Chapter 592 - 591: Soaring, The Nine Emperors’ Sutra

?

Receiving a tip, Li Jing slowly typed out a question mark.

A third breakthrough skill?

Could skills actually have a third breakthrough?

Controller: Li Jing

Rule Control: Thunder Punishment, Space, Shadow, Heavenly Fire

Heavenly and Earthly Essence: 1342210/53338667

Level: 455 (Return to Origin)/Next stage level ???

Skill Points: 40

Strength of Thunder Punishment: 207480

Lifebound Magic Instrument: Linglong (Immortal Items level 10 99%), Smoke Eye (Immortal Items level 10 99%), Qingfeng, Noname, Snow Sound

Equipment: None

Passive Skills: Little Universe, Reverse Space

Active Skills: Zhou Tian Talisman

Limit Breakthrough (passive): Divine Might, Moon Shadow

Limit Breakthrough (active): Spirit God Whisper, Heaven’s Creation Skill, Eye of True Vision

Forbidden Skills: Body of Thunder Punishment in All Worlds, Burn the Sky

Second Breakthrough: Heaven and Earth Return to Heart, Wind Thunder Domain, Eternal Solo, Blood Rage, Formless Divine Skill, Heavenly Net True Solution

Third Breakthrough: Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart (0/200)

A perplexed expression on his face, Li Jing called out the panel with a slight frown.

Indeed, there is an additional column for the third breakthrough on the panel.

Heaven and Earth Return to Heart and Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart are juxtaposed, the sense of déjà vu was quite strong.

However, a word makes a world of difference.

The effect of Heaven and Earth Return to Heart is amplified on the basis of the Primordial Spirit, with incidental critical hit effects.

But not so with Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart.

Upon obtaining this third breakthrough skill, Li Jing had a clear feeling without adding points.

This skill is an extremely heaven-defying passive.

Its function is to enhance his connection with the Heavenly Path.

Typical days, this passive isn’t much use.

But when he needs to harness the power of heaven and earth, Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart will bring him immense amplification.

In other words.

This is an "enhancement passive" that only activates when using forbidden skills to invoke heaven and earth.

It’s worth mentioning.

In Li Jing’s hands, Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart has a certain degree of effect on the Heavenly Net True Solution, but the effect is much smaller in comparison.

Taoist laws, in essence, involve drawing on the power of heaven and earth.

Note.

It’s the power of heaven and earth.

Not the might of heaven and earth.

The mystery of Taoist laws lies in the fact that things that typically require harnessing the might of heaven and earth can bypass this step and specifically borrow the power of heaven and earth without controlling the corresponding rules.

Without a doubt.

Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart is a God skill.

As for this God skill, should he add it?

This doesn’t need to be thought about.

It must be added.

But before that, Li Jing wanted to test if the third breakthrough was feasible.

He noticed Heaven and Earth Guided by Heart only required 200 skill points, this should be a fusion of two second breakthrough skills and it doesn’t require too many skill points.

This seems to be the case, but he wasn’t sure if actively initiating a third breakthrough would consume skill points.

At present, his skill points were not in abundance, so it was better to try it out first.

Without much thought, Li Jing selected Wind Thunder Domain and Eternal Solo, two skills he didn’t use very often, and tried to combine them. In his heart, he silently recited "third breakthrough".

Then.

The status bar popped up a prompt.

"Third breakthrough failed, the second breakthrough skills Wind Thunder Domain and Eternal Solo are not of the same nature, active and passive cannot be combined."

Receiving this prompt, Li Jing was momentarily stunned.

Prompts appearing implied that an active third breakthrough was indeed feasible, and it only required two second breakthrough skills.

However, in terms of active and passive, they needed to be of the same nature.

This imposed some restrictions.

After a moment of hesitation, Li Jing selected Heaven and Earth Return to Heart and Blood Rage, two passive skills.

Once again he recited silently in his heart, and the status bar promptly popped up with a prompt.

"Skill Points -25, confirm third limit breakthrough fusion skills, Heaven and Earth Return to Heart, Blood Rage."

"Fusion completed, obtained third breakthrough skill, Soaring."

???

Li Jing.

The third breakthrough was successful.

But the skill obtained from this breakthrough didn’t seem to have any relation with Heaven and Earth Return to Heart and Blood Rage from the literal meaning, was this a mutation?

Closing his eyes and feeling it, Li Jing’s expression was unusual.

This skill derived from a fusion, Soaring, in the strictest sense, had not mutated.

The persistently passive effects of Heaven and Earth Return to Heart and Blood Rage were both in play, without him needing to consciously activate them.

The unique characteristic of Soaring was.

It was both a passive and an active skill.

When actively opened, Li Jing can directly acquire physical combat power three times his own under the state of Blood Rage, which is the starting point of standard Blood Rage.

This implies.

Normally, Blood Rage requires a period of time battling with blood qi to attain a boost in physical combat power. Having Soaring means he could start with three times the physical combat power.

And this was merely the start.

If he continued battling with blood qi, his physical combat power could continue to increase with the duration of combat, without any upper limit.

This.....

Real talk, slightly OP.

Li Jing, who had achieved immortality, was even unclear as to how strong his current physical body was. The surging blood qi inside him had even surpassed the Southern Demon Emperor Jin Ritian.

Upon activating Soaring, wouldn’t he truly transform into a human-shaped beast?

That’s not all.

Once Soaring is activated,

The various functions of Heaven and Earth Return to Heart will be enhanced threefold.

Primordial Spirit, tripled.

Mental state, tripled.

Critical strike...

Also tripled!

This damn...

It’s practically a BUG!

The originally fairly random critical strikes become somewhat controllable under the Soaring state.

This is just too perfect!

During a fight, Li Jing doesn’t count on it.

Even with triple the chance, critical strikes ultimately still depend on luck.

But in Artifact Refinement, won’t the chances of striking it big increase geometrically by activating Soaring?

How wonderful!

The only thing that worries Li Jing at the moment is...

As expected, the active skill for the third breakthrough consumes Skill Points, and with only 15 points left, he cannot attempt a second breakthrough.

But he doesn’t feel the need to perform these second breakthroughs now.

Among the active skills, there are Wind Thunder Domain and Formless Divine Skill.

What combination can come out of these two?

Heaven’s Solution and Timeless Oratorio, both passive skills, are the secret techniques of the Heaven Luo Sect and the Immortal Music Palace, respectively. One strengthens Daoist law, and the other boosts sound attacks. They have utterly nothing to do with each other and are basically two different techniques.

As for Body of Thunder Punishment in All Worlds and Burn the Sky, Li Jing does not plan to attempt a breakthrough.

Simply put, it’s not necessary.

One of them attracts all thunder punishment onto the body, triggering a fierce thunder body, while the other causes self-explosion on the spot.

The former is manageable.

The latter is quite restrictive.

It can only be used when there are no allies around.

Regaining his composure, Li Jing used the leftover 15 Skill Points on the just-learned skill Heaven and Earth depend on Heart.

As he assigned the Skill Points, he started to understand Heaven and Earth depend on Heart a bit more.

There is also quite an intuitive point.

Originally, unless he was connected to Heaven and Earth, the Heavenly Path, which was usually hard to sense, became significantly clearer to his senses. He could even vaguely sense the thousands of rules intertwining and holding together the universe, keeping everything in the world well ordered.

Usually, Li Jing only feels this way in his Little Universe.

It must be said, the effects of Heaven and Earth depend on Heart are absolutely domineering.

Crucially, it seems to work in any world, even in other people’s independent ones.

Nalan Que really gave me an incredible gift!

With a sigh, Li Jing focused his mind again on the jade scroll in his hand.

Skill Points are just an entry-level standard for Heaven and Earth depend on Heart, which requires 200 points to be fully charged.

But since he has made a start, Li Jing is no longer affected by a certain restriction in the jade scroll and could interpret its contents.

Three Pures, Six Emperors, Nine Emperor Scriptures.

The highest secret text in Daoism.

Upon receiving this information from the jade scroll, Li Jing was surprised.

Well, it’s a Daoist thing after all, no wonder they focus on communicating with Heaven and Earth.

Looking further down, his expression became rather peculiar.

The Nine Emperor Scriptures were hand copied, not original.

The copier was a Daoist God Emperor who once overlooked the Upper Three Realms.

He did not leave much information in the Nine Emperor Scriptures, but he pointed out one thing clearly.

The chaos in the Upper Three Realms is already threatening the entire Universe and all the great thousand worlds.

It just hasn’t erupted yet.

If it fully erupts one day, the great thousand worlds will face an earth-shattering disaster, and a new round of reshuffling will come to the Universe.

Additionally, he left a message in the Nine Emperor Scriptures.

In the future chaos, the holder of the Nine Emperor Scriptures must stand on the side of Daoism.

This is fate.

Of course, Li Jing doesn’t believe in fate.

He’s just taken advantage of a glitch and learned a skill, that’s not enough for him to get roped into Daoism’s battles. He can’t possibly agree happily.

Not to mention that he doesn’t even know what the current situation of Daoism in the Upper Three Realms is, he cannot possibly accept such coercive tactics to make him pick sides ahead of time.

Considering he can’t break through to Return to Origin yet and can’t go to the Upper Three Realms, nor does he have any plans to, Li Jing secretly shook his head and withdrew from the jade scroll.

Aside from the "private goods" left by the ancient Daoist God Emperor, there’s only something related to the Nine Emperor Scriptures in the jade scroll.

Li Jing wasn’t interested in any of these.

He’s not in the habit of formally studying things.

Now that he has cheated to learn Heaven and Earth depend on Heart, the Nine Emperor Scriptures have no value to him, either.

They might have been worth studying if he were practicing Daoist techniques.

But he is following the Orthodox Immortal Path.

When you’re living life,

you can’t forget your roots.

Even though he has never studied anything seriously...

Compared to investing time in studying the Nine Emperor Scriptures, he would rather find a place to level up by grinding monsters and increase his proficiency in Heaven and Earth depend on Heart.

Storing the jade scroll, Li Jing turned around.

"We should go now."

Xiang Yunxian had quietly stayed aside when she saw Li Jing take out the jade scroll to read, and didn’t disturb him.

She was taken aback when he suddenly looked up at her.

He hadn’t made a sound for less than fifteen minutes.

That’s it? He’s finished looking?

Did he gain anything or not?

Hearing Li Jing said he was leaving, Xiang Yunxian let out an "Ah?"

"Aren’t we waiting for the Emperor of Heaven?"

"Why should we wait? He’s not going to share his own treasures with you. Are you planning to take him home to meet your parents?"

Li Jing tilted his head.

"..."

Xiang Yunxian.

Taking Nalan Que to meet her parents was a joke not to be made.

Although considering her relationship with Li Jing, Nalan Que dared not harm her.

But if her elders found out she was acquainted with Nalan Que, a top-tier powerhouse, they would definitely insist she carry his favor.

Elders!

Always like this!

Everyone in their eyes was a perfect match.

If you do not get married, you are unfilial.

And in fact,

her relationship with Nalan Longao was intentional.

Their acquaintance was nothing short of a blind date.

There was no way out.

For someone like Xiang Yunxian who had been single for tens of thousands of years,

If there were no elders, she wouldn’t have to face such trouble.

Yet she did.

And Xiang Yunxian herself was considering finding a suitable person to spend her life with.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten deceived by Nalan Longao while researching the way of the Pharmacist over the years.

Thinking of what might happen after bringing Nalan Que home, Xiang Yunxian shivered, dismissing the thought, and hesitated, "But Master Jiu, if we leave, the rules you set up..."

Before she could finish, Li Jing interrupted her in a deep voice.

"Do I look like I have time to watch who broke the rules?"

"..."

Xiang Yunxian.

Li Jing’s irresponsible attitude was unmatched.

If chaos broke out, who knows how many would die here.

But on second thought,

If someone died because of this, they deserved to die and couldn’t blame it on fate.

At least Li Jing guaranteed that Nalan Que, who could slay everyone here, wouldn’t make a move.

Biting her lip, Xiang Yunxian nodded and extended her small hand.

"I’m a slow flier. Master Jiu, please bring me along. Also... after we go out, I want to go home first."

Upon hearing her words, Li Jing nodded.

"Sure, I’ll go with you."

He grabbed Xiang Yunxian’s hand, summoned the Flying Sword Blue Edge with the other.

"We’ll speed up on our way back. Just bear with it."

?

Xiang Yunxian was confused.

Bear with it?

Bear with what?

Before she could comprehend, she felt a sudden heaviness around her and couldn’t help but scream.

...

A little over an hour later.

A blue streak shot out from the cave entrance.

Above the cave outside the entrance, seven powerful dead entity emperors guarded, and Bai Chuchu was among them.

This place was a mountain cave left by the First Beiming Emperor, which was filled with his legacy.

While this legacy was useless to the living, if someone acquired it and took it away, it would be an irreparable loss for the Beiming Divine Palace.

This situation must be avoided.

The action of seven emperors showed how much the Beiming Divine Palace valued this.

Of course,

If Li Jing hadn’t meddled initially, the Beiming Divine Palace wouldn’t have deployed such a formidable team to prevent certain undesirable situations.

They had no choice now.

Li Jing was a person they couldn’t provoke, they could only comply.

However, they had to establish certain principles.

Seeing a blue streak shooting out from the cave below, the seven emperors were taken aback.

It hasn’t been three days, yet someone was coming out. Did this person acquire something so precious that could instill fear in people just by carrying it around?

While guessing, the blue streak came to a halt in mid-air.

Li Jing revealed himself.

Xiang Yunxian, who was hanging on him like a boneless figure after being stunned by the flying sword, immediately vomited upon the sudden halt.

Seeing this, the seven emperors, including Bai Chuchu, frowned.

This woman...

She was at the mid-stage of an emperor’s realm,

What had she been through?

Why was she vomiting so badly right after she came out?

Then looking at the other person, all of them tightened their hearts.

Isn’t this... the Fox Demon Empress who is famous for her charm!

Li Jing stopped not because of anything else, but to give Xiang Yunxian a breather.

A journey that would have taken half a day for an emperor to walk was completed by him on a flying sword in just over an hour.

Such speed was too much for Xiang Yunxian, who was only at the mid-stage of an emperor’s realm.

He stopped the flying sword and saw seven dead emperors, including Bai Chuchu. Li Jing was slightly taken aback. Then, he smiled at Bai Chuchu, an "old acquaintance".

Bai Chuchu retreated unintentionally, then plucked up her courage to speak.

"Master Jiu, how did you get out so fast? Could it be such a coincidence that you have obtained the inheritance of the First Beiming Emperor?"

Seeing people greet him like he was a venomous snake, Li Jing couldn’t help but laugh.

Hearing their words, he instantly understood why there were seven Emperor-level dead objects guarding this place.

Without further ado, Li Jing spoke.

"Rest assured, I am not interested in the inheritance of the First Beiming Emperor, nor have I deliberately sought it out. If I came out, it means that I have other gains that made this trip worthwhile. Do I need to report the specifics to you?"

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other and nodded in unison.

Li Jing had managed to persuade the Western Earth Emperor Karan to retreat.

This feat resonated throughout the Beiming Divine Palace.

Although the six Emperor-level dead objects present were all meeting him for the first time, they had no interest in offending him.

Especially since Bai Chuchu had been targeted and "insulted" because she talked too much, and she had clearly stated her point.

It was wise to avoid an inexplicable yet powerful man like this.

Clearly, Bai Chuchu was not keen on dealing with him any further.

"I trust in Master Jiu’s character."

Having said this, Bai Chuchu made a gesture of invitation.

Seeing that she wanted nothing more than for him to leave, Li Jing grinned. He was somewhat eagerly looking forward to seeing her face when she rushed to find him in Chen Tang City in the future.

After sharing a meaningful glance with Bai Chuchu, Li Jing took Xiang Yunxian and left on his sword.

...

Soon.

The two of them left the area controlled by the Beiming Divine Palace and traversed the neutral area to reach the territory of the Donghua Immortal Palace.

Upon reaching the territory of human cultivators, Li Jing slowed down his flying sword.

Xiang Yunxian, after experiencing two ultra-fast flying swords, was not feeling too well.

The idea of a Venerable getting motion sickness from a flying sword was too embarrassing to mention.

The horror of the high speed, causing an adverse reaction that wouldn’t fade, made her feel as if her stomach was being churned upside down.

To make matters worse, she had drunk Li Jing’s tea and eaten a lot of snacks earlier.

Now she had thrown up all that, and she couldn’t help but regret wasting the Life Tree Leaf tea.

As for the snacks.

Just trying them was fine.

However, the superior Life Tree Leaf tea was intended to be naturally absorbed by the body...

If all of it was vomited out, what did she absorb?

Looking at Li Jing who was flying on the sword, a tearful Xiang Yunxian felt quite wronged.

Li Jing was just fostering all kinds of strange thoughts while looking at her state.

This lady...

Why does she look like she’s about to cry?

He didn’t bully her, did he?

Completely puzzled, Li Jing decided to reveal his true appearance.

The sudden transformation of the beautiful woman he was relying on into a man almost scared Xiang Yunxian into dropping her heart.

She quickly realized that Li Jing was honoring his promise by revealing his true appearance to her.

Subconsciously, Xiang Yunxian carefully examined Li Jing twice.

But then she noticed something wrong.

At this moment, she was completely hanging onto Li Jing, and because she was feeling sick from flying on the sword and had no strength, she was squeezed against him...

Upon realizing this, Xiang Yunxian, who had never been close with the opposite sex, immediately blushed.

Seeing this, Li Jing had to laugh.

This Xiang Yunxian, due to the constraints of the Nine Yin Body, missed out a lot, resulting in her losing many experiences that she should have had, she was simply too innocent.

With a wave, he put away the Blue Edge flying sword and opened the Wind Thunder Domain, bringing Xiang Yunxian along as he continued forward, while both exchanging formalities.

"Let’s get to know each other again. I’m Li Jing, the lord of Chen Tang City."

Upon hearing this, Xiang Yunxian was stunned.

Li Jing of Chen Tang City?

This...

How come she had never heard about this?

Even if Li Jing is the lord of a city,

He should still have some renown on the outside.

Seeing his formal attitude, she respectfully replied,

"Zhongzhou’s Xiang Yunxian."

After the formalities, she couldn’t help but question.

"Master Jiu, where is Chen Tang City located...?"

"Eastern Immortal Domain, Cangming Realm."

Li Jing smiled and said,

"’Jiu Li’ is the name of a good friend of mine who has yet to ascend. I am just temporarily using it. If there are no outsiders, just call me Li Jing in private."

Upon hearing this reply, Xiang Yunxian gave an absent-minded nod and seemed bewildered.

Clearly.

Having grown up in Zhong Shen Zhou, she didn’t even know where the Cangming Realm was.

Li Jing was discerning.

At a glance, he saw that she was only familiar with Zhong Shen Zhou, probably never been to the Eastern Immortal Domain, and had only heard about some of the goings-on over there.

Transforming himself back into his previous Daoist appearance for the sake of convenience as he continued on his journey, Li Jing said,

"When you have the chance, you can go and take a look at the Eastern Immortal Domain."

Having said that, he started talking in a serious tone.

"Zhong Shen Zhou is your root, and I can understand you not wanting to leave, but you should get out and see the world. Zhong Shen Zhou has some of the best people in this immortal domain. But there are countless extraordinary people and things in this vast world, and staying in Zhong Shen Zhou all the time will limit your view."

Hearing him say this, Xiang Yunxian nodded silently.

Indeed...

She seemed to be somewhat ignorant.

Just like she thought earlier.

Li Jing, as powerful and the master of a sect, must have a well-known reputation outside.

His deliberate hiding of his true face was all to avoid any negative impact on the sect.

In the Eastern Immortal Domain, he and Chen Tang City must be quite famous.

But she, who was limited to the view of Zhong Shen Zhou, didn’t know and didn’t think to investigate the Eastern Immortal Domain.

...