Chapter 113 - 79: Red Moon_2
On the side of the Aquatic Clan, since taking over the Blackwater Divine Seal, I completely gained control of the Blackwater River and was able to summon Earth Yuan Spirit Qi at will. Therefore, the Great Ye of cultivation received further enhancements, leading to a steep rise in the numbers of the Blackwater Aquatic Clan, and the Water Army divisions developed swiftly.
Now, there are a hundred thousand Water Army soldiers, divided into four divisions: “Mystery,” “Dragon,” “Big Dipper,” and “Electricity.” Each division’s general is a Golden Core Great Transformation Demon, commanding hundreds of Foundation Establishment lieutenants with Demon Bodies. As for soldiers at the Demon Beast level, their numbers exceed ten thousand.
Golden Cores are difficult to achieve, and demonic cultivation is even harder.
These four generals could, in a mere hundred years, become Great
Transformation Demons with internal pills, all thanks to my “enlightenment.”
It was an enlightenment of both the cultivation skills and the authority of the Earth Deities.
Yes, the authority of the Earth Deities can also enlighten and awaken, and when combined with the enlightenment traits of the cultivation skills, the dual effects overlapped to achieve such advancement.
Both in terms of strength and influence, the progress was immense.
Only one aspect remained stagnant.
That was the Earth Deity Cultivation Method, the development of the Spirit Land.
After cultivating, Xu Yang realized just how difficult the Earth Deity Cultivation Method was.
It can be divided into five major realms: Mortal Land, Spirit Land, Spirit Realm, Blessed Land, and Cave Heaven!
The Blackwater River currently belongs to the Spirit Land level, but this was not my achievement—it was the result of the autonomous operation of the Blackwater Divine Seal over the past millions of years, gathering Spiritual Energy and elevating the Earth Yuan.
A hundred years ago, when I took over the divine seal and began the Earth
Deity cultivation, the Blackwater River was already at the Spirit Land level.
A hundred years later, despite my painstaking efforts to improve the quality of the Blackwater Aquatic Clan by several folds, transplanting numerous Spiritual Objects, and even receiving offerings of incense from the common people and the willpower of the populace, the Blackwater River remained at the Spirit Land level.
Although there are ranks within the Spirit Lands, the fact that a hundred years of hard work failed to advance even one realm, despite many skills helping development, shows just how arduous the path of Earth Deity cultivation is.
In fact, Earth Deity cultivation isn’t measured in terms of hundreds of years but in terms of thousands or tens of thousands of years.
The former Black Water Dragon Monarch spent thousands of years to barely raise the Blackwater River to the “Superior Spirit Land” level. However, once the Demon Realm invaded, the entire realm collapsed in one fell swoop, dissipating like smoke.
Now that I’ve taken over, starting from the “Inferior Spirit Land” level, a hundred years of hard work has only just managed to touch the threshold of the “Middle Spirit Land.”
Thus, to elevate to Superior Spirit Land and then turn the Superior Spirit Land into a Spirit Realm, as well as the Spirit Realm into Blessed Land and Cave Heaven, it would take hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years, to be successful.
This clearly shows how difficult the way of the Earth Deities is.
Fortunately, the Earth Deity Cultivation Method does not hinder cultivation progress.
It is like… a profession?
Yes, a profession, specifically a profession called “Deities.”
The ranking of the deity profession only affects its efficacy and does not limit advancement in other areas.
Theoretically speaking, even if Xu Yang’s Earth Deity Cultivation Method does not advance and he remains a minor River God forever, it won’t prevent him from practicing martial arts and cultivation, and reaching the realm of Martial True Immortals.
A deity’s position is one thing, cultivation is another; high ranking deities are naturally strong, but low-ranking deities are not necessarily weak.
That’s the logic.
Therefore, Xu Yang didn’t care much about it and continued living his lax life:
raising fish, planting grass, occasionally firing up the furnace to refine pills, improving his skills proficiency, further researching talismans and formations, all the while maintaining cultivation at a relaxed pace as he pondered the Fish-Dragon Transformation Skill…
Like this, more than a hundred years have passed.
His alchemy had greatly improved, and now he had a seventy percent chance of being able to successfully create Foundation Building Pills.
A seventy percent chance is quite significant. It should be noted that even a tier three Pill Master has only a seventy to eighty percent chance of creating Foundation Building Pills, with forty percent of that reliant on their profound cultivation, controlling it with their Divine Soul and Mana.
Xu Yang, now also a Golden Core-equivalent Great Transformation Demon, had a seventy percent chance, thanks to his cultivation strength advantage, to create Foundation Building Pills.
It was time to try, and in fact, he was already trying. Periodically, he would expend his Divine Soul’s power to transport the Spiritual Medicine grown in the Blackwater River into the real world.
Now, the real world’s reserves of Spiritual Medicine were sufficient for him to attempt making Foundation Building Pills three times.
That was the accumulation of a hundred years in the Blackwater River.
The harvest was vast.
But there was still a regret, and that was… Cultivation Techniques!
In this world, although there were Immortal Gods once, that was tens of millions of years ago.
Tens of millions of years ago, during the war between gods and demons, the heaven shattered and the earth cracked. Countless Heavenly Immortals, Earth Deities, and Human Gods fell; mortals needless to say, except for those who were fortunate enough to receive the protection of great gods and escape into Cave Heaven Blessed Lands, the rest were basically wiped out.
The current Human Clan was entirely new, with absolutely no inheritance from the Ancient Immortal Gods.
The inheritances of those Ancient Immortal Gods, along with the related Cultivation Techniques, Jade Slips, and Dao books, had been destroyed in that great war. What little survived could not withstand the erosion of time. The fact that a place like the Blackwater Divine Mansion could leave behind a mansion and a divine seal was luck within luck.
For a hundred years, Xu Yang had been dedicated to searching for “Immortals’ Cave Mansions” and “Earth Deities’ Lost Treasures,” but to no avail. A few great gods’ sacred mountains and Dao places he, a “stateless person,” did not dare to visit rashly, resulting in him not even having access to the higher-tier
Cultivation Techniques. He was still practicing a version of Fish-Dragon Transformation that he had modified reference to his own form.
This made Xu Yang somewhat distressed.
He lacked Cultivation Techniques.
The Martial Arts Scripture he had only extrapolated to the “Golden Core Embrace” realm.
It was the same with the Cultivation Skills; all the Cultivator Techniques he had were only those of Foundation Establishment, with nothing on Golden Core, let alone the methods to break through from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core.
These were monopolized by the Golden Core Sects. To acquire Golden Core Techniques, one would have to approach Golden Core Sects to purchase or exchange for them. Yet, the techniques Xu Yang had were all obtained from Qi Cultivation cultivators, the strongest being on the level of The Three Scourges of White Dragon. How could they have the capital to come in contact with Golden Core Sects?
Now, Xu Yang only had one set of techniques that contained the Golden Core chapters, which was the Fish-Dragon Transformation.
This Fish-Dragon Transformation was created by him referencing his own Fish-Dragon Form. Rather than calling it creation, it was more about riding the wave and assisting its surge, naturally expediting the evolution of the “Fish-Dragon Form.” His original human body could not imitate and cultivate it at all.
Hence, his primary goal now was to acquire the inheritance of the Immortal
Gods from this world, preferably developing all the way to a Daluo Golden Immortal without having to worry about the lack of Cultivation Techniques ever again.
However…
Just as Xu Yang was contemplating how to find the inheritance of the Immortal Gods…
At the bank of Blackwater River, the drums and gongs were deafening, marking the climax of the temple fair.
Suddenly…
A mass of Yang Yun clouds surged, obscuring the sky and blocking the sun! “Why has it gotten dark?”
“Could it be going to rain?”
“Why would Lord Dragon King arrange for rain today?”
Everyone was astonished, looking up to see the great darkened sky covering the vault of heaven.
Amidst the darkness, a bloody light could be seen, slowly taking shape, unfolding from a crescent into a half-moon, then from a half-moon into a full moon, sinister and inauspicious, casting its light over the heavens.
Blood Moon in the sky!
“Boom!!!”
In an instant, the water surface exploded, and a dragon shadow flew out of
Blackwater River, rushing into the sky, staring uncertainly at that blood moon.
“Qiong Gao, thou hast lost!”
At the same time, in the space between heaven and earth, a voice indescribable and beyond characterization boomed, announcing to all beings of the Three Realms.
“I am Mara, the Master of the Six Heavens of the Demon Realm, the Great
Freely Wandering Heavenly Demon King!”
“This world belongs to me!”