novelraw Chapter 283 : Bodhi Fruit
Chapter 283 : Bodhi Fruit
Chu Sang stared intently at the groups of demon beasts below, clearly divided into several small factions. The weaker demon beasts acted as underlings, while the strongest few served as leaders. The hierarchical order was distinct, with different demon beast groups wary of each other, occasionally erupting into conflicts.
This scene was commonplace in the demon realm, but it seemed... out of place inside the Demon-Locking Pagoda.
In her imagination, the demon beasts inside the pagoda should have been restrained by its power, essentially a large prison with beasts individually confined, lamenting their fate. She hadn't expected this kind of spectacle, as if the beasts had merely been relocated.
The Demon-Locking Pagoda had formed its own small world. Over hundreds and thousands of years, the surviving demon beasts had adapted to the world within the pagoda, reproducing and thriving. Their numbers had even surpassed the initial population... This was somewhat absurd, though it might also be the Pagoda Spirit's strategy for "sustainable food supply".
She rubbed her chin, looking down thoughtfully, "Can the Demon-Locking Pagoda really form its own world?"
She carefully sensed her surroundings. There was spiritual energy inside the pagoda, and the third floor's spiritual energy was notably richer than the second floor's, even comparable to the outside world.
The Pagoda Spirit smugly shook its little head, putting its hands on its hips and floating around in front of her. "Hmph, it's not just a small world~ Each floor of the Demon-Locking Pagoda has formed its own small world! My pagoda can form up to nine small worlds!"
"However, all I can do is capture the demon beasts. How this small world ultimately evolves is not under my control, but is shaped by the beings within the pagoda."
Powerful cultivators who reach a certain level can open up their own small worlds or cave dwellings. Even storage bags, which seem like the most basic necessity for cultivators, require at least a Divine Transformation stage tool refiner to forge. To create higher-grade storage tools with larger storage space, one needs to hire at least a Unity stage cultivator for specialized crafting.
The requirements for talent and effort to independently open up a world are extremely high. In the entire cultivation world, very few cultivators can meet such stringent conditions. Even in the entire Spiritual Abyss Continent today, there probably aren't more than ten such individuals.
The Demon-Locking Pagoda could even independently open up multiple small worlds within itself...
After years of evolution, the world inside the pagoda was almost indistinguishable from the outside world. Given a few more thousand or ten thousand years to evolve, perhaps another Spiritual Abyss Continent might emerge inside the pagoda...
Chu Sang was shocked by the thought that flashed through her mind, and she unconsciously exclaimed,
"The gods of the upper realm are truly formidable."
No wonder those avatars dared to be so arrogant. From this perspective, cultivators and upper gods truly weren't beings of the same world.
If she could ascend to the upper realm one day, would she also be able to casually create a space and easily smash those upper gods' faces?
Sensing her eager thoughts, the little pagoda pursed its lips and said, "Of course! No matter how powerful a cultivator is, they can only reach the Tribulation Transcendence stage in the lower realm. This is the limit that the lower realm can bear, and the upper limit of spiritual energy conversion. If you want to seek greater power, you naturally need to ascend to the upper realm! When you reach the upper realm, those human gods might not seem all that impressive in your eyes..." It opened its mouth as if wanting to say more, but for some reason stopped, changing the subject abruptly, "Telling you all this now is useless. If you really can ascend one day, you'll see for yourself. Although I've been away from the upper realm for a long time and am not clear about the current situation, the circumstances in the divine realm are not so simple..."
The most important task now was for her to successfully survive inside the pagoda.
Chu Sang assessed the power difference between herself and her enemies. In a one-on-one fight at the same level, she had no equal and could easily dominate. However, the problem was the sheer number of demon beasts in the pagoda. Even if her master were here, they couldn't withstand group attacks and continuous battles.
Fighting on the second floor had been hard enough. Facing the third floor, Chu Sang wasn't confident she could win.
"Roar!"
As she was pondering, a commotion erupted below as two groups of demon beasts clashed.
The opportunity had come.
Her eyes cooled, and with a wave of her palm, a fan appeared. She randomly selected a few lucky spectators who were watching the show and fanned the flames.
"Roar—"
"Boom boom boom!"
The situation escalated quickly. At their level, these demon beasts couldn't detect her concealed aura and thought a hidden enemy was attacking. Chu Sang's covert actions were like a series of connected fuses, with the fire growing more intense. More and more demon beasts joined the fray, and the battlefield expanded.
After the demon beasts had fought each other to exhaustion, Chu Sang would find opportunities to pick them off one by one.
The time it took to clear the third floor's demon beasts was actually two days shorter than the second floor, but it still took about half a month. Before entering the fourth floor, she speculated on the levels of demon beasts that might appear there.
Based on the progression of demon beast levels from the second to third floors, most of the demon beasts on the fourth floor of the Demon-Locking Pagoda should be at late Divine Transformation or peak Divine Transformation stage. There might even be Unity stage demon beasts... She steeled herself and charged up to the fourth floor in one go. No matter how clever demon beasts were, they couldn't outsmart cunning humans. Chu Sang replicated the tactics from the third floor, but with the demon beasts' strength increased by a level compared to the previous floor, even though she struck from behind, it took more than twice as long to complete the task as the previous two floors, and she sustained quite a few injuries.
She hastily swallowed half a bottle of high-grade pills, rested for half a day on the fourth floor to recuperate, and then anxiously ascended to the fifth floor.
On the previous floors, she could barely manage by using her wits, but from the fifth floor of the Demon-Locking Pagoda onwards, she officially entered nightmare mode.
From the fifth floor up, the weakest demon beasts were all at the Unity stage.
Just as there was a huge divide between the Divine Transformation stage and the Nascent Soul stage, there was also a significant gap between the Unity stage and the Divine Transformation stage.
Given the enormous difference in strength and the overwhelming numbers on one side, the small schemes of a single person could hardly change the one-sided outcome.
As soon as Chu Sang appeared, she was discovered by an early Unity stage demon beast. She used every trick at her disposal to finally shake it off.
Before she could go far, several more demon beasts surrounded and attacked her. At first, she thought the smell of blood on her body had attracted nearby demon beasts with keen senses. She cast several cleaning spells and even jumped into a river, but found that wherever she went, she was still quickly discovered by nearby demon beasts who relentlessly pursued her.
She couldn't help but form an ominous guess—her concealment talismans were ineffective against Unity stage and higher demon beasts.
With the concealment talismans useless, her old plan naturally wouldn't work. Instead, she was very likely to be attacked en masse by enraged demon beasts.
After having her arm bitten off by a flame wolf demon beast, she cursed inwardly, swinging her sword with her other hand to pierce through the wolf's skull. The uncleared blood drove nearby demon beasts into a frenzy, forcing Chu Sang to summon Hong Niang for help.
Hong Niang was only at the early Unity stage, not much different in realm from these demon beasts. However, it was a rare poison-type demon beast with entangling and binding skills. Having grown up alongside a fire seed, it had stronger fire resistance than typical insect demon beasts that greatly feared fire. This meant it was a powerful insect-type demon beast with almost no weaknesses, capable of fighting two or three demon beasts of the same level simultaneously without being at a disadvantage!
With Hong Niang's help, the pressure on Chu Sang's side immediately lessened. After days upon days of slaughter, they finally managed to deal with most of the demon beasts on the fifth floor.
Chu Sang was nearly exhausted, her magic robes barely recognizable. Not wanting to be an unpaid laborer, she renegotiated a labor contract with the little Pagoda Spirit. She would do her best to help clear the demon beasts inside the pagoda, but she could select some of the spoils obtained from slaying the demon beasts for herself.
After getting the Pagoda Spirit's agreement, Chu Sang picked out some suitable demon cores for Hong Niang to refine.
Her two demon beasts now were Xiao Bai and Hong Niang. Xiao Bai wasn't a combat-type demon beast, so Hong Niang was her main fighter in difficult situations. Hong Niang's realm level was crucial, and Chu Sang needed to raise it as much as possible.
The fastest way for demon beasts to increase their realm was by devouring demon cores.
Devouring lower realm demon cores didn't help much with a demon beast's cultivation, while devouring higher realm demon cores was hard to control and risked self-destruction. So the best cultivation supplement was demon cores from demon beasts of the same realm and attribute, allowing Hong Niang to stably refine the demonic energy within at the fastest speed.
During the process of refining demon cores, Hong Niang would enter a state of deep sleep.
"Sang Sang, I suspect that the sixth floor of the Demon-Locking Pagoda is very likely to have peak Unity stage demon beasts. The gap between their realm and yours is too great, and with Hong Niang asleep and unable to help you, rashly ascending to the sixth floor would likely be more dangerous than fortunate. Why don't you stay on the fifth floor and try to break through first? Even if you can only break through one small realm, you'll have a better chance against the dangers of the sixth floor." Mystic Spirit floated out and looked at her seriously.
Mystic Spirit's concerns were not unfounded. The gap between her and peak Unity stage was indeed too large. Hong Niang still needed to sleep for a while, and it was unclear when it would wake up. If she ventured to the next floor alone, there was a nine out of ten chance she wouldn't make it back alive.
Charging up to the fifth floor in one go was already her limit. Chu Sang wasn't a rash person, so she nodded, no longer insisting on continuing upwards.
If she wasn't in a hurry to get out, she actually wanted to stay on the fifth floor for a while longer. The spiritual energy on the fifth floor was much richer than on the previous floors, even more concentrated than in the territories of the major immortal sects!
Not using such pure spiritual energy for cultivation would be a terrible waste!
The little Pagoda Spirit had no objections to this. Of course, even if it did have objections, as a humble little pagoda spirit under someone else's control, it had no say in the matter.
The bandit Chu Sang took out a giant spirit-gathering array disk and placed it beside her. Immediately, the spiritual energy in the entire space surged towards her like a tidal wave.
She closed her eyes, and it was unclear how long they remained shut.
Time passed like flowing water and spinning silk.
When she opened her eyes again, her entire body was covered in thick frost and snow. If not for a thin layer of fire spirit energy covering her body, she would have long since frozen into an ice sculpture.
"Whew......"
Shaking her body, Chu Sang emerged from nearly half a meter of accumulated snow, patting off the old snow on her robes.
Sensing their master's awakening, the sword spirits who had been sleeping alongside her also emerged.
Hong Niang, who she remembered had "just fallen asleep," had awakened before her.
Chu Sang felt somewhat dazed.
"How long has it been?"
She walked out of the cave where she had been in seclusion. The cave entrance was buried in snow, and frost covered the branches. She clearly remembered that before her seclusion, the leaves had still been green.
The small tree outside the cave had grown into a towering giant.
"After you fell into deep sleep, we followed suit and also slept. We're not sure how long it's been," Karma Burns the Three Realms shook its head.
Chu Sang closed her eyes and sensed again. The spiritual energy in the space had been almost completely absorbed, only supporting her breakthrough to the late Divine Transformation stage.
Indeed, after the Divine Transformation stage, the spiritual energy required for each breakthrough increased exponentially.
She took a deep breath and set out on her journey to the sixth floor.
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
After breaking through to the late Divine Transformation stage, the difficulty of the sixth floor was similar to when she faced the fifth floor at mid Divine Transformation stage. After a life-and-death struggle to deal with the demon beasts on the sixth floor, she naturally didn't neglect the spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy on the sixth floor was even more concentrated than on the fifth floor.
After absorbing the spiritual energy from the sixth floor, Chu Sang's cultivation had only broken through from late Divine Transformation stage to peak Divine Transformation stage. It wasn't that she couldn't break through further, but the next breakthrough would require facing the Unity stage tribulation. She didn't know what would happen if she faced that deadly lightning tribulation while confined in the pagoda. To be safe, she suppressed the spiritual energy fluctuations in her body, restraining her realm at peak Divine Transformation stage, with strength equivalent to a quasi-Unity stage.
Hong Niang had also advanced from early Unity stage to late Unity stage.
Based on her experience clearing the previous floors, the demon beasts on the seventh floor would generally be at the late Unity stage, and there might even be Great Perfection stage boss monsters.
Her only encounter with a Great Perfection stage demon beast was the berserk Demon Emperor last time.
If she hadn't broken through on the spot and triggered a lightning tribulation, she would have had no chance of victory against a Great Perfection stage demon beast.
After their breakthroughs, Chu Sang and Hong Niang had the ability to face the seventh floor demon beasts, but it would take much more time than the previous levels. They would occasionally be surrounded and seriously injured by groups of demon beasts, but she had brought enough pills and protective equipment to prevent fatal wounds.
They arrived at a lakeside in a valley. Miraculously, there was a patch of exposed earth in the center of the lake, with a small tree sapling growing there that seemed out of place with its surroundings.
Why out of place?
The seventh floor was rich in spiritual energy, yet this tree had no spiritual energy fluctuations around it. It was wilted and dying. If not for the faint yellow-green color of its bark, one might believe it was just a dry branch stuck into the ground.
Chu Sang quietly gazed in that direction for a while, feeling something strange. She summoned the Pagoda Spirit and asked, "What is this thing?"
Plants nourished by spiritual energy should grow more vigorously, so why did this small tree sapling look like it was about to wither and die? Could there be something hidden underneath?
Chu Sang was cautious.
"With so many trees in this place, how would I know what this particular one is... Ah, I seem to remember something. This lake looks familiar. Years ago, someone was looking for some kind of fruit, I can't quite remember its name, something like a Bodhi fruit. There were powerful demon beasts guarding that fruit. That person used me to capture the demon beasts guarding the Bodhi fruit and imprisoned them near this lake inside the pagoda. So many years have passed, could it be that the guardian beast has died?"