Without hesitation, Zhang Ruochen swallowed the Sunleaf directly and activated the Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean, attempting to refine it with all his might.
In fact, if the White Tiger Leaf had been around, it would have been better. With his current physical strength, upon refining the White Tiger Leaf, it would be possible for him to refine his body to the Supreme Saint-level. By then, refining the Supreme Saint dragon soul and elephant soul would be much easier.
However, thinking of the Sunleaf’s powers, he knew that it would not let him down after he refined it.
The Sunleaf contained an extremely majestic amount of Solar Qi, and it was scorching hot. The moment he swallowed it, Zhang Ruochen felt his body transform into a divine furnace. His whole body turned red as if he was about to melt away.
Even a body as strong as his could bear the strain entirely. Numerous cracks appeared on the surface of his skin, and they were all on the verge of ripping apart. Drops of bright red blood seeped through his skin and instantly evaporated due to the sun’s essence.
For a moment, Zhang Ruochen’s body was shriveling up at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. It looked as if the Sunleaf was about to turn all of the water in his body into steam.
The Sunleaf, unlike other leaves, contained more ferocious divine powers, and the danger of consuming it was even greater, reminiscent of someone swallowing a sun.
“As expected of divine medicine. It is so powerful that my body is about to collapse. I need to hold on.” Zhang Ruochen gritted his teeth in silence.
In order to become stronger, enduring some hardship was nothing.
Of course, he was not a fool, and he would never choose to take things head-on unnecessarily.
Feeling that his body’s resistance was almost at its limits, Zhang Ruochen quickly took out some Springwater of Life to drink.
Suddenly, a refreshing sensation flowed all over his body and greatly eased the pain, allowing the cracks on his body to heal slowly.
The Springwater of Life had been harvested from the Divine Sky-connecting Tree, and it was so arcane that it could almost resurrect the dead.
When his body stabilized, Zhang Ruochen stood up and started practicing the Luoshui Fist to smooth out the raging sun’s essence inside his body.
A river appeared around him, filled with a cooling aura as it suppressed the scorching power coming out from his body.
It was a shame that he was not on the Nine Carols Star, or else the effect of the Luoshui Fist would be even better. Plus, with the Luoshui’s help, the trouble he was facing now would be easily resolved.
The Luoshui Fist Technique could not completely smoothen the sun’s essence, and every once in a while, Zhang Ruochen’s body would be on the verge of collapse. He would then need to drink some Springwater of Life.
Fortunately, now that the Divine Sky-connecting Tree had created plenty of the Springwater of Life, there was no need to worry about it.
Zhang Ruochen’s body was scorching hot at times while icy cold at other times. It felt like he was inside a forge. It was the type of pain that no ordinary person could bear.
After going through this over and over till the point he lost count of the times, Zhang Ruochen had finally completely controlled the power of the Sunleaf.
During this period, his physical strength had greatly increased and reached the extreme of a Saint King. His body was just a step away from becoming a Supreme Saint.
With such physical strength, there was a specific realm for it, called “Beneath a Supreme Saint”, which was the physical limit before one’s body attained Supreme Sainthood.
Even after refining his physical body at such an intensity, he had not consumed too much of the Sunleaf’s essence.
The Sunleaf’s power died down and transformed into a scorching sun as it floated upon the Sea of Qi’s divine light, turning the divine light extremely dazzling and bright.
If it had not been for that, even if Zhang Ruochen were to struggle ten times or a hundred times more, he would never be free from the pain.
With his current cultivation strength, it was not enough to completely refine the Sunleaf.
One needed to know that even a powerful ancient god like Yueshen could recover a few percent of her divine power after she refined the Moonleaf.
The Sunleaf and the Moonleaf were of the same level, so one could imagine how powerful the power is contained inside the Sunleaf, so much so that a Supreme Saint might not be able to contain all of it.
Come to think of it, even Princess Bai Li and the others had not fully refined the leaves of the Seven-star Divine Lingzhi. Most of its essence was still stored in their bodies, and as their cultivation level improved, the essence was continuously released. That was perhaps why they were able to improve their cultivation strength so quickly.
“As expected of the Sunleaf, and even only refining a small portion my body had been refined to the point of Beneath a Supreme Saint. Every inch of my flesh and blood is filled with surging life essence, even if I’m severely injured, I should be able to recover quickly. With my current state, refining the Supreme Saint-level dragon soul and elephant soul should not be a problem.”
Zhang Ruochen could sense his flesh evolve, and he could not help but feel excited.
With this body reaching such a powerful state, even if he was to continue refining it intensely, it would be difficult to achieve any greater results. While his flesh was only a step away from attaining Supreme Sainthood, but crossing that step was as difficult as scaling the heavens.
Zhang Ruochen was not in a hurry as his cultivation base had not even reached the peak of the Saint King realm. Thus, it was a little too early for his flesh to attain Supreme Sainthood.
After he stopped refining his body, Zhang Ruochen took out the Supreme Saint dragon soul and started refining it.
He wanted to refine this Supreme Saint dragon soul into his left arm and blend it together with his skin, flesh, blood, bones, and meridians. That way, his arm would become the Supreme Saint dragon soul’s body.
Although the Supreme Saint dragon soul had his consciousness erased, it still had the instinct to resist, and it struggled extremely hard.
Zhang Ruochen activated the Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean and infused all of his Saint Qi into his left arm, suppressing the Supreme Saint dragon soul.
However, just as he got started, he felt a stinging pain on his left arm like countless steel needles were being pierced into it. His skin cracked open, and blood flowed out of the wounds.
It was important to note that his physical body had reached the realm of “Beneath a Supreme Saint”, yet a situation like this still occurred. If he had refined the Supreme Saint dragon soul earlier, his arm would have probably burst into pieces instantly.
Due to that, Zhang Ruochen felt a little fortunate, fortunate that he was thoughtful enough and did not act with haste.
With his arms straightened, Zhang Ruochen gritted his teeth as he practiced the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike to speed up the refining process.
During this process, the blazing sun in his Sea of Qi’s divine light activated and unleashed scorching Yang Qi as it infused into his arm. Not only was it assisting in refining the dragon soul, but it was also healing his injured arm at the same time.
After he expended a lot of effort and his left arm shattered several times, he managed to successfully refine the dragon soul.
Relying on the mystical power released by the blazing sun, his left arm quickly healed. Barely a moment later, it returned to its original state, with no trace of injuries at all.
With the experience of refining the dragon soul, refining the elephant soul was undoubtedly much easier.
It took only half the time it took to refine the dragon soul for the elephant soul to be successfully refined into his right arm, with it merely shattering a few times.
The thirteen original Saint King dragon souls and elephant souls were all fused into the Supreme Saint king-level dragon soul and elephant soul, which made them even stronger.
Zhang Ruochen shook his arms, and the Supreme Saint dragon soul and elephant soul immediately appeared, their Beast Emperor auras radiating as if one had entered a bestial wilderness.
“Elephantine Rampage.
“Dragon in the Sky.
“Dragon-Elephant’s Return.”
…
“Scaleborn Dragonform.
“Dragon Upon the Nine Heavens.
“Sky Soaring Dragon-Elephant.
“Dragon-Elephant Across the Heavens.”
Zhang Ruochen struck both palms out in succession, going from the first palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike all the way to the twelfth. The power of the subsequent palm strike was stronger than the one before it as the scorching Yang Qi gushed out of his body.
By the time he struck out the twelfth palm, his body was completely golden red, his eyes burning like a torch, and his body was burning in flames.
“The twelfth Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike’s technique is finally completed! I finally cultivated a High-level Saint Art!”
Zhang Ruochen laughed out loud, finding it difficult to hide the joy in his heart.
There were few that could be found across the Celestial Court who had cultivated a high-level Saint Art while still a Saint King. It was a skill that belonged to a Supreme Saint, also known as the Great Arts of Heaven and Earth, and it could move the Heavens and Earth, and destroy stars.
Cultivating a high-level Saint Art could greatly increase a Saint King’s capabilities.
Some powerhouses who had reached the realm of Path’s Anterior could even rely on the high-level Saint Art to fight toe to toe with a Neverwither Supreme Saint. After all, a high-level Saint Art was difficult to cultivate, and even some Neverwither Supreme Saints may not be able to successfully cultivate them.
After the excitement, Zhang Ruochen sat down cross-legged again as he activated his exercises so that the raging Yang Qi in his body would gradually calm down. With the scorching Yang Qi subsiding, his skin color returned to normal.
Once he successfully cultivated the twelfth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike, the Yang Qi inside Zhang Ruochen’s body became hundreds of thousands of times stronger than that in an ordinary person’s body. He was a veritable Saint furnace, and could directly melt down top end weapons.
Fortunately, a steady stream of Yang Qi had been supplied by the Sunleaf, or else he might not have been able to successfully cultivate the Dragon-Elephant Across the Heavens palm strike.
For the remaining time, Zhang Ruochen shifted his mind to comprehending the Path of Dimensions and the Swordsmanship of Time, trying to improve his strength by another step further.
He had another tough battle ahead of him, and if he was not strong enough, it would be difficult to take the Divine Sky-connecting Tree trunk.
Six days later, all six Godstones were exhausted, and Zhang Ruochen walked out of seclusion.
As for that remaining Godstone, it was unable to spur the Sundial by its own, so he could only keep it first.
In six years’ time, Zhang Ruochen had made great gains, his body had reached the “Beneath a Supreme Saint” realm, his twelfth palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm Strike had now been fully completed, his Sword of Time technique had reached minor success on the fifth level, his Path of Dimension had greatly improved, and he had also refined two-thirds of the precepts inside Yanshen’s leg. He now possessed more than 9.12 million Saint Path Precepts in his body and was not too far away from breaking through into the realm of the Greater Precept World.
Another joyous moment for Zhang Ruochen was that Lu Huaiyu had successfully used the Divine Blood Crystal and the other precious materials to upgrade the Eight-Dragon Umbrella and the Nine-Dragon Carriage.
After reforging, the Eight-Dragon Umbrella and the Nine-Dragon Carriage’s item level had surpassed the Sacred artifact of Tenth Radiance, with their internal inscriptions numbering more than hundred and twenty thousand, almost reaching the realm of a King’s Weapon.
The so-called King’s Weapon refers to any powerful sacred artifacts which their internal inscriptions had exceeded 129,600 inscriptions.
The number 129,600 was the number of a Yuanhui, and was also the extreme number of the heaven and earth.
However, it is extremely difficult for a sacred artifact to become a King’s Weapon, and needed to meet some special conditions.
For example: if a King’s Weapon is to be fully completed, it needed to overcome a tribulation.
The number of top-tier sacred artifacts destroyed in the heavenly tribulations was uncountable. Only a very small number had successfully passed through it and became the king of weapons.
At the same time, for a sacred artifact to becoming a King’s Weapon, the vessel spirit must also culminate a top-tier body.
For those vessel spirits who had only culminated with an ordinary body, no matter how much precious materials were used to refine them, there was no hope of them becoming a King’s Weapon.
Just like a Supreme Sacred Artifact, the full potential of a King’s Weapon could only be unleashed in the hands of a Supreme Saint.
A King’s Weapon’s power, while not as great as a Supreme Sacred Artifact, was much easier to spur, and if the vessel spirit was willing to cooperate, the power unleashed was not necessarily weaker than a Supreme Sacred Artifact without a vessel spirit.
The Azuresky Bow and Whitesun Arrow Zhang Ruochen had seized from Qi Sheng’s hands were King’s Weapons, and were extremely powerful. However, as Zhang Ruochen was not an Immortal Vampire, he could not get the recognition of the vessel spirits, otherwise the Azuresky Bow and the Whitesun Arrow would have been a killer weapon in his hands.
Although the Eight-Dragon Umbrella and the Nine-Dragon Carriage had not been King’s Weapons, but Zhang Ruochen was very satisfied, with their current level, they were enough to greatly enhance his strength.
