Chapter 384: Mid-Stage Spirit Transformation, Breakthroughs One After Another!

"Uh, don't you want to rest a bit?"

"I have the Five Indestructibles..."

"Stop, stop, stop! So that's what you're mainly using your 'indestructibility' for!"

"I suppose so. My daily cultivation now allows me to sweat without restraint."

Du En nodded expressionlessly; although the phrasing sounded like he was just going with the flow, it gave people the feeling that this was indeed what he was primarily targeting.

Therefore, the breadth of time was very necessary, plus the length gained from acceleration...

"As fast as possible."

Hearing this, the two people present, regardless of their current mood, couldn't help but be speechless.

Of course, no matter how subtle Meng Changqing's mood was, the requested demands would still be met.

Next, Du En began his closed-door cultivation, while the Quasi-True Monarch, though wanting to focus on cultivation, still needed to remain distracted for a period of time to engage in political maneuvering.

In reality, it wasn't long, because the flow of time on both sides was not equal.

Du En was whipping his horse to go faster, not wasting a single bit.

At present, the method of grinding proficiency for Daoist techniques had become targeted.

The grinding method for Mountain Lifting was simply to lift mountains; it was very monotonous and straightforward, which was also the reason Du En had chosen to discard the flashy techniques earlier, because he felt at the time that the simpler and more brutal the Daoist technique, the simpler the conditions for grinding it should be.

Sure enough, the situation was exactly so! Of course, not just any mountain would do; it needed to match the weight class of the corresponding stage—for instance, in his current state, the weight class was around 200 billion tons.

It was basically the total weight of a majestic mountain, which was very harmonious and consistent with the name of the Daoist technique.

And after the transformation of his spiritual body, Du En could already lift one with each hand, two at a time, quite simply and easily.

Relatively speaking, Flower Grafting was a bit more troublesome; one had to bloom a different flower to accumulate a point, so it required quite a lot of different mana.

But it was actually quite simple: just tell Meng Changqing and have some people from the Meng Faction provide some mana, and that would be enough for him to gather what he needed.

Wind-Killing Sand-Turning was very similar to Flower Grafting, but not exactly the same. The practice target was not limited to diverse mana; as long as it was a spiritual or strange object, once killed and turned into sand by it, it could be practiced.

It just so happened that the Earth-Wood Sacred Refining could produce a bunch of quick-made defective products, which could serve as target objects for practice.

The Giant Spirit Dharma Image was a bit special; its grinding involved changing the structure once to accumulate a point of proficiency. In other words, that thousand-foot-tall Dharma Image was actually a mounting platform; all sorts of things were carved and built upon it, eventually forming a terrifying giant god statue! As for the Wood Domain, it was also quite simple and brutal—just keep covering and growing; of course, the external environment had to be appropriately suitable, which was quite different from the new secret techniques Du En later requested.

The Indestructible Ice Soul was a secret technique used to splice the Ice Soul Art, further strengthening its original efficacy. It sat between a Yellow-grade Daoist technique and a Profound-grade Daoist technique, with a final power slightly higher than an ordinary Profound-grade Daoist technique.

Now, he just had to say a word to Meng Changqing, and the other side would teach it to him directly without any delay. When asked about the situation within the sect, they only said it was for meritorious service in offering techniques; if anyone had an opinion, they could go find Cheng Ru!

——The Ink Square Technique was indeed what the other party wanted; as long as he held onto this point, he could make them shoulder all the pressure!

Besides the newly learned secret techniques, he also quickly mastered the previously obtained secret technique, the Vermilion Bird True Art, by leveraging the commonalities he had discovered earlier.

That "Perish with the World" technique was indeed similar to the cultivation of True Flame; its main focus was on self-destruction, from which one gained the mysteries of the Daoist technique.

And the Indestructible Ice Soul could also be used during this process. The difference between its grinding and that of the Wood Domain lay in the need to accept various forms of destruction and interference from both inside and outside while maintaining the coverage.

Simply put, any technique involving "indestructible," "immortal," or "undying" required such a process of accepting external torture and tempering, so as to prove true indestructibility through great destruction! Full and abundant, grinding without stop.

For Du En, the sense of time during this period was both blurred and clear.

The length was stretched, the breadth was expanded, and time and space surged like tides, rising and falling frequently, such that if an ordinary Great Cultivator came, they would suffer from divine soul damage and become muddled and confused.

But for him, it was completely tolerable.

Therefore, hard work naturally yielded results.

It didn't take long at all before he had breakthroughs one after another.

【Age: 58/3233】

【Spiritual Root: High-grade】

【Cultivation: Mid-stage Spirit Transformation (18/100)】

【Cultivation Method: Radiant Splendor Canon (Mastery 286278/300000)】

【Spells: Mountain Lifting (Perfected), Wind-Killing Sand-Turning (Perfected), Indestructible Ice Soul (Accomplished 23/500), Giant Spirit Dharma Image (Perfected), Earth-Wood Sacred Refining (Accomplished 2/500), Phoenix Red True Flame (Accomplished 148/500), Wood Domain (Perfected), Flower Grafting (Perfected), Fiery Golden Eyes (Accomplished 20/500), Perish with the World (Minor Achievement 98/100)】

【Divine Ability: Burying Death, Flourishing Life (Mastery 150/300)】

【Hundred Arts: Appraisal (Perfected), Culinary Cooking (Perfected), Spirit Seeking (Perfected), Artifact Refining (Accomplished 0/500)】

When the tide of time began to calm, Du En's panel had already changed into this state.

In terms of realm, he had broken through to the mid-stage of Spirit Transformation, adding three hundred years to his lifespan, his divine sense range reached 3,500 miles, and his overall strength had more than doubled; it could be said his foundation was solid.

The cultivation method would soon break through; grinding it to completion in the Spirit Transformation stage was no problem at all, thereby gradually shedding the "weak" prefix from his status as a heaven-gifted talent.

As for spells, he was grinding them even more violently, having maxed out all the Yellow-grade Daoist techniques, and having already agreed with Meng Changqing to dump the blame on True Monarch Cheng Ru, the corresponding Profound-grade Daoist techniques were already on their way.

Of course, that True Monarch was no pushover; the back-and-forth between the two sides was nearing its end, and it would be hard to have such a good opportunity again later, so he still had to honestly perform meritorious deeds to make the upper echelons of the sect unable to question him.

Various secret techniques also showed significant progress, especially the Fiery Golden Eyes; he originally thought it would be quite troublesome, but an accidental discovery changed this.

——When Du En was trying to optimize the Giant Spirit Dharma Image, he piled on all the relevant inheritances from the Queguang Star Realm and everything else he had seen, but when that still wasn't enough, he set his sights on an item he had on him.

The Sinful Dragon Robe! The predecessor of this magical artifact was the skin of that Sinful Dragon. Because it had various restrictions personally carved by Meng Changqing, ranging from the sixth to seventh rank, he thought he would copy them. Unexpectedly, upon closer inspection, he discovered that the essence of the Sinful Dragon was extremely special and chaotically obscure; one look with the Fiery Golden Eyes would yield a completely different feedback and understanding.

It was literally different every time he looked, so the grinding here turned into "shearing the wool" of the Sinful Dragon.

Anyway, there was already the Phoenix Remnant Hatred, so Du En was quite adept at doing such things.

But what made him feel grave was that even though the Fiery Golden Eyes had a breakthrough, it was still difficult to see through the mystery of the Sinful Dragon; its true essence remained hidden within layers of chaos, never revealing its true appearance! He feared that even if he maxed out the Fiery Golden Eyes, making it comparable to an Earth-grade Daoist technique, he still wouldn't be able to see through its essence! The handiwork of a Supreme Being was indeed unsettling. Finally, regarding the Divine Abilities and Hundred Arts: there was nothing much to say about the Divine Ability; under Meng Changqing's operation, various fifth-rank spirit beasts were quietly and naturally dying of old age or illness, and then gathering in his hands.

The remaining gap would also continue to be filled as the resources from True Monarch Cheng Ru arrived one after another.

The main focus was on being covert! Meng Changqing was becoming increasingly cautious, and at the same time, after True Monarch Cheng Ru showed his initial sincerity, various small movements in the dark also increased rapidly.

Once the resources were in place, he could set up a bunch of dense smoke screens, go to various places, and scatter spirit stones and spirit objects everywhere, using their own spears to attack their own shields.

Isn't it just utilizing greed?

He wasn't incapable of using this trick!

Even his own people could defect because of this; guys from other factions would only be easier!

Before, it was just that the landlord's family didn't have much surplus grain, but now that someone was sending resources over, of course he could start throwing them around. It just so happened that the entire Immortal Sect was struggling under the weight of price issues, so this was truly a timely rain!

It wasn't that he expected these money-taking guys to be of any real use, but rather to use these dense offensives to cover his true intentions, while adding many small troubles to other True Monarchs and increasing the cost of their actions.

Among them, procuring spirit beasts for Du En was one of the primary, hidden objectives.

Naturally, there were others; in any case, it was intricate and complex, and Du En had only heard a snippet of it before, so he was too lazy to continue digging into it.

With that kind of time, he might as well grind his cultivation.

Finally, there was the matter of the Hundred Arts, specifically the breakthroughs in Gathering and Appraising and Spirit Seeking.

In truth, this was brought about by the blessed land of Kongsang Mountain; the reason it did not exist before was that his cultivation level was not yet sufficient.

Although a Heaven's Pride Great Cultivator is called a "Minor Void Refinement" and is "verified once, verified forever," they do not need to be like ordinary Great Cultivators, who must spend an entire major realm to regain their peak; instead, they maintain their peak from the very beginning.

However, to suddenly leap from the Nascent Soul stage to the peak of a normal Spirit Severing stage, those who are not born Heaven's Pride still need to pause temporarily and thoroughly digest themselves during the initial phase.

Therefore, during the early Spirit Severing stage, Du En was unable to make greater use of Kongsang Mountain.

Until he broke through to the mid Spirit Severing stage!

Having thoroughly digested the mysteries of his own primordial spirit and begun to formally explore the outside, the overall form within his Divine Palace remained basically consistent, but after his divine sense became powerful, the extremities could already penetrate into the inner layers of space.

He began to investigate the principles of the inner layers! Thus, what was mined from within were leaves named "principles," and what was appraised were the veins of those leaves.

This is Gathering and Appraising! Furthermore, from the various flows within the inner layers, one can sift and organize the flow of spiritual Qi and the internal form of spirit veins, further gaining a deeper understanding of "spirit."

This is Spirit Seeking! The Kongsang Mountain blessed land is like a sieve inserted into the inner-layer principles, filtering the otherwise cumbersome, complex, and incredibly obscure various principles into simple blessed land laws; as its master, Du En can then utilize these simple principles to accelerate the pace of his cultivation.

Back then, Meng Changqing had spoken lightly and did not say much, but only when he truly began to excavate did he know where its wonders lay.

However, with such gains, there would naturally be returns.

Du En gave the Mo Ju Method to him without concealment; although he also had the intention of borrowing it for repairs, the relevant secret techniques were indeed given out. That was the crystallization of an entire star realm's legacy gathered by someone nearing the absolute peak, and its value was immeasurable! Also, next...

"It is time to act."

Du En calmly hid the heaven-turning and earth-shattering interface, stepped out of Kongsang Mountain, returned to the thatched cottage on the Fifth Peak, and then pushed the door open to step out.

The actual passage of time was only ten days.

Perhaps Meng Changqing's little maneuvers were a bit too dense, or perhaps this time point had been budgeted from the start; in any case, True Monarch Bu Yi had come to urge them, so the time for action was set for now.

Also relying on time acceleration, Jiang Ying, who had already consolidated her cultivation and begun to formally advance, came out a step earlier.

Upon seeing Du En's unconcealed mid Spirit Severing stage cultivation, she felt only a thick sense of envy.

"It's so good, you can always walk on the correct path, you can always walk on the path you chose yourself, without the slightest burden or drag, striding forward with your head held high..."

"You can do it too."

Facing her envious rambling, Du En had only his usual, straightforward statement.

He truly believed so.

But the person involved did not have this feeling.

There was still a lack of strength in her Dao heart and will! Or rather, the inner demon that is True Monarch Bu Yi was too strong!

"In any case, I have agreed with that guy; next, I will be watching from my side, and I won't let the Void Refinement stage get involved. In the Shengyuan Star Realm, it will be limited to the level of the Spirit Severing stage."

Meng Changqing spoke at this moment, his avatar staring with a pair of bloodshot eyes; clearly, in these mere ten days of reality, various running about and various calculations had nearly caused him to collapse.

As for the main body, the door to the main house was already wide open, and inside it was dark and dim, making it impossible to see clearly; one could only faintly see a figure sitting cross-legged on a simple meditation cushion.

Du En glanced at it and immediately felt dizzy; it was as if various profound principles were entangled and converging there, as if this heaven and earth were gestating an unimaginable life.

He only glanced at it, then withdrew his gaze.

Meng Changqing noticed, but did not care; after all, the strength here could be considered to have touched the level where one could take a look at his current main body.

This quasi-True Monarch was worried: "Although that is the case, you should know that that guy has plenty of tricks to make cultivators of the same level engage in the most intense and extreme fighting and slaughter!"

The loser becomes the stepping stone, and the winner cannot keep winning forever; they will also be a stepping stone! Ultimate streamlining, extreme cruelty, only the winner survives! Take Jiang Ying, for example; her Nascent Soul stage was a path of killing and stepping, killing off all cultivators of the same generation, same rank, and same level, only then could she step on the flesh-and-blood foundation to ascend to the peak of Nascent Soul perfection! Following her departure, in the Northern Lands of the Immortal Sect, a new round of Nascent Soul streamlining had actually already restarted and would never cease.

Likewise, she, who thought she had already escaped, now had to jump back into the fire pit, accepting the brutal slaughter among strong geniuses as she began her own Spirit Severing Great Cultivator stage, using a star realm as a coliseum!

There might even be existences at the level of weak Heaven's Pride!

The other party would not be stingy or merciful at all; even such seedlings must accept the torture and destruction of the wind and rain!

(End of this chapter)