Chapter 1092: Inheritances of Two Sages; The Sword Formation (II)
Chapter 1092: Inheritances of Two Sages; The Sword Formation (II)
As the days passed, Luo Chen's efforts gradually began to bear fruit.
The first thing he succeeded in improving was the Azure Yang Great Handprint.
Back in the Golden Core Realm, it had been one of the spells that defined his strength, and he had once believed he had pushed it as far as it could go. Now, with the broader perspective afforded by reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, he could see its structure more clearly and uncover possibilities that he had not thought about previously.
One day, he hovered quietly above the sea with his right hand tucked behind his back. Without warning, he thrust that hand forward sharply. A massive palm manifestation crashed into the ocean, sending waves surging outward; a palm-shaped depression was briefly carved into the surface before the water closed over it again.
Watching from a distance, Black King was not particularly impressed. The spell was indeed stronger than before, but the improvement did not feel especially significant. Given his current strength, he believed he could withstand such an attack without much trouble.
Luo Chen remained suspended in the air without much change in expression as he moved his hands once more. This time, instead of using only his right hand, he moved both hands.
After observing for a short while, Black King noticed that each hand was moving through a different sequence!
Luo Chen's right hand was forming the seals of the Great Handprint of Primordial Qi, the original spell behind the Azure Yang Great Handprint. His left hand, however, provoked an instinctive unease that seemed to seep into both his body and his soul.
Spirit Enslavement!
Black King's heart tightened the moment he recognized it. This was the very same hand seal that cultivators used to subjugate spirit beasts. Low-tier demonic beasts were rarely capable of surrendering their soul blood willingly, so those who sought to enslave them often relied on techniques and pills that gradually eroded their souls and weakened their resistance. Spirit Enslavement was among the most effective of those ways, which was precisely why Black King despised it so deeply!
Why is he combining those two, though?
Before Black King could make sense of it, Luo Chen completed both sequences. He brought his hands together, turned his right wrist, and slowly pushed his palm forward.
A translucent palm manifestation no larger than an ordinary palm drifted into the air. It carried no obvious pressure and revealed no trace of destructive power, but as it traveled, its speed began to rise and it rapidly expanded in size. Wisps of drifting ambient spirit energy drifted toward it and blended seamlessly into its shape, fueling its growth. It grew from ten zhang to a hundred, then from a thousand to ten thousand, continuing to expand without the slightest sign of stopping.
BOOOOMM!!!
The enormous palm manifestation plunged into the sea and sank downward for eight hundred li without losing momentum. Wherever it passed, the water split apart, resulting in a vertical palm-shaped well that reached all the way to the seabed. The exposed seabed revealed hills and deep valleys, while towering walls of water rose on either side. Water surged and twisted along those towering walls, but the lingering power of the technique kept the well stable and prevented the sea from rushing back in.
Black King watched in shock. The thought of that same strike landing on solid ground, or on his own body, made his throat tighten. He was finally beginning to understand what Luo Chen was trying to do. By using the Great Handprint of Primordial Qi as a base and the Spirit Enslavement Seal to draw in and control the ambient spirit energy, Luo Chen had pushed the Azure Yang Great Handprint far beyond its former limits. Instead of relying on his own strength alone, the spell now drew directly from the ambient spirit energy to sweep across the entire stretch of sea with overwhelming force.
Whatever pride Black King had gained after reaching the fourth tier vanished suddenly after witnessing this palm strike. Meanwhile, Luo Chen remained suspended above the ocean as the power of the spell gradually dissipated. The towering walls of water finally gave way, and the sea rushed to fill the gap once more.
He watched this unfold with a satisfied smile hanging on his face. Being able to push a spell that had originally been only at the third tier beyond its limits without relying on the status panel was truly something to be proud of. That alone was enough to reassure him that his talent for spellcraft remained as sharp as ever.
After giving Black King a brief glance, Luo Chen waved his hand and returned alone to the island.
Three days later, he finally unraveled the remaining restrictions on Han Zhan's storage pouch. The process went faster than he had expected, though being able to unlock the restrictions was not quite surprising. The pouch was of only moderate quality, and Han Zhan had not invested much effort into placing these restrictions. In addition, Luo Chen had absorbed fragments of Han Zhan's divine soul, which made the process far smoother.
Once the pouch was open, he began examining its contents item by item. The first things he took out were a Myriad Soul Banner and the complete set of Seven Fiend Swords. He recognized both immediately; both had originally belonged to him. Unfortunately, at his level, neither held much value.
What Luo Chen found next immediately drew his full attention. He picked up one of the crystal-like stones he had taken out of the pouch and examined it closely. Its radiant golden glow and the unusually pure spirit energy within made it feel quite distinct.
It was a supreme-grade spirit stone! And even better, there were ten in total, all aligned with the metal element! Such treasures were exceedingly rare, which left Luo Chen wondering where Han Zhan had managed to acquire so many without his knowledge.
A moment later, it hit him. "Ah, these must be from the Puppet Realm!"
The White Tiger puppet had several slots for spirit stones, and there was no way ordinary ones could power something that strong. Those supreme-grade spirit stones had to be what kept it running. Luo Chen had really struck it rich this time!
He carefully stored the ten supreme-grade metal-attribute spirit stones before taking out the final item from the storage pouch. It was a wooden plaque made from Soul-Nurturing Wood.
Luo Chen examined the plaque and shook his head. With no lingering souls around, he had no way to make use of it for now, though it might still be useful in the future. Just as he was about to put it away, his divine consciousness sensed something unusual within the wood. He focused more carefully, and the engraved information flowed into his mind. As he read through it, his expression gradually shifted to one of surprise, then pure satisfaction. The plaque contained the complete details of a sword formation known as the Great Five Elements Sword Formation!
He already knew that after acquiring the Seven Fiend Swords, Han Zhan had needed a way to wield them effectively while exploring the Land of Fallen Devils. Without access to the original Seven Fiend Sword Formation, Han Zhan asked him to make the Soul Heaven Sword Case and created a substitute formation that allowed him to control the swords and draw out their power. What he had not known, however, was how the formation was created.
As it turned out, Han Zhan had been inspired along the way and revisited the Two Poles Five Elements Sword Formation he had mastered in his early years. With a deeper grasp of its principles, he reworked and expanded upon it and eventually shaped it into an entirely new formation, the Great Five Elements Sword Formation, which he had then recorded within the plaque.
According to his notes, once fully formed, its power would be immense, substantially greater than the formation it had as a foundation.
The discovery naturally drew Luo Chen's interest. He had always been intrigued by sword formations, especially given how common flying swords were among cultivators. Their speed, versatility, and destructive power made them some of the most practical and reliable enchanted treasures available. Formations were well known for allowing cultivators to wield power beyond their individual limits, and combining one with flying swords resulted in astonishing power.
Han Zhan himself was proof of their value. Shortly after consolidating his cultivation as a Sage, he had dared to challenge the veteran Sage Jade Cauldron, and later instigated the Frontier War against Demon Emperor Defiant Howl. A big part of that confidence came from his sword formation; his entire sect had pooled together resources to create it for him, and it certainly stood up to scrutiny.
In the Land of Fallen Devils, Luo Chen had also experienced how dangerous a sword formation could be. Flying Cloud's Platinum Sword Formation had pushed him into a desperate fight, and he had only managed to survive by relying on his physical strength to force his way inside and draw Flying Cloud into close combat. Without that approach, he might well have been killed or, at the very least, severely injured.
Those who sought this kind of power were cultivators who lacked Luo Chen's physical strength. For them, a powerful formation could bridge the gap between realms and give them the means to challenge otherwise superior opponents. Luo Chen was already formidable in his own right, but with his current arsenal still somewhat limited, he had no reason to reject another powerful means of attack.
Yet as he continued studying the Great Five Elements Sword Formation, his initial excitement faded.
Han Zhan had indeed strengthened the formation significantly, but those improvements came at the cost of much stricter requirements. The five sword cultivator puppets used in the original version had been removed, but in exchange, the formation now required five True Artifact sword orbs, each corresponding to one of the five elements. With this arrangement, the formation could be deployed and withdrawn far more easily, while also concentrating its power to a much greater degree. More importantly, removing the puppets eliminated the weakness they had once introduced into the formation.
"He must've prepared this for when he finally got a physical body. Still... where am I supposed to find the damn sword orbs?"
Finding even one True Artifact sword orb was difficult enough, yet the formation demanded five of them with perfectly matched elemental attributes! Even the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect at the height of its power would not have been able to gather such a set, and unfortunately, Luo Chen was in no better position.
With no way to assemble the formation for the time being, he could only put the Soul-Nurturing Wood plaque away. He then turned his attention to refining the Penglai Eightspire Pavilion and unraveling the remaining restrictions on Flying Cloud's belt.
***
Three years later, Luo Chen sat amid a dazzling array of treasures, holding a jade scroll in one hand and a golden orb in the other. For a long moment, he could only stare at them in silence.
Spirit light shimmered across the surface of the jade scroll, which bore the title of Flying Cloud's Artifact Creation Records. It contained all the knowledge and insight Flying Cloud had accumulated over a lifetime of artifact creation.
Valuable as that inheritance was, however, Luo Chen's attention had been drawn entirely to its final section, which detailed a technique for refining True Artifact sword orbs! As expected from Flying Cloud—apart from being an accomplished artisan, he was also a powerful sword cultivator of the orthodox path.
As for the golden orb, upon closer inspection, strands of golden light could be seen writhing beneath the intricate restrictions sealing it. This was an unrefined metal-attribute sword orb!
Either discovery would have been valuable on its own, but their significance became entirely different when combined with the Great Five Elements Sword Formation Luo Chen had obtained three years earlier. and Flying Cloud's belt had now provided him with both the technique to refine the sword orbs he needed and with the first of the sword orbs as well. Such a coincidence was so remarkable that Luo Chen could hardly believe it.
He looked down at the jade scroll and the golden sword orb, unsure what to feel. After a long silence, he murmured, "Did I really survive all that misfortune only to come out better for it?"