Chapter 402

"What is your purpose in entering the Tomb of Heavenly Water?"

Li Fei asked Ye Zhao.

He did not believe the New Heaven Society was kind enough to painstakingly orchestrate the current situation just to help Xu Jing and Lu Wenyao kill people.

"Killing you is one of the goals; the main goal is to obtain the soul core of the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast."

Ye Zhao did not hesitate and stated the purpose directly.

No oath-taking technique had been signed for this information, so he could speak freely.

"What is a soul core?"

"The soul core is the most important thing of the Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast, containing fragments of Dao principles."

"Fragments of Dao principles..."

Li Fei had heard Shi Caiming mention this once.

Shi Caiming had once told him that every divine ability could be viewed as a part of the Great Dao—an incomplete Dao principle, or rather, a fragment of a Dao principle.

Martial Arts Masters continuously refine different divine abilities and combine them together, which is equivalent to piecing together Dao principle fragments, with the ultimate goal of piecing together a complete Dao principle.

The Martial Arts Domain is the embryonic form of the Great Dao pieced together from several Dao principle fragments; it is only one step away from becoming a Dao principle.

Because exotic beasts of the upper three ranks all possess divine abilities, they all possess Dao principle fragments within their bodies.

Body tissues containing Dao principle fragments can also be viewed as a type of implant.

Theoretically speaking, as long as one obtains an implant containing Dao principle fragments, one can relatively easily condense a divine ability.

But in reality, the implants that Martial Arts Masters incorporate are only implants of the middle three ranks.

The reason for this is related to the cultivation method of this world.

Martial arts initially originated from implants; the human body itself is weak and possesses no special extraordinary abilities, so one can only embark on the path of the extraordinary by absorbing the body tissues of exotic beasts—that is, implants.

However, a human body that has not undergone any strengthening cannot withstand implants that are too powerful, so one can only start with exotic beasts of the lower three ranks.

Subsequently, although the martial artist's physique becomes stronger, to construct a Dao foundation, the five types of implants must reach a balance; if the first implant used is of the lower three ranks, the following four implants can only be of the lower three ranks as well.

After the Dao foundation is built and one becomes a Martial Arts Master, wanting to condense new divine abilities also requires incorporating implants. But because one's own Dao foundation is composed of five lower-three-rank implants, if one directly incorporates an upper-three-rank implant, the balance within the body will be broken again.

Therefore, Martial Arts Masters can only incorporate middle-three-rank implants, proceeding step by step, using multiple middle-three-rank implants to condense new divine abilities.

Once a martial artist becomes a Grandmaster from a Martial Arts Master, they completely break free from the need for implants.

Because the Martial Arts Domain is already the embryonic form of a Dao principle, the martial artist has already found their own "Dao" and does not need to add other powers; whether they can ultimately "attain the Dao" depends on themselves.

From initially seeking outward to finally seeking inward—this is the path of cultivation in this world.

Historians have often sighed with emotion, feeling that those cultivation predecessors from a thousand years ago were truly far-sighted.

Fortunately, the cultivation path they created ultimately seeks inward, rather than following inertia and still needing to incorporate upper-three-rank implants.

Because the number of exotic beasts of the lower three ranks and middle three ranks is the largest, they possess a certain possibility for farming.

But the number of exotic beasts of the upper three ranks is too small, and they are simply impossible to farm!

In this current era where even middle-three-rank exotic beasts are extremely rare, upper-three-rank exotic beasts are simply as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

If the cultivation of Grandmasters and Martial Saints required incorporating upper-three-rank implants, then I am afraid there wouldn't be many Grandmasters and Martial Saints in the entire world combined.

It is even possible that there would be no top-tier powerhouses left now.

The cultivation of the Art Path follows a similar logic; wanting to drive artifacts with humans requires taking it one step at a time:

First, use the lower-three-rank implants within the body to drive the lower-three-rank implants within the magic treasure.

Only when one's own Void Thoughts transform into reality, turn into True Power, and refine True Spirit can one continue to strengthen the magic treasure and incorporate middle-three-rank implants into it.

However, the special thing about the Art Path is that as long as the realm is high enough, one does not need to start from the very basics when refining magic treasures.

For example, when a True Person refines a new magic treasure, as long as there are sufficiently good materials, they do not need to refine it using lower-three-rank implants like they did at the beginning, but can directly use middle-three-rank implants.

Top-tier True Persons can even directly use upper-three-rank implants to refine artifacts!

Grandmasters and Martial Saints have no need for upper-three-rank implants because they cannot replace their own bodies.

But True Persons and True Lords can replace their magic treasures.

Although upper-three-rank implants can also be used to refine Divine Weapons or Divine Clothing, in terms of cost-effectiveness, refining top-tier magic treasures is definitely the optimal choice.

So when Li Fei learned that the New Heaven Society was plotting for the soul core of an eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast containing Dao principle fragments, he immediately associated it with the possibility that the New Heaven Society might have a top-tier True Person!

"Does a certain top-tier True Person within your organization want to use the soul core of an eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast to refine a magic treasure?"

Li Fei asked.

Ye Zhao did not speak upon hearing this, nor did he nod or shake his head.

"Can't talk about this?"

Li Fei understood.

Ye Zhao nodded.

"Is the soul core of the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast in that cave?"

Li Fei pointed to the cave in the distance and asked.

Ye Zhao: "Yes. This soul core is the key to maintaining this Dead Domain; once it is taken away, this Dead Domain will completely collapse. According to the original plan, after we took the soul core and the Tomb of Heavenly Water collapsed, we would evacuate along the underground dark river."

"No wonder you dared to come in."

Although Li Fei did not see how You Ming and the others got in, he figured this matter must have alerted the people outside; after all, not a single person who followed them in came in.

Under these circumstances, even if the people outside were pigs, they would know to gather heavy troops and experts to surround the entire area, waiting like rabbits for You Ming and the others to walk right into the trap.

Therefore, in You Ming and the others' plan, there was no such thing as returning the way they came.

They intended to destroy the entire Tomb of Heavenly Water and then evacuate from the underground dark river.

If not for Li Fei this time, the Imperial Court, the Red Dust Pavilion, and the Tianyi Tower would not need to think about sending people into this Dead Domain to retrieve treasures again in the future.

"How did you get in? Why can Martial Arts Masters also enter?"

Li Fei continued to ask.

"You Ming has a short blade in his hand forged from Heavenly Water Soul Bone and soul core fragments; using this, one can cut open cracks and it can also help us find the burial place of the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast."

"Was that short blade forged from Heavenly Water Soul Bone?"

Li Fei's heart stirred, and a surge of Water-element Qi wrapped around You Ming's two severed body parts and brought them toward him.

Then he took the emerald-green short blade from You Ming's body.

"What rank of Heavenly Water Soul Bone is it?"

Li Fei asked.

Ye Zhao: "Seventh rank."

A smile appeared on Li Fei's face.

The thing he wanted was in his hands.

He certainly couldn't directly incorporate a seventh-rank Heavenly Water Soul Bone; doing so would cause the other implants in his body to lose balance.

However, Shi Caiming only told him to bring back Heavenly Water Soul Bone and did not limit the rank; he figured there must be some way to lower the rank of the Heavenly Water Soul Bone so that it could be incorporated by Li Fei.

"What dangers are in that cave?"

Li Fei put away the short blade and pointed to the cave, asking.

"That is the burial place of the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast; inside there is the soul shadow of the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast, which possesses divine ability power, and it is highly likely that it can control the remaining soul shadows, including the soul shadows of seventh-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beasts!"

Ye Zhao said, "The reason You Ming had to be brought in this time is because only the strength of a Martial Arts Master could retrieve that soul core."

Li Fei nodded, weighed his current remaining combat power, and finally decided to give up on entering that cave.

After a battle, although he had killed You Ming, his own consumption was not small.

The blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead were recovering, and currently, there were only 67 blood souls.

There were 257 blood souls left in the Blood Spring.

The total amount of blood souls added up to just over 300, which really didn't give Li Fei much sense of security.

He definitely couldn't beat a soul shadow possessing divine abilities now, let alone the fact that this soul shadow could summon other soul shadows possessing divine abilities.

"Harvest is full; no need to continue risking it."

Li Fei prepared to pack up and leave.

Not only did he obtain the Heavenly Water Soul Bone he wanted this time, but the Ten Thousand Blood Bead also leveled up.

After a bitter battle with You Ming, the fourth implant 【Green Bone】 even triggered a core-level extraordinary ability!

Li Fei's heart stirred, and all those wounds on his body cut by the mist of the 【Cloud Soaring】 divine ability disappeared without a trace.

Usually, an extraordinary ability contained within a Martial Arts Foundation will have at least one healing type, and it is usually triggered by a Water-element or Wood-element implant.

【Mixed Origin Heavenly Gold】 is no exception; the core-level extraordinary ability triggered by the fourth implant, the Wood-element 【Green Bone】, is a healing-type extraordinary ability—Green God.

Healing-type core-level extraordinary abilities each have their own characteristics; some can regenerate severed limbs, some can store energy in advance, and some can even prolong life.

The characteristic of "Green God" is that it can not only heal physical injuries but also heal mental injuries.

If the mental level suffers heavy damage, "Green God" can also heal it.

Medicines or means capable of healing mental trauma are very rare in this world, so the "Green God" triggered by Li Fei can be considered a very rare extraordinary ability.

Moreover, "Green God" has another characteristic: not only can Li Fei use it on himself, but he can also use it on others. Therefore, Li Fei can become a divine doctor for mental aspects in the future by relying on "Green God."

However, for Li Fei, with the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to take damage, he actually doesn't need to heal himself very often.

Previously, even when strangled by the "Dark Cloud Heavenly Swamp," he only suffered some superficial wounds.

It seems that the "Green God" he triggered can only be used to heal teammates in the future.

However, after triggering "Green God," the first thing Li Fei thought of was not healing, but attacking!

The upper limit of 【Blood Rage】 depends on his body's tolerance limit; using 【Jin Gang Seal: Dragon Elephant】 after using 【Blood Rage】 causes the power to exceed the body's tolerance limit, and every time it causes damage to the body, it's just that the Ten Thousand Blood Bead can transfer this damage.

But if it is damage caused directly by 【Blood Rage】, the Ten Thousand Blood Bead cannot transfer it.

Back when Li Fei had a public duel with Gu Yuefeng, the final strike that broke the opponent's breakthrough, the power of 【Blood Rage】 exceeded his body's tolerance limit, causing him to suffer heavy injuries!

Now with "Green God," it means Li Fei doesn't have to worry so much about getting injured.

He can use 【Blood Rage】 to unleash attacks that exceed the limit, and then use "Green God" to heal and recover.

In this way, the upper limit of his strength has been raised by another notch!

Besides these gains, there is also the sword left behind by You Ming, which is a level-six exotic weapon.

The most precious thing is this black boat left behind by Zhu San.

This is a flight-escape magic treasure, and flight-escape magic treasures are very difficult to refine and are extremely rare.

Now, this flight-escape magic treasure is Li Fei's spoils of war.

He placed the bodies of You Ming and Zhu San on the black boat, intending to take these things out together.

Even if the two are dead, their bodies can serve as clues and evidence.

Li Fei searched Zhu San's body and found a Domain-Breaking Talisman; added to the one in Ye Zhao's hand, it was enough for the two to leave.

Although that emerald-green short blade could also cut open cracks in the Dead Domain, it required divine ability power to trigger, which Li Fei could not use.

As for the two Domain-Breaking Talismans he brought in, they were destroyed earlier within the "Dark Cloud Heavenly Swamp."

So Li Fei could only use the New Heaven Society's Domain-Breaking Talisman to leave, which made him feel a bit regretful.

Domain-Breaking Talismans can only be manufactured by Grandmasters; based on these two Domain-Breaking Talismans from the New Heaven Society, perhaps one could follow the vine to find the melon and uncover a Grandmaster of the New Heaven Society!

Of course, it is also possible that this Grandmaster is Xu Jing, which is what Li Fei would most like to see.

It's a pity that Li Fei can only use up these two Domain-Breaking Talismans now.

Of course, he could also choose to kill Ye Zhao and take out one more body and one more Domain-Breaking Talisman.

But compared to dead objects, Li Fei feels that a living person is more useful.

He held the two Domain-Breaking Talismans and injected power into them simultaneously.

A few seconds later, two dazzling rays of light enveloped Li Fei and Ye Zhao.

The light turned into a pillar of light, breaking through the water surface and reaching the very top of the Tomb of Heavenly Water.

Water ripples surged, the Tomb of Heavenly Water shook again, and the surrounding Water-element Qi and extreme cold intent also fluctuated accordingly.

A few seconds later, the shaking of the Tomb of Heavenly Water became more and more intense.

Li Fei frowned, instinctively feeling that something was wrong.

He turned his head to look at Ye Zhao, his eyes filled with killing intent:

"Is there a problem with this Domain-Breaking Talisman?!"

Ye Zhao was startled and hurriedly shook his head: "Impossible! This Domain-Breaking Talisman was given to me and Zhu San to prevent us from getting separated from You Ming, allowing us to get out on our own. Zhu San has a flight-escape magic treasure, so even if a net of heaven and earth is laid outside, we at least have a slim chance of escaping."

Li Fei carefully observed Ye Zhao's expression and judged that the other party should not be lying.

For Ye Zhao to have combat power comparable to the top three of the Wind and Cloud General Ranking at such a young age, he must have been cultivated by the New Heaven Society at a great cost; they couldn't easily give up on him.

Therefore, Ye Zhao's explanation was also logical.

"Where did the problem arise?"

Li Fei sensed the increasingly turbulent water area around him, and a sense of unease arose in his heart.

Suddenly, several huge shadows appeared in the distance.

It was soul shadows!

And judging from their size and the aura they emitted, these soul shadows should all have been generated by seventh-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beasts!

Li Fei's expression was grave, and he gripped the Ghost-Slaying Blade in his hand tightly.

Under the recovery of 【Blood Breath】, the blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead recovered to 229, plus the 257 in the Blood Spring, totaling 486 blood souls.

Relying solely on these 486 blood souls, he really had no confidence to deal with several soul shadows possessing divine abilities.

Boom—

A violent tremor occurred underwater again.

Li Fei turned his head to look at the cave where the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast was buried, only to see that the red liquid resembling magma was gushing out from the cave!

The originally extremely cold water area suddenly saw its temperature rise significantly.

"Woo—"

A low, desolate roar that seemed to contain the vicissitudes of several thousand years of time suddenly resounded throughout the entire Tomb of Heavenly Water.

This sound did not travel through the water, but resounded directly in the minds of Li Fei and Ye Zhao.

This was an ancient intent that humans could not withstand, carrying the accumulation of several thousand years of time, like a vast river of time washing over a person's soul!

Upon hearing this sound, one would immediately feel their own insignificance, like an ant to the sky, like a mayfly to the vast sea!

Ye Zhao immediately lost his mental defense, and his eyes became vacant.

Li Fei had "Danger Perception" and had visualized the Ding'e Jin Gang Dharma Image in his mind in advance; plus, his mental power was a notch stronger than Ye Zhao's, so his mental defense did not collapse, but he was still washed over by this vast ancient intent, making it difficult to think about other things.

This was not a type of damage targeting the mind, but a type of control, or rather, submission!

At the same time, the short blade in Li Fei's arms began to glow without any power being injected into it.

Emerald-green light enveloped Li Fei.

Soon, a Heavenly Water Beast with a body length of only a dozen meters swam out from that cave.

This Heavenly Water Beast was different from those other soul shadows; it looked very real and possessed the aura of life!

It immediately fixed its gaze on Li Fei, who was enveloped in emerald-green light.

A trace of sadness appeared in its eyes, and this Heavenly Water Beast let out another long roar.

Those few seventh-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast soul shadows that were rushing over surrounded this Heavenly Water Beast in the middle, then lowered their heads in a gesture of submission.

This Heavenly Water Beast was the king of this group, the creator of this Dead Domain, and the soul shadow of that eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast!

It looked around, and the entire Dead Domain was collapsing!

In fact, this Dead Domain had been maintained until now and was already approaching its limit.

In the past few decades, a crack would appear every few years, which was a sign that the Dead Domain was about to collapse.

If everything went as usual, in about a dozen more years, this Dead Domain would completely collapse.

But Li Fei and You Ming and the others' battle first wiped out all the Heavenly Water Beast soul shadows below the seventh rank, and then a Martial Arts Domain appeared, consuming each other with the Dead Domain.

These actions were all accelerating the collapse of the Dead Domain.

Now Li Fei activated the Domain-Breaking Talisman; this Domain-Breaking Talisman forcibly opened a crack from inside the Dead Domain, which would also cause damage to the Dead Domain.

The two Domain-Breaking Talismans became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The Tomb of Heavenly Water could no longer hold on!

The soul shadow of the eighth-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast was forced to wake up from its slumber.

It let out another long roar, and the surrounding seventh-rank Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast soul shadows swam toward it one after another, then merged into its body, as if becoming one with it.

After doing all this, this powerful soul shadow swam toward Li Fei, who was standing on the black boat with blue light radiating from his body.

It crashed directly into Li Fei's chest and merged into that emerald-green short blade.

At this moment, Li Fei had just recovered from that ancient intent; before he could react, he felt a heat in his chest, and then an extremely cold stream of water surged into his body.

Li Fei subconsciously covered his chest, activating his power to try to dispel this cold current.

But the Mixed Origin Jin Gang Power was completely frozen the moment it touched this cold current, and then this cold current flowed through Li Fei's limbs and bones at an extremely fast speed.

Finally, these cold currents all converged toward the dantian.

Li Fei was horrified to discover that this cold current was merging into his Dao foundation!

The three implants 【Steel Armor】, 【Dark Foot】, and 【Flame Core】 had all completed "Unity" and were intertwined at the dantian.

The remaining 【Green Bone】 had not yet completed "Unity" and still had many branches spread throughout Li Fei's body, with its main body also intertwined with the other three implants in the dantian.

This was Li Fei's Dao foundation.

Now, this external cold current was forcibly merging into the four intertwined implants!

This was a very dangerous thing for any martial artist, yet Li Fei had no way to stop it.

His power would be frozen the moment it touched this cold current, and his mental power could not take effect on this cold current either; once this cold current merged into the Dao foundation, he had even less ability to do anything about it.

Soon, all four implants suffered damage.

Under normal circumstances, Li Fei's Dao foundation should have collapsed instantly, turning him into a cripple, or even a dead person.

But fortunately, he had the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to transfer the damage suffered by the implants, and the remaining 1% of the damage could be easily healed by activating the newly triggered "Green God."

But the blood souls within the Ten Thousand Blood Bead were decreasing rapidly!

After the blood souls in the Ten Thousand Blood Bead decreased to only 10, Li Fei used the blood souls in the Blood Spring.

There were 257 blood souls left in the Blood Spring; if these blood souls were exhausted and the Dao foundation was still suffering serious damage, then Li Fei would definitely die today!

Li Fei sensed the changes happening in his dantian as calmly as possible, trying his best to think of a way to break the situation.

He discovered that this cold current was actually trying to merge into his Dao foundation and build a balanced system with the other four implants.

From this perspective, this cold current could be viewed as a type of Water-element implant, and it seemed to fit very well with the other four implants, capable of jointly constituting a Dao foundation.

"Could it be that this cold current is the Heavenly Water Soul Bone?"

Li Fei had such a guess.

Only in this way could it explain why a strange implant entering his Dao foundation would fit with the other four implants.

Because the Heavenly Water Soul Bone was the fifth implant Li Fei needed; it was a link in the true 【Mixed Origin Heavenly Gold】!

But the problem now was that Li Fei had not yet brought 【Green Bone】 to "Unity," and under such circumstances, he could not incorporate a fifth implant.

And the most serious problem was that the "Heavenly Water Soul Bone" that merged into Li Fei's body was of a much higher rank, simply unable to reach a balance with the other four lower-three-rank implants!

This caused the other four implants to continuously suffer damage, with the possibility of collapsing at any time.

"There must be a way, stay calm!"

Li Fei forced himself not to look at how many blood souls were left in the Blood Spring, and he tried hard to think of countermeasures:

"Power is useless, mental power is also useless. Control the four implants to suppress the cold current? No, the power gap is too large. Need external force, external force... That's it!"

Li Fei immediately converted a portion of his mental power into Void Thoughts, then injected them all into the Rumen Order.

For other martial artists, there was simply no external force to borrow at this time.

But Li Fei was a dual cultivator of Art and Martial Arts; he still had Art techniques he could use!

When Li Fei injected Void Thoughts into the Rumen Order, the entire Tomb of Heavenly Water had already begun to collapse comprehensively, and there were 128 blood souls left in his Blood Spring...

PS: This chapter is a two-in-one; from now on, I should be posting these large chapters, with a word count between 6,000 and 8,000, and I will try my best to lean toward 8,000+~

(End of chapter)