Chapter 2071: Heaven’s Reach
The ma.s.sive Sect of the Blood G.o.d suddenly became empty as everyone was gathered at the top of Qianyuan Mountain, including Du Mosheng, Pei Linhu, He Yuan and the other demonic cultivators who had submitted.
When the Black Demon Realm came charging in, no matter what the reason was, Du Mosheng and the rest did not flinch, and performed fairly well, and this quite satisfied Zhang Ruochen
Now that the Sect of the Blood G.o.d had need for talents, so Zhang Ruochen planned to raise the three of them. All three of them were bound by the Blood G.o.d’s Curse Seal, and was absolutely loyal, so he could safely invest various resources on them without worry.
Du Mosheng cultivated the Demonic G.o.d Devouring Portrait, and it was one of the four engravings that the Sect of the Blood G.o.d had kept in their collection, while Pei Linhu cultivated the Demonic Tiger Roar Portrait, which was also in Zhang Ruochen’s hands, but that was won from the Black Demon Realm through the gambit battle.
The Black Demon Realm had only recently obtained the Demonic Tiger Roar Portrait, so much so that Pei Linhu had not had the time to comprehend it at all. If he had not submitted to the Sect of the Blood G.o.d, he would be destined to never see this Demonstone Engraving.
For the cultivators who cultivated the Demonstone Engravings, the significance of directly comprehending from the true imprints was extremely huge, and only by comprehending the true imprints that one can hope to cultivate a powerful destructive demonic Qi.
He Yuan was also a cultivator of the Black Demon Realm, while he did not cultivate the Demonstone Engravings, Zhang Ruochen had one piece of the engraving that was very compatible with the demonic arts he had cultivated. This was also the reason why he had agreed to cooperate with Pei Linhu and the others.
And upon receiving Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation, Du Mosheng, Pei Linhu and He Yuan were naturally very excited, secretly feeling glad that they had made a wise choice. Not only they had saved their own lives, but also to receive such good treatment as they did now.
In the second year of seclusion, Zhang Ruochen’s cultivation level was truly at the peak of the Precept Dominion realm, the number of Saint Path Precepts in his body had reached 19,999,999, and was just one short of reaching 20 million precepts. Once successfully, he could enter the realm of Heaven’s Reach.
But Zhang Ruochen ran into a bottleneck at this stage, and unlike before, he was unable to breakthrough in a single go.
The Heaven’s Reach realm was no trivial matter, it was to reach into the heavens and draw upon its power into his body, refining his form and soul in preparation for casting his Immortal Saint Body later on.
After most people cultivated to the peak of Precept Dominion-realm, they need to go through a long period of acc.u.mulation, and then use that acc.u.mulation to break through that sliver into Heaven’s Reach-realm.
Like Du Mosheng, Pei Linhu, and He Yuan, they had been at the peak of Precept Dominion realm for quite some time now, but they too had been stuck at the bottleneck, and it was impossible to determine when they will be able to break through.
However, now that they have the opportunity to comprehend the Demonstone Engravings, perhaps they would be able to find an opportunity to break through their cultivation level.
“It seemed like I used to only increase the quant.i.ty of my saint path precepts but did not pay attention to quality, and had planted a hidden danger in my body. Of the nearly 20 million saint path precepts in my body, seventy percent are from cultivating the hundred thousand minor paths, and their ratio is far too big.”
Zhang Ruochen frowned and quickly found the problem.
With Zhang Ruochen’s fundamental apt.i.tude, if the saint path precepts he cultivated were strong enough, the Heaven’s Reach-realm would not become a bottleneck and could be easily broken through.
Since returning to Kunlun Realm, Zhang Ruochen had faced an endless stream of powerful enemies, and had been under tremendous pressure to find ways to improve his strength quickly.
In contrast, comprehending the hundred thousand minor paths to increase the amount of his saint path precepts was undoubtedly the fastest.
As a result, as his cultivation level increased, the proportion of the minor paths in Zhang Ruochen’s body became larger and larger, and was very difficult to reverse now.
The most troublesome thing was that once the saint path precepts was cultivated, although it was not impossible to change them, it was also extremely difficult.
“All of my saint path precepts are very closely integrated, if I were to rashly extracted some out, problems will definitely occur, and may even collapse my Heavenly Stream.”
Zhang Ruochen felt a headache, and could not help but to feel his hands tied.
The saint path precepts can be forcibly extracted from his body, but doing so rashly will have very serious consequences. A single carelessness could ruin his path forward, and end his path of cultivation.
But if this problem was not resolved, as a master of time and s.p.a.ce, the time Zhang Ruochen need to break through to the Heaven’s Reach realm will definitely not be short, and it was also a ma.s.sive trouble in itself.
Many thoughts flashed through Zhang Ruochen’s mind as he went through many methods. This was just a small twist in his path of cultivation, and if he cannot solve this, what else was there to talk about becoming a G.o.d?
“Perhaps this method may work.”
Zhang Ruochen whispered and stretched out to gently stroke the Armor of the Fire G.o.d on his body.
The next moment, he roused all of the Canons of Truth in his body, and infused them into his Armor of the Fire G.o.d.
A large amount of mysterious arcane runes appeared on the surface of the Armor of the Fire G.o.d as a terrifying flame rose.
With the help of the thirty-ninth of ten thousand Canons of Truth, Zhang Ruochen had undoubtedly further roused the power of the Armor of the Fire G.o.d.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen extracted ten saint path precepts from his Heavenly Stream, and floated them outside his body.
These saint path precepts were all minor path precepts. They looked very slender, and the power they contained was also very weak.
Zhang Ruochen placed the ten saint path precepts into the flames, and carefully tempered them.
The Armor of the Fire G.o.d was left behind by Huoshen back in the day, and the divine flame contained inside it was extremely terrifying and could immolate all things.
Not too long later, one of the minor path precepts showing signs of ablation.
Zhang Ruochen wore a serious look as he carefully controlled the flames coming out from the armor to allow the ten minor path precepts to fuse with each other.
It was obviously not easy to accomplish this, and if he did not do it well, these ten saint path precepts will all be destroyed.
BAAMM!!
A saint path precept burst into pieces and dissipated into nothingness.
Zhang Ruochen’s expression became grim, but he did not stop because of it, but instead became much more careful.
Even so, the ten saint path precepts still burst into pieces one after another, and were annihilated.
“Again.”
After some thought, Zhang Ruochen pulled out another ten minor path precepts out from the Heavenly Stream.
As before, he still used the flames of the Armor of the Fire G.o.d to temper them.
Unfortunately, the results this time was still the same as before.
However, Zhang Ruochen obviously had no intentions of giving up. After pausing for a while, he started again.
And just like that, after hundreds of attempts, and losing thousands of saint path precepts, even his Heavenly Stream experienced slight shocks and became a little unstable.
Finally, after combining the experience from his numerous attempts, the minor path precepts appeared to show signs of fusion, as ten fused into one, forming an incomplete but stout precept.
Seeing this, Zhang Ruochen did not hesitate as he immediately pulled out another dozen of saint path precepts and tempered them using the same method.
In this process, Zhang Ruochen used all of his spiritual power to grasp at every single detail.
After a while, a relatively stout saint path precept appeared in the tempering flames, and it was already very different in nature.
Looking at this brand new saint path precept, Zhang Ruochen suddenly smiled. “This makes losing thousands of saint path precepts worth it. Using thirty-three minor path precepts to merge into a single major path precept. While this process is difficult, it could be done.”
The Eternal Paths, the Supreme Paths, the Major and the Minor Paths all had a wondrous connection between each other.
The Nine Eternal Paths are the most fundamental of paths, with 72 Supreme Paths being derived from it, before 3,000 Major Paths and 100,000 Minor Paths were further derived from it.
In contrast, dozens of minor paths of the same type can be returned to form, and fuse into a Major Path.
If one were to push further forward, dozens of Major Paths of the smae time can, in theory, also fuse into a Supreme Path.
Of course, the theory may be that, but achieving it would be extremely difficult.
To Zhang Ruochen, only fusing Minor Paths into Major Paths could work, and he could simply just forget about the others.
“Now, I need to do my best in fusing my Minor Path Precepts into Major Path Precepts, and resolve this issue from my fundamentals.”
Now that a solution had been found, Zhang Ruochen naturally wanted to finish this matter as soon as possible.
Fusing was not an easy thing to do, and require incomparable care, and even if he found knack for it, it would still be difficult to quickly increase his efficiency.
As his Minor Path Precepts being reduced, Zhang Ruochen was undoubtedly able to cultivate even more powerful precepts.
In a blink of an eye, ten years had pa.s.sed.
The Minor Path Precepts in Zhang Ruochen’s body had been reduced by seven million, and fused into more than two hundred thousand Major Path Precepts.
At the same time, in this ten years, Zhang Ruochen had also cultivated another three million powerful Saint Path Precepts, and the number of Saint Path Precepts in his body still had about 16 million of them, and did not lead to a regression in his cultivation.
Now, the Minor Path Precepts in Zhang Ruochen’s body was less than seven million, accounting for forty percent of the total.
At this point, Zhang Ruochen stopped and no longer continue to fuse his Minor Path Precepts.
No cultivators can exist without Minor Path Precepts, which was an important foundation and was indispensable.
“Next, I should cultivate using this ratio. If my Minor Path Precepts get any lesser, my Heavenly Stream will become unstable.”
Zhang Ruochen whispered to himself, and already had a plan for his future cultivation.
Although the number of precepts had decreased, the size of the Heavenly Stream was significantly larger now.
There was no other reason, the Heavenly Stream had more powerful and stout precepts, and the power contained within it was far stronger than in the past.
With the strength of the Heavenly Stream now, its ability to mobilize the Precepts of Heaven and Earth, and the power of the land, be it in terms of radius or quant.i.ty, will be greatly increased.
Correspondingly, Zhang Ruochen’s own strength had also increased instead of decreasing.
As long as he re-cultivated to the peak of Precept Dominion-realm, his strength was bound to be greatly enhanced.
However, Zhang Ruochen also found a problem, that any kind of Saint Path Precepts, upon reaching half a million, would be very difficult to continue increasing their numbers.
Of the Saint Path Precepts in Zhang Ruochen’s body with the largest number of precepts, it was the Precepts of the Sword. Before his seclusion, he already than seven hundred thousand of them, which could be said to be a very rare achievement.
During this seclusion of almost twelve years, his Precepts of the Sword had increased by about seventy thousand. Zhang Ruochen’s understanding of the Path of the Sword became even more profound, and was even more confident to create his own sword technique.
After adjusting the Saint Path Precepts in his body, Zhang Ruochen once again threw himself into his deep cultivation. He wanted to continue increasing his cultivation, and at the same time, complete his four goals before he completes his seclusion.
On the fifteenth year of the seclusion, Du Mosheng broke through the bottleneck and broke into the realm of Heaven’s Reach.
More importantly, the Blood Sea Demonic Qi inside Du Mosheng undergone a metamorphosis, and at the moment of breaking through, the first trace of Destructive Demonic Qi appeared in his body.
A year later, Pei Linhu and He Yuan also broke into in the realm of Heaven’s Reach, but they were not as lucky as Du Mosheng, and had no idea when do they need to wait before they have the hope to cultivate the Destructive Demonic Qi.
Whoos.h.!.+
An extremely corporeal Sword soul flew out from Zhang Ruochen’s body.
A wisp of sword Qi sprayed out, forming a saint sword as it was held in the hands of the Sword Soul.
The Sword Soul held the sword and started swung it around. The technique on display was not advanced, and were all the most basic sword techniques, but it gave someone an impression of being very subtle yet spiritual.
As time pa.s.sed, the sword techniques used by the Sword Soul became deeper and deeper, as it performed all of the sword technique that Zhang Ruochen had learnt.
When the final form of the True Thunder-Fire Sword Technique was completed, the sword will from the Sword Soul suddenly changed.
The saint sword traversed a very bizarre trajectory as slight ripples appeared in s.p.a.ce, and the flow of time also showed subtle changes.
A crystal clear flower appeared out of nowhere, blooming slowly and beautifully. And at the moment this strange flower bloomed, there was obvious fluctuations in the surrounding time and s.p.a.ce.
A Sacred Artifact of Seventh Radiance flew out of Zhang Ruochen’s body, and entered the area enveloped by the sword will.
Hummmm
In an instant, countless tiny cracks appeared on the surface of the sacred artifact as it shattered, turning into dust.
Seeing this, a smile appeared on Zhang Ruochen’s face.
“I finally created the first form of my own technique. Now I have finally taken another huge step forward in the Path of the Sword.
Zhang Ruochen could not help but feel proud at the preliminary creation of his very own sword technique.
Although this sword technique had only just been created, and was not even close to perfect, but in terms of power, it should at least reach the level of a high level Saint Arts.
As long as it was further perfected, its power can still be further improved.
Zhang Ruochen combined everything he had learnt, and integrated the Path of Time and Path of Dimensions into his sword technique. Once used, it can form a special dimension that could envelope the enemy, trapping them and killing them.
Although the power of this attack was still not as powerful as the Swordsmans.h.i.+p of Time, it was easier to perform, and could be used in tandem with the Swordsmans.h.i.+p of Time.
Speaking of which, it was also because Zhang Ruochen had cultivated a large amount of Precepts of Time and Precepts of Dimension, and as his understanding of the Path of Time and the Path of Dimension that he can successfully create his own technique.
“This sword technique, lets call it the Blossoming Cadence.”
After some thought, Zhang Ruochen decided on the name of the sword technique.
Cadence represented time, and in Buddhism, there was a saying of one flower one world, and the flower represented s.p.a.ce, so this name was undoubtedly very appropriate.
BOOOMM!
At this moment, the flow of the Heavenly Stream suddenly accelerated, and instantly rushed out of Zhang Ruochen’s body.
“I did not expect that the creation of my own sword technique to be the opportunity for me to break into the realm of Heaven’s Reach.”
Seeing this Zhang Ruochen, the smile on Zhang Ruochen’s face grew even more brilliant.
The Heavenly Stream coiled around Zhang Ruochen, and flowed at an astonis.h.i.+ng speed as a series of saint path precepts swam in it like a fish, and was full of life.
Drawn by the Heavenly River as a wave of power of the land ripped through the air and poured into Zhang Ruochen’s body.
Originally, Zhang Ruochen’s physical body had reached its limits, and was difficult to further improve it.
But the moment the power of the land entering his body, he could clearly feel that the limit on his physical body being broken, and it became stronger bit by bit.
The effect of using the power of the land to refine his body was undoubtedly the best, and os Zhang Ruochen quickly refocused and devoted himself to cultivating.
Zhang Ruochen’s physical body was already extremely powerful, and at this moment, the benefits he would get was naturally far superior to ordinary persons.
Zhang Ruochen did not stop until his physical body was completely saturated and could no longer contain any more power of the land.
Next, he needed to let it settle down before he could continue to draw upon the power of the land to refine his body.
At this moment, the Heavenly Stream also became calm again as it submerged into Zhang Ruochen’s body.
At this point, Zhang Ruochen had truly entered the realm of Heaven’s Reach.
If we were to face powerhouses of the level of Zou Yu and Mo Sheng, fighting them would not be as strenuous as before.
“My Precept of Dimension have reached 280,000, and my Precept of Time has reached 210,000, my Precept of Truth, 480,000. Compared to before the seclusion, all of them have doubled, and are inline with my current cultivation level.”
Zhang Ruochen was quite satisfied with the results of his cultivation over the years.
Before his seclusion, he had set four goals for himself, and now he had completed three of them, leaving only the unlocking of the second seal on Yanshen’s Leg.
“My cultivation level had reached the Heaven’s Reach realm, and I should be able to unlock the second seal of Yanshen’s Leg, I hope I won’t be disappointed.”
Zhang Ruochen whispered as he looked forward to accomplis.h.i.+ng this.
Yanshen’s Leg was truly a divine leg and contained immense power. If not for the fact that Yueshen had placed four layers of seals in it, Zhang Ruochen would have never been able to control it.
Merely unlocking the first seal allowed him to have power that could threaten a Neverwither Supreme Saint. He can only wonder how powerful it would get after unlocking the second seal.
Rousing the Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean, Zhang Ruochen gathered all of the saint Qi in his body into his left leg.
At the same time, Zhang Ruochen also mobilized the essence of the Divine Sun in his Sea of Qi into his left leg.
Roused by the saint Qi and the essence of the divine sun, Zhang Ruochen’s left leg instantly turned crimson, like a red hot iron pillar as thick Precepts of the G.o.ds emerged.
“Shatter!”
When the power acc.u.mulation reached the limit, Zhang Ruochen let out a violent roar.
BOOM!
Like the falling of stars, a powerful force smashed upon the second seal on Yanshen’s Leg in a frenzy.
Even though the seal set by Yueshen was extremely strong, but under that impact, it quickly shattered.
The seal shattered, and an extremely violent force emerged in a frenzy, causing the surrounding s.p.a.ce to fragment.
Zhang Ruochen reacted extremely quickly, and immediately took out the Zangshan Demonic Mirror to seal the s.p.a.ce around him to prevent the power of Yanshen’s leg from spreading outwards.
This power was extremely terrifying, and it would be a catastrophe should it spread out.
“There’s a million Precepts of the G.o.ds in there, no wonder its so terrifying.”
Seeing the stout precepts coming out from his left leg, a look of shock appeared in Zhang Ruochen’s eyes.
He had known from a long time that it was impossible for Yanshen’s Leg to have only a hundred thousand Precept of the G.o.d, and most of them were sealed by Yueshen.
Only by breaking all four seals would the all of the Precepts of the G.o.ds to be fully revealed.
And at that moment, the power of Yanshen’s Leg could be used to destroy the entire world.
“With my current saint Qi foundation, it is not enough to fully rouse this one million Precepts of the G.o.ds. It seems like I need to further improve my cultivation level to unlock the power of the last two seals, and release them.”
Zhang Ruochen was shocked as he truly felt the power of Yanshen’s Leg.
Pulling back his saint Qi, Yanshen’s Leg gradually returned to normal, as the million strong Precepts of the G.o.ds became hidden again.
After some recuperation, the saint Qi in Zhang Ruochen’s body fully recovered, and his essence, Qi and spirit returned to its peak once again.
With all four goals being achieved, Zhang Ruochen inteded to leave his seclusion.
In all, he had been in seclusion for 24 years, and had spent 24 G.o.dstones, longer than any previous seclusion.
“I should come out from seclusion now. I’ll just stow the remaining nine G.o.dstones away first, perhaps they can be used again later.”
Zhang Ruochen looked at the Sundial with a thought in mind.
As the energy of the two G.o.dstones inlaid in it were exhausted, the Sundial fell silent and Zhang Ruochen grabbed it in his hand.
After staring at the Sundial for a moment did Zhang Ruochen put it away.
Then, Zhang Ruochen was about to stand up, but just as soon as he moved, his expression changed drastically. The reason was his left leg had became extremely heavy, and made it difficult for him to stand up.
“I never thought that after unlocking the second seal, it would be the same as the time I first got Yanshen’s Leg. It seems like I would be limping for a while now.”
After ascertaining the condition of his left leg, Zhang Ruochen could not help but to shake his head with a bitter smile.