Chapter 907: Massive Gains, Peach Blossom Gu Breakthrough!

With the God-Devouring Technique breaking through to the second layer, Lu Changsheng’s soul stepped into a new world.

From Nascent Soul sixth level to the peak of the seventh.

It was only one level apart.

But it was the bottleneck between mid and late Nascent Soul.

Many Nascent Soul cultivators spend their whole lives unable to cross it.

Lu Changsheng could clearly feel the massive boost that came with stepping into late-stage in soul.

As if everything lay in his grasp, omnipotent, a swelling conviction of invincibility.

He knew it was an illusion born from a surge of soul power in a short time.

Even so he couldn’t help sinking into that wondrous might, as if holding heaven and earth in his palm.

With a single thought the entire Yin Ghost Sect came into view in his mind.

Each mountain range had formations and restrictions to block outside senses.

Yet he saw everything at a glance.

His divine sense slipped through formations and wards with ease, laying bare every cultivator, yin spirit and ghost king of the Yin Ghost Sect.

If he wished, a single thought could tear open those cave restrictions and erase people outright.

Focusing on a few cultivators, he could even catch the threads of their thoughts.

In this moment Lu Changsheng was like a god overlooking the Yin Ghost Sect, holding their fates in hand.

The sect’s cultivators had no idea they were being watched, going about their days as usual.

He wasn’t a voyeur, so he drew back his divine sense.

But his soul had grown too quickly.

From comparable to mid Nascent Soul to sixth level, then to the peak of the seventh, even he hadn’t yet adapted to the power.

His senses didn’t open and close as smoothly as he wanted, and stray sights and sounds still slipped in.

He calmed his mind, settling into this surge of soul power.

After a long while he gradually took full control of his soul and sense.

The boost from a late-stage soul was staggering.

Beyond the expanded perspective and heightened five senses.

His grasp of spiritual energy and spells, of spirit treasures and secret treasures, and his insight into others’ arts and tricks all surpassed before.

When he cast a technique he could mobilize his own energy and heaven and earth’s aura with more finesse, shaving off expenditure and pushing power higher.

Lu Ancestor had never been the type to obsess over wringing out one hundred and twenty percent with minimum cost.

But with his soul at a grand cultivator’s level, if he chose to sit down and refine his methods, the results would multiply.

Control over treasures was even more direct.

In battle the number of spirit treasures one could command was limited not just by energy but by divine sense.

Even though he always let the artifact spirit Ah Wu run the 【Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror】 on its own, he still had to split his mind to guide that Celestial Treasure.

Now with his soul soaring, even without a realm breakthrough the mirror’s ceiling had risen.

If he was willing to burn Nascent Soul essence and the treasure’s source, the effect would only grow.

As for reading other cultivators’ arts and methods, that went without saying.

With sense beyond theirs, he’d pierce disguises and stealth with ease, see through their realm, even predict moves and catch cracks and ripples in their hearts.

Back then, with the Taiyi Spirit and the name “Changsheng True Lord” walking the world, he’d already tasted the edge of a soul stronger than peers.

Killers and enemies who took him for Foundation or Core came to strike, and he saw through them the instant they moved.

“Still, the biggest gain from stronger sense is the pressure and strike it brings to those below.”

He stood calm, quietly tasting every perk this breakthrough brought.

Before, to kill True Lord Mingsha, True Lord Tiancang and True Lord Qianren, he needed the Nine Calamity Sword, the Danghun Bell, the Starrealm Compass and more.

Now he no longer needed the hassle.

A late-stage Nascent Soul’s soul attack could replace the 【Danghun Bell】 and even beat it in many cases.

A mid-stage Nascent Soul’s soul attack at most rattled someone at early stage, hard to cause real harm.

If the enemy had a soul-type secret treasure, they might not be affected at all.

But a late-stage grand cultivator’s soul strike could severely disrupt an early-stage Nascent Soul’s spirit, even wound it.

In a duel, once a cultivator’s soul consciousness is disturbed or shaken, the consequences are brutal.

Even the time of a blink could decide the battle.

On top of that, beyond the Nine Calamity Sword and the Sun-Moon Yin-Yang Mirror, he had a mid-fourth-rank body.

The greatest edge of a body cultivator was close-quarters suppression.

He rarely used his body to brawl, but that didn’t mean it was weak.

With the Chaos Body’s amplification his physique far surpassed other dual cultivators, like a pure body cultivator.

He could meet an early Nascent Soul’s self-detonation head-on, and physically suppress True Lord Nine Spirits’ Nascent Soul self-detonation.

In such a case, facing an early-stage opponent, he needed few extra moves.

Unleash a soul secret art, then close in with his physique to crush outright.

With his soul at the peak of seventh level, his physical divine ability 【Chaos Manifestation】 had grown as well.

Put simply, early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators stood no chance against him unless they had a soul secret treasure or fled the instant they met.

Otherwise escape was almost impossible.

Even some newly advanced mid-stage Nascent Souls without soul treasures would face grave danger against him.

Beyond direct combat strength, breaking into late-stage soul also boosted alchemy, talismans, formations, divination and the like.

Especially formations and divination.

A formation master running a sealed grand array needed powerful sense.

The stronger the sense, the deeper the control of a grand array.

The might a formation master drew from an array depended chiefly on his divine sense, then on cultivation and body, alongside how well he knew the array.

As for divination, there was even less to add.

Divination touched heavenly secrets and leaned hard on soul and spiritual sense, draining the mind.

Lu Changsheng didn’t care much about the lifts to formations and divination or the hundred arts of cultivation.

He wouldn’t spend time delving and accumulating. Relying on a soul breakthrough alone had limited returns.

“Besides the straight jump in realm, the biggest help should be in condensing a domain and training divine abilities next.”

He murmured, knowing that with a late-stage soul, shattering the vacuum to condense a domain would take half the effort.

The same went for tempering divine abilities.

The system had already handed him the full inheritance of his arts.

With resources and all the rare materials he needed, the late-stage soul would double the efficiency of refining them now.

To him that was a huge gain.

Otherwise, finishing the Nascent Soul Domain, then fully refining the arts of the 《Yin-Yang Creation Sutra》 and the 《True Saint Skill of Brahma and Demons》 would take decades.

“And now there’s one more—the God-Devouring Technique.”

While the God-Devouring Technique held several soul secret arts that could directly strike or disturb another’s soul.

Without spending the time to condense its core divine ability, the God-Devouring Bottle, in his sea of consciousness and forge a killing move, hurting a mid-stage Nascent Soul’s soul would be hard.

As for disturbing a late-stage grand cultivator, he had no such thought.

Not to mention their souls wouldn’t be weaker than his after reaching late stage.

Anyone who breaks into late stage isn’t simple.

They’ve lived for centuries, even a thousand years.

Each one once a child of fortune, a peerless prodigy.

They’d have trump cards, top inheritances and soul treasures on them.

When he first broke into early Nascent Soul, thanks to the Yin-Yang Myriad Laws Nascent Soul and the Chaos Body, his soul already matched mid stage.

Those old monsters who spent centuries or a millennium in the Nascent Soul realm would certainly gather soul-path treasures to push soul and sense higher.

In his view it was normal for some mid-stage giants to wield late-stage souls.

Once stuck at a bottleneck, most cultivators chose to temper the body or strengthen the soul to build foundation, then charge the wall.

“It’s a pity this God-Devouring Technique has such a high entry bar. I can’t spread it.”

After feeling out his late-stage soul, he said with some regret.

Its effect was undeniably strong. Complete the first layer and your sense doubles.

Complete the second and it doubles again.

But training it was just too hard and too harsh.

He hadn’t felt it with the first layer.

The second made him realize he’d underestimated it.

The second layer could only be practiced by Nascent Soul cultivators.

And it demanded a lot from body and soul.

If your soul and body weren’t tough enough to bear the surge, your body could collapse and your consciousness go haywire mid-practice.

When he trained the second layer he was at second-level Nascent Soul in cultivation, sixth level in soul, with a mid-fourth-rank body.

Those conditions should have been more than enough.

Yet he still felt the danger. His body, energy and soul wavered a little.

Luckily his foundation was solid, he’d condensed the Yin-Yang Myriad Laws Nascent Soul and held the Chaos Body. Soul and flesh were far beyond other dual cultivators.

So he reached a conclusion.

To be absolutely safe cultivating the first layer.

It’s best to reach mid Core Formation and condense a top-grade Golden Core.

And your physique must surpass peers. Don’t just dabble in body refinement. Reach mid third rank.

Either possess a special body constitution for the flesh or push the body to the peak of mid third rank.

Only then can you be sure nothing goes wrong.

The same applied to the second layer.

Best at mid Nascent Soul, with the soul at sixth level, and the body at the peak of mid fourth rank.

Otherwise the process would be perilous. A single misstep and the body or soul could spiral out.

After finishing the first layer he had thought his gifted wives and children might try it.

Now he’d given up on that idea.

Beyond the steep entry, the technique came with side effects.

With his Nascent Soul realm and body and soul, he had barely suppressed the first layer’s time-limited side effect that forced a push to the second.

Unless he never advanced and let blood weaken and soul age, that side effect wouldn’t show.

But with the second layer done he sensed a mandate: he must reach Spirit Transformation within five hundred years.

If he failed to enter Spirit Transformation and complete the third layer within that time, his consciousness would start to unravel.

“Five hundred years.”

In the Southern Desolation there were no Spirit Transformation cultivators, so most saw it as out of reach.

But he felt five hundred years to break through wasn’t a big problem.

And that limit wasn’t fixed.

It tied to his realm and physical state.

After advancing to mid and late Nascent Soul, that side effect might be pressed down to a minimum, only showing late in life when his state dipped.

Of course if he was gravely wounded, his Nascent Soul spirit body damaged and his soul badly hurt, the ill omen could come early.

In short, the God-Devouring Technique was a double-edged sword.

Its effect was beyond question, terrifyingly strong.

He had felt it firsthand.

But the side effect was like a ticking time bomb.

Only true geniuses who trusted their future absolutely should practice it.

Otherwise they might end with misfortune in old age.

Exhaling a long breath, he stepped out of seclusion.

Outside, Nangong Mili and Meng Xiaochan had been waiting.

Seeing him, they lit up and called, “Lu Changsheng, husband.”

“Squeak, squeak, squeak—” The Soul-Taking Beast in the distance also congratulated him. Its master felt very different now.

“Mili, Xiaochan.”

He smiled at the two and asked why Nangong Mili had come.

“I’m just worried about you.” Her tone was different from before, no longer sharp tongue with a soft heart.

Beyond him becoming a Nascent Soul giant, he’d even subdued Beast God Mountain’s True Lord Youyue, which pressed on her.

Against Yin Yuge and Yiren she could still compete for favor.

But in front of a Nascent Soul True Lord like the Holy Maiden of Beast God Mountain, she lacked confidence.

Lu Changsheng chuckled and asked how long he’d been in seclusion.

Cultivating the God-Devouring Technique had put his soul in a misty state. He had no sense of time.

“Five and a half months,” Meng Xiaochan said.

“That long?” He was a little surprised.

For others this technique might take a year or two.

But for him that felt long.

Mostly because the process felt like only a few days.

“At Nascent Soul, every art takes years to train. Without the system’s inheritance and perfect conditions, it would take years either way.”

He thought to himself. He’d been in the Jin Kingdom for a while. Had anything happened in Jiang or Liang?

Nangong Mili told him that aside from the Heavenly Sword Sect beginning to relocate, nothing big had happened in Jin or Jiang.

As for the Liang Kingdom, it was too far. Without an emergency, news took time to travel.

Since no urgent news had come, Jiang should be fine.

He nodded lightly. The Liang-Yue war had just ended. Nothing would flare up soon.

Youyue and Fenmo should have finished receiving and sorting Liang’s captives and assets.

He should go over and settle personnel matters.

He then kept the two company, helped Nangong Mili warm and nourish her Golden Core, and spent a few days plowing and sowing with Yin Yuge, before setting out for the Five Poisons Sect.

While he cultivated the God-Devouring Technique, the Peach Blossom Gu had finished digesting the Dao Seed Blushing Peach Blossom and reached the brink of a breakthrough to fourth rank.

If not for the heavenly tribulation that came with the advance, it would have broken through already.

So he headed to the Five Poisons Sect to let it advance.

He didn’t choose the Yin Ghost Sect because the Five Poisons Sect’s spiritual veins suited the Peach Blossom Gu better.

He also wanted to see if they had any treasures that fit the Gu to deepen its foundation.

After he arrived he explained to the Five Poisons Sect Master.

The latter immediately took him to the sect’s treasury and Gu breeding cell.

Yet the Peach Blossom Gu differed from most gu. It fed on peach-blossom fortune.

Other than the Dao Seed 【Blushing Peach Blossom】, it had no interest in normal gu materials or combined gu worms.

He didn’t force it and only asked how confident it was.

The Gu had thought and will but was weaker than even a third-rank demon king. It simply sent a pulse that it could do it.

Ah Youduo told him that a gu’s tribulation was much simpler than that of a cultivator or demon king.

As long as it wasn’t a failed fusion causing problems, there was usually no great danger.

A gu’s tribulation mainly used the rules within tribulation lightning to baptize it and complete the advance.

“Good.” Lu Changsheng nodded, confident in the Peach Blossom Gu.

After all, none of his spirit pets had ever failed a tribulation.

If it still failed after digesting 【Blushing Peach Blossom】, then it deserved to die.

Three days later the Five Poisons Sect’s mountain-guarding array roared at full, sealing the sect.

A pink peach blossom mark bloomed between Lu Changsheng’s brows, shining brilliantly and adding a wicked edge to his handsome, unworldly face.

As the mark circulated, a long moment later that burning light shot from his brow to the sky, turning into brilliant rosy clouds like drifting petals.

Then a thumb-sized gu like a butterfly flew out from his brow, shimmering with rosy light. Pink radiance rippled around it like a rain of crystal flowers.

The Peach Blossom Gu had begun its breakthrough to fourth rank.