Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Chapter 23: Summary_2

Translator: 549690339

Apart from striking at the Three Teaching Sect, he also constantly suppressed the noble families, enacted strict and extremely fair laws to maximize centralization of power. He shattered the thousand-year-old iron rule that the emperor and the scholars govern the world together, and that imperial power did not reach into the villages, successfully implemented various major policies, liberated the workforce, increased production, and enhanced industry, agriculture, and commerce….

Because of this, the spread of martial arts across the world could be successfully executed.

Unfortunately, even though the spread of martial arts across the world was successful, and an era of martial arts prosperity was established, the creation and exploration of the Martial Path were still arduous. After all, there were no references, and one could only grope painfully in the dark without any clue. The difficulty needs no further elaboration.

Thus, after more than two hundred years of arduous exploration, as Xu Yang’s lifespan was nearing its end, the realm above the True Gang Realm had not been truly developed. He only proposed some hypotheses, such as the True Gang Spirit Condensation and the method of Embracing Core and forming dao that he last attempted in the East Sea.

Among the many hypotheses, Xu Yang believed this path had the most hope and potential for advancing.

Unfortunately, he still failed in the end.

The reason for the failure was that his Divine Soul’s power was insufficient to effectively control the Gang Qi and compress it into a Core.

Great Zhou was a world with low martial arts potential, where martial arts cultivation was based on Qi Blood. The Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism sects were all charlatans practicing martial arts based on Qi Blood, with no real cultivation techniques for becoming immortals.

Therefore, the Great Zhou world had almost no methods to empower the Divine Soul, relying only on the most basic practice of nourishing the soul with the body. The stronger the body, the stronger the Divine Soul, but this method was quite limited in effect.

Even though Xu Yang had integrated all the martial arts of the world and created an extraordinary work like the Great Zhou Martial Scriptures, and complemented it with various skill traits to forge a physique unmatched in history, the growth of his Divine Soul’s power was minimal, far from the hypothetical level required for the True Gang Spirit Condensation, where the formless becomes tangible.

Therefore, he failed.

Actually, there was a possibility for him to succeed because, apart from martial arts, he also had the Attribute Panel and Skill Traits, and the calming and soul-nourishing trait of the sleep skill could have strengthened his Divine Soul’s power.

But… in the few years before his last attempt to break through, he had just exhausted a great amount of his Divine Soul’s power.

Why did he deplete it?

It was used to transmit skill traits, of course.

Zhuanzhou Mengdie allowed Xu Yang’s true self and the dream butterfly avatar to share strengths and weaknesses, and to transmit skill traits, even physical items, at the cost of consuming Divine Soul’s power.

The importance of skill traits need not be said, as they were Xu Yang’s greatest reliance and were naturally to be utilized. Throughout the two hundred years in Great Zhou, the Divine Soul’s power, enhanced through restorative sleep, was mostly used to transmit skill traits.

As a result, by the end, his Divine Soul was weakened, making True Gang Spirit Condensation impossible, and his attempt to Embrace Core and form dao failed. With regrets, he could only resign himself to dissolution, returning to his true self.

This was his first time, no, his second time experiencing death!

Only the first death was due to an unexpected calamity, while the second was a natural end due to the exhaustion of lifespan.

In the Great Zhou world, he had also conducted experiments and data analysis, which led to the following conclusion.

A normal person, under the premise of no illness or disaster, has a maximum lifespan of around one hundred twenty years.

If one cultivated the Great Zhou Martial Scriptures and reached the True Gang Realm, by relying on the various life-preserving methods integrated into the scriptures such as Sun and Moon, Yin and Yang, Chaos Yuan Qi, Eternal Youth, Jade Lock Golden Gate, etc., the lifespan could be increased to at most one hundred eighty years.

That was the limit!

Xu Yang was able to live over three hundred years mainly for two reasons: first, his Martial Path Communicates with God, enhancing the lifespan extending effect of the Great Zhou Martial Scriptures, and second, skills related to diet, sleep, breathing, martial arts, etc., all had life-prolonging traits. Coupled with Eternal Youth, the perpetual cycle, this extended his lifespan to over three hundred years.

But that was the limit. After that, no matter what skills he tried to use or what traits he acquired, there was no way to increase his lifespan. Otherwise, he really wouldn’t have wanted to end his life in the Great Zhou world like this.

With this, he also discovered something else, that the generation of skill traits seemed to have a certain relationship with the world’s power level.

In Great Zhou, a low-level martial world, the best skill traits generated were

“Martial Path Communicates with God” and “Eternal Youth.” Traits like Zhuanzhou Mengdie, which are considered miraculous and inconceivable, had never appeared.

Otherwise, if a trait like “Immortality” were to be generated, then wouldn’t Xu Yang live much more than just three hundred years?

This also revealed how deep the waters of the real world were, how strong the extraordinary powers that existed within it were.

I digress, back to the point, if his life had been long enough, and he waited for the Divine Soul to recover, then Xu Yang might truly have been able to step into the fourth realm of the Martial Path, True Gang Spirit Condensation, or even the fifth realm, Embracing Core and forming dao. To end it hastily now feels inevitably regrettable.

Of course, it’s just a slight regret. In fact, Xu Yang had already mastered the powers of the fourth realm of Martial Path, True Gang Spirit Condensation.

Why?

Because—Martial Path Communicates with God!

This was one of the traits of his martial skills, and as the name suggests, it meant that the Martial Path could communicate with God.

This ‘god’ is not the god of Immortal Gods, but the god of Divine Intent and Divine Skills. As long as one cultivates a martial art to a certain level, it can endow the martial art with “Divine Intent” and “Essence,” thereby turning decay into a miracle, creating many profound and even miraculous effects.

For example, the Descending Dragon Palm. A regular Descending Dragon Palm could at most unleash a single blast of Gang Qi, but the Martial Path Communicates with God’s Descending Dragon Palm could project a lifelike dragon shadow, with its power, range, and area of effect increased several folds, and it also carried the daunting Divine Dragon’s Might, capable of intimidating opponents. It could almost be described as a Martial Divine Skill.

According to Xu Yang’s conjecture, after reaching the fourth realm, True Gang Spirit Condensation, all martial artists would have this ability—to bestow their martial arts with Divine Intent and Essence, turning decay into a miracle, Imown as the Art of Martial Divine Skills.

Thanks to this trait, Xu Yang was in essence already a martial artist of the fourth realm, True Gang Spirit Condensation. If not for the damage to his

Divine Soul, he might have been able to complete the final step of Embracing Core and forming dao, entering the fifth realm.

At that time, his lifespan would surely have increased again.

Although the effort fell short in the end, it did not affect the value of this trait.

Martial Path Communicates with God, bestowing Divine Intent, not only allowed him to master the power of True Gang Spirit Condensation ahead of time, but also provided the potential for continuous enhancement in the future.

After all, Divine Skills too have their high and low points, strengths and weaknesses. The Martial Divine Power of True Gang Spirit Condensation is at most a lesser Divine Skill, not even counting as a minor Divine Power. It might be effective for scaring martial artists of the mundane world of Great Zhou, but against Cultivators from the Cultivation World or the heavens-spanning Immortal Gods of the Divine Demon World, it would be nothing.

Martial Path Communicates with God not only allows one to attain minor mana and minor Divine Skills but also holds the potential and hope of achieving great mana and Great Divine Powers. It was one of Xu Yang’s most valuable gains in the Great Zhou world. He consumed nearly a hundred years of Divine Soul’s power to transfer it, indicating its high level.

Apart from Martial Path Communicates with God, Xu Yang also transferred four other traits: “Diligence Makes Up Sabotage,” “Cleansing Marrow,” “Eternal Youth,” and “Founder of Martial Scripture.”

“Diligence Makes Up Sabotage” and “Cleansing Marrow” need no further explanation—one increases cultivation efficiency, and the other improves martial aptitude, both beneficial traits for pursuing the Martial Path. “Eternal Youth” is equally important, preserving youthfulness and peak condition.

As for the “Founder of Martial Scripture,” that’s even more incredible. Besides increasing both the speed and effectiveness of the Great Zhou Martial Scriptures’ cultivation, it also encompasses the trait of “Remove Husk and Keep Grain” to absorb various martial arts, enhancing and deepening the power and potential of the Great Zhou Martial Scriptures continuously.

The current Great Zhou Martial Scriptures, even though they are just an ordinary cultivation manual, as long as Xu Yang keeps experiencing Zhuanzhou Mengdie, traversing countless worlds, and integrating the martial arts from these worlds into it, it will continuously evolve and transform, ultimately transcending the mundane to become Divine Demon Martial Arts, on par with those of Immortal Gods and Demons!

At this thought, Xu Yang felt an urge to fall back asleep and embark on a second dreamlike life, to explore a second wondrous world.

But after some consideration, he didn’t immediately do so. The accumulation from three hundred years in the Great Zhou world needed some time to digest after being brought into reality. There were also some minor matters to attend to in the real world. Moreover, the psychological and spiritual changes from living two lives…

He decided to take a few days to sort out the trivial matters in the real world, gather some essential supplies for life, adjust his mental and psychological state, and then embark on the second dreamlike life anew.