Chapter 340: The Ninth Chapter: Advancing in Darkness, Vast Wealth

“My Path of Birth and Death is completely stuck!”

“Is the path I forged on my own a dead end?”

Luo Feng couldn’t help but doubt.

At the Shenwang stage, there was a complete Dao to serve as a reference—so there were no dead ends; failure to comprehend meant only insufficient insight or ability.

But at the Shend Di stage, one gropes in darkness, easily taking wrong paths, falling into utter despair, forever unable to advance.

Why is the fused path so difficult? Because its complexity far exceeds that of a single pure Dao! It’s easy to get stuck, to hit a wall! Even a genius like the Master of the Guifang only reached the early Shend Di stage with the fused path.

“I have the Eye of Birth and Death—I’ve observed countless Hunyuan bloodlines. My path must be right!”

“If the path is right, then how do I break through this bottleneck?”

Luo Feng murmured softly.

“Birth and Death fused, oriented toward life—I seek the ultimate physical form! The larger, the better! Size means immense energy. Size means potential for overwhelming power. Size also means boundless vitality.”

“But… when the body grows large enough, how do I control it?”

“According to my estimates, the Half-Hunyuan Path of Birth and Death theoretically allows for a perfect divine body energy reserve of twelve billion times.”

After the Battle of Yulan City, Luo Feng entered seclusion again, advancing comprehensively—he was no longer far from the Half-Hunyuan Path of Birth and Death, and could now vaguely judge its theoretical power level.

As the most difficult of the Three Invincible Paths, success on this path guarantees absolute invincibility.

“At the Mid-Shend Di stage, my Imperishable Blood Sea Body had a peak combat power of 500 times the perfect divine body energy reserve. Even at its limit, I could control up to ten thousand times—but my combat power didn’t increase further.”

“Now, my Imperishable Blood Sea Body’s peak combat power is 3,000 times the perfect divine body energy reserve; at its limit, I can control up to one hundred thousand times. Beyond that, my body becomes too massive to control perfectly, and my power begins to decline.”

“But…”

“The Half-Hunyuan Path of Birth and Death theoretically allows for twelve billion times the perfect divine body energy reserve. How do I control it perfectly?”

“With a body this massive, even walking would be a struggle.”

“This means I have a major flaw in controlling my body.” Luo Feng had hit this bottleneck.

His Path of Birth and Death was already highly refined in many aspects.

Body size, unceasing vitality, how to unleash power—all had reached their intended goals!

But one thing remained!

When his body was small, it was fine—Luo Feng’s total energy reserve never exceeded 5,000 times the perfect divine body energy, so control came easily.

But the theoretical twelve-billion-fold energy reserve? Controlling and operating it was far beyond his capacity.

Yet if he sacrificed the massive body, this path would no longer be complete—it wouldn’t be the “Shend Di Perfect” Path of Birth and Death.

“Based on the experience of many Hunyuan bloodlines, controlling such a massive body requires two conditions: first, I must undergo a fundamental transformation in body control; second, my spiritual will must break free from its cage. Only when both are satisfied might I achieve perfect control.”

When chatting with the Master of Yuanxiang Hall and the cultivator squad, Luo Feng learned that when spiritual will first breaks free of its cage, its power increases by only a dozen times.

Because among the Three Invincible Paths in history, the first path—“will breaking free of the cage”—was the most common; he had personally seen several such cultivators.

Their spiritual will was invincible, capable of completely suppressing the Master of Yuanxiang Hall and others—but only suppression! Not “will annihilation.”

“A spiritual will increase of merely a dozen times helps my body control, but it’s nowhere near enough for ‘perfect control.’” Luo Feng understood this.

With a body this massive, even walking was difficult.

Not even tenfold—even if his will multiplied a hundredfold, the massive body might move with some agility and perform basic techniques, but advanced techniques would still be impossible, let alone multitasking.

Casting a formation to trap enemies while using close-combat secret arts, while observing with a simulated Eye of Birth and Death, while wielding secret treasures against foes…

Multitasking—that’s what perfect body control means!

A spiritual will increase of merely a dozen times? Still impossibly far away.

“Far too far.”

“Even after my spiritual will breaks free of the cage, according to my estimates, it’s still far from enough. This suggests my path may be wrong.”

“Perhaps my Path of Birth and Death shouldn’t pursue extreme body size.”

Luo Feng was reflecting on himself.

Groping in darkness requires constant reflection and correction.

“First, let me try to find a way to control my body.” Luo Feng was not one to give up easily—this path was his original direction; changing its core would mean overturning the entire Path of Birth and Death.

He’d have to restart from the Supreme Shenwang stage and re-derive everything!

A blank sheet is easier to paint on!

Even if he overturned his past path, he’d still be influenced by it—his new path would be hard to forge.

This is cultivation!

One misstep, and every step after is wrong!

“As long as I succeed, it won’t be wrong!”

“How long have I cultivated? The Ancestors of the Two Kingdoms have endured countless cycles of the Origin Continent. What’s this bottleneck?” Luo Feng closed his eyes and began silent contemplation.

He searched through each Hunyuan bloodline, through the Imperishable Heart, the Palm Realm, through the Star Tower and the Eye of Birth and Death—for any spark of insight.

“Including the Star Tower, life and destruction are merely combined, not fused.”

“The fused path has no reference.”

Ordinary paths can draw insight from the mysteries within Hunyuan life corpses and materials.

The fused path? It has no reference at all!

Early on it’s manageable, but the further you go, the harder it becomes!

Luo Feng truly hit a major bottleneck only now, between Late Shend Di and Shend Di Perfect.

But this isn’t even the hardest part of the fused path.

The leap from “Shend Di Perfect Dao” to “Hunyuan-level Dao” is the true difficulty—a heavenly chasm! Far, far harder than the bottleneck he now faces!

Many with extraordinary talent switched to bloodline cultivation to break free of the cage.

Because the Dao path grows harder and harder, driving cultivators to despair.

“Controlling the body…”

“How do you control a body that massive?”

Luo Feng pondered.

Research into each Hunyuan bloodline sparked countless flashes of insight.

“No.”

“This method isn’t enough.”

One by one, prototypes of body-control methods arose in his mind—each discarded the moment it formed.

With his intellect, he knew the upper limit of any method the instant its Chuxing appeared.

……

Luo Feng walked across the Dark Sacred Realm’s land, his mind always on cultivation, occasionally pausing to contemplate. When he encountered low-level Hunyuan lifeforms, he naturally slew them on the spot.

Sometimes killing a weak one drew a stronger one; slaying a strong one attracted a terrifying squad to hunt him down.

Luo Feng spotted them from afar with his simulated Eye of Birth and Death, then immediately slipped into the rifts between heaven and earth and fled swiftly.

“Hmm?”

Luo Feng stared at the ancient city ahead. “Chengfengcheng? I’ve arrived?”

Walking while contemplating, half an eon had passed before Luo Feng finally reached Chengfengcheng!

“Huh.”

Luo Feng completely suppressed his aura. One step, and he crossed space directly into the city, then walked through its streets. Most cultivators inside couldn’t sense his presence at all.

“The Dark Sacred Realm gathers the strongest beings from surrounding source worlds and countless worlds. Late Shend Di Dao-seekers are the minimum threshold to enter.”

Even many Half-Hunyuan bloodline cultivators were at the bottom here.

“Bai Yin, Shend Di , and the other two are inside Chengfengcheng.” Luo Feng sensed his three friends in the cultivator squad through karmic resonance, but he didn’t rush to visit them—he flew toward the Hunyuan Hall within the city.

“Of the five cities in the Dark Sacred Realm, only the central one—Hunyuan City—has a large Hunyuan Hall.” Luo Feng knew this information.

When the Dark Sacred Realm was first established, it had only Hunyuan City—a city left behind by Elder Yuan and others.

Later, after countless ages, cultivators exchanged battle merits to build four more cities—making it easier to hunt low-level Hunyuan lifeforms. The cost of city construction here was far higher than in the Nine Rivers Sacred Realm.

“Huh.”

Luo Feng flew directly to the second floor of the Hunyuan Hall.

On the second floor, two towering figures stood motionless. When Luo Feng arrived, they both opened their eyes at once, their invisible aura enveloping the entire second floor.

“Cultivator Luo Feng, do you wish to confirm battle merits or exchange for treasures?” one towering figure said. Both were puppets left behind by Elder Yuan and others—absolutely impartial.

“Confirm battle merits.”

Luo Feng nodded. “These are the corpses of low-level Hunyuan lifeforms I’ve slain. Please check them for me.”

He pulled out a storage bracelet and released its seal.

“Hum—” Both puppets simultaneously scanned the bracelet’s interior. Though it contained a terrifying quantity of low-level Hunyuan corpses, the puppets showed no reaction.

“Low-level Hunyuan lifeform corpses: 9 ultra-limit class, 2,902 Shend Di Perfect class, 39,522 Late Shend Di class, 68,990 Mid-Shend Di class, 83,560 Early Shend Di class.”

“Cultivator Luo Feng, your current battle merits total: 7,717,660.”

One puppet announced the final tally.

Seven million battle merits?

The peak-tier Qiangzhe of the Dark Sacred Realm, though weaker than Luo Feng, had lived far longer—accumulating battle merits over eons, often buying them with Hunyuan Crystals, since battle merits had far greater utility than Hunyuan Crystals.

Thus, having several million battle merits was common among peak-tier beings. At the exchange rate of 100,000 Hunyuan Crystals per battle merit, several billion Hunyuan Crystals could buy millions of battle merits.

Many cities long-term bought battle merits—Yulan City did too.

Though Luo Feng had only seven million battle merits, he was extremely wealthy—because every single one came from his own kills. Those corpses were worth tens of trillions of Hunyuan Crystals.

“Seven million battle merits should be enough.” Luo Feng thought, turned, and walked straight to the first floor of the Hunyuan Hall—he planned to sell all the corpses.

(End of chapter)