Cultivating for a hundred lifetimes to ascension

"Hmph!"

Having his tricks exposed, Old Taoist Shang snorted coldly and, tearing off the pretense, roared loudly as a burst of jade-green light suddenly exploded from his hand. Read chapters at empire

The jade-green light shot toward the roof of the cave, illuminating it brilliantly. Within the radiance, a small jade-colored knife rapidly transitioned from ethereal to solid, swelling in size to over a yard in length,

Simultaneously, an extremely fierce oppressive force abruptly emanated from the blade, causing everyone's eyes to sting and forcing them to avert their gaze from the sword light.

"Slash!"

Old Taoist Shang coldly spat out a word while making a downward slashing motion with his hand.

No sooner had his voice fallen,

than the jade-colored long knife's light violently surged. In an inconceivable burst of speed, it appeared like lightning above Zhao Sheng's head, then thunderously chopped down.

At this critical moment, Zhao Sheng's eyes shone brightly as he instantly activated "Bullet Time."

In an instant, the world slowed manifold. The previously lightning-fast, thunderous divine knife now fell inch by inch in his eyes.

However, because of the oppressive sword light, Zhao Sheng felt as if the air had turned into glue, making it extremely difficult to move and too late to dodge.

Yet Zhao Sheng was not at all panicked; in "Bullet Time," his thoughts and reactions were at least thirty times faster than normal.

He even had time to look up and study the style of the jade-colored long knife above his head.

Only when the long knife was less than three feet above his head did Zhao Sheng calmly shift his thoughts.

In an instant, the turtle shell talisman treasure, which had been primed for action in his palm, was activated.

Zhao Sheng could "clearly" see a black light flying from his hand, rising above his head, then condensing into a massive shield, dark all over and shaped like a turtle shell.

A majestic one-horned turtle emerged from the surface of the shield, fearlessly charging at the slashing jade-colored long knife.

With a booming sound, a blinding explosion of light erupted, stinging Zhao Sheng's eyes.

As he turned his head away, the world returned to normal.

Boom!

The collision of blade and armor suddenly produced a burst of dazzling light above the cave,

Whoosh whoosh!

A strong wind suddenly swept through the cave, creating a powerful whirlwind that echoed through the cave.

At the same time, a large section of the cave ceiling collapsed, raining down numerous rocks and filling the entire cave with dust and smoke.

Old Taoist Shang's face dramatically changed, unable to believe that his trump card had been blocked.

Seeing his hope shattered, he was struck with terror, yet he still made a desperate move,

as he sent the four Mystic Wood Tiger Puppets rushing toward the tunnel entrance with a single thought.

But at that moment, the faceful of dust made Old Taoist Shang blink reflexively.

The moment he opened his eyes, a figure unexpectedly appeared beside him.

"When did...?" the moment a thought of doubt rose in Old Taoist Shang's mind, a familiar voice suddenly rang out beside his ear,

"It's over!"

Before the words had finished, Old Taoist Shang suddenly felt an intense pain in his head, as if a spike were deeply plunged into his brain and vigorously stirred.

The next instant, he... died!

After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Zhao Sheng casually withdrew the Invisible Sword, shook the brain matter off the blade, and stowed it in his Storage Bag.

Having had to initiate "Bullet Time" three times in succession, Zhao Sheng had almost surpassed the physical limit of endurance, causing a slight injury to his organs.

Bang bang bang!

Without Old Taoist Shang's Spiritual Power and Divine Sense to control them, the four Mystic Wood Tiger Puppets immediately ceased their attacking motions, and the Jade Bamboo Stick fell to the ground, rolling towards Zhao Sheng's feet.

As Zhao Sheng bent down to pick up the Spiritual Artifact, Zhao Jijian and the others finally broke through the barrier of thorny walls and arrived at the scene.

"Phew, he's finally dead!"

Zhao Jijian, seeing the body of Old Taoist Shang with brain matter oozing out, let out a sigh of relief.

"Yes, dead through and through," Zhao Sheng said nonchalantly while fiddling with the Jade Bamboo Stick.

Meanwhile, Zhao Keru suddenly crouched down quietly, reaching around Old Taoist Shang's body, searching.

"Uncle Ru, are you looking for something?" Zhao Sheng asked curiously upon seeing this.

Zhao Keru quickly found a dark green Storage Bag, and after probing inside with his Divine Sense, his expression suddenly brightened with joy.

He hastily stood up, and suddenly in his right hand appeared a thick vine, as thick as a thigh and over three feet long,

The vine had a charred, black appearance, looking almost like charcoal, but at its tip burned quietly a fist-sized, azure flame, which looked quite magical.

"What is this? Could it be another type of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire?"

Zhao Sheng found it quite strange, as the family had previously exhausted much effort to acquire Heaven and Earth Spiritual Fire but had never succeeded, yet now, Spiritual Fire seemed to be appearing one after another.

Zhao Keru was very delighted and proudly said, "This is Wood Fire!"

Upon hearing it was Wood Fire, Zhao Sheng then understood why Uncle Ru was so excited.

In the Tianzhu Realm, there were many types of Spiritual Fire, with the most numerous and common being those of the Five Elements: wind, thunder, ice, and other attributes.

Above Spiritual Fire rank were True Fire or True Flame, examples of which included the famous Samadhi True Fire, Golden Crow True Flame, and so on.

Not to mention others, just consider the Samadhi True Fire,

Samadhi True Fire, also known as Golden Core True Fire, is formed by the fusion of Wood Fire, Stone Fire, and Air Fire. It has a divine effect of purifying Spiritual Power and aiding in the condensation of the Golden Core.

Any Foundation Establishment Cultivator who has refined Samadhi True Fire greatly increases their chances of advancing to Golden Core, generally by more than thirty percent.

Zhao Sheng immediately got excited because the family already possessed Stone Fire.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

If they were lucky enough to get a type of Air Fire,

then when the three fires merge, they would produce Samadhi True Fire.

It could be foreseen that the Zhao family might very well give birth to a Golden Core Master because of this.

That was what Zhao Sheng thought, but it did not mean that Zhao Keru thought the same.

Zhao Keru's thought was quite simple; he was excited not because the Samadhi True Fire could aid in Core Formation, but because the Samadhi True Fire was a much-coveted type of alchemy fire for any Alchemist.

In the Tianzhu Realm, at least half of the Alchemy Masters had elevated to the master level because they had refined the Samadhi True Fire.

By then, Zhao Jijian also realized this, and a look of delighted surprise immediately appeared on his face.

Compared to Wood Fire, a Spiritual Artifact Puppet was not even worth mentioning— even the losses of Lush Peach Mountain seemed negligible.

While the three were jubilant about obtaining the Wood Fire, the Zhao Clan Members hiding in the rear cave heard the silence upfront, so they sent someone to check.

Upon seeing the body of Old Taoist Shang, the people immediately ran out.

Seeing this, Zhao Keru very alertly stored the Wood Fire back into the Storage Bag.

With many people and much noise, secrets are easily leaked. The family had already collected two types of Spiritual Fire; their secret could absolutely not be revealed.

The temptation of Samadhi True Fire was truly too great; even Golden Core Masters would act to snatch it.

...

Following the passage forged by the Fire Centipede, the Zhao family members walked out of the stone cave.

Looking at the devastated mountain top, everyone was stunned.

The peach trees were gone, the flowers and grass were gone.

Even the wooden buildings that had been constructed were gone, leaving only a spread of broken tiles and rubble.

Seeing his clansmen's disheartened expressions, Zhao Sheng could not help but console them, "What's destroyed is destroyed; it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that we are alive! We can always rebuild."

Zhao Sheng was right about one thing—the most important thing was to be alive.

Compared to the losses of the Zhao family, some ordinary Foundation Establishment Families who also participated in the war of territorial expansion had fared much worse.

The beast tide had come too mysteriously and too suddenly; in just a day or two, it had swept across seven thousand miles of the Desolate Domain.

As waves of demon beasts, demon birds, and Insect Clouds charged in great numbers, many Cultivation Families, caught off guard, suffered heavy casualties.

Some families, unlucky enough to have their spirit lands directly in the path of advancing high-level demon beasts, were wiped out entirely.

But while smoke and carnage spread throughout the Desolate Domain, and countless from the Human Clan died or were injured, certain special forces behind the scenes profited immensely, reaping great rewards.

Whenever a spirit land was breached by the demon beast tide, people would always arrive in time to occupy the area afterwards.

After the beast tide ended, at least one third of the new spirit lands in the Desolate Domain had changed hands.

Of course, Zhao Sheng was not aware of these things at the time.

He would later learn some inside information from people of the Ge family.