darknovel Chapter 41 Epoch-making Achievements
Chapter 41 Epoch-making Achievements
The Great Yin Dynasty, Heishui Province.
The setting sun, like blood, dyed the sky a blinding dark red.
On the vast plains, corpses lay strewn everywhere, and broken banners were planted in the muddy pools of blood.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood, attracting swarms of buzzing flies.
The heavy infantry of the Great Yin Dynasty stood like an iron wall, holding the line firmly. The Azure Scale Iron Cavalry of the Western Chu Dynasty, on the other hand, were like a sharp dagger, tearing apart the barbarian formation from the flank.
Horse hooves trampled the severed limbs, spears pierced the leather armor, and blood gushed out.
The barbarian soldiers' physiques, which they were so proud of, appeared incredibly fragile under the crushing force of the steel torrent.
Tuoba Lie stood on a high slope, his hands gripping the hilt of his sword tightly at his waist.
He was a burly man, over two meters tall, clad in heavy animal hide armor, his exposed arms covered with crisscrossing scars.
Looking at the routed formation below, Tuoba Lie gritted his teeth, his facial muscles twitching violently.
"Damn the Great Yin Dynasty, has it failed in the end?!"
"retreat!"
His face was full of resentment.
The two words sounded like they were squeezed out from between his teeth.
The lieutenant beside him blew a somber horn, and the remaining barbarian soldiers, as if granted a pardon, fled north in disarray, abandoning their armor and weapons.
……
The far north, the Great Snow Mountain.
A fierce wind whipped up a blizzard, raging across the land.
Braving the wind and snow, Tuoba Lie entered a huge natural cave halfway up the mountain.
The cave was dark and damp, filled with a strange, fishy smell. Eerie green flames burned on the stone pillars on either side, casting shadowy patterns throughout the cave. Countless white bones were scattered on the floor, creaking and crunching underfoot.
Deep within the cave, a huge pool of blood was bubbling and gurgling, from which faint, mournful howls could be heard.
On the high platform behind the blood pool sat a mysterious figure shrouded in a black robe.
The eerie green firelight cast the mysterious figure's shadow onto the stone wall, the shadow twisted and elongated, resembling a ferocious monster. Tuoba Lie walked to the foot of the platform, knelt on one knee, and bowed his head deeply.
"Barbarian Lord, we have been defeated."
Tuoba Lie's voice carried a hint of bitterness.
He knew in his heart that it was because of the secret medicine bestowed by the Barbarian Lord that they were able to leave that barren and bitterly cold snowfield and march south to conquer cities and strongholds.
But now, they have failed the Barbarian Lord's expectations.
The man in black robes remained silent. The only sound in the cave was the churning of the blood pool, from which several distorted and pained faces could be vaguely seen.
Cold sweat beaded on Tuoba Lie's forehead, dripping down his cheeks onto the white bones.
"Da Yin and west Chu have joined forces, and they also have the support of Dong Ning Kingdom and the Four Seas Merchant Guild. Their weaponry is too sophisticated for our warriors to withstand," Tuoba Lie explained, forcing a smile.
"Step down."
The man in black robes finally spoke, his voice hoarse.
Tuoba Lie, however, felt as if he were listening to celestial music and scrambled out of the cave.
The man in black robes raised his hand, his withered fingers lightly tapping in mid-air.
"film."
A dark figure emerged from the shadowy corner behind the stone pillar and silently knelt on one knee at the bottom of the steps.
The man was dressed in tight-fitting black clothing and wore an iron mask without facial features. Although his face and figure had become blurry in Zhao Cheng'an's memory, if Zhao Cheng'an were to come into contact with this man in black...
They would definitely realize that this person was the Grandmaster assassin who tried to kill the original owner.
"Shadow, you mentioned before that the Prince of Dayin was admitted to the Imperial Academy? How is he doing now?" the man in black asked.
The assassin lowered his head, his voice flat.
"He had the Imperial Academy's token, and the Imperial Academy also had cultivators' formations. I was afraid of alerting him, so I didn't dare to approach and returned early. As for what happened afterward, I don't know much about it."
"I see."
The man in black robes let out a low, cold laugh.
The events that have occurred in the Great Yin Dynasty are quite unusual. After a little thought, it is easy to guess that the source of the problem lies with Zhao Cheng'an.
What was once an insignificant nobody has now become the biggest obstacle to finding that thing.
But so what...
As a cultivator of the demonic path, one should naturally find ways to overcome all difficulties.
We will not give up until we achieve our goal!
The man in black robes stood up and slowly walked down the steps.
"Go to the Imperial Academy again. This time, I will grant you some power."
The assassin looked up and watched the man in black robes approach step by step.
It was a gaunt, skeletal face, the skin clinging tightly to the bones, a deathly gray color. Deeply sunken eye sockets held no eyeballs, only two flickering, eerie green flames.
The assassin's heart clenched, a strong sense of crisis washing over him.
He instinctively wanted to back away.
But it was too late.
The man in black robes grinned eerily, his withered fingers flashing out and pressing firmly against the assassin's forehead.
"ah--"
The assassin let out a bloodcurdling scream.
The assassin rolled violently on the ground, his night clothes tearing apart.
In the firelight, his bones cracked with a chilling sound, his muscles swelled like inflating balloons, and hard black scales grew on his skin.
The screams gradually turned into wild howls, echoing through the gloomy cave.
……
……
Imperial Academy.
Outside the bamboo house, a strong wind whipped up fallen leaves in the open space.
A huge gray-feathered spirit pigeon descended from the sky and landed heavily on the stone table.
Its fat body pressed down on the stone table with a dull thud.
Fat Pigeon looked down at its increasingly round body, a human-like worry appearing on its round face.
It seems she's considering whether to make a firm decision to lose weight.
However, this hesitation lasted for less than a second before it was immediately forgotten upon seeing Zhao Cheng'an!
Zhao Cheng'an stepped forward and skillfully took the package hanging around Lingge's neck.
He clasped his hands together and bowed to the spirit pigeon.
"Thank you for your hard work, fellow Daoist."
Zhao Cheng'an smiled gently and reached out to stroke the spirit pigeon's fluffy head. Then, he took out a handful of golden spirit rice from his sleeve, opened his palm, and offered it to the spirit pigeon.
The pigeon's eyes, the size of soybeans, lit up instantly. It lowered its head and quickly pecked at the spirit rice in its palm, making satisfied gurgling sounds.
After eating and drinking its fill, the spirit pigeon raised its head, glanced at Zhao Cheng'an, then flapped its broad wings and soared into the sky, quickly disappearing into the clouds.
Zhao Chengan withdrew his gaze, took the package, and returned to his studio.
He unwrapped the package and carefully took out the two items inside.
One was a green blade grass with leaves that shimmered with a cold light, and the other was a black iron vine that was jet black and hard in texture.
The former is used as a vehicle to enhance the Grass Sword Technique, while the latter is used to complement the practice of a new defensive technique, the Vine Armor Technique.
Two full years have passed since the article on improving Lingmi was published in the Daoist Canon.
Over the past two years, thanks to an ample supply of spirit stones and spirit rice, Zhao Cheng'an's cultivation has steadily improved, and he has now reached the third level of Qi Refining. He walked to the worktable and took out the sword-leaf grass that was placed on the other side.
This sword-leaf grass had been fused with the Qiankun Cauldron and the Sword Embryo Bamboo by him half a year ago.
Its shape had changed significantly; the leaves had become narrower and thicker, and a bamboo-like texture had appeared on the surface. It felt heavy in the hand. Zhao Cheng'an activated the appraisal ability of the Qiankun Cauldron.
A line of gray-white subtitles appeared.
[Bamboo-stemmed sword grass: vitality, sharpening, settling of the edge, resilience.]
Zhao Cheng'an looked at the newly added "Resilience" entry and nodded in satisfaction. Then, he put the Bamboo Bone Sword Grass and the newly purchased Green Edge Grass into the illusory image of the Qiankun Cauldron, starting a new round of fusion.
After dealing with the casting medium, Zhao Cheng'an sat down at his desk and opened a book about rattan armor techniques.
The Vine Armor Technique is a low-level wood-based defensive spell that requires three True Spirit Runes to be inscribed within the body: the Vine Nurturing Rune, the Toughening Rune, and the Entangling Rune.
Normally, a cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining only has three True Spirits within their body.
If all three true spirits are used to inscribe the runes of the Vine Armor Technique, then the Grass Sword Technique will be unusable. For a cultivator in the early stages of Qi Refining, the ability to instantly cast two different spells in battle is simply a pipe dream.
However, during his long-term research on runes, Zhao Chengan came up with a new idea.
That is to disassemble and reassemble the runes required for spells, and design them in a modular way.
He picked up a brush and quickly sketched on the scrap paper. "The three runes in the Vine Armor Technique can be completely broken down into two core modules."
"One is the growth module used to maintain the vitality of the wood element, and the other is the stabilization module used to maintain the strength of the defense."
"Both of these modules can achieve their respective functions by constructing a complex coupling pattern."
Zhao Cheng'an's pen flew across the paper, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.
"And if the growth module is combined with the object manipulation runes, it will correspond perfectly to the two runes that the Grass Sword Technique needs to inscribe in the body."
"If I further improve upon the artifact manipulation runes and add a stability module, I could even achieve a third instant-cast spell."
As Zhao Cheng'an looked at the gradually forming deduction formula on the paper, his breathing became somewhat rapid.
In this way, even with the same Qi Refining Level 3 cultivation, the opponent can only prepare one instant-cast spell within their body at most. But he can release three different spells instantly through the free combination of these basic modules.
It combines offense and defense, and is highly adaptable.
In actual combat, this would undoubtedly give him an overwhelming advantage.
In actual combat, he only needs to select and combine pre-built modules from his body to release the corresponding spells.
Of course, this workload is enormous.
This requires not only consulting a vast amount of information on spell systems and finding commonalities among runes, but also having a high level of expertise and understanding of the underlying logic of runes.
However, once this modular casting approach is fully completed...
Zhao Cheng'an will have several times more spell slots than cultivators of the same level.
This is absolutely a creative achievement, its value far exceeding his previous research on improving spiritual rice. Not only is it enough for him to pass the final examination of the Imperial Academy with excellent results, but the perfect design of this system will also benefit him immensely on his future path of cultivation.
Zhao Cheng'an is now making calculations on paper and has already come up with some preliminary ideas.