Chapter 685: Black Emperor Dark Ape, Qian Metal White Tiger

The divine realm trembled faintly, Xu Xu expanding; perhaps because Xu Xu's divine realm was already vast and immense, at first glance it didn't seem particularly obvious — rather, the changes in the Shan Xuan Teng She were far more striking.

In what seemed like only a few moments, it had already grown to nearly two hundred zhang in height, and its already flourishing branches and leaves kept extending, as if about to cover the entire island.

The growth of the Shan Xuan Teng She, however, fed back further into the divine realm; and the divine realm was the place where essence, qi, and spirit converged, manifesting outwardly — Xu Xu could feel his physical body changing as well.

"Qing Di Fa magic power…"

Xu Xu's mind merged with the Shan Xuan Teng She, feeling the transformation of his natal spirit-plant after it absorbed Qing Di Fa magic power; then, his mind returned within his body.

He could hear the rhythm coming from within his body.

Tendons and bones, in their gradual contraction and stretching, grew increasingly resilient; his bones were like jade being polished, growing ever more translucent.

The pale-golden blood was exceedingly active, as if it had absorbed tremendous nourishment, circulating vigorously throughout his body.

Xu Xu felt an extremely vigorous vitality.

The nourishing effect of Qing Di Fa magic power on essence, qi, and spirit was very pronounced, and the change in his physical body was the most obvious — he even felt as if countless rootlets were growing from his flesh and blood.

While making his body solid and resilient, they were also exploring outward, drawing in the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, much like the Shan Xuan Teng She taking root in the earth.

"The body itself is the tree!"

Xu Xu was certain this was no illusion.

The first step of the Qing Di Chang Sheng Jing is to plant the tree with the spirit; the second step is 'the body itself is the tree.' Only when the Shan Xuan Teng She reaches this stage can it truly be called a natal spirit-plant.

Extremely dense rootlets threaded between his tendons, bones, skin, and flesh, reaching every pore of his body, causing his physical resilience to surge — and granting him the genuine ability to inhale and exhale the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.

Of course, that required cultivating the Qing Di Chang Sheng Jing to its third layer; at present, the Shan Xuan Teng She, only two hundred zhang tall, could not yet achieve this.

"No wonder it's called the Longevity Scripture!"

Xu Xu slowly opened his eyes, feeling that his essence, qi, and spirit had reached an unprecedented peak.

In theory, as long as the Shan Xuan Teng She did not die, even if he Suffering heavy injuries, he could instantly return to peak condition — the Shan Xuan Teng She was equivalent to a second life!

And when the Qing Di Chang Sheng Jing is cultivated to its third layer, the pores all over his body become like the rootlets of the Shan Xuan Teng She, able to ceaselessly draw in the wood-attribute spiritual qi of heaven and earth, keeping essence, qi, and spirit perpetually at their peak.

"My lifespan has increased again."

Xu Xu subconsciously calculated on his fingers and discovered that, after gaining Qing Di Fa magic power, Qing Di Yan had transformed along with it and had already reached the Er Shi Zhong Fa forbidden level.

In the span of a breath, enlightenment arose in his heart:

"One thousand five hundred and sixty years…"

That was his lifespan — nearly six hundred years more than cultivators of the same realm.

"If I can cultivate the Qing Di Chang Sheng Jing to Di Liu Zhong, my lifespan will be double that of cultivators of the same realm! No wonder the Qing Di Chang Sheng Jing is the foremost of the five scriptures — it doubles one's lifespan."

Xu Xu was very satisfied; the surge in lifespan filled him with a sense of abundance.

"With my current talent, plus the augmentation of the Shan Xuan Teng She's slough, even without spirit pills to assist, in at most twenty years I can fully refine eighty-one strands of Qing Di Fa magic power…"

"But fortunately, advancing to the Divine Palace realm only requires one type of magic power to be cultivated to completion — whether Qing Di Fa magic power is complete or not has no effect."

"Moreover, the extra magic power can also increase the speed at which the Divine Palace is forged…"

Xu Xu extended his palm; a wisp of Dan Jin Se Fa magic power rose from his palm, divine prohibitions circulating within, emanating a majestic and endlessly flowing aura.

"One strand of Qing Di Fa magic power is worth three strands of Kun Peng magic power — that is, nine strands of Bi Xia Pin Fa magic power. With such high quality, whether cultivating spells or refining magic treasures, it's nine times stronger than Bi Xia Pin Fa magic power."

Whoo~

The Dan Jin Se Fa magic power wound around his fingers like a little golden-threaded snake, quite nimble and lively; even after leaving his body, it maintained a high degree of activity.

"Even if I sever my connection to it, this strand of magic power can endure in the world. If it falls into the mountains or a lake, it could even transform into a spirit-wood or spirit-beast?"

Xu Xu toyed with this strand of magic power, quite reluctant to put it down.

He tried activating spells and found that, using only this strand of magic power — which carried both the properties of Qing Di and Kun Peng — to activate spells, not only did the power of several spells surge, but their consumption dropped sharply.

"Too bad there's only one strand; for now I can only treat it as a trump card."

Xu Xu put away this strand of magic power with some regret; with a shift of thought, he opened the Tong Shi Ball and entered the Yanwudiantang.

But this time, he did not go to the Combat Arena; instead, with a turn of thought, he opened the Yanwudiantang — which only disciples of the Weitian Dao Sect could enter.

Having refined a top-grade magic power, he very much wanted to find someone to test it against.

The Tian Shi Yuan Combat Arena required him to maintain a perfect win record; this Weitian Martial Arena did not.

……

Hum~

Light and shadow flashed, and Xu Xu landed on a barren mountain.

With practiced ease, he opened the Shadow Record Ranking; without even looking at the top, he scrolled straight to the very bottom — there was an auditing senior brother named 'Yellow Ape.'

The Shadow Record Ranking only had very vague introductions, but being listed at the very bottom was naturally because this senior brother's realm was the lowest and his record the worst.

"He cultivates the North Pole Black Emperor Dark Abyss Scripture? That's even more suitable!"

Xu Xu nodded inwardly.

He had indeed entered the sect far too late; other senior brothers had started three hundred years earlier. Even if their talent was not as good as his, they were after all disciples of Mount Mount Dongxuan — they couldn't be that bad either.

After three or four hundred years of cultivation, none of them had a low realm.

"I've never met this senior brother, but most likely he's also a cultivator of Tu Po Si Jing, with a small chance of being at the peak of the third realm — I hope it's the latter…"

Muttering inwardly, Xu Xu selected his opponent.

Hum~

In the next instant, he saw a streak of flowing light descend from the sky, landing on a distant barren mountain with a thunderous 'Boom—', sending dirt and rocks flying.

Xu Xu's eyesight was extremely sharp; even from several hundred li away he could make out the appearance of that Yellow Ape senior brother — his stature was extremely tall, nearly a zhang, and beneath his wide magic robe his tendons and bones were knotted, looking more like a body-refining cultivator.

"Not Tu Po Si Jing!"

Sensing that majestic aura, Xu Xu relaxed inwardly.

At least at the end of the last Weitian Martial Trial, this Yellow Ape senior brother had not yet Tu Po Si Jing; he was one of the lowest-realm senior brothers Xu Xu had seen since joining Mount Mount Dongxuan.

"There's a fight to be had!"

Raising his hand to gather the starlight before him into Nine-Smoke Gauze, Li Yuan stepped forward and vanished on the spot. Almost at the same instant, the barren mountain where he had just been standing exploded with a thunderous 'Boom—'.

Rolling dust shot skyward as a figure barely four feet tall arrived at extreme speed, overtaking all others to strike first, throwing a punch at Li Yuan who had shifted a thousand miles away.

"?!"

Li Yuan's pupils contracted sharply.

It was a vicious monkey-head, four feet tall, with a gaunt, crooked face, red eyes, a coat of black fur like steel needles, and outward-jutting tusks of extreme ferocity.

"Hei Di Shan Xuan Yuan!"

At a single glance, Li Yuan recognized this as the Hei Di Shan Xuan Yuan, one of the nine true forms of the Hei Di Ming Yuan Jing. In the next instant, the furry fist came in—lightly, almost weightlessly—

punching straight through his Kun Ming Wan Zhong Armor, his magic robe, and his Nine-Smoke Gauze in one strike!

"This fierce?!"

Li Yuan vaulted backward, employing the Sky Peng Dun Fa, dodging in the span of a lightning-flash. He heard only a thunderous 'Boom—'—where that Quan Yin had struck, a thousand miles of mountains and rivers shattered into powder.

"Shan Xuan Gang Heavy Water!"

In the midst of his shift, Li Yuan suddenly realized that the black fur on the ape's body was precisely Shan Xuan Gang Heavy Water condensed to its absolute limit!

'How many law-prohibitions does his Shan Xuan Gang Heavy Water carry…'

A thought flashed through Li Yuan's mind. Even as he was still shifting, he felt a chill at his heart, and in the next instant, he saw that violent black ape—

and that jet-black furry fist.

"Bang!"…

"Four moves!"

In the bamboo tower, Li Yuan opened his eyes, replaying the crushing defeat just now, and only now realized he had still underestimated the senior brothers of Mount Mount Dongxuan.

"This Yellow Ape senior brother is probably at the eighth or ninth heaven of the Ni Wan Shen Jing…"

Li Yuan was half reviewing, half guessing:

"Hei Di magic power, extremely high-cultivated Shan Xuan Gang Heavy Water, and Sky Peng Dun Fa—along with the Hei Di Shan Xuan Yuan, at least seven or eight spirit-forms…"

"This fellow must have refined all nine true-form diagrams of the Hei Di Ming Yuan Jing, right?!"

Recalling the battle just now, Li Yuan could only feel his teeth ache.

The first move, he dodged with Nine-Smoke Gauze, Wan Zhong Armor, and Sky Peng Dun Fa. The second, he blocked with the Shan Xuan Teng Tree. The third, he used his sole wisp of Qing Di magic power to drive the Wan Zhong Armor to block—yet half his body was smashed to pieces.

And the fourth move, he had nowhere to dodge, no way to evade, and was sent flying all over the sky by a single punch…

Apart from that fleeting glimpse at his arrival, he never even caught a second look at that Yellow Ape senior brother!

"Realm, magic power, spells, spirit-forms… a complete crushing defeat. No way to fight at all."

Three punches from the furry ape utterly extinguished Daoist Li's notion of testing his arts against the senior brothers. This was no sparring or tempering of techniques at all—it was pure, one-sided beating.

"If I tried again, maybe I could last a few more moves? I reckon even Li Li Xuanyong and Wang Wang Jingyi senior brothers might not necessarily beat this Yellow Ape senior brother…"

Despite the crushing defeat, Li Yuan was not affected. Though he didn't want to try again for now, he was nonetheless quite eager to give it another go.

Back in the day, how miserably he had fared when he first fought the blade-intent left behind by Wan Wan Zhuliu—but in the end, with a single hammer, he had been able to take down that Wan fellow.

"For now, let me use this Yellow Ape senior brother as a mirror to temper myself. The day I win will be the day I ascend to the top of the Dou Zhan Board!"

With this thought, Li Yuan's fighting spirit soared. He swallowed a spirit pill, swapped out the Shan Xuan Teng She slough, and took command of the ancient scroll 'Qian Jin Bai Hu True Form Diagram'—

along with four remnant treasures that met its command conditions.

He was preparing to condense his second spirit-form.

"Roar!"

The instant he took command of the 'Qian Jin Bai Hu True Form Diagram', Li Yuan heard a domineering, vicious-to-the-extreme tiger's roar that made even his mind tremble.

He focused his spirit into his heart-sea.

In the gloom, a true-form diagram was illuminated: it was a colossal divine peak, pale as gold and iron, with a Bai Hu standing proudly on its summit. It let out a long roar, and the sea of clouds scattered.

In the western sky, the light of Daoist Qun Xing shone down upon it.

"Qian Jin Bai Hu, master of slaughter and conquest!"

Li Yuan gazed at this true-form diagram. The moment his mind stirred, a gale already rose in his Ni Wan Shen Jing, blowing the tides into upheaval, and the leaves of the Shan Xuan Teng Tree rustled with a 'hua hua' sound.

"Wu~"

The Shan Xuan Teng Tree swayed gently, its ten thousand branches all turning toward where the gale had suddenly risen, as if facing a formidable enemy.

The Five Extremes Great Scripture is well-versed in the principles of the Five Elements.

The western-metal tiger can fell the eastern-azure wood. Its qi had only just arisen, and the Shan Xuan Teng Tree already sensed it.

"Lii!"

In the next instant, among the tree's crown, the Jin Chi Peng bird—cultivating Tai Yin Sword Qi—let out a long cry, dove like a fish into the sea, and transformed into a giant Kun that raised heaven-spilling waves.

Among the Five Elements, metal generates water; the water-aspected Kun Peng can soothe the clash of metal and wood.

Boom!

The giant Kun churned the sea, waves surging to the heavens.

Amid the rolling water vapor, Li Yuan focused his spirit in visualization. Relying on the command-blessing of the ancient scroll and his tremendous spiritual force, he sketched out the shadow of a Bai Hu bit by bit.

"Roar!"

In the heart-sea, the Qian Jin Bai Hu roared again and again.

Li Yuan's mind remained as immovable as a boulder. Before long, the waters in his Ni Wan Shen Jing calmed, and a Bai Hu no larger than a fist tumbled down beneath the Shan Xuan Teng Tree, wrapped in the gale.

"Wu wu~"

The little Bai Hu opened its mouth and roared, its voice as tender as a kitten's.

The Shan Xuan Teng Tree swayed its trunk, and a branch thick with green leaves drooped down, gently stroking the enraged Bai Hu. At first the latter bared its fangs and brandished its claws, but slowly it calmed once more.

The Qian Jin tiger can fell the azure wood, yet when the azure wood is strong and the Bai Hu weak, it can also suppress the tiger in turn.

"Ci la~"

Bai Hu grabbed a handful of leaves, swallowed them in a wronged, aggrieved manner, ingesting the essence of green wood to strengthen the Western Extremity Tiger form.

This is the generating hidden within the restraining of metal and wood.

"Nurture wood with water, strengthen metal with wood, visualize daily and combine it with spirit pills and spirit incense — perhaps one or two years will suffice, and in a few years one can reach great completion and perfection."

In the bamboo tower, Li Yuan gave a slight nod; this rate of progress was already extremely fast.

Without the command-boost of the Soldier Register, even he would need at least ten or twenty years to condense a second spirit form, and it would hold up the cultivation of spells and magic power.

"Wood generates fire, which can drain metal; the Nine Infants is of the water-fire attribute. Before the Qian Metal has been strengthened, if one visualizes it, the two will likely clash — metal drained and fire snuffed out…"

After a moment's thought, Li Yuan suppressed the idea of visualizing the Nine Infants True Form Diagram, and instead focused his spirit on the White Tiger spirit form that had just begun to take shape. Suddenly an inspiration struck him.

"The Western Extremity True Form governs ferocity; slaughter and battle can strengthen the true form… perhaps a demon-refining method could be put to use?"

Li Yuan commanded the ancient scroll of the Qian Jin Bai Hu True Form Diagram; his understanding of this true form ran so deep it was no less than his primary cultivation's Kun Peng True Form Diagram, and he knew the methods for strengthening a true form like the back of his hand.

"It's not just the Western Extremity True Form — true forms of fierce beasts like the Nine Infants, the Black Emperor Dark Ape and the like can all be nourished by slaughter and battle, and Heavenly Demons are so brutally cruel — it's simply too perfect a fit!"

The more Li Yuan thought about it, the more right it seemed.

Tian Mo Fa Jie was vast and boundless; the varieties of tiger demons, ape demons, snake demons and the like were beyond counting, let alone their numbers.

If he could put them to use, perhaps within an extremely short time he could condense the Nine Infants and White Tiger spirit forms.

After all, with the True Form Diagram he could command, he knew every trick and knack for condensing these two great true forms like the back of his hand.

"Thinking of it this way, Tian Mo Fa Jie really is a cultivation treasure-land."

Li Yuan mulled it over in his heart, feeling that he should adjust his priorities; once the Qing Di magic power had accumulated enough, he should immediately attempt to forge a divine furnace.

"Hoo—!"

Letting his thoughts churn, Li Yuan slowly circulated the Qing Di magic power, drawing in the heaven and earth spiritual energy it channeled, gradually expanding the magic power within his body.

The Qing Di magic power contained divine patterns far surpassing those of the Kun Peng magic power, and the heaven and earth spiritual energy it drew was even more abundant. Before long, wisps of green light had already enveloped the main tower.

……

……

Qing Di magic power, White Tiger spirit form, cultivating the White Bone Human Demon, practicing spells, comprehending the method of forging the divine furnace…

There were too many Gong Fa to cultivate; even though Li Yuan had the ability to divide his attention many ways over, he still felt stretched thin, and even broke his rule of sleeping once every ten days.

"Fire is born from the spirit, magic power serves as the furnace — this forging of the divine furnace is truly exquisite. The saying that it cannot be forged without a Fei Shang Pin Fa is because a top-grade magic power contains more divine patterns within…"

Green light suffused the entire bamboo tower; Li Yuan, who was circulating his Gong Fa to refine magic power, was also comprehending the method of forging the divine furnace.

(End of chapter)