Chapter 24

Shen Yue was barely containing his excitement. He had just finished upgrading all relevant techniques to combine into one mighty manual. The product of hundreds of hours of work gave him such a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that he had let out a shout of pure joy!

The new knowledge he had gained from the pendant was not too relevant to his cultivation technique, but it had strengthening and meditation techniques that were compatible with what he imagined his final cultivation skill required.

Seven days had passed in Glory City but fifty-eight days had passed for Shen Yue. He had tried to limit his sleep inside the realm too as little as possible, using the time he returned to Glory City to catch up on rest. This had mentally drained him to his limits, it was lucky he had thirteen years of determination to see this project through.

Making a copy of all the books he would merge, he couldn't help but gaze at the collection of body strengthening, cultivation, meditation, and concealing techniques. There were thousands of books and scrolls, nearly two months of work. With a weary but excited smile, he ordered his library to compile his ultimate manual.

The thousands of book that was just collected in the Library of Heaven's Path crumpled and slowly merged as one. There wasn't any name on the nondescript black book making it look unassuming. Shen Yue could not think of one worthy enough to describe the technique after he had looked through it.

- The technique would allow him to contract twenty-nine demon spirit beasts, one for each variant of the seven main elements, plus neutral.

- It was capable of training both his soul force and the strength of his physical prowess and stamina at the same time.

- Physical strength tempered by Qi, producing a body resistant to tremendous damage as the cultivation level rises. Nourishes the body and stimulates the organs, removing all impurities to create a godly physique.

- All meridians are forced open and are used to channel Qi, strengthening and enlarging the soul realm at a visible rate. Meridians are forced to absorb Qi, expanding and nourishing them to control the torrent of Qi passing through them.

- Able to conceal one's destiny and cultivation status making it undetectable by others. The technique constantly evolves within the body merging with the cultivator to shield it from divination.

- Due to nurturing all attributes simultaneously, the soul realm is forcefully changed into an amalgamation of all of them. He would then be capable of using any technique of all attributes.

- Mental strength, soul control and strength simultaneously cultivated when practising technique.

- Cultivates an oppressive Emperor's aura that grows with each level.

- When he reaches the Heavenly Fate Realm, he will be able to use a Fate Soul to make nine permanent clones able to cultivate, one for each Fate Soul sacrificed. These clones will be subordinate to the main soul with a central mind controlling intelligent thralls.

- Has the ability to efficiently absorb all forms of Heavenly Energy to enhance soul force.

There was a myriad of other small benefits, but the main ones were already enough for Shen Yue to be cackling like a demented psychopath. There was a bold note at the start of the book proclaiming the need for zero cultivation with a neutral soul realm to be able to succeed in this technique. Oh, it also mentioned lots of pain when building his foundation in the bronze realm. Apparently, soul realms don't like to be destroyed and rebuilt.

This was what Shen Yue had been worried about, the complexity of mashing all these techniques together, would not go well with a foundation made from a mix of different manuals. Only with a clean slate could he build an omnipotent cultivation technique as he had envisioned from birth. The immense agony he was about to endure only compounded the anxiety he felt thinking of his brain exploding from information overload.

All he could do was make himself comfortable and swallow five of his strongest Recovery Pills. With the only countermeasure he had, he activated his cultivation technique. Chanting profound truths of the universe while all his meridians were utilised to absorb Qi, felt absolutely amazing. He felt like his body had been blessed by a god, the rapture he felt must be why experts have no problems cultivating for days at a time.

His religious experience was quickly cut off as his soul realm absorbed enough soul force to advance to the bronze realm. The agony he felt replaced his chanting with soul splitting screams of torture. But like a giant vacuum, his technique had somehow kept operating on its own sucking endless amounts of Qi into his soul realm. Then the knowledge hit him.

Shen Yue awoke to a horrendous smell. It smelt like burning hair, vomit and after grog bog, all combined into a cocktail of a stench worthy of torture. With a splitting headache, Shen Yue sat up to find himself covered in a smear of black paste producing the smell. It seems his breakthrough had released impurities from his body and boy were they impure.

Since his brain had not exploded and he was still alive, he exited the realm to share the smell with Su Mei. Hopefully, it would force her to order a bath readied so he could clean the filth off. With Mei gagging and yelling for all maids to quickly ready one, his plan had worked.

After draining the first bath after a brief scrub to remove the filth, Shen Yue was now relaxing in a nice hot scented bubble bath. Without the almost corporally stinging odour, he was free to examine the results of his breakthrough.

His Soul realm now held a Ying Yang symbol surrounded by twenty-nine balls of different colours. The Ying Yang symbol had grown, from the size of a coin to a basketball. It had also increased the speed it was rotating, releasing slightly more energy to nourish his body.

Now all he needed was to reach gold rank so he could build a slave seal and for the temporal vine to sprout. Releasing a Soul Crystal from his storage ring, he injected his soul force into it. Four hundred and ten soul force! He had directly jumped to a 4-star bronze rank! How long was his body absorbing Qi to stabilise his Soul realm after rebuilding it?

Shen Yue couldn't keep the smile off his face, he was now a Demon Spiritualist! Taking his first steps on the path of immortality, he would dominate this universe! First, he needed to sleep. Shen Yue was exhausted both mentally and physically. The massive influx of knowledge had taken its toll on his psyche, but he still had enough energy for a famous one-liner.

Turning to Mei that sat at the side of the three-meter bathing pool he looked at her seriously and said: "I know kung-fu!"

She just looked at him like he was an idiot. "Six-year-olds know kung-fu, young master, it is not very impressive."

Shen Yue could only cry tears of blood, how he missed people getting his jokes!

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Yang Xin was having a great time. After Ye Ziyun had admitted to being a part of Nie Li's scam, the Snow Wing Family had to help shoulder the debt. One billion demon spirit coins was a lot of money, even for a dominant Family. Unfortunately, they had many assets to sell off to raise funds for the fine.

They had hundreds of black-gold demon spirits valued in the high hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Even though they could cover the costs, it hit them hard, losing properties and treasures to make up the difference. Losing forty percent of their total wealth did not sit well with the elders of the Family.

Yang Xin had used this opportunity to shop in the Snow Wind Family's treasure vaults. Shen Yue had provided her with a list of items that she was to try and get at all costs. Chief among them a particular mysterious golden beast egg. She also snatched up all inscription scrolls for cheap as they had decayed with time.

After giving Shen Yue an inventory of the loot they had obtained, he had her exchange the easily found black-gold demon spirits to the Saint Judgement Hall to make up their twenty million court costs. They were ecstatic to receive them and praised Yang Xin and Lord Voldemort as virtuous citizens of Glory City!

The only people that were not happy were the Heavenly Marks and the Snow Wind Families. The Heavenly Marks Family was allowed to keep their compound, but all their property was confiscated. They would have to rent the land from the Immortal Elixir Guild and would be at their mercy.

Nie Hai was currently staring daggers at Nie Li. He had brought their Family destruction in a week. As a red soul realm cultivator, it was already generous for the clan to send him to school for three thousand demon spirit coins a year. But instead of cultivating diligently, he was openly copulating and starting feuds with powerful Nobles!

"Yang Xin has agreed to rent our lands back to us if you were to make pills for forty hours a week. She will also soothe the feud between the Nemesis Family and us if you agree to not act against Lord Voldemort of Shen Yue in any way, shape or form. The moment you do, they will declare us oath breakers and blood will be spilt. This is non-negotiable. I have already signed the contract, and if you break it I will kill you and your family myself! Is that clear?" Nie Hai had lost his grandfatherly look and was staring at Nie Li like he was dog shit he had stepped in.

Nie Li was furious, he had not been treated this way in over two hundred years! For an insignificant gold rank to be treating him like a child and ordering him around, he was not going to be a medicine slave for Lord Voldemort!

It was at this point that Nie Ming, Nie Li's father, started laying into him his belt for not kneeling on the ground and begging forgiveness. Nie Ming did not know what was wrong with his son. When he had left for the academy two weeks ago, he had been a little boisterous but still followed the rules. Now he was an arrogant little shit that was unrepentant for destroying the Heavenly Marks Family!

Nie Ming would be educating him thoroughly over the next couple of days. By the time Nie Li walked into the Immortal Elixir Guild, he would be begging them to let him work there!