Chapter 523: Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue's grave exploration guidebook
Translator: G.o.dBrandy Editor: Kurisu
The human-shaped puppets of the Jet-Black Sect needed energy to move around. The stronger the puppet was, the bigger the amount of energy it required to activate.
After absorbing the spirit stone of the Fourth Stage, the eyes of the puppet faintly lit up. However, they immediately dimmed, and the puppet didn't move in the slightest afterward.
A spirit stone of the Fourth Stage had enough energy inside to allow the silver dragon puppet to fly for a month without breaks. But the same stone wasn't even enough to activate the puppet...
In other words, the human puppet was extremely powerful.
It had to absorb more spirit stones if it wanted to activate, and there just happened to be another eleven spirit stones of the Fourth Stage inside Song Shuhang's size-reducing purse.
The human puppet was unable to move, but the eleven spirit stones of the Fourth Stage would often b.u.mp into it while Song Shuhang was battling against the hundred giants.
The spirit stones were absorbed as soon as they b.u.mped into the human puppet.
But right at this time, Song Shuhang was wholeheartedly battling against the giants at a gravity five times higher than normal. Therefore, he had yet to realize the changes that were happening inside his size-reducing purse.
Now then, how many spirit stones would be left in Song Shuhang's pockets after the training was over...?
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Time flew by and half a day had already pa.s.sed. After fighting for half a day in an environment with gravity five times higher than normal, Song Shuhang's body was a complete mess.
China time, 8 PM.
Inside Song Shuhang's room.
Song Shuhang grabbed the paper scroll with the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯ inscribed on it and unfurled it. He had some free time in the evening. Therefore, he wanted to seize the opportunity and study the technique.
Close to Song Shuhang, Li Yinzhu, Chu Chu, and Yu Jiaojiao were playing cards.
Li Yinzhu fell asleep early this morning and slept for most of the day. Therefore, she was wide awake at this time. After waking up, she ran to Song Shuhang's room and didn't want to leave.
Since she had to take care of Li Yinzhu, Chu Chu decided to follow her and came over as well.
As for Yu Jiaojiao, she had been living together with Song Shuhang all along.
Since they were a bit bored, the three girls decided to play cards. Only G.o.d knew where they got the cards from...
They didn't play the 'Fight the Landlord' game. On the contrary, they decided to compare their scores, and the person with the highest score could flick the foreheads of others.
It looked like a very normal game of at first, however...
"Hehehe, I won," Yu Jiaojiao said complacently.
Chu Chu's face was deathly pale, and she stroked her bangs with an agonized expression on her face.
Immediately after, Yu Jiaojiao bent her claws and flicked her forehead.
"Bang~" A clear and resounding sound echoed.
"Aaaah!" Chu Chu called out pitifully, and her whole body was sent flying.
Next, it was Li Yinzhu's turn. She moved her head closer to Yu Jiaojiao with misty eyes.
"Bang..."
"Aaaah!" Li Yinzhu was also sent flying. However, she was much better off than Chu Chu. After all, she had a cultivation of the Fourth Stage Realm, and her body was much stronger than Chu Chu's.
She was sent flying because she purposely lowered her defenses.
"Again!" Chu Chu rubbed her forehead and crawled back.
"Hmm!" Li Yinzhu also rubbed her head.
After a short moment...
"Aaaah~" Chu Chu pitifully called out once again as she was sent flying.
"Ahahaha~" This time, the other person that was sent flying was Yu Jiaojiao. But in the end, she was still the descendant of a flood dragon, and her body was incredibly powerful even with her defenses lowered. Li Yinzhu's full-powered flick was unable to hurt her or make her feel pain.
The nearby Song Shuhang silently put down the paper scroll with the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯, raising his head upward and looking at the ceiling.
There was no way he could properly study with all of this happening right next to him!
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The Limitless Demon Sect was a large sect in the world of cultivators that followed the evil path.
The sect was divided into three halls.
Each hall had several Peak Leaders under its control.
The Hall Leaders of the three halls were all powerhouses of the Sixth Stage True Monarch Realm.
At this time, inside the second hall, the Nine-eyed Kama Hall.
The huge statue of the Nine-eyed Kama was enshrined in the center of the hall, and a dim flame was burning beneath the statue of the demon.
Around twenty Peak Leaders were sitting in a circle around the statue of the demon, somewhat resembling the myriads of stars that surrounded the moon.
The Hall Leader of the Nine-eyed Kama Hall sat cross-legged inside the fire burning beneath the statue of the demon. His form was illusory, just as though it was about to fuse with the statue behind him.
The Hall Leader of the Kama Hall slightly opened his eyes and said, "Eight Golden Core Spiritual Emperors were captured?"
After all, we were talking about eight Golden Core Spiritual Emperors, not some weaklings! Even if it was the Limitless Demon Sect, a large sect of the evil path, Golden Core Spiritual Emperors were the core of the sect. Each and every one of them was extremely valuable. If they were to lose eight Golden Core Spiritual Emperors at once, the Nine-eyed Kama Hall would become the weakest amongst the three halls.
"We must rescue the Peak Leaders at all costs," the Hall Leader of the Kama Hall said in a grave tone.
The enemy was Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue, a powerful figure of the Venerable rank. If possible, he didn't want to mess with such an enemy...
But those eight Golden Core Spiritual Emperors had to be rescued at all costs.
The Peak Leaders present there started to discuss amongst themselves.
Afterward, one of the Peak Leader said, "Hall Leader, according to the information we gathered on the moon, Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue wants to send the eight Peak Leaders to the mines and have them work there. Such being the case, we can attack them halfway through their journey toward the mines and save the Peak Leaders that should be escorted there with an immortal boat."
The Hall Leader of the Kama Hall nodded and said, "Transmit here all the information related to this matter in three hours' time. I'll personally partic.i.p.ate in this mission to rescue the other Peak Leaders."
"Yes." The several Peak Leaders got into action and started sending orders.
Inside the dim fire, the Hall Leader secretly sighed.
He had to prepare for both eventualities...
He was planning to prepare a large sum of spirit stones as well while devising a plan to rescue the Golden Core Spiritual Emperors.
If the rescue mission failed, he would have no choice but to brace himself and pay a ransom for his men... and the ransom for eight Peak Leaders was going to be very high!
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Beneath the Nine-eyed Kama Hall, on the 69th peak, the Mahoraga Peak.
A puppet was standing on the cliff shrouded in clouds and mist. The puppet was Young Master Hai's clone.
After obtaining the Blood Sea Jade, Young Master Hai's main body had already started to break through to the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor Realm. Thus, the puppet clone was left behind to take care of critical matters in Young Master Hai's stead.
But right at this time, the sea of clouds churned, and a ma.s.s of black mist drilled out of it. It was Demon Monarch Anzhi's clone.
Demon Monarch Anzhi practiced a very strange demonic technique that allowed him to have numerous clones. The minds of the various clones were linked together with the main body. Therefore, Demon Monarch Anzhi could scatter his clones all over China to gather information.
"I just obtained an interesting piece of information. Eight Peak Leaders from our Nine-eyed Kama Hall were captured by Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue." Demon Monarch Anzhi paused a moment and continued, "And one of the reasons might be Stressed by a Mountain of Books."
Demon Monarch Anzhi used the secret sound transmission while talking to Young Master Hai so as to avoid others eavesdropping on their conversation.
Young Master Hai's puppet clone slightly moved and likewise said via secret sound transmission, "Stressed by a Mountain of Books was involved? What is the relations.h.i.+p between him and Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue?"
Demon Monarch Anzhi replied, "Their relations.h.i.+p is closer than what I had initially thought, since after arriving on the moon, Stressed by a Mountain of Books has been living inside Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue's residence."
Young Master Hai's puppet didn't speak for a while. It seemed as though it was thinking about something important.
After a short while, he said, "How is the Hall Leader preparing to deal with this matter about the kidnapped Peak Leaders?"
Demon Monarch Anzhi replied, "He naturally wants to save the eight Peak Leaders."
Young Master Hai's puppet clone said, "The fact that those eight Peak Leaders got captured isn't such a bad thing for us... we must seize this opportunity. We can't allow the sect to rescue all eight Peak Leaders."
As long as a member of the Limitless Demon Sect could advance to the Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor, they could become one of the Peak Leaders of the sect.
However, all new Peak Leaders had to spend a lot of effort to build their personal peak.
They had to put in a lot of energy, manpower, and natural resources.
Of course, the Limitless Demon Sect would lend some help with the construction of the peak. But the funds they would put at one's disposal were too little, barely enough for the foundation of the peak.
Young Master Hai was planning to have the three of them join the upper echelons of the Limitless Demon Sect within a short period of time. Therefore, they couldn't afford to waste a large amount of energy and time to build a new peak.
Such being the case, it would be perfect if they could 'inherit' the existing peak of another Peak Leader. With that, they would be able to save a lot of time, manpower, and natural resources.
If some of the eight Peak Leaders didn't return, there would be a few peaks left without leaders.
If the three of them could timely advance to the Fifth Stage and become Peak Leaders, they would be able to take over the existing influences and peaks of the previous Peak Leaders.
It might be a little troublesome to take over the influences of the previous Peak Leaders, but it was still much easier than building a new peak from scratch.
Demon Monarch Anzhi immediately understood what Young Master Hai meant. In other words, at least three of the eight Peak Leaders had to stay within Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue's mines.
"How should we proceed?" Demon Monarch Anzhi's clone smiled evilly.
"I need to think this through... perhaps we can borrow Fellow Daoist Stressed by a Mountain of Books' hand," Young Master Hai's puppet said after holding his chin.
Demon Monarch Anzhi said, "How are you planning to borrow his hand? Do you want to leak the plan of the Hall Leader to Stressed by a Mountain of Books?"
"No, that's too dangerous. We'll be easily discovered if we directly sell the information of our teammates to the enemy. Moreover, it would be disastrous for us if Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue were to personally get into action after getting wind of the matter, sending the Hall Leader to the mines too," Young Master Hai replied.
He had to think of a safe method that would allow the Hall Leader to rescue only half of the Peak Leaders.
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China, Jiangnan area.
At this time, Gao Moumou was quickly typing on the keyboard... the recent trip to that island of natives where he was forced to teach the inhabitants how to read and write gave Gao Moumou a lot of inspirations.
The only problem was that he couldn't turn these inspirations into words. After all, he didn't have a computer with him back then.
His girlfriend Yayi just happened to return home the day before yesterday.
After that, Gao Moumou stayed in his room for three consecutive days, writing and writing.
Whenever one's head was full of inspirations, they could write at a very fast speed, just as though they had suddenly gained supernatural powers; the process was particularly smooth.
"Wonderful! I wrote 20,000 characters each day for a total of 60,000 in three days. If I release two chapters of 3000 characters each every day, they will last for a whole ten days! Ahahaha!" Gao Moumou laughed complacently.
Then, he divided all the characters he wrote in the past few days into paragraphs and chapters and uploaded them onto the writing platform, setting the timer so that they would be automatically released.
"With so many chapters ready, I can go on a date with Yayi tomorrow. This time, I won't allow anyone to ruin our time together. Stupid Zhuge Yue and stupid Zhuge Zhongyang, go to h.e.l.l! Ahahaha!"
He had already chosen the place they were going to stay in. He was planning to bring Yayi to a summer mountain villa and stay there for three days and three nights. The thought alone was enough to make Gao Moumou excited.
At first, he was thinking of going to the beach, but he was somewhat sensitive about the sea recently. For this reason, he decided to go to the mountain.
After finis.h.i.+ng the chapters, Gao Moumou opened the instant messaging app.
First, he casually sent Song Shuhang, Tubo, and Li Yangde some greeting emojis. But after seeing that no one was online, he logged out of the instant messaging app.
Next, he entered with a different account... it was a secret account reserved for his activities as an author. The only friends he had on this account were the readers of his books, and he had added none of his real-life friends.
Just as Gao Moumou got into the account...
"Ding, ding, ding~" The sound of a notification echoed. The notification signified that someone had added him as a friend or that someone had joined the public group.
"A reader has added me!" Gao Moumou clicked on the notification.
[Dragon Maiden Yu Jiaojiao wants to add you as a friend.]
Attached note: Add me, add me, quickly add me!
"Yu Jiaojiao? Judging from the name, it seems it's a girl," Gao Moumou muttered.
Gao Moumou didn't spend much time on this account. Moreover, the name of the account was never made public. Therefore, the only people that added him were the readers of his books. As long as it was a reader adding him, Gao Moumou would accept the request without too many thoughts.
Gao Moumou casually clicked on the prompt and accept the friend request.
However... the other party had sent the request several days ago and wasn't currently online.
Gao Moumou sent a casual smiling emoji, and that was it.
Afterward, he opened the public group with all the readers and spammed in there for a while.
After he was done spamming, Gao Moumou closed the instant messaging program, completely satisfied.
Immediately afterward, he called his girlfriend Yayi and started to plan their next date.
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The next day.
July 30th. Weather unknown since Song Shuhang was currently on the moon. Today's dao name was Tyrannical Saber Song One, kindly provided by Venerable White.
After getting up early in the morning, Song Shuhang tried to practice the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯.
However, the ❮Steel Hands Technique❯ was a cultivation technique of the Second Stage rank, and it was much more challenging to learn than the ❮Basic Buddhist Fist Technique❯. Even after trying several times, Song Shuhang made only small progress.
Just as he was practicing, Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue's voice was transmitted from afar. "Little friend Shuhang, are you ready?"
"Senior Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue, is something the matter?" Song Shuhang asked in puzzlement.
"Don't you remember which day today is? We're going to explore the grave of Venerable Sixth Cultivator of True Virtue today!" Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue said.
I almost forgot about it... the day before yesterday, Senior Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue said that we would explore the grave of Venerable Sixth Cultivator of True Virtue today...
For the past few days, Song Shuhang had been fighting the giants to the point of becoming dizzy.
"No problem, Senior. I'm ready to set out at any time," Song Shuhang said. After battling against the giants in gravity five times higher than normal yesterday, the strength of Song Shuhang's const.i.tution increased by a notch again.
At this time, that bloated and painful feeling in his dantian had already disappeared, and even his head was hurting a lot less.
He could already operate his true qi and was able to use the Flaming Saber Technique, Inverted Scale Saber Technique, and other techniques.
As for his mental energy, he still needed some time to adapt to it. After strengthening his const.i.tution by another notch, he would be able to practice meditation techniques again. Therefore, he was still unable to use magical techniques such as the Lightning Palm that could be performed only with the help of mental energy.
Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue said, "In that case, let's take Chu Chu and the others along and proceed."
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The group got into Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue's immortal boat and left the moon, heading toward the outer s.p.a.ce.
Along the way, Song Shuhang asked out of curiosity, "Senior, why is the grave of Venerable Sixth Cultivator of True Virtue in s.p.a.ce?"
From what he saw in the dreamland, the grave of Venerable Sixth Cultivator of True Virtue was somewhere on Earth!
"The grave of Venerable Sixth Cultivator of True Virtue doesn't have a fixed location. It's a mobile ancient grave whose position can s.h.i.+ft at any time. Graves belonging to cultivators aren't the same as those belonging to ordinary people. In fact, this type of ancient grave that moves around was rather popular amongst ancient cultivators back then," Venerable Seventh Cultivator of True Virtue explained.