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

Chapter 220, page 235: Heavenly Soldier Talisman! Storage Space!

Lu Chen didn't really think there was anything dangerous in this world.

First of all, even in the world of Journey to the West, there are many large and small mortal countries.

A few monsters who know a bit of manners will even pay mortals when they buy things from them.

Secondly, this is deep within the Earth's core. Local cultivators who accidentally ended up here were all too injured to leave and were trapped here to die. Lu Chen, being an outsider, had no idea how to get out.

Then we can use this place as a resource pool, absorb the calamity energy every few days, and return to the Twin Dragons World to slowly cultivate and develop.

Since he wouldn't be trapped here anyway, there was no need for him to rush to find a way out.

That being said, after carefully studying the message in the little jade sword, Lu Chen felt that this Journey to the West world might not be the Journey to the West world he thought it was.

Does the Heavenly Court need to conscript mortal cultivators to fight a war?

How could there be a sword immortal from the Emei Sect?

"Perhaps it's a parallel world that differs from the Journey to the West world I know in many details. Just like the Sui and Tang dynasties in my previous life, and the Sui and Tang dynasties in the Twin Dragons world..."

After pondering for a while, Lu Chen began to observe the "Void Sword Sect" inheritance within the small jade sword.

I watched for a while.

He discovered that the fundamental technique of this "Void Sword Sect" did not seem to be a method for achieving immortality.

Its cultivation methods are even similar to those of martial arts cultivation in the Twin Dragons world.

They all first cultivate Qi, and then nourish their spirit with Qi once their true essence has grown strong.

Then he used his divine power to wield the sword.

Its fundamental techniques have a certain ability to prolong life, but they cannot lead to true immortality.

According to the tradition, once the skill is mastered, one can live for over three hundred years.

If one wishes to prolong life, one must take longevity pills like the founder of the Void Sword Sect.

Even though the founder of the Void Sword Sect once killed seventeen demons in the battle of Flower Fruit Mountain and received a reward from the Heavenly Court, he only gained an additional 170 years of lifespan.

Before the third-generation successor of this message, oh, his name was "Zhong Yunxuan", the patriarch had already passed away long before he died in the earth's lungs. Even Zhong Yunxuan's master died at the age of 260 from a qi deviation.

"Even for cultivators in the Journey to the West world, achieving immortality is not easy, is it?"

Lu Chen pondered to himself:

"However, even the many cultivation methods taught by Patriarch Bodhi could not grant immortality. Only the true method of immortality was secretly passed down to Sun Wukong. Ordinary cultivators, even those with supernatural powers to move mountains and overturn seas, would probably find it difficult to achieve immortality."

Otherwise, how could there be such a powerful demon who was so obsessed with eating Tang Sanzang's flesh or absorbing his true yang energy?

It is evident that even for many powerful demon kings, true "immortality" is still something they cannot achieve through their own cultivation.

"Even immortals find it difficult to achieve longevity. Otherwise, why would the Queen Mother's peaches of immortality and Zhenyuan Daxian's ginseng fruit be considered priceless treasures? I remember when Sun Wukong knocked down the ginseng fruit tree and went to find someone to help save it, the Three Star Gods of Fortune, Prosperity, and Longevity seemed to express great envy for the ginseng fruit's life-extending effects, saying that if they wanted to prolong their lives, they would have to constantly cultivate diligently..."

Even the "Longevity Star" has to work hard to cultivate in order to maintain longevity. It seems quite normal that even if one masters the Void Sword Sect's techniques, one can only live for more than three hundred years.
"Therefore, longevity elixirs such as peaches of immortality and ginseng fruit are more reliable."

However, whether it's a peach or a ginseng fruit, it takes a long time for them to ripen. How could ordinary people have the chance to wait for them?

Even if we waited, what qualifications would we have to get even the lowest-grade three-thousand-year peach at the Peach Banquet, or be treated to a ginseng fruit by Zhenyuan Daxian?

"When that founder of the Void Sword Sect participated in the Battle of Flower Fruit Mountain, he was probably just a civilian volunteer or a temporarily mobilized soldier? Like an auxiliary soldier temporarily conscripted during a war in the mortal world."
"The so-called fighting alongside the sword immortals of the Emei Sect might just mean charging into battle under the command of some junior Emei disciple... Being able to kill seventeen demons and obtain an elixir that extends one's life by one hundred and seventy years is considered quite a feat."

After pondering for a while, Lu Chen continued to examine the Void Sword Sect's sword control techniques.

Well, this sword control technique isn't particularly impressive, at least it's far from the sword immortal path that Lu Chen imagined, where a flying sword travels thousands of miles to slay an enemy's head.

Once mastered, the Void Sword Sect's swordsmanship can only be used for flying swords within a hundred steps.

Even at the highest level, one can only fly a thousand steps on a sword.

Let alone a thousand miles, it's not even ten miles away.

While the sword-flying distance is disappointing, upon closer inspection, it seems that gods, immortals, demons, and monsters in the Journey to the West world all quite prefer melee combat...

Furthermore, according to the description in the inheritance, the flying swords of the Void Sword Sect seem to be quite powerful within their effective range, and are said to be able to cut through iron like mud—the iron here refers to "mysterious iron".

It can easily cleave through even black iron, and can kill ordinary mortal demons, and even demon dragons with scales as hard as black iron, with flying swords.

Of course, the prerequisite is that a good sword is forged.

Lu Chen has his own fundamental cultivation methods for comprehensively developing his physique, true qi, and mind, so he has no need for the Void Sword Sect's techniques. At most, he can extract their essence to enhance his foundation, or perhaps let Dugu Feng and Li Xiuning study them.

However, Lu Chen was quite interested in the weapon-refining method.

According to the weapon-refining method, the Void Sword Sect has a special method for refining "essence of black iron". It can use true fire to melt black iron and extract one or two ounces of black iron essence from a thousand pounds of black iron.

Only flying swords forged from the finest black iron can cut through black iron as easily as slicing through bamboo and wood, and slay demonic dragons with ease.

Looking again at the description of "essence of black iron" in the weapon-refining method, Lu Chen's expression became somewhat subtle.

It turns out that the dark blue metal he found was a piece of Xuan Tie essence.

It was likely formed naturally from the basalt vein due to the extreme high temperature and pressure environment deep within the earth's lungs.

And there might be more than just that one piece.

With such a large mine, if we search carefully, we might find even more.

This is a good thing.

Because refining the essence of black iron with real fire is not easy and takes a lot of effort. However, there is a natural source of black iron essence, which is much easier.

"The essence of Xuan Iron can only be melted with true fire. Even if the Dongming Sect has a unique forging technique, it is no match for that piece of Xuan Iron essence."

Lu Chen thought to himself.

He could do it.

Among the weapon-refining techniques, there is the Void Sword Sect's method of cultivating true fire.

This true fire is a flame ignited by the true essence of a cultivator. It does not use ordinary firewood as fuel, but directly uses the true essence of the cultivator as charcoal and is controlled by the mind.

If the true essence is not pure and refined enough, or if the attributes of the true essence are incompatible, it will not be able to ignite the true fire.

If one's mind is not strong enough, the fire of true essence may get out of control, burning the true essence first and then the physical body. Even if the fire is extinguished in time, the meridians will be damaged, and one's vital energy will be greatly depleted.

However, none of these difficulties could stump Lu Chen.

After successfully tempering his heart through the "refining internal organs" technique, his true qi naturally possessed a fiery nature, enabling him to unleash the Heartfire Sword Qi that could melt metal and iron.

He is now like a "Primordial True Fire Saint Body," and cultivating the Void Sword Sect's weapon-refining true fire is effortless for him.

"I can learn a skill in weapon crafting. I don't know any of the cultivator's skills such as alchemy, talisman making, array making, and weapon crafting. This is a good opportunity to learn one of them."

After briefly browsing through the various inheritances contained in the little jade sword, I came across a message at the end.

However, Zhong Yunxuan said that in the black box where the small jade sword was sealed, there was also a "Heavenly Soldier Talisman" passed down by the patriarch.

This talisman has many uses, not only as an identity document, but also as a means of communication, relocation, sacrifice, recording merits, and exchanging rewards.

Zhong Yunxuan received a plea for help from the villagers through the Heavenly Soldier Talisman, so he went out of the mountain to subdue the demon, but unfortunately he was defeated and seriously injured.

As for the teleportation function, it is "passive." You will only be teleported by the Heavenly Court when the Heavenly Court gathers a large army and decides to conscript you; you cannot activate it on your own.

Zhong Yunxuan was unlucky; after being stranded deep in the Earth's core, he never saw the Heavenly Court gather troops to summon him before he died. In other words, the Heavenly Army Talisman he held, passed down from his ancestor, was not a talisman for the Heavenly Court's regular army; it was merely similar in nature to a "local militia or civilian volunteer force."

Generally, unless a powerful and influential giant demon is being exterminated, "temporary heavenly soldiers" of a "military or volunteer" nature will not be conscripted.

However, since this "Heavenly Soldier Talisman" exists, there are benefits and opportunities for advancement.

Slay the demons who wreak havoc among the people, and use the Heavenly Soldier Talisman to "sacrifice" the demons' corpses to the Heavenly Court. The Heavenly Soldier Talisman can record the battle merits based on the demons' strength and the integrity of their corpses.

Once you accumulate enough battle merits, you can be promoted to a regular soldier of the Heavenly Court and go to the Heavenly Court for cultivation.

Of course, those who do not wish to become soldiers of the Heavenly Court can also use their battle merits to exchange for various rewards such as pills, weapons, and magical artifacts.

The founder of the Void Sword Sect once used all the merits from slaying seventeen demons to exchange for longevity pills.

The reason he didn't accumulate enough merit to be promoted to a regular soldier in the Heavenly Court was because his merits were still far from sufficient, and the patriarch was already nearing the end of his life and needed to extend his life.

As a result, the Patriarch was unable to accumulate enough merit for advancement. Furthermore, he never obtained any more longevity pills—only in major battles like the Battle of Flower Fruit Mountain would the Heavenly Court open its treasury, allowing civilian heroes to exchange for longevity pills.

Normal merits can only be exchanged for cultivation pills, weapons and magical artifacts, talismans and puppets, and even some spells that do not involve the fundamental cultivation methods, but they cannot be exchanged for longevity pills, which shows how precious lifespan is and how rare it is to achieve immortality.

After the patriarch passed away, the Heavenly Soldier Talisman was passed down to the second-generation successor, who was Zhong Yunxuan's master.

His master was a cultivation fanatic who used all his accumulated merit points to exchange for cultivation pills. As a result, he took too many pills, went into qi deviation, and died suddenly.

The Heavenly Soldier Talisman was thus passed down to Zhong Yunxuan, the third-generation successor of the Void Sword Sect.

Like his master, Lao Zhong initially focused on personal spiritual practice.

His master had heard the patriarch mention that although the Heavenly Court's regular soldiers had high salaries, good treatment, better cultivation environments, and more channels for advancement, the Heavenly rules were strict, and every action and word had to be within bounds, making them extremely uncomfortable.

Furthermore, they frequently have to go on expeditions to exterminate demons. If they accidentally run into a powerful demon, they might be lucky enough to retain a complete corpse, but if they are unlucky, they will be completely annihilated.

The Battle of Huaguo Mountain was a bloodbath, a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood. According to Master Zhong Yunxuan, even after a hundred years, when he talked about that battle, the patriarch was still filled with lingering fear and his face turned pale.

Master Zhong Yunxuan focused on his cultivation for this reason, hoping to become a carefree immortal.

After inheriting the Heavenly Soldier Talisman, Lao Zhong initially, like his master, used all the merits he gained from slaying demons and subduing monsters on his own cultivation.

As a result, he gradually encountered a bottleneck, his master died, and he could not find anyone to guide him. He could not break through no matter what he did, so he had the idea of ​​accumulating merits, being promoted to a regular soldier in the Heavenly Court, and going to Heaven to fight for his life.

Unfortunately, he had only just made this vow when he encountered a formidable opponent. He was defeated in one battle, his flying sword was destroyed, and he was severely injured. While trying to escape using the "Heavenly Escape Talisman" left by his ancestor, he accidentally ran into a spacetime turbulence and was swept into the depths of the Earth's core...

just now.

This "Heavenly Soldier Talisman," which had been passed down for three generations, was now in Lu Chen's hands.

Lu Chen played with the talisman he had taken from the black box.

The talisman is about the size of a palm, as thin as a cicada's wing, and crystal clear. Its surface is decorated with embossed cloud patterns, within which a corner of a palace can be seen.

Following the method left by Old Zhong, Lu Chen released several streams of true energy and placed them in several positions on the talisman in sequence.

Old Zhong is dead, and the Heavenly Soldier Talisman is now ownerless. It does not need to be refined; as long as the activation "password" is known, the basic information of the talisman can be viewed.

Of course, this talisman still needs to be refined before it can be used.

At this moment, as Lu Chen tapped the surface of the talisman with his true energy a few times, the talisman suddenly lit up, emitting a dazzling crystalline light, and transformed into a light screen that unfolded in front of Lu Chen.

Heavenly Soldier [Support]: Xiniu Hezhou, Tongtianhe South Region, Lingxu Mountain, Void Sword Sect, Grade B, Level A.

Merit: Zero.

On the screen, there were two simple lines of information.

As for merit, it's zero.

Old Zhong didn't have many merit points left to begin with. After being trapped deep in this underground cavern, he used all of his remaining merit points to exchange for healing medicine. However, because he had too few merit points, the healing medicine he exchanged was of average quality. In addition, his injuries were too severe and the environment was extremely harsh, so he still couldn't save his life.

The message also included the word "auxiliary" after the words "heavenly soldiers," indicating that they were not regular soldiers.

As for "Grade B, Class A", it represents the auxiliary soldier level, which is roughly equivalent to "elite militia".

Consuming merit points can upgrade the rank of Heavenly Soldiers. The higher the rank, the better the rewards that can be exchanged.

Once your rank is raised to "Grade A, Class A", you can participate in the assessment and be promoted to a regular soldier of the Heavenly Court.

When the founder of the Void Sword Sect received this Heavenly Soldier Talisman after participating in the battle of Flower Fruit Mountain, his level was only Grade B, Class D.

Over three generations, in order to exchange for better elixirs, magical artifacts, and so on, they gradually consumed their merit points, upgrading it to Grade B-A.

However, it's still a long way from Grade A, Level A—upgrading from Grade B, Level A to Grade A, Level D requires fifty merit points. Upgrading to Grade A, Level C requires one hundred, Level B requires one hundred and fifty, and Level A requires two hundred.

That's a total of five hundred merit points.

Even risking one's life to slay a powerful dragon demon only yields a dozen or so merit points. Easier-to-kill ordinary demons usually only grant one or two points.

"Granting merit is so difficult. Even if he hadn't died, it would be difficult for Old Zhong to accumulate enough merit to officially become a full-fledged official in his lifetime..."

Lu Chen sighed and looked at the icons on the light screen that represented the exchange items such as pills, weapons, magic tools, talismans, puppets, and spells. He found that none of these icons could be clicked.

To view the exchange items, you must first refine the Heavenly Soldier Talisman.

Old Zhong's message also included the method for refining this talisman.

With Lu Chen's current cultivation level, he is capable of refining it.

He only needs to take a small risk—if the Heavenly Court gathers a large army and launches a conscription, even if he is deep in the Earth's core, he might be teleported there to join a battlefield to exterminate a world-destroying demon.

Of course, he can also refuse to be drafted.

At worst, the auxiliary soldier's rank would drop by one major rank, from "Grade B, Class A" to "Grade C, Class A".

Alternatively, one could simply travel through time and leave. In any case, the priority of "Zhu Xian Sword Intent" for travel is far higher than that of the Heavenly Soldier Talisman for teleportation.

and so……

"It doesn't seem to pose any risk?"

Lu Chen wasn't interested in the exchange options. The key was that this Heavenly Soldier Talisman had a function he'd wanted for a long time.

That function is storage.

Grade B, Level A Heavenly Soldier Talisman, comes with a storage space seven feet in diameter. The higher the grade, the larger the storage space.

A cultivator, or even a wanderer of the heavens, has managed to get by this far without a storage space. How can this be acceptable?

After a moment's thought.

After carefully sensing it with his mind, and following the method taught in Old Zhong's message, he forced a drop of blood from his fingertip, fused his true energy into the blood, and then used his mind to outline and draw a rune from this drop of blood, before imprinting the rune onto the jade tablet.

Blood runes were incorporated into the jade tablet.

Without a sound, the Heavenly Soldier Talisman was easily refined.

[The next chapter is being written. Please vote with your monthly tickets!]

(End of this chapter)