Chapter 165: Chapter 26: Clash of the World [Alliance Head, I Love Rolli, Additional Release]
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“That concubine is as beautiful as a celestial being, I can understand your reluctance to accept her. Anyone can learn a palm art, surely there’s no need for such secrecy!”
Seeing Zhang Xuan remain silent, the elder snorted coldly.
“It’s just a set of palm art. Teaching it to you wouldn’t be a problem, of course, but it’s quite difficult to master. I fear you won’t be able to practice it successfully and might blame me for teaching it incorrectly…,” Zhang Xuan said.
“I can tell whether it’s right or not…” the elder said.
Zhang Xuan said nothing more, but turned and instructed Xie Feng beside him, “Bring pen and paper!”
Xie Feng turned to leave and before long, brought back the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. Zhang Xuan took them and slowly wrote out the text.
It was the Xuanlong Palm recorded on the stele, the cultivation scripture with a Fate Lock that none had successfully practiced for hundreds of years.
Although the Fate Lock had been solved by himself, the text was profound, and its concepts were far-reaching. It wasn’t so simple for one to master it successfully.
The elder took the manuscript, looked it over for a while, and immediately felt a rush of ancient charm. Knowing it was genuine, he nodded excitedly, “Good, good… We’re even now!”
Having said that, he didn’t stay any longer and hurriedly left.
Watching him walk away, Zhang Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Being able to wager with him and betting directly on a concubine indicated a close relationship between them. A slight misstep in front of such a person could have given him away.
Turning to look at Xie Feng not far away, Zhang Xuan asked, “Do you know about the bet I made with him?”
Xie Feng shook his head, “Elder Liu and Elder Ling are big figures. I, as a Life Guardian, have no right to know about your gambling agreement…”
“So this guy’s surname is Liu…” Zhang Xuan realized.
Knowing the other party’s surname, and as for the name, it definitely wasn’t convenient to ask. However, it didn’t matter. There were several Fate Masters in the Heaven Mandate Hall, and each had their own names. If he was diligent, he could surely find out and match them later.
Fearing being exposed, Zhang Xuan said no more and announced, “I’m going to the Book Collection Vault to look up some information; lead the way…”
He needed to gather a complete Divine Soul Realm cultivation method first before considering breaking through his cultivation level.
Continuing the impersonation, he would inevitably be discovered sooner or later. Before being unmasked, he had to improve his cultivation as much as possible. Moreover, information regarding the Mandate Chaos Master and Empyrean Kong might be found in the Book Collection Vault as well.
Under Xie Feng’s guidance, the two arrived at a massive room.
“Elder Ling, as just a Life Guardian, I don’t have the privilege to enter…” Xie Feng clasped his fist.
Waving his hand to dismiss him, Zhang Xuan walked in and immediately felt a powerful oppressive force bearing down, similar to the formation at Baiyan Academy.
He took out the Library Access Certificate he had obtained from Ling Buyang’s body, and the pressure indeed began to dissipate. A few steps in, a voice reached him, “Greetings, Elder Ling…”
Looking toward the source of the voice, he saw an elder sitting not far away, with a faint presence. Although he hadn’t reached the Dharma Form Realm, he was at the primary stage of the Divine Soul Realm, just like Lu Mingrong.
This person must be the manager of the Book Collection Vault.
In the Heaven Mandate Hall or elsewhere, places that stored books were extremely important. They required not only formations but also powerful individuals to guard them.
“Hmm!”
Responding with a hum, Zhang Xuan proceeded along the bookshelves, contemplating how fortunate he was to have impersonated Ling Buyang on a whim. Had it been otherwise, the examinations for becoming a Fate Master or Elder would have taken god knows how much more time and effort.
Inside the Book Collection Vault, a dazzling array of books filled his sight. Compared with Baiyan Academy’s collection, this was many times more impressive. Aware of his limited Heavenly Mandate Vitality, Zhang Xuan did not attempt to collect them one by one but searched swiftly. At last, at the end of a bookshelf, he found the Divine Soul Realm cultivation techniques.
There were hundreds of volumes crammed tightly together.
His finger gently skimmed over them.
Within the Library of Heaven’s Path, hundreds of Divine Soul Realm cultivation techniques suddenly appeared, slowly merging with the ones he had gathered in Baiyan City, forming a single book.
“Still not enough…”
After flipping through the book, Zhang Xuan frowned slightly.
According to the ways of the Library of Heaven’s Path, to create a Heaven’s Path Divine Art, at least a thousand secret manuals were needed. Thus far, he had barely half that number—just over five or six hundred.
“The Heavens have their order…”
Knowing that finding the other half might take ages, Zhang Xuan wasn’t in a hurry. Instead, he focused his mind.
As thousands of Heavenly Mandate Vitality burned away, a naked figure suddenly appeared in front of him.
Although not complete, the cultivation technique formed from the five or six hundred books was like a high-rise building with its foundation set, which he could deduce to suit his unique constitution.
The zhenqi flowed through the meridians of the small figure while Zhang Xuan observed and read through the materials. His mind was filled with sudden insights.
The Divine Soul Realm involved cultivating the soul into a divine soul, similar to the Soul Guiding Formula practiced in the Master Teacher Continent, with the sole difference being that it trained the soul not to fear the tear and pressure of Origin qi.
Once the practice was successful, Soul Power could extend outward. Once it infused into the body, raw strength could easily surpass 100 horses, and at the pinnacle of the Divine Soul Realm, it could even reach 200 horses!
This would double the strength directly, and the soul could also be used to attack. No wonder reaching this realm was considered to be a true expert; compared to the Jade Bone Realm, the difference was indeed huge.
“The soul within my body isn’t particularly strong, but infused with the soul energy of the new world, speaking of strength alone, it could be deemed ‘boundless.’ If it could adapt to Origin qi and harness it, would I be able to unleash a power that exceeds the limits of my cultivation?”
With this thought, an idea emerged in his mind.
His soul had split into two parts. One evolved into the Heavens’ Order of the new world, maintaining the world’s order; the other, the Soul Guiding Formula within his body, controlled the corpse and his self-awareness.
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Both were separate yet unified; with just a thought, they could transform into each other.
Because of this, his soul energy was unrivalled in strength. If the soul of a regular person were considered a “one,” then the sum of his two parts would definitely exceed one billion, ten billion, or even infinity!
A “one” soul, spreading outside the body, could increase one’s strength from 99 horsepower to 200 horsepower. If an infinite soul could be fully utilized, would the destruction and rise of the Source World be but a thought away for him?
“Let’s try…”
With this realization, a surge of excitement filled Zhang Xuan’s heart. Zhenqi flowed within his body in the manner of the “little man,” and the soul energy contained within the New World immediately spread out like reaching tendrils.
Fizz fizz fizz!
As soon as it probed out of his mind, the Origin qi around him immediately crushed it. The next moment, the soul tendril, like interacting with an opposing substance, turned into specks of light and disappeared without a trace as if it had never existed.
The next moment, Zhang Xuan felt a pain in his mind as though pricked by needles, almost to the point of explosion.
Boom, boom, boom!
Subsequently, as if some unknown force had spied into the New World, the sky filled with dense storm clouds that spanned a billion miles. Purple lightning bolts tore through the space, opening pitch-black fissures, evaporating rivers, and shattering the earth.
“Not good!”
Knowing that this was a backlash from the Heavens of the Source World to his soul’s reckless attempt to enter it, Zhang Xuan immediately refrained from acting recklessly and focused on calming his mind, perfectly merging his soul with his body and not daring to release even a bit of it.
With the connection severed, the storm clouds and purple lightning disappeared, but the damage was done – millions of miles of rivers and mountains were reduced to nothingness, completely burnt out.
However, the New World was just too vast, boundless and limitless. Such loss was like a drop in the bucket to him, not even scratching the surface.
Yet even the slightest loss indicated that the path he had just tried was impassable.
It seemed that attempting to use the soul energy of the New World as his Divine Soul was definitely not feasible.
No wonder, for the New World and the Source World were two different universes, and this was no longer about the soul of a cultivator, but a competition between two worlds!
If the Heavens of the Source World didn’t care and allowed his own Heaven’s Order to spread, wouldn’t it be quickly possessed by him?
Things were never so easy!
“I should just cultivate step by step…”
After recovering for a while and feeling the hostility from the Source World fade, Zhang Xuan shook his head with a wry smile.
Although the experiment had just proven that the soul energy of the New World couldn’t spread out and grant him instant invincible power, it also proved that regular attacks would be ineffective against him.
In future battles against experts of the Divine Soul Realm or the Dharma Form Realm, as long as he could prompt his opponents’ souls to leave their bodies and attack him with their Divine Souls, he would already be in an invincible position.
No longer utilizing the soul energy within the New World, Zhang Xuan cultivated the soul energy within his body using the method derived from Heavens’ Order and was not suppressed by the Heavens of the Source World.
It seemed that the recent cultivation attuned to Origin qi had been effective and useful.
Time slipped by unknowingly until a roar sounded in his mind, and his consciousness spread beyond his body.
Spirit Soul Realm, Eightfold Realm of Source Pool.
“Good that a breakthrough has been made…”
Zhang Xuan let out a sigh of relief, knowing that reaching the pinnacle of the Divine Soul Realm would require time to accumulate and couldn’t be done in one step. He stopped rushing and resumed searching along the bookshelves.
He hoped to find enough Dharma Form Realm cultivation methods to learn all at once, so he wouldn’t need to return a second time.
However, he didn’t find any Dharma Form Realm methods, but instead found some books on Fate Masters.
His eyes lighting up, Zhang Xuan hurriedly walked over.
…
In Han Yuan City, within the deepest room of the Heaven Mandate Hall, an elder walked out.
The Hall Master, Han Xiao.
One of the most powerful and influential figures in the entire Han Yuan Dynasty.
“You’re saying… Ling Buyang has returned?”
The elder stopped in his tracks, looking at Xie Feng in front of him, a frown creasing his brow.
“Yes!” Xie Feng bowed.
“If he’s back, why didn’t he come to find me?” Han Xiao showed a hint of puzzlement.
He had long known about the other party’s help with the Hall in capturing Mandate Chaos Masters. Before leaving, Ling Buyang had expressly stated he would seek him out upon return, yet now the man was nowhere to be seen.
Xie Feng bowed deeply, “Reporting to the Hall Master, the moment Elder Ling arrived, he went straight to the Book Collection Vault, saying he wanted to look up some information. I don’t know the specifics… Should I call him over for you?”
“No need!”
Han Xiao waved his hand, “I will go find him! It’s also a good opportunity to see what he is researching that could be more important than seeing me…”
Without another word, the Hall Master strode toward the direction of the Book Collection Vault.