The Zhang Family in Shangjing must be revisited, not only because of the numerous mysteries left by my father but also because of the Life and Death Record that can control a person’s lifespan, I have to go back and take a look.
The Book of Life and Death is so miraculous, I must observe it personally, perhaps even gain some unexpected talent superpowers.
The three of them talked for a while longer, then Xie Xuan and Xie Lingyun left to absorb the True Dragon Essence and consolidate their cultivation foundations, while Mrs. Zhang took the three little ones back to their rooms to look after their transformations, leaving Zhang Chen sitting in the cabin, taking out the Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror to begin searching for information on the Tree of Life Coffin.
Now Zhang Chen has cultivated five hundred years of magical power to the max, unless he enters a higher realm, for mortal-level cultivation, five hundred years of magical power is already the limit. With magical power at its peak, autonomous cultivation of various divine techniques cannot progress further, only experience accumulation can improve skills, Zhang Chen focuses his attention on the Tree of Life Coffin. He wants to leave the Northern Land for the south, with the premise of finding the Tree of Life Coffin, but unfortunately, despite using the Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror, Zhang Chen still cannot find the whereabouts of the Tree of Life Coffin.
"This Grand Steward truly has some means, no wonder various factions cannot find the trace of the Tree of Life Coffin, even my Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror cannot locate the Tree of Life Coffin, let alone ordinary martial world people." Zhang Chen began to contemplate his own retreat options, at present, he cannot place all hope on finding the Tree of Life Coffin, and must explore other paths.
"I now have two years of life left, with two choices ahead; the first is to stay in the Northern Land, fixating on the Tree of Life Coffin, the second is to find ways to upgrade the Authority of Wood Element. If there’s a method to absorb the world’s vegetation to extend life, my dilemma would naturally be resolved." However, Zhang Chen looks at his Golden Finger Interface, the experience required for the Authority of Wood Element is vast, and he must put some thought into collecting sufficient experience, such as targeting those divine beings, stealing their incense faith, and using their creation to complete himself.
This indeed provides a direction, given that currently in the human race there is no shortage of divine beings; as long as he upgrades his Invisibility Technique, he won’t lack skill points.
"The flourishing Divine Dao is good, all divine beings will become my resources." Zhang Chen looked at his Golden Finger Interface’s Invisibility Technique: [11 skills (eighth tier): Invisibility Rune (0/160000000)]
"Is 160 million skill points a lot? Once upgraded to the ninth tier, it will be Yang God level skill; despite the large number of skill points needed, it is worth it." Zhang Chen pondered secretly in his heart.
His Ascension Pool generates 30 million experience points annually, and now with the branches of Heaven-Reaching Jianmu, this speed can increase to at least five times, meaning that with patience, in about a year, the Invisibility Technique can level up.
Yang God level Invisibility Technique, once deployed, without the Pupil Technique, even a Yang God True Man would not be able to see through it.
Such a means could allow travel through ninety-nine percent of the places in the world.
Although a large number of points are required, the high value is definitely not a loss.
Yet Zhang Chen cannot afford to wait a year, he cannot idly waste a year waiting.
"Still, I must find ways to externally plunder experience points, starting with those weak divine spirits, and then using the Devouring Skill to consume the mysterious elements, converting them to points for accumulation, assisting in my faster transformation." Zhang Chen pondered secretly within his heart.
Zhang Chen stored away the Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror, then closed his eyes to meditate, regulating the Primordial Qi within, before entering the Spiritual World Second Heaven.
The Spiritual World Second Heaven is widespread seawater, vast and boundless at a glance, the entire world seems to be composed of seawater.
Luckily, Zhang Chen masters the Water Control Technique, thriving like fish in the sea in this water world.
"The entirety of the Spiritual World Second Heaven is an ocean, I wonder if there’s any creation left behind by ancient gods and demons to provide some points." Zhang Chen was somewhat expectant.
The seawater below isn’t ordinary seawater, but rather a first-rank type of seawater, containing toxins within, that if any creature falls into, would certainly be poisoned without transcendental methods.
Just a drop of water can poison a first-rank creature.
Despite being first-rank seawater, if a great divine power user falls in and doesn’t quickly transcend, they would succumb to slow poisoning.
First-rank poisonous water doesn’t mean it cannot poison eighth or ninth-rank super creatures, it’s just that the first-rank toxicity acts slowly relative to eighth or ninth-rank beings, taking longer to poison.
If one remains in this endless seawater long-term, even beings possessing fruit positions would die of poisoning after millions of years.
"Old man, what’s with this seawater in the Second Heaven?" Zhang Chen asked.
Upon hearing Zhang Chen’s words, the Great Freedom Celestial Demon scratched their head: "The Second Heaven in my memory was a world of flowers and birds, not supposed to be like this; perhaps it’s been polluted by something mysterious."
"Polluted by something mysterious?" Zhang Chen was puzzled.
"This seawater looks akin to the Tears of the Water Spirit." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon seemed unsure.
"Tears of the Water Spirit, what is that?" Zhang Chen curiously asked.
The Great Freedom Celestial Demon said: "At the beginning of creation, there were four great spirits—earth, water, wind, and fire. The Water Spirit took form, becoming the divine spirit governing the power of the water element across heaven and earth. Tears of the Water Spirit are the tears shed by the Water God, submerging the Second Heaven and transforming it into an ocean world, killing all creatures with a drop of those tears."
"Are you joking? A single tear can poison an entire realm?" Zhang Chen was somewhat incredulous.
The Great Freedom Celestial Demon replied irritably: "I’m only proposing my hypothesis; whether it’s true or not, I also don’t know. After all, eons have passed, the seas interchange with mulberry fields, eras change, I don’t know why this transformation occurred."
Hearing the ramblings of the Great Freedom Celestial Demon, Zhang Chen scratched his head and looked at the seawater with his eyes, sensing the Qi Mechanism within it. In his senses, there wasn’t any living creature in the seawater; it was all dead water.
"The princess ascended to the second heaven of the Spiritual World, I wonder if she could meet with the princess." Zhang Chen wanted to ask the princess some questions, but all he saw was boundless seawater, where was the princess’s figure?
"Do you know where the center of the world is?" Zhang Chen asked.
He wanted to see if he could find an opportunity to replenish his divine power, as he currently only had one-thirty-third of it. He wanted to verify if each heaven could supplement a portion of divine power.
The Great Freedom Celestial Demon slightly sensed and pointed in a certain direction in the boundless seawater: "In that direction."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Chen activated the ice ship formed by the seawater beneath his feet, and like an arrow leaving the string, the ice ship sped away.
Using the Water Control Technique to propel the ice ship on the water surface, the speed was far faster than the Five Elements Escape Technique.
"How long do I need to travel?" Zhang Chen asked.
The Great Freedom Celestial Demon slowly extended a finger, Zhang Chen thought for a moment and said, "A month? That’s not so bad."
"What I meant is that if you can travel ten thousand miles a day, it would take at least a year, which is roughly four million miles, to reach the center of the second layer of the Spiritual World," said the Great Freedom Celestial Demon.
Zhang Chen’s face stiffened upon hearing this: "Four million miles? Ten thousand miles a day? Are you kidding? Even if he runs to the point of smoking, he couldn’t cover ten thousand miles. Isn’t ten thousand miles just five thousand kilometers? What kind of concept is that? High-speed trains only go around three hundred plus miles an hour!"
Thus, Zhang Chen directly transformed into a Vampire Bat and flew away, disappearing into the azure void with a breath.
With Zhang Chen’s current speed as a sixth-rank Bloodline Superpower User, traveling ten thousand miles a day was not impossible, just a bit flamboyant. But now that the whole world was in deathly silence, there was no fear of being too flamboyant.
Zhang Chen transformed into a Vampire Bat and flew wildly at that moment, his wings had already completely turned silver-white, imprinted with beautiful yet strange runes.
On the great ship
As his Spiritual Power depleted, Zhang Chen slowly opened his eyes, his spirit inevitably tired. Anyone who flew ten thousand miles would be dog-tired. You should know even high-speed trains at three hundred kilometers per hour can’t cover ten thousand miles in a day. But Zhang Chen’s Blood Control Technique evolved Vampire Bat could fly five hundred kilometers in an hour without much difficulty.
Zhang Chen continued flying fast, and he flew for a full twenty hours before finally his spirit couldn’t hold, and he retreated from the Spiritual World.
It was nighttime in the outside world now, and the clouds in the sky dispersed, revealing a bright moon as large as a car cover.
Zhang Chen cultivated the Visualization Technique to restore Spiritual Power. Then, hundreds of miles away, Taiyin Essence began to converge, absorbed by Zhang Chen’s soul. In Zhang Chen’s visualization image, countless crystalline liquid gathered in the Treasure Vase, and this liquid dripped onto Zhang Chen’s soul, where the scent of osmanthus permeated, and the blossoming osmanthus flashed with a clear light, helping Zhang Chen digest the gathered moonlight.
Outside the cabin
Xie Xuan and Xie Lingyun stood together, watching the moonlight that gathered in the void, with a touch of shock in their eyes.
"Is this what Qi Cultivators refer to as stealing the mystery of the sun and moon? Even I, having proven the Yang God, am far from this," Xie Xuan said, staring at the gathered moonlight with awe in his eyes.
Cultivators of the Divine Soul Dao, upon reaching the Soul Emergence Realm, can absorb the Power of the Moon to temper their souls, and are well familiar with this power.
Although everyone can absorb the moonlight, no one is as exaggerated as Zhang Chen, with all the moonlight within hundreds of miles converging, which was rather too dramatic.
"This young person is indeed extraordinary. Our father-daughter pair is fortunate to have associated with such a character," Xie Lingyun praised aside, agreeing with Xie Xuan.
Just then, Zhang Chen’s cabin door opened, and he emerged radiant: "Why are you both out enjoying the moon instead of sleeping at this late hour?"
Upon hearing Zhang Chen’s words, Xie Lingyun replied: "With the great enemy present, who can sleep?"
Zhang Chen pondered for a moment: "Indeed, waiting is truly a torment!"
Actually, Xie Xuan intended to strike first, but Zhang Chen wished to stay on the side of justice, not wanting to entangle in karmic effects, so they could only wait for the opponent to make a move. He didn’t know how Karmic Force in heaven and earth accumulated and settled, but by letting the opponent strike first and retaliating passively, this should be called self-defense, right? It couldn’t be judged as mutual harm by heaven and earth, could it?
God knows how that damned bastard would judge, Zhang Chen could only do his best and leave it to fate, avoiding leaving incriminating evidence, and reduce his own responsibilities.
Meanwhile, Zhang Chen sighed inwardly: "Debts of gratitude are the hardest to repay! Such debts are the toughest! In ’The Investiture of the Gods,’ the immortals of Jie Sect were dragged down by Shen Gongbao like this."