Xia Yushan looked appreciatively at Lushu’s martial body. Even without Lushu doing anything, there was a faint golden light enveloping his body. The light gave off a warmth that was neither too hot nor too cold, perfect like spring sunshine. Furthermore, Xia Yushan could see faint apparitions of golden feathers appearing randomly.
“Focus, your strength suddenly increased too much, and you can’t control it. Focus on mastering your newfound powers. I’ll guard you.” Xia Yushan said.
Lushu gave Xia Yushan a grateful smile before closing his eyes and started meditating. Once in a while, yang qi would pulse from his body. Other times, the golden light disappeared as if Lushu’s new martial body was that of a mortal’s.
Xia Yushan didn’t stand by idly either. He had long learned the golden crow method from Lushu. The eldest senior disciple of Buzhou Immortal Sect had marveled at the profundities of the method. For a yokel of the Demon Cage Realm to create such a method was truly a miracle. If that deceased acupoint opening master had been born in the Huang Realm, he would have been an immortal seed, a disciple with high chances of entering the immortal realm, and heavily favored by whatever force he joined.
A bright yellow orb appeared in Xia Yushan’s hand, holding a considerable resemblance to the molten gold orb within Lushu’s dantian. As time passed, the golden sphere began to glimmer in and out of existence until Xia Yushan could no longer maintain and disappeared in a puff. With a frown, Xia Yushan waved his hand, and a bloodless demon corpse disappeared into his spatial ring.
This wasn’t Xia Yushan’s first attempt, and nor would it be his last. Ever since he learned about the golden crow method, he had been trying to replicate the blood essence conglomeration effect. By sacrificing numerous corpses, he could create the blood of a pure golden crow or at least something similar. At least in theory.
Xia Yushan took a glance at Lushu. Using his spiritual senses, he could sense that the bloodline within Lushu’s bloodline was even higher than the Unity Realm level demon that had attacked them. If this method was known to the golden crow clan, would they seal it or use it?
At its core, the method used the corpses of numerous demons to complete the bloodline of one being. Would the Golden Crow Clan be willing to afford such a price?
Even in the Huang Realm, if such a technique were turned on humans, it would have been labeled as a devilish technique.
Shaking his head, Xia Yushan attempted to replicate the golden crow clan’s method once more. However, even when Lushu fully mastered the power of his new martial body, Xia Yushan had not succeeded once.
When Lushu opened his eyes and stood up, the faint golden glow around his body became denser and illusionary feathers coiled around him. This all lasted for a moment before it all disappeared under his skin until only a faint golden glow remained, but even then, the glow was so dim that it was practically impossible to discern with the naked eye.
“Congratulations on entering the Acupoint Opening Realm and attaining a martial body. Did that senior have a name for it?” Xia Yushan asked, a slight smile on his face as he looked at Lushu.
“No, the senior just called it a Golden Crow Demon Body, but I feel like there is still a difference between a real golden crow and my body,” Lushu replied and observed Xia Yushan’s expression and saw that it was still the same. Even when he entered the Acupoint Opening Realm, Xia Yushan still looked at him the same way.
The look in his eyes has not changed. He doesn’t take me seriously at all. Lushu thought. He smiled self-depreciatingly with a hint of unwillingness. Although Lushu felt that his strength had reached a whole new height, but compared to this Grandmaster Xia, he was still only a slightly bigger bug now. If Grandmaster Xia weren’t interested in the golden crow method, he would have probably ignored me, right?
“You’re right,” Xia Yushan agreed. “How about I give it a name?”
Lushu showed a surprised expression. “Please, Senior.”
“Pure Yang Feather Martial Body.” Xia Yushan said.
“Pure Yang Feather Martial Body,” Lushu repeated the name and felt it was indeed fitting. Furthermore, the senior who created this method had his martial body, the Sky Feather Demon Body, so there was a sense of connection between him and that senior.
After naming Lushu’s martial body, the golden crow method was also renamed the Pure Yang Feather Manual.
Lushu wanted to return to Fan City to celebrate with his wife, Ziye, and his good friends, but Xia Yushan had different thoughts. Xia Yushan forcibly brought Lushu around to hunt for Nascent Soul Realm level demons with the golden crow bloodline. To this point, he even brought out several corpses of the rank that he had collected earlier.
Lushu felt that Xia Yushan was treating him too good and tried to refuse, but Xia Yushan wouldn’t accept no for an answer.
Although absorbing the blood essence of the crow demons was very beneficial to Lushu, he felt that it was too much, too fast. He had barely been able to perfectly control his strength when he entered the Acupoint Opening Realm, but now his strength had risen by a few notches after he opened fifty acupoints in his body.
It was like a poor man eating to the point of becoming fat but not being able to stop gorging himself. At first, the situation was good, but the man would eventually eat himself to death.
Xia Yushan called their cooperation a team effort, but it was just Lushu mostly sitting back and receiving benefits with no end. Lushu began to grow suspicious of Xia Yushan’s aid. Even if he was interested in the Pure Yang Feather Manual, helping out this much was clearly abnormal. So Lushu could help but question Xia Yushan’s motive.
Compared to Tianyi’s bequeathment of his manual, Xia Yushan’s action brought numerous suspicions.
“Grandmaster Xia, I really can’t absorb any more,” Lushu said after finally reaching his limit. “If I increase my strength anymore, I won’t be able to control it anymore.”
By now, Lushu had opened around one hundred acupoints. Normally, opening acupoints required self-meditation by the cultivator to open them. This way, the cultivator would better understand his body and learn how to bring out the martial body’s potential even more.
What Lushu has been doing was like taking a shortcut. In the short run, there wouldn’t be much difference. However, the aftereffects could not be underestimated.
If Lushu continued to use this method to increase his strength, even if he could control the increasingly mighty strength of his body, he would eventually come to rely on this method. Lushu would no longer be able to open new acupoints by himself in the future. And some acupoints could not be forced open by brute force like Lushu had been doing.
If he continued brute force his cultivation, it would be like a drug addiction. He would no longer be able to cultivate without absorbing a demon’s blood essence in the future. And this would result in his lowering his future potential. His martial body might be top-tier, but when he entered the soul-nourishing realm, it might be above average at best.
Of course, Lushu knew none of this. Not many cultivators of the Demon Cage Realm had reached the Acupoint Opening Realm, and those pioneers had to grasp in the darkness, finding a method to increase their strength. It wasn’t something that could be done in a short ten thousand years.
Lushu only felt a premonition that continuing this way was unorthodoxy and harmful to his future.
Xia Yushan emotionlessly stared at Lushu, a smile ever-present on his face. After a moment, he replied, “Alright.”
Lushu blinked in surprise. He never thought Xia Yushan would agree so easily. Their cooperation was closer to the nascent soul grandmaster giving commands and Lushu following. He didn’t feel it was too wrong. After all, the disparity in strength was too wide.
Thus, the two returned to the fortress town created by the disciples of the Huang Realm. Once they arrived, Xia Yushan was shocked that the nameless town had become a ghost town. Even Fan City had disappeared.
It literally disappeared. As in, there was a pit where the city used to stand.
Lushu almost entered qi deviation because of the impact of the scene. Luckily, he managed to reign in his rampant qi, but still fearing the worst, he searched for clues. Since the fortress town was empty, the biggest clue was the Vast Heaven Islands.
Upon pondering it on a deeper level, Lushu found the situation queer. Did the demons attack, and the cultivators flee? Having once witnessed Tianyi’s strength, he couldn’t imagine a demon more powerful than Tianyi, but Lushu knew he was a frog in a well. Holding a faint hope, Lushu followed Xia Yushan and ascended Vast Heaven Islands.
Xia Yushan and Lushu soon discovered the missing disciples and where Fan City had disappeared to and the reason for all this change. Tianyi had literally changed into a cosmos giant, dug up Fan City with one hand, and transplanted it into central mountain’s gaping hole.
Most of the residents of Fan City had decided to stay once Tianyi offered his protection, and only a portion of the residents decided to migrate. Most of the denizens of the Demon Cage Realm had lived hard lives, and the life in Fan City was the most peaceful they had ever experienced in their life, so they were unwilling to abandon the peace they had tasted.
Furthermore, many of the residents felt that Tianyi was akin to a god. They had personally witnessed how the nine mountains had become islands floating in the sky. This notion was further strengthened when Tianyi moved their city.
In the Demon Cage Realm, the qi had always been sparsed, resulting in spiritual cultivation not being popular and martial cultivation being the mainstream path. As a result, some people even made shrines dedicated to Tianyi and offered sacrifices daily.
Xia Yushan left to meet with Tianyi while Lushu entered Fan City. The first person he looked for was Ziye.
“Lushu!” Ziye cried out in joy and jumped into Lushu’s arms. After hearing that the demons had been preparing to attack the “immortals,” she had feared the worst for Lushu.
“Ziye, don’t cry. Look, aren’t I fine? I’m even stronger than before.” Lushu comforted his crying wife. He could see that she looked more fragile than before. Upon taking a closer look, Lushu noticed that her strength had noticeably increased. Although she hadn’t entered the Acupoint Opening Realm, her strength had reached the peak of the Body Transformation Realm.
“Ziye, your strength increased so much?” Lushu couldn’t hold his shock. He was happy yet puzzled.
Ziye wiped her tears and explained. “It’s not just me, but almost everyone in Fan City. Grandmaster Xi is amazing. He gave us an improved version of the method from before, and almost everyone’s strength drastically increased because of the dense qi here.”
“Grandmaster Xi is also here? I wonder how he compares to Heaven’s Will Grandmaster.” Lushu said, more to himself than others. He had seen Tianyi’s might, so he found it hard to imagine someone even more powerful even though he knew it was possible.
Ziye began to giggle at Lushu. “Grandmaster Xi is Heaven’s Will.”
“What?” Lushu said in shock.
“Tianyi is Grandmaster Xi’s given name,” Ziye explained. She, too, had been shocked to find out that Heaven’s Will Grandmaster was actually the same person as Grandmaster XI, but upon thinking it deeper, she didn’t find it strange. Grandmaster Xi was powerful enough to bend nature to his will. Making a few floating islands was within the scope of his powers.
This was a classic case of outsiders not comprehending the profundities of an expert’s actions.
After reuniting with Ziye, Lushu met with Zhangya and the rest of his good brothers. Most of them had chosen to stay, and to Lushu’s shock and joy, many had entered the Acupoint Opening Realm.
The total number of acupoint opening masters had reached over thirty in Fan City, a terrifying degree for humans. Within this one city, they could sweep and conquer other human cities, but they still paled in comparison to the demons.
“I’d thought I was good for reaching the Acupoint Opening Realm, but it turns out so many of you also reached it. Maybe I should have switched to Grandmaster Xi’s method.” Lushu joked.
“Stop joking. Senior Azure Leaf and others say that your golden crow method is not inferior to Grandmaster Xi’s method, just more difficult.” Zhangya returned. “You were quite lucky. Those stubborn fellas who insisted on not switching are still in the Body Transformation Realm. I can still see them looking at us in envy. A few of those stubborn bastards even lowered their heads and switched, hahaha!”
Lushu knew how some of the geniuses of Fan City disliked Grandmaster Xi’s method and disdained those who switched. Although Zhangya appeared unconcerned, Lushu knew that Zhangya wanted to beat those who mocked Grandmaster Xi up. However, any fighting was prohibited as disunity would compromise the human’s ability to fight the demons. At most, only a few sour words would be thrown back and forth.
Lushu also felt admiration towards Grandmaster Xi, but he also felt like Zhangya and the other two, who had been given pointers by Tianyi, were total fanatics.
“Right, I almost forgot about it.” Zhangya slapped his forehead and hung his arm around Lushu’s shoulder. He searched his robes and brought a thing metallic plate that could be comfortably held in his hand. “Hurry and register so you can receive a Xiyi Talisman!”
“What’s a Xiyi Talisman?” Lushu had heard of talismans before, but they weren’t very popular and weak. Even a talisman crafted by an acupoint only had the strength of a mid body transformation acolyte.
Zhangya smiled triumphantly and explained to Lushu. When Lushu finished listening, he sighed in amazement. Using this tool, even a mortal could unleash an attack at the Nascent Soul Realm, making them even more powerful than the Demon Cage Realm’s most powerful experts.
The Xiyi Talismans also had a communication feature, but Lushu didn’t place much value on the utility. In his eyes, it was just something extra added with little to no meaning.
Despite this, Lushu once again understood the difference between the immortals and the people of the Demon Cage Realm. He quickly registered and received a Xiyi Talisman, and after learning how to use it, immediately went into secluded cultivation.
Compared to using a tool given by others, Lushu preferred relying on his own strength, but he wouldn’t discount the usefulness of the Xiyi Talisman.
-line break-
“Senior Brother Xia, I entrust everything to you,” Tianyi said and immediately rushed away, seemingly busy with something.
Xia Yushan just stood there, blinking. Tianyi seemed to be on the verge of tears and roughly shook his hands before leaving. He looked around to see the elite disciples of various sects staring at him.
One of them coughed and said. “Cough, Daoist Xia, what should our plan be to resist the demons? We already made some preliminary tactics. How about reviewing them?”