Outside the Door of a Thousand Caves…
He Tu was panting heavily. He looked quite shocked. It never occurred to him that he would be forced out of this danger zone by someone with his eighth-stage Earth Star Border Realm cultivation.
Not only were his junior brothers and sisters harmed, but the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River that he relied upon had been snatched away. It was quite humiliating.
“Damn it.” He Tu, kneeling on the ground, hammered his fists down. He looked about with a hideous look on his face. He had entered through here with his junior brothers and sisters, but he was the only one to walk out.
Except for his cultivation, everything he had was taken away. Once he returned to the sect, his life would be doomed.
His mind was still connected to the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River, but he wasn’t getting any response due to some isolation by an invisible force.
He Tu regretted it. He shouted at the sky, “How could I be so stupid!? Why did I put all my treasures in the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River? Why did I not put them in the storage ring? Had they been in my storage ring, they would not have been taken away!”
He straight away inhaled the surging earth energy in the world, restoring the lost earth energy. He then stood before the stone gate and tried to smash the stone gate, but the stone gate didn’t move even an inch.
He knew that it would be useless to stay here. There were many Doors of a Thousand Caves, this wasn’t the only entrance.
—
“Haha, awesome, this artifact is really good.” Lin Fan was in a very good mood looking at the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River. After all, his harvest was really good this time. He had seen the might of the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River; it was indeed very strong. Even that powerful monster couldn’t bear it. He Tu was flattened instantly by that monster without the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River.
“Let’s reset the ownership.”
The inside of the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River was nothing but void, and in that void was a glowing formation that was emitting a psychic connection. Obviously, it was connected to He Tu, but this Door of a Thousand Caves had cut off everything. Even the earth energy of the world was cut off.
No matter how he was connected to the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River, it was useless.
“Break it for me, you will be mine in the future.” Lin Fan spread his palm and grabbed the formation with his huge hands and erased the spiritual imprint, re-occupying it at the same time.
And He Tu, who was outside, immediately suffered a blow to his psyche. He spewed a mouthful of blood. The Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River was stolen, and his imprint erased.
He Tu wanted to smash his head on the rock gate when he felt this. God is so unfair, why is he treating me so cruelly?
—
“Wow, there are treasures inside.” After gaining control of the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River, he felt a lot of things floating inside the cauldron. He could even smell herbs and pills.
Lin Fan was burning with impatience.
He gave up on a talisman to get this artifact, but when he saw the things inside the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River, he was pleasantly surprised.
A talisman was floating inside; it was the talisman key to the Door of a Thousand Caves.
Furthermore, there were many pills floating around this talisman. Each and every pill was quite extraordinary. Their potency was as vast as an ocean, and it was surging endlessly.
“I hit it big this time.” Lin Fan’s eyes widened with joy and surprise. Suddenly, he felt that this danger zone was formed just for him. He was very poor in the sect. Even if he split his pants, he would lose everything; he was unable to gather any wealth. But after he exited the sect, he got everything as easily as lifting his hand.
With a wave of his hand, he directly drew all the wealth from inside and put it in his storage ring.
But now, the talismans were making him curious. The three talismans floating before him flew and converged as if they were pulled by something. The patterns on the talismans radiated a strange glow. And just when this glow was about to complete a cycle, it was interrupted by a missing corner.
Apparently, there are a total of four talismans. I have already gotten three of them. As long as I get the final piece, I might understand the use of this talisman.
“Alright! Now, I’m in the fourth stage. I will have to raise it to Earth Star Border Stage Six or Stage Seven here. Then, the first thing after returning the sect is to blow all those guys away.”
Lin Fan was still bleeding, so he plunged a sword straight into himself, dying and coming back to life after ten seconds.
He then collected the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River into his body. With this artifact, I might be able to suppress an Earth Star Border Stage Seven cultivator to death with a flip of my hand.
And this Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River indeed is quite powerful, but that He Tu sure knows how to brag; three rivers and five seas my ass! Every drop of water is strong, but it doesn’t have the power of a Body Tempering Stage Nine expert, it’s around Stage Seven or Stage Eight, I guess.
If they each had the power of a Body Tempering Stage Nine, then that monster would have been crushed under the stream. How could it have held on like that?
At the same time, the weight of three rivers and five seas is so much that an Earth Star Border Stage Eight expert like He Tu would not be able to control it. I’m afraid just half a river would be enough to crush him.
“It seems that everyone in this world brags one way or another. After all, all the bragging could raise their value.”
The fortune in this place was indeed amazing, but as far as he was concerned, what was even more amazing were the points he was raking in.
After three days…
Lin Fan had paved a bloody road with the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River. If he ran into any horde, he would summon the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River and set a stream loose straight away, crushing all the monsters to death.
He had developed a variety of combat methods for the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River already. For instance, smashing with the mace while holding the cauldron by its mouth with the other hand resulted in a greater impact.
Lin Fan had been bloodletting over these three days. The monsters had experienced the most terrifying matter of their entire lives in these three days.
A human being holding a cauldron killed every monster in his wake. Even their leader was flattened by this human, and obviously, so were all the subordinates.
Lin Fan checked his points and was pleasantly surprised. He immediately broke into laughter.
His laughter sounded quite crazy.
Points: 101,200
This was quite a lot of points. It was the wealth he had gained after arduously killing God-knows-how-many monsters over these three days.
The Transformation into God Swordsmanship didn’t need to be leveled up for now. Although casting the first level wouldn’t kill him, the second level still would. It would be pointless to continue raising its level.
Cruel Blood and Violent Body were two powerful brute force-type skillsets that leveled up on their own. Unfortunately, they could not be deduced automatically, which made it impossible to improve their levels. Although the boosts they provided were indeed strong, they could not be increased. This was the only regretful thing about it.
Now, he was hesitating over which one among Magic of the Seven Gods and the Divine Art of Startling Dragons he should promote, but this hesitation only lasted for a few seconds before disappearing into a puff of smoke.
“Why am I thinking so much about it!? There are countless monsters in this dangerous land of the Door of a Thousand Caves. I can have as many points as I want. If they still aren’t enough, I can continue the bloodshed.”
“Divine Art of Startling Dragons leveled up.” With a flash of Lin Fan’s thought, the system prompt appeared before his eyes.
“Points -90,000.
“Divine Art of Startling Dragons (Second Level)
“Specialty: Dragon Flying to the Ninth Heavens, basic increase in earth energy, increase in strength, increase in destructive force, Startling Dragon Palm, Dragon Body.”
Surprisingly, the second level of the Divine Art of Startling Dragons only consumed 90,000 points. It seems it’s slightly weaker than the Transformation into God Swordsmanship. However, its specialties are really gratifying. There are so many specialties not available in the first level.
The earth energy in Lin Fan’s body continued to grow, growing more terrifying than before.
Mo Jingzhe might have cultivated to the second level of the Divine Art of Startling Dragons in Earth Star Border Stage Six, but I have raised it to the second level in Earth Star Border Stage Four. My current foundation is not necessarily worse than Mo Jingzhe, it might even be stronger.
Perhaps this is the foundation at which I can leapfrog and kill opponents of a higher level. And if I continue to improve my foundation, I can push it to even higher levels after it reaches its limit.
Earth energy is a kind of energy, and the body is the container. The bigger the container, the bigger and stronger foundation I can lay. Then, leapfrogging and killing those idiots who blindly seek stage increases would be as easy as cutting vegetables.
He then spread out the wealth of He Tu and his junior brothers and sisters and started picking the medicines. He Tu’s wealth was especially great as he was in Earth Star Border Stage Eight. His wealth was simply jaw-dropping. He had countless lower-grade and middle-grade Earth-class pills.
Lin Fan swallowed them all at once, and their combined potency erupted inside his body. Owing to which, his skin kept on cracking, but every time it cracked, blood would flow out and grab the edges of his skin like tentacles and start to repair them.
Every cell in his body was filled with earth energy.
Probably, He Tu had prepared so many pills to break through to the ninth stage of the Earth Star Border Realm. However, he used the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River to attack his enemies, ignoring his own accumulation. Even if he broke through to Earth Star Border Stage Nine, he would be crushed to death by experts like Jun Wutian who had stronger foundations with one finger.
They were like a skinny guy and a robust guy of the same age. The stronger guy could beat the sh*t out of the skinny guy with just one punch.
The Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River was an external force that could give everyone a false impression that he was strong, but after losing this external force, he would be as weak as an ant.
The wealth he had gathered had basically been consumed. The skillsets had been leveled up as well. His foundation was already sufficient.
As such, he clicked the “+” sign to increase his cultivation.
Experience points -4,000,000
Cultivation base: Earth Star Border Stage Five
Boom!
A fierce explosion resounded from inside Lin Fan’s body as the foundation he had laid till now dissipated instantly, breaking into specks of light that merged into every cell and bone of his body.
His cells kept dividing and expanding, growing several times bigger than before. This was because his container had grown bigger.
“That’s more like it.” Lin Fan opened his eyes and felt his own strength rise again. “All those Earth-class pills as well as the foundation laid by leveling up the skillsets has disappeared just like that.
“All the high-grade pills have been consumed already, and the remaining Mortal-class and Mystic-class pills are of little use to me. Some of the skillsets I plundered run counter to my path. It’s pointless to waste any points on leveling them. I just need to gather better pills now, that’s all.”
Roar!
At this moment, a monster roared as it sighted a human in the distance before shooting straight at Lin Fan with its hill-like ginormous body.
“Diamond Rhinoceros!” Lin Fan peeked a glance.
An Earth Star Border Stage Seven Diamond Rhinoceros had steel-like skin, but it was much harder than steel itself. Even the strange rocks in the Thousand Deep Cave were crushed under its charge like tofu.
“That’s more like it, I needed something like you to test my strength.” Lin Fan stood up but remained still in his place.
“Roar!” The Diamond Rhinoceros let out a roar as it appeared before Lin Fan and lifted its hooves and smashed them down straight on Lin Fan.
The pressure it was exuding was quite strong. Space seemed to crack under its hooves. The crashing huge, iron hooves seemed as if they could crush everything into pieces.
Lin Fan, on the other hand, made a fist as his earth energy skyrocketed. He then let out a roar and punched straight at the oncoming iron hooves.
Boom!
A deafening explosion shook the cave.
Originally, the Diamond Rhinoceros wanted to crush this human into paste, but suddenly, it felt a terrifying force coming from its hooves, shaking its body right away.
Boom!
Its hooves shattered into pieces as flesh and blood splattered about on the ground.
Its ginormous body flipped and crashed on the ground.
Lin Fan, looking at the Diamond Rhinoceros that had been flipped by his punch and his arm that was covered in scales, could not help but laugh.
“So, this is the Dragon Body. It sure is powerful.”
While muttering to himself, he grabbed the Diamond Rhinoceros by its head and dragged it into the distance.
I’m a little hungry. And with the Imperial Cauldron of the Heavenly River, I can fill myself with rhino meat soup.