Chapter 423: Heaven Nine
Translator: Truth
Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys
The more pill poison one had accumulated in their body, the harder it was to unlock a Spiritual Point.
Lu Ye had been burning the pill poison inside his body with the Tree of Glyphs since the day he started cultivating. Although there was a period where he accumulated an enormous amount of pill poison because the Tree of Glyphs had run out of fuel, it was gone almost as soon as he replenished its fuel.
Therefore, his Spiritual Power was purer than anyone at the Spirit Creek Realm level. It was why he never encountered too much trouble when unlocking his Spiritual Points.
In terms of unlocking speed though, no one was faster than Ju Jia. His meteoric rise from the Heaven-Grade Seventh-Order Realm to the Cloud River Realm was an unprecedented feat in the history of Jiu Zhou—though to be fair, no cultivator had ever had a Mutant Core either.
Lu Ye channeled his Spiritual Power and began attacking the barrier surrounding the last Spiritual Point.
The last Spiritual Point was very close to the Source Spiritual Point. In fact, it was almost right next to it. When a cultivator first embarked on the journey of cultivation, the very first Spiritual Point they unlocked was the Source Spiritual Point, and the last Spiritual Point they unlocked was very close to that. When all the Spiritual Points were joined together to form a Cosmic Orbit, a cultivator would ascend to the Cloud River Realm.
He mustered his Spiritual Power and attacked the barrier again and again. Finally, the barrier crumbled under the persistent attack, and his Spiritual Power flooded into the Spiritual Point until it was completely filled.
With this, he had finally attained perfection at the Spirit Creek Realm level!
The Spiritual Points of a cultivator were scattered throughout one’s body. If a cultivator were to lose a limb or two, their fighting strength would suffer greatly not just because losing a limb in general was bad, but also because they would lose the Spiritual Points in it. In fact, the loss of the Spiritual Points would affect their fighting strength even more than the limb itself.
Limb regeneration was a pipedream in the Cultivation World of Jiu Zhou. No one had ever managed to perform such a feat. That said, limb replantation was definitely doable. As long as the severed limb was still intact, then there was always the chance that it could be reconnected to the body.
But of course, it would take a highly skilled medicine cultivator to perform the treatment.
When a cultivator had unlocked all three hundred and sixty Spiritual Points in their body, they were considered to have achieved perfection at the Spirit Creek Realm level. One could also say that they had reached the end of the Spirit Creek Realm.
Generally speaking, only Tier-Three sect cultivators or higher had the chance to attain perfection.
It wasn’t because the cultivation methods of sects that were Tier-Three or higher were special or something, but because they had recruited all the talented disciples during the recruitment ceremony, leaving behind only the dredges to the lower sects. Naturally, rarely anyone from the lower sects were talented enough to reach Heaven Nine.
Take the Three Sages School’s recruitment ceremony for example. The Three Sages School was the organizer, and the other sects were the co-organizers. Naturally, the right to the best-performing disciples of the recruitment ceremony went to the Three Sages School. This method of selection guaranteed that the big sects would always have a big pool of outstanding talents, and the small sects the opposite.
But of course, nothing was absolute in this world. Some people were rocks at the beginning of their cultivation journey until time eventually polished them into gems. They represented a smaller sect’s chance to increase their Tier.
Any cultivator who managed to attain perfection at the Spirit Creek Realm level was guaranteed to ascend to the Real Lake Realm, and had an eighty to ninety percent chance to ascend to the Divine Ocean Realm—assuming they did not perish before getting there, of course!
The competition in Jiu Zhou was as brutal as it was fierce. It was all too common for a talented cultivator to die long before they achieved their full potential.
Take Lu Ye for example. The amount of Heaven Nine cultivators he had massacred since he came to the Core Circle could bring a grown man to tears, not to mention that he had slaughtered nearly everyone he challenged while climbing the Scroll of Supremacy.
After unlocking his last Spiritual Point, Lu Ye mustered his Spiritual Point and began connecting the last sixty Spiritual Points together to form a Microcosmic Orbit. A blast of air and a buzzing sound from his body later, Lu Ye finally reached the Heaven-Grade Ninth-Order Realm!
At the same time, Lu Ye felt that something was different from before. Before he achieved Heaven Nine, his Microcosmic Orbits were individual systems that were mutually exclusive from each other. However, the moment his ninth Microcosmic Orbit was formed, he suddenly felt as if the Circulation Systems were resonating with one another. Not only was his Spiritual Power flowing at a much faster rate than before, he could actually hear them flowing inside his body like river streams if he paid attention.
At this point, Lu Ye could ascend to the Cloud River Realm any time he wanted to. All he needed to do was to connect all his Spiritual Points together to form a Cosmic Orbit. It was a completely painless process.
He wasn’t going to do that, of course. Forget that he hadn’t received the maximum amount of rewards from the Heavens, he still had a bone to pick with the Thousand Demon Ridge. He had been stewing in resentment since the day he was forced back into the Myriad Poison Forest. Now that he was finally Heaven Nine, how could he not unleash his vengeance to his heart’s content?
Even if that wasn’t the case, he still had many things he needed to do before he ascended. He reckoned he would have to linger at the Spirit Creek Battlefield for another month or two at least.
Since he reached the Heaven-Grade Seventh-Order Realm, he had switched to the Great Sun Veluriyam Technique. It cost over five thousand and two hundred Contribution Points and was the most expensive and suitable cultivation technique he could find in the Vault of Providence.
How did a cultivator determine if a cultivation technique is good or bad for them? It depended on the order it connected one’s Spiritual Points. Different orders led to different pathways, different pathways led to different flow speed, and different flow speed led to different boosts in power…
To put it simply, the best cultivation technique was one that maximized a Spiritual Power flow speed. After all, the faster one’s Spiritual Power flowed, the greater the power boost!
To give an example, the lousiest Heaven-Grade cultivation technique was several times cheaper than the Great Sun Veluriyam Technique, but the difference in the Spiritual Power flow speed they provided was ten or even twenty percent apart.
A twenty percent gap in flow speed was like a twenty percent difference in strength. It might be expensive, but who wouldn’t want to be twenty percent stronger than the average Heaven-Grade cultivator?
Not only that, the Great Sun Veluriyam Technique had a minor body tempering effect as well. He literally did not think to do anything besides circulating his Spiritual Power to slowly improve his body.
Personally, Lu Ye could not feel the improvement. Maybe it was because his body was so strong that the gains were literally imperceptible, or maybe the increments were made to feel natural so that it wouldn’t throw him off balance.
One thing was certain, he had purchased this from the Vault of Providence. It was stated in the description that it provided a minor body tempering effect, and so it must even if he couldn’t perceive it.
Lu Ye was going to leave, but not now. Newly formed Microcosmic Orbits were generally unstable, so he would need to wait a few days for it to stabilize. It would be super awkward if he was fighting, and his new Microcosmic Orbit suddenly stopped circulating. Depending on the situation, the sudden decline in strength could absolutely cost him his life.
While waiting, Lu Ye continued to practice his blade technique as usual. When Hua Ci returned from her cultivation, she shot him a glance and commented, “Heaven Nine? Congratulations.”
Lu Ye put away his saber and replied carelessly, “There’s nothing to be praised about.”
He said this because Hua Ci had ascended to Heaven Nine over half a month ago! Compared to her, his cultivation speed was average at best.
“You’re planning to leave then,” Hua Ci said. Although Lu Ye hadn’t told her his plans, she knew Lu Ye wasn’t going to stay at the Myriad Poison Forest for long after reaching Heaven Nine.
“In a few days, yes. What about you?”
“Me? I have no plans at the moment.”
“You’ve reached Heaven Nine a while ago, but you’re neither challenging the Scroll of Supremacy or ascending to the Cloud River Realm. What on earth are you planning? Now that I think about it, how are you still cultivating even though you’ve already reached Heaven Nine?”
This was one of his biggest puzzlements right now. After reaching Heaven Nine, it was impossible to increase one’s cultivation even a little unless they ascended to the Cloud River Realm. However, Hua Ci was still leaving early and returning late every day.
Yi Yi had followed her once and confirmed that she was still devouring the poisonous fog of the Myriad Poison Forest. He had no idea why she was doing this.
Also, maybe it was just his imagination, but he felt as if the surrounding fog had gotten a lot thinner as of late.
“I have my ways.” Hua Ci smiled without elaborating. “Anyway, I’m going to cook dinner now. What would you like to eat tonight?”
Lu Ye tossed a Storage Bag containing a large chunk of animal meat into her hands.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Finally, Lu Ye was ready to leave.
After straightening his shirt for him, Hua Ci said in a kind voice not unlike an old mother who was seeing her son off, “Take care of yourself, okay?”
Lu Ye’s eyes twitched. This was hardly the first time he had left the Myriad Poison Forest, and it wasn’t like he was planning to run off to the Cloud River Battlefield or something. Sometimes, he wondered if Hua Ci really had a screw loose in her head.
“I don’t have much to give you, but if you’re ever in danger, you might consider using this to protect yourself,” Hua Ci continued in the same tone. Then, to Lu Ye’s utter astonishment, she opened her eyes and breathed out a small, greenish ball about the size of a thumb nail.
Lu Ye’s eyes twitched even harder because a floral scent wasn’t the only thing he caught from her breath. The sudden cloud of smoke rising from the Tree of Glyphs was the proof…
[This woman! Even her breath is poisonous now!]
“What is this?” Lu Ye instinctively knew that the green ball was anything but a toy.
“Hmm… I suppose you can call it an Omnipoison Pill?” Hua Ci said with a smile before putting the ball inside a wooden box. She then passed it to Lu Ye and added, “If you find yourself in a situation where you’re surrounded and unable to break out, just channel your Spiritual Power into the pill and throw it in the enemy’s direction.”
“What does it do?”
Hua Ci cocked her head for a second before replying, “I don’t know. I haven’t used it before. Do tell me what it does after you give it a try.”
“…”
Lu Ye carefully put the wooden box in the Storage Bag. He even made sure that the Storage Bag was placed on the most secure part of his body.
“I’m going now,” Lu Ye said simply before waving Amber over. After the cat-sized tiger had jumped onto his shoulder, he immediately brought out his Spirit Boat and took to the sky.
Hua Ci watched them until Lu Ye’s aura had completely vanished from view. Only then did she turn around and start toward her cultivation location once more.
As she walked, her cultivation suddenly began declining rapidly. Just a short time later, she had dropped to the Heaven-Grade Eighth-Order Realm!
As it turned out, the Omnipoison Pill wasn’t something Hua Ci could create willy-nilly. It was because it cost her cultivation to create!
Hua Ci’s cultivation technique and secret art was easily the strangest in the history of Jiu Zhou.
After she had arrived at her usual spot, Hua Ci sat down and started pulling the poisonous fog toward her as usual. It wasn’t long before it gathered into a thick, spinning cloud in front of her. A couple more seconds later, the cloud had turned into a vortex.