Originally, the Star Palace's two Saints couldn't easily travel far, allowing the Six Paths Demon to maintain a balance of power with the Star Palace. Now, however, the Star Palace has gained a powerful ally. With the two Saints holding sway internally and the Hidden Immortal Sect serving as a deterrent to all sides externally, the Demonic Alliance is likely on the verge of collapse.
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Chapter 501 The Golden Jade Glazed Tile Technique
The Chaotic Star Sea fell into an eerie calm. Neither the Star Palace nor the Hidden Immortal Sect launched an attack on the demonic path. On the contrary, the two saints of the Star Palace and the Sect Master Lu of the Hidden Immortal Sect announced shortly afterward that they would go into seclusion for cultivation.
But the legends surrounding that battle are only just beginning to unfold. Lu Xuan, at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, fought against the Star Palace Saint Lord, who was at the late-stage Nascent Soul realm. He even managed to fight him to a draw.
He also displayed a style of dual cultivation of body and spirit, extremely rare among human cultivators today. It's important to understand that most cultivators only lament that there isn't enough time. To mortals, they seem to possess lifespans of hundreds of years. However, their greatest difficulty actually stems from their lifespan.
Limited by talent and lifespan, most people can only specialize in one path throughout their lives in order to achieve something. This is why there are always titles like "Demon Flame True Man" and "Sunflower Water True Man" in the cultivation world. Most of these titles emphasize a particular supernatural power.
Because a person's energy is limited, mastering even one technique or supernatural power is extremely difficult. Therefore, those who cultivate both physical and magical abilities are very rare. There were once one or two exceptionally talented individuals who commanded respect throughout the world, but ultimately they all vanished without a trace.
The Demonic Giant of the Chaotic Star Sea, Barbarian Beard, cultivates the Heaven-Supporting Demonic Art, which can only be considered a physical cultivation technique. It's far from being a dual cultivation of body and magic. The Six Paths True Demon Art of the Six Paths Old Demon does have a hint of body refinement, but it's ultimately just an incidental effect of the technique, quite different from pure body refinement.
Lu Xuan is currently focusing on body refinement. He recently sensed that his abilities of the Evil-Repelling Divine Thunder and the True Solar Fire have temporarily reached a bottleneck. Neither of these abilities can be improved in a short period of time. Among them, the True Solar Fire requires the absorption of top-tier spiritual fire to undergo transformation. The Evil-Repelling Divine Thunder is even more complex.
According to Lu Xuan's memory, the Evil-Repelling Divine Thunder actually has a specific method of refining. Only after that can its true power be unleashed. It is said that once successfully refined, its power can be amplified more than tenfold. However, Lu Xuan, by chance, fused with this divine thunder, but he did not develop that special refining method.
In his memory, there didn't seem to be any corresponding cultivation methods in the mortal realm. Only after arriving in the Spirit Realm would some important figures retain the method for refining the Evil-Repelling Divine Thunder. Lu Xuan himself had no clue for the time being, so he turned his attention to body refinement.
Lu Xuan, who has never practiced any body-refining techniques, now possesses a physical body that is nearly as durable as a high-level defensive magic weapon. If he were to specifically cultivate a body-refining technique, he might be able to achieve some incredible special supernatural power.
Lu Xuan had taken advantage of the chaos in Tiannan to collect many cultivation techniques and secret arts. Body-refining methods were common in many sects, but they weren't highly valued, resulting in many being passed down. Lu Xuan carefully selected a few with potential.
The Bone Tempering Technique, as the name suggests, is a special divine power specifically designed to temper the bones. It offers no benefit to cultivation level; on the contrary, it requires a large amount of spiritual energy to maintain the technique and temper the entire skeletal structure. Therefore, no one within the sect that possessed the technique made any contact with it.
True Demon Body, as the name suggests, is a demonic cultivation technique. Compared to the righteous path, the demonic path has many body-tempering methods, and many people practice it. This is why the demonic path generally has the upper hand in battles between the righteous and demonic paths. Ultimately, cultivating both body and technique results in greater combat effectiveness.
However, most demonic body-refining techniques are bloody and tyrannical. They often require the sacrifice of living souls, with methods so cruel they are unbearable to behold. Or, they require the infusion of special demonic energy into the body to achieve any results. And these methods all bring great drawbacks. That is, whether it is a kind of evil shortcut technique or the infusion of demonic energy into the body, it will inevitably corrupt the cultivator's mind, gradually leading them to the true demonic path.
Those who follow the demonic path are all bloodthirsty and treat human life as worthless, and there's a reason for that. Their souls have long been corrupted. Therefore, Lu Xuan has no psychological hindrance to killing those who follow the demonic path. Because once you enter the demonic path, there's basically no hope of salvation. Of course, if you're aiming to ascend to the demonic realm, that's a different story. Many human cultivators are nearing the end of their lifespan, and they specialize in the demonic path simply to prolong their lives. It can only be said that the longer one cultivates and the older one gets, the more afraid of death one becomes.
The True Demon Body Technique is one of the very few techniques that doesn't require unorthodox methods of rapid mastery, nor does it require the infusion of demonic energy into the body. Or rather, it doesn't require it for the time being. The technique itself states that to reach its full potential, one will ultimately need the assistance of pure demonic energy.
The last book is a Buddhist cultivation technique, the Vajra Mantra. Unlike the unorthodox schools of Taoism, Buddhism is one of the very few orthodox sects that is enthusiastic about body refinement. The Vajra Mantra is arguably the most renowned body refinement technique in Buddhism. Well, it's considered the most renowned only because it's one of the very few body refinement techniques from Buddhism that has been passed down. Many people practice one or two levels as supplementary methods, but none of them truly make it their primary practice.
Lu Xuan estimated that this was also why the Buddhist sect allowed this technique to circulate. The Vajra Technique, as it was passed down, was divided into six levels. However, in reality, no one had ever reached the fourth level. The third level was the absolute limit. This was because progressing beyond the third level required a vast amount of time and the assistance of numerous precious medicinal herbs. Continuing to practice would waste valuable cultivation time, making it a losing proposition.
The above three are the three most suitable body-refining techniques that Lu Xuan found. As for which one to practice, he naturally wants to practice them all. Since his debut, Lu Xuan has only practiced the mysterious Ape Strike Technique. He has never practiced any other system of cultivation techniques. All his cultivation methods and supernatural abilities have been discovered by himself through long periods of cultivation.
It is precisely because he, a cultivator without the worry of a lifespan, can squander time so recklessly. This is also why Lu Xuan can always easily suppress cultivators of the same level during duels. His cultivation method is tailor-made for him. Every movement is perfectly synchronized. How could those cultivators who practice methods left behind by others possibly compete with him?
Therefore, Lu Xuan's plan is to combine the characteristics of these three cultivation methods and create a cultivation method that best suits him.
The reason Lu Xuan has refused to practice other cultivation methods since he began his training is because he doesn't want to create any flaws in his cultivation process. Therefore, he tries his best to complete and perfect every cultivation method.
After six months, Lu Xuan finally gathered multiple body-refining techniques and initially perfected his own body-refining method. He had tried it before and found his physical body exceptionally strong, making him a genius in body refining. Therefore, he discarded those unorthodox methods or those requiring external assistance from various cultivation techniques.
For him, only the content that could be cultivated step by step was sufficient. Lu Xuan's dual cultivation of body and spirit was only now officially beginning. He also solemnly named this combined cultivation technique the Golden Jade Glazed Technique.
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Chapter 502 Void Heaven Palace
The Hidden Immortal Sect, in alliance with the Star Palace, quickly and completely dominated the 'marketplace' of the entire Chaotic Star Sea. The demonic path, mostly domineering and evil, was nowhere near as law-abiding as Lu Xuan's side. "As long as the price is right, our service will be top-notch." This philosophy directly monopolized the lower-end trading market of the Chaotic Star Sea.
Don't underestimate these low-end trading markets. Remember, a sect or organization is ultimately composed of low- to mid-level cultivators. Aside from lone wolves like Han Laomo and some independent cultivators, most cultivators are affiliated with a sect.
These lower-level cultivators are essentially the future of the sect. If a sect wants to maintain its prosperity, it must start by cultivating its lower-level cultivators. Because no matter how talented a person is, they all need to go through this stage.
With the low-end markets for elixirs, materials, magical artifacts, and talismans largely dominated, many low-level cultivators began to gravitate towards the Star Palace. The Star Palace already held an advantage; otherwise, the Demonic Path wouldn't have resorted to rumors to counter it. Now, it's not just a matter of being unable to fight back. The Demonic Path cultivators are beginning to feel that their roots are being severed.
Most demonic cultivators are cold-blooded and ruthless. If they return to their sect injured, they usually don't receive medical treatment, but are instead attacked by their fellow disciples. This is the nature of the demonic path. However, for the upper echelons of the demonic path, this is an extremely ominous phenomenon. Because without the middle and lower-ranking disciples, they lose a vast network of informants and a large amount of offerings.
These demonic masters were able to cultivate to such a level largely because they had a large number of disciples who offered them tributes and collected vast amounts of resources for them. Otherwise, do you really think these demonic leaders were so benevolent as to strive for the continuation of their sects? At most, they had one or two direct disciples who passed on their lineage. The rest of the demonic disciples were merely tools. Now, the number of tools has decreased.
And this is just the beginning; predictably, it will become less and less frequent in the future!
Whether it was the Six Paths Demon King or the Barbarian Beard Extreme Yin Ancestor, these powerful figures of the demonic path were all utterly bewildered. They were all outstanding figures of their time, first-rate in cultivation, talent, and even their cunning schemes. But compared to Lu Xuan in the service industry, well…
Initially, the demonic forces used bloodshed to intimidate their affiliated sects and surrounding powers, preventing them from leaving. However, the Star Palace Sect and the Hidden Immortal Sect quickly responded, engaging in numerous battles with the demonic forces.
For some reason, the Star Palace suddenly seemed unconcerned about casualties. They dispatched several Nascent Soul stage elders who wreaked havoc on the outskirts of the demonic forces. The Six Paths Demon was enraged and personally intervened to kill several Star Palace elders.
On that day, the sect leader of the Hidden Immortal Sect, who had been in seclusion for a long time, reappeared.
No one knows the outcome of that battle. After all, Lu Xuan's fight with the Six Paths Demon was not like Ling Xiaofeng's fight, which was a mere exchange. It was a life-or-death battle between the two.
In the end, Lu Xuan returned safely to the Hidden Immortal Sect to continue his seclusion. Liu Dao also escaped unscathed, and afterwards, he allowed the Star Palace to provoke him, refusing to intervene again.
As a result, the cultivators in the Chaotic Star Sea were discussing that the Six Paths Old Demon was very likely defeated by Lu Xuan in that battle.
In reality, it was pretty much the same; Lu Xuan did have the upper hand. However, the Six Paths True Demon Art was indeed extraordinary. At least the Six Paths Old Demon was able to withstand several of his close-quarters combat moves. But Lu Xuan wasn't using his full strength either.
Firstly, his body-refining method was still in the experimental stage, and he didn't intend to use it seriously. Secondly, the demonic path of the Chaotic Star Sea was Hongyu's testing ground. He didn't want to overstep his bounds.
The Golden Jade Glazed Technique has nine levels. However, Lu Xuan has only deduced six levels so far. It's named this primarily because the Bone Tempering Technique has an effect: it can temper the cultivator's bones, gradually transforming them into a jade-like color. The Vajra Technique, when mastered, results in the skin turning a pale gold.
Cultivating immortality knows no time.
Since his battle with the Six Paths Demon, Lu Xuan has once again entered seclusion. The Chaotic Star Sea has also entered a brief period of stabilization. This period lasted for sixty years.
For ordinary people, sixty years is a complete cycle. But for cultivators, especially those of Lu Xuan's level, sixty years is merely the time for one period of seclusion.