Chapter 1041: Body-Tempering Art Evolution! SSR-Grade!

"You certainly know how to hide things, building the resource vault right here."

Five hundred meters beneath the ground, below the Holy Radiance Sect.

Gazing at the enormous alloy door before him, which resembled a bank's vault, Xu Jingming could not help but sigh aloud.

This location—even a ninth-rank upper-tier mental master would be utterly unable to detect it without careful sensing.

"The Tianming Sect is despised by everyone, so the place where resources are stored must be kept sufficiently secret.

It took me a full half year to secretly build this place, so it's very hard for anyone to discover it.

If not for the fact that you, Master, enslaved me, even killing me wouldn't have led you to this place."

After replying respectfully, Tian Hong placed his palm on the massive alloy door.

Rumble~~~~

The enormous and heavy alloy door slowly swung open inward.

A faint, refreshing fragrance of rare flowers and exotic herbs rushed toward him, and what came into view was a massive hemispherical warehouse!

The warehouse's floor and ceiling were both forged from extremely high-strength C-grade alloy.

Row upon row of shelves were densely arranged across the warehouse floor.

Equipment, pills, rare flowers and exotic herbs... all manner of resources were sorted and placed on different shelves.

"The warehouse contains a total of 4 SSS-grade resources, 11 SS-grade resources, and 89 S-grade resources.

There are also many lower-grade resources besides these, numbering roughly over fifty thousand pieces."

Tian Hong reported.

"So many low-grade resources?" Su Qingli was somewhat surprised.

One had to understand that even the vast resource vault of the Lei Ting Martial Hall only had forty thousand pieces of resources below S-grade.

"The Tianming Sect is, after all, not a normal organization."

Tian Hong began to explain, "Most of the Tianming Sect's members are brainwashed zealots. All we need to do is use some worthless talisman papers, or declare talisman tokens as blessings from the Heavenly God, and we can easily swindle the resources right off their persons.

Additionally, our Tianming Sect also takes on assassination missions—murder for money has always been an easy way to get rich."

"I see." Su Qingli nodded slightly.

Cults really did make money faster than proper organizations like theirs.

"What about the body-tempering art related to the Molten Fire Beast?" Xu Jingming looked at Tian Hong.

"Master, please wait a moment."

Tian Hong, whose rank was only first-tier, had pitifully weak spiritual power—he couldn't even manage telekinesis.

He could only step into the innermost row of shelves, then bring back a thick, heavy manual:

"This is an SSR-grade body-tempering art, 'Molten Fire Burning Heaven Body.' It requires the use of the Molten Fire Beast's essence blood. I once had Li Hao practice this body-tempering art."

"Very good."

Xu Jingming, who had stored the manual in his spatial ring, nodded in satisfaction. "Next, you just go back to lying low. Once there's any news from the Tianming Sect headquarters, notify me immediately.

Also, once those Doushen Shenlei you've gathered arrive in Magic Capital, let me know as well."

"Understood."

Tian Hong nodded respectfully, then asked, "What about the Li family? Do we still need to further draw them into the Tianming Sect?"

His special enhancement-type ability granted him eight sub-bodies, but the distance between any two sub-bodies could not exceed ten kilometers.

Grandmaster Zhou, the eighth-rank healing master far away in Qingjing, was controlled by him through other means—means that remained effective even though he was only first-tier.

"No need. Wait for my word on the Li family." Xu Jingming murmured thoughtfully.

His current strength was still insufficient.

Once his strength surpassed Li Changfeng's, it wouldn't be too late to have Tian Hong draw them in.

By then, if the Li family truly wished to join the Tianming Sect, it would conveniently give him a pretext to act.

If he drew the Li family in now without introducing them to the Tianming Sect headquarters, it would easily arouse suspicion.

After storing all the resources from the vault into his spatial ring, Xu Jingming took Su Qingli and left the Holy Radiance Sect.

Returning to the Moon Lake residential district in Magic Capital, he studied the SSR-grade body-tempering art 'Molten Fire Burning Heaven Body' that Tian Hong had given him.

It was a body-tempering art that utilized elemental fire-type abilities, combined with the Molten Fire Beast's essence blood to temper one's own physique.

Although Xu Jingming possessed an elemental lightning-type ability, both were elemental powers—merely of different types—and there were many commonalities in tempering the physique.

In this regard, it was far better than the SSR-grade body-tempering art 'Spirit Cat Gentle Body' he had previously obtained from Qiao Lin.

"This manual really isn't as convenient as a Wu Yin."

Four hours later, Xu Jingming, who was in the study, closed the manual and let out a long breath.

If this had been a Wu Yin, he wouldn't have needed to study it at all—in an instant, he would have obtained the initial method of cultivation.

Fortunately, his spiritual power was now far stronger than before; otherwise, just this one SSR-grade body-tempering art would have taken him over half a month to initially learn and understand.

"So far, I've already read several SSR-grade body-tempering arts, and there are still over three million ability points left on the system panel.

Under these conditions, it should be enough to level up a body-tempering art..."

Xu Jingming opened his system panel and looked at the body-tempering art column.

【Body-Tempering Art】: Doushen Shenlei Blood Fiend Body (SSS-grade+, Tenth Layer)

"Finally able to add points!"

Xu Jingming's eyes blazed with intense light, and he rose to leave the study for the training room.

However, he did not immediately choose to add points; instead, he pondered silently to himself.

The system's point allocation could, based on his thoughts and the manuals he had read, allocate points to produce the body-tempering art best suited for him.

But what he had previously read were not lightning-type body-tempering arts—this point had to be corrected.

'The body-tempering art I want must take my lightning-type ability as its foundation, and its ultimate capability must be able to bring my ability to its absolute peak.'

Mentally repeating his thoughts, Xu Jingming suddenly pressed the plus sign after the Body Strengthening Art.

Energy Points - 3,000,000!

【Body Strengthening】: Doushen Shenlei Blood Chaos Body (SSS Rank) → Unnamed Body Strengthening Art (SSR Rank)!

Boom!!

The instant he clicked the point-allocating option, Xu Jingming felt boundless power surging out from within his body!

Crackling—!!

Vast, wild, chaotic divine thunder erupted violently around him like a wave, while crimson blood qi swirled in a ring about his form.

Thump! Thump!......

The thunderous beat of a massive heart rang out as his physique rapidly strengthened.

The powerful aura radiating from him made Su Qingli, who was meditating nearby, reveal a look of astonishment:

"Is Jingming... breaking through again?"

Xu Jingming, in the midst of his breakthrough, was unaware of Su Qingli's thoughts.

As his physique surged upward, he suddenly felt an intense hunger, as if something vital was still missing.

That's right!

The essence blood of the Molten Fire Beast!

With a sweep of his hand, Xu Jingming pulled out the Molten Fire Beast essence blood he had taken from Li Hao earlier, from his space ring.

Whoosh—

The searing-hot essence blood instantly melted into a mist of blood vapor and was absorbed by him.

The already extreme pressure intensified further!

"Such a powerful aura!"

Su Qingli's expression shifted slightly; her long, slender legs, encased in a tight battle suit, trembled uncontrollably.

This was an instinctive reaction!

The natural fear a lower being feels before a higher being.

Even she, a Rank Nine Lower-tier Law Saint, could not escape it...