Chapter 730: The Fifth Implant (Long Chapter)

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

Li Fei asked Ye Zhao.

He did not believe that New Heaven would be so kind as to painstakingly orchestrate the current situation just to help Xu Jing and Lu Wen kill people.

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

Ye Zhao did not hesitate and stated the purpose directly.

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

"What is a soul core?"

"The soul core is the most important thing in a 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 told him that every divine ability could be viewed as a part of the Great Dao—an incomplete Dao principle, or a fragment of a Dao principle.

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

A Martial Arts Domain is a prototype of the Great Dao formed by several fragments of Dao principles, only one step away from becoming a true Dao principle.

Because exotic beasts of the upper three grades all possess divine abilities, they all contain fragments of Dao principles within their bodies.

Body tissues containing fragments of Dao principles can also be considered a type of implant.

Theoretically speaking, as long as one obtains an implant containing fragments of Dao principles, it is relatively easy to condense a divine ability.

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

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

The origin of martial arts lies in implants; the human body itself is weak and lacks any 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 overly powerful implants, so one must start with exotic beasts of the lower three grades.

Subsequently, although the martial artist's physique becomes stronger, to construct a Dao foundation, the five implants must achieve balance; since the first implant used is from the lower three grades, the following four implants can only be from the lower three grades as well.

After the Dao foundation is built and one becomes a Martial Arts Master, incorporating new implants is required to condense new divine abilities. But because one's own Dao foundation is composed of five lower-three-grade implants, directly incorporating an upper-three-grade implant would break the internal balance.

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

Once a martial artist advances from a Martial Arts Master to a Grandmaster, they are completely free from the need for implants.

Because the Martial Arts Domain is already a prototype of Dao principles, the martial artist has already found their own "Dao" and does not need to add other powers; whether they can "attain the Dao" in the end 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 path of cultivation they created leads to seeking inward in the end, rather than following inertia and still needing to incorporate upper-three-grade implants.

This is because exotic beasts of the lower and middle three grades are the most numerous and possess a certain possibility for farming.

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

In this era where even middle-three-grade exotic beasts are very rare, upper-three-grade exotic beasts are simply as scarce as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

If the cultivation of Grandmasters and Martial Saints required incorporating upper-three-grade implants, then there would likely be very few Grandmasters and Martial Saints in the entire world combined.

It is even possible that there would be no peak powerhouses left today.

The cultivation of the Art Path follows a similar logic; to control tools as a human, one must proceed step by step:

First, use the lower-three-grade implants within one's body to control the lower-three-grade implants within the magic tool.

Only when one's own illusory thoughts turn into reality, transform into true power, and refine a true spirit, can one continue to strengthen the magic tool and incorporate middle-three-grade implants into it.

However, the unique aspect of the Art Path is that as long as one's realm is high enough, refining magic tools does not need to start from the very basics.

For example, when a True Person refines a new magic tool, as long as they have sufficiently good materials, they do not need to use lower-three-grade implants as they did at the beginning, but can directly use middle-three-grade implants.

Top-tier True Persons can even directly use upper-three-grade implants to refine tools!

Grandmasters and Martial Saints have little need for upper-three-grade implants because they cannot replace their own bodies.

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

Although upper-three-grade implants can also be used to refine divine weapons or divine garments, in terms of cost-effectiveness, refining top-tier magic tools is definitely the optimal choice.

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

"Does a certain top-tier True Person in your organization want to use the soul core of the eighth-grade Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast to refine a magic tool?"

Li Fei asked.

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

"You can't talk about this?"

Li Fei understood.

Ye Zhao nodded.

"Is the soul core of the eighth-grade 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, the Tomb of Heavenly Water would collapse, and we would retreat along the underground river."

"No wonder you dared to come in."

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

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

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

They intended to destroy the entire Tomb of Heavenly Water and then retreat through the underground river.

If not for Li Fei this time, the imperial court, the Red Dust Pavilion, and the Heavenly One Tower would not need to think about sending people into this Dead Domain to retrieve treasures in the future.

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

Li Fei continued to ask.

"You Ming had a short blade crafted from Heavenly Water soul bones and soul core fragments. Using this, one can cut through the cracks and it can also help us find the burial place of the eighth-grade Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast."

"That short blade was crafted from Heavenly Water soul bones?"

Li Fei's mind stirred, and a surge of water-attribute Qi wrapped around You Ming's two severed body parts and brought them over.

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

"What grade of Heavenly Water soul bone is it?"

Li Fei asked.

Ye Zhao: "Seventh grade."

A smile appeared on Li Fei's face.

The thing he wanted was in his hands.

He certainly could not directly incorporate a seventh-grade Heavenly Water soul bone, as that would cause an imbalance with the other implants in his body.

However, Shi Caiming only told him to bring back Heavenly Water soul bones and did not limit the grade; he figured there must be some way to lower the grade 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 as he asked.

"That is the burial place of the eighth-grade Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast. Inside is the soul shadow of the eighth-grade Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beast, which possesses the power of divine abilities and is highly likely to be able to control other soul shadows, including the soul shadows of seventh-grade Heavenly Water Azure Soul Beasts!"

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

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

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

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

There were 257 blood souls remaining in the Blood Spring.

The total amount of blood souls added up to just over 300, which really gave Li Fei no sense of security.

He certainly could not defeat a soul shadow possessing divine abilities now, let alone one that could summon other soul shadows with divine abilities.

"The harvest is full; there's no need to keep pushing my luck."

Li Fei prepared to pack up and leave.

This time, not only did he obtain the Heavenly Water soul bone he wanted, but the Ten Thousand Blood Bead also leveled up.

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

Li Fei's mind stirred, and the wounds all over his body that had been cut by the mist of the 【Cloud Soaring】 divine ability all disappeared.

Generally speaking, among the extraordinary abilities contained in a Martial Arts Foundation, at least one will be of the healing type, and it is usually triggered by a water-attribute or wood-attribute implant.

【Primordial Heavenly Gold】 was no exception; the core-level extraordinary ability triggered by the fourth implant, the wood-attribute 【Azure Bone】, was a healing-type extraordinary ability—Azure Divinity.

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 "Azure Divinity" is that it can heal not only physical injuries but also mental injuries.

If the mental level suffers heavy damage, it can also be healed using "Azure Divinity."

Drugs or methods capable of healing mental trauma are very rare in this world, so the "Azure Divinity" Li Fei triggered can be considered a very rare extraordinary ability.

Moreover, "Azure Divinity" has another characteristic: not only can Li Fei use it on himself, but he can also use it on others. Therefore, Li Fei can rely on "Azure Divinity" to become a divine physician for mental issues in the future.

However, for Li Fei, with the Ten Thousand Blood Bead to absorb damage, he actually does not need to heal himself very often.

Previously, even when he was shredded by "Dark Cloud Heavenly Marsh," he only suffered some superficial skin wounds.

It seemed that his triggering of "Azure Divinity" could only be used to heal teammates in the future.

But after Li Fei triggered "Azure Divinity," the first thing he thought of was not healing, but offense!

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

But if the damage is 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 he used to break the opponent's breakthrough caused the power of 【Blood Rage】 to exceed his body's tolerance limit, causing him to suffer heavy injuries!

Now that he has "Azure Spirit," it means Li Fei does not have to worry so much about getting injured.

He can use 【Blood Rage】 to unleash attacks beyond his limits, then use "Azure Spirit" to heal and recover.

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

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

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

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

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

He places the corpses of You Ming and Zhu San onto the black boat, intending to take these things out with him.

Even though the two are dead, their corpses can serve as clues and evidence.

Li Fei searches Zhu San's corpse and finds a Domain-Breaking Talisman; added to the one in Ye Zhao's hand, it is enough for the two of them to leave.

Although that emerald-green short blade can also cut open cracks in the Dead Domain, it requires the power of a divine ability to activate, which Li Fei cannot use.

As for the two Domain-Breaking Talismans he brought in, they were destroyed earlier inside the "Dark Cloud Heaven Marsh."

Therefore, Li Fei can only use the New Heaven Society's Domain-Breaking Talismans to leave, which makes him feel somewhat regretful.

Domain-Breaking Talismans can only be manufactured by Grandmasters; based on these two talismans from the New Heaven Society, perhaps he could follow the trail and uncover one of the New Heaven Society's Grandmasters!

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

It is 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 to bring out one more corpse and one more Domain-Breaking Talisman.

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

He holds the two Domain-Breaking Talismans and simultaneously injects his internal energy into them.

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

The light transforms into pillars, breaking through the water surface and reaching the very top of the Heaven Water Tomb.

The water ripples, the Heaven Water Tomb begins to shake again, and the surrounding water-attribute energy and extreme cold intent fluctuate accordingly.

A few seconds later, the shaking of the Heaven Water Tomb becomes increasingly violent.

Li Fei frowns, instinctively feeling that something is wrong.

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

"Is there a problem with these Domain-Breaking Talismans?!"

Ye Zhao is startled and hurriedly shakes his head: "Impossible! These Domain-Breaking Talismans were given to me and Zhu San specifically to prevent us from getting separated from You Ming, allowing us to leave on our own. Zhu San has the flight-capable magic treasure; even if a net is cast outside, we would at least have a slim chance of escaping."

Li Fei carefully observes Ye Zhao's expression, judging that the other party is likely not lying.

For Ye Zhao to possess combat power comparable to the top three on the Wind and Cloud Ranking at such a young age, the New Heaven Society must have spent a great price to cultivate him; they would not give him up easily.

Therefore, Ye Zhao's explanation is also logical.

"Where did the problem arise?"

Li Fei senses the increasingly turbulent water around him, and a trace of unease arises in his heart.

Suddenly, several huge shadows appear in the distance.

They are Soul Shadows!

And judging by their size and the aura they emit, these Soul Shadows should all be generated by grade-seven Heaven Water Azure Soul Beasts!

Li Fei's expression is grave as he grips the Ghost Severing Blade in his hand.

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

Relying solely on these 486 blood souls, he truly has no confidence in dealing with several Soul Shadows that possess divine abilities.

Boom—

A violent tremor occurs underwater again.

Li Fei turns to look at the cave where the grade-eight Heaven Water Azure Soul Beast was buried, only to see red liquid, resembling magma, gushing out from within the cave!

The originally freezing water domain suddenly increases in temperature significantly.

"Woo—"

A low, vast roar that seems to contain thousands of years of vicissitudes suddenly resounds throughout the entire Heaven Water Tomb.

This sound does not travel through the water, but instead rings directly in the minds of Li Fei and Ye Zhao.

This is an ancient intent that humans cannot withstand, carrying the accumulation of thousands of years of time, like a vast river of time washing over one's soul!

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

Ye Zhao immediately loses his composure, his eyes becoming vacant.

Li Fei has "Danger Perception," having visualized the Fixed Calamity Vajra Dharma Image in his mind beforehand, and his mental strength is a grade higher than Ye Zhao's, so his mind does not collapse, but he is still so washed over by this vast ancient intent that it is difficult for him to think of anything else.

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

At the same time, the short blade in Li Fei's embrace begins to glow without any energy being injected into it.

Emerald-green light envelops Li Fei.

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

This Heaven Water Beast is different from the other Soul Shadows; it looks very real and possesses the aura of life!

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

Its eyes reveal a trace of sorrow, and the Heaven Water Beast lets out another long howl.

The several grade-seven Heaven Water Azure Soul Beast shadows rushing toward this side surround the Heaven Water Beast, then lower their heads in a gesture of submission.

This Heaven Water Beast is the king of this tribe, the creator of this Dead Domain, and the soul shadow of that grade-eight Heaven Water Azure Soul Beast!

It looks around; the entire Dead Domain is collapsing!

In fact, this Dead Domain has been near its limit for some time.

In the last few decades, a crack has appeared every few years, which was a sign that the Dead Domain was about to collapse.

If everything had gone as usual, this Dead Domain would have completely collapsed in about a dozen more years.

But Li Fei's battle with You Ming and the others first wiped out all the Heaven Water Beast soul shadows below grade seven, and later a Martial Dao Domain appeared, consuming the Dead Domain.

These actions have all accelerated the collapse of the Dead Domain.

Now that Li Fei is activating the Domain-Breaking Talismans, these talismans are forcibly opening a crack from inside the Dead Domain, which will also cause damage to the domain.

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

The Heaven Water Tomb can no longer hold on!

The soul shadow of the grade-eight Heaven Water Azure Soul Beast is forced to wake from its slumber.

It lets out another long howl, and the surrounding grade-seven Heaven Water Azure Soul Beast soul shadows swim toward it one after another, then merge into its body, as if becoming one with it.

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

It crashes directly into Li Fei's chest, merging into that emerald-green short blade.

At this moment, Li Fei has just recovered from that ancient intent; before he can react, he feels a heat in his chest, and then a stream of extremely cold water surges into his body.

Li Fei subconsciously covers his chest, activating his internal energy to try and expel this cold current.

But the moment his Hunyuan Vajra Energy touches this cold current, it is completely frozen, and then the cold current flows through Li Fei's limbs and bones at an extremely fast speed.

Finally, these cold currents all converge toward his dantian.

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

【Steel Armor】, 【Ghost Foot】, and 【Flame Core】, these three types of implants have already completed "Unity" and are intertwined at the dantian.

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

This is Li Fei's Dao foundation.

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

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

Whenever his internal energy touches this cold current, it gets frozen, and his mental power cannot affect this cold current either; once this cold current merges into the Dao foundation, he is even less able to do anything about it.

Soon, all four types of implants suffer damage.

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

But fortunately, he has the Myriad Blood Bead to transfer the damage suffered by the implants, and the remaining 1% of damage can be easily healed by activating the newly stimulated "Azure Spirit."

But the blood souls within the Myriad Blood Bead are decreasing rapidly!

After the blood souls in the Myriad Blood Bead decrease to only 10, Li Fei uses the blood souls in the Blood Spring.

There are 257 blood souls left in the Blood Spring; if these blood souls are exhausted while the Dao foundation is still suffering severe damage, then Li Fei will surely die today!

Li Fei senses the changes occurring in his dantian as calmly as possible, thinking with all his might for a way to break the deadlock.

He discovers that this cold current is actually attempting to merge into his Dao foundation and build a balanced system with the other four implants.

From this perspective, this cold current can be viewed as a water-attribute implant, and it seems to be very compatible with the other four, capable of jointly constituting a Dao foundation.

"Could this cold current be the Heaven Water Soul Bone?"

Li Fei forms this speculation.

Only this can explain why a strange implant entering his Dao foundation would be compatible with the other four.

Because the Heaven Water Soul Bone is the fifth type of implant Li Fei needs; it is a part of the true 【Hunyuan Heaven Gold】!

But the problem now is that Li Fei has not yet achieved "Unity" for 【Azure Bone】, and in this situation, he cannot merge a fifth implant.

And the most serious problem is that the "Heaven Water Soul Bone" merging into Li Fei's body is of a significantly higher grade, making it impossible to reach a balance with the other four lower-grade implants!

This causes the other four implants to continuously suffer damage, with the possibility of collapse at any moment.

"There must be a way, stay calm!"

Li Fei forces himself not to look at how many blood souls are left in the Blood Spring, and he struggles to think of a countermeasure:

"Physical force is useless, and mental power is useless too. Controlling the four implants to suppress the cold current? No, the gap in power is too great. I need an external force, an external force... That's it!"

Li Fei immediately converted a portion of his mental power into Void Thought, then poured it all into the Dream-Like Decree.

For other martial artists, there would be no external force to borrow at a time like this.

But Li Fei practiced both martial arts and magic, so he still had spells he could use!

As Li Fei injected his Void Thought into the Dream-Like Decree, the entire Tomb of Heavenly Water had already begun to collapse completely, and he had 128 blood souls remaining within his blood spring.

PS: This chapter is a two-in-one; from now on, I should be posting these large chapters, with word counts between 6, 00 and 8, 00. I will try my best to lean toward 8, 00+~

(End of chapter)