Chapter 869: Immortal Art—Magic Skill
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. However, after a while, the sunlight from the sky clearly dimmed, turning dark.
The Great Sun Incantation moved the Solar True Flame and gathered it into words. Only a Magic Skill of the Immortal Arts could achieve such might from an unusual string of thought. Given Xiao Chen’s current cultivation, this was something close to a miracle.
The second character for “sun” came from Xiao Chen’s mouth. However, it was not a character that Xiao Chen or any other cultivator would recognize. Instantly, it was an extremely mysterious character.
The golden-bright and dazzling character gathered all the Solar True Flame that Xiao Chen moved. When it landed on the ground, the character turned into a golden flame and spread out.
“Pu chi!” Suddenly, the ground for thousands of kilometers around burned and charred utterly. The entire area glowed bright red as if the blazing sun had baked it for hundreds of years.
The originally sparse grass and trees in the vicinity instantly turned into ashes.
“Ka ca! Ka ca!” Chasm-like cracks spread out. In the blink of an eye, the ground for thousands of kilometers shattered and crumbled.
Although the spatial structure and the Spiritual Energy in the ground of the Sky Dome Realm could not compare with those of the Kunlun Realm, Xiao Chen was very satisfied with the thirty percent of the Great Sun Incantation’s destructive power.
Although he still could not use the Magic Skills as he pleased like he could with Martial Techniques, he would not end up failing to execute his Magic Skills.
The biggest improvement after bitterly cultivating for one and a half years was not the increase in strength. Instead, it was the settling of his mental state. His losses and gains changed Xiao Chen completely. His mental state now rivaled that of the old monsters who had lived for hundreds of years.
“It is time to make a trip to the Dark Church,” Xiao Chen said calmly.
He retracted his hand and looked in the direction of the Ancient Desolate Land.
Since that mysterious person from the Dark Church appeared, he had become a thorn in Xiao Chen’s heart. Xiao Chen had a hunch that the origins of this person had a big connection to him.
Perhaps the reason why Xiao Xiong chased Xiao Chen out of the clan had something to do with the Dark Church. Now, Xiao Chen’s strength was at a level where he was confident of being able to protect himself when facing the true body of that mysterious person.
As for what kind of danger zone the Dark Church was, Xiao Chen would know once he went there.
After half a day, Xiao Chen arrived in the sky above the island in the Heavenly Extermination Lake where the Dark Church had its base. He could not help being somewhat stunned. After scanning the place with his Spiritual Sense, he discovered that the island was deserted.
Doubting his findings, he alighted on the island and walked through the various buildings and secret rooms. The Demonic Qi lingering in the air verified that he was at the right place. This was the Dark Church’s branch in the Sky Dome Realm. However, for some reason, the disciples all suddenly abandoned it.
Where did they go? To the Deep Abyss Demonic World?
Xiao Chen used his strong Spiritual Sense to scan the entire island, not letting any portion of it slip by as he searched for things of interest.
An altar on the island attracted his attention. His figure flashed, and he arrived within a hall with many neatly arranged prayer mats covering its floor. Two indents on the prayer mats indicated that people had knelt on them for long periods.
Higher up was an altar giving off a dense dark aura and a shattered black statue behind the altar.
Xiao Chen quickly stepped forward and looked down the back. He saw black smoke billowing out. There was a similarly broken mysterious formation at the bottom.
A cool breeze blew, and a biting and choking bloody stench wafted from the altar.
Xiao Chen frowned slightly, wondering how many people had died at the altar for it to reek so terrifyingly of blood. If the number was not a million, it was at least a hundred thousand.
He looked at the shattered black statue, and with a thought, the Heavenly Sage Laws in his body poured out through his hands.
The pieces of the shattered statue floated up before his eyes. Restoring it to its original state posed no difficulty to an expert sculptor like Xiao Chen.
As his hands moved, the pieces quickly reunited under his control. In mere moments, the complete statue emerged before his eyes.
The statue was three meters tall and mostly black, boasting an ancient uniform and blood-red eyes. It had an ineffably puissant aura as vast as the starry heavens, as drawn out as the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.
A strange scene appeared before Xiao Chen’s eyes where he could hear billions of souls worshiping and singing songs of praise in his ears. A formless, mysterious energy surged towards the statue.
These spirits looked identical—all expressionless and numb. The statue seemed to come to life, opening its mouth to suck in the billions of souls.
These did not show any pain on their faces. Instead, they all looked joyful.
“Bang!”
The fixed statue shattered again in an instant, this time turning into powder beyond repair. The scene before Xiao Chen disappeared.
This scene shocked him so badly that he needed a long time to recover his wits.
“This is the mysterious Demonic God of the Deep Abyss Demonic World? Why does it feel like the forbidden Immortal Arts of the Demonic Cultivators?”
Having started to cultivate Immortal Cultivation and revisited the basic knowledge of the Compendium of Cultivation, Xiao Chen could tell that this was a cruel, heaven-defying Magic Skill for stealing the cultivation of others.
This was the Magic Skill of the evil faction, the Demonic Cultivators. The Immortal Arts of the Compendium of Cultivation were those of the righteous faction. The Compendium of Cultivation merely touched on this kind of Demonic Cultivation.
Xiao Chen now somewhat understood why the Deep Abyss Demonic World had a Demonic God Blood Sacrifice every few thousand years to kill the lifeforms of the Kunlun Realm.
The origins of the Deep Abyss Demonic World’s Dark Church definitely had something to do with the Demonic Cultivators of the Immortal Epoch.
However, Xiao Chen wondered why the Demon Races were so willing to make such enormous sacrifices to invade the Kunlun Realm for that person.
The Kunlun Realm was not a weak place. Although the eighteen Demon Monarchs caused great losses when they invaded, they did not end up in a good situation themselves.
“In about eight years, perhaps even earlier, the Demonic God Blood Sacrifice will arrive. It is time I went back.”
Xiao Chen flew out of the island and stopped in the air for a while. Then, he said one word, and the sky darkened drastically. The mysterious character for “sun” suddenly descended.
This time, he did not hold much back; he used eighty percent of his power. “Bang!” The area within a few hundred kilometers of the island all instantly shattered, turning into ashes and disappearing into the Heavenly Extermination Lake.
When he saw that the small island no longer existed, he revealed a satisfied expression. Then, he returned to the Heavenly Saber Pavilion.
——
Xiao Chen spent about one month relaxing there before saying goodbye to Liu Ruyue and the others. Before he left, he handed the other Breaking Sage Pill he refined to Liu Ruyue.
Liu Ruyue was already very satisfied that Xiao Chen could stay in the Sky Dome Realm for two years. She had known that he would have to leave sooner or later. She was also confident that he would come back.
Xiao Chen would definitely become a Martial Emperor in the Kunlun Realm.
When Xiao Chen returned to the Sky Dome Realm, the Supreme Sky Emperor had sent him over, so Xiao Chen had not had to spend any resources. However, leaving the Sky Dome Realm would be problematic. First, he had to find the Supreme Sky Sect’s Sect Master to inform the Kunlun Realm’s side.
The formation to send Xiao Chen to another realm could be activated only after both sides were ready. If he was as strong as a Martial Emperor, it would be much easier.
By the time everything was ready, it was three days later. After spending a large number of Spirit Stones to open a stable space-time tunnel, Xiao Chen smoothly returned to the Supreme Sky Star.
“You’re finally back after two years.”
Xiao Chen had not expected the First Elder, Han Qinghe, to personally welcome him at the transportation formation. So he quickly stepped forward to greet him.
On first glance, Han Qinghe felt that Xiao Chen changed a lot. He actually felt as though he was dealing with an expert of his generation—and he was a grandmaster-level Martial Sage who was already three hundred years old.
On second glance, Han Qinghe discovered that Xiao Chen was still an Inferior Grade Martial Sage. However, his baby-arm-thick Heavenly Sage Laws were rather surprising.
As an Inferior Grade Martial Sage, his Heavenly Sage Laws were actually much stronger than those of a regular Superior Grade Martial Sage.
However, if that was all, then Xiao Chen would just have the combat prowess of a Medial Grade Martial Sage at best. Why was it that Han Qinghe’s first glance gave him the impression that Xiao Chen was an older-generation expert?
Han Qinghe could not help but feel many doubts. He guessed that Xiao Chen underwent an earth-shattering change in the past two years.
“Let’s go. Come with me. Let me test your strength out.”
Xiao Chen followed behind Han Qinghe, flying unhurriedly through the sky. He looked around and compared it to two years ago. Supreme Sky Star now was livelier.
Occasionally, he saw groups of two or three young cultivators flying past in the air. Most of them were half-Sages.
He found out from Han Qinghe that in the two years he was gone, the Kunlun Realm had undergone great changes.
As of now, the Kunlun Realm was truly in chaos. The formerly minor conflicts between the major races had escalated into intense battles. Occasionally, news of older-generation Superior Grade Martial Sages dying would circulate.
The upper echelons and the Sovereign Martial Emperors of the various races all watched idly, even going to the point of preventing the grandmaster-level Martial Sages from interfering.
Xiao Chen roughly understood what this meant. The Sovereign Martial Emperors of the various races were deliberately fanning this chaos.
Without a doubt, their purpose was to groom a few more grandmaster-level Martial Sages before the Demonic God Blood Sacrifice arrived, using the intense fighting to increase their chances of victory.
When the Demonic God Blood Sacrifice finally took place, the real main characters would no doubt be the Sovereign Martial Emperors and the Demon Monarchs. However, victory would depend on these grandmaster-level Martial Sages.
The reason was simple. In a fight between Martial Emperors, determining who would win was easy. However, if it was a fight to the death, that would be very difficult.
The ones that would truly lead the charge, to either kill or collect souls, would be those at the level of grandmaster-level Martial Sages or the stronger quasi-Emperors. The battle between the Martial Emperors would take place in the starry heavens.
The Martial Emperors would not interfere with the battles in the Kunlun Continent.
At that time, even one more additional grandmaster-level Martial Sage would increase the Kunlun Realm’s chances of victory. Heroes were born out of chaos. Such a chaotic scene was the best environment for the cultivators to grow quickly.
Although the price was high—allowing large numbers of older-generation Martial Sages and younger-generation geniuses to fall—its effect was the best.
The two came to a vast drill ground. Han Qinghe waved his hand to get the few younger-generation disciples there exchanging moves to withdraw. Then he entered the drill ground.
This move immediately attracted the attention of all the sect disciples and inner sect Elders there.
The First Elder, Han Qinghe, was one of the few experts in the Supreme Sky Sect able to advance to grandmaster-level Martial Sage. Not only had many disciples not seen him make a move before, but neither had plenty of the inner sect Elders.
