The presence of the silver palanquin grew closer. Feiyun was among the clouds with his eyes wide open. Two phoenixes flew out and painted the clouds red. He could see each blade of grass clearly within a thousand miles radius.
Six hundred miles away were four black-robed men each holding a corner of the palanquin. They leaped around the landscape, moving several hundred meters with each jump. Their cloaks fluttered in the wind so they resembled four great birds moving the palanquin forward.
Their cultivation was exceptional, so was their speed.
Feiyun changed his weapon essence into a white spear and unleashed it. It looked like a white dragon soaring across the air, penetrating one of the four men right in the chest. Blood gushed out.
Feiyun could kill people from a thousand miles away now with his current power level.
“Damn, a pursuer. Go, I got this.” The wounded combatant didn’t die. He was an intermediate half-step at the sixth level with a vigorous life force.
He took out a palm-sized ruby filled with vitality, looking just like a shiny heart. He pressed it into his chest and it melted into the wound, filling up the hole.
“Whoosh!” Feiyun summoned his essence back and turned it into a saber. He descended from the clouds with his sleeves fluttering and a majestic momentum.
He slashed downward with both hands towards the heretic, really dragging his blade.
The heretic stood on a one-hundred-meter tree with green leaves around him. He jumped on one leaf to another while glowing black. He released a dual punch with the force of six dragon-tigers.
“Boom!” The saber energy destroyed the six dragon-tigers right away.
The heretic became frozen with a bloody line on his face.
Feiyun didn’t stop for a single second and darted through him, heading for the forest filled with miasma. His weapon essence was bloodied.
“Boom!” It wasn’t until he was several thousand meters away did the heretic exploded into fleshy bits, crushed by the saber energy. The leaves on the trees below were filled with bloody pearls.
Feiyun met a second stopper, another half-step Giant that was stronger than the previous. The guy uprooted a peak to slam it straight at Feiyun’s head.
The opponent has been waiting in ambush so this attack came swiftly.
Feiyun didn’t bother dodging and blocked it with both hands. Flames surrounded them as a power exploded from deep in his bones. He then threw the peak back at the second heretic.
The guy didn’t expect Feiyun to be so powerful and couldn’t dodge in time. He got smashed by the peak with seven or eight broken bones while vomiting blood. His eyes showed fear as he made it out from below the peak and ran.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Feiyun took out his Heaven-raising Rod and made it massive. He crushed every single bone of that heretic, blood spattering out of every orifice. The poor guy squirmed on the ground before dying.
Feiyun’s physical force was comparable to a Giant now. He was actually stronger than Chang Dakai in terms of battle prowess. Of course, still a bit weaker than an early Giant. After all, these Giants had plenty of techniques and secret arts.
Physical abilities alone weren’t enough. They could kill a great martial artist before this person could get into melee range.
This was the reason why three Chang Dakai wouldn’t be a match for one regular Giant. The former didn’t have special cultivation techniques. This was also why Feiyun was superior to Chang Dakai but couldn’t match the regular Giants.
A few techniques allowed one to unleash an offensive strike a dozen times more powerful than normal, such as the twelve evil techniques of Senluo.
A tenfold technique could be considered top-notch. Only the strongest sects would have these techniques; they would treat it like priceless treasures.
Just imagine two combatants, both early Giants. One could only use a normal attack while the opponent had a special technique unleashing a strike ten times stronger. This disparity was unfair.
This was why outside of cultivation, the merit laws and battle techniques mattered a lot in a duel. This played a great part as to why disciples from the big sects would be stronger than vagrant cultivators.
After reaching the level of Giant, one would be able to fully use the power of a first-ranked spirit treasure. This would be a strike eight times stronger than normal.
Thus, a first-ranked spirit treasure was comparable to some special techniques. This required being a Giant at the seventh level of Heaven’s Mandate. A half-step Giant could only use a strike six times stronger than normal. Six versus eight was a big gap.
A second-ranked spirit treasure could be sixteen times stronger than a normal move - quite peerless indeed. One needed to be at the eighth-level Heaven’s Mandate to fully use it. Ordinary Giants could only perform an attack ten to twelve times stronger at best. A historical genius at the Giant level could do up to fourteen times stronger.
A third-ranked spirit treasure was up to twenty-four times. Only a ninth-level Heaven’s Mandate and up could fully use it. Ordinary Giant could only perform an attack fourteen to sixteen times stronger. A Super Giant was capable of a move eighteen to twenty times stronger.
As for a fourth-ranked spirit treasure, the highest amount was thirty-two times. A few had special offensive potential exceeding this. Only Enlightened Beings could use them to their greatest potential and turn them into Dominating Armaments.
Of course, these were under common circumstances since spirit treasures of the same rank also varied in power, albeit by a small margin.
For example, Feiyun’s rod was a peak third-ranked spirit treasure. In the hand of a ninth-level Giant, it could unleash a blow twenty-seven times stronger than normal. The Infinite Spirit Ring was also a third-ranked yet it was limited to twenty-four times stronger.
Feiyun was only at the fifth level so when using the rod, he could unleash a blow six times stronger. As for another treasure, it would be three to four times at best.
This was a matter of cultivation, virtually impossible to overcome.
One couldn’t use a spirit treasure to its maximum potential before becoming a Giant. This was actually the reason why the title Giant was given out within the realm of Heaven’s Mandate.
Regular Giants with first-ranked Spirit Treasures could easily crush the top historical geniuses. They could also cultivate the special techniques to grand completion, allowing them to have explosive potential of ten or twenty times greater than normal. The historical geniuses at weaker cultivation could only learn these techniques to minor completion, becoming two to four times stronger at best. Of course, this was already exceptional given their lower cultivation.
A Giant was far superior to a half-step Giant. Historical geniuses needed to become Giants themselves before crushing these beings and turning into real big shots.
In fact, their battle potential would rise so quickly after becoming a Giant. They would crush people in the same realm, potentially stomping on the Super Giants as well.
‘I can kill a peak half-step within three moves right now, but an early Giant is still too much to take. The cultivation difference is overwhelming, this peak third-ranked spirit treasure can’t change that either. The only way for me to take one on in a fight is if the guy doesn’t have a fivefold technique. Hmm, all ninth-level Giants have defensive spirit barriers though and can automatically use eightfold strikes.’
Feiyun had a pretty good idea of his abilities. He couldn’t take on an early Giant but he could rely on his incredible speed to survive. His speed right now surpassed even Giant at the later stages.
Moreover, he could feel his second phoenix bones materializing. With it, his physical abilities would become three times stronger. At that point, he could take on an early Giant using a first-ranked spirit treasure without using his own spirit treasures.
Other historical geniuses couldn’t be as strong as him at the fifth level. This was the multiplicative effect of having both the Immortal Phoenix and Myriad Beast Physique.
“I need to create the second bone as soon as possible, just a little bit more then I can carve phoenix runes on this wisdom bone.” Feiyun rushed through the forest.
The trees here were black because of the poisonous miasma. A few unknown creatures appeared for a split second in the fog before disappearing. This place was full of dangers. It might have been several hundred years since a man last set foot here.
“Why are they taking her to this place? It’s ten thousand miles away from the city.”
Roars came from deeper in the forest. Air turned into waves that made debris fly everywhere.
The roars continued massive spirit energy. A normal person would bleed from all orifices and die due to the sound waves.