Chapter 42: Overbearing Strike!

  A low humming noise came from all directions.

  As if complaining, as if telling grievances; as if crying, as if telling sorrows.

  The sound was sometimes near and sometimes far, sometimes loud and sometimes small. At times it was mournful and at times it was a sorrowful howl. Under the influence of this heart-wrenching sound, Wang Chen's spirit suddenly became dizzy, as if a wronged female ghost was telling him about her grievances, as if an evil spirit filled with resentment wanted to plead its case to him.

  But in an instant, after a brief daze, the blood energy's creative aura was triggered by the ghostly energy, and Wang Chen woke up instantly.

  "What a close call!" Wang Chen wiped away the cold sweat, and during the battle, he had actually lost consciousness. If he hadn't been careful, he would have been seriously injured. However, before he could even celebrate, the shield-shaped defensive artifact on his body was shattered, and Wang Chen was shocked by the power of the banner-like artifact. With a swift decision, he put away the golden sword and charged towards the middle-aged cultivator in front of him.

  The middle-aged cultivator saw the situation, chuckled to himself, and a hint of pride flashed in his eyes. He was very clear about the power of the magic banner, and without an extreme-grade defensive artifact, it would be impossible to block it.

  "Die! Use your blood as atonement for my brother's rest!"

  Crunching and scratching sounds, the evil spirit bit into Wang Chen's body but didn't break through, only making Wang Chen feel endless pain.

  "Die!"

  In the blink of an eye, Wang Chen arrived several meters away from the middle-aged cultivator, and a sword over one meter long appeared in his hand.

  Thousand Jun Sword!

  Death!

  Wang Chen swung his giant sword with all his might, and the power of nearly 50,000 kilograms plus the weight of the 10,000-kilogram sword was already comparable to a casual strike from a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the early stages. To put it into perspective, an average full-force strike from a Foundation Establishment cultivator is only around 100,000 kilograms!

  Boom!

  The middle-aged master was knocked flying and fell to the ground. The defensive shield of the top-grade defensive artifact on his body also faltered, although it hadn't broken yet, but it had lost all its defensive power.

  The middle-aged cultivator spat out a mouthful of blood, his face filled with incredulity. "How is this possible? How did you break the extreme treasure artifact?" His face was pale and frightened as he hastily got up to escape.

  "Haha, you still want to run!" Wang Chen sneered with a smile, his figure flashing as he chased after him. Ignoring the middle-aged cultivator's pleas for mercy, one sword strike later, the cultivator's body was smashed into a puddle of mush.

  After Shūsui's death, Kurohane also lost its spiritual support and fell to the ground.

  After collecting the scattered law enforcement equipment on the scene, Wang Chen quietly left under the cover of night after a fireball destroyed all traces.

  Half an hour later, four monks arrived at the scene of the battle one after another.

  "There's a lingering aura of evil spirits here!" One of the monks sniffed and said with a slight frown. The others also nodded in agreement.

  "The fight was two against one and ended quickly!"

  "It should be tonight's auctioneer in Secret City..."

  After a moment, several people flashed away, and tonight's affairs were slowly ignored. After all, there are many Qi-refining cultivators who go missing for two days, which is not a big deal. The sect understood the general situation and did not pursue it further.

  Returning to the cave, Wang Chen put down the storage bag he had taken from the cultivator who was killed and sat on the futon in contemplation.

  It is clear that Luo Yunzong's disciples are indeed elites, and the benefits of their cultivation far surpass those of individual cultivators. In individual cultivation, top-grade artifacts are extremely rare and few people possess them.

  In the secret city, although the cultivators are considered to be the elite of the Luoyun Sect's Qi Refining stage, taking out two extreme-grade artifacts at will was still beyond Wang Chen's expectations. The preciousness of defensive extreme-grade artifacts is not worth mentioning, but the black demonic banner is extremely extraordinary.

  Can emit a ghostly attack while also disturbing the mind, ordinary cultivators can't withstand it.

  But it has to be said that the cultivators of the sect have too little experience in fighting. If they use black flags and talismans to trap themselves, while having top-notch defensive artifacts to defend against their own attacks, even if they can't win, escaping should not be a problem at all, unless they are using the newly purchased foundation-building talisman.

  After thinking about the gains and losses of this battle, Wang Chen also felt tired, so he fell asleep.

  On the second day, Wang Chen felt refreshed and invigorated after waking up. He stretched his waist, and his bones crackled in response. Afterwards, Wang Chen began to sort out the spoils from last night's massacre.

  The water-attribute bead of the ultimate defensive artifact is not to be mentioned, but its own shield-shaped artifact has already been broken through. The defensive power of this bead is quite excellent, and it can withstand a blow of 60,000 pounds, which explains its extraordinary defensive power.

  The divine sense inside the artifact has disappeared, and it's very convenient for Wang Chen to refine it. After infiltrating with his spiritual power, he constantly grinds this Water Huazhu with his own divine sense, leaving a hint of divine sense imprint. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the Water Huazhu starts spinning under his control.

  Put away the Shuihuazhu, Wang Chen sorted out other things. The black flag was a good thing, with great power, but Wang Chen found in the Jade that the black flag was called the Yougui Flag, and although the Yougui Flag was very common in the Demon Sect, it was said to be an imitation of the ancient Xianqi.

  However, later generations of demonic cultivators rarely had anyone who could bring out the true power of the Yougui Flag.

  The use of Ghostly Pennant also requires decorated pure blood, and the magnitude of its power is related to the amount of pure blood.

  Wang Chen had no choice but to give up, his own blood was not enough to condense the aperture, how could he have the opportunity to use this, as long as he completed the number of apertures of the Earth's killing, his physical strength would be able to reach the level of an extreme treasure instrument, at that time even the attack of an extreme treasure instrument could be ignored.

  Several storage bags also yielded a considerable harvest, including some top-grade artifacts and talismans. Wang Chen took some that were useful to him and packed the rest together, preparing to exchange them for spirit stones next time.

  After finishing his collection, Wang Chen began his continued cultivation.

  Every day, I practice qigong and meditation, after which I create talismans for cultivation. Next, I organize my jade tablets and record the useful notes to myself.

  After a month, he took out the talismans and sold them, buying some spiritual rice. Occasionally, he would exchange two or three foundation period talismans. Wang Chen's cultivation was exceptionally monotonous and orderly.

  Half a year later, Wang Chen's acupoints finally condensed into thirty-six. Thirty-six blood-colored gas groups with the aura of creation revolved slowly within the acupoints.

  A mysterious cycle is formed between each other, a faint blood gas flows back and forth in the thirty-six acupoints throughout the body, like a small stream, linking the thirty-six acupoints together.

  As the stream operated, Wang Chen's physical strength slowly increased, and his body strength, which had originally broken through to the upper-grade artifact, actually improved again.

  "At this rate, after a few years, your physical strength should be close to that of an Extreme Treasure Instrument!"

  The condensation of acupoints has a direct enhancing effect on the body's strength, just like the moment of breaking through the bottleneck. However, the most important thing is that the body will be continuously strengthened by the condensed acupoints over a long period of time, and only then can the body's strength develop slowly.

  …….

  In the past six months of condensing Tianxia's 36 acupoints, Wang Chen's gains in other areas were not bad. Among the tens of thousands of jade slips, he actually found some useful things.

  There were three jade slips placed beside Wang Chen at this moment.

  These three jade slips were carefully selected by Wang Chen as his finest pieces.

  The first jade slip talks about the art of Fu Seal. The owner of this jade slip is also a foundation-building cultivator, who has spent his life drifting and wandering, and when he was about to die, he returned to the Luoyun Sect and left behind his experiences and insights.

  This jade slip is exactly what he has seen and heard about the symbol seal.

  The way of talismans is ranked among the top three in the hundred arts of cultivation, and it's not without reason. The talismans that Wang Chen sees now are still very simple and low-level. According to the foundation-building cultivators, apart from the ordinary talismans that Wang Chen usually makes, there are many other types. Those he has seen include array talismans, beast spirit talismans, and seal-breaking talismans, among others.

  An array symbol refers to the concise sealing of an array method in a talisman, which requires not only superb talismanic skills but also mastery of the array method.

  Shouling Fu is a type of talisman that seals the soul of a demonic beast on a piece of paper, which can be used to summon the beast. However, once the soul on the talisman is depleted, it will turn to ashes.

  Seal-breaking talismans are a type of talisman that specializes in breaking seals and formations. Seals are similar to formations, another type of cultivation technique, and if one's formation skills are not ordinary, then seal cultivation will be even easier. Of course, making seal-breaking talismans is more troublesome; aside from the rare materials needed, the talisman master must also be well-versed in the way of formations.

  It's already difficult to master one skill, and it's even rarer to master two.

  In addition to the detailed introduction of the talismans mentioned above, Yu Jian also introduced some talismans that Jichu period cultivators have heard of, such as hybrid talismans and soul-storing talismans.

  These talismans have different effects, all of which are incredibly magical, making Wang Chen's heart itch with curiosity, and at the same time, he also put away the pride that was rising in his heart.

  At a young age, without any powerful backing, Wang Chen relied on his innate talent and hard work to achieve his current formidable strength, how could he not be proud.

  However, after seeing the above scenes, Wang Chen suddenly calmed down. During his travels in the Great Zhou Kingdom, he had heard of several young prodigies who had built their foundation at the age of 15 or 16, and this was still a delayed timeline, fearing that their foundation would not be stable. Comparing himself to them, Wang Chen felt that he had been somewhat narrow-minded and arrogant.