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Chapter 369 - 369: Great Disparity
Chapter 369 - 369: Great Disparity
Chapter 369: Great Disparity
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Among cultivators, it was rare to hear someone snoring while sleeping. It wasn’t to say it never happened, but it definitely belonged to the minority. After all, martial cultivation was a continuous process of self-improvement.
It was similar to how cultivators rarely fell ill. Unless a cultivator was injured, leading to bodily issues, common ailments like a cold were nearly impossible to afflict them.
As one’s cultivation level increased, this phenomenon became even more pronounced. At the Visceral tempering realm, many substances that would be highly toxic to ordinary people could be ingested by cultivators and subsequently expelled by circulating their vitality.
Chen Fei contemplated the information on the simplified panel for a moment, then pursed his lips and emitted a snoring sound.
Within his sea of consciousness, there was no sudden enlightenment regarding the Great Thunder Sword technique. His first attempt had failed.
Chen Fei furrowed his brows slightly, thought for a moment, closed his eyes, and continued to produce the snoring sound.
This time, the sensation of the Great Thunder Sword technique appeared directly in Chen Fei’s sea of consciousness. As he increased the volume of his snoring, the speed of his enlightenment seemed to rise as well.
The louder the sound, the more enlightenment he gained, until it echoed throughout the entire secret chamber like thunder.
Even with Chen Fei’s current physical constitution, without specific vocal training, a loud shout would likely result in severe injury or even death in the Visceral tempering realm. At the very least, he would become extremely dizzy and disoriented, unable to see.
One could imagine just how loud the sound in the secret chamber had become. Fortunately, there was a formation covering the chamber, preventing the noise from escaping outside.
Otherwise, the entire Primordial Sword Sect would probably have heard Chen Fei’s thunderous snores at this moment.
As the almost roaring snores continuously emanated from Chen Fei’s mouth, realizations regarding the Great Thunder Sword technique cascaded into his sea of consciousness like an avalanche.
Chen Fei savored it like sweet candy, absorbing these insights without pause. A hint of a smile graced his face. It was the joy of enlightenment, and any person would probably go mad with delight at the speed of cultivation provided by such a technique.
With the third level of the Primordial Sword Scripture, the Blade-Slaying Sword, the Water-Jade Sword, and the Great Thunder Sword, Chen Fei devoted all his time to practicing them.
Except for occasional news of alchemical tasks from the Alchemist Alliance that took him outside Immortal Cloud City, Chen Fei didn’t rest.
He resembled a true ascetic, yet he felt no pain or discomfort. Instead, he reveled in it. After all, every moment brought him tangible progress.
The four techniques progressed rapidly, and his opening of acupoints, fueled by ample resources, left no room for neglect, accumulating elemental energy at an astonishing speed.
Simultaneously, the support from the Primordial Sword Sect reached an unprecedented level.
The Sect Master, Qu Qingsheng, and Elder Zhou Zixuan drastically increased Chen Fei’s monthly cultivation allotment. This wasn’t just because Chen Fei had recovered the lost techniques of the sect but also because of his nearly monstrous talent.
To not support such talent would have been the height of foolishness for the sect. If they could accelerate Chen Fei’s cultivation within a short time, it would provide the sect with formidable combat power much sooner.
Due to the need to conceal Chen Fei’s true cultivation level and the recovered techniques, the resources allocated to his growth were given secretly by Qu Qingsheng.
This arrangement somewhat violated the sect’s rules, for if it were discovered by others, it could pose a significant threat to the unity and stability of the entire sect.
However, after Qu Qingsheng and Zhou Zixuan discussed it, they decided to proceed discreetly. Revealing Chen Fei too early would have more disadvantages than advantages. Without sufficient reason, they couldn’t convince the other elders.
In that case, it was better to act first and explain later. In a few years, even if those elders learned about these matters, there would be enough reasons to provide explanations.
The cultivation of the new techniques went smoothly, and there was no hindrance in opening acupoints. In less than a month, Chen Fei had opened seven more acupoints, bringing the total number of acupoints to fifty-two.
The pinnacle of the middle stage of the aperture tempering realm required the opening of seventy-two acupoints. Chen Fei’s current number of acupoints was already approaching half of that.
And it had been less than three months since Chen Fei broke through to the middle stage of the aperture tempering realm.
In three months, he had opened sixteen acupoints. This speed was simply astounding.
For many newly advanced individuals, three months might not even be enough time to stabilize their realm, as they were still adapting to the changes in the powers of the middle stage of the aperture tempering realm.
But for Chen Fei, he had already reached the middle stage of the aperture tempering realm, taking a significant leap forward.
For everyone, as their cultivation realms advanced, their cultivation speed would slow down. Almost no one could defy this rule. Many prodigies might reach the peak of the Visceral tempering realm before the age of twenty.
However, at the age of twenty-five, they might only break through to the Early-stage of the aperture tempering realm. Then, it might take another thirty years to reach the Middle-stage of the aperture tempering realm.
Breaking through a minor realm in thirty years was considered extremely fast, and it would typically involve very few obstacles. Otherwise, just advancing from the Early-stage of the aperture tempering realm to the Middle-stage of the aperture tempering realm might take several years.
As one reached the Middle-stage of the aperture tempering realm, continuing to cultivate upwards became more challenging due to the constraints of core soul energy and comprehension of techniques. The cultivation speed would begin to decrease.
Wanting to break through to the Late-stage of the aperture tempering realm in just thirty years was not impossible, but it was extremely difficult. It required a combination of talent, resources, and determination.
This timeframe was for a genius’s cultivation. For those with less talent or inferior techniques, or even those who lacked resources, the time required would be much longer.
Chen Fei had spent three months opening sixteen acupoints, which was even faster than his cultivation speed in the early stages of the Middle-stage of the aperture tempering realm. It was unbelievably fast.
At this point, Chen Fei had already consumed over half of the resources he obtained from Yashan Sect. His pace of cultivation had to slow down.
This was because Chen Fei’s core soul energy was catching up to the number of acupoints.
Originally, after obtaining the source in the bizarre city, Chen Fei’s core soul energy had reached the level of controlling forty-nine acupoints. After breaking through to the Middle-stage of the aperture tempering realm, his core soul energy had been tempered to control fifty-one acupoints.
Through this period of cultivation, his core soul energy had reached fifty-two acupoints, perfectly matching the number of acupoints he had opened. Chen Fei could continue to open more acupoints, and having them slightly exceed his core soul energy was not a significant issue. Many cultivators from major sects experienced this situation.
For instance, in the current Immortal Cloud Sword Sect, due to the supply of spirit pills, the speed of acupoint opening had increased significantly. However, the supply of spirit pills that enhanced core soul energy was scarce. This resulted in many elders in the Immortal Cloud Sword Sect having acupoint numbers higher than their core soul energy.
This could result in some sluggishness when channeling elemental energy. Chen Fei didn’t want this situation to happen to him because it wouldn’t make much sense. Having one or two more acupoints wouldn’t significantly impact his combat power.
On the contrary, if the acupoints were higher than his core soul energy and he couldn’t fully control the power, it could lead to a decrease in his combat ability, which would be more of a loss than a gain.
The resources from Yashan Sect were an unexpected windfall for Chen Fei. According to his original cultivation plan, his core soul energy would gradually increase through the stimulation and nurturing of elemental energy and techniques. Opening one or two acupoints per month would take at least two to three years to catch up to his core soul energy. However, now he had achieved a three-year plan in just three months.
During this month, in addition to the rapid increase in acupoint numbers, Chen Fei made significant progress in his comprehension of techniques.
He had successfully cultivated the third layer of the Primordial Sword Scripture to perfection. After all, the Primordial Sword Scripture he had obtained from Long Rainbow Sect contained a small portion of the third layer. At that time, Chen Fei had been continuously pondering and even considered whether he could use his own power to completely fill the gaps in the third layer.
Due to the considerable amount of time invested previously, Chen Fei was able to complete the third layer quickly once it was filled. While many elders in the Primordial Sword Sect were still diligently practicing the first layer of the Primordial Sword Scripture, Chen Fei had already mastered the third layer. The disparity represented a significant gap that would continue to widen in the future.
As soon as the third layer of the Primordial Sword Scripture was completed, Chen Fei integrated the Soaring Heaven Technique into the manual. This enhanced the power of the sword formation, increasing the speed of each sword pearl significantly. While the strength remained the same as before, the overall power was incomparable.
The same power, when unleashed at different speeds, yields significantly different results. It’s a mutually reinforcing effect, where both aspects are indispensable.
Apart from enhancing the sword formation, Chen Fei didn’t neglect the other three cultivation techniques—Blade-Slaying Sword, Water-Jade Sword, and Great Thunder Sword. He advanced steadily towards mastery in all of them.
In particular, the progress in mastering the Great Thunder Sword had left the Blade-Slaying Sword and Water-Jade Sword behind, requiring only a small portion more to reach the level of mastery.
It’s worth mentioning that despite the peculiar nature of the simplification of the Great Thunder Sword, the speed of cultivation was truly remarkable. After all, the Blade-Slaying Sword and Water-Jade Sword still required swordplay techniques, while the Great Thunder Sword only demanded loud shouting with eyes closed. The louder the shout, the faster the cultivation, naturally putting it far ahead of the other two disciplines.
While Chen Fei was immersed in his intensive training, oblivious to worldly matters, significant changes were unfolding outside the mountain gate. These changes were instigated by the presence of the personified menace known as the eerie being, Master Xi Lian.
Eerie beings could be considered the arch-nemesis of humanity, whether ordinary people or cultivators. When an eerie being regards you as food, reconciliation becomes impossible.
If it was an eerie being of any other cultivation level, Shang Wu City would probably have been wiped out by now. However, this was a combined aperture tempering realm eerie being. Non-combined aperture tempering realm human cultivators couldn’t possibly stop Master Xi Lian.
For cultivators of other realms, going to Shang Wu City would mean certain death. The number of casualties would be meaningless, and in fact, a larger number might accelerate the transformation of Shang Wu City.
While there was no unanimous agreement on the combined aperture tempering realm-level collective attack, dozens of miles around Shang Wu City were already occupied by major factions, closely monitoring the changes in Shang Wu City..