Chapter 1973: Earth Sword Soul
After learning about the situation in Eastern Region from Moyin, Zhang Ruochen let Moyin enter the Qiankun Realm.
During the Battle of the Sword Vault Palace and the Battle of Xianji Mountain, he had collected hundreds of thousands of Infernal Court cultivator corpses, most of which were of Saints and even Saint Kings. If Moyin could devour and absorb them all, her cultivation base would grow tremendously.
The Saint Devourer differed from ordinary cultivators in that as long as there were enough nutrients, her strength would continue to grow with almost no bottleneck.
Zhang Ruochen looked forward to it. He was eager to see how far Moyin’s cultivation base could go after refining those corpses of the Infernal Court cultivators.
Moyin was a plant of origin of his, a part of his strength. So the stronger Moyin got, the better it was for him.
Now. Moyin had left the ancient veins, and Xie Chengzi had taken over the excavation job from her. Maybe he could excavate a few more Godstones from the veins.
After arranging everything, Zhang Ruochen followed Ling Feiyu into that hidden cave again.
“It costs a lot to start the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death. So make the best of the ten days,” said Ling Feiyu before Zhang Ruochen entered the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death.
He nodded slightly before lunging into the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death. He was not worried about whether Ling Feiyu would harm him.
The Bronze Furnace of Life and Death was so large that its internal space could accommodate dozens of people practicing self-cultivation at the same time.
It was just that, this would reduce the cultivation effect.
Zhang Ruochen sat down as he landed at the bottom of the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death.
He finally saw the Moon Soul Pearl, the treasure of the Demonic Sect of the Moon. It was a strange divine pearl the size of a fist, exuding a soft brilliance glow just like a moon.
“The treasure left by Yueshen is really extraordinary. No wonder Cang Long wants to seize it,” Zhang Ruochen could not help but exclaim in awe.
Even in the Kunlun Realm, not many people knew that the Demonic Sect of the Moon possessed the Moon Soul Pearl. It was not known how Cang Long learned about it.
Outside the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death, as Ling Feiyu struck out a strange handprint, the furnace immediately came to life.
Supreme inscription patterns started to emerge along with a greenish glow, completely wrapping around the furnace. No one could enter the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death by force within ten days.
Staring at the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death for a moment, Ling Feiyu then turned around and exited the hidden cave.
Although Zhang Ruochen had defeated Cang Long, it did not mean that it would be fine and dandy for the Demonic Sect of the Moon. On the contrary, it was now a critical period where she needed to preside over the sect just in case anything happened.
She had never thought of counting on Divine Demon Rat’s father from the beginning.
It was undeniable that Divine Demon Rat’s father was powerful. But as long as she could handle it, why should she want to disturb him and prematurely reveal the Demonic Sect of the Moon’s trump cards?
Inside the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death, flames appeared and surrounded Zhang Ruochen.
“Let me try the flames released by the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death to see what is so special about it.”
He chanted in a low voice as he performed an Empyrean Emperor Ming’s Scripture, taking the fire into his body.
According to Ling Feiyu, once entering the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death, the first thing to do was to take in the fire. After refining the physical body and the Saint Soul, he was to absorb the cool air emitted by the Moon Soul Pearl so that his body and Saint Soul could be nourished. The combination of strength and gentleness would produce the best result.
If he were to keep taking in the fire, it would not only reduce the cultivation effect but also overwhelm his body. Also, if he was not careful, the fire could burn him into ashes.
While the fire entered his body, he felt a gentle energy warm his body.
However, as time went by, he started to feel a burning sensation. His body transformed into a large furnace with his skin turning red.
Nevertheless, he was still not in a hurry to take in the cool air from the Moon Soul Pearl. Instead, he continued to absorb more fire.
He possessed a Chenyan-Class Divine Purification Flame in his body. Combined with Yanshen’s Leg, he was highly immune to fire.
Since he was to practice self-cultivation, he wanted to reach his limit. Only then could he get the best results.
When the fire was raging all over and his body almost started to melt, he stopped taking in the fire. He remained in this state for several hours until he felt he had reached the limit before expelling the fire from his body.
Immediately afterward, he continued to utilize Empyrean Emperor Ming’s Scripture and turned to take in the energy of the Moon Soul Pearl.
Only by combining strength and gentleness could he build the strongest body.
“Phew!”
Zhang Ruochen let out a long breath as a light flashed in his eyes.
“The combination of the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death and the Moon Soul Pearl is indeed amazing. My body has attained the realm below Supreme Sainthood, and it can still be strengthened further. Even my Saint Soul and spiritual power are gradually becoming stronger. It seems that I really need to make the most of this opportunity,” said Zhang Ruochen to himself.
Soon, he revealed all his six Saint Souls, ready to make the most of the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death.
Both the Secret Tome of Time and Space and the piece of parchment that Ling Feiyu had given to him were taken out. These were the two things that Zhang Ruochen was going to focus on comprehending.
The Secret Tome of Time and Space had absorbed the divine power left by Saint Monk Xumi in the Null Dimension on Xianji Mountain. It contained a lot of Precepts of Time and Dimension. If he could comprehend them all thoroughly, it would definitely enhance his Path of Time and Dimension.
Meanwhile, the parchment given by Ling Feiyu had records of insights on the first four levels of Sword Ten. That meant a great deal to him.
He knew he could not take this parchment with him. So he had to hurry to comprehend it before returning it to Ling Feiyu when he exited the furnace.
He was immersed in this self-cultivation practice without realizing how much time had passed.
At a certain moment, the Bronze Furnace of Life and Death stopped, giving out no more fire, and everything returned to normal.
He opened his eyes and stored all his six Saint Souls back in his body.
After a hundred days of closed-door cultivation, his cultivation base had undergone little improvement, but he got tremendous growth in other aspects.
Bang!
The Bronze Furnace of Life and Death opened.
Zhang Ruochen got to his feet and lunged out of it with no hesitation.
As soon as he got out, Ling Feiyu came into view.
With a smile on his face, he walked up to Ling Feiyu with the parchment containing the insights of the first two levels of Sword Ten in his hands. “Here it is.”
Ling Feiyu took the parchment. “How were things going?”
“Sword Ten is really mysterious. It is impossible to comprehend it all in such a short time. But at least, I have got something.” Zhang Ruochen smiled.
“Your Sword Soul is powerful enough. Grasping Sword Ten should take you little effort,” said Ling Feiyu.
“Perhaps we can test it out on each other. But as for Sword Path, I will have to test it in actual combat,” said Zhang Ruochen in excitement.
Now, he had finally caught up with Ling Feiyu in terms of Sword Path, qualifying him to spar with Ling Feiyu.
The two of them instantly left the hidden cave.
At the snow-covered lakeside on Saint Water Peak.
Zhang Ruochen and Ling Feiyu stood side by side on the lake. Two figures were waving their swords, their moves ordinary yet mysterious, totally incomprehensible to ordinary people.
The mountain, water, and people formed into one like a beautiful landscape painting. It was an extremely elegant and otherworldly sight.
Those two figures were exactly the same as Zhang Ruochen and Ling Feiyu, as they showed their respective understanding of Sword One to Sword Nine.
Sword Path was broad and deep. Even if learning from the manual, different persons would have slightly different comprehension.
It was this difference that made different people achieve different attainment in Sword Path.
At this stage, Zhang Ruochen and Ling Feiyu could be regarded as the highest achievers in Sword Path in the Kunlun Realm. If someone could see them practicing Sword Path with their own eyes, they would definitely benefit a lot from it.
After a long time, the two sword-waving figures on the lake finally disappeared, leaving only the Ancient Abyssal Blade and the Heaven’s Fall Blade still floating on the water, glowing in sword light.
Zhang Ruochen and Ling Feiyu reached out their hands at the same time to retrieve their swords.
“I never expected your Sword Soul to have actually undergone a qualitative transformation, reaching the level of the Earth Sword Soul. This is something that many Supreme Saints who practice swordsmanship have never reached.” Ling Feiyu was very surprised.
Legend had it that the Sword Soul was divided into three levels: Man Sword Soul, Earth Sword Soul, and Heaven Sword Soul.
Generally, when practicing Sword Ten until a certain level, the soul of the Sword Will would form. At this time, it was called the Man Sword Soul.
It was necessary to use various methods to refine the Sword Soul so that it would continue to grow stronger until quantitative transformation turned into qualitative transformation. Then the Earth Sword Soul would form.
In contrast, the difficulty of cultivating an Earth Sword Soul was even more difficult than cultivating a higher-order Saint technique with Saint Kinghood and becoming an Array Master.
“It must be because I’ve used seventy bottles of Meritorious Sword-cleansing Essence.” Zhang Ruochen chortled.
Ling Feiyu shook her head. “It’s not only because of the Meritorious Sword-cleansing Essence. If one can rely on the Meritorious Sword-cleansing Essence to transform the Sword Soul into Earth Sword Soul, many people would have already succeeded. There has to be a deeper reason.”
Zhang Ruochen could not help but fall into thought upon hearing that.
If the key factor was not related to the Meritorious Sword-cleansing Essence, then it was most likely related to the Sword Vault Palace.
Before this, he had retreated into closed-door cultivation in the Sword Vault Palace. He could still vaguely remember that during this period, he had absorbed some special energy there. Perhaps that had led his Sword Soul to undergo some strange changes without his knowledge.
Anyway, it was a good thing for him.
Once the soul of the Sword Will transformed into the Earth Sword Soul, the sword technique would double in strength.
Besides, he had also greatly improved the Path of Time. If he was to fight Cang Long again with the Sword of Time, he should be able to pose a greater threat to Cang Long.
While he was lost in his thoughts, a communication talisman flew from the horizon.
He caught the communication talisman in his hand; it was from Cang Long.
“Cang Long is so desperate now. He cannot wait to exchange the Five-Element fetishes for Ruan Ling before the half a month period expires,” said Zhang Ruochen with a faint smile.
Since Cang Long wanted to bring forward the exchange, he was more than happy to oblige. After all, the earlier he got the fetishes, the better for him.
“Do you need me to go with you?” asked Ling Feiyu.
“That won’t be necessary. Wait for my good news on Peakless Mountain.”
After he said this, he performed a Dimensional Shift and disappeared without a trace.
At the foot of Peakless Mountain, ripples formed in the air as Zhang Ruochen reappeared.
A while later, a shadow emerged from the ground and appeared beside Zhang Ruochen. It was none other than Divine Demon Rat.
“What can I do for you, Master Zhang?” asked the Head Rat with a sleazy look.
“I have an exchange deal with Cang Long at the Sub-Terminal of Merits. When the deal is completed, I need you to…” Zhang Ruochen whispered to him.
Hearing the plan, Divine Demon Rat’s mung-bean-sized eyes lit up with excitement as he chuckled. “You got it. I am a dab hand in this. You can rest assured. Leave it to me, I’ll get a handle on it!”