Chapter 112: Fight
“This is…… a seventh…… Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique?” Youthful Abundance muttered in shock. Even though she didn’t recognize the Arcana Technique that Su Chen had just activated, the veritable sea of Origin Energy she could sense emulating from his body clearly signified to Youthful Abundance that Azure Mark was already a Seventh-Ring Arcana Master.
Seventh-Ring Arcana Masters were already incredibly powerful amongst Sky Country.
But more importantly, hadn’t he just reached the Sixth-Ring realm?
Even though Youthful Abundance had been surprised by Su Chen’s ascension from Fifth-Ring to Sixth-Ring, she was still able to accept it. Perhaps he had already been on the verge of breaking through.
But using two Sixth-Ring Arcana Techniques immediately after breaking through was already heaven-defying. And now, he was using a Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique.
The entire Wind-Gathering Clan was dumbfounded.
Breaking through two realms in rapid succession challenged everyone’s understanding of the world.
Had he already been at the Sixth-Ring earlier and had just never showed it off?
That was the only possible explanation.
At this moment, Su Chen had basically finished the process of burning his own consciousness power to strengthen his soul mastery.
Now that his soul mastery was up to par, he discovered that his consciousness power had decreased from 2300 units or so down to about 1700.
In other words, he had burned away roughly six hundred units of consciousness energy.
This was quite a significant decrease. Even Su Chen couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow run through his heart.
But the resulting increase was worth it. Su Chen discovered that his soul mastery had indeed greatly increased.
The most obvious manifestation was that he could now construct his Divine Palaces.
The Spirit Burning Realm was defined by a cultivator’s ability to construct these palaces.
And the foundation of these palaces was consciousness energy.
Yang Opening Realm cultivators primarily focused on improving their control of Origin Energy, Light Shaking Realm cultivators on the strength of their human body, and Spirit Burning Realm cultivators on the strength of their consciousness.
A Spirit Burning Realm cultivator’s progress was symbolized by the formation of their eight Divine Palaces. These eight Divine Palaces were like eight important steps that led up to the formation of a powerful consciousness for humans.
Before this, a person’s consciousness strength would directly correlate to a number. Past this point, however, a cultivator would finally obtain a way to harness that strength and apply it meaningfully.
Because he had an incredibly strong foundation, Su Chen’s breakthrough into the Spirit Burning Realm was much easier than his breakthrough into the Light Shaking Realm. The only reason why he had waited this long was because he was searching for a more effective method for breaking through. Not only was he looking for a way to breakthrough without a bloodline, but he was also searching for a way to give him greater strength than a person with a bloodline.
He had never expected that after his soul mastery had reached the Seventh Ring, his body would automatically reach a point where it was prepared to construct his Divine Palaces.
He could sense that, as long as he willed it, he would be able to form his first Divine Palace.
But at this point, Su Chen wasn’t even at the peak of the Light Shaking Realm yet.
He only had four Lotus Platforms.
Forming a Divine Palace while only having four Lotus Platforms was unheard of.
Lotus Platforms didn’t only exist to increase a person’s strength; they also served as a foundation for forming Divine Palaces.
And now, Su Chen’s actions had obviously altered this foundation. Even though he wasn’t anywhere close to the peak of the Light Shaking Realm, he could still enter the Spirit Burning Realm if he wanted to.
This would definitely cause a major stir if others were to find out about it.
Should he construct it right now?
Su Chen resolutely rejected this thought not long after it surfaced in his mind.
First of all, he hadn’t managed to develop a superior ascension method yet. Second of all, there was still value in forming the rest of his Lotus Platforms.
Su Chen believed his current strength was enough and thus was in no hurry to increase his strength.
On the other hand, this experience had allowed him to better understand the gap between the Spirit Burning Realm and the Light Shaking Realm, which would then allow him to make better preparations in the future.
“Hm, it seems that Arcana Techniques do in fact have quite a bit of value,” Su Chen murmured with a faint smile.
s.h.i.+ Kaihuan had once strongly opposed his cultivation of Arcana Techniques.
The result was that his face had been slapped once while they had developed the Blood Boiling Realm technique, and now it would be slapped yet again.
But that was fine. They were all on the same side, and s.h.i.+ Kaihuang would definitely be happy to have his face slapped like this.
Forcibly reaching the Seventh-Ring had cost Su Chen even more than reaching the Sixth-Ring. This time, he had burned through thirty Lifesource Candles even with his strong foundation and his consciousness energy as the fuel. Any other path would have most likely cost even more.
Otherwise, it would have been way too easy to become a high-tier Arcana Master.
After ascending, Su Chen immediately learned this Soul Transmission skill and activated it, connecting his will with those strange creatures. Su Chen suddenly felt a barrage of chaotic thoughts enter his mind.
These creatures were incredibly simple, so even though there were many of them, they were all thinking the same thing:. “This is too scary,” “I don’t want to die,” “Surrender! Surrender!” and “Mama……” were the most common ones floating through his head.
There was nothing Su Chen could do about this.
He realized that even though this skill was very strong, simultaneously managing the thoughts of so many lifeforms was also incredibly bothersome.
It was as if his mind had suddenly been filled by a large crowd of bickering guests. Su Chen actually felt defeated rather than victorious. And that was only because these creatures were simple. If he were communicating with the more intelligent humans or Harpies, Su Chen probably would have already gone mad.
It became abundantly clear to him that he couldn’t afford to use this Arcana Technique lightly.
Su Chen sharply barked, “Shut your mouths!”
His will was transmitted to the creatures, who simultaneously stopped making noise and fell into silence.
But Su Chen very quickly discovered that this was pointless.
Even though the creatures weren’t saying anything, Su Chen was still able to perceive their thoughts as their souls were connected.
The bickering and arguing was still happening, though at a much more manageable level now.
Su Chen couldn’t tell the creatures to stop thinking, but he was getting extremely annoyed. After a moment’s thought, he decided to dedicate a portion of his consciousness crystal to handle any thoughts that came from them.
Su Chen did this on the spot to deal with the chaotic thoughts of these creatures.
This method actually ended up being quite effective.
Su Chen quickly found that the commotion had died down. Any thoughts coming through the Soul Transmission were sent into this separate compartment of his consciousness crystal.
The only drawback to this was that this would yet again cut down on Su Chen’s effective consciousness power.
Su Chen’s 1700 units of consciousness power fell another 200 units as a result.
And this was only based on the current situation, too. If Su Chen were to connect with even more minds, he would need to set aside even more consciousness power.
But that didn’t matter. He could just spend a bit more time cultivating his consciousness power in the future.
Su Chen hadn’t cultivated his consciousness power much because his foundation hadn’t been stable enough in the past. Now was a perfect time to strengthen this aspect of his cultivation.
With Patelocke’s True Spirit Scripture, it wouldn’t take him too long to recuperate from these losses.
After taking care of this matter, Su Chen glanced around his surroundings, only to find that those Harpies were still standing around.
Youthful Abundance saw that Su Chen seemed to have resolved the matter. She flew over and said, “Sir Azure Mark, earlier……”
Su Chen raised his hand to stop her from speaking further. “I already know about the small schemes the Wind-Gathering clan tried to pull on me. You don’t need to tell me, and I don’t really mind. Our agreement has been fulfilled. I saved you guys, and you have repaid me. We can go our separate ways now.”
Even though he had been tricked by the Wind-Gathering Clan at first, he wouldn’t be Su Chen if he hadn’t eventually realized what had happened.
But he didn’t really care.
He hadn’t ever considered the Wind-Gathering Clan to be stalwart allies, so he had never really expected them to be loyal or to uphold their promise.
If you can trick me, then do so with your own abilities. As someone who was constantly scheming against others, it would have been strange if Su Chen had been that offended.
Youthful Abundance was stunned.
It was over just like that?
She didn’t need to follow him around anymore?
Early on, she had been forced by Su Chen to follow him, so her heart had been filled with hatred and resent. But now that she had her freedom, however, she was a bit unwilling.
She recalled that nothing particularly bad had ever happened to her while following Sir Azure Mark. Actually, her status amongst the clan had even gone up. In addition, Azure Mark was clearly very learned, and his knowledge base was incredibly vast. Just by following him around, she had learned quite a bit.
She hadn’t thought so at the time, but she immediately felt unwilling to part now.
Where would she go to find another teacher like Su Chen?
When her thoughts reached this point, she couldn’t help but yell out, “Sir Azure Mark, I want to follow you!”
“Oh? Follow me?” Su Chen chuckled as he looked at her.
He shook his head. “You and I should have never crossed paths in the first place. You’re better off returning to where you came from.”
As he spoke, he turned to glance at the other Harpies, including the Hunting Wind Bandits.
Even though it was a faint glance, all of the Harpies who noticed it trembled.
Su Chen then said, “As for the Hunting Wind Bandits, if you want to rob people, go somewhere else. The Wind-Gathering Clan’s Harpies here are under my protection. Understood?”
Even though his tone was merciless, he had still given the Wind-Gathering Clan a final helping hand in the end.
How could the Hunting Wind Bandits possibly dare disregard his words at this juncture? The Wingless Harpy at the very front nodded hurriedly. “I understand.”
Even though he was brave and valiant, he knew to submit to an opponent he couldn’t possibly defeat.
Since the other party had already given a command, the Hunting Wind Bandits paid their respects to Youthful Abundance and the others before turning around and leaving quickly.
The Wind-Gathering Clan and the other independent Harpies glanced around at each other before beginning to converse amongst themselves.
Youthful Abundance stared at Su Chen. Even though he was right in front of her, she felt like he was suddenly so very far away.
A pang of sorrow suddenly surfaced in her heart as she stared at him.
She felt like she had missed out on something big.
As sorrow filled her heart, the tears began to overflow.
When he saw her like this, Wind-Gathering Evergreen couldn’t help but shake his head.
He knew that his clan had probably made a mistake this time around.
However, since the matter had already taken place, it was impossible for them to choose another path.
When Su Chen saw her like this, he could only sigh. “There are some more guests coming to see me soon. If you don’t want to be dragged in, it’d be best for you all to leave now.”
Everyone was taken aback when they heard this.
Wind-Gathering Evergreen picked up Youthful Abundance, motioning for them to leave.
She was quite stubborn, however. The more Su Chen spoke like that, the more unwilling she was to go.
Wind-Gathering Evergreen could only helplessly drag her away forcefully.
Even if they wanted to watch, they would need to do so from a distance.
As they retreated, yet another group of Harpies appeared on the horizon.
It was Li Daohong and the others.
They had still shown up in the end.
They were charging in Su Chen’s direction at a rapid pace. It seemed that they had already locked onto Su Chen’s position.
Apart from Li Daohong, Night G.o.d Sun and the rest of their subordinates were also present. A large group of experts from both Liaoye Country and the Mother G.o.ddess Sect had intermixed into a cohesive group. There were even quite a few Spirit Burning Realm cultivators and Seventh-Ring Arcana Masters in their group.
Su Chen’s only response at seeing such a powerful group of individuals was a slight smile.
He said, “You’re finally here.”
Night G.o.d Sun also smiled faintly. “Night G.o.d Sun greets Sir Azure Mark. I have been waiting to meet you for a long time.”
Unexpectedly, Su Chen shook his head. “I’m not talking to you.”
Hm?
Night G.o.d Sun was taken aback.
Li Daohong then spoke up and said, “Have you been waiting here to return my consciousness power to me?”
Unexpectedly, Su Chen continued to shake his head.
He continued, “I’m not talking to you either.”
Night G.o.d Sun and Li Daohong’s expressions simultaneously changed drastically.
Su Chen glanced even further behind them at a seemingly empty patch of earth and said, “What? Do I need to drag you out from there personally?”
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