Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 314 Soaring Palm - A Fake Letter

The effects of switching to the fourth-tier cultivation method are very significant.

Although Xiao Chen is still somewhat unfamiliar with "The Merit of Transferring Disasters and Receiving Misfortune", he has only just begun to learn the basics.

However, compared to the "Wanxiang Huichun Jing" which took twenty days.

After returning this time, he condensed a new true essence in just four days, five times faster than before.

With the added effect of the Yin Five Elements Seal, a total of five new True Essences were obtained.

"I'm so tired. It's really tough for me to accumulate one new True Essence every day."

Xiao Chen exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling that this was perhaps a bit too slow.

So I silently did some mental calculations.

If this pace continues, it will take him at least seven or eight years just to accumulate the three thousand strands of true essence needed for the early Nascent Soul stage.

Although he also understood that as he gradually became more familiar with "The Merit of Transferring Disasters and Receiving Misfortune".

Once he reaches the minor success stage, his cultivation speed should be able to double again.

If one further cultivates to the point of mastering the technique, it may even be possible to refine a new true essence every day.

It just matches the speed of the Yin Five Elements Wheel.

Even if Xiao Chen reaches that level, it is estimated that it will take him more than four years to be qualified to touch the first minor bottleneck of the Nascent Soul stage.

Moreover, it should be understood that this is merely the time required to accumulate true essence.

This doesn't even take into account the extra time that might be spent practicing spells, earning cultivation resources, and breaking through minor bottlenecks.

Of course, for Xiao Chen, breaking through minor bottlenecks would actually bring him additional benefits.

But for other cultivators, this is pure difficulty.

Is this situation really reasonable?

Xiao Chen vaguely sensed something was wrong: "Logically speaking, shouldn't cultivation become easier as I get stronger?"

"But why is it that the higher my cultivation level, the harder it seems to become to cultivate immortality?"

"This feeling is so strange."

A strange thought suddenly popped into Xiao Chen's mind.

How come this is like earning spirit stones?
When I was still a Qi Refining cultivator, I counted my spirit stones on my fingers.

Back then, saving up several hundred spirit stones to buy magical artifacts was no easy task.

After becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator, accumulating a few hundred spirit stones is not difficult. However, only a very few people can afford to spend ten thousand spirit stones to buy a top-grade magic weapon.

If you break through to the Golden Core stage, 10,000 spirit stones will no longer be a hurdle.

However, a single magical artifact costs at least 100,000 spirit stones, and even among the true disciples of powerful forces, very few can accumulate more than a million spirit stones.

From initially earning 100 spirit stones, to earning 10,000 spirit stones, and then to earning 1 million spirit stones, it seems like the same multiple has been increased.

However, the difference between one hundred spirit stones and ten thousand spirit stones is actually only a little over nine thousand spirit stones.

However, the difference between 10,000 spirit stones and 1 million spirit stones is a full 990,000 spirit stones!

As a cultivator grows stronger, he earns more spirit stones, but the difficulty of accumulating an order of magnitude increases.

Just as the difficulty of cultivation increases dramatically with each breakthrough in a major realm.

The Sea of ​​Compassion is home to tens of millions of cultivators, but how many of them can actually produce a million spirit stones?

They are probably even rarer than Nascent Soul True Monarchs, right?

"If you think about it that way, the two do have something in common; they both get increasingly difficult!"

Xiao Chen couldn't help but feel a little emotional.

"Why are you sighing? Is cultivation too tiring?"

Su Li carried a plate to the beach: "I just saw some ripe autumn pears, so I picked out a few of the biggest ones to make soup for tonight."

Would you like to try one first?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Chen glanced at the plate and decisively reached out to grab the largest pear in the middle.

Then he handed it to Su Li: "This biggest one is for you."

Then she picked up the smallest one: "I'll just eat this smallest one."

We must grasp the essence of traditional virtues!

If this gets out in the future, it might become a beautiful story of 'Xiao Chen giving away pears'.

Hahaha!
"You...don't like pears?"

Unfortunately, Su Li clearly didn't understand Xiao Chen's strange move, and instead, a look of confusion appeared on her face.

However, these were just minor incidents and had no real impact.

Continue with your usual training methods.

With the help of Hextech, Xiao Chen spent only one month refining all the true essence of his nascent soul.

At the same time, it can be considered as a preliminary step in integrating a trace of the Great Dao into the true essence, following the guidance of the mental cultivation method.

Although he wasn't very familiar with the 'grafting' technique at the moment, that was precisely the function of the mental cultivation method.

If a cultivator has already comprehended the Great Dao, then what is the point of having cultivation techniques? Wouldn't that be superfluous?
It is precisely because we do not know how that we need to practice according to the methods and follow the guidance of the mental techniques to comprehend and utilize the power of the Great Dao.

After all the true essence of the nascent soul has been converted.

Xiao Chen has thus officially entered the threshold of "Transferring Disasters and Receiving Misfortune".

However, after completing the initial stage, he immediately stopped practicing the technique.

After all, it seems that simply focusing on cultivation is too inefficient right now, so it's better to let the Yin Five Elements Seal exert its power first.

This frees up valuable time to prioritize learning new spells.

Based on the experience gained from previously cultivating the "Northern Darkness True Water Robe".

Xiao Chen first took out the fire-type spiritual item, Azure Phoenix Burning Feather Ash, which he had obtained on Tianxing Island, to accelerate his cultivation speed.

Of course, having only one fourth-tier spiritual item doesn't seem quite enough.

Fortunately, he still had a fire-elemental Dao-nurturing crystal.

He skillfully used the Purple Gold Bodhi to comprehend the Great Dao of Fire.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Xiao Chen immediately grasped the ash from the Azure Phoenix's Burning Feathers and began practicing the first move of the Crimson Sky Breaking Mountain Palm—the Soaring Sky Palm.

Because the Dao Crystal was used from the beginning, and it was also enhanced by Hextech.

He mastered the Soaring Palm technique in less than a day.

"Tears welling up, the familiar power has finally returned!"

Xiao Chen was deeply moved. He recalled how difficult it was to practice the "Northern Darkness True Water Robe" with a bunch of spirit beads before, but now he had mastered the new spell in just one day.

For a long time, he hadn't experienced such rapid progress.

Although I only have a basic grasp of it now, I still need to familiarize myself with it further.

But this is undoubtedly much simpler.

In less than three days, he had mastered the Soaring Palm technique to the point of complete mastery.

It can be activated immediately with just a thought.

It can be said that at this point, Xiao Chen has mastered fourth-order combat techniques and truly possesses the power of a Nascent Soul.

And although it feels like a long time has passed, it's only the beginning of September now.

Less than four months had passed since he broke through to the Nascent Soul stage.

This amount of time is often too much for even a newly promoted Golden Core cultivator, let alone a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

However, Xiao Chen not only learned the new cultivation technique, but also mastered two fourth-tier spells, one offensive and one defensive.

It can be said that the progress has been incredibly rapid.

Furthermore, while he is currently somewhat weak on the defensive end, this is mainly because the "Northern Darkness True Water Robe" cannot benefit from Hextech enhancements.

However, thanks to the Soaring Palm technique, its output is no weaker than that of an ordinary early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

"Next, we need to make up for our shortcomings in defensive spells and divine sense techniques as soon as possible."

Xiao Chen secretly pondered, "And also to investigate the current situation of the Sea of ​​Compassion."

"I'll also take some time to go back and give Chen Fan some pointers on his cultivation, and at the same time see if there are any spiritual items suitable for resale."

Of course, the latter two things are not urgent.

There's something even more important than these: settling scores with that old dog!
Normally, such veteran Nascent Soul cultivators would have numerous methods and be extremely difficult to deal with.

But then again, as the saying goes, youth has its advantages.

If Old Dog Yi were only nine hundred years old, Xiao Chen would definitely choose to respect his background.

In particular, he has practiced his whole life and most likely has mastered more than one spell, as well as accumulated magical artifacts and secret techniques over the long years.

These things are enough to create a strength gap of several times over with those young Nascent Soul cultivators.

But now Old Dog Yi is over 1,300 years old. It's not quite right to say he's exhausted and dying. He's only hanging on by his life-extending elixirs.

There's nothing more to say then; he has to pay the price for his actions.

They used to rely on the vast difference in cultivation level to hunt down Xiao Chen, but now it's time for them to pay the price.

I'm planning to go out tomorrow.

Sitting in front of the campfire, Xiao Chen explained beforehand, "I'm mainly going to check on how things are going with the Tiangang Sect, and I also need to settle some minor grudges."

"If everything goes smoothly, this trip shouldn't take too long."

"But if we encounter any special circumstances along the way, it might be a little later, since the situation there is complicated right now."

Given the current situation, the probability of encountering unexpected events while traveling is indeed quite high.

I'll explain in advance so that Su Li won't worry.

"This soup is great tonight!"

Xiao Chen scooped a spoonful directly from the pot and swallowed it without fear of burning himself: "It seems there's an extra ingredient compared to yesterday, making it even sweeter."

"I feel that your soup is getting better and better."

Su Li nodded immediately: "Today, we encountered mushrooms with purple spots at the bottom of the sea cliff."

"I tried one and it was quite delicious, so I added two more to the soup."

"If you like it, please give me more."

"In addition, I also prepared a small garden on the east side, where I planted the remaining mushrooms and some seeds that I had collected before."

"The growth of the witch runes is very effective. I estimate that the first batch should be mature by the time you come back next time."

You're studying witchcraft just to grow vegetables?
Xiao Chen was slightly taken aback and looked down at the soup in the bowl.

The billowing heat hit his cheeks, dispelling the slight chill of the early autumn night and bringing a little warmth: "Um... that's a good thing, then I'll try to come back as soon as possible."

The night was all about talking.

The two chatted with great interest about what they had seen during the most recent lunar eclipse.

Even the Moon Witch Clan continues its wars, yet their actual living conditions have not improved much.

Including the autumn sacrificial ceremony with the characteristics of the Wu tribe, Su Li also told Xiao Chen about some interesting parts of the summer ceremony that he had missed because he was away.

The next morning, a surge of spiritual energy arrived.

Using the spiritual energy surge, Xiao Chen reviewed the Soaring Palm technique once more before waving goodbye.

Then, he disguised his aura again, maintaining the appearance of a Golden Core cultivator at the Great Perfection stage, and went directly to Cangming Market.

It's worth mentioning that after breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm, Xiao Chen's escape speed also increased significantly due to the rapid improvement in the quality of his true essence.

Although it didn't increase by five times in a short period, it was still much faster than before.

It's a pity he doesn't have a fourth-tier escape technique right now, otherwise he could be even faster.

Two days later, he arrived at the outskirts of the market and saw this large group of islands for the first time in a long time.

The main attraction is the seven artificial islands that were created by cultivators over many years; they are a unique scenic view that cannot be seen elsewhere.

"When I first came to the Compassion Sea, this was my first stop."

A hint of reminiscence flickered in Xiao Chen's eyes: "I never expected that after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, my first stop back would be here again."

"Could this be considered a kind of fate?"

"Wait a minute, wouldn't it be too obvious if I just went in like this?"

Just as he was about to approach, Xiao Chen suddenly realized that what he was doing was somewhat illogical.

Logically speaking, after being chased twice by the Yi family patriarch, even the slowest-witted cultivator would understand that they should avoid the Yi family's sight from now on.

The best option, of course, is to fly away and leave the dangerous area.

Even if there is some reason that forces one to stay here, one should proactively conceal one's identity.

The best course of action is to avoid any location associated with the Yi family and prevent being discovered.

Thus, Xiao Chen walked in openly and legitimately.

If the Yi family patriarch wasn't a fool, he would definitely suspect that Yi had some kind of backing, which was why he dared to swagger back, or even that he was deliberately luring the snake out of its hole.

Although that is indeed the case.

However, it wouldn't be good if this kind of thing were discovered beforehand.

After all, in many rumors in the Sea of ​​Compassion, Xiao Chen is considered to be the successor of a hidden sect.

Even if he were to appear with a Nascent Soul True Monarch one day, everyone would probably take it for granted.

Therefore, it is very likely that Old Dog Yi will make a similar conjecture, and instead secretly increase his vigilance and hide away.

If he were to deliberately hide inside the sect's grand formation or remain trapped within the market's grand formation, he would be doomed.

Xiao Chen is really not a good person to deal with.

It should be noted that with sufficient spirit stones, a composite fourth-order grand formation is enough to bridge the strength gap between the early Nascent Soul stage and the Great Perfection Nascent Soul stage.

Some top-tier formations can even unleash power far exceeding that of a single cultivator.

After all, the purpose of formations is to enable the weak to overcome the strong; otherwise, what's the point of having them?

"What's a reasonable way to lure that old dog out?"

Xiao Chen frowned slightly. This matter seemed simple, but it was actually quite a technical task.

First of all, it's impossible for Old Dog Yi to be watching the every move of all the cultivators in the market all day long.

Doing that is basically like waiting for a rabbit to run into a tree stump, which is not something a normal person would do.

Therefore, he mainly had to rely on the Yi family members scattered in various places, which is also the purpose of high-level cultivators establishing sects or families.

He delegated all the odd and hard work to his subordinates, only needing to step in at crucial moments.

Therefore, if Xiao Chen were to conceal himself properly, the Yi family cultivators might not recognize him, and nothing would happen.

But if he deliberately leaves a flaw, it would only make things worse.

When Old Dog Yi comes over and sees this, he will definitely become even more suspicious and wary.

In addition, some unexpected situations need to be considered.

For example, the darkest place is under the lamp.

If the Yi family members believe that Xiao Chen would definitely not dare to come to Cangming Market, then the cultivators who were originally keeping watch might slack off or even neglect their duties.

If this is considered a trivial matter...

There are also more important special cases.

For example, disregarding the overall situation, Old Dog Yi directly activated the formation in the market, using its power to attack Xiao Chen and restrict his departure.

You know, this guy's character has never been very good.

If he were a good person, he wouldn't have gone after Xiao Chen for his own selfish gain, and he wouldn't have been so shameless as to personally take action to bully the weak.

Given Yi Laogou's character, he might disregard the sect's reputation and do something like that.

Therefore, Xiao Chen needed to find a way to let the other party know that he had returned.

However, we cannot allow the other party to trap us in the market.

That means that he has to secretly leave a message that he was here, while also making sure that by the time Old Dog Yi gets the message, he has already left the market.

Then you need to leave clues so that Old Dog Yi knows where he is and will chase after him.

Finally, this clue cannot be too suspicious, lest it arouse the other party's suspicion.

"Oh dear, this seems a bit difficult."

Xiao Chen pondered for a while, and a flash of inspiration struck him: "Why not try using false information to lure people in?"

"Using Fellow Daoist Yunya to lure that old dog Yi out?"

He could easily deduce that the Yi family, as a large clan, must have a strong network of connections within the Cangming Immortal Sect.

Even a place like Cangming Tower would likely be no exception.

In other words, if a piece of information passes through the manager of Cangming Tower and is delivered to Master Yunya, with whom he had some previous interactions, then...

The contents could very well be stolen by the Yi family members halfway through.

Imagine this is a letter asking for help, saying that the person is injured and needs some kind of spiritual object, and is hiding on a deserted island waiting for help.

Does that mean we can trick that old dog out?

"I think it's worth a try."

The more Xiao Chen thought about it, the more he felt that this plan was pretty good.

Whether I succeed or fail in the end, I am very safe.

According to this plan, he wouldn't need to enter the market at all, so he certainly wouldn't be stuck inside.

"Let's give it a try first."

Without hesitation, Xiao Chen quickly wrote a letter requesting help, falsely claiming that he had encountered a fourth-tier sea monster.

Although he managed to escape, he was seriously injured and forced to land on a deserted island to suppress his injuries. He urgently needs high-level pills that can help clear away demonic energy.

They finally encountered a passing rogue cultivator and asked him to deliver a letter requesting help.

I hope that Master Yunya will come alone with the elixirs to help after seeing the letter.

As long as he is willing to bring the elixir, I will surely reward him handsomely.

Finally, he added in the letter that he must not tell anyone, especially not the Yi family.

After handling the request for help.

Xiao Chen turned around and went to a place 30,000 miles southwest of the market, which was the direction in which many rogue cultivators were fleeing, and deliberately lay in wait.

They quickly chose a rogue cultivator in the early stage of the Golden Core realm and followed him.

Then, using his extended range of divine sense, he could see the deserted islands along his route in advance.

Pretending to be weak, they landed on a deserted island and waited for the other party to pass by.

Finally, when the other party flew past the deserted island, she deliberately emitted spiritual energy fluctuations to attract his attention.

"Fellow Daoist, please lend me a hand. I will repay you handsomely afterward!"

With his silver tongue, the imposing aura of a Golden Core cultivator at the Great Perfection stage, and a generous reward of 300,000 spirit stones, Xiao Chen successfully persuaded this rogue cultivator.

Considering his strength, the other party hesitated for a moment before deciding not to kill him to silence him.

Instead, he decided to take what he could get and left with the 100,000 spirit stones deposit and the letter asking for help.

Xiao Chen wasn't worried that the other party would take the money and not do the job.

After all, he had divine sense covering thousands of miles secretly monitoring the situation. If the other party dared to run away with the deposit, he would definitely let them know that this money was not so easy to take.

Fortunately, nothing like that happened.

I don't know if they met a kind person or if the other party was thinking about the remaining 200,000 spirit stones as a reward.

In short, Xiao Chen followed them all the way and watched them go into the market.

At this stage of the plan, everything is going smoothly.

The next step is to see if the Yi family is capable enough.

Logically speaking, a rogue cultivator should be able to deliver a message from Cangming Tower to a true disciple of the Cangming Immortal Sect.

Moreover, he stammered and couldn't explain the specific network of relationships, only saying that it was entrusted by an anonymous friend of the other party, and that there was an important matter written in the letter.

Therefore, this letter most likely won't be delivered directly to any true disciple, but will pass through several intermediaries, or may not even be delivered at all.

Because their social statuses are too different.

Xiao Chen had even considered whether to ask a Foundation Establishment cultivator to deliver the message.

In the end, fearing that the guards at the gate would simply throw the letter away as waste paper, they changed it to "a rogue cultivator in the early stage of the Golden Core realm."

That way, one would have some status and wouldn't be mistaken for a fraudster, to the point that they wouldn't even be able to get past the security guard.

The aftermath of the events unfolded almost exactly as Xiao Chen had predicted.

Although the steward who initially received the letter was not a monk from the I family.

However, he also retained the arrogance typical of Cangminglou, and didn't take rogue cultivators with a grain of salt at all.

After receiving the letter, he said on the surface that he would definitely deliver it, but in reality he just tossed it aside and had no intention of sending it to his superiors.

"Manager Xu, why is there still an unsigned letter here?"

It wasn't until Manager Chen, who came to relieve us, inquired that the situation became clear.

Manager Xu suddenly remembered: "I had forgotten about it if you hadn't mentioned it. A swindler came by during the day, saying he wanted to deliver a letter to Elder Yunya."

"They even said it came from a close friend and contained major secrets."

"When I asked him for the name of the messenger, he stammered and couldn't answer."

Upon hearing this, Manager Chen asked curiously, "What if it's true?"

Manager Xu scoffed, "Little Chen, you've only been here a short time, so you don't know the situation here yet."

"Let me tell you, I've seen way too many scammers like this."

“Every year, there are people who falsely claim to know the sect elders and want to use us to send letters.”

"If you actually send these things up there, you'll be in big trouble."

"Let's leave it for now. I'll take it to Old Zhou tomorrow so he won't always disbelieve what I say."

The next day, Manager Xu opened the letter directly in front of Inspector Zhou.

Then, in just half an hour, the Yi family cultivators obtained the information first and claimed that it was a fake letter, and then sealed it off.

That very evening, the contents of the letter reached the ears of the Yi family patriarch through the sound transmission sword.

"Hmph, you little bastard, you thought you could run fast? Well, look what you've done!"

"The injury is so serious, we mustn't let it affect the effectiveness of the medicine."

"There's also this Yunya, who holds an important position but is colluding with outsiders. After we capture Xiao Chen, we can use this letter to kick him out of Cangming Tower."

(End of this chapter)