King of Creation
Chapter 257 - 254: Shattered Jade Battle Body

Chapter 257: Chapter 254: Shattered Jade Battle Body

Over the skies of Antai Mountain, Elder Zhii Sheng from the Sword Origin Sect, who had been searching for an entire day, forcibly suppressed the impatience in his heart. Focusing his power in his eyes, he painstakingly searched over one peak after another, his expression revealing extreme exhaustion.

Anyone who flew recklessly for a day and a night, and then tirelessly devoted all their spirit to searching the mountain, would end up looking like Zhii Sheng.

Only a Martial Artist of the Soul Sea Realm could endure such strain. Had it been a Martial Artist of the Spirit Summoning Realm, they probably would have collapsed by now.

There was no choice, for the content of the Talisman Letter sent by Zou Zhi that Zhii Sheng received was too shocking.

"My killer, Ye Zhen, take revenge for me!!!"

These brief nine words, each as heavy as a thousand pounds, made Zhii Sheng’s eyes swim in dizziness.

Who is Ye Zhen?

Merely a small fry at the peak of the Spirit Summoning Realm.

And who is Zou Zhi?

An esteemed elder of the Sword Origin Sect, a powerhouse of the Soul Sea Realm, known as a man with unparalleled wisdom—how could such an elder be defeated?

If it were not for knowing Zou Zhi never spoke thoughtlessly, Zhii Sheng would almost think this was Zou Zhi playing a joke on him.

But what followed drove Zhii Sheng to the brink of madness—there was no further information!

He sent dozens of Talisman Communications, and like throwing stones into the sea, not a single one received any response. Elder Zou Zhi really had encountered disaster.

After flying frantically for a day and a night, Zhii Sheng arrived at the approximate location from where Zou Zhi’s last Talisman Communication was sent. He searched desperately. For a whole day, he continued to search and send out Talisman Communications but to no avail, causing Zhii Sheng’s heart to continuously sink.

"Hmm? Is that a flagpole over there?"

Suddenly, a low hill in the distance caught Elder Zhii Sheng’s attention, and within a few breaths, he had landed on top of the hill.

Atop the hill was a rather large pile of stones that looked quite fresh. In the middle of the pile, there was a thick wooden stick with tattered purple clothes tied to it.

The instant he saw the ragged clothes, Zhii Sheng’s complexion drastically changed, as he vaguely remembered that Zou Zhi had been wearing a purple robe when they parted.

Boom!

A light flick of his palm caused the stones to scatter in all directions, startling countless birds from the surrounding forest. However, Elder Zhii Sheng’s gaze was frozen.

"Elder Zou!"

A wail of grief caused the veins on Zhii Sheng’s forehead to bulge prominently.

Within the pile, Zou Zhi’s head lay there, with eyes wide open, full of resentment, unmistakably dead but unwilling to rest peacefully!

Picking up Zou Zhi’s head gently, a piece of white silk covered in bloodied writing appeared before Zhii Sheng’s eyes, causing the fury within the elder of the Sword Origin Sect to near rupture.

"Ye Zhen, you thief, I swear to the heavens, I will grind your bones to dust in this lifetime!"

Elder Zhii Sheng’s earth-shattering roar disturbed countless birds and Demon Beasts in Antai Mountain. The fearsome pressure of the Soul Sea Realm powerhouse was unleashed without restraint, causing nearby Demon Beasts to scurry away in a panic and even triggering a small Beast Tide in the forest.

Half a day later, after an exhaustive search that found no clues within a thousand miles where Elder Zou Zhi’s head was discovered, Elder Zhii Sheng from the Sword Origin Sect had to leave with nothing but humiliation, taking Zou Zhi’s head and Ye Zhen’s letter with him.

Twice in a row, Zhii Sheng had the luck of picking up a severed head, along with a mocking blood letter from Ye Zhen—a feeling of powerlessness gripped Elder Zhii Sheng deeply, overshadowed only by the feelings of humiliation.

If he had a choice, he would rather that more than a month ago he had not found the head of Blood Fox Sword Yine Kainian. Had that not happened, tod ay he would not be picking up Elder Zou Zhi’s head either.

But in this world, there is no medicine for regret.

Even though he felt extreme humiliation, Elder Zhii Sheng still had to deliver Zou Zhi’s head and Ye Zhen’s letter back to the Sword Origin Sect.

....

Late at night, inside a secluded courtyard of a tavern in a small town within the Phantom Divine Empire, Ye Zhen who was soaking in a hot bath, stretched comfortably.

Days of toiling on the road, washed away with a hot bath and a sumptuous meal left him looking refreshed and revitalized.

"By now, the Sword Origin Sect should have found Zou Zhi’s head, right? Wonder who that would be?" Ye Zhen mused absentmindedly.

Floating Cloud Cave was inherently a dangerous place with a small secret realm within. Naturally, Ye Zhen did not want to reveal his presence there, nor did he want the Sword Origin Sect to discover this secret. Therefore, he went deep into Antai Mountain and made his arrangements before riding the Cloud Winged Tiger Cub through the night toward the Phantom Divine Empire.

God knows how many people Zou Zhi’s last Talisman Communication would attract; Ye Zhen certainly did not want to enter peril again.

After riding the Cloud Winged Tiger Cub for two days and nights high in the sky to enter the Phantom Divine Empire, Ye Zhen carried the Cloud Winged Tiger Cub and descended to the ground, proceeding as an ordinary Martial Artist.

As luck would have it, the incident that Ye Zhen caused in the Secret Realm of Demon Souls over the War Soul Blood Flag was too significant. He had killed ten elite disciples of the Phantom Divine Sect, and now the sect was eager to dispose of Ye Zhen swiftly. While in the Phantom Divine Empire, Ye Zhen had to conceal his tracks and proceed with caution.

As he soaked in the steamy hot bath, Ye Zhen retrieved the Storage Ring he had taken from Zou Zhi, an esteemed Sect Elder of the Sword Origin Sect, now fallen. Ye Zhen was curious to find out the extent of the wealth accumulated by such a formidable Elder of the Soul Sea Realm.

The moment his Divine Sense entered Zou Zhi’s Storage Ring, Ye Zhen’s brow furrowed slightly, disappointment flickering across his face.

The Storage Ring was rather small, merely a Mid-grade Treasure Ring with dimensions of ten meters in length, width, and height.

What filled the mid-grade treasure ring the most were gold, silver, and spirit crystals.

There were several hundred thousand taels of actual gold, about nine million taels in universally accepted gold notes, and approximately ten million in silver notes. Occupying the largest space in the mid-grade treasure ring were over eighty thousand low-grade spirit crystals.

This fortune was neither too much nor too little, just enough to qualify as the wealth of a powerful martial artist in the Soul Sea Realm. Adding to that the assets Ye Zhen had obtained from the storage rings of Tian Feng and Hee Qingbing, as well as the low-grade spirit crystals found in the twelve storage rings picked up in the Blood-sucking Vine Forest, he could barely scrape together a total of fifteen thousand low-grade spirit crystals.

"Mid-grade spirit crystals? Only a hundred?"

A small box in the corner with a hundred mid-grade spirit crystals did not stir any emotion in Ye Zhen. To Ye Zhen, who held three thousand mid-grade spirit crystals, these hundred were insignificant.

"Hmm, Nine-Transition Soul Restoration Pills? Nice!"

The discovery of dozens of bottles of pills delighted Ye Zhen, especially the Nine-Transition Soul Restoration Pills that restored spiritual power and the Spirit Transformation Pills that could accelerate the tempering of an Acquired Spiritual Body; these were pills that could not necessarily be bought with silver.

For example, the Spirit Transformation Pill, which is specifically for the cultivation of martial artists in the Spirit Transformation Realm, is precious, and almost all sects consider it a strategic resource, rarely sold externally.

That Ye Zhen only found one Spirit Transformation Pill on the persons of two Spirit Transformation Realm martial artists, Tian Feng and Hee Qingbing, showed just how valuable these pills were.

Now, Ye Zhen had obtained five bottles from Zou Zhi, which was a significant gain.

Unfortunately, after searching through Zou Zhi’s storage ring, Ye Zhen did not find any secret manuals. He had hoped to find a few sword technique manuals from Sword Origin Sect to study thoroughly, find their weaknesses, as they might be very useful in future battles against Sword Origin Sect or Sword Origin Empire!

"Hmm, a jade talisman?"

A bright yellow jade talisman, starkly different from the regular jade talismans for communication, suddenly appeared within Ye Zhen’s divine sense.

"Could this be a secret manual?"

With a thought, Ye Zhen took out the bright yellow jade talisman and, following the method to inspect the information on the talisman, he placed it against his forehead, and a thread of his divine sense slowly probed inside.

Whoosh!

In an instant, the light in front of Ye Zhen’s eyes shifted dramatically.

A martial artist clad in jade armor appeared in Ye Zhen’s mind, astonishingly resembling the jade armor worn by Zou Zhi, which was known for its formidable defense.

Almost at the same moment, a flood of information surged into Ye Zhen’s mind, causing a moment of confusion.

After a while, the influx of information had been completely sorted out by Ye Zhen.

"Shattered Jade War Body?"

Ye Zhen was somewhat startled.

The bright yellow jade talisman recorded a special cultivation method for an Acquired Spiritual Body named Shattered Jade War Body, which was the same Acquired Spiritual Body used by Zou Zhi, an elder of the Sword Origin Sect.

The Shattered Jade War Body was one of the kinds of Acquired Spiritual Body, classified as an upper-grade Earth Level.

During cultivation, it required the absorption of spiritual energy from various kinds of jade stones to temper the physical body, and was divided into four stages: Green Jade War Body, Red Jade War Body, Purple Jade War Body, and Shattered Jade War Body.

If one mastered the first stage, they could develop the Green Jade War Body.

The physical strength of the Green Jade War Body was comparable to that of an ordinary Acquired Spiritual Body; its restoration power was only slightly stronger than that of an ordinary Acquired Spiritual Body, but importantly, it could form a layer of Spirit Armor akin to mid-grade precious armor, which had an incredibly impressive defensive capability.

According to the records on the jade talisman, the jade armor that protected Zou Zhi was the Green Jade Spirit Armor.

"If the power of the Green Jade Spirit Armor from the first stage of the Shattered Jade War Body is already so astonishing, how amazing must the power of the second, third, and fourth stages be?"

The introduction to the Shattered Jade War Body took Ye Zhen by complete surprise.

The Second Stage Red Jade War Body of the Shattered Jade War Body had twice the physical strength and restoration power of an ordinary Acquired Spiritual Body and could condense a layer of Red Jade Spirit Armor with defensive power comparable to high-grade treasure armor.

The Third Stage Purple Jade War Body had three times the physical strength and restoration power of an ordinary Acquired Spiritual Body, and more astonishingly, it could form a layer of Purple Jade Spirit Armor with a defensive capability comparable to supreme treasure armor.

As for the Fourth Stage Shattered Jade War Body, its defense capabilities were extraordinary. However, as noted in the secret manual, few were able to master the fourth stage.

Not only was the Fourth Stage Shattered Jade War Body extremely difficult to cultivate, but even the preceding Third, Second, and First Stages - Purple, Red, and Green Jade War Bodies - were also incredibly challenging.

This could arguably be seen in Zou Zhi’s case.

Zou Zhi must have had the Shattered Jade War Body for quite some time, but even with his status as an elder of the Sword Origin Sect and his substantial wealth, he had only managed to cultivate it to the First Stage Green Jade War Body.

Yet, just the defensive capability of this First Stage Green Jade War Body was so impressive that it was comparable to mid-grade precious armor.

If Ye Zhen managed to cultivate it, combined with the Black Wind Armor he wore close to his body, it would be like having the defense of two sets of mid-grade treasure armor. At that point, even a full-force strike from a Soul Sea Realm master might not be able to kill Ye Zhen, right?

"This... This Shattered Jade War Body must be the most precious and valuable thing that Zou Zhi possessed!"

After reading through the entire record, Ye Zhen couldn’t hide his excitement; this secret manual was an invaluable treasure, coveted even by Soul Sea Realm powerhouses.

It must have been Zou Zhi’s personal find outside of the sect, as if it had been a secret of the sect, Zou Zhi would never carry it on his person.

While Ye Zhen was ecstatic, Elder Zhii Sheng, looking haggard and distraught, had returned to Sword Origin Sect! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)