Imperial Cultivation

Chapter 1283 - 1279: Awakening

He slowly opened his eyes.

Huang Zhengyang hurriedly asked, "How is it? How is it?"

Chu Zhiyuan showed a smile.

Huang Zhengyang followed with a grin. "It worked?"

Chu Zhiyuan slowly nodded. "Very useful. This is the right key."

Huang Zhengyang burst out laughing. "Good, good, good, it really works!"

All that effort hadn’t been in vain—calling in favors from all sides to find this small sword and take it out.

Nor had his friendship with Chu Zhiyuan been for nothing.

If he couldn’t help with this, he’d never be able to lift his head in front of Chu Zhiyuan, always feeling guilty in his heart.

Chu Zhiyuan said with a smile, "This small sword should be the identity token for the Heaven-Reaching Sect disciples."

Huang Zhengyang glanced at Chu Zhiyuan’s waist. "How does it compare with your Golden Sword?"

"Naturally it’s inferior." Chu Zhiyuan smiled.

Huang Zhengyang said, "Then it’s not that great a Treasure Sword."

Chu Zhiyuan smiled and shook his head. "My sword is linked to my Heart and Spirit, full of Spiritual nature, whereas this sword should be one possessed by every Heaven-Reaching Sect disciple."

"That’s indeed different." Huang Zhengyang said. "So now you can practice that secret technique?"

"I can start now, but whether I can complete it..." Chu Zhiyuan shook his head. "Hard to say."

"With Brother Chu your comprehension, as long as it’s practicable, you’ll definitely succeed!"

"I don’t have that much confidence... Brother Huang, thank you."

"Come on, don’t be so formal."

Chu Zhiyuan said, "I know it wasn’t easy to get this small sword out."

"A trifling matter." Huang Zhengyang waved his hand.

Chu Zhiyuan smiled and shook his head, then tossed the small sword to him. "Take it back to hand in."

"No need, this small sword is yours now." Huang Zhengyang said. "It should have been bestowed together with the Secret Manual in the first place."

Chu Zhiyuan said, "Maybe the Court didn’t realize this Secret Manual needed the small sword to cooperate with it."

"Very likely. No one even knows what’s mysterious about this small sword." Huang Zhengyang said. "Otherwise, it would’ve long since disappeared from the vault."

Chu Zhiyuan laughed. "My luck isn’t bad."

Huang Zhengyang nodded vigorously.

Chu Zhiyuan’s abilities were formidable; he could discover the secret of the small sword that no one else could see.

But his luck was also first-rate.

Otherwise this small sword would’ve long fallen into who knows whose hands, or even been buried by some pile of bones somewhere between heaven and earth.

...

After seeing Huang Zhengyang off, Chu Zhiyuan returned to the small courtyard, sat down on the couch, and began studying the third part of the secret technique.

This was the true content of the Ascension Technique.

The first two parts, one yin and one yang, were not practiced in parallel but interwoven, and their interlacing followed no pattern at all.

If one practiced either part alone, or practiced both together, the twelve patterns could not be triggered, the third part could not be revealed, and practicing it would mean certain death.

This was the transmission method of the secret technique—strict and lethal.

The content of the third part flashed through his mind as he pondered it again and again.

The cultivation requirements of this Ascension Technique were extremely harsh.

But for someone like him who had already crossed Little Outer Heaven, Outer Heaven, and Biyuan Heaven, it wasn’t that difficult.

Through this secret technique, he vaguely guessed the cultivation route of the Heaven-Reaching Sect.

Using this secret technique, its disciples could traverse multiple heavens and earths, entering and leaving other worlds without cease.

Thus they could pluck the essence and strengthen themselves.

To them, worlds were like Secret Lands and Grotto Heavens, free to enter and exit without hindrance.

With a Sect like this, how could it not be powerful?

What was strange was why there was no mention of it at all in the Ancient Books.

Whichever way he looked at it, there was something odd about this—unless after they entered another world, they changed their faces and identities, like his Clone Zhu Lingyun.

If that were the case, then whether the Heaven-Reaching Sect was truly extinct would be hard to say.

His judgment was that the Heaven-Reaching Sect had not died out; very likely there were still inheritors walking the world, only unknown to others.

If he practiced this secret technique, would the Heaven-Reaching Sect come knocking on his door?

He revealed a smile.

That would actually be quite interesting.

...

At noon, the sun hung high in the sky.

Outside Dongning City, within the thick fog, Lu Zhenhui and the eight Sacrificial Level Tributes all had a drastic change of expression.

"Something’s wrong, I feel something’s wrong!"

"Retreat!"

"Go!"

All eight of them, including Lu Zhenhui, withdrew their palms at the same time and put the Array Devices into their sleeves. Then two by two they pressed their palms together, each pressing against a piece of yellow jade, drifting swiftly into the distance.

As they departed, the thick fog quickly dissipated, as if swept away by a great wind.

Seeing this strange phenomenon, their expressions grew solemn. Some invisible power was destroying the Array and dispersing the fog.

Nothing more needed to be said; it had to be that Divine Statue exerting its power.

They drifted farther away while turning their heads to look, and saw the Undying Evil Venerable Statue flickering with Golden Light.

The Golden Light flashed and flashed, growing ever more intense, comparable to the sun in the sky.

"It’s about to fully awaken!"

"Move, move!"

"Everyone, retreat!"

"Retreat!"

Lu Zhenhui shouted sharply.

His voice was like a Copper Bell and great drum, reverberating in the air, spreading out in a dense, unbroken wave.

The Court experts guarding the important checkpoints outside the thick fog heard this voice and immediately pulled back, drifting like arrows toward Dongning City.

At this moment, on the walls outside Dongning City, Chu Zhiyuan and Huang Zhengyang stood atop the battlements.

Watching the thick fog around them disperse, Chu Zhiyuan let out a soft sigh. "It’s here."

"Damn it." Huang Zhengyang ground his teeth. "We really can’t stop him?"

Chu Zhiyuan said, "Before, we definitely couldn’t. Now... I can only say we have a fifty percent chance."

He turned his head to glance at the thirty-two middle-aged men beside him and smiled. "But with these thirty-two gentlemen, we’ve got an eighty percent chance."

These were the Sacrificial Level experts the Evil Extermination Department, the Demon Hunting Bureau, and the Court had gathered over these past days.

"Only eighty percent?" Huang Zhengyang laughed. "In my eyes, it’s a full hundred!"

"We’ll only know once we try. Let’s start setting up the Array." Chu Zhiyuan said. "If we wait any longer, we may be too late."

Huang Zhengyang turned to the thirty-two middle-aged men. "Gentlemen, I must trouble you."

"Form the Array!" a lean middle-aged man said in a deep voice.

Each of them held a piece of White Jade as they rose into the air, spreading rapidly out along the city wall.

In the blink of an eye, they had vanished from sight, only two middle-aged men still visible at the edge of one’s vision.

Under Super Sensing Illumination, they each occupied a position in the directions around the city wall.

The gentle light in their hands slowly rose, forming long streamers that converged a hundred meters above Dongning City.

Some of the residents in the city noticed something unusual and cried out in surprise, drawing more people to look up.

Thirty white streamers converged at a single point, forming a light sphere roughly ten meters in diameter.

The white sphere was perfectly round and bright, shining like a Bright Moon.

"What is that?"

"What’s going on, are they fighting?"

"It’s an Array..."

"Array? What Array?"

"They must be setting up an Array, right? Where are the City Guards? Are the City Guards just going to ignore this?!"

People cried out in alarm, calling for the City Guards; some even flew up directly, wanting to see what was happening.

But as soon as they tried to rise, they were pressed down by an invisible force and could not take off.

"This..."

"Hurry and find the City Guards!"

Chu Zhiyuan ignored these people, his gaze fixed on the distance. "Not good."

At this moment, the Undying Evil Venerable Statue suddenly flared into a mass of Golden Light, then the Golden Light abruptly contracted.

A middle-aged man in a Mystic Robe was already standing where it had been.

His face was like White Jade, his eyes like cold stars.

His features looked as if carved from stone, with hard, sharp lines and a striking handsomeness that pressed down on others.

Standing on the city wall of Dongning City, Chu Zhiyuan and Huang Zhengyang could clearly see this change.

Huang Zhengyang’s expression turned ugly. "Damn it, he’s finally awake!"

The Middle-aged man in black robe gave a glance in the direction of Lu Zhenhui and the others.

Two beams of Golden Light shot from his eyes.

The twin beams were like two pillars of light, stretching out to encompass Lu Zhenhui and the eight in the distance.

At the same time, purple light suddenly flared at the wrists of Lu Zhenhui and the others.

The purple light rapidly enveloped their bodies.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..."

They were hurled away, the purple light shield flickering, on the verge of collapse at any moment.

Lu Zhenhui gritted his teeth and shouted, "Heavenly Escape Pearl!"

With that, his string of beads suddenly exploded, purple light blazing.

"Bang!"

With a dull boom, his entire body turned into a mass of mist.

The mist was suddenly blown apart, and he had already vanished.

The remaining seven did the same.

The Middle-aged man in black robe flickered and vanished, turning into a streak of Golden Light in the air that shot in an instant to the spot where the seven had just been.