Chapter 571: Preparing for a Plan
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Gu Danying appeared and escorted Chen Fei to the courtyard gate.
“You’re not bad. If you encounter any trouble within the Sea Dominion City, you can come find me,” Gu Danying said with a slight smile as he looked at Chen Fei.
Chen Fei glanced at Gu Danying with some surprise, then bowed in grat.i.tude.
Chen Fei wasn’t sure if this was Min Yanlu’s intention or if Gu Danying simply found him more agreeable, but having someone at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm willing to extend such a favor wasn’t a bad thing, at least.
After leaving the courtyard, Chen Fei didn’t immediately return to the cultivation chamber. Instead, he headed into the bustling market of Sea Dominion City.
The market was still lively, with numerous martial artists coming and going. Chen Fei took a stroll around and entered a shop.
Awhile later, he left, and the middle-grade elemental stones in his Qiankun Bag were slightly depleted, while he now possessed several high-grade third-tier elixirs.
Considering Chen Fei’s current cultivation level, he could actually benefit from consuming middle-grade third-tier elixirs, which offered the best cost-effectiveness.
But now, Chen Fei sought a faster way to advance his cultivation, prioritizing efficiency over cost-effectiveness.
As long as he had enough money and his body could handle it, consuming elixirs of even higher tiers would undoubtedly yield better results. Many people didn’t choose this path simply because high-grade third-tier elixirs were considerably more expensive.
Earning elemental stones wasn’t easy, and at present, the pockets of martial artists within the Sea Dominion City were quite affluent, mainly due to the increased number of sea demon slayings.
However, an increase in slayings didn’t necessarily mean a decrease in difficulty; many times, slaying sea demons was a necessity. Moreover, those who were still alive were the ones who saw their wealth increase.
In reality, there were even more martial artists who had lost their lives due to encounters with sea demons.
So, earning elemental stones remained a challenging task. In Sea Dominion City, there were often opportunities to make money, but whether there were opportunities to spend it was another question altogether.
Chen Fei hadn’t yet sold the items obtained from Ning Yanding and his companions. Although the market in the city may have seemed somewhat familiar, resembling the atmosphere of Bianhu City to some extent, there were still notable differences.
Now that he had learned the Blood Refining Art, Chen Fei could easily modify his aura and then sell those treasures. Even if someone had targeted him, they would have only been targeting a false ident.i.ty.
With the Blood Refining Art, the Shadow Escape Technique, and the Profound Heavenly Sword, once Chen Fei advanced in these three techniques, his strength would have seen a significant improvement.
Fortunately, due to the interface’s design, Chen Fei could simultaneously cultivate all three techniques without having to choose which one to prioritize.
Chen Fei returned to the cultivation chamber, first calming his breath as he sat cross-legged, then taking out the Celestial Azure Flower from the Qiankun Bag.
Having met Min Yanlu today, Chen Fei’s gains were not insignificant. Apart from this Celestial Azure Flower, he indirectly solved some of the problems with the moles, giving them no time to focus on him in the short term.
At the same time, Chen Fei learned a crucial element of cultivation in the Mountain Sea Realm from Min Yanlu.
Spiritual soul. It turned out that cultivation in the Mountain Sea Realm focused on the spiritual soul. Could it be that if the spiritual soul of someone in the Combined Aperture Tempering realm was strong enough, the likelihood of breaking through to the Mountain Sea Realm would be higher?
Chen Fei suddenly thought of how in the Visceral Tempering realm, strengthening the mind was crucial for breaking through to the Aperture Tempering realm. If the mind was powerful enough, while it didn’t guarantee a breakthrough to the Aperture Tempering realm from the Visceral Tempering realm, at least the success rate would increase significantly.
While the Profound Heavenly Sword integrated several top-notch techniques, the parts involving the spiritual soul were extremely rare. So, was this the reason why none of the forces had been able to break through to the Mountain Sea Realm?
According to Min Yanlu’s implication earlier, those who weren’t in the Mountain Sea Realm couldn’t cultivate the spiritual soul at all. Without cultivating the spiritual soul, the difficulty of breaking through to the Mountain Sea Realm couldn’t be reduced.
Between the two, it had become a kind of paradoxical relationship.
Unlike in the Visceral Tempering realm, where although it was difficult to refine the mind, there were at least some mental cultivation techniques that could be learned in advance. It was just that the difficulty of learning them was extremely high, not impossible.
In the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, the inability to comprehend spiritual soul techniques might be due to the lack of some crucial factors, such as insufficient purity and strength of the mind.
Many cultivation techniques had thresholds, and only when those thresholds were reached could one enter into them. The most common threshold was the apt.i.tude.
If the apt.i.tude didn’t meet the standard, some cultivation techniques would simply be impossible to learn.
By the Aperture and Visceral Tempering realms, the role of apt.i.tude would weaken significantly, becoming more about compatibility with the technique and one’s own innate comprehension.
“I want to reduce the difficulty of breaking through to the Mountain Sea Realm in the future. Either I find a spiritual soul cultivation technique to directly enhance it, or I start collecting special mental cultivation techniques now to continuously refine my mind!”
Even if other Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators couldn’t cultivate spiritual soul techniques, Chen Fei had the interface, so this limitation could be bypa.s.sed directly. If he couldn’t obtain such spiritual soul techniques, then he would have to resort to alternative methods to refine his mind.
Chen Fei was currently absorbing the essence of the Strange Heart Realm in the Strange Heart Realm, mainly to increase the quant.i.ty of his mental energy. As for the quality, it only improved along with the changes in his realm. Compared to other Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators, the advantage wasn’t significant.
If other Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators knew that Chen Fei was already planning for the Mountain Sea Realm, they would not only be shocked but also likely consider Chen Fei overly ambitious and unrealistic.
After all, Chen Fei hadn’t even reached the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm yet, and daring to think about the Mountain Sea Realm was seen as nothing short of foolishness.
Various thoughts crossed Chen Fei’s mind as he lowered his head to look at the Celestial Azure Flower in his hand.
The flower was entirely cyan, with a faint stream of light constantly flowing, emitting a gentle fragrance that filled the air, soothing the mind and spirit.
Chen Fei wiped his forehead with his right hand, and a beam of light enveloped the Celestial Azure Flower in his hand.
Although he felt the possibility of Min Yanlu harming him was extremely low—after all, if someone in the Mountain Sea Realm wanted to do something to a Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator, there were plenty of other methods, and Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivators had no resistance whatsoever.
Chen Fei, out of caution, still chose to examine it.
In the black-and-white world, several fine lines extended from the Celestial Azure Flower.
Since Chen Fei had integrated aspects of the Eye Technique from the Profound Heavenly Sword into his Heavenly Eye, its power had become increasingly powerful and comprehensive.
This kind of observation allows one to discern various information about an object directly from the object itself, something that other Eye Techniques simply can’t achieve.
Of course, whether there are similar Eye Techniques in the Mountain Sea Realm, Chen Fei doesn’t know. However, within the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, Chen Fei’s Heavenly Eye, which integrates various Eye Techniques, is unique within the Thousand Feathers Alliance.
Chen Fei examined the several branching fine lines on the Celestial Azure Flower, but he only briefly explored those that required a significant expenditure of mental energy.
Even so, Chen Fei ultimately depleted eighty percent of his mental energy before closing the Heavenly Eye on his forehead.
There were no tampering signs found on the Celestial Azure Flower, as revealed by the Heavenly Eye. Additionally, Chen Fei gleaned many characteristics of the Celestial Azure Flower from the Heavenly Eye.
Based on these characteristics, Chen Fei designed a method for consuming the Celestial Azure Flower in his mind.
This method could better refine the medicinal properties of the Celestial Azure Flower, avoiding the loss of its potency to other areas.
Otherwise, if it were simply ingested, at least thirty percent or more of the medicinal properties would fail to penetrate into the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, ultimately becoming elemental energy, which would be quite a waste.
Min Yanlu either didn’t care or wasn’t aware of any special consumption methods, as he didn’t provide any specific instructions before.
Behind Chen Fei, a shadowy figure emerged, swiftly solidifying into a distinct ent.i.ty—it was the clone created by Chen Fei’s Shadow Escape Technique.
The clone took the Qiankun Bag handed over by the main body of Chen Fei and then left the cultivation chamber.
After a moment, the clone returned and handed the Qiankun Bag back to Chen Fei. Chen Fei then extracted some spiritual materials from it.
Not intending to refine pills, Chen Fei knew that using the Celestial Azure Flower as the main ingredient in pill recipes he was familiar with might result in unintended consequences.
Instead, Chen Fei instructed his clone to purchase these spiritual materials to simply prepare some medicinal liquid. By using this medicinal liquid as a catalyst, Chen Fei could greatly enhance the effectiveness of refining the Celestial Azure Flower.
Half an hour later, the purchased spiritual materials had disappeared, turning into a bowl of amber-colored liquid.
Chen Fei stored the liquid and the Celestial Azure Flower in the Qiankun Bag, then closed his eyes to begin replenishing his depleted mental energy.
However, the elemental energy within Chen Fei’s body didn’t cease; instead, he activated the Heavenly Escape Technique and the Three Lives Slicing Shadow Sword Technique. Meanwhile, cuts opened on both of his arms, and blood began to flow, swirling around the entire cultivation chamber before being absorbed into the other arm.
As he restored his mental energy and absorbed insights from his techniques, the entire cultivation chamber fell into silence.
After nearly five hours had pa.s.sed, Chen Fei’s mental energy finally fully recovered.
Chen Fei ceased practicing his techniques, took out the Celestial Azure Flower and the prepared medicinal liquid, and then swallowed them together.
The Celestial Azure Flower dissolved upon entering his mouth, turning into a green energy that dispersed throughout his body, penetrating every limb and bone. The same happened with the prepared medicinal liquid.
The Celestial Azure Flower had miraculous effects on the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, but during refinement, it had to be done quickly because the Celestial Azure Flower could also aid in the growth of elemental energy.
Chen Fei formed seals with his hands, activating the Profound Heavenly Sword, and forced the energy of the Celestial Azure Flower from his limbs and bones, gathering it near his Combined Aperture Tempering realm.
At this point, the previously prepared medicinal liquid began to take effect. The energy from these liquids mixed with the energy from the Celestial Azure Flower, and Chen Fei could easily extract it.
Almost ninety-nine percent of the energy from the Celestial Azure Flower was drawn to the vicinity of Chen Fei’s Combined Aperture Tempering realm, then slowly integrated into it.
A peculiar sensation spread within his Combined Aperture Tempering realm. It seemed that something subtle was being broken apart within the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, then quickly rea.s.sembled.
Subjectively, it bore some resemblance to Chen Fei’s usual use of the Splitting Harmonization Technique, but while the Splitting Harmonization Technique was responsible for destruction, the Celestial Azure Flower was involved in rea.s.sembly.
Chen Fei completely controlled the elemental energy surrounding his Combined Aperture Tempering realm, preventing it from refining the energy of the Celestial Azure Flower and allowing only the energy of the Celestial Azure Flower to touch the Combined Aperture Tempering realm.
This required absolute control over elemental energy, a skill that most Combined Aperture Tempering realm martial artists could achieve. The difficulty lay in quickly extracting the energy of the Celestial Azure Flower as it dispersed into the flesh.
Even a slight delay would result in the Celestial Azure Flower truly melding into the flesh, making the body tougher.
Many things weren’t difficult; the challenge lay in antic.i.p.ating and preparing in advance..