Chapter 560: What It Means to Courting Death

Pei Mianman hurried over, a look of shock on her face as she saw the scene before her. "Is this the Gluttonous Devouring Scripture?" she asked.

She knew Zuan had obtained a secret manual in the secret realm before, but she had never seen him use it. Now that he had, its power was truly overbearing.

"Mmm." Zuan nodded. A ball of flame ignited in his palm, and he prepared to burn the Mosquito Daoist's remains, which did look quite gruesome.

Pei Mianman guessed his intention and quickly reminded him, "I think her remains might be useful. She previously absorbed Sang Qian's vital essence, so she had a deep vendetta with the Sang family. If you give her remains to the Sang family, you're sure to gain their friendship. At that point, they'll probably turn a blind eye to you 'stealing' their daughter-in-law."

Having fought alongside them before, she had long discerned the relationship between him and Zheng Dan.

Zuan was speechless.

"What do you mean, 'steal'? We're in love, okay?"

Pei Mianman pursed her lips and smiled. "Yes, yes, you and someone else's widow are 'in love'."

Zuan was speechless again.

Despite his internal grumbling, he still put the Mosquito Daoist's remains into the Glazed Pearl.

"Oh, by the way," Pei Mianman reminded him, "it's best not to expose this cultivation method in front of others in the future. Cultivators value their hard-earned cultivation the most; if they knew you could absorb others' cultivation so easily, they'd probably treat you like a demon everyone wants to destroy. The Mosquito Daoist was infamous precisely because the thought of her absorbing vital essence made everyone uncomfortable."

Zuan nodded. "I know that." It was like, even if you hadn't eaten pork, hadn't you seen a pig run? In wuxia novels, those who master techniques like the Star Sucking Great Skill or the North Profound Divine Art are always pursued by the martial world.

Only then did Pei Mianman relax. "What level has your cultivation reached now? Why can't I see it clearly anymore?"

Zuan was startled. He quickly began to examine his inner self, and the sight left him momentarily stunned.

Inside, a large expanse of magic formations glowed brightly, making his eyes somewhat dazzled.

One, two, three, four…

Not long ago, he had checked his cultivation: the fifth magic formation of the fifth rank. But now, all the magic formations of the fifth rank were lit up.

All the bones throughout his body had become translucent like jade. Although no one told him, he knew in his heart that his bones had long surpassed those of ordinary people.

Was this the state of a cultivator who had mastered bone refinement at the fifth rank?

He noticed a new set of magic formations appearing inside his bones. According to the cultivation knowledge he learned in the academy, this meant he was now cultivating his bone marrow.

He counted the magic formations inside; there were nine, and all nine were lit up!

Sixth Rank, complete mastery!

All his bone marrow brimmed with vibrant life, as if endlessly regenerating.

Zuan was somewhat bewildered. Had he directly broken through to the sixth rank?

He knew that back in Brightmoon City, a fifth-rank cultivator at his age was already considered a genius. Even someone as talented as Chu Chuyan and Pei Mianman, who had undergone rigorous training since childhood with unlimited resources from their families, had only barely reached this level, which was already astonishing. What then was his own situation?

He recalled the common cultivation knowledge from the academy: a sixth-rank cultivator could form an elemental protective film around their body, making it almost impossible for lower-rank cultivators to challenge them across ranks.

Originally, he couldn't deploy an elemental protective film since he hadn't awakened elemental abilities. But now, because he could borrow Daji's flame ability, he could form a flame protective film around his body.

Feeling the defensive capability of the film, he secretly felt fortunate. If he hadn't, by some cheat-like means, obtained the Tai'a Sword and the Death-Certain Dagger, which could directly break through such shields, he probably wouldn't have been able to pierce the defenses of those masters he fought earlier.

In wuxia novels, the Tai'a Sword and Death-Certain Dagger would probably be called something like "specialized in breaking internal masters' protective aura"...

He felt that the immense primal qi within him still had reserves. After tempering his bone marrow, it began to temper all the blood in his body.

In his main blood vessels, nine magic formations seemed to vaguely appear.

The immense primal qi he had absorbed continued to light up three of these formations before finally stopping.

When a cultivator reaches the seventh rank, they can automatically regenerate their health at any time. Even severe injuries, as long as they are not irreversible damage like limb loss, can heal back to normal with enough time.

Zuan felt it and realized the recovery speed was far inferior to that of the Grand Primordial Sutra. It was practically useless.

However, he also knew that he had been spoiled by the Grand Primordial Sutra. For other cultivators, this recovery ability was incredibly useful.

Against cultivators weaker than himself, the damage they inflicted might be less than what he could instantly recover.

When facing masters, injuries were common. Being able to heal himself was like having an extra life.

Zuan was somewhat dazed. Had he directly jumped two major ranks?

"Seventh rank?" Hearing his description, Pei Mianman couldn't help but laugh. "Looking across the world, seventh-rank cultivation is already enough to be a city lord of a major city, let alone someone as young as you."

What woman wouldn't want her lover to be a peerless hero? The stronger he was, the happier she became.

"However..." She frowned slightly, circling Zuan and continuously observing him. "Why does your seventh rank feel different from others to me?"

Zuan was startled. "What's different?"

Pei Mianman pursed her lips. "I can't quite say. I've seen quite a few seventh-rank cultivators around me, and I can generally sense their cultivation. Logically, since you're only at the third stage of the seventh rank, I should be able to sense yours too. But why can't I see through your cultivation now?"

Zuan didn't know what was going on. After all, he hadn't been cultivating for long, and his knowledge in this area certainly couldn't compare to Pei Mianman, who had trained in a prominent family since childhood.

"There's something even stranger," Pei Mianman said. "The Mosquito Daoist, by all accounts, was at least a Grandmaster. Why did you only increase by two ranks after absorbing all her cultivation?"

"Only two ranks is too little?" Zuan was surprised. He knew that the number of primal qi fruits required for each magic formation after the fifth rank was astronomical. Now at the seventh rank, the demand was astronomically higher. So he was already quite pleased to have improved this much.

"Of course it's little! The Mosquito Daoist was a Grandmaster; she might have even touched the threshold of a Great Grandmaster! How formidable must her cultivation have been? To only increase by two ranks, was the loss during absorption too great?" Pei Mianman looked perplexed.

"Most likely." Zuan, having studied physics, knew that most energy conversions resulted in waste. How could he possibly absorb the Mosquito Daoist's entire cultivation without any loss?

Pei Mianman stared at him for a moment. "There might be another possibility."

Zuan looked puzzled, and she continued, "Your seventh-rank, third-stage cultivation might be different from normal cultivators, likely far surpassing others at the same level. In the recent battles, whether against that 'Money-Adding Layman' or the Mosquito Daoist, your cultivation was clearly inferior to mine, yet you posed the greatest threat to them. Moreover, throughout the process, you showed no signs of primal qi exhaustion. So, your combat power definitely far exceeds your actual rank. This must be the marvel of the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra."

"Primal qi exhaustion?" Zuan was startled.

"Yes," Pei Mianman said with a strange expression. "Although eighth-rank cultivators can communicate with heaven and earth, it's only for a short time and not sustainable. Only by reaching the Grandmaster realm can one communicate with heaven and earth at will, allowing primal qi to regenerate endlessly and removing the worry of primal qi exhaustion during battle."

"For cultivators like us, no matter how powerful we are usually, once our primal qi is depleted, we basically have no combat power left. But you, throughout, seem to have no such problem, nor did I see you consume any primal qi replenishing medicine midway."

Zuan finally understood. In the end, it was like mana regeneration in games, or internal energy recovery in wuxia worlds.

But he had fought countless bloody battles before, and it seemed he had never been troubled by primal qi exhaustion.

"Are you only realizing this problem now, you idiot?" Mi Li's cold snort echoed in his mind.

Zuan was overjoyed. "Empress sister, you're awake?"

"Hmph, with all that commotion from you and that dead mosquito sucking each other, how could I not wake up? Originally, your Gluttonous Devouring Scripture had never been used before, so you might not have been able to out-absorb her. Luckily, you're smart enough," Mi Li said with considerable praise in her tone.

"Of course!" Zuan sounded a bit smug. "Oh, by the way, did you just say I don't have issues with primal qi exhaustion?"

Mi Li replied, "There are two reasons. First, besides recovering physical injuries, the Grand Primordial Sutra can also restore primal qi. Second, your Phoenix Nirvana Sutra has stored a massive amount of primal qi within you; at your current consumption rate, it's virtually impossible to deplete it. Otherwise, why do you think the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra is so difficult to upgrade? Because each minor level requires countless times more primal qi than ordinary cultivators."

Zuan's heart stirred. Previously, he had used 700 primal qi fruits to raise Daji to the peak of the fourth rank. But for him, 700 primal qi fruits wouldn't even be a fraction of what was needed for the later magic formations.

Mi Li then sighed, "Legend says that cultivating the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra to its peak grants eternal life. For tens of thousands of years, no matter how powerful cultivators became, they only increased their lifespan; there was no true immortality. So it's no wonder the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra is so hard to practice. Normally, the enormous amount of primal qi required later on makes it impossible to succeed."

"Yet, you, brat, possess various other fortuitous encounters that even I envy. Perhaps in the end, you truly can master it and achieve immortality."

Zuan was somewhat puzzled. "Didn't you also live for tens of thousands of years? Isn't that considered immortality?"

"Of course not," Mi Li replied. "My situation is different. Being sealed in the underground palace had its benefits: the flow of time within the seal was very slow. So, while from your perspective I've lived for tens of thousands of years, for me, I haven't actually experienced such a long period. In a way, it was just like taking a nap."

Zuan chuckled, "I thought you were a ten-thousand-year-old hag, but it turns out your mental age is just a little sister in her teens. Good girl, call me big brother and let me hear it."

***

That's all for today's chapter. I need to take the next two days to carefully plan the upcoming plot in the capital.