The world of martial arts, the immortal swordsman in the mortal realm.

Chapter 177, Page 192: A Special Mark! Refining Calamity Qi Has This Benefit Too! [Bonus Chapter, Please Vote!]

Lu Chen gently pressed his palm against Wanwan's lower abdomen, feeling the soft warmth beneath her clothes, and couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion.

Wan Yaonu may be incompetent, but it must be said that she is truly resourceful. As expected of someone from the Yin Gui Sect, regardless of her actual combat abilities, she has certainly acquired knowledge.

Apply the Blade & Soul mark here...

That would provide enough space for drawing.

Lu Chen has recently been studying "Sword Five". Although he has been controlling it very well and "Heart Sword" can always suppress all kinds of dark and evil negative thoughts, he occasionally gets restless and wants to be evil.

He looked into Wanwan's eyes and asked softly:

Are you sure you want to hit here?

Wanwan's eyes were shy, but her tone was firm:
"of course."

Lu Chen nodded:
"Heal first."

The two entered the waterside pavilion, went to the second floor, sat cross-legged facing each other on a double couch, raised their palms to each other, and began to heal their injuries.

As the cultivation technique was upgraded, the healing efficiency of the "Pure Yin to Yang Dual Cultivation Method" also increased significantly. In less than half an hour, Wanwan's serious internal injuries were completely healed.

The moon was high in the sky, and its silvery light shone through the window, bathing Wanwan in its glow and making her skin appear even more radiant and flawless.

Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, her bright eyes reflected the moonlight, shimmering with a crystalline brilliance, and she asked softly:
"can we start?"

Lu Chen got up from the bed, making room for him:
"Sit properly, lean against the back of the couch."

Wanwan sat on the edge of the couch with her legs together, leaning back against the couch. She gently bit her lip with her pearly teeth, shyly and timidly unbuttoning her upper garment to reveal her bodice, and then pushed her skirt down a little.

Lu Chen stood before the couch, gazing at Wanwan's smooth, snow-white abdomen with its beautiful V-line, his gaze lingering on her delicate, teardrop-shaped navel, and said:
"The mark should be placed below the navel, and the waistband of the skirt should be lower."

Wanwan glanced at him shyly, then closed her eyes again, as if she were going all out, and suddenly pushed her skirt down.

This led Lu Chen to discover a secret.

In short, "a blank sheet of paper is the best canvas for drawing."

Lu Chen nodded in satisfaction, mentally sketching out a painting, and whispered:
"Do you know what it means to be marked with the sword spirit's mark?"

Wanwan nodded slightly, her voice barely audible:

"I asked Feng'er, and she knows."

Lu Chen nodded:
"Then let's begin!"

With fingers joined together, a three-inch sword light burst forth from the fingertips. The sword of the heart vibrated, overflowing with spiritual energy that attached itself to the sword light.

Then, with extremely precise control, he used the sword's edge to outline and pierce, imprinting a unique sword spirit mark on Wanwan.

Unlike the space between the eyebrows, which is limited and can only be used to make a small and delicate mark, the lower abdomen has enough space for Lu Chen to make his mark freely.

Although the function of the mark is unrelated to its size, and no matter how exquisite and complex the pattern, the function is the same as a dot of cinnabar between the eyebrows, and it will not have any extra abilities, Wanwan is indeed unique in terms of specialness.

After all, there will only be four sword spirit marks in total. Dugu Feng and Shi Feixuan both have marks on their foreheads, and the fourth mark will most likely be placed on the forehead of the last "sword spirit".

With Lu Chen's current level of control, even the most exquisite and complex imprints can be completed in one go.

Wanwan kept her eyes closed, only feeling a slight pain, when she heard Lu Chen say:
"All right."

She opened her eyes and said to Lu Chen in a coquettish tone:
"Get a mirror and let Wan'er see."

Lu Chen went into the inner room, took out a bronze mirror about a foot in diameter, and pointed it at Wanwan's abdomen.

Wanwan glanced at the mirror and saw a piece of crystal-clear skin reflecting the moonlight, shimmering with a jade-like luster in the extremely smooth bronze mirror.

There is a red mark on the skin, and the overall shape looks like a slightly flat "Y". The two strokes on both sides resemble a pair of elegant and strange wings. The vertical line below, directly opposite the navel, is a heart shape with vines wrapped around it. The overall pattern is exquisite and complex, giving people a strange sense of beauty.

As a Yin Gui demoness, Wanwan had no practical experience, but she was extremely knowledgeable in theory. She could tell at a glance that the mark contained a meaning that matched her demoness identity, which gave her a strange sense of excitement.

After staring intently at the peculiar mark for a while, Wanwan felt a slight warmth rise in her body, and her cheeks flushed slightly. She gave Lu Chen a shy and reproachful look.
"You wicked fellow, so you're just as evil as I thought."

Lu Chen admired his masterpiece and said calmly:

"Fortunately, I can control it."

If I were to truly indulge myself and do whatever I pleased, even the evil king and the empress would have to kneel down and beg me to spare the people of the world.

This is just right. Occasionally indulging in a little bit of mischief won't harm the innocent, and it's even beneficial to one's mind and body—it's harmless.

Wanwan lifted her foot to hook Lu Chen's hand:

"Don't you want to touch your own painting?"

Lu Chen grasped Wanwan's soft, white feet, played with them for a while, put down the mirror, sat down beside her, and touched her lower abdomen with his fingertips. He had just lightly stroked that special sword spirit mark, and saw her skin flush pink, her body tremble slightly, and she involuntarily shrink back. He chuckled inwardly at her as utterly naive as ever, and said:
"Your injuries have just healed, go back and rest, and experience the Sword Spirit Mark while you're at it."

"Ah."

Wanwan lowered her chin and gave a soft "hmm," behaving as obediently as a harmless little lamb.

After leaving the waterside pavilion and returning to their respective residences, Wanwan immediately changed her underwear.

There was no way around it; she had only lightly traced the sword spirit mark with Lu Chen's fingertip, and she had almost wet herself...

Of course, Wanwan did not admit that she was weak, but only believed that this was the special function of the sword spirit mark.

Since it was the first time she had been marked, she hadn't gotten used to it yet, which was why she was behaving so poorly. After changing into dry clothes, Wanwan sat cross-legged on the couch, formed strange hand seals with her hands, placed them in front of her lower abdomen, and closed her eyes to circulate the Heavenly Demon Great Art.

When she was completely immersed in her spiritual practice, a strange lightning bolt suddenly flashed in the depths of her mind.

The lightning did not disrupt the operation of her Heavenly Demon Technique.

On the contrary, it seems to have a special enhancement to the Heavenly Demon Art, which has the concept that "the most powerful force in the destruction of the universe is darkness." Not only does it make the operation of her art smoother, but it also causes various profound principles to constantly emerge.

Amidst a surge of inspiration, her cultivation in both the Heavenly Demon Art and swordsmanship began to slowly increase.

Wanwan experienced the benefits of the Blade Spirit Mark.

Lu Chen was also refining the tribulation energy that was binding him.

Having just indulged in a little evil, Lu Chen felt refreshed and in excellent mental condition, so he seized the opportunity to try refining the first strand of tribulation energy.

Originally, it was already extremely difficult to sense and capture the aura of calamity, let alone refine it.

But the dense, swirling aura of tribulation surrounding Lu Chen was different.

Those were all killing calamity energies derived from the killing calamity he personally unleashed, so the difficulty of refining them was naturally greatly reduced.

Other natural disasters such as war, plague, earthquakes, volcanoes, meteorites, and thunderstorms are extremely difficult to perceive and capture because their causes are not his. Refining them is even more difficult, requiring long-term study of the Sword Five Imprint and gradual accumulation of Sword Five insights.

now.

Lu Chen chose a slightly thicker one, representing the calamity energy of a certain master from the Songshan Sect, and gradually wore it down.

As the original unified calamity energy slowly split and dispersed into wisps, Lu Chen immediately activated his cultivation technique and carefully began to refine it.

When he successfully refined that wisp of tribulation energy, he had a good start. Lu Chen pressed on and continued refining, spending more than an hour to finally refine the tribulation energy completely.

When the Calamity Qi was successfully refined, Lu Chen felt that his total amount of true Qi had increased slightly, and its sharpness and ferocity had also increased slightly, and there was also a little bit of indescribable mysterious energy.

The sword's tempering progress has also improved slightly.

Even his "Heart Sword" cultivation level increased slightly.

"Can all cultivation levels be improved simultaneously?"

Simultaneously improving one's true qi, sword body, and heart sword cultivation, and also enhancing the quality of true qi, is extremely rare for Lu Chen.

Even the dual cultivation method can only balance true qi and body tempering, but cannot improve the cultivation of the heart sword.

Normally, one must specifically visualize the mental sword in order to gradually improve one's mental sword cultivation.

"The efficiency of improving true qi and body tempering is somewhat lower than that of dual cultivation. But it has the advantage of being able to simultaneously cultivate the heart sword. And... what is that wisp of mysterious qi? Is it the qi of killing tribulation?"

After pondering it carefully for a while, Lu Chen understood.

The aura of calamity emanating from him originated from the killing calamity he personally unleashed.

After refining it, a trace of killing intent appeared in his true energy.

This killing aura, which originates from "slaughter," has a very practical use. It can deplete part of the enemy's true energy out of thin air, causing the enemy to consume part of their true energy for no reason before the fight even begins. It can also amplify the negative emotions related to slaughter in the enemy's heart, thus disrupting their mind.

Of course, having only refined a wisp of tribulation energy so far, the accumulated killing tribulation energy is still too weak and will have no effect on experts with refined true qi and resilient minds.

"But it's different when you practice a lot!"

Glancing at the dense aura of tribulation surrounding him, Lu Chen smiled silently and continued refining.

Having gained experience from refining the first strand of tribulation energy, the process of refining the tribulation energy entwined within him gradually snowballed, accelerating at an increasingly faster pace.

By the time dawn broke, Lu Chen had refined five strands of tribulation energy, resulting in improvements in his power, physique, and mind, as well as accumulating more killing tribulation energy.

These five strands of calamity energy were only a very small part of Lu Chen's body.

As someone who had been on the battlefield, the aura of calamity surrounding him was so dense that it was impossible to refine it all away in a short time.

If Lu Chen were to refine all that tribulation energy, he felt his cultivation would experience a leap forward, with a comprehensive improvement in body refinement, true qi, and mind, effectively compensating for the shortcomings of dual cultivation.

The daily limit for dual cultivation with Wanwan was only one hour, and the limit for dual cultivation with Dugu Feng was only three quarters of an hour. The life force obtained from dual cultivation with the two of them was really not enough for Lu Chen.

In particular, the vitality derived from dual cultivation cannot yet involve the mind.

"A single wisp of tribulation energy gained from personally unleashing a killing calamity is comparable to a spiritual pill... This is simply tempting me to succumb!"

Lu Chen sighed inwardly, reaffirming his determination to prioritize the "Heart Sword".

In any case, he did not want to become a demon obsessed with killing and destruction.

early morning.

While Lu Chen, Dugu Feng, and Wanwan were practicing old man's boxing in the central garden.

Dugu Feng's housekeeper, whom she had brought from her home, walked quickly over and bowed from a distance.
"Young Master Lu, Princess Pingyang, Li Xiuning, requests an audience!"

The word used is "求见" (qiú jiàn), rather than "访" (fǎng fǎ) or "拜见" (bài jiàn).

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(End of this chapter)