While Luo Chen was in secluded cultivation, winds rose and clouds surged in the outside world.
Quite literally, winds rose and clouds surged!
Above the Sunken Sea, the Void Burning Wind—which had previously appeared erratically—began to erupt uncontrollably in vast amounts.
Furthermore, three years after the battle between Blood Hermit and the Shark Emperor Liu Jun, the clouds above the Sunken Sea came to a dead halt, gradually taking on the hue of gilded gold.
Golden skies and black waters formed the most magnificent sight in the Northern Sea!
Such a celestial phenomenon naturally drew countless cultivators toward the shores of the Sunken Sea.
Yet, blocked by the turbid black seawater that corroded everything and the Void Burning Wind that swept down thousands of living beings, all those cultivators hoping to explore within were kept outside.
Even if one managed to enter, they could only reach the farthest edge of the outer perimeter before finding it impossible to advance any further.
Under these circumstances, those who possessed insider knowledge began to make their moves.
Ding Yi was one of them.
Atop Moyun Peak.
Ding Yi paced back and forth in the cave dwelling, anxiety etched upon his face.
"Dao Lan has vanished, leaving my grasp of the situation there increasingly hazy. What have your sources found?"
Seated opposite him, Cave Master Moyun said in a deep voice, "The intelligence my contacts traded for says that although the phenomenon of the golden sky and black sea has appeared over the Sunken Sea, the vortexes of inward-surging spiritual energy haven't emerged yet. In other words, the ruins haven't truly opened."
Golden skies, black seas, and inward-surging spiritual energy—that was the full celestial sign for the opening of the ruins.
Ding Yi shook his head. "It might not be that it hasn't opened, but rather that it already has, and your contacts simply haven't noticed yet. Perhaps someone has even slipped in ahead of time and is pillaging the ruins for treasures."
Cave Master Moyun frowned. "Then what should we do?"
Ding Yi abruptly halted his steps.
"I intend to head to the Sunken Sea and investigate. If I find a suitable vortex, I'll go in early."
"What about Demonic Lord Qingyang?"
Cave Master Moyun's mention of Luo Chen only added to Ding Yi's irritation.
"That fellow has been frantically buying up medicinal ingredients these past few years. He probably wants to concoct pills to break through into the late Golden Core stage before setting out, just to improve his odds a bit."
"Concocting pills?" Cave Master Moyun was stunned.
"You probably didn't know, but he's also a formidable alchemist. Ordinary Tier 2 and Tier 3 pills are child's play to him."
This truly astonished Cave Master Moyun.
Could such a prodigy truly exist in this world?
To be so young, yet master both alchemy and artifact crafting and achieve remarkable heights in both?
"I'll make a trip to Penghu Lake!" Ding Yi exhaled deeply. Without waiting for Cave Master Moyun to respond, he hurried down the mountain.
However, when he arrived at the shores of Penghu Lake, what met his eyes was a dense, layered barrier of cloud and mist.
Within that mist lingered a terrifying killing intent.
One glance made it clear that multiple grand formations were active at the same time; stepping inside was absolutely out of the question.
Helpless, Ding Yi could only release a voice transmission talisman before turning to leave.
He had resolved to visit the Sunken Sea first to see the exact situation.
No matter how much Demonic Lord Qingyang delayed, he would urge him to move when the time came. If worse came to worst, he and Cave Master Moyun would storm into Penghu Lake together and demand an explanation.
...
Penghu Lake, beneath Apricot Blossom Peak.
Across a plain spanning a dozen li, a colossal figure flashed back and forth, the sound of breaking air exploding repeatedly like claps of thunder.
Another diminutive figure stood atop Apricot Blossom Peak, watching the scene unfold.
Suddenly.
The colossal figure paused and looked up toward the summit.
"Senior, come!"
Han Zhan smiled faintly and pressed his hand downward in the air.
The heaven and earth spiritual energy shifted abruptly. A massive surge of unmastered spiritual energy fell under his control, bearing down upon the nine-zhang giant.
With an impassive expression, an overbearing power surged violently outward from within Luo Chen's body.
The Senluo Fire Prison manifested once again, standing firm against the Nascent Soul domain.
The domain power he had once feared like venomous scorpions and vipers now seemed to meet its equal upon the appearance of the Senluo Fire Prison.
"Not enough!"
Han Zhan grunted softly and waved a sleeve, instantly intensifying the domain's power.
Under such surging celestial pressure, an ordinary Golden Core cultivator would have long collapsed, utterly unable to mobilize their inner dharmic powers.
Yet Luo Chen remained standing in midair, seemingly unaffected.
To say he was unaffected was not entirely accurate, as his body began to sink slowly.
Evidently, a full-strength Nascent Soul domain still had an effect on him.
Even so, Luo Chen showed no panic. He formed a hand seal, and his posture shifted instantly, anchoring him in the void like a towering mountain.
It was none other than the Mountain-Suppressing Style from the Six Styles of the Ultimate Mountain!
Relying on the internal and external killer moves of the Senluo Fire Prison and the Mountain-Suppressing Style, he finally withstood Han Zhan's Nascent Soul domain for a brief moment.
Seeing this, Han Zhan was rather surprised.
"Not bad! You really did figure it out, kid—standing against the might of heaven and earth with your own strength."
Luo Chen said calmly, "The so-called might of heaven and earth is merely a Nascent Soul Perfected Person borrowing a fraction of the world's momentum; it hardly counts as the full might of the world. Combining inner and outer power, even if I cannot win, I can at least preserve some mobility."
At that, he slowly leaned forward, his massive body coiling like a leopard about to pounce.
The next instant, he stomped his foot.
The air cracked with a deafening boom!
Air-Burst Step: bursting across a hundred zhang.
Midair, Luo Chen leaped high and lashed out with his right leg like a sudden clap of thunder.
Thunder Kick!
Boom!
An afterimage arrived in a flash right before Han Zhan.
An astonishing shockwave tore through the air alongside it.
Han Zhan smiled faintly and drifted backward.
That world-shaking kick failed to inflict the slightest scratch upon him.
Luo Chen pulled back his leg, his brow furrowing.
"Was the distance... still too far?"
Without pursuing Han Zhan further, Luo Chen's gaze shifted to Apricot Blossom Peak below.
Tracing an arc in the air with a single palm, rolling, vigorous qi and blood surged forth before he struck downward.
With a sky-shattering detonation, Apricot Blossom Peak beneath his feet instantly cracked and crumbled, sending countless boulders raining down.
Shattering a mountain with a single palm strike using nothing but physical strength.
It was somewhat reminiscent of the Mountain-Cleaving Stele-Shattering Palm he had once practiced, yet it was undeniably far superior.
The Six Styles of the Ultimate Mountain lacked the Mountain-Rifting Style and the Ultimate Mountain Style, leaving only the Mountain-Suppressing Style, the Mountain-Uprooting Style, the Mountain-Breaking Style, and the Mountain-Crashing Style.
The one Luo Chen picked up fastest was the Mountain-Breaking Style, which shared the same principle as the Mountain-Cleaving Stele-Shattering Palm.
Over these years, he had also gained some mastery over the other three killer moves.
Amidst the shower of falling debris, Han Zhan drifted over leisurely.
Although his core remained that Soul Nourishing Wood tablet, his outer form as a miniature Nascent Soul was already quite solid. Clearly, he had recovered remarkably well over these past years, lacking only a physical body.
Looking down at the shattered peak below, he shook his head.
"You really are gearing up to fight a Nascent Soul Perfected Person, aren't you?"
First was the Senluo Fire Prison to contend with domains, followed by extreme physical combat moves—plainly intended to avoid the enemy's strengths and exploit their weaknesses.
Even among Nascent Soul Perfected Persons, not everyone practiced body refinement.
Luo Chen said in a deep voice, "Preparedness averts peril; I merely plan for the worst in all things."
"Still, you must understand that the means of a Perfected Person are extraordinary. Even if they cannot employ the domain power that suppresses Golden Core cultivators most effectively, their conventional methods far surpass yours. Above all, they aren't rigid, mindless mountain peaks standing still for you to hit."
Luo Chen frowned. "Even with my speed of Ninety Thousand Li, coupled with extreme movement techniques like the Air-Burst Step and Thunder Kick, I still cannot close the distance?"
"Very close!" Han Zhan praised him, but his tone was tinged with regret. "Yet still a hair short."
Luo Chen opened his mouth, at a loss for words.
A hair's breadth of difference was the boundary between life and death.
"Unless your physical body takes another step forward!"
Luo Chen looked at Han Zhan in surprise.
The other shrugged. "Naturally, I can see the rapid progress of your physical body. It's gotten to the point where even some Nascent Soul demon cultivators' bodies are inferior to yours. But if you want a qualitative leap, you're still shy of it."
Transformed demon cultivators still walked the path of core formation and Nascent Soul condensation; they did not rely entirely on their bodies.
Some extreme individuals even refined their own limbs into natal magical treasures after transforming.
"Take another step forward?"
Luo Chen murmured internally. Soon. Very soon!
Over these past few years, he had practiced physical killer moves relentlessly, making rapid progress with the aid of the system.
Even fragmentary arts could have their shortcomings patched to forge unconventional techniques.
Such as the combination of the Air-Burst Step and Thunder Kick, the advancement from the Mountain-Cleaving Stele-Shattering Palm to the Mountain-Breaking Style, and even the internal-external integration of the Senluo Fire Prison and the Mountain-Suppressing Style.
Not only that, but he had also combined fragmentary body techniques such as Five Stele Hands and Flowing Cloud Immortal-Snatching Finger to flesh out an inspiration, creating an armor-breaking lethal move of his own.
That inspiration originated on Purple Spirit Island, where he had forcefully slain an abyssal crocodile to vent his rage.
Back then, he had ripped apart the abyssal crocodile's immensely thick armor with bare hands.
While practicing body arts, a sudden thought struck him: could this technique be used against the defensive magical treasures of human cultivators?
After several years of study, he had achieved modest success.
He named it Overlord Sheds Armor, which encompassed eight techniques: fingers, palms, fists, claws, flicking, slapping, hooking, and smashing. It injected vigorous qi and blood in stages into an enemy's defensive magical treasure, then detonated it in an instant.
This broke the opponent's divine sense control over the treasure.
One could say that in just three short years, Luo Chen's development of this physical body far exceeded the past century!
Such an accomplishment would seem inconceivable to outsiders, yet Luo Chen knew it was simply water flowing naturally where a channel is dug—the culmination of a deep foundation bearing fruit.
He already had the groundwork; all it took was applying a bit of thought to vary his modes of attack.
To draw an analogy from the wuxia novels he once read, it was like completing outward martial forms after one's internal strength had achieved mastery.
Of course, these were all minor details.
What mattered most was the progress of his body refinement.
"I'm heading back. Remember to craft that sword casket, or else you'll only be able to look at the Seven Fiends Swords without being able to wield them." Han Zhan waved a greeting and drifted off toward his own cave dwelling.
As for the sword casket he mentioned, it was a specialized magical artifact he had spoken to Luo Chen about not long ago.
With this sword casket to house the Seven Fiends Swords, Luo Chen could attach his divine sense to it and wield them to some extent even without refining the swords himself.
The primary purpose, however, was for Luo Chen to carry the Seven Fiends Swords on his back when Han Zhan was not using them.
In Han Zhan's words, a Nascent Soul body lacked physical flesh as a barrier and could not be tainted by excessive fiendish qi, so such a convenient sword casket was necessary.
Luo Chen did not mind this at all.
With his current artifact-crafting skills, forging a magical treasure might take considerable effort, but a mere specialized magical artifact would take little time.
With Han Zhan's words lingering in his mind, Luo Chen returned to Peng Island.
"Taking another step forward? It shouldn't take much longer now!"
On the character attribute panel, his body refinement progress had already reached [Desolate Ancient Tier 3: 98/100].
The remaining distance to breaking through to Tier 4 could be counted on his fingers.
From this, it was clear that his decision to slaughter extensively in the Sunken Sea and absorb a massive amount of vitality had been entirely correct.
Under normal circumstances, how could body refinement ever progress so quickly?
Just refining the Tier 4 Black Emperor Paste alone would require vast amounts of time for his body to adapt.
Just as Luo Chen was calculating the time needed for his breakthrough, his gaze paused as he spotted a voice transmission talisman darting around outside Peng Island like a headless fly.
He reached out with a beckoning motion, and the voice transmission talisman spontaneously ignited without any wind.
After listening to Ding Yi's somewhat anxious divine sense message, Luo Chen furrowed his brows.
"Golden skies and black seas... the celestial sign has already appeared?"
Chapter 651