Chapter 10: Strength Increase, Cooperation
Once again, you arrived at the Scripture Pavilion. This time, you carried Xiao Fan's elder token, and smoothly reached the third floor.
The elder token was the permission to enter the third floor, but to obtain techniques from within, spirit stones were still ultimately required for exchange.
Over these twenty years, you had also saved up quite a few spirit stones. Currently, you had a modest fortune.
On the third floor of the Scripture Pavilion, every single technique started at one thousand mid-grade spirit stones.
The highest even required ten thousand mid-grade spirit stones, which was one hundred high-grade spirit stones!
After browsing a round, you realized you had been hasty. With your current savings, you could at most exchange for a single technique.
You discovered a secret art, the Art of Burning Longevity. It burned lifespan as the cost to raise cultivation in a short time, after which one would fall into a period of weakness.
Simple and crude, it could rapidly boost strength in a short period. As a trump card, nothing could be more suitable.
You knew you were inside a simulation. Even if you burned lifespan, it could not affect the real you.
Besides, right now you were deeply eroded by the power of Heavenly Lightning. Whether you could even live a few more years was still unknown!
A Profound-rank upper-grade technique. It cost you a full one thousand five hundred mid-grade spirit stones. Overnight, you were back to square one.
After returning, you began bitter cultivation through the night.
One year later, you fought Li Chen once more. The two of you battled for three hundred rounds.
Both at Foundation Establishment layer five, Li Chen could no longer pose any threat to you.
To test your own strength, you asked Li Chen to display his full power and no longer suppress his cultivation.
At your request, Li Chen's Foundation Establishment layer nine cultivation fully manifested, and you felt the pressure spike sharply.
You did not hold anything back. You immediately used the Art of Burning Longevity!
Instantly, your original Foundation Establishment layer five cultivation soared to Foundation Establishment layer seven.
That was not the end. You knew that with only this level of cultivation, you were no match for Li Chen at Foundation Establishment layer nine.
Lifespan burned once more, directly raising your cultivation to Foundation Establishment layer nine!
You felt the surging spiritual power within your body, drew a deep breath, and suddenly roared, "Come, fight!"
You and Li Chen clashed once more.
Li Chen, having lost an arm, was not weaker in strength at all. On the contrary, he was even stronger than most Foundation Establishment layer nine cultivators.
Having exchanged blows for so many days, you knew well how strong Li Chen's power was. Moreover, Xiao Fan of the Golden Core stage was watching from the sidelines. When the critical moment arrived, Xiao Fan would intervene to stop things, so you likewise did not hold back.
Palm imprints condensed from spiritual qi descended from the sky, launching a frenzied assault on Li Chen below.
Facing an assault of such intensity, Li Chen had no choice but to bring out his life-bound treasure to respond.
Seizing this opportunity, you took out the Azure Luan Sword, and unleashed Jinghong!
Once Jinghong strikes, there is death and no life!
Of course, that was the intensity when cultivated to a profound realm. The current you had not yet reached that level.
Li Chen, who was dealing with the palm technique from above, was startled. Turning his head, he saw you unleashing the Jinghong sword art.
He hurriedly abandoned the descending palm technique, and used his ultimate move to counter your Jinghong!
Having fought you for so long, Li Chen knew well the power of the Jinghong sword art. He did not dare be careless in the slightest.
BOOM————
The full-power strike of the two of them made even Xiao Fan, who possessed Golden Core cultivation, could not help but stand up, shock in his heart. "Your strike just now was on par with my own back then!"
After the exchange, both sides were sent back twenty li.
Li Chen propped himself up with his sword, and could not help but spit out a mouthful of blood. "Cough, cough… Senior Brother Ye has gotten stronger again."
You were not doing well either. The hand gripping the Azure Luan Sword trembled slightly. The spiritual power within your body was completely exhausted. The effect of the Art of Burning Longevity vanished, your cultivation fell back to Foundation Establishment layer five, and your body sank into weakness.
Because the duration was relatively short, this time you had only burned twenty years of lifespan.
The battle ended. You and Li Chen sat in meditation on the spot, recovering your cultivation.
Once your cultivation had roughly recovered, you and Li Chen exchanged a glance, then held back and burst into laughter.
After this battle, you had a precise understanding of your own strength.
In the twenty-fifth year since joining the Body-Refining Sect, you cultivated bitterly day and night, and with the aid of the Origin-Nourishing Pill, raised your cultivation to Foundation Establishment layer six!
That same year, the power sustaining your internal injuries vanished, and the damage brought by the force of Heavenly Lightning began to intensify.
Over the following year, you tried every method, but none could effectively resolve the damage brought by the force of Heavenly Lightning.
On the surface, you possessed a physical body comparable to Foundation Establishment intensity, but in truth, the five organs and six bowels within your body were already unbearably fragile.
You could only delay your internal injuries as much as possible, live as long as possible, raise your cultivation, and prepare for the next simulation.
With the experience of the first simulation, you knew that no matter how badly your body was destroyed, it could not affect the real you.
"How is it? The taste of Heavenly Lightning backlash isn't pleasant, is it?" Sect Master Ouyang Xiu suddenly appeared before you, and the moment he opened his mouth it was full of mockery.
Hearing this, you said lightly, "It's alright. Not unacceptable."
"Heh." Ouyang Xiu did not respond, instead asking, "Have you thought it over? Will you enter the Trial Battlefield and take the risk?"
"Whether I can even live until then is still up in the air. You had best find someone else." Your face was calm.
"As long as you agree, this seat naturally has a way to let you live until then." As he spoke, a spiritual medicine suddenly appeared in Ouyang Xiu's hand. "This is a thousand-year Fire Lingzhi. It can guarantee you will not suffer Heavenly Lightning backlash for a hundred years."
You instantly grew wary. There was no such thing as unprovoked kindness; if not a traitor, then a thief.
You had never believed in pies falling from the sky.
After thinking for a moment, you ultimately could not help but ask, "Why must it be me? There are plenty in the sect stronger than me at Foundation Establishment."
"Because only you, who have cultivated the Heavenly Lightning Body-Refining Art, have the possibility of obtaining the follow-up technique!" At this point, Ouyang Xiu no longer concealed anything, and spoke the truth of the matter.
So it turned out the Heavenly Lightning Body-Refining Art was a trial set by an ancient existence to pass on its mantle.
Only a cultivator who had successfully cultivated the Heavenly Lightning Body-Refining Art at the Foundation Establishment stage could pass the trial set by the ancient existence, and inherit the mantle.
Naturally, obtaining the latter half of the technique.
At present, within the sect, only you alone met this condition.
You understood in your heart. That night, the two of you talked for a long time.
In the end, you and Ouyang Xiu reached a cooperation.
On the condition that Ouyang Xiu provided you with various cultivation resources, you would seek out the latter half of the Heavenly Lightning Body-Refining Art for him.
Before leaving, Ouyang Xiu, with pain in his heart, split off a small piece of the thousand-year Fire Lingzhi and gave it to you.
Enough for you to not worry about Heavenly Lightning backlash for twenty years!
You refined it in an instant, restoring your internal injuries.