"What are you doing? Are you showing off to me?" Queenie pouted. Ricky kept saving her from the
beginning to the end, which she resented very much. Proud as she was, she hated the fact that she
had to be rescued, and to think that it was Ricky who saved her gave her the grief.
"I wouldn't do that. I'm not that brave," Ricky said sincerely with an appeasing smile on his face,
although he wanted to declare the opposite. After all, beggars couldn't be choosers. He didn't want to
provoke Queenie too much, or she could expose the Evil Mandragora's true identity. If that happened,
he would only regret it, so it was better to play by Queenie's rules for now.
Without saying anything more, Ricky destroyed Chomper's heart with his thunder power, and then he
divided the pistil into two halves and handed one half to Queenie.
Queenie accepted it without hesitation. She even looked like she wanted to monopolize the whole pistil
for herself.
"You are more honorable than I thought, huh? I didn't do anything to help, but you're still willing to give
half of it to me," she quietly muttered as if it physically hurt her to say these kind words.
Ricky didn't know how to respond to that, so he kept quiet instead.
He had expected her to thank him, as she had done earlier, but she didn't. Honestly, he should have
expected that.
"By the way, the evil spirit in Chomper's pistil is quite powerful. Do you need my help with the refining?"
Queenie asked out of the blue, smiling pleasantly all of a sudden.
"No, thanks," Ricky answered lightly.
He knew that if he handed his half to her too, she was likely to keep it for herself. He was sure of that.
"Humph! Why can't you just appreciate it when you are offered something good? There are too many
geniuses in this world who want my help, but you refuse me when I offer to help!" Queenie snorted
upon hearing Ricky's refusal.
"My Devouring Mutant is enough to deal with it," Ricky simply answered. Then, he sat down and began
to refine his half of the pistil.
Now that Chomper had been destroyed, this garden was the safest place for them to stay in the
ancestral land.
When Queenie saw Ricky sit down with crossed legs, the angry look on her face immediately
disappeared. 'Calm down, ' she thought to herself. 'This guy is really extraordinary. I have to make him
surrender to me, so that I can show my power that I can even make a genius like him obey to me to
those old guys on the continents.'
Then, she also sat down with her legs crossed and started to refine her half of the pistil.
When his mind had finally integrated into the pistil, Ricky felt like he had entered an enormous world
where there was nothing but abundant pure evil spirit and pure continent spirit.
"What tremendous power!" Ricky sighed.
"That's reasonable. Chomper lived for half an era, if not an entire era. And during that period of time, it
should have accumulated endless power as long as it absorbed a little power every day. Imagine if it
had absorbed as much as it could every day," the Dragon Intent Grass told Ricky.
"However, I'm not sure if this tremendous energy can help you reach the peak state of an incredible
demi-spiritual emperor and become a real spiritual emperor.
You know that these geniuses who came are all spiritual emperors, and even though it is still difficult for
them to break through further, they can still attain it much easier than you. As long as they encounter
some opportunities, they can likely become two-star lower spiritual emperors. Although it will still be
challenging for them, their experience will be like a walk in the park compared to what you will
experience."
"I understand what you mean, Dragon Intent Grass. I'll become a spiritual emperor as soon as
possible!" Ricky said.
Even if the Dragon Intent Grass hadn't said so, Ricky would not waste any more time. After all, he
didn't want the evil spirit mass in Tina's body to grow too big.
With these thoughts in his mind, Ricky activated his six zones to absorb the continent's power from the
pistil. Then he turned this power into his own power. As for the pure evil spirit, he left it for the Evil
Mandragora.
Ricky guessed that the Evil Mandragora would surely become a two-star middle spiritual emperor at
peak state when they left the ancestral land of human devils.
Time flew quickly, and it took Ricky ten days to refine the energy in his half of the pistil.
Soon, he felt that his body's carrying capacity had reached a limit, and he knew that he had to break
through as quickly as possible. Otherwise, he would not be able to make further progress even though
he was already an incredible demi-spiritual emperor.
"Dragon Intent Grass, how did those incredible demi-spiritual emperors you knew before break through
and become spiritual emperors?" Ricky asked.
"There were two ways. One is from the corporeal body, and the other is from the soul," the Dragon
Intent Grass promptly answered. "Some incredible demi-spiritual emperors started with their corporeal
bodies. The first thing they did was that they filled their bodies with endless ruling power.
By then, they incurred Thunderstroke Dooms with their physical bodies, and once they became spiritual
emperors, they began to strengthen their souls.
On the other hand, some incredible demi-spiritual emperors filled their souls with ruling power and
incurred Thunderstroke Dooms with their souls. After they became spiritual emperors, they
strengthened their corporeal bodies."
"I can understand how it works for the first type. But the latter... Don't you think it's too risky? I mean,
even the soul of an incredible demi-spiritual emperor is too weak in front of the Thunderstroke Doom,
right?" Ricky commented in confusion. He somehow doubted the latter approach.
Generally speaking, a warrior's soul would not become powerful until he or she became a saint. And if
a saint's soul separated from his or her mortal body, the soul could grow even stronger.
But that did not apply to the soul of someone who had not become a saint yet. So what the Dragon
Intent Grass said, that using the soul to incur the Thunderstroke Doom, seemed to be a terrible idea
because his soul might not be able to make it.
"As a matter of fact, there is no significant difference between the two. A strong corporeal body incurs a
strong Thunderstroke Doom, while a weak soul incurs a weaker one. They will lead to the same result,"
the Dragon Intent Grass explained.
"I see!" Ricky nodded as he grasped the idea. "But I still think the first approach is more appropriate.
After all, the soul of an incredible demi-spiritual emperor hasn't really formed yet."
"You are right. To some extent, thunder could be seen as the invincible opponent to the soul," the
Dragon Intent Grass said. "After all, the soul evolves from the intangible, and it is most likely to be
restricted by violent power like thunder."
"Has there been anyone who incurred the Thunderstroke Doom with both the corporal body and the
soul at the same time?" Ricky asked curiously.
"I don't know, but as far as I can remember, no. That's because it's already very difficult to take one
approach. After all, that is a path against the heavenly law. It's almost impossible to do that with both
the corporeal body and the soul, the Dragon Intent Grass said.
"Ricky, your body is incredibly strong. You'd better make your corporeal body a spiritual emperor first,"
the grass added.
However, Ricky shook his head in disagreement, surprising the Dragon Intent Grass.
"Why? Are you going to start with your soul?" it asked in astonishment. "No, I'm not going to do that
either.
Although those incredible demi-spiritual emperors in the previous eras were also incredible demi-
spiritual emperors, they all had Heavenly Meridians. They took an incredible path, but their action was
still within the range of the heavenly law," Ricky reasoned in a low voice.
"On the contrary, I don't have a Heavenly Meridian. If I try to make either my body or my soul to
become a spiritual emperor first, I'm afraid I will die in the end and render all my efforts a waste. It's
because I don't think the heavenly law allows the existence of any spiritual emperor without a Heavenly
Meridian."
The Dragon Intent Grass fell silent after hearing Ricky's words. It had forgotten that Ricky didn't have
the Heavenly Meridian.
"Your path of martial arts is really so..." The Dragon Intent Grass trailed off, as it didn't know what to
say.
It could not understand what kind of spiritual meridian Ricky owned. Why couldn't it merge with the
Heavenly Meridian?
"Ricky, what do you think then? Now that you have become an incredible demi-spiritual emperor, how
can you just stop there? If you stop going further and becoming a spiritual emperor, you will be the butt
of everyone's ridicule," the Dragon Intent Grass warned.
The grass guessed that Ricky probably had a plan, but only Ricky knew his end goal.
"I've found a path," Ricky said lowly, almost murmuring to himself. "I see hope on this path, and it will
lead me to achieve more."
"What kind of path?" the Dragon Intent Grass asked seriously. As he expected, Ricky did have his own
way once again. And he would take this unique path regardless of other people's opinions.
"It is the path made of faith!" Ricky mysteriously answered, looking off into the
distance.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda