Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 316 Cracking the Storage Ring - The Battle of the Compassionate Sea
"Phew~, it's actually a little difficult."

Xiao Chen exhaled a breath of stale air: "Old dog Yi's trump cards for survival are really not bad."

"Fortunately, I was still one step ahead in the end."

He could clearly sense it from this battle.

Nascent Soul True Monarchs are clearly more difficult to deal with than Golden Core cultivators.

The main reason is that there are not many cultivators who can reach the Nascent Soul stage to begin with, and basically everyone has certain advantages, so it cannot be calculated according to common sense.

In particular, they have access to better things.

For example, that strange magical artifact at the end.

Xiao Chen had actually used the Thousand Gauze Robe to resist, but it was instantly dissolved by the blood light.

Including that black iron pillar that can take someone's life, it also seems to have the effect of relieving dizziness in advance.

If there were a few more similar items, he might not have been able to buy them today.

"If you look at it that way, my current strength isn't quite enough."

On Xiao Chen's list of targets for elimination was the Yin Corpse Sect, a force far more powerful than Yi Laogou: "If we want to deal with others, we need to prepare more and stronger methods."

"We still need to keep working hard!"

He sighed softly, and realized that what Old Dog Yi said actually made some sense—there are differences even among Nascent Soul cultivators!

But it doesn't matter, the next period will be a period of rapid development for Xiao Chen's strength.

As he gradually replenished the total amount of true essence within his nascent soul, he became increasingly familiar with the Crimson Sky Mountain-Severing Palm, and sought out and cultivated more Yellow-level spells and even divine sense secret techniques.

The power one possesses will naturally grow stronger.

Moreover, there is now a new cultivation world where one can obtain additional resources.

Xiao Chen gave a general summary of his first battle after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage.

Only then did they begin to clean up the remaining traces of the battle, mainly the still-burning flames on the sea surface and the scattered bloodstains.

The fact that the two True Lords were fighting each other was undoubtedly a disaster for the environment where they were located.

Many sea fish were killed by the aftershocks of the battle, and some that were floating on the surface were turned into charred remains.

Some, infected by the remaining demonic blood energy, became noticeably more irritable and began attacking their fellow demons.

Therefore, Xiao Chen focused on clearing away the blood and qi.

This is to ensure that after he leaves, no Foundation Establishment cultivators will happen to pass by here or hunt infected sea fish and thus be affected.

For them, this was not a stroke of luck, but a deadly trap.

After completing the final work, he took the storage ring of the Yi family patriarch and found another island nearby to settle down.

"This storage ring has a rather unusual design."

Xiao Chen has now visited many markets and shops that sell magical artifacts.

But I have never seen a similar style.

If nothing unexpected happens, this storage ring should be a custom-made item created by a master craftsman.

Generally speaking, customized products are of higher quality than generic styles.

Xiao Chen quickly realized this.

He tried to break the restrictions, but found that almost all of his previous experience was useless.

This storage ring has a very unique structure, and its restrictions are dozens of times more complex.

"Oh my god, you people are absolutely insane! Why did you design such complicated restrictions on the storage ring?"

Xiao Chen studied for four whole hours before he finally understood the classification of these restrictions.

At the same time, he was limited by his limited understanding of Daoist principles and weapon crafting techniques.

The subsequent disassembly process was exceptionally difficult.

"Ugh, this is too much trouble. My temper is so bad... sigh."

Xiao Chen briefly attempted to unleash the Soaring Palm technique to destroy the tangled restrictions on his storage ring.

But ultimately, they didn't want to ruin their spoils, feeling somewhat hesitant to act rashly.

"It seems that learning the Dao of Combat must also be put on the agenda."

Xiao Chen thought about it carefully: "Learning some techniques related to restrictions and laws can not only make it easier to break through storage rings, but also be used to deal with formations and restrictions in secret realms."

"Anyway, I was originally planning to go to the new cultivation world to learn the more advanced array techniques."

"We'll consider the specific training arrangements later."

"In short, when I go to the new cultivation world next time, I'll try to get a copy of the array-based inheritance first."

Xiao Chen kept this matter silently in his heart.

Another twenty-seven hours passed.

After persistent flushing with true essence, the restrictions on the storage ring were finally lifted one by one.

"Oh, it's finally a success."

Xiao Chen couldn't help but sigh, "Cracking a storage ring is more difficult than fighting that old dog Yi."

"After spending so much time, it has to give me something good in there."

However, when he probed into it with his divine sense, he found that the storage ring was slightly smaller than he had imagined.

Objectively speaking, its five-zhang square storage space was the largest storage ring Xiao Chen had ever seen.

Compared to the three-zhang square Han Hai Ring, its internal capacity is more than three times larger.

However, the size was much smaller than he had initially imagined.

However, size is not the key factor; the focus is still on the contents.

Xiao Chen habitually used his divine sense to count the spirit stones among them.

It took almost a breath to count them all; there were only a little over 1.03 million spirit stones in total.

"Are they that poor?"

Xiao Chen frowned slightly, somewhat surprised.

To be honest, Old Dog Yi is a True Lord, so how come he only has this little bit of money on him?

If I remember correctly, didn't he still have two million at the Tingtaohai auction two years ago?
Three years have passed, and not only have I not earned back any money, I've actually spent almost half of it.

"Sigh, I'm so disappointed in you!"

Xiao Chen silently put away all the spirit stones, then looked at the remaining items.

Perhaps in preparation for war, he carried seven enormous array flags and five large, dark boxes in his storage ring.

Each box is six feet long, three feet wide, and three feet high.

The items were sealed with different colored strips, but the specific items were not marked.

Xiao Chen took out the five large boxes and opened them one by one.

The first one contained a whole chest of spirit ore, gleaming with a golden light, looking like a chest of gold.

These spirit ores had clearly been processed, cut into neat little cubes.

There were exactly one thousand in the big box.

"Some kind of partially processed Tier 3 spirit ore?"

Xiao Chen picked them up and examined them, discovering that these small cubes seemed to have undergone compression, and their spiritual energy content was significantly higher than that of ordinary spiritual ore.

At the same time, impurities were removed, leaving only the purest golden spiritual energy.

If we calculate based on a price of one thousand spirit stones per piece...

Preliminary estimates suggest that the total value of this box of spiritual materials is approximately one million spirit stones.

It's almost more expensive than the spirit stones that Old Dog Yi always carries around.

However, this kind of spiritual material is most likely a reserve that the Cangming Immortal Sect has accumulated over time.

"These should be the five elements materials used to set up the formation?"

Xiao Chen opened the second box, and sure enough, it was also full of pre-cut small cubes.

Except for the color changing to dark blue, the quantity is exactly the same.

"Then the remaining ones should all be the same."

Xiao Chen quickly checked the remaining three large boxes, and sure enough, they all contained the corresponding Five Elements Spirit Ores.

It seems that the Cangming Immortal Sect is already using its reserves to deal with the invasion of the sea race.

This suggests that the overall war situation is not progressing well, or at least is quite tense.

Otherwise, these reserve supplies would certainly not be used easily.

Xiao Chen took the opportunity to check the array flags.

Although the specific formations are not easily recognizable, it is not difficult to distinguish them from fourth-order grand formations by the complex restrictions on them.

"That's not right, there's only an array, but no spirit stones?"

According to the knowledge Xiao Chen learned from "Introduction to the Dao of Arrays", at least a mid-grade spirit stone or a third-order or higher spirit vein is required to activate a fourth-order array.

He searched inside the storage ring.

They quickly found forty-two small boxes of the same size.

Upon opening it, one would find that there was actually a red brocade covering inside.

He lifted the brocade in one swift motion.

Below, neatly stacked mid-grade spirit stones were revealed.

Xiao Chen counted them; a small box also contained a thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

The forty-two small boxes together contain a total of forty-two thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

That's equivalent to 4.2 million low-grade spirit stones!

This is definitely a large sum of money.

"I never expected that old dog Yi would carry so many mid-grade spirit stones with him."

In fact, Xiao Chen could guess that this was mostly due to the accumulation of the Cangming Immortal Sect.

But it doesn't matter, no matter where it came from, it's his now.

After removing these items and separating out miscellaneous items such as bedding, writing brushes, inkstones, musical instruments, chess pieces, calligraphy, and paintings, the storage ring suddenly became empty.

After all, there weren't many items originally placed inside.

All the talismans had been used up, and there were only two bottles of pills left.

One of the bottles was actually the True Essence Gathering Pill, which is only used by Foundation Establishment cultivators when breaking through to the Golden Core stage.

The other bottle contains Purple Sea Rejuvenation Powder, used to quickly restore true energy.

"Hmm, we can leave this True Essence Gathering Pill to that kid Chen Fan."

Xiao Chen put it away separately.

In fact, when he broke through to the Golden Core stage, he didn't even need a similar breakthrough pill; he just broke through directly.

As a result, they had no extra reserves at all.

When we parted ways last time, I couldn't even leave a few for Chen Fan.

I was originally thinking of helping him collect them when I had the chance, but now that I have this bottle of True Essence Gathering Pill, I don't need to go out of my way to search for them anymore.

Another difference between them and Golden Core cultivators is that...

Xiao Chen did not find any extra spare spiritual artifacts in his storage ring.

Aside from the special pearl that could amplify the Ice Wheel, there was only a jade ruyi.

"What's the use of this?"

Xiao Chen picked up the jade ruyi and tried to infuse it with his true essence for refinement.

However, he discovered that this thing did not react to his true essence at all.

"Hey, what's going on?"

After thinking for a moment, Xiao Chen followed the method of refining the storage ring, and while activating his true essence, he also injected a wisp of divine sense into it.

This time it went much more smoothly. Moreover, compared to the storage ring that was difficult to refine, this jade ruyi was easily refined in just half an hour.

"Oh, it's actually a spiritual artifact for cultivating spiritual consciousness."

After refining it, Xiao Chen immediately understood its purpose.

The cultivator only needs to inject their divine sense into it, and then use their true essence to activate the jade ruyi.

Depending on the amount of true essence injected, one can apply different levels of pressure to one's own divine consciousness.

There are a total of six levels.

Starting with 500 strands of true essence, each time you advance to a higher level, you need to add another 500 strands of true essence, up to a maximum of 3,000 strands of true essence can be injected at the same time.

This is a gradual process of adaptation from low to high.

It's just like a physical cultivator practicing weightlifting, only this time it's a training exercise for the mind.

"Another custom-made magical artifact."

Xiao Chen immediately understood why there were six levels inside.

Because if we add any more, it will be beyond what the early Nascent Soul stage can achieve.

"This item seems pretty good; I can keep it for training."

Xiao Chen actually wanted a defensive magical artifact to make up for his current weakness in defensive spells.

But then again, if such a thing really existed, it would have been used to deal with him long ago.

"Hey, right, why aren't there any defensive magical artifacts?"

Xiao Chen suddenly realized that he hadn't seen any defensive magical artifacts during their previous encounter.

Logically speaking, there should be at least one.

This question didn't last long; the answer was found in a letter.

The storage ring contained many letters.

One of them was a reply from the Refining Hall of the Cangming Immortal Sect.

As mentioned above, the shield is severely damaged and will take at least a year to repair.

They also requested the allocation of additional fourth-tier spiritual materials to fill the small fragment that had been bitten off by the great demon in the lower half of the shield.

"interesting."

Xiao Chen guessed the reason directly from the time at the end of the receipt and the words "the great demon bit it off".

It must be that old dog Yi rushed to the new ruins to try and ambush him.

As a result, they encountered a fourth-tier sea monster that had come to greet the dragon, and were forced to fight it.

Later, Xiao Chen was chased again outside Tingtao Market, and he was somewhat regretful that the fourth-tier sea fish hadn't eaten Old Dog Yi directly.

But now it seems that it's not entirely useless.

At the very least, it helped me get the defensive shield sorted out, so it should be considered an assist.

"Tsk tsk tsk, karma is what it is."

After figuring out the root of the problem, Xiao Chen couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Serves you right for blocking my way at the exit of the ruins!"

There were also several useful letters containing information on battle plans and crucial intelligence about the Sea of ​​Compassion.

For example, the Zen Master Kuji was confirmed to have passed away two years ago.

The Bitter Silence Temple was also razed to the ground within ten days, and none of the Bitter Gourd Arhats and others escaped; they all perished.

The reason it wasn't announced to the public was simply to avoid causing panic prematurely.

Xiao Chen had already guessed this, after all, even if Zen Master Kuji survived the first ambush, he would not fare well in the subsequent encirclement.

Meanwhile, Zen Master Jingchen of Pudu Temple was fortunate enough to only suffer minor injuries during that attack.

However, Zen Master Jingping was severely injured by the Three-Feathered Azure Phoenix and barely managed to return to the temple.

Ultimately, he succumbed to his injuries due to the eruption of residual demonic power within his body.

"Ah, isn't it?"

Xiao Chen was somewhat surprised: "Was that Azure Phoenix that fierce?"

He remembered seeing an illustration depicting the complicated relationship between Zen Master Jingping and the Three-Feathered Azure Phoenix.

It left a deep impression on me because I thought it was a bit outrageous at the time.

Unexpectedly, in a one-on-one situation, the Azure Phoenix actually managed to kill it.

On the same day, Zen Master Yingwu of Juehai Temple was also ambushed by two powerful demons who had transformed into evil cultivators and was injured on the spot.

The self-destructing Buddhist artifact escaped.

In other words, before the sea creatures officially invaded, the Buddhist sect had already lost a Zen master and two others were injured.

It's fair to say they were at a huge disadvantage from the very beginning.

"The sea creatures, who were in a superior position, actually launched a sneak attack, and what's more, they succeeded."

Seeing this, Xiao Chen couldn't help but sigh, "It's definitely a huge setback at the start."

However, this is not the end.

The intelligence received by the Cangming Immortal Sect up to last year.

The Little Prajna Temple, located at the northernmost point of the Compassion Sea, remains shrouded in thick fog, completely cut off from all communication, and all means of transmitting sound are ineffective.

Several of the Arhats broke through the fish's blockade and escaped.

However, they were all disciples stationed at the external spiritual veins and knew nothing about the situation inside the temple.

The only good news is that one of them is a true disciple.

At least Xiaobanruo Temple won't be as devastated as Kuji Temple, where all its incense offerings have been cut off.

The true disciple and his two companions have been assigned to the Storm Sea, while the other Arhats have chosen to remain in Pudu Temple to continue fighting the sea creatures.

However, the giant scallop to the north has already blocked the way between Xiaobanruo Temple and Pudu Temple.

The situation inside the dense fog is probably hard to predict.

The nautilus in front has also reached the middle of Juehai Temple and Pudu Temple.

Communication has now been essentially cut off.

The good news is that the Compassionate Face Arhat and Compassionate Heart Arhat, who carry the legacy of Juehai Temple, have been successfully rescued.

Moreover, half a year ago, he boarded the spirit ship bound for the Storm Sea.

In other words, the sea creatures' efforts in issuing arrest warrants for those traitors against the two of them were in vain.

Although, from an overall perspective, this level of good news is of no help whatsoever.

However, compared to those reports of repeated defeats, the urgent news of the loss of a certain spirit mine or spirit vein is still a good thing to be happy about.

"What about the octopus?"

Xiao Chen curiously scrolled down and finally found the relevant information in a message from Yuntao Sword Pavilion.

The octopus's purpose was very clear: to emulate the other two giant spirit beasts and sever the connection between Yuntao Sword Pavilion and the other sects.

Including that strange strong wind.

It was also the work of the sea creatures, and its effect was similar to the dense fog in the north.

The difference is that Chongzhen Temple actually made a temporary alliance with Yuntao Sword Pavilion.

To show their sincerity, they first helped set up a formation to dispel the strong wind.

They then rallied their forces to jointly confront the giant octopus and the schools of sea fish, firmly keeping them at bay on the southern edge of Tingtao Island.

This matter is actually somewhat related to Xiao Chen.

Not just because he provided a map of the giant sea monster.

It is also indirectly related to his performance on Red Flower Island.

Since Chongzhen Temple didn't have many people to begin with, and their plan to make a name for themselves in the Eight Directions Tournament was ruined.

When people talked about it, they were all talking about Xiao Chen's outstanding performance.

Basically, very few people care about the newly emerging Chongzhen Temple.

As a result, apart from a group of new Qi Refining stage disciples recruited in the last two years, their sect now consists of only some guest elders temporarily invited.

To put it bluntly, they have almost no fixed industries.

But in that case, they had nothing to be reluctant to part with.

Therefore, it became much easier for Chongzhen Temple to gather its forces, as they simply abandoned the lower-ranking disciples in a relatively safe place.

With two True Lords and a group of Golden Core cultivators, they can put out fires everywhere and reinforce important strongholds of Yuntao Sword Pavilion.

Because everyone possesses the Golden Core cultivation level, they can be said to come and go as swiftly as the wind.

However, more than half a year ago, the Cangming Immortal Sect received two pieces of news, one good and one bad.

The good news is that True Lord Die Lang took the initiative and used his sword to injure the giant octopus, even severing eleven of its tentacles.

It can be said that his offensive prowess is worthy of the name of a sword cultivator.

The bad news is that although True Monarch Die Lang is quite powerful, he has only been cultivating for a short time and has only been at the Nascent Soul stage for a few years.

Under the octopus's counterattack, his true energy quickly ran out, and he too was injured and returned home.

It's a lose-lose situation for both sides.

An even more serious problem is that the Zhaokong faction has completed its encirclement of the Mozhang faction.

The two fourth-tier great demons of the sea race also freed up their hands and came to reinforce the territory of Tingtao Sea.

Even with Yuntao Sword Pavilion and Chongzhen Temple joining forces, they were outnumbered and forced to switch to a full-scale defensive strategy.

In short, it can be summed up in one sentence.

After reading through all the letters and intelligence, Xiao Chen couldn't help but shake his head: "The Compassionate Sea is doomed!"

If being ambushed at the beginning could be explained by a lack of preparation, then...

However, after two years, the overall situation has not improved at all, which is a matter of hard power.

In other words, the overall strength of the Compassionate Sea People was completely outmatched by the overall strength of the Sea People.

In fact, if it weren't for the home advantage, they wouldn't have been able to win.

The pre-arranged fourth-order array supported several key nodes.

In addition, with the Taoist and Buddhist sects setting aside their past grievances and joining forces against the enemy, the two sides were united and likely suffered a major defeat long ago.

Even with the advantage of terrain and popular support, they were ultimately no match for the sea tribes who had the advantage of favorable timing.

As things have developed to this point, Xiao Chen can clearly sense it.

In recent years, the concentration of spiritual energy has increased, leading to an overabundance of Golden Elixir Sea Fish, making the sea creatures the biggest winners.

Compared to the vast, endless sea, the human race is completely outnumbered.

"No wonder we saw so many spirit ships fleeing before, and even major sects were arranging for some of their disciples to take refuge in the Storm Sea."

The problem that Xiao Chen could immediately spot after reading the intelligence.

The other Nascent Soul True Monarchs had naturally experienced this firsthand long ago.

They were probably not very optimistic either, but unlike Chongzhen Temple, most forces were reluctant to give up their sect's foundation.

That's why I stayed and persevered, trying to find a way out.

Objectively speaking, this bought some time for the independent cultivators to evacuate.

Otherwise, everyone would scatter and run away.

If the sea creatures pursued them relentlessly, they could easily wipe out most of the cultivators in the Kunpeng Sea by taking advantage of the vast distance.

"Forget it, don't think about this anymore."

Xiao Chen shook his head: "Let's deal with the remaining spoils first."

He was so busy reading the letter that he still had a lot of things to organize.

I'll discuss the specifics after I've taken a trip around the territory of the Tiangang Sect.

(End of this chapter)