The Benefits of Seven Stars, the Strengths of Many Schools

When it came to the journey into the Sunken Sea, there was no room for the slightest carelessness. Luo Chen intended to take this opportunity to push his body refinement to the next realm. Though he did not know exactly how much time it would take, his foundation was undoubtedly sufficient. Plenty of Tier 4 Black Emperor Paste remained, and combined with the vast vitality he had absorbed on the Sunken Sea battlefield over the past year, he had absolute confidence in taking this final step. In fact, he had already begun developing further offensive methods relying on his physical body. His Heavenly Roc True Form was formidable, yet its attacks were straightforward and lacked versatility. This problem had already revealed itself during his battle with the Master of Baizao Mountain on the Seven Star Islands. Before, addressing it had been delayed while he developed the Senluo Fire Prison, but now that he had some free time, it had to be resolved. And Luo Chen's solution was very simple. To draw upon the strengths of many schools! And now, he truly possessed the means to do so. A Seven-Star Demon Hunter enjoyed vastly greater privileges than before! It was enough for him to browse through more of the secret intelligence and hidden records collected by the Demon Hunting Department, and even exchange for an array of diverse cultivation methods and secret arts. At the same time, he kept a constant watch on the situation in the Sunken Sea. ... On the second day after Luo Chen reported the arrival of the Tier 4 demon emperor in the Sunken Sea, Blood Hermit went in person to the Sunken Sea. With great supernatural power, he decisively defeated Shark Emperor Liu Jun, driving him from the Sunken Sea and sending him fleeing into the depths of the Northern Sea. Several days later, the three Eight-Star Demon Hunters led fifty Golden Core cultivators, over ten thousand Foundation Establishment True Cultivators, and countless Qi Refining cultivators from the Myriad Immortals Association to sweep through the Sunken Sea, completely clearing the battlefield. Not only that. The three factions of Wuzhong Valley were also ordered by Moon Hermit to dispatch the elites of their clans and sects to attack Taohai Ruined City outside the Yama Heavens. Their goal was to trap and slaughter the low-tier demon beasts trying to escape the Yama Heavens right at the exit! In the process, True Person Yuling, Supreme Elder of Wuzhong Valley, personally took action, breaching Taohai Ruined City and attempting to reinforce the outer sealing formation that enclosed the Yama Heavens. All this intelligence sounded straightforward, but by the time it had all reached Luo Chen's ears, more than half a year had already passed. Inside a heavily guarded hall within the Demon Hunting Department. Luo Chen walked among rows of bookshelves, his eyes bright and alert as he inspected scroll after scroll of ancient texts. At this moment, he held a bluestone slab in his hand, his brow slightly furrowed as he read the description upon it. [Six Styles of the Ultimate Mountain: The purest physical killing strikes of ancient body refinement cultivators. Grade unknown. The two most crucial strikes, the Mountain-Cleaving Style and the Ultimate Mountain Style, have been lost, leaving only four remaining killing strikes. Those who refine the body enter the Dao through physical form, comprehending the variations of vitality and blood to achieve an Untainted True Form. Beyond their vitality and blood, their physique far exceeds that of Qi-refining cultivators. This set of physical arts places little emphasis on vitality and blood, focusing instead on utilizing the physical form itself. To practice it, one must possess an exceptionally robust physique.] Seeing that the six killing strikes lacked the two strongest, Luo Chen felt a flicker of disappointment. Yet upon reading the description that this set of techniques relied more on a powerful physique rather than variations in vitality and blood, his eyes lit up. "Not bad at all. I'll take it!" Luo Chen set aside the stone slab and spent another half a day wandering the Myriad Immortals Association's Book Repository Hall before finally heading down to the ground floor. "Has Senior Qingyangzi finished choosing?" "Yes, these are the ones. Please make copies for me." "No trouble at all, no trouble at all. Allow this junior to take a look first and calculate the rough price." Luo Chen handed over a pile of jade slips, beast skins, and even the bluestone slab. There were so many that the Foundation Establishment cultivator guarding the library pavilion couldn't stop his eyelids from twitching. However, once he saw that most of them were body refinement arts and largely fragmentary, he wasn't quite so surprised. In the Myriad Immortals Association, many Golden Core cultivators would exchange for one or two such texts in their spare time, especially those in the late Golden Core stage. The Foundation Establishment cultivator inspected them one by one, comparing them against the illustrated registry established by the Myriad Immortals Association to calculate the cost. In the end, he reached the total: "'Wind, Moon, Thunder, and Cloud: Treading the Immortal Path'—missing the Wind Leg, Moon Step, and Cloud Tread, leaving only the Thunder Kick. It requires seventy thousand spirit stones to exchange." "'Five Stele Hands'—grade unknown, only the Golden Stele Hand and Jade Stele Hand remain. It requires twenty thousand spirit stones to exchange." "'Six Styles of the Ultimate Mountain'—relatively well-preserved, with four styles remaining. It requires one hundred and twenty thousand low-grade spirit stones to exchange." "'Flowing Cloud Immortal-Plundering Finger'—the stances are intact, but the cultivation method has gaps. It requires..." ... "Senior, a total of twelve manuals. That comes to seven hundred and eighty thousand low-grade spirit stones," the Foundation Establishment cultivator said, looking up to give the total price. Luo Chen was somewhat taken aback. "So expensive?" The Foundation Establishment cultivator gave a rueful smile. "It is only natural that they are pricey. Nowadays, the path of Qi refinement is widespread, while the path of body refinement has long fallen into decline. These body refinement manuals are scattered across the world, making them quite difficult to collect. Furthermore, we who cultivate Qi often injure our own bodies, and body refinement techniques can serve as stones from other hills that can polish jade, so people frequently borrow from them. One way or another, the prices climbed. I hope Senior can understand." Luo Chen let out an emotional sigh and expressed his understanding. Body refinement methods were indeed hard to come by in today's cultivation world. Back when he and Wang Yuan practiced body refinement, they could only grope their way forward on their own. It had taken great effort to buy a copy of Qi and Body from the Same Source at the Tianlan Immortal City auction, and even that could only serve as a reference. Later on, both he and Wang Yuan were forced down the path of creating their own body refinement techniques. For the Myriad Immortals Association to have gathered so many high-grade body refinement methods and physical killing strikes—even if most were incomplete—was already an impressive feat. "Fine then. Seven hundred and eighty thousand it is. Here is my waist token; take it and apply the discount!" "Uh..." The Foundation Establishment cultivator froze for a second before accepting the waist token. A Seven-Star Demon Hunter received a seventy percent discount, which meant he paid only thirty percent of the cost. Converted, that came out to just over two hundred thousand. Though marveling at how high the other's star rank was, the cultivator raised no objections. After all, he only collected a small service fee for transcribing the manuals; the bulk of the loss fell on the Myriad Immortals Association anyway. He merely mentioned that it would take a little time and asked Luo Chen to wait. Luo Chen was in no hurry. Giving the man time to work, he stepped out of the Book Repository Hall and headed to another treasure pavilion. Before long, he returned fully satisfied, enthusiastically seen off by a pseudo-core cultivator. Three spirit beast bags of Magic Treasure grade were now in his hands. Crafted by a Nascent Soul artifact-forging master from the Canghai Alliance, their quality was guaranteed. Even pinnacle Great Demon Kings could be held inside; they were truly fine treasures. Not only that, but Luo Chen had also purchased a large batch of artifact-crafting materials. By the time he returned, the library pavilion cultivator had finished transcribing all the scriptures he requested onto a set of jade slips. Luo Chen checked them over; nothing was missing, and there weren't even any restrictive seals placed on them. "Is there no need to swear an oath against secondary trading?" "Senior worries too much. They are merely fragmentary methods, and related to body refinement at that. The rules aren't that strict. Of course, it would naturally be better if Senior exercised discretion." "Heh, I understand." Carrying a pile of jade slips and materials, Luo Chen returned laden with his haul. Around the same time, Tianxuan returned from her errands. "Master, I have ordered all the medicinal ingredients for the True Flame Pills you requested. In accordance with your instructions, this batch of materials will be enough for five thousand cauldrons!" "What about the price?" "For everything that could go through the Demon Hunting Department's channels, I reported Master's title as a Seven-Star Demon Hunter, which naturally granted discounts. As for what couldn't be acquired through the department's channels, once those factions heard Master's formidable reputation and saw the staggering quantity of ingredients requested, they offered the steepest discounts possible. In the end, the total cost for this batch of ingredients was kept under ten million spirit stones." Under ten million? Luo Chen nodded, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. The cost of concocting a furnace of True Flame Pills was extremely high, far exceeding that of Fanxing Pills. Even though he had concocted this pill for so long that his proficiency had reached Great Perfection, and his yield rate for supreme-grade True Flame Pills had risen from a fixed ten percent to twenty percent, the cost remained steep. Normally, purchasing five thousand sets of raw materials in one go would have cost at least thirty to forty million. Now, with the convenience of his status as a Seven-Star Demon Hunter, he could fleece the Myriad Immortals Association. Coupled with the fearsome reputation of "Demonic Lord Qingyang" abroad, he had managed to cut the cost to around ten million. Reputation—this thing was truly quite useful at times. "Five thousand sets of raw materials. This time, I won't refine high-grade True Flame Pills; instead, every batch will be used to produce supreme-grade True Flame Pills. Not only for my cultivation, but also to serve as reserves for replenishing magic power during the journey into the Sunken Sea. "With my current alchemy attainments, I should be able to produce ten thousand supreme-grade True Flame Pills. That will be more than enough by any measure." Luo Chen calculated silently in his mind, then asked aloud, "How is Black King doing?" Tianxuan replied without hesitation, "Ever since Master gave him the corpse of the Sea-Overturning Demonic Flood Dragon, he has been working hard to digest it. According to my last observation, his breakthrough to the late third tier is already set in stone." "That fellow—eating, drinking, and sleeping his way to advancement. What luck." Luo Chen chuckled and cursed playfully, though he wasn't surprised by the beast's cultivation speed. Over all these years, relying on vast quantities of supreme-grade Emperor Flowing Liquid, Black King had long shed the pitiful aptitude of a Black-Scaled Giant Python and established a terrifying foundation. Combined with the large number of demon beasts he had devoured in earlier years—especially the corpse of the Cliff Snake that had failed its breakthrough to Tier 4—it was entirely natural that he could take another step forward by relying on the Sea-Overturning Demonic Flood Dragon corpse. However... "Tianxuan, your cultivation must not lag behind either!" Tianxuan's expression dimmed. Even though she had received a cultivation technique tailored specifically for her by her master and possessed a transformed human form, she had remained stuck at the third level of Golden Core for so many years, unable to break through to the mid-stage. It truly was somewhat embarrassing. She wanted to defend herself by saying she was busy handling trivial chores for Luo Chen, yet Master's regular guidance in cultivation was more than enough to make up for such shortcomings. In the end, my aptitude is simply lacking! She sighed inwardly. Just as she was feeling dejected, a storage bag flew before her, borne on a gentle stream of magic power. "Inside are all the Tier 3 Fanxing Pills I refined before leaving the Flying Swallow Archipelago, as well as the Emperor Flowing Liquid I occasionally brewed over the years. Their quality is quite high. Take them and do not be stingy. Consume them in large quantities within safe limits, and strive to break through to the fourth level of Golden Core in the next few years!" Tianxuan was stunned, and then wild delight flooded her cheeks. "Master, I..." "Focus on cultivating well. Put aside those trivial chores for now, and let the Zhang family figure them out for themselves." Luo Chen patted Tianxuan on the shoulder and stepped into the Constellation Palace. Numerous cultivation manuals were now in hand. With the backing of dense vitality, his physique could easily ascend to a higher level. Now that everything was in place, it was time to accomplish it all in a single breath!