Chapter 53

Subsequently, with his heart and gall trembling, he transformed all his spiritual energy into lightning power, then wrapped the two small spheres with it, and with all his might, he flung them toward the distant mountains...

A streak of light vanished in an instant, fiercely smashing into the towering peak!

Shen Lang, who had collapsed on the ground, stared intently at the light. After a while, a burst of intense light flashed in the sky.

"Boom!"

Then, a massive explosion echoed throughout the entire Tianfeng City!

In that moment, everyone in Tianfeng City, with looks of shock on their faces, turned their gazes toward Qixia Mountain, not far from the city.

In the underground stone chamber of the City Lord's residence, City Lord Ye Xiaozheng and the black-cloaked figure both stood up abruptly at the same time.

"What's going on? Why is there such a huge energy fluctuation from Qixia Mountain in the east of the city? Didn't you hide your demonic corpses there...?" Ye Xiaozheng asked, his voice filled with disbelief.

The black-cloaked figure trembled all over, his neck arched back as he roared, "I don't know what's going on! All I know is that all the remaining demonic corpses I have, and the batch I spent countless efforts and spirit medicines refining over the past few days... they're all gone, all of them! Damn it, who did this!"

"Who did this!"

This voice was filled with unwillingness, anger, and... fear!

...

Even Shen Lang, with his cunning and foresight, could not have imagined that he had once again ruined Ye Xiaozheng and the black-cloaked figure's plans, stabbing them in the heart once more.

Due to his actions, the entire Tianfeng City was in turmoil, and experts and spies from various forces rushed to Qixia Mountain to investigate.

Shen Lang, the instigator, returned to his room, feeling weak all over, and sat down cross-legged to begin his recovery.

Although he did not complete the final step of his cultivation that night, Shen Lang gained a lot.

The final step of the fusion was not impossible, but his current cultivation level was too low, and he could not control such powerful energy.

Since he had thoroughly comprehended it, when his cultivation level improved in the future, exploring it would naturally be a matter of course.

For now, he could only temporarily give up.

However, this led to the first step in Shen Lang's attempt to create his own cultivation technique.

What delighted him the most was that the space within the Taiji diagram was vast, capable of absorbing and storing the elemental energy of heaven and earth!

Whether it was spiritual energy, death energy, or killing energy, it could all be absorbed and refined!

There was nothing that made Shen Lang happier than this.

Often, when evaluating a martial artist's talent, it mainly referred to their speed of absorbing spiritual energy. Shen Lang's speed of absorbing spiritual energy using the Taiji diagram had already far exceeded that of ordinary martial artists. Now, he could not only absorb spiritual energy but also all elemental energy!

What did this mean?

It meant that there was no need to seek places with abundant spiritual energy for cultivation. Anywhere with elemental energy, Shen Lang could transform it into his own energy!

If the speed of absorbing spiritual energy was ten or twenty times faster than other martial artists, then the current speed was almost unimaginable!

Although Shen Lang could not control the fusion of yin and yang at the moment and had not successfully cultivated it, he could directly absorb and store the two energy spheres in the Taiji diagram before they fused!

He could even feel that as the elemental energy was absorbed by the Taiji diagram, the seed at the center of the diagram seemed to become more solid!

This indicated that through the absorption of elemental energy, the seed would likely take root and sprout, growing into a towering tree!

Although all of this was unknown, and Shen Lang did not yet understand the benefits of the seed growing into a towering tree, he could vaguely sense that when the seed became a towering tree, it would be the day he reached the pinnacle!

"This profound technique, which comprehends life and death and understands yin and yang, shall be called the 'Nine Transcendences of Life and Death.' The first move, the Yin-Yang Infinite Life and Death Tribulation, a journey through the Netherworld, shall be called the 'Netherworld Demon Tribulation.'"

Thus, the first move of the "Nine Transcendences of Life and Death," the "Netherworld Demon Tribulation," was born!

Even though it was just a rudimentary form, Shen Lang had already witnessed the power of the first move... and so had the people of Tianfeng City.

Shen Lang, looking a bit weary, took out a low-grade spirit stone.

The spirit stone was pale blue, oval-shaped, and resembled a kiwi fruit. In the darkness, it was clearly visible that there were threads of current flowing on its surface.

Shen Lang placed his palm on the spirit stone, and the Taiji diagram emerged from his body, covering the stone and flowing like quicksilver.

"Zzz..."

Before Shen Lang could even activate his cultivation technique, the vast spiritual energy within the stone seemed to receive some guidance, gathering toward his palm through the Taiji diagram, then flowing through his arm and into his body, converging in his dantian like a stream flowing into the sea.

The dantian, located in the abdomen, is the core where martial artists store their spiritual energy, similar to the demon core of a demon beast, serving as the source of power.

The cultivation of martial artists involves absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, gradually converging it into the dantian, refining the body, and continuously expanding the dantian's capacity to store more spiritual energy, thereby granting martial artists greater power.

As this spiritual energy entered, a refreshing sensation spread from Shen Lang's palm throughout his body.

"Impossible!"

Shen Lang was greatly surprised!

A martial soul is primarily used to assist martial artists in cultivation or for attack and defense.

In cultivation, martial artists use their martial souls to sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and with the help of their martial souls, they use various cultivation techniques to absorb the spiritual energy into their bodies.

Without a martial soul, one cannot sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and even with powerful cultivation techniques, it is difficult to absorb external spiritual energy.

Therefore, when Shen Lang did not have a martial soul, his speed of absorbing spiritual energy was almost negligible, and no matter how hard he tried, the amount of spiritual energy in his body was minimal.

However, conversely, without cultivation techniques, having only a martial soul would also prevent one from cultivating.

A martial soul serves as a bridge between the body and the external spiritual energy, while cultivation techniques provide the true power to absorb spiritual energy!

But just now, without even reciting the incantation, the spiritual energy from the spirit stone automatically entered Shen Lang's body!

This was unheard of!

"Stop!"

Shen Lang, startled, moved his mind, and the Taiji diagram stopped moving.

As soon as the Taiji diagram stopped, the spiritual energy within the spirit stone ceased flowing into his body.

"Without activating any cultivation techniques, the spiritual energy from the spirit stone can be quickly absorbed into my body. Could it be that this Taiji diagram has the legendary 'devouring' function? Is it a mutated martial soul? And I've never heard of anyone's martial soul containing a space?"

Shen Lang was puzzled, but his actions were swift. He activated the Taiji diagram to continuously absorb the spiritual energy from the spirit stone. After half an hour, he had completely drained the spiritual energy from a low-grade spirit stone.

"Snap!"

With the energy depleted, the spirit stone in his palm developed several cracks and turned into an ordinary, unremarkable stone.

With the Taiji diagram, Shen Lang's speed of absorbing spiritual energy was dozens of times faster than that of ordinary martial artists, so he unhesitatingly took out a few more spirit stones and absorbed their spiritual energy one by one.

Although the Taiji diagram could absorb elemental energy, Shen Lang's doubts about the unknown led him to continue the normal cultivation process in his dantian.

He wanted to cultivate both methods simultaneously, treating the Taiji diagram as another dantian.

After absorbing the spiritual energy from the fourth spirit stone, Shen Lang, who was about to continue, suddenly paused and let out a light "hmm."

Closing his eyes, he checked his body and saw that the dantian had already formed, with waves of spiritual energy surging within!

Not only that, but dozens of meridians in his body had also been unblocked, and his cultivation level had already reached the Second Heaven of the Qi Martial Realm!

"No wonder I felt unable to absorb more spiritual energy after absorbing the spiritual energy from four spirit stones. It turns out I've already reached the Second Heaven of the Qi Martial Realm. It seems I broke through while pondering the Nine Transcendences of Life and Death within the space of the Taiji diagram, otherwise, I wouldn't have noticed it."

This was actually quite normal. When martial artists cultivate, their spiritual energy rapidly circulates within their bodies, following the predetermined routes of their cultivation techniques along the eight extraordinary meridians, while simultaneously absorbing external spiritual energy and refining it.

For ordinary people, it takes about two hours, or one hour in martial arts time, for the spiritual energy to complete one full cycle in the body.

Shen Lang's eight extraordinary meridians had been flushed by the black and white energies, making them as smooth as a highway. If he deliberately cultivated, it would only take about six minutes for the spiritual energy to complete one full cycle in his body.

This was even before he used the powerful cultivation techniques from the memory of the War Emperor.

In one hour, he could complete ten full cycles.

Ordinary people couldn't even complete one full cycle in an hour...

The higher a martial artist's cultivation level, the faster their spiritual energy circulates, and the faster they absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. In the same amount of time, they can absorb more spiritual energy.

From this perspective, Shen Lang was already considered a freak.

More frighteningly, he had the Taiji diagram, which might be a mutated martial soul, and his speed of absorbing spiritual energy was more than ten times faster than that of ordinary martial artists!

"I'll have to study this Taiji diagram more thoroughly when I have time..."

Shen Lang chuckled, stood up, and headed directly to the Treasure Pavilion in Tianfeng City.

When he was at the Ninth Heaven of the Force Martial Realm, he didn't even take the Fifth Heaven of the Qi Martial Realm seriously. Now that his cultivation level had reached the Second Heaven of the Qi Martial Realm, it was more than enough to deal with the Shen family's clan affairs.

He needed to gather more materials.

Shen Lang walked down the street and beckoned to a small beggar crouched in the corner.

"Master Lang, is there anything you need help with?" The small beggar, about twelve or thirteen years old, though ragged, had very bright eyes and recognized Shen Lang.

Shen Lang took out a small bag of gold coins and tossed it to him, saying, "You should recognize Master Lin Feng of the Lin family and Master Su Hen of the Su family, right? Go to the city gate of the Tayan Academy's defense line and wait for them. When you see them, bring them to the Wind Listening Tavern opposite the Treasure Pavilion. Here are ten gold coins; you can spend them. When you bring them here, I'll give you another ten."

The small beggar was taken aback and subconsciously took the money bag without a word.

He recognized Master Shen Lang of the Shen family, having lived in Tianfeng City for several years. Because he recognized him, he couldn't believe that the other party would be so generous.

Ten gold coins!

Enough to feast for months!

"Yes, yes, yes, Master Lang, rest assured. I, Little Gui, will definitely get the job done!" Little Gui was quite clever and didn't even count the money, patting his chest repeatedly in agreement.

Shen Lang was about to praise him when he suddenly saw two figures walking ahead and smiled.

He saw a woman in a blue silk robe, her face veiled, walking gracefully through the crowd. Beside her were a man and a woman. The woman was Caiyin, the maid of Shui Qingwu, whom Shen Lang had saved on Blackwind Mountain, and the man was the black-clothed youth who had been saved with Caiyin.

At that time, Shen Lang had given each of them a Divine Speed Talisman to help them escape from the encirclement of the demonic corpses. He hadn't expected to meet them again here.

Accompanied by these two, and dressed in a blue silk robe, looking like a beauty who could topple a nation, who else could it be but Shui Qingwu?

Shen Lang ran over and gently tapped the veiled woman on the shoulder, saying, "Classmate Qingwu, what a coincidence to meet you here. I was just looking for you for something."