Dao Equaling the Heavens
Chapter 152 - 121: Completing the Cultivation Technique, Breaking Through Three Fulfillments

Chapter 152: Chapter 121: Completing the Cultivation Technique, Breaking Through Three Fulfillments

Almost forgot, this fellow was also cultivating the Yuqing Daoji!

Chi Yu Zi and Xiao Yunyi fell silent for a moment; dazzled by the brilliance of the True Sword Dao, they had temporarily forgotten Gu Wen’s original identity.

The reason they had initially looked at Gu Wen differently was not due to the by-the-book swordsmanship he displayed a month ago, nor because he was a guardian under the Taoist Heavenly Girl, but because he possessed the Yuqing Daoji.

Such was the disparity among prodigies, those who rejected Gu Wen only saw the swordsmanship and failed to recognize the uniqueness of the Yuqing Daoji.

Gu Wen floated in mid-air like someone playing with a new toy, his hand brushing against the white rock that could shift between reality and illusion. He could either choose to pass through it or touch it.

Burying his head into it allowed him to see the fine pores between the rocks; his perception of the external world still intact.

However, attempting to pass through met with resistance; the body of Heavenly Spring Mountain exuded a natural Sword Qi, blocking the spirit whether it was solid or ethereal. To break through, one would have to face the entire Heavenly Spring Mountain, and even Yu Hua wasn’t sure about it.

Then Gu Wen tried flying; initially, it was like swimming in the air, but under Yu Hua’s guidance, he gradually learned the trick and began flying at a speed of fifty meters per second.

This was just the beginning, according to Yu Hua, the Primordial Spirit being between solid and ethereal made Flying Escape the fastest. Often, great powers were hard to kill in duels because their Divine Souls fled, and it was nearly impossible for those of the same level to catch up.

But the same issue of the Primordial Spirit emerging also had another problem, injuries to the Primordial Spirit were hard to heal. What if it were dragged to mutual destruction?

After several attempts, Gu Wen roughly figured out why the Primordial Spirit’s Flying Escape was fast.

Because there was no resistance; when the speed reached a certain level, what affected the speed was not power, but air resistance. Cultivators could indeed increase speed with more powerful forces, but it’s never as fast as the Primordial Spirit.

And in Immortal Land, very few could release their Primordial Spirit, meaning Gu Wen’s escape ability was now among the best.

Gu Wen happily relayed this news to Yu Hua, who smiled and asked in return,

"Your Dao foundation and most of your cultivation are in your physical body. It might be easy to start over, but reshaping the body and recultivating will take just as much time."

"At least it’s better than being dead."

Gu Wen wasn’t concerned. He wasn’t afraid of spending time; he was afraid of not having another chance.

He might never need to use his Primordial Spirit to flee, but he couldn’t be without it.

"That’s true," Yu Hua couldn’t deny, "Stop playing, return to your body and stabilize your realm."

Under her supervision, Gu Wen returned to his body and closed his eyes for meditation.

The surroundings returned to quiet, everyone was busy with their own matters. While Gu Wen’s projection of the Primordial Spirit was surprising, they couldn’t neglect their own tasks.

Chi Yu Zi rose from the Sword Pond, pulled out the spiritual sword from the Sword Box, and began to devour it, biting chunks of the spiritual sword and chewing them into thin metal strips. Occasionally, some more formidable spiritual swords resisted, slicing the lining of his mouth and intestinal walls.

Blood flowed continuously, but Chi Yu Zi seemed accustomed to it as he continued munching on more spiritual swords.

A streak of sword light brushed over the surface of the Sword Pond; Xiao Yunyi stood at the edge wielding his sword, now attempting to use his left hand.

Jun Yan occasionally let out strange cackles, while the quietest one was Jade Sword Buddha squatting in a corner.

Boom!

Suddenly, an infuriated Vajra appeared, striking down towards the lying Jun Yan. Xiao Yunyi, seemingly prepared, countered the strike with his sword. Buddha clashed with the willow tree before withdrawing.

The two resumed their quietude. Jade Sword Buddha stared blankly ahead while Xiao Yunyi continued wielding his sword.

They didn’t ask why each other acted this way; it seemed naturally assumed.

-----------------

Gu Wen’s Divine Thought sank into the Qi Sea, the Divine Mountain formed from his Dao foundation solidified slightly, and the barren mountain top began sprouting some vegetation.

These were all manifestations of artistic conception, the sprouting vegetation indicating successful cultivation, the Dao beginning to bloom.

"Now I also know some common knowledge about cultivation and don’t need others to explain to me," Gu Wen was quite pleased with himself, recognizing that the advancement in knowledge was also a significant leap.

It’s the difference between graduating from primary school and university.

His gaze shifted to the Fate Diagram, gaining insight into the quantity of Heavenly Marrow and the state of each cultivation technique, naturally focusing first on the Dao foundation.

The Dao foundation was the essence, and the next realm, the Golden Core, was currently the most crucial thing Gu Wen needed. As the True Sword Dao continuously advanced, following perhaps the remaining traces of the Immortal Sword, this technique had reached a level beyond Gu Wen’s ability.

With his current mana, he could swing at most three swords.

[Heavenly Marrow one hundred and twenty years, Royal Jelly one year]

[Yuqing Daoji Fifth Level, to complete the Golden Core, needed Heavenly Marrow one hundred and sixty years]

[Perfect Method Sixth Transition Golden Core, one transition requires thirty years of Heavenly Marrow; sixth transition requires one hundred eighty years of Heavenly Marrow and a large amount of Spiritual Medicine to nurture]

Golden Core needed additional Spiritual Medicine?

Gu Wen was slightly surprised but then found it reasonable.

Because when he first started cultivating the Heart Sword, it was the same case; although the swordsmanship was refined, the Heart Sword was as thin as a thread and couldn’t effectively harm an enemy.

And obtaining Heavenly Marrow itself needed consuming Spiritual Medicine; these two processes could actually be done simultaneously. Even if the Golden Core needed a lot of Spiritual Medicine, Gu Wen eating more and gaining more Heavenly Marrow wouldn’t be a loss.

"Golden Core must be set aside for a short period, at least until after resolving the matters of Heavenly Spring Mountain," Gu Wen shifted his gaze, not looking at the Buddha, Tao, and Demon Sword, as this thing now consumed more Heavenly Marrow than Yuqing Daoji.

The healing Cultivation Technique, "Soft Breathe Skill First Level," has a maximum of four levels, and the movement technique "Moon Stepping" also maxes at four levels, along with the protective Daoist Skill "Mysterious Spirit Tri-Element."

Apart from the three swords and Flame Spear, which were presentable, Gu Wen’s other techniques like protective Daoist Skills, movement techniques, and healing Cultivation Techniques were relatively outdated.

Gu Wen reviewed these techniques and felt it was time to improve them.

Compared to Yuqing Daoji and True Sword Dao, the other techniques seemed to have minimal effects. However, this did not mean they were useless, especially now that these two were elevated too high, requiring an enormous amount of Heavenly Marrow for further improvement.

If the gains from Yuqing Daoji and Swordsmanship were considered one hundred, then the other auxiliary Magic Skills would be one. But the former needed hundreds of Heavenly Marrows to advance, while the latter only needed single digits.

This was the difference in difficulty of advancement, and Gu Wen had to balance the gains and the challenges to maximize benefits.

Moreover, thanks to his advancement in cultivation, the required Heavenly Marrow for these techniques had decreased substantially, such as the Soft Breathe Skill being fully upgraded now needing only fifteen years of Heavenly Marrow instead of thirty.

"First, fully master these three techniques."

With a thought, Gu Wen immediately invested the Heavenly Marrow.

Spending fifteen years of Heavenly Marrow, he broke through three levels of the Soft Breathe Skill.

[Soft Breathe Skill fulfilled, inner breath continuous, impervious to cold and hot, free from disease and pain, breathing stops bleeding]

Spending twenty years of Heavenly Marrow, he broke through two levels of Mysterious Spirit Tri-Element.

[Mysterious Spirit Tri-Element fulfilled, body binds with mystical spirit, hard as refined iron, inner transformation protects the five viscera and six innards]

Spending thirty years of Heavenly Marrow, he broke through three levels of Moon Stepping.

[Moon Stepping fulfilled, treading on water without sinking, moving with the wind, walking on air]

[Total of fifty-five years of Heavenly Marrow spent]

In total, sixty-five years of Heavenly Marrow were spent, bringing Gu Wen almost iron-like defense as his norm, self-healing by mere breathing, and the ability to fly without needing a foothold.

Investing the original one hundred and twenty years of Heavenly Marrow into Daoji and Swordsmanship wouldn’t even make a splash.

Externally, Gu Wen didn’t change much, but Yu Hua, who was sitting by, noticed the instantaneous shift in his breathing.

She just glanced at him and didn’t express much.

Others might be surprised, but Yu Hua felt that Gu Wen’s cultivation speed was entirely reasonable. If someone thought there was a problem, it only highlighted their insecurities.

Gu Wen opened his eyes, and without looking up, Yu Hua said,

"There are many rankings and competitions in the Cultivation World. Your speed of cultivation could win awards in the Sanqing Taoist Sect. The grandest is the Tianxuan Conference in Taiyi City. Before obtaining the Qingcang heritage, I only ranked fiftieth, but you could perhaps be first."

"Do all sects take it this seriously?"

"Treasures stir hearts, rankings spur competition; it’s all to push the younger disciples forward."

---

In the following week, Gu Wen absorbed Emperor Jelly in the Sword Pond, roughly achieving ten years of Emperor Jelly per day.

Thus, in thirty days of the month, it amounted to three hundred years of Emperor Jelly. However, since Gu Wen also needed to collect materials to forge weapons, he couldn’t spend twenty-four hours in the Sword Pond.

Even with reduced time, he at least managed to obtain two hundred years of Emperor Jelly.

[Seventy years of Emperor Jelly]

Seventy years of Emperor Jelly could increase the dharma form by seventy zhang and advance the Divine Skills by at least half. Even if progressing in Divine Skills became increasingly difficult, factoring it as two to three times, it likely wouldn’t exceed two hundred years of Emperor Jelly.

And Divine Skills are techniques superior to dharma forms, exclusively belonging to Venerable Dao Realm.

Taking Chi Yu Zi’s Golden Light Spell as an example, it could directly double her strength.

The higher one climbs in cultivation, the more evident the gaps in talent. Daoji is divided by completeness, Spirit Form by quantity, dharma form by size, and Divine Skills by supremacy.

Gu Wen couldn’t help but exclaim that this wasn’t something that could be achieved merely through effort.

This could be observed from the True Monarchs with generally only three levels of fulfilled Daoji, who even among the top talents were considered mediocre.

From a distance, Xiao Yunyi approached and said, "Brother Hongchen, Jun Yan has awakened."

Minutes later, Gu Wen saw the newly awakened Jun Yan, and by the latter’s calm eyes, he preliminarily confirmed that there had been no possession.

Jun Yan, somewhat disheveled, sat cross-legged on the ground, looked at Gu Wen and asked, "Have you mastered the True Sword Dao?"

Gu Wen nodded, then demonstrated it. Jun Yan smiled helplessly, "Indeed, the impermanence of life and the unpredictability of karma."

Initially, he intended to use this as a means to liberate Xiao Yunyi by being the disposable pawn. Unexpectedly, he truly mastered the True Sword Dao in the end. It seemed that just a month ago, he hadn’t even possessed the Sword Dao dharma form, and now, he had transformed into possessing the Immortal Sword.

Without waiting for Gu Wen to speak, he straightforwardly said, "I think we can cooperate, and you seem to be in danger now; you might need my help."