Chapter 392: Brink of the Seventh Step (III)
“Yes”, Long Haochen gave his agreement.
“This time, we have suffered a great loss, almost dying here. I am not resigned, but this time, the Jacques Demons suffered a huge blow as well, especially since one of their chiefs died. This has affected Major Jacques City greatly, and is bound to cause the whole Jacques City to change. I reckon that even more Demon Hunter Removers will be searching for our traces. I have an idea, and I think we should discuss it to see whether it would be feasible.”
Long Haochen replied, “Please speak, Brother Tian Qing.”
Tian Qing asked, “For what mission did you enter the demon territory this time? This plan will likely take quite a long time to be achieved. If you are on a rushed mission, leaving us after getting some rest is also okay. This team section is connected to the outside of the city, so you can directly leave the city from here.”
Long Haochen replied, “We are not on any rushed mission. This time, we took some Slaughter Missions and entered the demon territory to execute them. Mentioning it, I also have to thank you. One of our missions was to kill a hundred Jacques Demons, and you helped us to complete it.”
Tian Qing gave him the reply, “If things are like that, then there’s no problem. Aren’t those Demon Hunter Removers trying to get rid of our Demon Hunt Squads? And they already inflicted us so much damage. If we don’t respond to them, the demons will start becoming arrogant. Since some Demon Hunter Removers are going to come here in search for traces of us, then we should just…”
Saying this, his eyes were full of severity. His right hand, stretching forward, made some ear-piercing slashing sound in the air.
“Ambush the Demon Hunter Removers?” Long Haochen asked.
Tian Qing nodded to him, “There are spies from our team section inside Major Jacques City. However, we will have to live in seclusion for some time before the ambush, at least for half a month to fool those Demon Hunter Removers. If I’m not guessing wrong, many of the slaughtering missions you have taken should be mainly directed at demons of the seventh step. And Demon Hunter Remover squads are also mainly formed of demons of the seventh step from the top three clans. This way you can complete your missions at the same time. How about it? Are you interested? The danger is enormous, so you should think this through before replying. In case you decide to accept, we shall start planning.”
Long Haochen gave his reply without any hesitation, “All right, we’ll cooperate with you.”
Tian Qing looked at him, somewhat hesitant.
Long Haochen showed him a smile, “I will not hide the fact that we have accepted a total of sixteen Slaughtering Missions in the demon territory, and will have to kill some of the demons allocated in Modu City to accomplish all of them. After all, Moon Demons, Star Demons and Fiend higher-ups normally live in Modu Core City and are among the targets we are aiming for. If we can accomplish these here, it will naturally be for the best. Besides that, we’ll also have your support.”
Tian Qing gave him a dumbstruck look, “Sixteen Slaughtering Missions? You really dared accept that many?! Were you really planning on aiming for the demon headquarters without even having the support from the team sections? Given your guts to take on so many missions, it’s no surprise your strength is so incredible at such a young age..”
Long Haochen smiled, “Since we are going to ambush the Demon Hunter Removers, scouting will be extremely important. Can the spies from our side accomplish that?”
Tian Qing nodded before giving a reply, “You can be at ease on this. Along with the vast amount of money invested into building the team sections, our help here is just as enormous. Our spies here are humans of the demon society, who total to a large number. They bring news at regular intervals, we only need to decide what to do with it. Of course, we cannot possibly ambush every single Demon Hunter Remover, thus we have to remain secluded for a period of time. When we’ll have stayed here long enough for the number of Demon Hunter Remover squads to decrease to some extent, we can take our chances. Be at ease, we have learned our lesson this time, we’ll certainly be more careful, and won’t leave them another chance like that.”
After planning their next steps, the two Demon Hunt Squads started living at the team section, treating their injuries and recovering their strength.
After Long Haochen’s burst of power, it took him no less than seven days to recover completely. This was the extent to which Haoyue put his potential to maximum use. But this state only lasted for a short time, and also came with strong side-effects. Yating was also weakened for a long time, and needed about five days to recover. But she left Long Haochen a message, saying that the Aria of the Goddess of Light was able to completely fuse with her, and would even be able to absorb her to make her a part of itself. But Yating felt somewhat afraid: if not for her sufficiently powerful strength, she’d perhaps be unable to ever separate from it again.
If she really fused completely with the Aria of the Goddess of Light, the real glamour of the sword would then undoubtedly reappear. But in that case, Long Haochen would also forever lose Yating, while also being unable to truly control the Aria of the Goddess of Light with his current strength.
Fortunately, Yating wasn’t any ordinary Light Elemental Fairy, but one that already evolved thrice, and fused with the Saint Spiritual Stove. This increased her knowledge and her ability of reasoning by a great extent, so as long as she didn’t give her agreement, even the Aria of the Goddess of Light would be unable to absorb her as a sword soul by force.
During these seven days, information kept coming from the outside, which Tian Qing shared with Long Haochen without holding anything back. To their great surprise, Major Jacques City had suddenly become lively, and at least seven teams of demon powerhouses similar to Demon Hunter Removers were reported to have been seen.
Given the strength of their two Demon Hunt Squads, handling one Demon Hunter Remover squad was absolutely no problem, handling two was possible with relatively good odds of success. But when facing three Demon Hunter Remover squads, especially in the midst of various enemies and the possibility of reinforcements joining them, they were bound to be defeated.
Long Haochen’s group was still better off, since no matter what, they had the Tower of Eternity as a path of retreat. But this wouldn’t do for Tian Qing’s group. Given Long Haochen’s current cultivation, even with the intention, transporting them all to the Tower of Eternity was impossible. To say nothing that the Tower of Eternity was a secret that was really better off not being leaked.
For this reason, the two Demon Hunt Squads could only keep resting, and didn’t dare act rashly.
The Major Jacques City also spent a large amount of manpower to search for them. They searched madly for over three days before slowly easing down. It was fortunate that the team sections were an extremely well-kept secret, and that its concealment was sufficiently good, leaving them undiscovered. This made Long Haochen realize the importance of the team sections to Demon Hunt Squads all the more.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Long Haochen was sunk in an ocean of light. Ever since his awakening as a god’s chosen one, his cultivation speed could be said to have progressed more rapidly than ever before.
In the pit of his stomach, his brilliant golden spiritual cavities looked somewhat different. His current spiritual cavities were roughly egg-sized, emenating soft light. With each of Long Haochen’s breaths, some light essence was absorbed by them. Around his spiritual cavities, the drops of liquid spiritual energy seemed like a group of stars revolving around it, and the very sticky liquid spiritual energy was transferred at a speed that seemed slow, but all of it was pure and condensed.
Long Haochen’s cultivation was already approaching the seventh step, but even ordinary powerhouses of the seventh step couldn’t compete with him in a battle of consumable spiritual energy. The reason for that was very simple: Long Haochen’s spiritual energy was a lot purer than theirs, and even if they used the same abilities, his consumption of spiritual energy would naturally be much lower.
Even if another ordinary person possessing the light elemental attribute trained his spiritual energy to this level, his speed of cultivation was bound to be greatly affected, and raising it would be extremely hard. But Long Haochen felt that his own spiritual energy increased as he breathed. In fact, over the past year of seclusion, if not for the time he spent bringing his comrades to the second floor of the Tower of Eternity to have aerial battle training, as well as the time spent training on newly learnt abilities after getting promoted to the commander grade, he would actually have reached the bottleneck of the peak of the sixth step long ago.
The reason why Long Haochen didn’t push it was to accumulate experience.
After so many years of cultivation, Long Haochen found out that when cultivating at peace, the difficulty was in the lack of accumulated experience. A breakthrough of spiritual energy not only needed comprehension and control over spiritual energy, but also to go through countless battles for training. After all, it was only through constant use that the spiritual energy would cycle.
Thus, he was in no rush to reach the bottleneck of the sixth step, but preferred going through uninterrupted battles, since he believed that this way, at the time he would reach the bottleneck between the sixth step and the seventh step, passing it would be a lot easier.
Memories from the time with his father re-emerged gradually to his mind.
The changes from the sixth to the seventh step also encompassed a qualitative leap. When one advanced to the sixth step, the condensation of the spiritual cavities implied the change from an ordinary vacation to a powerhouse. After getting spiritual cavities one could battle for long stretches of time.
“The spiritual cavities emerge at the chest, and help to condense our spiritual energy. However, how much total spiritual energy can our body bear? Only 10,000 units. In other words, at the time one set of spiritual cavities reaches its limits, your cultivation will be unable to advance further. If you try to forcefully break through this limitation, you will very possibly cause damage to your spiritual cavities, and bring danger upon yourself.
So, the way from the sixth to the seventh step is not a breakthrough anymore, but a creation. What if your strength keeps increasing? Your single set of spiritual cavities will already be close to its limit at this point. Then, isn’t the most appropriate solution to open up some new spiritual cavities? This is the fundamental process of breakthrough from the sixth to the seventh step. By opening up your second and third set of spiritual cavities. This process mustn’t go wrong, otherwise you won’t be able to bear it.
The second set of spiritual cavities is located in the underbelly, whereas the third set of spiritual cavities is located in your brain. At the time your second set forms, you will have broken through to the seventh step, and when your spiritual energy will entirely fill up your second set of spiritual cavities, your third one starts forming. That’s one of the greatest dangers in the process of cultivation, and you’ll have to be careful about everything: be sure not to advance prematurily.
I cannot tell you the details about the methods for constructing spiritual cavities. You’ll have to rely on your own comprehension for that.”
