"Black King, look after them for me!"
A month later, Luo Chen spoke these words.
With a flick of his left arm, a miniature dragon tumbled onto the ground.
Rubbing his arm, Luo Chen gave a somewhat helpless smile. "Don't drape yourself over my arm next time."
Black King looked rather aggrieved.
For some reason, ever since he had switched to the path of desolate beasts and advanced to the fourth rank, he had grown increasingly attached to Luo Chen. Forget the Hunyuan Cauldron—he did not even want to stay in a spirit beast pouch anymore. All he wanted was to shrink his body and cling to Luo Chen, as though merely breathing in the scent wafting from Luo Chen's body would benefit his cultivation.
Right now, he looked curiously at Luo Chen. "Master, where are you going?"
"Up there!"
Luo Chen pointed toward the canopy of the carriage. He did not set off immediately, however; instead, he began carving restrictions across the carriage with his magic power.
One restriction after another settled in place, crisscrossing and linking together into a complete fourth-rank array. This array was a variation of the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Great Shift Array—it could not be used for direct teleportation, but it could pinpoint a location.
Luo Chen did not know how long he would need to stay up there once he ascended. The Six Imperials Flying Cloud Carriage could not stop and had to keep moving, so to prevent losing track of it when the time came, he needed to leave behind such a beacon.
Once the final restriction fell into place, Luo Chen brushed his hand over it, and the brilliant light instantly receded.
"Protect them well. I'm off!"
With those words, Luo Chen quietly left the carriage without drawing anyone's attention.
Before departing, he cast a glance over the scene aboard the flying carriage.
Zhang Jingqing stood at the bow, the breeze lifting the tips of his hair, his expression carrying a hint of melancholy.
Tianxuan was sitting cross-legged in meditation, regulating her breathing to restore her magic power.
Sang Jinghe was channeling magic power into the core of the carriage's formation, supplemented by the surrounding spirit stones, driving the Six Imperials Flying Cloud Carriage forward at high speed. In his other hand, however, he held a brand-new book and would read an excerpt from time to time. It was one of the many texts related to spirit plants that he had transcribed in the Central Plains.
"Studious as ever!"
Luo Chen chuckled softly. His Nascent Soul resonated with heaven and earth, taking control of a surge of free-floating spirit qi to buoy him rapidly upward.
The place he was heading toward was known as the Nine Heavens!
The Nine Heavens represented the utmost limits of the sky!
Simply put, it was the highest realm of this world, also referred to as the Nine Firmaments, the azure ether, and many other names. Rumor had it that virtually no mortals ever set foot there, and few living beings could survive. Yet that did not mean the Nine Heavens were utterly empty; certain peculiar creatures still existed, and unexpected treasures hung suspended in the void.
Luo Chen was heading to the Nine Heavens precisely to harvest the spiritual essence required to cultivate the *Thousand Heavens Myriad Transformations Sword Scripture*.
*Whoosh!*
A silhouette shot into the sky like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
Piercing through clouds and parting mists, the wind howled and the rain whipped past. Across the boundless ocean, if anyone had possessed vision comparable to Luo Chen's, they might have caught sight of a shooting star surging upward against the current. Yet in the mere blink of an eye, the figure vanished completely, plunging into the azure ether.
With Luo Chen's current speed, ten thousand li could be crossed in a matter of moments. Yet for some reason, once he flew beyond ten thousand li into the high skies, his speed involuntarily slowed.
*Is it because the free-floating spirit qi I can control has grown thin?*
Slowing slightly, Luo Chen paused to observe his surroundings and roughly arrived at this conclusion.
It was not just that, however; he could also feel that breathing had become somewhat difficult. Still, this posed no real issue for him.
Luo Chen opened his mouth wide, drawing in his chest and abdomen.
*Huuu...*
A long, deep breath caused Luo Chen's chest and abdomen to swell. Suddenly closing his mouth, his chest returned to normal, but a pocket of air sufficient to sustain his breathing for at least three years had been drawn into his belly.
*The breath-ingestion method I learned in my youth is as useful as ever!* Luo Chen's lips curved faintly as he gazed far into the sky above.
Ten thousand li was by no means the limit of this world.
The Nine Heavens lay far higher!
Luo Chen released his magic power, which transformed into a cloud of fiery vapor that lifted him up, hurtling toward even greater heights like an arrow from a bowstring.
After reaching the Nascent Soul realm, cultivators rarely rode clouds and mists during their everyday travels. Riding clouds generally consumed one's own magic power; for Nascent Soul cultivators who could manipulate free-floating spirit qi of the same attribute, they preferred to save every bit they could and typically relied on the slightly slower method of letting spirit qi buoy them up. In a certain sense, cloudless flight that consumed no magic power was just like a Nascent Soul domain—one of the hallmarks of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Buoyed by the magical cloud, Luo Chen's ascent sped up once more.
Ten thousand li, twenty thousand li, thirty thousand li...
The higher he climbed, the greater the pressure Luo Chen felt. That pressure came not only from the skies above, but also from the distant, unreachable earth below.
*Gravitational pull?*
By the time he reached sixty thousand li, Luo Chen discovered that the pressure had already reached the limit of ordinary cultivators. If a Core Formation cultivator came here, their qi and strength would surely be exhausted, causing them to plummet back to the mortal dust; if they were careless and failed to react in time during the fall, they might very well be smashed into meat paste. Even Nascent Soul cultivators had to exert their magic power to the utmost to continue forward.
*No wonder resources from the Nine Heavens are so rare and precious. Merely ascending this high is enough to stump who knows how many people. If fellow Nascent Soul cultivators want to make a trip up here, their magic power will suffer heavy depletion. However, this won't stop me!*
Luo Chen gave a soft laugh and actually dismissed the magical cloud! Not only that, he even withdrew the protective barrier of magic power shielding his exterior.
Then...
*Swish!*
A pair of crimson wings suddenly unfurled behind his back!
It was none other than the Poyue Wings, which had remained dormant for many years since he achieved the Nascent Soul realm!
This magic treasure had been tailored for Luo Chen by a master in Tianfan City and was originally only of low grade. Yet through a century of nourishment and being tempered alongside Luo Chen in the lightning tribulation when he formed his Nascent Soul, it had advanced to the high grade, even though its intrinsic materials prevented it from breaking through to the rank of a True Artifact. It could be counted as an exceptional flying magic treasure, no inferior to ordinary True Artifacts.
However, while a high-grade magic treasure might still be useful to ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, it offered little benefit to Luo Chen, who possessed numerous treasures—especially considering his own speed had long since surpassed that of the Poyue Wings. Thus, across Luo Chen's many battles after forming his Nascent Soul, this treasure had rarely made an appearance.
Right now, however, was precisely where it could shine.
Compared to a magical cloud, a magic treasure consumed far less magic power.
With a flap of both wings, Luo Chen shot straight toward the Nine Heavens!
The immense pressure descended over him, yet it felt like a gentle breeze brushing past, unable to compress his physical body in the slightest. Wisps of blood-colored light circulated across his flesh, neutralizing the external pressure. Luo Chen was actually using his formidable physical body to forcibly tear through the final thirty thousand li.
The moment he stepped past ninety thousand li, Luo Chen felt his body lighten.
Subconsciously looking up, he saw only the pitch-black, vast emptiness of the cosmos, with stars twinkling and radiating faint glimmers of light. Compared to this boundless universe, he seemed utterly minuscule!
In his heart, a sudden feeling of powerlessness arose.
What did the Nascent Soul realm matter? What did Soul Formation matter?
In this vast, endless universe, one was ultimately nothing more than a speck of dust.
Rumor had it that even this immense cosmos had its moments of annihilation into the Great Return. Was the longevity pursued by cultivators truly longevity? If one could not achieve true immortality, then what was the point of enduring hundreds of hardships, thousands of tribulations, and facing myriad trials in the future?
The white-robed man stood frozen in the azure ether, his eyes clouded with confusion.
Yet in the next instant!
"Open!"
A soft shout echoed like a great bell reverberating across his mental sea of consciousness.
His dazed divine soul violently jolted.
*Gasp... gasp...*
Luo Chen panted heavily, large beads of cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
*What was that just now? I actually lost control of my mind and fell into a trance!*
Having come to his senses, Luo Chen swallowed hard in lingering dread. The moment he had looked upon the boundless cosmos, he had actually begun to doubt the ideal he had clung to for nearly three hundred years—his aspiration for longevity!
If not for the two split souls in his sea of consciousness—especially the one that had reached the early Nascent Soul realm, which had promptly cast the Kai Mao Art—his Dao heart would likely have suffered damage, and demonic obstacles would have bred in his future cultivation from doubting the path he walked.
Within his sea of consciousness, the split soul sank back into silence.
Luo Chen slowly collected himself.
"Han Zhan, you've saved me once again!"
With a soft sigh, Luo Chen gradually vanished into the azure ether.
***
Three days later.
Amidst the dead silence of the void, a ray of multi-colored glow suddenly flashed into existence.
Just as that glow was about to disperse—
Abruptly!
A strange force suddenly spread outward, completely enveloping the radiance.
A soft shout echoed from the void.
"Collect!"
Following that, the wisp of glow was tugged by the strange force and finally vanished into a small cauldron.
Sitting cross-legged in the void, Luo Chen looked down at the wisp of vivid red qi inside the Hunyuan Cauldron, a look of relief surfacing on his face.
"Is this Crimson Firmament Qi?"
The Nine Heavens represented the highest reach of the skies, and the reason the extreme sky was named the Nine Heavens was precisely that nine special kinds of qi frequently appeared in this void—namely, Crimson Firmament Qi, Jasper Firmament Qi, Azure Firmament Qi, and others.
These peculiar gases were the natural products of turbid qi sinking while clear qi rose, congregating in the azure ether from spirit qi of specific attributes; they were the purest essences between heaven and earth! Cultivators who harvested these firmament gases could refine them into magical arts and divine abilities, nurturing two or three mouthfuls within their chest. When facing an enemy, opening one's mouth to exhale them yielded the power to shatter metal and crack stone, to cleave mountains and sever oceans.
According to the records of the *Thousand Heavens Myriad Transformations Sword Scripture*, if Luo Chen wished to maximize the power of his sword qi, he needed to gather the firmament qi from the Nine Heavens that matched his attributes—namely Crimson Firmament Qi, Scarlet Firmament Qi, and Purple Firmament Qi. All three of these firmament gases were fire-attribute spiritual essences or spiritual essences leaning toward fire.
However, harvesting firmament qi was exceedingly difficult even for Nascent Soul cultivators.
There were three main difficulties:
First, it could be encountered only by chance, not sought! Firmament qi formed unpredictably and vanished without a trace, flitting across billions of li of boundless void. With the divine sense of a Nascent Soul cultivator covering only several thousand li, encountering it depended heavily on luck.
The second difficulty was that firmament qi was ferocious and violent; ordinary magic treasures could hardly subdue it, requiring immense magic power to trap and wear it down bit by bit. Sometimes, when a surge of firmament qi was finally captured and worn down, only a single strand or wisp remained.
Of these two difficulties, Luo Chen could not solve the first and could only rely on luck. The second difficulty, which caused countless Nascent Soul cultivators to retreat in frustration, posed no issue at all for Luo Chen.
The Hunyuan Cauldron possessed formidable suppression against such entities! He only needed to envelop the abruptly appearing firmament qi and suppress it, subduing it in short order.
As for the third difficulty?
Luo Chen glanced at the points of light in the distance and departed the area without hesitation.
Before long, those points of light split into two clusters—one pausing at the spot where the Crimson Firmament Qi had appeared, and the other circling the direction where Luo Chen had previously lingered. Both clusters appeared thoroughly bewildered.
A short while later, Luo Chen reappeared in another stretch of dead-silent void, letting out a breath of relief.
*Who would have thought that glow beasts actually exist in the azure ether!*
Though named "beasts," glow beasts were actually insects. In ancient times, they were known as firmament bugs!
According to the classics, glow beasts were born from the vast ocean, nested in misty, ethereal realms, and fed on various polar auroras. Rumor had it that in the Origin Magnetic Divine Light blanketing the exterior of the Arctic Yama Heavens, vast swarms of glow beasts gathered. These beasts were extremely formidable; at the same rank, they were not the least bit inferior to human cultivators equipped with various magic treasures and spells.
Luo Chen knew this partly because he had read widely, and partly because the third-tier peak Hidden Dust Sand he had encountered in the Northern Sea years ago had once impersonated a glow beast in an attempt to intimidate him. Later, after reading more ancient records, Luo Chen had developed a more comprehensive understanding of glow beasts.
Their fond appetite for auroras was one thing, but what they truly favored were the various firmament gases in the azure ether. When firmament qi manifested, it often appeared in the form of a brilliant multi-colored glow, instantly attracting large swarms of firmament bugs. Once they devoured the glow, their bodies would swell and enlarge in an instant, resembling giant beasts. Furthermore, because the radiant light spilled outward, the name "firmament bug" had faded from common knowledge over time, while the moniker "glow beast" had gained currency instead.
Luo Chen did not know how terrifying the glow beasts surrounding the Arctic Yama Heavens were, but any glow beasts capable of flying freely through the azure ether without hindrance were bound to be exceedingly troublesome—and whenever they appeared, they came in swarms! With his current strength, even if he did not fear them, he would not provoke them lightly.
Glancing back the way he had come, a whimsical thought suddenly struck Luo Chen.
If one could enslave these glow beasts, wouldn't it become far easier to search for various firmament gases? Could it even resolve all three difficulties at once?
Yet this thought vanished as quickly as it had come. If he could think of it, others naturally had as well. Since no one had succeeded over so many years, it showed just how difficult enslaving glow beasts truly was.
"Better to keep trying my luck!" Luo Chen murmured. Finding a spot shielded from starlight, he unfurled his divine sense and quietly awaited an opportunity.
***
Coming up here was no easy feat, and Luo Chen did not want to descend prematurely. Thus, amid this monotonous waiting, time trickled away.
One day, two days... one month, two months...
Luo Chen's luck was fairly decent; in less than half a year, he collected a total of seven strands of Crimson Firmament Qi.
According to the sword scripture, refining ten strands of firmament qi into one's sword qi counted as minor accomplishment, easily allowing one to sweep through the Core Formation realm. A hundred strands was considered intermediate mastery, representing a formidable technique even in the Nascent Soul realm. If one could achieve the state recorded in the scripture where "qi surges into the starry river and a thousand firmaments flow together," the sword scripture would reach grand accomplishment. If unleashed all at once, even a Soul Formation grandmaster caught off guard might suffer a loss.
"It's just a pity that sword cultivation isn't my primary path, so I can't comprehend sword intent. Otherwise, pairing sword intent with the Crimson Firmament Sword Qi—a thousand firmaments flowing together, transforming sword light into myriad tribulations—that would be a true fifth-tier sword scripture."
Luo Chen sighed with emotion and stood up calmly.
He did not plan to stay any longer. Seven strands of Crimson Firmament Qi were enough for him to initiate cultivation in the *Thousand Heavens Myriad Transformations Sword Scripture*. If he wished to continue cultivating this technique in the future, he could substitute baleful qi for firmament qi as recorded in the scripture; the quality might be slightly inferior, but as long as the quantity made up for it, the power would still be extraordinary! Harvesting firmament qi simply took too much time and energy.
Before departing, however, he subconsciously glanced at the brilliant starry sky once more.
This time, he did not lose control of his mind, yet thoughts crowded his mind in endless reverie.
*Beyond the Mountain Sea Realm lies the boundless universe—where is the Immortal Realm?*
*What is this so-called ascension truly about?*
*When the Alchemy Saint departed back then, she relinquished the uplift of a realm's spiritual fortune and took the path of the Star Gate. Did she go to the Immortal Realm, or to another world?*
*If I were to forcibly break free from the shackles of this world right now and step into the cosmos, what would happen?*
The moment that last thought surfaced, Luo Chen felt a stirring impulse. Yet in a flash, he suppressed that forbidden notion. The ancient lore that only Soul Formation cultivators could ascend was by no means groundless talk. He was merely at the third level of Nascent Soul right now; if he truly stepped out into the endless starry sky, he would only be courting death!
"Enough. Since I cannot go out, I might as well travel within while making my way toward the Eastern Desolation."
Severing his stray thoughts, Luo Chen faced the direction of the Eastern Desolation and flapped his wings in the azure ether, advancing in great strides.
Traveling this way did not consume much magic power; beyond the Poyue Wings, Luo Chen's powerful physical body could likewise provide explosive speed. The Six Imperials Flying Cloud Carriage had already been traveling forward for nearly half a year; if Luo Chen wanted to catch up, he had to move this fast. Traveling with all his might in the azure ether without needing to worry about others was convenient in its own right.
***
*Crack!*
*Snap!*
*Rumble!*
Within a desolate expanse of the azure ether, for reasons unknown, an immense amount of lightning had gathered, forming what seemed like a domain of thunder.
A broad-shouldered, long-limbed figure lay flat within it, allowing wisps of lightning to strike down, filtering through a large white net before pouring onto his body. Each time a streak of lightning touched him, the figure shuddered slightly, and a trace of pain surfaced across his handsome, imposing face. A massive, pitch-black greatsword stood upright beside him, likewise undergoing the baptism of thunder.
Suddenly!
The greatsword hummed!
The figure slowly floated upward, standing upright in the void, and his eyes snapped open.
*Crackle...*
Two arcs of electricity bloomed from his eyes.
"Fellow Daoist, you have peered from the sidelines for quite some time. What is your intention?"
From beyond the thunder domain came a clear, bright voice: "Apologies, I was merely passing by. I had no intention of disturbing your cultivation, Fellow Daoist."
The voice drifted farther and farther away, growing increasingly faint—a testament to how fast the onlooker was retreating.
The man standing in the thunder domain frowned.
*Flying at such speed even in the azure ether? He is certainly no ordinary figure!*
"I am the Mingyuan Sect's Thunder Dao Child. Might I inquire after your esteemed name?"
"A mere rogue cultivator, not worth mentioning."
"Hmph!"
The Thunder Dao Child let out a cold snort, seemingly displeased by the man's evasiveness.
Meanwhile, several thousand li away, Luo Chen slowed slightly and stowed the agitated Hunyuan Cauldron, breathing a sigh of relief.
Along the way, he had kept the cauldron outside with him to conveniently collect any firmament qi he might encounter. Ten thousand li from that thunder domain, the cauldron had reacted. Luo Chen had thought the treasure had sensed fresh Crimson Firmament Qi and had specifically rushed over, only to unexpectedly run into a mighty expert quietly cultivating in the azure ether of the Nine Heavens.
A late Nascent Soul grand cultivator!
The Thunder Dao Child!
Zhang Che!
According to rumors, he was the greatest peerless genius of the Mingyuan Sect since ancient times: reaching Foundation Establishment in ten years, Core Formation in a century, and forming his Nascent Soul at the age of two hundred and fifty. His progress thereafter had been even more rapid; not only had he stepped into the late Nascent Soul realm at the age of five hundred, but he had reportedly comprehended the power of laws ahead of his time.
His combat prowess had been demonstrated to the fullest in his few engagements against the demon beasts surging out of the Million Great Mountains of the Eastern Desolation. Under the title of the Thunder Dao Child, his renown spanned two continents, eclipsing even the two famous Soul Formation seeds of the Central Plains' Dao sects, Gu Daoyin and Tan Linxian of Tianyuan!
Alongside Ke Lianshan the Chess Saint, they stood shoulder to shoulder, hailed as the two individuals in the Mountain Sea Realm closest to the Soul Formation realm!
*To think that before even arriving in the Eastern Desolation, I would run into a cultivator of the Mingyuan Sect.*
*Could his cultivation in the azure ether be aimed at mastering that grand divine ability of the Mingyuan Sect, the Nine Heavens Divine Thunder Art?*
Luo Chen pressed his lips together, and his figure plummeted sharply. Like a falling meteor, he departed the azure ether of the Nine Heavens, plunging straight toward the mortal dust.
Chapter 772