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Chapter 376: Off?

At some point, Chu Liang started suspecting what would happen to these wine-jar monsters if he had never come to collect them.

They would probably spread downstream along the river, but what would happen after they devoured enough ghosts? Could they grow infinitely?

Although he was curious, he didn\'t keep a wine-jar monster alive to test his conjecture. After all, there would always be times when he couldn\'t be here to kill more of these monsters for rewards. By then, he could just come back here and check things in a few days.

Currently, the demand for Fragrance of Enlightenment was high, so the more he could collect, the better.

In the future, once he planted enough Intoxicating Spirit Flowers, the garden would grow big enough to take care of itself, so he wouldn\'t have to work so hard anymore.

Take Berry Wonderland as an example. Even though Chu Liang hadn\'t planted new Golden Vein Flowers for many days, he could still let the plants rest and recover by rotating the growth in different areas.

This was the so-called rotational planting system.

After he killed the wine-jar monsters, Chu Liang still felt unsatisfied, wishing he could slash another ten or eight of them.

I am really working too hard, Chu Liang thought to himself.

He then headed back to the Silver Sword Peak to sleep.

Upon waking up, he suddenly felt some changes in himself.

As he worked on activating the Qi-Circulation Technique, combining his qi and spirit, he realized the reason for these changes: he had achieved a breakthrough.

However, he hadn\'t achieved a breakthrough in the cultivation of the Divine Nine\'s Profound Mental Cultivation Technique. Instead, he had achieved a breakthrough in the cultivation of the Secret Dragon Blood Technique.

Currently, Chu Liang was simultaneously practicing the cultivation techniques of both human cultivators and the dragon race. These two paths did not conflict with each other and neither required him to exert much effort.

Even without doing anything, I still have everything I need.

The cultivation method of celestial beasts was straightforward. Ever since Chu Liang acquired the Secret Dragon Blood Technique through the reverse scale given to him by the White Dragon, even breathing equated to cultivation. Today, he finally stepped into a new realm, marked by a new golden streak on the white scales on his wrist.

He sensed that the purity of the dragon breath in his body had increased. As he condensed a ball of platinum-colored dragon breath in his palm, he noticed that the golden hue within the ball had intensified.

As Chu Liang stepped outside to an open space, he tried punching the mountain wall. A powerful force instantly created massive cracks in the wall, causing half the mountain to rumble!

Boom—

His physical strength had reached a terrifying level. In terms of pure strength, even physical cultivators or martial artists of the same realm might not be his match.

He was practically a humanoid dragon!

And this was only the second realm of the dragon race. His physical strength was already equivalent to that of a fourth-realm human.

Of course, this didn\'t mean that the Secret Dragon Blood Technique was superior to the cultivation techniques of the Great Astral Sect. Rather, celestial beasts generally had an incredibly smooth cultivation process in the early stages, easily reaching the peak of their innate abilities.

The stronger celestial beasts, such as the four divine beasts and the four malevolent beasts[1] were destined to cross the Heavenly Gate as long as they could reach adulthood.

The weaker ones, such as the Golden-Furred Hou, could reach the fifth or sixth realm even if they were slow-witted, which would be unimaginable for humans.

However, progressing beyond the seventh realm was particularly difficult for celestial beasts. Their comprehension skills were far inferior to those of humans, making the understanding of Great Dao as challenging as reaching the heavens.

Thus, in the seventh and especially the eighth realm, humans held an absolute advantage.

Chu Liang even suspected that it was because humans had to overcome many difficulties, making breakthroughs step by step to reach the Heavenly Gate, that they accumulated a profound understanding of spiritual qi and the Great Dao, allowing them to succeed at the Heavenly Gate.

Otherwise, many spirit beasts possessed intelligence comparable to humans. Why couldn\'t they comprehend the Dao?

It might be because their cultivation methods were too simple, making it difficult for them to comprehend the Dao. This was similar to not being accustomed to thinking; when the need arose, they found themselves unable to do so.

This gave Chu Liang a wake-up call.

Although the Large-Headed Dolls were excellent, he couldn\'t rely too much on them for cultivation. He needed to have a thorough understanding of his own techniques.

No matter how busy he got, he should at least practice the Qi-Circulation Technique once a day—no, twice!

He should strive until he couldn\'t anymore and work so hard that his effort would move him to tears!

He then wondered if he now possessed both the physique of a celestial beast and the comprehension of a human.

This meant that he would be strong in both the early and late stages of cultivation.

This sounded impressive but wasn\'t the Jiuli tribe, as Zhang Chen described, just like this?

How did such a powerful tribe get wiped out in the past...

Could it really have been divine punishment from the immortal realm?

...

The next day, Chu Liang returned to Heaven-Reaching Peak.

Wen Yulong had sent a message yesterday afternoon saying that he had finished modifying the Inferno Devil Armor and that it was ready for collection. However, by the time Chu Liang saw the message, it was already evening, so he waited until the next day to pick it up.

Wen Yulong\'s eyes lit up as soon as he saw Chu Liang. "Senior Brother Chu! You\'re finally here!"

Seeing Wen Yulong appearing so eager to show his work, Chu Liang knew that the modifications had been successful, so he smiled as well.

"Looks like it turned out well?" he asked with a smile.

"Hehe." Wen Yulong smiled mysteriously, then took out a palm-sized brocade box. "Open it and see."

Chu Liang took the box, opened it, and saw a dark red scaly sphere the size of a fist inside.

Its shape was somewhat similar to a pinecone, but slightly larger than a normal-size pinecone.

Fortunately, he had heard about some high-grade armor in the immortal realm that could be stored in this pill-like form, so he didn\'t ask what it was.

Chu Liang picked up the scaly sphere and infused it with qi.

Whoosh—

As the scaly sphere shimmered and expanded, red scales started wrapping around Chu Liang\'s body like a serpent, transforming into a piece of the armor plate. In the blink of an eye, his entire body was enveloped.

As the light faded, it transformed into a set of flame-colored light armor.

Even without considering anything else, its appearance was much better than the original Inferno Devil Armor.

"So, how is it? The original armor was too ugly, so I redesigned each piece of the armor plate. Isn\'t it much better?" Wen Yulong said, seeking praise.

"Fantastic! This is one of the best armors I\'ve ever seen," Chu Liang praised generously.

Though, to be honest, I haven\'t seen many high-grade armors up close, Chu Liang thought. Only the Jiuli Soul Armor and the Inferno Devil Armor.

When Wen Yulong heard the praise he was hoping for, he took a few steps back and said, "I didn\'t make major changes to its original defensive capabilities, so there\'s no need to test that. But I added a new set of formation patterns. You can try activating it."

Upon hearing this, Chu Liang checked with his divine sense and indeed felt a newly added formation that required active activation. And so, he gently infused it with qi.

Boom—

Considering his previous experience dealing with Wen Yulong, he only infused a tiny bit of foundational qi... In fact, he wished he could infuse only a quarter of that.

The armor suddenly quivered violently, and a burst of Inferno Abyss Flames ignited on it! The flames swirled around, covering a radius of a zhang, like a blooming red lotus!

"Whoa." Chu Liang was startled and quickly asked, "What\'s going on?"

"The activation of the original Inferno Devil Armor could ignite Inferno Abyss Flames as well, but the intensity of the fire wasn\'t high and was only strong enough to dissolve external foundational qi," Wen Yulong explained. "So while the Inferno Devil Armor was great for defending against qi attacks, its defense against close-range physical strikes was mediocre, if not nonexistent."

Chu Liang was aware of this.

The Inferno Devil Armor wasn\'t a thick, heavy type of armor but relied on a layer of Inferno Abyss Flame to dissolve qi. This made it weak in close combat defense, which he had long noticed... after all, he had pierced through several of them himself.

He never expected one set of armor to cover all bases.

The Jiuli Soul Armor excelled in close combat defense but was weak against long-range attacks. It complemented the Inferno Devil Armor well, and this was what he had in mind.

However, it seemed Wen Yulong had other plans.

"I was considering how to enhance its close combat defense," Wen Yulong explained. "Given the material limitations of the armor, it\'s difficult to improve its defense. So, I decided that the best defense is a good offense. I modified the formation pattern that generates the Inferno Abyss Flame."

"Anyone who tries to engage you in close combat will be burned by the flames. This way, you can be immune to all close-range attacks," Wen Yulong said, smiling confidently.

Chu Liang nodded repeatedly as he commented, "That\'s a genius idea."

It made perfect sense. If no one dares to engage you in close combat, isn\'t that essentially defense?

After experiencing the strength of the new armor, Chu Liang was very satisfied and asked, "Alright, so how do I turn off the flames?"

He had studied the formation patterns for a while but couldn\'t find a way to retract the flames. If it kept burning like this, there was no telling how long it would stay ignited.

It was just a casual question, but Wen Yulong\'s smile suddenly froze, and he showed a puzzled expression. "Off?"

1. The four divine beasts are the azure dragon, the white tiger, the vermillion bird, and Xuanwu, which would be the black tortoise. The four malevolent beasts are the Taotie, Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu. ☜