Chapter 707: Golden-Winged Great Peng, sword settles the wind and waves

"The situation in the Western Desert has been roughly clarified; the demon race and desolate beasts have indeed joined forces. Led by the Red Sand Ancient Scorpion, they are leading hundreds of millions of troops to fiercely counterattack the human territory."

"Has the allied desolate beast been identified?"

"Golden-Winged Great Peng! The former guardian spirit beast of the Sarira Hall of the Hanging Temple."

"So it was him! Back then, the head of the Prajna Hall converted him and brought him into the Buddhist sect, which already suffered a lot of criticism. Later, this beast stole the thirty-six high monk sariras, causing the Hanging Temple to suffer a great loss of vitality. Now that this beast has returned, it is the demon and desolate beasts joining forces to attack the human race; I don't know what the Daoist friend of the Hanging Temple thinks."

"The strange thing is here! A thousand years ago, the thirty-six sariras were stolen, and the Hanging Temple has closed its mountain gates for a thousand years because of this. Logically speaking, it should have recovered its vitality long ago, but in this demon race counterattack, it still ignores worldly affairs, which is truly strange."

"Don't worry about their closed-door affairs anymore; now is a great opportunity for us to dip our fingers into the Western Desert. When the Heavenly Origin army defeats the demon race and conquers the Western Desert, the monks of the Hanging Temple will have nothing to say. Let's talk about the situation in the North Sea!"

"Let me say it! In the North Sea, the situation is the same as judged before, and Great Being Li is also very sensible, maintaining a tacit understanding with us. The only thing out of line is that he is taking advantage of the human-demon war to try to swallow the mountains and seas and refine spiritual treasures."

"No matter, let him go. By then, how much he swallows, he will have to spit out. As long as the two places of the Sinking Sea and Night Demon Heaven remain, it will be fine. What about the passage?"

"Reporting to the Sect Master, the passage is about to be completely opened. Some natural dangers have also been cleared up under the attack of the capable people of my sect. On the way, we also received a team of Nascent Soul cultivators from the North Sea who came to the Central Plains to rely on the Heavenly Peak."

Mo Shouzhuo nodded slowly, a look of relief appearing in his eyes.

Once the passage from the Central Plains to the North Sea is opened, the Central Plains army will have no obstacles in marching to the North Sea. If they cooperate with the Penglai Immortal Sect, they can recover the lost human territory of the North Sea overnight.

From now on, the North Sea will only have one Soul Transformation holy land—the Profound Heaven Sect!

The so-called Origin Demon Sect, no matter how deep the remnants are hidden, will not be able to restore the glory of the Demon Sect.

Just as he was thinking about this, he suddenly raised his brows.

"Someone has been eliminated."

In the chessboard space, the Heavenly Origin True Persons were stunned and discussed one after another.

"So fast?"

"It's only been eight days!"

"Eight days in the mountains and seas, eight hundred days in the cave heaven, it's not short."

"After all, it's short. The limit for Golden Core juniors is one month, and the stay time for Nascent Soul true disciples is one year. Only eight days in, and they have been eliminated; I imagine they have gained nothing."

Eight days in the Mountain and Sea Realm, roughly eight hundred days in the cave heaven.

Counting it all up, it's only two years or so.

In such a short time, whether one can capture a fourth-tier phantom beast is hard to say, let alone cultivate with phantom cores and comprehend the true meaning of the Dao.

Someone was curious and asked Mo Shouzhuo which family's true disciple it was.

Mo Shouzhuo smiled, "It's not a true disciple, just a guardian."

It's common for guardians to be eliminated first.

However, in this way, without the protection of a guardian, even if the true disciple stays inside, I fear it will be difficult to move forward and there will be no big gains later.

Everyone asked which unlucky guy it was.

Mo Shouzhuo pinched his fingers and calculated, and already had the answer.

"It is Xiang Qi's guardian—Angry-Eyed Jin Gang; at this moment, he is seriously injured, his golden body is broken, leaving only a breath of life, and he is receiving treatment from the sect's sect members."

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at each other.

An old man in the room said "I'll be back soon" and left the Lankeshan chessboard space with a worried face.

After he left, everyone discussed it.

"Angry-Eyed Jin Gang, is that the head of the Golden Mountain Temple in the Western Desert?"

"It should be him; it is said that he comprehended the incomplete Three Heads and Six Arms method and achieved the Great Jin Gang physique in the body refining realm, which is a rare body refining genius."

"That shouldn't be! The Mirage Dragon secret realm forms a cave heaven by itself, and being inside, the Nascent Soul domain of cultivators is greatly suppressed, not only ineffective against high-tier phantom beasts, but also has little influence on human cultivators. Therefore, the guardians who enter it every time, especially high-tier body refiners, are the most suitable."

High-tier body refiners have great power, relying only on themselves, never relying on the power of heaven and earth.

In that Mirage Dragon cave heaven, everyone's Nascent Soul domain is not easy to use, so the advantage of high-tier body refiners is highlighted.

This rule has also been gradually explored in every five-hundred-year grand competition.

But since the great war between humans and demons in ancient times, there has been no major war, and the main theme of the cultivation world has become the pursuit of longevity. The body refining path, which pursues fierce power, has gradually declined, so high-tier body refiners are rare.

Like this time, among the thirteen guardians who entered the Mirage Dragon cave heaven, even if each family searched hard, there was only one pure body refiner, the Angry-Eyed Jin Gang.

There were three others who were only dual cultivators of magic and body.

As the head of the thirty-six noble families, the Xiang family has strong strength and wide connections, and the Angry-Eyed Jin Gang invited is undoubtedly the best among those four guardians.

It can be said that before entering the Mirage Dragon cave heaven, the Xiang family had already gained the upper hand.

But no one expected that the Angry-Eyed Jin Gang would be the first to be eliminated.

"Could it be the guardian of the Shi family?"

"Qi Xiongcheng is impossible; although he made a name for himself by relying on body refining attainments, he felt that longevity was hopeless, so he switched to the Qi cultivation method. It was precisely because of this that he achieved the Nascent Soul stage at the 'advanced age' of four hundred and seventy, barely catching up with this grand competition. With his half-baked body refining attainments, he would not be the Angry-Eyed Jin Gang's opponent."

"But what if Shi Ju and he joined forces?"

Those who knew the inside story had to consider this possibility.

Unlike other true disciples, Shi Ju is one of the few among the thirteen who can make a move himself.

If he and Qi Xiongcheng joined forces to beat the Angry-Eyed Jin Gang to the point of near death, it is not impossible.

But soon, this speculation was overturned by others.

"My son is born noble, how could he make a move against this person. Moreover, it depends on whether Xiang Qi has the guts to provoke him."

It was the patriarch of the Shi family!

A great cultivator in the late Nascent Soul stage, one of the nineteen elders of the Heavenly Peak!

He sneered, "Rather than guessing that my son made a move, why not think about whether others joined forces to drive the Angry-Eyed kid out first."

The representatives of many families who did not participate in this cave heaven grand competition nodded slightly in their hearts, recognizing this statement.

As the head of the thirty-six noble families, the Xiang family has been showing off its power over the years, even more ostentatious than the twelve giant rooms, and has offended many families.

If you say that the major noble families secretly joined forces to kick Xiang Qi and his guardian out of the game first, there is really this possibility.

The nine family representatives, including Tao Chaosheng, kept looking at each other, all with a puzzled taste.

They didn't have this plan!

Could it be that the juniors who entered it had a tacit understanding and made this decision together?

Mo Shouzhuo didn't say a word, his fingers groping for a few chess pieces, and he already had a spectrum in his heart.

Not long after, the patriarch of the Shi family returned in a hurry, his face extremely gloomy.

Before others could curiously ask, Mo Shouzhuo coughed lightly.

"Continue with the previous intelligence summary and talk about the Eastern Wasteland! Unlike other places, the Eastern Wasteland is the trickiest; before we make a move, we must think clearly, otherwise, it will easily lead to the disaster of sect destruction!"

As soon as these words came out, everyone's expression tightened.

The time in the outside world passed day by day, like a trickling stream, flowing steadily.

In the Mirage Dragon cave heaven, it was year after year, surging like the water of a great river, never to return.

Twenty years later.

In a deep and empty valley.

Green orchids were faint, and the sound of swords was clanging.

A man in white robes with a jade belt around his waist was slowly dancing various sword moves in the valley with a blood sword in his hand.

Heaven and earth seemed to have spiritual energy flowing with the dancing of the sword tip, but it was very thin.

Luo Chen was concentrating on waving the Yuan Tu Sword.

In twenty years of time, he had done many things.

For example, after raising the proficiency of Fire Phoenix Raging Plains to the grandmaster level, he also practiced the move Flame Dragon Descending the World to the grandmaster level. However, after this, the improvement of the two spells became more and more difficult. The main reason was that the consumption of magic power by such spells was too great, and practicing too frequently would hinder his own cultivation.

Also, for example, the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion was completely unlocked of all restrictions by him and completely refined and controlled. After refining, Luo Chen gained a lot, and actually discovered several rare high-tier medicinal herbs in the several distinct spaces inside; I imagine they were harvested by that group of disciples of the Penglai Immortal Sect in the Wood Heaven Plain of the Fallen Demon Land, but now they were cheap for Luo Chen.

The harvest from refining the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion was more than that.

His array attainment also reached a fourth-tier array master in the system evaluation unknowingly!

This kind of improvement has nothing to do with talent, purely a qualitative change caused by quantitative change.

Finally, there is one more thing!

That is, Luo Chen took some time to complete the next differentiation of the main soul and possessed a second split soul.

No one knew about this, including Tao Wan.

At that time, Luo Chen's long-suppressed realm rose from the first layer of the Nascent Soul to the second layer of the Nascent Soul, causing the main soul to be exceptionally full.

Luo Chen simply moved the idea of differentiating the soul.

This time the pain was the same, but Luo Chen was well prepared, especially since the proficiency of the "Soul Splitting Art" reached the proficient level, making his cutting of the soul become faster and reducing the time the pain lasted.

The differentiated soul was the same as expected, roughly in the late Golden Core stage.

At this time, it was relatively weak and not suitable for combat, and there were negative effects!

Luo Chen discovered that three souls existed in the sea of consciousness at the same time; even if they were the same consciousness, it often made him have distracting thoughts.

This sign is not very good!

Distracting thoughts often arise in the sea of consciousness, which easily attracts heart tribulations and demonic obstacles; if one is not careful and goes into qi deviation, it would not be very good.

For this reason, he thought of many ways.

Finally, he set his mind on the self-created "Dust Origin Art."

This secret technique, although created after achieving the Golden Core stage, is of extremely high grade, reaching the fourth tier! Even after Luo Chen reached the Nascent Soul, he often used it.

The timing of use, however, was no longer in places like condensing the Golden Core and tempering magic power, but used to cut off distracting thoughts.

The reason for this is that when the "Dust Origin Art" was created, it integrated a Golden Core secret technique called "Settling the Wind and Waves."

"Settling the Wind and Waves" came from an old friend, Miao Wen.

Tracing the source, it was the "Wisdom Sword Technique" of the Yuding Sword Sect.

Therefore, "Settling the Wind and Waves" also has the miraculous effect of cutting off thoughts and slashing demons similar to the "Wisdom Sword Technique."

At that time, Luo Chen didn't study "Settling the Wind and Waves" deeply, only taking the parts beneficial to Golden Core formation and integrating them into the "Dust Origin Art."

But now, he was prepared to dig deep into this technique.

First, to cut off the awkward situation of three souls side-by-side and distracting thoughts arising.

Second, it was also to practice sword techniques by this.

This can be said to be a good thing that kills two birds with one stone!

Although Luo Chen had refined two seals of the Yuan Tu Sword and could control it freely, he was not proficient in advanced sword-controlling techniques and could only utilize the sharp characteristics of the Yuan Tu Sword.

If he were to take it out to face an enemy just like this, regardless of victory or defeat, it would ultimately be a bit of a waste of such a peerless sword.

Therefore, if he could master some techniques related to the sword Dao, Luo Chen's power when driving the Yuan Tu Sword might be even greater.

Along the way, among Luo Chen's vast family fortune, there were also many classics related to the sword Dao.

Such as that method of refining sword pellets from Feiyunzi, and also that method of sword arrays from Han Zhan.

But these, when all is said and done, all rely on special magic treasures like sword pellets.

The Yuan Tu Sword is a real, solid flying sword, possessing different characteristics from sword pellets, so those techniques are not suitable.

Although the grade of "Settling the Wind and Waves" is low, it at least has commonalities between flying swords and sword pellets.

Such various reasons are what became the cause for Luo Chen to study "Settling the Wind and Waves" deeply, beginning to practice it from the inside out.

"If there were a more brilliant sword-controlling method, that would be great."

Luo Chen sighed with emotion while waving his sword.

In the empty valley, a faint fragrance drifted over.

It was not the fragrance of orchids, but the fragrance of a woman.

Fu Qinglan walked out from a stone door, found a piece of bluestone by herself, smoothed her skirt, and sat down calmly.

She watched Luo Chen dancing with his sword quietly, not disturbing the other party.

Over these years, the two of them had unknowingly formed this kind of tacit understanding.

Perhaps it was because she had sat for too long in bitter cultivation, and sitting on the bluestone at this moment was not very comfortable, so she tilted her body, rested her chin on her hand leaning against the mountain rock, and continued to watch Luo Chen dance with his sword.

In her heart, however, she felt a bit of curiosity about this man who was like a riddle.

At first, she only regarded the other party as an ordinary rogue cultivator, but the other party easily defeated Qi Xiongcheng outside the Peach Garden, which made her look at him with new eyes.

Later, she discovered that the other party was proficient in magic spells, but in the battle against the Angry Jin Gang, she discovered that the other party also had an extremely formidable body-refining realm.

If it were just these things, that would be fine; at least Luo Chen still had shortcomings.

That was that the other party did not have a handy True Treasure!

The black armor worn close to the body was a decent True Treasure, but it was limited to defense.

That small gray tripod looked extraordinary, but it was also limited to the path of suppression and confinement, and it did not show its hand in frontal attacks.

Even under the siege of the two great powerhouses back then, Luo Chen had never activated any powerful magic treasures or True Treasures.

Fu Qinglan thought that the other party was a rogue cultivator, and being able to possess two decent True Treasures after promoting to the Nascent Soul stage was already a stroke of luck.

But right now, the blood sword that the other party was waving in his hand was clearly a top-notch sharp weapon at a glance!

"To think I have family support and sect cultivation. After forming the Nascent Soul, I only relied on myself to nourish one Sky-Covering Leaf, and the other True Treasure was still collected for me by my grandfather, which isn't very handy."

"He, a mere rogue cultivator, actually has three True Treasures, and they cover all aspects of offense, defense, and suppression. Did he have a peerless opportunity before, or did he refine them himself through hard work?"

"Possessing such sharp weapons, yet not using them during a great battle; is he actually that confident in himself?"

"It's just a pity that his sword moves are too crude, far inferior to some of the senior brothers in the sect who are obsessed with the sword Dao."

"Possessing treasures in vain, yet without matching sword moves... eh?"

In her line of sight, the long sword in Luo Chen's hand suddenly trembled, and a sword radiance of about an inch suddenly flickered on the tip of the sword, piercing a hole the thickness of a finger into the ground, bottomless.

It is sword radiance!

In the path of sword cultivation, it is divided into sword Qi, sword radiance, sword heart, and sword intent, corresponding to the four realms of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, and Nascent Soul respectively.

But this set of summarized cultivation systems is generally used for orthodox sword cultivators, that is, sword cultivators who drive sword pellets.

Right now, under Fu Qinglan's gaze, the other party had actually used a flying sword to give birth to sword radiance!

Fu Qinglan's small mouth opened slightly, "Could it be that he is also proficient in the sword Dao?"

In the empty valley.

Luo Chen stared blankly at that sword radiance; that was definitely not the sword light emitted by the Yuan Tu Sword, but the sword radiance generated by his own magic power.

"Could it be that I still have talent in the sword Dao?"

While Luo Chen was puzzled, his mind glanced at the panel that was invisible to others.

The entry for the Great Perfection "Micro-Dust Yuan Technique" was shining brightly.

A sudden realization dawned on him.

It was not that he had talent in the sword Dao, but that under the countless times he had operated this technique, he had long since mastered the method of "Settling the Wind and Waves" thoroughly.

Although he had not cultivated the sword Dao, he possessed a sword heart.

This is the attainment of the third realm of the sword Dao; now, downward compatibility to generate sword radiance is just a matter of course.

It was just a Foundation Establishment stage method, and it didn't improve him much; it was just a supplement.

Luo Chen smiled slightly, put away the Yuan Tu Sword, and walked toward Fu Qinglan.

"Is the cultivation finished?"

"Hmm."

"Failed again?"

"Yeah!"

The woman stood up, her expression a bit embarrassed.

Luo Chen waved his hand nonchalantly, "The spiritual energy is thin, and the origin is hard to find; it's not your fault. Ultimately, there are too few illusion cores."

Fu Qinglan lowered her head in shame; the illusion cores Luo Chen had found for her were really not few.

Although after leaving that place back then, the two of them had no fixed abode, and the illusion cores they harvested were not stable.

But over twenty years, there were at least thirty of them.

Thirty illusion cores still hadn't allowed her to find the origin of wood; although Luo Chen was accustomed to it, she herself was almost beginning to doubt her own aptitude.

Moreover, if things continued like this, she didn't know when she would be able to let the other party escape.

Just as she was doubting herself, eyes fixed on the green grass that had broken through the soil in front of her toes, silent and speechless, Luo Chen suddenly said:

"Your situation actually isn't without a solution."

Hearing these words suddenly, Fu Qinglan raised her head abruptly.

"If there is a large amount of spiritual energy to support your continuous cultivation, it will definitely provide enough time to support you until you find the power of the origin!"

A large amount of spiritual energy!

Could it be, that...

But...

"Rest well for two days. When the time comes, set off with me. If we succeed this time, perhaps it will allow you to achieve success in one stroke!"

After Luo Chen finished saying this sentence, he left directly.

Leaving Fu Qinglan in the empty valley, her expression changing; she felt both the regret of relief and was exceptionally curious.

The other party indeed hadn't given her that Heavenly Machine Pill; this was within reason, and not surprising.

However, she was very curious about what means the other party had to find a large amount of spiritual energy.

Could it be that he wanted to hunt and kill several illusion beasts in one go?

She didn't doubt Luo Chen's ability, but she very much doubted whether there was still such a place in the Mirage Dragon Cave Heaven where a large number of high-level illusion beasts could exist simultaneously.