012 – To Kill For A Secret, Just Kill
When thinking of the Universe Raising Treasure Secret, Yang Chen suddenly thought of something funny. It seemed that the higher level it was, the higher the heavenly court immortal who passed it one was, the simpler the name. let alone A Wood True Secret, B Wood True Secret and such, Heavenly Spirit Treasure Refining Secret, Earthly Fiend Sacrificial Formation Secret, Universe Raising Treasure Secret, so simple it made your hair stand up.
But in the mortal world, a lot of sect’s central scriptures were as tremendous as they could be, like Great Sun Celestial Flame Emperor Tyrant Secret, like Autumn Sunflower Yin Water profound Element Secret, like Five Qi Flame Light Bone Refining Secret, like Boundless Radiant Flame Central Scripture, if they could be longer then they would be, if they could sound more intimidating then they would be,
With those names that were frequently long enough to be a mess, with mortal sects hating that they couldn’t choose even more earth shaking names, immortals seemed more interested in the essential contents, simply giving them a few characters to describe their features. He estimated that if he didn’t have to differentiate the source, Grand Supreme Elderly Lord would probably have named his Universe Raising Treasure Secret as Raising Treasure Secret. It seemed he had done so with Three Purities Secret, and he hadn’t even named the «Elderly Lord Pill Arts» Yang Chen had named.
But this was only one of Yang Chen’s casual thoughts, just a minor detail. What Yang Chen was thinking about right now was whether the Universe Raising Treasure Secret would be effective on drawing talismans.
Strictly speaking, there was a great pile of cultivation techniques in Yang Chen’s mind right now, and practically all of them were high level techniques. Only what he had learned from the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord, whether the Three Purities Secret, the Universe Raising Treasure Secret, or the Elderly Lord Pill Arts, all of them could be cultivated from the qi gathering stage and used until the Grand Supreme Elderly lord’s stage, their efficacy rising along with cultivation level. When all was said and done, these were true invaluable treasures.
But even so, the Elderly Lord’s cultivation techniques weren’t something that could be easily grasped by qi gathering stage people. Originally the Grand Supreme Elderly Lord had thought Yang Chen would be able to understand these mysteries after reaching the yuanying stage, too bad he hadn’t foreseen that Yang Chen would actually have the cultivation experience of a great primary golden immortal.
Yang Chen read over the Universe Raising Treasure Secret very lightly, then started to ponder its mysteries, spending two days time before raising his head with a smile. The Elderly Lord’s Raising Treasure Secret was wide-ranging and profound, but he had finally figured out a bit of the beginning. The remainder required practical experimentation to figure out.
This bit of introductory content was actually the key to cultivating it, the operation method. But that alone wasn’t enough, the Universe Raising Treasure Secret contained hundreds of techniques that could be assembled in different combinations to suit different materials. At that time the Elderly Lord had given him the mnemonic chant, but in order to understand what materials suited what techniques, there was no way other than for Yang Chen to constantly experiment and ponder.
If he said he’d do it then he’d do it, his cultivation might be at the first level, but his five phases attributes were complete, and with the talismans he had drawn himself, experimenting wasn’t any major inconvenience. Moreover, with such lowest level items and Yang Chen’s cultivation experience, he could know some things without even experimenting.
His hand issued a line of red light that softly covered that fireball talisman. The fireball talisman only shone slightly, then recovered to normal shortly thereafter, seemingly not the slightest bit different from a normal fireball talisman. But holding it in his hand, Yang Chen could feel that the fireball talisman had undergone some minute change.
Phew, the seemingly improved fireball talisman suddenly ignited, shooting out an enormous fireball that blasted a nearby rock into pieces. At the same time Yang Chen’s other hand also shot out a fireball, but much smaller than the one just now, and even though it also broke a rock, the difference in power between the two fireballs was clear.
With his experience, Yang Chen could see with just a glance that the power of the talisman that had passed the Universe Raising Treasure Secret was at least twenty percent higher. This was still when Yang Chen was just at the first level of cultivation, it would increase even more as his cultivation advanced. Of course, that was only talismans.
As an experienced person, Yang Chen knew better than anyone what the significance of such lowest level talismans was. At the same time as he was inwardly proud, he also couldn’t help sighing in admiration over the Universe Raising Treasure Secret. However, after one sigh he also recalled that this was Grand Supreme Elderly Lord’s art, an effect like that was required. Thinking of this he also very soon stopped being amazed.
With this successful experiment, Yang Chen disregarded everything else to first use the Universe Raising Treasure Secret on all the talismans he had on hand. After a short time, when no more large improvements could be made, he set off in one direction, rushing towards the five hundred kilometer distant Sun Painting Mountain.
The Sun Painting Mountain was always in a verdant and lush place, but for some reason the spiritual influence here didn’t quite suit the scenery. Therefore there were no cultivators here. Even though the scenery was beautiful, it was still an old forest deep in the mountains where men’s footprints were rare, and there were basically no mortals around. This also lead to this being a haven for wild animals, and one could frequently see some vicious beasts. At the same time, this was also one of the reasons Yang Chen had to prepare so many talismans.
With the foundation of the first level of qi refining, there was basically no need for Yang Chen to fear these animals, at the same time it also made him even more agile and lithe, enough to deal with the complex terrain here.
The spiritual influence here was lacking, but that wasn’t because this place was barren and unclean, it was because of that medicine garden, which concentrated and absorbed the spiritual influence within hundreds of kilometers, leading to this condition. Yang Chen knew this bit very well.
Yang Chen found an open space within a dense thicket and sat down to meditate a while. After recovering his spiritual force and physical strength, he began to look all around, searching for the location of the medicine garden.
Unable to rise into the sky to observe, he could only climb vantage points, Yang Chen expended a lot of effort to roughly ascertain the direction through the paths of mountain rivers. This was the effect of the basic formation arts from his previous life, otherwise it would’ve been impossible to discover. The reason that sect could find the medicine garden in his last life, was because a severely injured great scholar at the peak of jindan had carelessly escaped here, stumbling onto the location. It was basically impossible for ordinary people to care about this place.
After resting once again and recovering his physical strength and spiritual power, Yang Chen stood and suddenly turned his head to speak in one direction: “You’ve followed me for so long, shouldn’t you show yourself?”
Along with Yang Chen’s speech, a man’s silhouette slowly appeared at the top of a not distant tree, showing a somewhat unexpected expression, and even more surprise and embarrassment over being discovered by his target, and consequently sulked: “You actually discovered me?”
As early as when Yang Chen finished refining his pile of talismans, he had discovered that someone was following him. The pursuer behaved extremely brazenly, his divine consciousness sweeping pompously, as if he basically didn’t put Yang Chen in his sight. His divine consciousness wasn’t very strong either, Yang Chen estimated it was at most a fellow at the third level of qi gathering.
Yang Chen didn’t know why this fellow followed him, and didn’t pay him any attention. On the contrary, as long as he didn’t take any initiative to provoke him, Yang Chen didn’t want trouble. Additionally, Yang Chen was still a bit afraid that there was divine consciousness attached to the pill Shi Shanshan had given him. Yang Chen didn’t want to let her know his secrets, so he always endured patiently. Naturally, this fellow had followed him the whole way to the Sun Painting mountain.
Almost from the moment they entered the Sun Painting Mountain, Yang Chen had discovered that the divine consciousness Shi Shanshan had wrapped up in the pill had already disappeared, presumably the distance already exceeded the range Shi Shanshan could sense. It wasn’t that Shi Shanshan could monitor the several thousand kilometers distant Yang Chen at any time, only that, with the divine consciousness within it, the instant the pull was destroyed, the divine consciousness would alert its owner, making the position known.
A young man appeared in front of Yang Chen’s eyes, dressed extremely luxuriously, twenty something years old, eyes constantly flickering, apparently just contemplating something. Having his concealment broken by Yang Chen’s shout, after asking a question out of astonishment, he flew into a range and snorted coldly: “A tiny executioner, deliberately mystifying things. I don’t care how you discovered me, hand over the thing Shi Shanshan gave you, and I won’t kill you!”
The gift of thanks that Shi Shanshan gave Yang Chen on the execution ground back then was a body refining pill. This body refining pill was useless to people who had already started to cultivate, and could only improve the spiritual roots of ordinary people a little bit, but had a good chance of inciting the spiritual roots of ordinary people to appear.
It might be that fairy Shi gave Yang Chen this pill back then out of gratitude, in order to give him the chance of cultivating. However, other people didn’t know what it was, only aware that fairy Shan had given him something good.
Those people at the execution ground with their own status wouldn’t attack a mortal, but that didn’t stop them from telling their juniors. Thus, someone started to covet what Yang Chen had, but Yang Chen disappeared very quickly, so a lot of people started to search within a radius of hundreds of kilometers. Appearing here was the one winner who stumbled on Yang Chen and sensed the divine consciousness within the pill.
“You’re talking about this? Here!” Yang Chen casually tossed over the pill that was completely useless to him. He already had complete postnatal spiritual roots, so this body refining pill was basically rubbish to him. Besides, as long as he wanted, he could have countless such things after obtaining the medicine garden.
“Body refining pill?” This youth clearly knew what was what, reaching out and beckoning, the body refining pill swiftly flew into his hand, seeing what it was at a quick glance.
Seeing that this pill was an elixir that required at least foundation building to refine, the youth felt a burst of satisfaction. Even though it was meaningless to him, he could still use it to trade for some other things or perhaps some favors. Following Yang Chen this whole way wasn’t a waste.
With Yang Chen’s great primary golden immortal insight, and this pill being useless to him, as long as this fellow didn’t obstruct his work, Yang Chen wouldn’t mind giving him some benefits to get rid of him. Immortals had the vision of immortals.
However, things turn out contrary to what is desired. Yang Chen wanted this youth to leave after getting the pill, so he could collect the medicine garden as he wished. He didn’t expect that this youth would roll his eyes, his heart unexpectedly holding a poisonous plan.
“You’re an executioner, killing people without regard, what did you come here for? I think, it might be something shameful?” The youth put away the body refining pill and looked ominously at Yang Chen.
A lot of people knew that fairy Shi had given this pill to Yang Chen, so if Yang Chen made some noise later and implicated him, then it would be an enormously bad turn. Even if the youth was certain Yang Chen didn’t recognize him, that just meant he was certain of ten thousand to one, but feared the one in ten thousand. Only the dead can keep a secret forever.
“Beheading demons and eliminating devils, acting on behalf of the Dao of heaven, that is our duty!” The youth thus shouted virtuously in front of Yang Chen: “The unlawful things you desire at this place, everyone can punish, pay with your life!”
He pointed with both hands, just about to launch the Sword Finger he was most proud of to take Yang Chen’s life, but he only finished half the motion before there was a sudden flash before his eyes, a line of ice cold light flashing past his eyes. Immediately feeling a chill at his neck, he sank into darkness.
Across from him, Yang Chen had at some unknown time taken an executioner’s blade in his hands, and chopped down with practiced ease. The youth’s head flew a meter into the air, blood spurting out, and his corpse crumpled to the ground.
Despite already having cultivation at the third level of qi gathering, when facing Yang Chen he was still treated like an ordinary mortal. Without any idea how Yang Chen discovered him, without using any means to protect himself, he had been directly beheaded by one competent blade from Yang Chen.
“Guzao!” With a swing of his hand, the executioner blade instantly disappeared. Before the corpse fell to the ground, Yang Chen casually pinched the tiny cosmos bag at the youth’s waist, and with a soft pull, took it into his hand.
“If you’re going to kill to keep secrets, just kill, why use so many justifications!” Blurting out a lecture, Yang Chen didn’t pay attention to anything else: “With your mouth saying yes but heart saying no like this, words differing from action, there’s no need for a third calamity to descend, you’ll still die without an unmarked grave. Dying early or dying late are no different, be on your way at ease!”
Softly squeezing that cosmos bag, Yang Chen casually threw it into the achievement ring. A tiny qi refining third level fellow who even drooled over body refining pills, what could he have that would be worth Yang Chen’s attention?
He didn’t know how long ago it was since that mountain god left the medicine garden here, but presumably no less than a thousand years. In fact, even for the lowest level mountain god, the time required to ascend to the spiritual world and then again to the immortal world, a thousand years was nothing.
Swiftly walking over in the direction he had been investigating, his divine consciousness spread out. After frantically sweeping in a circle, Yang Chen revealed a smile, and charged with large strides towards a tree thick enough to wrap one’s arms around.
Soon about to collide with the tree, Yang Chen still moved forward without pause. Just as one foot touched the tree, the scenery before his eyes suddenly changed.
A vast dome suddenly appeared above Yang Chen, as if he stood in a great palace hall. On the dome were seven by seven, forty nine coldly glittering flying swords arranged in a regular formation, as if they were forty nine vicious enemies looking for people to devour, silently watching Yang Chen’s actions.
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