Chapter 7

Chen Hai was not concerned about anything else; he was more worried that the cultivation of martial arts was too difficult. He feared that before he could reach a high level of cultivation, his hidden mental illness would completely erupt.

When that happens, he would die, and even the immortals couldn't save him.

After a long while, when Zuo Er still didn't speak, Chen Hai anxiously said, "The memories of the previous owner, Yao Xing, seem to have been erased. There are no cultivation methods of the Yao Clan in his mind. I don't think Chen Lie would break the rules and secretly teach me profound techniques. I'm not even a low-level Dao Bing disciple yet. How long will it take for me to reach the Spirit Opening Realm or the Acupoint Illumination Realm? Senior Zuo Er, you have to give me a golden finger!"

At this point, Chen Hai already had a general understanding that the cultivation of the Great Yan Empire's mystic disciples was mainly divided into the Mystic Passage Realm, the Spirit Opening Realm, and the Acupoint Illumination Realm.

Chen Hai couldn't figure out what these cultivation realms were all about. Seeing that Zuo Er hadn't responded for a long time, Chen Hai almost cried, begging him to give him three or five golden fingers.

Chen Hai had already experienced death once. This matter involved whether he could save his life, so he didn't dare to be careless at all.

"What golden finger?" Zuo Er's voice was already weak, and he asked with confusion, "It's like opening a back door. What did Senior Cang Yu mean by the snake bracelet?"

Chen Hai didn't dare to offend Zuo Er and asked cautiously, thinking that since Cang Yu was dead, Zuo Er might keep the snake bracelet for himself.

"The divine hall's inheritance cannot be leaked. Although the martial arts techniques that the Taiwei Sect's Dao Bing disciples can learn are rudimentary, they are sufficient for you to lay the foundation in martial arts. Moreover, since the Dragon Emperor insisted on choosing you as his successor, I will fulfill his last wish and not keep the snake bracelet from you. However, I hope you don't辜负 this consumption of three-tenths of my magical power..."

Chen Hai then saw the light above the desk slightly distort, as if ripples were spreading on water. A "ding dong" sound was heard, and an object fell onto the desk.

It was a snake-shaped blood-red bracelet. When opened and laid out on the desk, it was about five to six inches long, with a lifelike snake design. Each blood-red scale was finely detailed, and the snake's head, about the size of two fingernails, had complete eyes and fangs. It seemed as if a breath of air could bring the snake bracelet to life.

From Zuo Er's tone, it seemed that transmitting such a snake-shaped bracelet to his bedroom required the consumption of three-tenths of his magical power. Chen Hai thought Zuo Er was too weak. The lightning gathering on the top of the grand hall by Cang Yu looked powerful and domineering, but unfortunately, Cang Yu's soul had already returned to the nine heavens.

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If it weren't for the snake bracelet in his hand, Chen Hai would have suspected that everything that happened was just an illusion.

"The snake bracelet is given by the divine hall to the Heavenly Martial Divine Guards. Its use is simple..." Zuo Er's voice came.

Chen Hai felt that Zuo Er was in a dire situation and had no reason to play with him, so he followed the method Zuo Er taught. As soon as he put the snake bracelet on his left wrist, it bit its tail and tightly wrapped around his wrist.

Then, Chen Hai pressed his index finger against the snake's fang and pushed hard. A slight pain was felt, and the snake's fang, like the black cauldron of the black dragon, began to absorb the blood in his body.

A miniature human-shaped shadow gradually formed from the snake's head, but it quickly disappeared.

What the hell? Chen Hai focused his attention and saw the snake's eyes ripple, as if a miniature vortex had rapidly opened. An invisible wave again devoured his consciousness and soul...

Chen Hai's consciousness once again entered the blood cloud wasteland filled with corpses and bones. The grand hall, under the pressure of the blood clouds, looked desolate.

What's going on?

The so-called golden finger means that his soul and consciousness can enter this desolate, ghost-free, corpse-filled blood cloud wasteland again through the snake bracelet?

"Your consciousness should now enter the hall!" Zuo Er's voice came again.

It seemed that an invisible barrier of the grand hall had opened. Chen Hai followed his thoughts and, with a slight "pu" sound, like piercing a water membrane, directly entered the grand hall.

However, the situation inside the grand hall was different from what Chen Hai had imagined. The surroundings were shrouded in thick fog, gray and indistinct, with only a stone altar-like platform standing in the center, about seven to eight meters high.

Chen Hai's soul and consciousness entered the grand hall, so he looked down at the platform from a high vantage point. The platform was large, about thirty to forty meters in diameter, with seven strange corpses standing on it.

These strange corpses were slightly shorter than ordinary people. Upon closer inspection, they were similar to the various-sized skeletons outside the grand hall but retained withered tendons and skin.

The skin of the strange corpses was blood-red, like a wrinkled blood membrane. From a distance, they looked more like seven skinless Rakshasa ghosts, standing there bloodily, or like blood corpses buried underground for countless years...

Chen Hai instantly felt a sense of fear, as if his scalp was about to explode. He never expected that Cang Yu, with such a grand image, would have Zuo Er create seven strange corpses like blood corpses in the grand hall.

"What are these?" Chen Hai felt a chill deep in his heart and asked the gray, misty depths of the grand hall.

"These are the seven martial soldier-level Heavenly Martial Divine Guard puppets I created with my remaining magical power. Since you are the successor chosen by the Dragon Emperor, you are now the owner of the snake bracelet and have the right to possess one of them. You can refine it into a puppet avatar in the blood cloud wasteland, thus officially becoming a Heavenly Martial Divine Guard of the divine hall..."

Seeing the gray mist all around, Chen Hai didn't know if it was the original state of the divine hall or if Zuo Er intentionally didn't want him to see the specific situation inside the grand hall. Looking at the seven blood corpse-like divine guard puppets on the platform, he felt a chill, and hearing Zuo Er's extremely weak voice coming from the gray mist, he couldn't see Zuo Er's true appearance.

Chen Hai could only obey Zuo Er's words, but he had many doubts that needed to be clarified. He asked urgently, "Senior Zuo Er, how do I use the divine guard puppet, and how does it benefit my martial arts cultivation? What is a Heavenly Martial Divine Guard?"

"You use the snake bracelet as a bridge for your consciousness. After selecting one of the divine guard puppets as your puppet avatar, it will be completely synchronized with your physical body..." Zuo Er said.

Chen Hai didn't understand what Zuo Er was saying.

He had taken over Yao Xing's body, and his soul and body were not fully integrated. He had to cultivate martial arts to promote the integration of his soul and body to save his life. However, he couldn't imagine how, even if he refined a puppet avatar, it would only stay in the blood cloud wasteland and what use it would have for his martial arts cultivation.

Hearing Zuo Er's voice, which was extremely weak, it seemed that each word he spoke consumed a lot of energy. Chen Hai, full of questions, didn't care about the terrifying appearance of the so-called Heavenly Martial Divine Guard puppet. He patiently followed Zuo Er's method and divided part of his consciousness to enter the first puppet.

He now didn't have the right to bargain.

But as soon as his consciousness entered the first puppet, he felt a buzzing in his mind.

At this moment, part of his consciousness returned to his body in the bedroom of the Blood Cloud Cliff, while another part remained in the divine guard puppet in the divine hall. It seemed that he could use his consciousness to observe both the bedroom and the divine hall simultaneously without interfering with each other.

This feeling was truly magical. Chen Hai couldn't find a better word than "consciousness bridge" to describe the snake bracelet.

The snake bracelet seemed to allow his consciousness to exist simultaneously in his physical body and the divine guard puppet, even more magical and profound than the second soul that could only be cultivated at the Dao Dan or Dao Tai realms...

He also noticed that the physical body in the bedroom and the divine guard puppet in the divine hall indeed maintained the same posture.

Chen Hai followed his thoughts and squatted down, and the divine guard puppet on the altar also squatted down in sync. When he scratched his ear in the bedroom, the puppet also scratched its ear without any difference, as if his physical body's shadow was accurately projected into the divine hall through some divine power.

However, what did this have to do with his martial arts cultivation, and wasn't the puppet too ugly?

"The snake bracelet and the puppet are gifts from the Dragon Emperor. Using the snake bracelet as a bridge, you can divide and connect your consciousness. I'm about to go into deep sleep, so I can only briefly explain the use of the puppet," Zuo Er said, speaking with great effort.

"The seven martial soldier-level puppets refined by the divine hall can be controlled by your consciousness to drive and defend against enemies, which is just one of their uses. The second is that the meridians of the human body are an existence between the real and the virtual. Without a certain level of cultivation, it is difficult to perceive them. However, in the puppet avatar, they can be accurately projected. The meridians in your puppet avatar have not yet appeared because there is no essence or true energy flowing in your hundred bones and meridians. Otherwise, the meridians of the puppet would emit light of different depths and colors."

"Ah, I see..." Chen Hai understood the connection between the puppet and martial arts cultivation.

From the "Dao Bing Mystic Passage Supplement" and Yao Xing's fragmented memories, Chen Hai knew that martial arts cultivation required refining profound martial arts techniques to a perfect level, guiding essence to flow in the hundred bones and meridians, making them more condensed and abundant. When the essence was abundant enough to break through the blockages in the meridians and enter the mystic acupoint between the two kidneys, it would fuse with the heavenly and earthly energy inhaled through secret breathing techniques, thus cultivating true energy.

However, ordinary martial arts disciples could not perceive the meridians in their bodies or the flow of essence. Therefore, it was like a blind man feeling an elephant or a blind man crossing a river to determine when the profound martial arts techniques were perfected.

Many talented disciples, without the guidance of a wise teacher, often spent half their lives in hard cultivation without even touching the threshold of martial arts cultivation.

The puppet avatar was like a mirror. Through this mirror, cultivators could clearly see the flow of essence and true energy in their meridians, which was undoubtedly a great cheat device...

"Something like that, your comprehension is not bad," Zuo Er understood what Chen Hai was thinking and was quite relieved to see his good comprehension.

Chen Hai knew there was no free lunch and asked, "Senior Zuo Er, what is a Heavenly Martial Divine Guard?"

"Although the channel connecting the Rakshasa Domain to the blood cloud wasteland has not yet fully formed, some low-level ghosts can still enter through some gaps. You need to clear them out..." Zuo Er said.