Chapter 158 - 156: Martial King's Dao Pavilion
'Haaa...to think I'll be cheated. I wonder what were the Heavenly Daos original intentions?' He was truly baffled as he considered this matter. He knew that the quirks of these lucky chances changed greatly and seemed to have defined limits but similarly wide rules. For example, to be given an opportunity to avoid a Calamity cost no Karmic Luck Value, but benefiting off it did.
It was a give and take, with safety requiring a sufficient amount of 'love' and 'attention' from the Heavenly Daos. Of course, this was merely a fabricated escape opportunity. Even without it, one can avoid the calamity and even benefit from it. That required intelligence, strength, and sometimes cunning out-of-the-box thinking.
Another was that one can lose Karmic Luck Value by coming into contact with a possible chance. The young (maybe) Blessed in Golden Milk City that he came across had passed him by without a single notice from the Heavenly Daos, yet his Karmic Luck Value decreased. This was a similar situation.
At that time, he needed to realize and act according to a certain script to benefit, and the level of his benefit varied. Who knew what would've happened if he interfered and killed those chasing after that young boy or brought him away safely?
Perhaps a string of tailored events that would've established karmic ties between them; who knows?
He had an assumption that Long Chen's adventures and meeting of beauties likely had this rule. If anything, he had to give him his due praise from always taking advantage of his opportunities. But, perhaps there were countless other beauties that he rejected and therefore lost value but gained nothing.
He didn't know, but it was a thought. Anyhow, he had somewhat lost out on this one, and it cost him twenty points. Even though that old man was likely a Prime Imperial Sage or even the Grand Imperial Sage and sole Emperor Alchemist of the sect, it still didn't matter.
'If this is a protective talisman to help me grow safely beneath his protection, then that's utterly fucking worthless. I'd truly lose out on that one.' Wei Wuyin's thoughts were clear, and he wasn't an idiot, easily noticing that Jin Hao was not that ordinary-looking old man. Unfortunately, he always had ways to protect himself in any given situation. Even against Astral Core Realm experts, they wouldn't necessarily be his match nor threaten his life, and to put himself in danger intentionally had never been his way of doing things.
In the end, he could only sigh. Whatever he gained from this, he could only hope that in the future, he could abuse it to its most effective limit.
"Let's go to the Extreme Monarch Monarch," he said to the pegasus who neighed and soared towards the central mountain. "According to that old man, the Martial King's Dao Pavilion has a unique method that might be suitable for me. The Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity. If I were to make assumptions extrapolated from its name, then I assume it had connections with the 'Divine' characteristics my spirits took."
After muttering this, he decided to browse the Martial King's Dao Pavilion to find methods to cultivate his Saber and Elemental Natal Souls, especially methods suitable for the Astral Core Realm. This needed to be done, and he was intrigued.
A brief delay in forming his faction wouldn't bring him any harm. With that thought, he laid back and allowed this pegasus that seemed to already know the location of every important location in the sect fly freely.
-----
In the Extreme War Mountain, at the seventh level, an effeminate yet seemingly gorgeous young man was cultivating atop a pond with dense mists composed of astral essence. His thin eyebrows quivered slightly as his ring glowed with a dim light. He retrieved a transmission crystal. A moment later, his gorgeous appearance turned slightly unsightly.
"What do you mean you 'lost' him?" The voice was unfathomably deep, completely unlike the effeminate appearance. It seemed like it could never come from this young man, yet it did. Realizing he spoke pointlessly, he hurriedly sent a frustrated message through the crystal.
On the other side of this line was Gu Hao, who seemed to be covered in sweat and had faint wounds on his body. He was outside the Alchemic Dao Pavilion and his expression was harsh and frustrated. It seemed as if he had just finished a tough battle with a difficult opponent.
He sent: "Yes sir. It seemed he left immediately after arriving. Those at the fifth level said they saw him leaving, likely traveling to the Extreme Monarch Mountain."
After a rather tedious exchange, Gu Hao was left with gritted teeth. When the exchange was over, he gritted his teeth and looked at the body of a young woman who had her clothes torn and left bloody on the floor. She was still breathing, but weakly so.
"Miao Yu, you overconfident, idiotic, and annoying little bitch! If you hadn't interfered and challenged me to Imperial Combat, would you be reduced to your state? Hmph, since you dared to challenge, then don't say anything tonight." He reached forward, the world's mana shifted and wrapped around the body of the young woman.
There was a huge crowd that seemed to have been watching this fight with intense eyes, but most of them had eyes filled with pity.
"To think Miao Yu would lose to Gu Hao...and she even bet over her authority and autonomy to Gu Hao, tch." A disciple spoke with pity.
"Yeah...she'll lose her virginity and become his slave for a year...ah, woeful is the world when a good flower is ruined by a-"
"Shuush! He's right there, idiot." The disciple hurriedly grabbed the other speaker and brought him away.
Gu Hao brought over Miao Yu's body but when he sensed her state, his lips twitched. He spat and stomped his feet before smacking his palm, taking Miao Yu's storage ring, while Miao Yu's body, no, warm corpse, was thrown away like trash. She had ended her life with the last bits of her remaining strength, shattering her sea of consciousness and heart.
At the moment, her lifeforce was rapidly dissipating, and no one had the means to save her.
"Dumb little bitch. You challenge me to an Imperial Match and then take your own life when you lose? Fucking pathetic," he angrily spat before taking a step and flying away.
When he left, everyone moaned for the newly deceased for a brief moment. Then, they went about their lives. Regardless, events had come to an end, and it was an exciting watch, but they still had tasks and cultivation to do.
The male and female greeters were similarly watching but they could only bite their lips in frustration. Gu Hao had taken the ring, and likely the Yin Nether Tears. Their hearts were full of grievance but had nowhere to cry.
Just as they were about to leave with sadness in their hearts, a flash of light blinded them for a moment and then within the female greeter's hand, a bottle filled with blue liquid emerged.
"That little fellow wanted you to have it, so you should have it." The voice was fleeting and distant like a whistle.
Shocked, the female greeter looked at the bottle and heard those words. Before, she was full of grievance, but now she was incomparably happy so her tears fell like rain. "Thank you!"
-----
'So this is the Martial King's Dao Pavilion?' Wei Wuyin stood before a tall, wide, and squarish building on the first level of the Extreme Monarch Mountain. Unlike the Alchemic Dao Pavilion, the Martial King's Dao Pavilion was a single building that stored all of the cultivation methods within the sect.
Supposedly, it was reinforced by Spiritual Formations set up by the five Grand Imperial Monarchs. It was an initiation of sorts. Because of that, it was regarded as one of the most protected buildings in the entire sect.
He entered and realized it was quite empty. While there were some people, there weren't very many. This was like a bookstore in the mortal world. His senses were immediately assaulted by the scent of paper, leather, and cotton cloth that were typically used for book covers.
'Physical records?' He didn't think a sect as advanced as the Myriad Monarch Sect would employ such mortal efforts. He expected spiritual jades used to inscribe information, not written words.
Perhaps it was because writing had intent and an understanding of the mindset of the writer at the time. It might allow one to enter a state of enlightenment? He didn't really know, but he enjoyed books better than spiritual jades.
When he scanned spiritual jades, it was like all the information was copy and pasted into his mind all at once, but with a book, he could take his time and read every single thing, word by word.
An older woman was reading a book while wearing oval spectacles with black frames. She didn't bother looking up towards Wei Wuyin and simply lifted her finger and pointed. Following that point, Wei Wuyin saw a board that listed the various rules of the Martial King's Dao Pavilion.
He hadn't realized it before, but this building was at the maximum height for a level, and contained nine floors. According to these rules, each floor stored various methods of varying abilities.
It also warned that the higher the floor, the more highly ranked and typically more difficult the method. To travel from the first floor to the second, one had to pay 1 Imperial Merit. The third floor required 5 Imperial Merits.
This continued to increase by random amounts, but the ninth floor required 1,000 Imperial Merits. After reaching that floor, you were free to browse the information as you pleased, but no books can be taken out. This meant you had to read and memorize everything you wanted. You can even inscribe it into a spiritual jade, but the various books and scrolls could not leave the premises.
He nodded, finding the stairs and ascending. The stairwell twisted in a spiral and at each floor there was a door, and at that door was a spiritual formation that seemed to require your token to activate it. This formation likely automatically deducted points.
He continued to climb until the ninth floor and entered, paying the 1000 Imperial Merits.
This was an absurd amount of Imperial Merit. It might take an individual an entire century to earn this much, and that's by taking high-level missions. For alchemists, they truly had the get-merit-quick scheme set up for them. Too bad the alchemists of this sect couldn't fully abuse this.
Furthermore, alchemists had almost no need to cultivate high-level cultivation methods with incredible difficulty as it'll take away from their time concocting, studying, or enjoying life. They already cultivate the Dao of Alchemy, why place more on their plate?
The ninth floor room was filled with bookcases and stands of individual books with plaques that stated their name and a brief description. He didn't want to bother reading too much, because unlike the Scarlet Dao Temple, this place had tens of thousands of thick, heavy books. So he swept his gaze on the names and covers of each book.
After several minutes, he realized there was no book titled Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity on the ninth floor. "Wait...why did I automatically assume it was on the ninth floor?" Almost immediately, he realized his mistake. With a bitter laugh, he looked for methods that would help his Saber and Elemental Natal Souls while filling up his knowledge on the full Astral Core Realm.
He found two suitable books. Well, no. His Natal Souls found their own books. They externalized and left his body without his will once more, snatching specific books and bringing them into his hands. Once more, he could only bitterly laugh.
The first book was titled: "Elemental Origin Intent - A Guide of Nine into One."
It detailed Elemental Energies and how it was incomplete as the nine elements hadn't fully become a single type of energy, but a raw mixture without a cohesiveness. It was like how yin and yang energies needed mana to merge into yin-yang energies, the nine elemental energies required a type of Intent called the Elemental Origin Intent to create Elemental Origin Energy.
It was rare, and supposed the Divine King Han Xei had written this book and distributed it in hopes of finding a successor.
'Again with the Divine King Han Xei looking for a successor...' He would think the Heavenly Daos was gearing him to obtain that mantle, but it didn't seem like it. After all, he had similarly heard that the Divine King Han Xei's hidden trove of legacies had been found and a successor was obtained.
If he had to make a guess, it was properly that young man he saw with that mysteriously beautiful woman at the Myriad Yore Continent's gathering. He had an air of the elements about him, and since he was a Blessed, it made sense.
He had learned that, like the King of Everlore, the Divine King Han Xei had ascended from the continent, not died. In fact, he went on to become a founder of one of the five hegemonic sects after the King of Everlore's disappearance. Despite being an era apart, they still met in the end, and the King of Everlore had even helped Divine King Han Xei in the history records.
'I wonder how many methods and paths he left for others to become his successor?' He didn't think the Divine King Han Xei hadn't made numerous preparations to find his successor. After all, he publically released all this information to pique interest. It was even in the Myriad Monarch Sect.
At least he was very open with the spread of information. In fact, wasn't the King of Everlore the same?
Anyways, putting aside these two mysterious figures, the saber cultivation method was called a single word: "Saber."
It was written with a sharp edge and seemed boundlessly tyrannical and lethal. He felt his spiritual sense prick just reading the title. It contained a natural intent that seemed to infuse with the world. Quite exceptional!
It detailed a proper list that Cultivation Methods had, spiritual spells, spiritual formations, saber-type arrays of both Qi and Astral design, including qi and astral arts. It highlighted Saber Intent, and its next level: Saber Heart Intent.
It's full name was Heart of the World, World of the Saber Intent.
After spending several hours reading each word and committing it to memory, he left.
After memorizing those two books, he could only descend and return back to the first floor. The old woman still had her nose deeply in a book.
"Excuse me, do you know where the Celestial Eyes of Spiritual Divinity is?" He asked patiently.
The old woman didn't even lift her head as she pointed a finger, and swiped. A book from one of the numerous bookcases on the first floor flew out of the shelf and slid on the counter to Wei Wuyin.
Wei Wuyin's left eyelid twitched erratically. 'It's on the first floor?! With that name?!'