Chapter 185 – Conditions for Heavenly Dao Golden Core, Target: Three Purities Dharma Body

[You have slain Great Thousand Mountains Elder Kong Guangping (Nascent Soul Stage Second Transformation/Six-Grade Earth Path Nascent Soul). You obtained 6 million EXP, Soul Crystal Shard (Gold)1, Special Item: Peacock King Essence Blood…]

[You have slain Corpse Fiend Cave Elder Liang Jinyun (Nascent Soul Stage First Transformation/Six-Grade Earth Path Nascent Soul). You obtained 5 million EXP, Soul Crystal Shard (Gold)1, Special Divine Ability: Three Corpses Reversal Method…]

[Current EXP: 22.5 million]

As Lu Chen’s Shangqing Cloud Sword completely eradicated the remnant souls of Kong Guangping and Liang Jinyun, this special instance finally came to an end.

Lu Chen’s original purpose in coming here was to learn the remaining parts of the Heretical Sword.

However, he unexpectedly discovered that aside from the sword marks remaining on the Sword Suppressing Stone, all other traces of the Heretical Sword had disappeared.

Combined with how the Sword Array Fragment Map had merged with the entire Hidden Sword Peak,

Lu Chen speculated that the sword marks scattered elsewhere on Hidden Sword Peak might have been integrated into the entire mountain by the Sword Diagram.

Through this experience, Lu Chen also came to understand the true nature of Hidden Sword Peak.

While Hidden Sword Peak appeared to be a mountain, it was actually an Immortal Sword thrust into the earth.

Over the long passage of time, this Immortal Sword had completely fused with the land.

However, Lu Chen believed that with the right method, there might be an opportunity to pull out this Immortal Sword in the future.

In this aspect, the Immortal Sword of Hidden Sword Peak was quite similar to the Celestial Artifact cauldron of Kangding Peak.

Both were likely methods left behind by the Azure Cloud Ancestor for the Azure Cloud Sect.

Although he failed to advance his Heretical Sword further,

Lu Chen was still quite satisfied with this instance run.

Slaying three Nascent Soul Stage cultivators was something Lu Chen wouldn’t even dare to imagine at his current stage.

Despite how easily he appeared to defeat Liang Jinyun and Kong Guangping,

this was only possible because he had used multiple revivals to rehearse numerous times in advance, formulating a perfect plan.

Moreover, he had borrowed the power of a Deity Transformation Talisman to finally accomplish everything.

If either of these factors had been missing, Lu Chen could never have achieved the feat of slaying three Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

Therefore, similar circumstances were almost impossible to encounter again.

After all, Lu Chen only possessed one Deity Transformation Talisman.

Once used, it was gone.

Unless his master Spirit Fire Daoist Jing Gong could produce another valuable item,

given his current situation, it would be very difficult for him to obtain such precious items again.

Nevertheless, this single Deity Transformation Talisman had been fully utilized.

It had achieved maximum benefit.

Standing amidst the ruins of Hidden Sword Peak,

Lu Chen eventually chose to clear the instance after some contemplation.

[You have cleared the instance: Sword Formation Ruins…]

[You received instance clearance rewards: Shard of Heavenly Dao (Return)1, Shard of Heavenly Dao (Demon Slayer)1, Soul Crystal Shard (Purple)*10, 500,000 EXP]

Azure Cloud Sect, Lu Chen’s Cave Residence.

“Sigh, although this isn’t my first time clearing an instance, each time gives me the feeling of having lived through an entire lifetime.”

Looking around his cave residence, although Lu Chen bore no injuries,

he still felt a sense of exhaustion.This exhaustion stemmed from hundreds of deaths and mental weariness.

After all, scheming against three Nascent Soul Stage cultivators was no easy task.

Just to uncover those secrets from Bai Yu, he had paid the price over a hundred times.

Not to mention identifying the mole from the Corpse Fiend Cave hidden within the Black Lotus Sect.

Without this, it would have been difficult for him to ensure the Corpse Fiend Cave arrived immediately.

One must understand that once Bai Yu placed the Sword Diagram into the specialized Sword Box, the Sword Intent on the diagram would be completely concealed.

By then, as long as the violent sword energy of Hidden Sword Peak persisted a while longer,

both the Corpse Fiend Cave and the Great Thousand Mountains, in their efforts to evade this sword energy, would ultimately choose to join Bai Yu in opening the secret passage to leave Hidden Sword Peak.

During this process, it would have been far more challenging for Lu Chen to incite a fight among the three.

It could be said that every step Lu Chen took afterward was the result of meticulous planning at the cost of numerous lives.

The mental strain this placed on him was unimaginable.

But now, all these efforts had paid off.

The first and foremost reward was the Sword Diagram in Lu Chen’s hands.

[Name: Fiend-Severing Sword (Incomplete)]

[Type: Special Item]

[Effect: Can be repaired to the Third Realm by spending 3 million experience points and five Soul Crystal Shards (Purple). Once repaired, not only will you obtain the complete Spirit Sword, but you can also comprehend a special Sword Intent from it.]

Looking at the Sword Array Fragment Map, or rather, the Fiend-Severing Sword,

Lu Chen did not hesitate in the slightest and decisively chose to repair it.

After all, having emerged from this instance, he had essentially achieved experience freedom.

Over twenty million experience points—this was a luxury Lu Chen had never experienced before.

From the time of his Transmigration until now, he had never fought a battle with such abundant resources!

[You have repaired the special item·Fiend-Severing Sword…]

[You have obtained Third Realm Spiritual Treasure·Fiend-Severing, Unknown Sword Intent Fragment*1]

[Name: Fiend-Severing Sword]

[Grade: Third Realm Spiritual Treasure]

[Effect·Sever Heaven: Can ignore Concepts at or below the Harmony Realm and directly attack the enemy.]

[Special Effect·Soul Slash: Can transform reality into illusion, directly attacking the Divine Soul and dealing true damage.]

Although the Fiend-Severing Sword only had two effect entries, far fewer than the Ink Dragon Sword or the Gluttonous Fiend Weapon,

these two effects were both incredibly terrifying.

The ‘Sever Heaven’ effect alone was enough to allow Lu Chen to counter the majority of Harmony Realm cultivators.

After all, the ability to ignore Concepts at or below the Harmony Realm could be described as a nightmare for most Harmony Realm cultivators.

Putting himself in their shoes, Lu Chen imagined that if the Golden Core Stage cultivators he had encountered before had possessed such a Fiend-Severing Sword,

even with his myriad techniques, it would have been exceedingly difficult to defeat them.

Those Golden Core Stage cultivators wouldn’t need to do much—just wield this sword and attack normally—

to pose a significant threat to him.

Besides ‘Sever Heaven,’ the other effect of the Fiend-Severing Sword was equally fearsome.

‘Soul Slash,’ as the name implies, allowed direct attacks on a cultivator’s Divine Soul.

For the vast majority of cultivators, this effect was nothing short of a nightmare.

It’s important to note that after reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, cultivators primarily focus on cultivating their Divine Soul.

Even Body Cultivators emphasize the unity of spirit and flesh, integrating the power of the Divine Soul into their Physical Body.

Thus, whether for Body Cultivators or conventional Dao Cultivators…The power of the Divine Soul is the fundamental strength cultivators rely on after reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The Fiend-Severing Sword, capable of directly attacking a cultivator’s Divine Soul, is essentially an assault on their very Origin.

Even the Protective Qi of a Golden Core Stage cultivator would suffer significant damage if struck by this sword.

This is because the essence of a Golden Core Stage cultivator’s Protective Qi is actually the result of the fusion between their Divine Soul and their own spiritual energy in a normalized state.

It is equivalent to forming a special magnetic field around oneself with the Golden Core at its center.

Although the Fiend-Severing Sword cannot produce the terrifying effects it would if it struck their physical bodies when it hits the Protective Qi of a Golden Core Stage cultivator,

it can directly attack the Divine Soul that maintains the Protective Qi.

In this way, it indirectly pierces through the Protective Qi of a Golden Core Stage cultivator.

It can be said that with this Fiend-Severing Sword in hand, the Protective Qi of most Golden Core Stage cultivators would not last more than three rounds against him.

If given enough time, Lu Chen could use his Azure Lotus Eye to identify the weaknesses in an enemy’s Protective Qi.

With that, he is confident he could shatter their Protective Qi with a single strike.

Thus, this sword alone is enough to increase Lu Chen’s current strength by roughly thirty percent.

Ordinary Golden Core Stage cultivators are truly no match for him now.

Perhaps only those Heavenly Path Golden Core cultivators who have received the “Heavenly Dao’s Blessing” could stand toe-to-toe with him in his current state.

With the arrival of the Fiend-Severing Sword, only the “Fiend-Slaying” sword formation remains incomplete among the four sword formations Lu Chen aims to perfect.

For the Immortal-Trapping Sword Formation, he has the Righteous Azure Lotus Sword Domain as its core and the Shangqing Cloud Sword as its formation eye.

For the Fiend-Slaughter Sword Formation, he has the Mountain of Corpses Sea of Blood Sword Domain as its core and the Gluttonous Fiend Weapon as its formation eye.

As for the Fiend-Severing Sword Formation, although it lacks a matching Sword Domain, the Three Realms Spirit Sword serving as its formation eye is already in place.

Moreover, with the Fiend-Severing Sword now repaired, Lu Chen has also obtained the fragments of Sword Intent contained within it.

Coupled with the vast amount of experience he currently holds, mastering a Sword Intent suitable for the Fiend-Severing Sword Formation is practically a foregone conclusion.

In this way, three of the four sword formations are nearing completion.

Although the Shangqing Cloud Sword, which forms part of the Fiend-Trapping Sword Formation, is only at the Second Realm, Lu Chen’s decision to use it solely to eliminate the remaining Nascent Soul Stage cultivators at the critical moment was not arbitrary.

He intentionally used the Primordial Spirits of these Nascent Soul Stage cultivators as whetstones to catalyze the birth of the Shangqing Cloud Sword’s own artifact spirit.

And the Shangqing Cloud Sword did not disappoint him—it has already begun its transformation.

[Your Second Realm Magic Treasure·Shangqing Cloud Sword meets the advancement conditions. Artifact spirit is being born…]

Once the Shangqing Cloud Sword completes its advancement, two of Lu Chen’s sword formations will reach their complete forms.

“Two of the four sword formations are already complete. Next, as long as I comprehend the Unknown Sword Intent of the Fiend-Severing Sword and elevate it to the Harmony Realm, the third sword formation will also be fully realized.”

“At that point, the only remaining challenge before me will be the Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation.”

“And it’s about time to elevate the Dragon Transformation Sword Intent to the Harmony Realm as well.”

The main reason Lu Chen had not elevated the Dragon Transformation Sword Intent earlier was that, at the time, it existed in isolation.

There were no other matching Concepts to fuse with it.

However, during this period, Lu Chen has already elevated the Entering Dao Conceptions he learned during the “Five Peaks Tournament.”Moreover, the two beast-type Concepts happened to be highly compatible with the Dragon Transformation Sword Intent.

Thus, the current Dragon Transformation Sword Intent had also met the conditions for advancing to the Harmony Realm.

Therefore, Lu Chen could fully elevate the Dragon Transformation Sword Intent in a short period.

Originally, Lu Chen had thought that achieving this step might require a considerable amount of time.

But a single special instance journey not only allowed him to instantly gain a terrifying amount of experience worth tens of millions of units,

but also helped him find the Spirit Sword and Sword Intent suitable for the Fiend-Severing Sword Formation.

The smoothness of everything was something even Lu Chen himself had not anticipated.

In this way, he might have hope of reaching the Golden Core Stage within ten years.

And these ten years referred to ten years in the game.

Converted to reality, that would be just one year.

Such a speed could only be described as astonishing and unprecedented.

However, achieving the Golden Core Stage, especially a First-Grade Great Dao Golden Core, was no easy task.

Because the essence of the Golden Core Stage was ‘condensing liquid into a core.’

It was somewhat similar to the process of Alchemy, where the medicinal efficacy of rare treasures was refined and then fully concentrated.

But the more precious the medicinal ingredients, the more terrifying the medicinal power they contained,

and the greater the difficulty in achieving Fusion.

Therefore, for most Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators seeking to condense a Golden Core, besides needing a powerful Divine Soul, they also required some external assistance.

This external assistance usually came in the form of special natural environments.

For example, the unique Earthfire of Danyang Peak was an extremely suitable place for a Breakthrough.

However, Lu Chen felt that the unique Earthfire of Danyang Peak alone might not be sufficient to support his First-Grade Great Dao Immortal Foundation in completing the step of condensing liquid into a core.

Moreover, Lu Chen’s current Divine Soul strength was entirely insufficient.

Thus, aside from improving his cultivation, what he needed to do now was to enhance his Divine Soul strength.

This was also why most Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators needed over a hundred years to preliminarily meet the conditions for Core Formation.

After all, the cultivation of the Divine Soul was extraordinary.

A single misstep could potentially damage one’s own Foundation.

There were many methods to cultivate the Divine Soul, and the best approach Lu Chen could think of was to first elevate his own and Diting’s destiny.

Because the ‘Divine Qi’ among Diting’s Innate Nine Qi essentially referred to the Qi of the Divine Soul.

While ordinary people needed to be extremely cautious when cultivating the Divine Soul, Lu Chen only needed to find ways to continuously absorb the Nine Qi and nourish his Divine Soul.

In this way, his Divine Soul could steadily improve without any risks.

Moreover, due to Diting’s exceptionally high destiny, the ‘Divine Qi’ he cultivated was nearly perfect.

Thus, Lu Chen did not have to worry about an unstable Foundation.

Although Diting, as a Classic of Mountains and Seas Mythical Beast, could not provide Lu Chen with the terrifying combat power boost like the Three-Legged Golden Crow in the short term,

his assistance to Lu Chen’s future far exceeded that of the Three-Legged Golden Crow.

After all, with the existence of the True Immortal Cultivation game, Lu Chen had no need to worry about techniques, Divine Abilities, or cultivation.

The only things that troubled him were those that could not be improved through experience points.

The Divine Soul was one such special attribute that he could not directly enhance with experience points.

But Diting’s existence perfectly compensated for this.

Furthermore, because Diting and he were bound by a contract, Lu Chen did not even need to deliberately absorb the Nine Qi.

He only needed to let Diting cultivate on his own.

Additionally, the world where the Azure Cloud Sect was located had a Heavenly Dao power significantly stronger than that of Lu Chen’s real world.Therefore, it might not be long before the Nine Qi fed back to him by Diting would be sufficient to elevate his Divine Soul to the level required for Core Formation.

Thinking of this, Lu Chen’s vision for his future became exceptionally clear.

For now, his priority was to complete the full ‘Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation’ to maximize his combat prowess.

Then, he would use his experience points in batches to steadily advance his cultivation.

Finally, once his Divine Soul reached a certain level of strength, he would attempt to condense his Golden Core.

Upon reaching the Golden Core Stage, the advantage of his Five Elements Spiritual Roots would be fully unleashed.

Unlike others who possessed Golden Cores with only one or a few attributes, a Golden Core encompassing all Five Elements would not only be more powerful but, most importantly, would be better suited to adapt to various Dharma Bodies.

This brings us to the cultivation requirements for Dharma Bodies.

The Origin power at the Golden Core Stage consists of three parts: Protective Qi, the Authority of the Golden Core, and the Golden Core Dharma Body.

Among these, Protective Qi is the most fundamental ability. The Authority of the Golden Core is a power beyond Protective Qi, representing a Domain power above entering the Dao but below merging with the Dao.

The Golden Core Dharma Body, however, stands apart from these two.

The strength of a Dharma Body depends not only on the quality of the Golden Core Cultivator’s core but also on the ‘medium.’

Take Ji Yuan, the former emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty, as an example.

Because the Great Yan Emperor possessed the special Magic Treasure, Secret Fang (Replica), from the Small Bliss Heaven, he could use this treasure as a medium to summon the power of the Small Bliss Heaven onto himself.

Leveraging his high-quality Golden Core, he was then able to condense the Dharma Body of the Small Bliss Heaven.

Without the special Magic Treasure ‘Secret Fang (Replica),’ Ji Yuan alone would have been unable to manifest the Small Bliss Heaven Dharma Body.

Due to the constraints of these two special conditions—Golden Core quality and the medium—many Golden Core Stage Cultivators typically pursued methods like ‘Spirit Beast Dharma Bodies’ or ‘Ancestral Possession.’

However, neither of these conventional Dharma Body cultivation methods was what Lu Chen intended to pursue.

Aside from these two approaches, there was another way to condense a Dharma Body: the ‘True Form Power.’

This involved creating a unique Dharma Body exclusive to oneself without relying on any medium.

And this was the outcome Lu Chen desired.

Yet, this path was exceedingly difficult because a Dharma Body could not be something abstract; it had to be a manifestation of some form of cosmic power.

In a sense, a Dharma Body was akin to another type of Classic of Mountains and Seas Mythical Beast.

The difference lay in that Mythical Beasts were living beings, while Dharma Bodies were derivatives of Divine Abilities and techniques.

Therefore, to transform an illusory Dharma Body into a tangible entity, Lu Chen needed to use a specific power as the Origin and a vessel compatible with this Origin as a container to bear this power.

For this, Lu Chen had long since decided on his approach.

He planned to use the Three Pure Ones from his previous life as a template, with the Great Dao power of the Heavenly Dao Auspicious Clouds as the Origin, to forge a unique Three Pure Ones Avatar.

His confidence stemmed from the fact that the Origin of the Three Pure Ones in his previous life was Hundun Origin Qi.

After all, the ‘One Qi’ in ‘One Qi Transforms Into Three Purities’ referred precisely to Hundun Origin Qi.

And another form of Hundun Origin Qi was the cosmic Origin power within the Great Dao Auspicious Clouds.

Lu Chen believed that if he could condense a First Grade Great Dao Golden Core and cultivate the complete Fiend-Slaying Sword Formation, he might have a chance to ‘borrow’ a wisp of Hundun Origin Qi from the Heavenly Dao when overcoming his Golden Core Tribulation.Though it might be somewhat blasphemous, Lu Chen had indeed begun to set his sights on the Heavenly Dao.

Using the power of the Heavenly Dao to condense a Three Pure Ones Avatar exclusively for himself—this was Lu Chen’s plan for his Golden Core Stage.

If he could truly achieve this, then in the future, relying on the ‘Immortal Slaughtering Sword Formation’ and the ‘Three Pure Ones’ Avatar, he might genuinely reach the level of embodying the Dao Ancestor.

Although all of this was still just imagination, and Lu Chen wasn’t certain whether he could borrow the Origin Qi of Hundun from the Heavenly Dao, he felt that, given his reverence for the Heavenly Dao, asking it to cough up some “gold coins”… shouldn’t be too much to ask, right?

(End of Chapter)