Chapter 231: His Spine like a Dragon, Heavenly Lock Open!
Ximen Xianzhi’s challenge was not insignificant.
At least Lu Fan drew inspiration from this incident.
Challenging the strong could make one improve.
A battle was a quick way to improve strength, indeed.
Lu Fan’s mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.
He focused and entered the Dao Impartment Platform.
Not only was the Dao Impartment Platform used to recruit up and coming cultivators, but also it was a tool used for simulation, deduction, and deployment of secret realms.
Lu Fan was sitting very straight on the platform. Numerous trigrams were flashing, flying, and floating in the air.
Cupping one hand around his chin, Lu Fan was deep in thought.
“A person who has broken through to the Heavenly Lock Realm and refined his Spiritual Sense will have more control over his own strength than those in the Internal Organs Realm. That kind of person will be much less stressed…”
“Although the Internal Organs Realm has several stages, the gap between these stages isn’t huge… If one’s control over his strength is strong enough, it’s possible to challenge a cultivator in a higher level.”
“Like the Overlord, he has just refined all of his five organs and is only in Complete Internal Organs, but he won’t suffer severe losses if he fights against Nie Changqing, who has evolved his elemental Spirit Qi. There is a gap between them, but the Overlord can still fight him after demonification.”
“However, once a person achieves Heavenly Lock, no cultivator in the Internal Organs will be a match for him. That means cultivators in the Heavenly Lock won’t have any pressures. Although we have the Trial Pagoda, one can only challenge it three times. It’s more like a means to gain insights,” Lu Fan murmured to himself as he analyzed these.
A frowning expression was etched on his face.
He raised his hand. Moving his fingers, he selected a trigram one by onea dn arranged them in different ways in front of him.
Mysterious images emerged before him.
But Lu Fan liked none of them. He crossed out all of them with his hand.
Lu Fan was thinking.
He could create a secret realm like what he had done before and set up a monster in the Heavenly Lock Realm in the secret realm…
So that the Overlord and others could take adventures there and fight the monster.
But Lu Fan vetoed this thought very soon.
Lu Fan raised his hand. He continued moving his fingers across the air to note his ideas, but then he vetoed all of them again.
In the end, Lu Fan fixed his eyes on a bold idea.
An arc of thunder was flying.
In the Dao Impartment Platform, a thunder bead presented by Lu Fan was floating in the air.
Lu Fan gazed at this thunder bead. His eyes were slightly shining.
The Origin, or the Natural Law, of another world was being kept in the thunder bead. It was a top-class Mid Level Martial World where innumerable strong people were living in.
Like Young Master Tianxu, who had been possessed by Lu Fan, four old women in the Golden Elixir Realm had lifted his sedan, which was unbelievable.
It was enough to explain how powerful that world was.
At least there were many people in the Golden Elixir Realm and Heavenly Lock Realm.
Gazing at the thunder bead, Lu Fan gradually broke into a smile.
He had to admit it was a really bold idea.
He could use that world as an instance dungeon…
The strong people on Wuhuang Continent would challenge the instance dungeon and improve themselves there.
If they needed pressure, strong people from that top-class Mid Level Martial World would absolutely pressure them to a great extent.
Lu Fan figured it had a great chance of success.
However, there were still some problems, which Lu Fan thought necessary to consider.
He needed to set up a background for that top-class Mid Level Martial World, like the rejuvenation of Spirit Qi he had set up, which was exactly the same as the rejuvenation in the ancient era of cultivators.
Lu Fan’s eyes lit up even more.
For example, maybe he could set up that world as an Alien Evil Spirits’ den.
He raised his hand. Over the platform, several trigrams were shifting up and down.
On Beiluo Lake Island.
It was breezy.
Lu Fan started his seclusion.
White Jade City Pavilion was shrouded in rich Spirit Qi.
Ximen Xianzhi, buried on the ground with only his head sticking out, was feeling awful. He felt as if the world had forgotten him.
Of course, the little Responsive Dragon did not forget about him. It was hopping around him. The movement of its claws splashed Ximen Xianzhi’s face with the mix of mud and snow.
He felt like it was cold rain pattering on his face.
******
In the Trial Pagoda.
The Overlord went into the pagoda. This was his first time. The first floor of the Trial Pagoda was spacious. He saw several faces of people he knew.
Nie Changqing, Ning Zhao, and the others were all cultivating quietly there.
Each of them had a number overhead.
“These numbers are the floor number they have reached,” Jing Yue said to the Overlord.
Then Jing Yue found a cushion to sit on and then cross his legs.
Soon, the number four emerged over his head.
The Overlord focused his eyes. He took a deep breath and looked around. The number six was over Nie Changqing’s head.
Over Ning Zhao’s head, it was the number five.
As for the others, most of them had the number three or four over their heads.
“Interesting.”
The Overlord seemed to be a little intrigued.
He found a cushion to sit down cross-legged.
Then…
He saw something different before his eyes. He came to a primordial forest.
Several black shadows suddenly rushed at him from the deep part of the forest.
These spooky creatures were all wearing a mask with only one round hole on it. Behind that round hole was their eyes, which looked extremely cold.
All those creatures were carrying an axe and a shield on their backs. The Overlord felt as if he saw himself in the past in a trance.
The Overlord did not trash-talk with them. Instead, he started to fight them immediately.
Waving his axe and shield, he has engaged in a dogfight with the enemy right away.
Sima Qingshan entered the Trial Pagoda as well. Seeing everyone cultivating seriously, he did not even dare speak loudly. He found a corner to sit down cross-legged.
Everyone in the pagoda was cultivating hard.
They were all looking for a breakthrough.
Kong Nanfei failed to go through the calamity to break through to the Heavenly Lock, but it actually had inspired the other cultivators. They all hoped they could be the next person to break through to the Heavenly Lock Realm.
******
Lv Dongxuan did not go into the Trial Pagoda to cultivate.
Lu Fan informed Lv Dongxuan of his seclusion, so the latter found a boat and sailed out on Beiluo Lake. There, he was enjoying tea while protecting Lu Fan.
Then, he wrote a letter that he had sent to the Sword Pavilion on Zhongnan Mountain.
As to Ximen Xianzhi’s challenge to Lu Fan, he did not try to play it up, because it was not necessary.
Lu Fan defeated Ximen Xianzhi. It was not weird or surprising at all.
Time flew by.
The world entered into a period of peace.
That being said, underneath the period of peace, there were quite a lot of secret conflicts going on. Those powers never stopped fighting each other in the dark.
However, no matter how chaotic it was in other places, in Beiluo City, it was as peaceful as always.
The Dragon Blood Army in charge of guarding the city was patrolling, while Luo Cheng and Luo Yue were cultivating in the Trial Pagoda. That was Lu Changkong’s order. As leaders of the Dragon Blood Army, Luo Cheng and Luo Yue were still not strong enough.
All powers were trying to increase their strengths.
In South County, Tang Yimo went into the Dragon Gate every day to exercise. He kept fighting terracotta warriors and breaking them.
However, since he had achieved Internal Organs, fights like this could not help him improve anymore.
These pieces of training were just like tickles for him.
Tang Yimo was anxious. He felt he should not go on doing this anymore.
All other cultivators in the world were improving. In such a world, making no progress meant lagging behind.
As a result, despite Tang Xiansheng’s doubt, he left Tang Manor. He went to the Daoist Pavilion with a team of South Manor Army.
He intended to challenge the Daoist Pavilion alone…
In the same way Nie Changqing kicked down the Daoist Sect’s main gate.
Tang Yimo fought against Xie Yunling. It was a critical fight. The field at Catching Stars Peak had almost been destroyed.
Tang Yimo really enjoyed this fight.
Not knowing any Daoist methods, he defeated Xie Yunling, who had just broken through to the Internal Organs Realm, simply with his physical strength, and he even injured the latter. However, Tang Yimo was not in a better situation. He also had wounds all over his body.
However, Li Sansui, cultivating with the Cloud Dragon in the Dragon Gate at the moment after achieving Internal Organs, was really irritated when she had heard Xie Yunling had been injured.
She exerted a powerful Daoist method right away.
A vivid snow dragon, which looked like it was made of snowflakes, flew through the dark clouds that covered the entire sky toward Tang Yimo.
Tang Yimo shouted in anger.
The snow dragon gave him a good beating.
He fled down the mountain, coughing up blood. Several strong cultivators from the South Manor Army carried him away immediately.
Li Sansui, in a Daoist robe, chased them ten miles sitting cross-legged on the snow dragon. Those cultivators from the South Manor Army really freaked out.
Fortunately, Li Sansui did not go on chasing them.
Tang Yimo was carried back to Tang Manor.
Tang Xiansheng hurried to invite the best doctor in South County. In this way, Tang Yimo was saved.
Three days later, Tang Yimo, brimming with energy again, went to challenge the Daoist Pavilion once again.
The result was obvious.
Li Sansui deployed a formation with all of the disciples of the Daoist Pavilion. Tang Yimo was beaten up again.
He ran away from the Daoist Pavilion in a disgraceful manner once again.
Seeing their leader fleeing, the South Manor Army knew what to do immediately. They just carried him away like what they used to do.
As they had expected, Li Sansui, riding the snow dragon, flew out of the main gate of the Daoist Pavilion once more.
Tang Xiansheng was really speechless when he had seen Tang Yimo so badly injured again.
Why did he never stop asking for trouble?
And he almost got himself killed every time.
Finally, when Tang Yimo had woken up, Tang Xiansheng tried to persuade Tang Yimo to go to Beiluo City.
He only wanted his son to forget about the Daoist Pavilion for the moment.
However, Tang Yimo refused.
He did not go to Beiluo City, but he also stopped harassing the Daoist Pavilion.
He chose to go into a seclusion because he had gained some insights from those unsuccessful experiences, and he needed to take advantage of them to realize a breakthrough.
At the same time…
Hua Dongliu from Zhongnan Mountain got a letter from Lv Dongxuan.
Hua Dongliu almost could not breathe and passed out after reading the letter.
“I told you to challenge strong people, but I didn’t tell you to challenge Young Master Lu.”
Hua Dongliu’s face involuntarily twitched.
He told Ximen Xianzhi to challenge Jing Yue, Nie Changqing, and people like them.
However, Ximen Xianzhi challenged Lu Fan directly. He really started his cultivating life from the highest difficulty level…
Planted in the soil by Lu Fan, he reached the peak at the beginning.
Hua Dongliu once laughed at Kong Xiu because the latter’s eldest apprentice had been planted in the soil like a scallion. However… All of a sudden, the apprentice he was so proud of was also planted on the ground by Young Master Lu.
******
In the Great Xuan State.
Tantai Xuan started to develop the country on the old territory of North County after returning with the army.
He commanded to build the Great Xuan Dynasty Academy before Wentian Peak of Tai Mountains.
He appointed Mo Beike as the leader of the Great Xuan Dynasty Academy. Mo Beike would manage everything regarding the academy, and Mo Ju would assist him.
Mo Beike commanded to post notices in cities and villages all over the Great Xuan State to announce the establishment of the Great Xuan Dynasty Academy.
Many people sent their kids to Tai Mountains after seeing the notices.
It was not only because of the benefits Mo Beike had promised in the notices but also for their kids’ future.
Mo Beike judged one’s talent by the capacity of their Qi Core.
And during the recruitment process, he really found many excellent, talented young people from the Great Xuan State. The capacity of some kids’ Qi Core even reached 15 wisps of Spirit Qi.
When these excellent, talented people had been discovered, he commanded the Xuanwu Guard to train them and teach them the basic cultivation method to guide Spirit Qi.
Mo Beike was after all once the Mohist giant. He had his own way of teaching.
Cultivators formed the Xuanwu Guard, but they were only average cultivators. They were ignorant of cultivating theories.
Mo Beike told Mo Ju to take charge of everything. Then he left the Great Xuan State to travel around, intending to search cultivators’ theories.
He went to the Jianghu and visited some cultivating sects in the Jianghu, intending to hire them to teach in the Great Xuan Dynasty Academy.
He made a great effort to persuade many people from the Jianghu to send cultivators to the academy.
At the same time, Tantai Xuan was not doing nothing.
Besides the Great Xuan Dynasty Academy, Tantai Xuan was also paying attention to the news coming from the Tianhan Gate.
Some unknown enemy had invaded the Tianhan Gate.
Tantai Xuan treated it very seriously.
Since Xirong tribes had been driven into the endless desert by Li Sansi and Nie Changqing, he could not figure out where the enemy came from.
Therefore, Tantai Xuan went to the Tianhan Gate in person. He found the enemy and Guifang people looked very much alike. The only thing different was that they were better armed than the soldiers from Guifang tribes.
However, since all of them were dead, he lost the lead to investigate further.
******
In the Trial Pagoda.
Nie Changqing climbed onto the sixth floor.
The environment on the sixth floor had changed. It was not a primordial forest anymore.
It was a big field instead, a little similar to the one on Tiandang Mountain, where Nie Changqing had been training since he was a little boy.
His enemy was also a spooky masked creature.
However, this enemy was golden, and he had a butcher knife as well.
As to the enemy’s strength, he had just achieved the Internal Organs Realm, without refining his five organs, but he had evolved his elemental Spirit Qi.
In the battle, Nie Changqing’s knife spirit broke out.
However, the enemy knew knife spirit as well. And more than that, his control over his strength even exceeded Nie Changqing’s by a lot.
This was a critical battle for Nie Changqing.
Nevertheless, during the fight, Nie Changqing’s comprehension and use of elemental Spirit Qi kept improving.
Finally, after a long, critical battle…
Nie Changqing managed to kill the enemy with only one strike.
Then he reached the seventh floor.
On the seventh floor, the enemy, also in the Internal Organs Realm, had refined one of his five organs. And he had evolved the elemental Spirit Qi of metal and mastered knife spirit.
Although the enemy was not as good as Nie Changqing, during the battle, Nie Changqing was at a disadvantage.
The result of the battle was not surprising at all. Nie Changqing lost. He was killed by an invisible knife strike of metal element exerted by the enemy.
Nie Changqing opened his eyes in the Trial Pagoda, drenched in sweat.
He failed, but he did not leave. Sitting on the cushion, he kept thinking upon the battle and recalling how the enemy had used the elemental Spirit Qi of metal to fight.
By doing this, Nie Changqing’s fighting power was improving.
He only had three chances on each floor.
Once he failed three times, he would really die.
Therefore, Nie Changqing was extremely cautious. He kept simulating the battles in his head, trying to figure out why the enemy was so strong.
Nie Changqing breathed out.
He looked back at Ning Zhao, who was in the distance, and found the number over her head had changed from five to six. She would catch up to him soon.
He knew Ning Zhao must have comprehended elemental Spirit Qi, but Nie Changqing could not figure out what its element was.
He turned his head again, and his pupils slightly shrank.
He saw the Overlord and found the number over the Overlord’s head had become four.
He felt the others had finally caught up to him.
Nie Changqing could not be too careful. He focused and went on with the challenge.
He went onto the seventh floor again to fight the enemy.
Finally, covered with blood, Nie Changqing killed the spooky creature with a powerful knife strike of metal element.
And in his head, the moment he killed the enemy…
He heard a loud noise of an explosion.
He saw his own spine.
Countless Spirit Qi containing knife spirit of metal element surged into Nie Changqing’s spine under his control.
His spine seemed to transform into a roaring golden dragon.
Instantly, beams of golden light burst forth. The Heavenly Lock was open!
******
Beiluo Lake.
In the Dao Impartment Platform, Lu Fan slightly raised his eyebrow.
He had a feeling.
He exited the Dao Impartment Platform and opened his eyes. He looked at the Trial Pagoda.
…