Chapter 194: The Second Level of Heavenly Human, Deriving the Divine Weapon

Chen Mo could feel that every step he took now was a matter of gritting his teeth and persevering.

The Wen Dao Jie is quite peculiar; it can rapidly drain one's physical strength, yet it always keeps one on the verge of collapse. As long as one has a firm will, one can still take steps forward, rather than being completely devoid of strength.

This experience is very strange, but for a Heavenly Human Realm Martial Artist, it holds no real value as training.

A Heavenly Human Realm Martial Artist is not born at the Heavenly Human Realm.

To reach this realm, years of accumulated, arduous practice are indispensable, and breakthroughs often end in failure; their mental fortitude is far beyond that of ordinary people.

If one were to give up because of a little physical fatigue, then it would be impossible to ever attain the Heavenly Human Realm.

Therefore, what hinders their speed now is only their own strength, not their willpower.

Chen Mo's speed was very steady; bearing the pressure, he walked forward step by step.

At this moment, Chen Mo's physical body began to show many reactions: exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and he was even sweating.

Logically speaking, these things should not have appeared.

A Creation Realm Martial Artist, even when exhausted, would never sweat, and thirst would be even more impossible.

Yet he could clearly feel these things; it must be the influence of the Wen Dao Jie on him.

This state is quite marvelous, possessing a sense of returning to simplicity, allowing the physical body to return to a normal state, with no difference from an ordinary mortal.

However, Chen Mo had no time to contemplate this carefully now; he simply quickened his pace and continued to climb toward the palace before him.

As the distance closed, he gradually saw the entire palace clearly.

This palace was incomparably vast, radiating golden light throughout, standing here for who knows how many tens of thousands of years.

Chen Mo saw clearly that there were no Arrays within the palace, yet a force of laws circulated there.

The palace gates were wide open, allowing one to see the scene inside at a glance.

The interior of the palace was extremely spacious, emitting golden treasure light everywhere. However, apart from the floor and steps, nothing else could be seen within the great hall; it was so empty that it was almost deathly silent.

Chen Mo walked up the last few steps and stepped before the palace gates.

The force that had previously been imposed upon his body vanished instantly, but the feelings of sweat, thirst, and fatigue remained.

Chen Mo circulated his True Qi to evaporate the sweat and took out clear water to drink.

While on the steps, he hadn't even been able to use his Storage Ring; he could only use it after leaving that place.

After drinking the water, his thirst was quenched, and Chen Mo took out two pieces of dry rations to chew. As he swallowed them, the hunger and fatigue also continued to fade.

This Wen Dao Jie is truly ingenious; it is unknown what specific means it uses.

Chen Mo left a waterskin and two pieces of dry rations there, then stepped forward to continue into the palace.

The master of the Blood Sea followed closely behind him and reached this place before long; seeing the waterskin on the ground, she opened it and drank without hesitation.

She was also extremely thirsty, and this feeling was somewhat novel to her.

She was a being of the Blood Sea who had attained the Dao through Shape Transformation; let alone after her cultivation was successful, she had never experienced such a feeling even at the moment of her birth.

Therefore, she gained more from walking this Wen Dao Jie, and her state of mind had improved somewhat along the way.

As Chen Mo stepped into the palace, he was supported by a force, and immediately after, blossoms of golden flowers drifted down from the sky.

These golden flowers were very profound, containing the three powers of essence, Qi, and spirit.

They could help a Martial Artist improve their True Qi, refine their Divine Sense, and nourish their Qi and Blood.

This was very important for the vast majority of Martial Artists; as long as they could refine and absorb these golden flowers, their cultivation would surely improve.

Even if they could not be used in a short time, it did not matter; the golden flowers would turn into spiritual liquid, and although their power might be reduced, they could be preserved for longer.

Chen Mo took out a Putan and sat cross-legged, beginning to absorb the power within the golden flowers.

This power divided into three parts, merging into his physical body, True Qi, and Divine Sense.

Chen Mo's physical body had reached perfection, so these Blood Qi powers could only be used to charge the Transformation Pearl.

But at this moment, he discovered that the Putan beneath him was very eager for these Blood Qi powers.

He had previously tried to refine it using Blood Qi, but there had been no reaction.

It seems the Blood Qi condensed by these golden flowers indeed has many extraordinary qualities; one can only say it is worthy of being the handiwork of the Ancient Heavenly Court.

The Putan absorbed the Blood Qi power within them, allowing it to further recover.

Chen Mo had long since experienced the benefits of this Putan, so after a moment of thought, he guided the Blood Qi power from the golden flowers to nourish the Putan.

As for charging the Transformation Pearl, he could find other resources to replace it. But he did not currently possess the power to quickly nourish this Putan.

One golden flower after another was absorbed by Chen Mo, and the master of the Blood Sea and the others also entered the palace one after another.

However, the number of golden flowers they could obtain was less than the one before.

Within Chen Mo's Shenhai, his Divine Sense power was constantly being refined and improved; Martial Artists do not use Divine Sense very much.

But a powerful Divine Sense is ultimately beneficial; a Martial Artist's refined Divine Sense allows for more meticulous control and a better ability to observe the world.

Furthermore, if he wishes to break through to the True One Realm in the future, he must improve his Divine Sense; it doesn't need to be overwhelmingly strong, but it cannot become a weakness.

The so-called True One Realm is defined as the fusion of the three treasures: essence, Qi, and spirit.

Whether it is a body-refining Martial Artist or a True Qi Martial Artist, after the Supernatural Power or Myriad Phenomena Realm, the next realm is the True One Realm.

Martial Artists at this realm only have relative weaknesses, not absolute ones.

However, for a Martial Artist like Chen Mo who cultivates both True Qi and the physical body, once they reach this realm, their combat power is even more transcendent, far surpassing other Martial Artists of the same realm.

And because they have relatively fewer weaknesses, they find it easier to break through this realm.

Chen Mo continuously refined these golden flowers, and his Divine Sense power gradually improved.

Bit by bit, the Divine Sense power gathered into one in his Shenhai, and Chen Mo began to refine his Divine Sense.

The method for refining Divine Sense was also obtained from the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate, and it is called the Nine Turns of Refining the Spirit.

This spirit-refining technique is very simple; it is the purest refinement of Divine Sense without any flashy tricks, and only Martial Artists would practice this technique.

Because the Divine Sense of a Qi Refiner is too powerful, this technique is somewhat weak for them.

Chen Mo refined his Divine Sense over and over again until he completed the third turn, and his Divine Sense power was three times what it had been before; only then did he stop.

Under the infusion of golden flowers, Chen Mo's True Qi cultivation finally reacted, and the True Qi within his Purple Mansion began to circulate and change.

The quantity of Heavenly Law contained within the True Qi increased, allowing him to connect with the Heaven and Earth Power and guide and control the Heaven and Earth Trend.

The Heavenly Human Realm is different from the Innate Realm; the gap in combat power between each level is immense.

The True Qi within Chen Mo's body was constantly swallowing and taking in the surrounding Heaven and Earth power, merging it into himself.

If this were in the outside world, such breakthrough fluctuations would be enough to trigger a small Heaven and Earth Qi storm.

However, here, it was as if nothing had happened.

The abundance of Heavenly Law and the richness of Heaven and Earth Qi within the palace were boundless; no matter how much Chen Mo absorbed and drew in, it caused no impact at all.

Until the breakthrough ended, the palace remained incomparably quiet.

Chen Mo let out a long breath of turbid air, feeling the further advancement of his own True Qi power.

The Dao Patterns within the True Qi circulated, changed, and merged into one; once the Dao Patterns floated between Heaven and Earth, they could guide the changes of Heavenly Law.

Although it was only guidance, the power his own True Qi could leverage was also several times stronger than before.

In the vast hall, the others were also refining the golden flowers.

Although the number of golden flowers they obtained was not as many as his, they had started refining later than him, and their speed was not as fast as his either.

Chen Mo was not in a hurry to attempt the second trial, but instead looked at the Putan beneath him.

A wisp of spirituality was reviving within the Putan; it was still very weak, but it was indeed reviving.

Chen Mo channeled True Qi into it to continue nourishing it, and this spirituality was gradually being tamed by him.

Now, this Putan could not only gather Heaven and Earth Qi, but as long as he channeled True Qi into it, it could pull upon the power of Heavenly Law to provide a boost to his own cultivation.

It had to be said that this was indeed an extremely rare treasure, enough to greatly increase his cultivation speed.

Chen Mo carefully nourished and refined this Putan; a wisp of spirituality was born inside, and he could completely master this Putan and store it within his dantian to nourish it day and night.

The others in the palace also finished refining their golden flowers one after another, and their cultivation strength had all improved.

"Let's go, everyone." Bai Yuxia was the last to finish refining, and upon opening their eyes to find everyone waiting, they could not help but feel slightly surprised.

But they did not say much, simply rising and calling out.

The group crossed this hall and continued to walk forward.

In front of the hall was a cyan tower; it was unknown how many stories high it was, towering and piercing the sky, with no end in sight at a glance.

"This tower is called the Jiumiao Linglong Ta. As long as we step inside, we will be automatically separated.

The Linglong Ta will evolve Martial Artists of various realms; as long as you defeat these Martial Artists, you can ascend from the first floor to the second.

The higher the floor you can climb, the more rewards you will gain." Shui Qianqiu spoke quite rarely, their footsteps quickening as they took the lead to walk at the very front.

Before even approaching the tower, Chen Mo felt a vast and ancient aura rushing toward him.

Beside the tower was a stone tablet, on which many names were engraved, along with the highest floors climbed.

But the positions of those who left their names on this stone tablet should not belong to this era, because some of them clearly did not belong to the Human Race.

For example, the tenth-ranked Ao Xing; this name sounds very much like one the ancient Dragon Race would use.

"This stone tablet records the top hundred people who have climbed the most floors of the tower from ancient times to the present. Even if placed in the Ancient Heavenly Court, they were all top powerhouses, and to this day, no one can reach their heights."

Shui Qianqiu looked at this stone tablet and spoke slowly, their tone filled with longing, as if they missed the Ancient Heavenly Court era deeply.

Hearing these words, Chen Mo also took a careful look at this stone tablet.

Among the one hundred names recorded on the stone tablet, the last person had also cleared three hundred and seventy-two floors of the tower.

This number was indeed terrifying, which indicated that this person's strength was terrifying.

Because according to the intelligence he had gathered, ordinary Heavenly Human Realm Martial Artists could at most pass sixty or seventy floors of the tower, and those who passed a hundred were few and far between.

To be able to clear three hundred and seventy-two floors, this person's strength definitely exceeded the True One Realm by an unknown margin, which also showed the power of the Ancient Heavenly Court.

Yet, such a powerful Ancient Heavenly Court was ultimately destroyed by the Mirage Sea.

"Fellow Daoists, I will go first." Shui Qianqiu spoke, taking large strides into the tower.

This place was not like the Wen Dao Jie; there was no distinction of order, and how many floors one could clear depended entirely on one's own strength.

Chen Mo did not hesitate and also stepped inside, with Bai Yuxia and the master of the Blood Sea following closely behind him.

Although the three of them stepped into the tower almost simultaneously, Chen Mo only felt the surrounding space change, and when he looked carefully, he was the only one left in the vast world.

Beneath his feet were smooth bluestone slabs, and immediately after, a Scholar was evolved in the distance, wielding a weapon and killing toward him.

Chen Mo killed them with one strike, the world before his eyes changed again, and more Scholars were evolved.

The first fifty floors had no difficulty; the Martial Artists evolved were at most at the Innate Realm in strength.

After the fiftieth floor, a small number of Heavenly Human Martial Artists finally appeared.

But with Chen Mo's strength, even without using Dharma Heaven and Earth, it was enough to pass.

After the hundredth floor, Chen Mo finally began to feel the strain.

At this time, the powerhouses evolved by the Jiumiao Linglong Ta, although their strength was still not as great as his own, were not so easy to deal with.

Even with Chen Mo's strength, he had to activate Dharma Heaven and Earth to succeed.

The Martial Artists evolved at this time were all top combatants within the Heavenly Human Realm.

Although not comparable to Chen Mo, they were still very strong existences.

After passing fifty more floors in succession, he finally arrived at the one hundred and fifty-first floor.

Chen Mo focused his mind, held his breath, and did not dare to be the slightest bit careless.

The illusions evolved within the tower would have their overall strength rise by one level every fifty floors.

Although there was only a one-floor difference between the one hundred and fiftieth and one hundred and fifty-first floors, the strength of the illusions evolved was as different as clouds and mud.

If his guess was correct, the illusion evolved on this floor definitely reached the Supernatural Realm level.

Although Chen Mo believed his own combat power was supreme within the Heavenly Human Realm, he did not think he could easily defeat a Supernatural Realm powerhouse.

The gap of a major realm could not be easily smoothed over by any means.

In a trance, the world shifted, yet beneath Chen Mo's feet remained the unchanging bluestone.

A Martial Artist walked over from afar, standing extremely tall, nearly a zhang in height, with a third eye born on their forehead, as if capable of peering through the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth.

"Myriad Phenomena Convergence!" Chen Mo directly employed the strongest means at his disposal, draining all his own power, as the Myriad Phenomena Power of heaven and earth converged into one, striking toward that three-eyed divine human.

"Whoosh!" The eye on the three-eyed divine human's forehead erupted with a golden light, shooting straight at Chen Mo.

This golden light was extremely sharp, piercing through everything; all the means Chen Mo employed had no power to block it before him.

The next moment, the golden light pierced through Chen Mo's abdomen, and the power carried by the golden light began to erode his entire body from the abdomen; a single exchange of blows left him severely wounded.

A powerhouse of the Supernatural Realm is truly terrifying to this extent!

Meanwhile, the power of Myriad Phenomena Convergence also struck the three-eyed divine human, shattering his flesh and blood with a single blow.

The world before Chen Mo's eyes shifted once again; it seemed he had indeed passed the one-hundred-fiftieth level, but he had no remaining strength to climb further.

"I concede!" he shouted aloud, and immediately after, a divine light descended; Chen Mo only felt his physical injuries clear up, and his wounds were healing at an extremely fast speed.

"The challenger has passed the one-hundred-fifty-first level, and may obtain a fifth-tier Derivative Divine Weapon!"

A voice devoid of the slightest emotion emanated from the boundless void.

The so-called Derivative Divine Weapon takes its meaning from the evolution of all things in heaven and earth.

Such a divine weapon has no specific form and can be controlled and evolved by the Martial Artist themselves.

Moreover, the evolved divine weapon will manifest many profound powers according to the different Heavenly Laws of the surrounding world.

This is a manifestation of a portion of the Ancient Heavenly Court's foundation; to this day, no one knows how a Derivative Divine Weapon should be specifically manufactured, only how to use one.

Furthermore, no one is clear on exactly how many Derivative Divine Weapons exist in this Heavenly Court Secret Realm; several eras have passed, yet they have still not been exhausted.

A set of bright silver armor appeared, and along with it, a long spear.

This was merely the most basic state of the Derivative Divine Weapon; once Chen Mo took it into his hands to refine, how to use it would depend on himself.

A fifth-tier Derivative Divine Weapon, still forged by the Heavenly Court, can be called the most top-tier treasure of this era.

Chen Mo took it in hand to nourish and refine it with True Qi; the Derivative Divine Weapon can be large or small, and its weight can also be adjusted.

In the future, when he performs Dharma Heaven and Earth, he will no longer have to worry about lacking a handy weapon.

There is also the most important point: if his own strength has a breakthrough, the Derivative Divine Weapon will also undergo Mortal Transformation and improve accordingly, though it can only be improved by one tier at most.

Even so, this is still an extremely rare treasure, enough for him to use for a very long time.

After refining the Derivative Divine Weapon, a portal appeared.

As long as one passes through this portal, the third trial will begin.

No one knows what the third trial specifically is; everything is randomly evolved.

To this day, the Heavenly Court Secret Realm has been opened many times, and the third trial has never repeated.

Chen Mo sat cross-legged to heal, recovering his injuries as much as possible until he was fully prepared, and only then did he step inside.

Behind the portal, it was extremely safe, without any danger.

Chen Mo surveyed the scene before him; this was a palace, and inside the palace was a portal.

This portal was entirely pure white, very much like the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate, yet it was slightly different.

Before the portal, the Master of the Blood Sea and two others sat cross-legged.

It seems the three of them finished the second trial earlier than he did.

Now these three were fully focused, and it was unclear what the specific situation was.

Not only that, this pure white portal projected a force onto all three of them, blocking all interference from the outside.

Chen Mo walked to the front of the pure white portal and channeled a wisp of True Qi to probe the portal.

In an instant, streams of information flowed through his heart.

This portal could also be called the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate, or rather, this was the original Heaven and Earth Profound Gate; the Heaven and Earth Profound Gates built within various worlds today are all imitations of this one.

And the reason why the Heavenly Court powerhouses built this Heaven and Earth Profound Gate was not to allow two worlds to merge and linger on in the Mirage Sea.

The reason they built this Profound Gate was to fish out worlds that were about to be submerged by the Mirage Sea, or even those already submerged.

The Heavenly Court was indeed destroyed by the Mirage Sea, but this does not mean the Heavenly Court had no ability to resist the Mirage Sea.

Numerous Heavenly Court powerhouses had attempted countless means to resist the Mirage Sea, or at least delay its erosion of this world.

This Heaven and Earth Profound Gate was one of the results.

A Martial Artist uses their own power to communicate with the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate, and the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate will project a portion of the Martial Artist's power and consciousness into the Boundless Mirage Sea.

In the boundless Mirage Sea, some worlds, although about to be completely eroded by the Mirage Sea, still retain a portion of vitality, and there are still members of the Human Race dwelling within them.

Some worlds, even if completely eroded by the Mirage Sea, still have Mirage Sea creatures evolving and being born within them.

Not only that, because the world is eroded extremely severely, or even completely eroded.

When a world is on the verge of collapse, there is often a wave of resistance, or it accumulates power and temporarily lies dormant.

The Mirage Sea does not care much about this; no matter which world it devours, it does so in an extremely slow and casual manner.

Or rather, it is too strong—so strong that even if it does nothing, one day it will still win.

As for the speed, it has no meaning to it; whether it is ten thousand years or one million years, to it, both are but an instant.

Of course, Mirage Sea creatures might have a reaction; if they completely devour a world, they can truly obtain benefits.

What Chen Mo needs to do is send a portion of his own power into the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate, and then have it projected into the Mirage Sea.

Find those worlds that have been eroded extremely severely by the Mirage Sea, or even those that have completely slipped into the Mirage Sea.

Then find the world core or the Spirit of Heaven and Earth of these worlds; the world core is the very center of a world, and the Heavenly Laws of a world are all born from this place.

And the Spirit of Heaven and Earth can also be called the Heavenly Dao or the consciousness of heaven and earth.

Once these two are found, or at least one of them, the Martial Artist can then use the power of the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate to pull that world out from the Shenhai Water.

Of course, there is a risk of failure; if discovered by some powerful Mirage Sea creatures, the other party will inevitably intervene.

After all, doing this is no different from snatching food from the mouths of those powerful Mirage Sea creatures.

And if they fail, the Martial Artist will lose a portion of their own power.

It requires several years of recuperation to recover, and it is difficult to improve one's cultivation in the short term, but there is no danger to life.

If they succeed, the harvest will be extremely bountiful. The Mirage Sea is extremely dangerous, but it also represents many opportunities.

A Martial Artist projects their own power into another world, where they can absorb other powers to improve their avatar.

When they return, the avatar and the original body will merge, increasing the Martial Artist's cultivation.

Furthermore, if they can obtain a World Core or the Spirit of Heaven and Earth, the Martial Artist can also carefully contemplate the Heavenly Law within.

It is even possible, if one's strength is sufficient, to completely master that world.

Through this method, the Heavenly Court did indeed delay the erosion of the Mirage Sea, but it was only a delay.

In the end, the Mirage Sea still submerged all worlds, including the Heavenly Court itself.

Even when that drop of blood descended, this means of delaying the Mirage Sea's consumption of worlds seemed somewhat laughable.

But regardless, the powerhouses of the Heavenly Court era truly exhausted all their means to delay the Mirage Sea's erosion as much as possible.

This third round of the trial is to head to another world eroded by the Mirage Sea and obtain a World Core or the Spirit of Heaven and Earth.

Chen Mo did not hesitate at the moment, decisively sitting cross-legged on the ground and slowly inputting his own power into this Heaven and Earth Profound Gate.

As he entered, the Heaven and Earth Profound Gate finally stirred, precious light flowing and mysterious divine radiance erupting, with streaks of rosy clouds blooming.

Endless laws intertwined, transforming into Order Divine Chains, carving out a path to project the consciousness and a portion of the power of the four of them into the Boundless Mirage Sea.

(End of this chapter)