm, even without these divine abilities, overturning rivers and seas is no difficulty.

After Lu Xun prepared a large amount of Dark Energy for Murong Wan, he patiently waited.

There are twelve secret apertures in total in the hand apertures; for Murong Wan to open them all at once, it will take at least a day or two.

"There's movement."

Suddenly, Lu Xun heard a commotion.

That commotion was still extremely far away, but Lu Xun possessed an enhanced version of the Wind-Following Ear; once he used this divine ability, at his current realm he could also hear sounds from dozens of li away.

"It's the demon race..."

Upon hearing that, Lu Xun made a discovery.

A group of demon race individuals were pursuing and killing a human.

After glancing at Murong Wan, Lu Xun took no action.

Although he was also human, the most important thing now was to guard the law for Murong Wan.

"It seems to be heading this way?"

A few minutes later, Lu Xun discovered that the direction the human was fleeing happened to be his side.

That was quite a coincidence.

If he could escape to nearby, Lu Xun wouldn't mind intervening to help him break out of the siege.

【Aodaili's magic cultivation has broken through, you gain forty times Aodaili's harvest.】

While listening to that person's movements, suddenly, a return from Aodaili arrived.

After a breakthrough in magical arcana, Aodaili finally also broke through her cultivation.

Her cultivation, from the late Mage stage, in one leap reached the peak Mage stage, only one step away from the Archmage, which is the Five Realms.

The Magic Grimoire that Aodaili obtained from Barbara looks very powerful.

She had only been back in the West for a few months when she successively had breakthroughs.

The returning heat flow entered his body, wildly increasing Lu Xun's magic cultivation.

Originally, Lu Xun had already reached the mid-stage Archmage.

Under this wave of return, his magic cultivation surged in a short time to the late-stage Archmage.

Then, level by level, he rose, and in one go rushed to the peak Archmage.

Having reached the peak and not stopping, he broke through to Title Mage with the force of thunder before one could cover their ears.

The Western Archmage and Title Mage both correspond to the Eastern Five Realms.

Among them, the Archmage corresponds to the first four layers of the Five Realms.

The Title Mage corresponds to the latter six layers of the Five Realms.

The fortyfold return naturally would not end here.

Lu Xun's magic cultivation kept rising with a thumping sound.

From the early-stage Title Mage, he surged all the way to mid-stage, then late-stage, and peak.

Having reached the peak, he finally stopped.

Above that is the Forbidden Spell Mage, corresponding to the Eastern Sixth Realm.

Although there was still plenty of returning heat flow, it was insufficient to support Lu Xun's breakthrough to Forbidden Spell Mage.

"Good partner."

This time, Lu Xun directly reached the peak of the Five Realms.

"Thunder God's Fury may not be weaker in power than forbidden spell magic; I, with Five Realms peak magic power, unleash Thunder God's Fury, which could arguably count as a half-step?"

Lu Xun couldn't help but think.

No matter how you say it.

Aodaili's this upgrade was very effective.

If she upgrades another level, breaking through to Archmage, Lu Xun's magic cultivation should be able to break through to the Sixth Realm.

After all, there is no limit to magic breakthroughs.

"Six Realms!"

Lu Xun did not expect that.

Originally, in his view, the Six Realms were unattainably distant, but in the blink of an eye they turned out to be within arm's reach.

Although it is the Sixth Realm achieved in magic, its combat power is not as overpowered as immortal martial arts, yet it is still a genuine Sixth Realm.

Of course, placed in the magic realm hierarchy, it is actually the ninth realm.

Who let the mage's ranks be so numerous?

If they were to subdivide more finely, dividing into dozens or even hundreds of realms would be entirely possible.

But on the battlefield, a Forbidden Spell Mage merely corresponds to the Eastern Sixth Realm.

"Don't let her get away!"

"She can't escape!"

At this moment.

More than ten kilometers away from Lu Xun, a figure was fleeing rapidly.

If Lu Xun were here, he would surely be greatly surprised.

Because this figure is Ran Bing.

She actually also entered this Spirit Realm.

Lu Xun only heard the commotion of her fleeing, but it was impossible to discern her identity from the sound of her escape.

Behind Ran Bing, a group of demon race individuals madly pursued.

"A mere Fourth Realm, yet fleeing this fast—must be a human genius."

The leader of the demon race individuals was full of killing intent.

He is a Fifth Realm, moreover mid-stage Fifth Realm.

Yet he failed to catch up to Ran Bing.

Ran Bing used a trump card such as a Divine Travel Talisman, but he likewise used some means to speed up.

"Only such a genius is worth our making a move."

Another Five-realm Demon said coldly.

"Whether she's a genius or not, I don't care, but the Spirit Fruit must be obtained; even if she has eaten it, its medicinal potency has not yet dissipated."

The previous Five-realm Demon was extremely cruel.

They pursued Ran Bing, naturally not merely because Ran Bing is human.

The main reason is that Ran Bing seized a Spirit Fruit of immense value to them.

Even if Ran Bing ate the Spirit Fruit while fleeing, they are not afraid.

To the demon tribe, a powerful cultivator is itself a tonic.

A cultivator who has eaten the Spirit Fruit is an even greater tonic.

"You can't escape!"

The two Five-realm Demons further accelerated.

Ran Bing ultimately only has the Four-realm; even using a Divine Travel Talisman makes escape difficult.

Once they catch him, there is only a dead end.

Suddenly,

A group of Star-space Alien Species appeared ahead of Ran Bing.

Ran Bing did not engage them at all; with a flick of his form he bypassed the group of Star-space Alien Species and shot off into the distance.

Her direction of advance happened to be the direction where Lu Xun was.