Enhancement

"I'd like to know how you plan to make me undergo the tribulation."

Gu Jinlai looked at the increasingly bright-red light of karma. "I go out for a stroll, and demonic beasts come crashing into me?"

He let out a derisive laugh. His spirit shifted away from the karma and settled on the orbs of light surrounding the little consciousness-body figure.

Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method: Second Refinement, Minor Accomplishment.

Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method: Minor Accomplishment.

Myriad Phenomena Sword Qi: Beginner.

Formless Sword Qi: Major Accomplishment.

Conquering the World: Major Accomplishment.

These were all the sword arts and cultivation methods he had mastered.

Although he had cultivated other techniques, such as the Nine Heavens Demon-Slaying Sword and the Great Breath Transformation Dragon Formula, he had yet to attain even beginner level in them, so they did not appear.

"Six streams of pure light. One for recalling osmium-iridium alloy, leaving five..."

Gu Jinlai thought of the thirty or so Gu Clan disciples who would soon arrive.

Since he intended to have them follow the demonic-beast martial artist path, he could not neglect his own Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method and Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method.

With that thought, he immediately guided two streams of pure light into the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method.

Deeper insights surged forth, lasting a full twenty seconds.

Once the pure light dispersed...

Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method: Second Refinement, Minor Accomplishment → Third Refinement, Perfected.

This refinement of the visualization method not only increased his cultivation efficiency, but also allowed him to thoroughly comprehend his first soul secret art.

The Great Sun Eternal Radiance Art.

By detonating the resplendent power of the great sun, it formed an extremely brilliant spiritual radiance that illuminated all directions and incinerated demonic spirits.

"Unfortunately, soul secret arts aren't very useful in direct combat," Gu Jinlai thought.

Immediately afterward, he turned his gaze toward the Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method.

With a thought, he smashed two more streams of pure light into it.

The difficulty of cultivating the Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method to major accomplishment was far higher than reaching minor accomplishment.

Earlier, when Gu Jinlai had stimulated the Myriad Phenomena Sword Qi, he had actually already used one stream of pure light on this body-refinement method.

Although only half of its effect had manifested, the insight it provided was still immense.

Under these circumstances, two streams of pure light still failed to let the Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method reach major accomplishment. Only after he smashed in a third stream of pure light did it finally break through.

Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method: Minor Accomplishment → Major Accomplishment.

"As expected of a method on the same level as the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method. Its cultivation difficulty is nearly no less formidable than that of the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method, which is famed for becoming harder the further one goes," Gu Jinlai said.

Fortunately, powerful cultivation methods brought equally astonishing changes.

The Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method, after reaching major accomplishment, gave rise to a...

Divine ability.

That was right!

Not a secret art, not a trump card, not a forbidden art!

A divine ability.

"Great Sun True Demon Body!"

He quietly comprehended the profound mysteries of this divine ability born from the perfected Great Sun Demon God Body Refinement Method.

Half an hour later, he suddenly said, "Su Nanxing, don't let anyone approach my courtyard. If you hear any disturbance in the room, don't panic either."

"I shall obey your command, Master."

Su Nanxing replied.

As Gu Jinlai stimulated the spirit within his body, a blazing, resplendent phantom of the great sun seemed to manifest behind him.

The phantom intertwined with the light from the outside world and acted upon his body, causing his blood and qi, true qi, spirit, and spirituality to boil simultaneously.

At this moment, he felt his true qi, physical body, spirit, and spirituality fuse into one, transforming into a kind of...

Existence beyond words.

In this wondrous state, his true qi and physical body, augmented by his spirit and spirituality, seemed to break through some kind of shackles and rapidly expand.

Expand!

Expand in the literal sense!

Gu Jinlai clearly felt the tables, chairs, tea table, bookshelves, and other objects around him shrinking at an astonishing speed...

At the same time, the beams overhead seemed to be rapidly drawing closer at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the blink of an eye, he had grown from an ordinary man of one meter eighty-six into a giant standing two meters sixty-six.

Two meters sixty-six!

If the room had not been tall enough, the rapidly swelling Gu Jinlai would already have burst it apart.

"This..."

Gu Jinlai looked at the towering muscles bulging from his arms, chest, and thighs. A surge of unprecedented strength welled up in his heart.

This strength...

It was like a bomb!

Every movement he made could easily detonate this bomb, unleashing thunderous, earth-shaking power.

That was not all. In the state of the Great Sun True Demon Body, he formed a wondrous resonance with the outside world.

It seemed he could draw some special energy from the world around him to replenish himself.

This energy...

Was the sun.

He was absorbing solar energy.

No!

Solar energy was merely a catalyst. He used it to stimulate himself, causing himself...

To undergo some kind of miraculous transformation, thereby gaining this body that could transform into a demon god.

"An ordinary person under one meter ninety gets pulled up to two meters sixty-six all at once. Did the gaps between my cells increase? Did the cells themselves grow larger? Did the atomic nuclei expand? Good grief, what's the principle behind this?"

Did science and reason no longer matter?

This wasn't biology!

Gu Jinlai's thoughts raced in all directions, but he could not make sense of it.

As someone who questioned the truth, this was extremely uncomfortable.

After thinking until his head hurt without finding an answer, he could only cast those thoughts aside.

Even something like transmigration could happen, and cultivation could become reality. Then growing from one meter eighty-six to two meters sixty-six was also...

Normal.

Probably.

"My strength..."

Gu Jinlai extended his hand, spread his five fingers, and clenched them hard.

"Bang!"

A gale exploded outward!

It was as though a low-intensity air blast had erupted in the hall.

"I've never seen a high-ranking demonic beast, so I don't know how formidable their bodies are. But now... I'm definitely stronger than a High-ranking Demonic Beast!"

The physique of a top-tier High-ranking Demonic Beast.

True qi cultivation at the Core Forming realm.

And a heavy sword and heavy armor...

"Beating an ordinary Spirit Refiner to death shouldn't be a problem now, right?"

Gu Jinlai muttered to himself.

However, to ensure absolute certainty, the four-thousand-jin heavy armor and heavy sword had to be arranged as soon as possible.

"No, that's not right. After using the Great Sun True Demon Body, I'm two meters sixty-six tall. The armor can be made bigger and thicker, and the same goes for the sword. I can completely aim for ten thousand jin."

Gu Jinlai spoke.

At equal volume, osmium-iridium alloy was three times heavier than steel.

A ten-thousand-jin set of armor and sword was no difficult feat.

Gu Jinlai savored the surge of this explosive strength.

Three minutes later, he began to feel tired.

Five minutes later, every cell was sending out signals of weakness.

When it reached six minutes, Gu Jinlai felt his physical body buckling under the strain and nearing collapse, so he halted the divine ability.

"So energy conservation still applies a little."

Feeling his weakness, he pushed open the door and left the courtyard.

When he stepped beneath the sun, he clearly felt some special energy within the "sunlight" pour into his body, soothing his exhausted muscles and restoring the energy he had expended internally.

At this rate...

He would recover in three to five hours.

"So my body absorbs and stores solar energy, then releases it when I use the divine ability? Enhanced photosynthesis? Have I turned into a green plant?"

Gu Jinlai sat down and quietly sensed the changes within him.

He planned to try several more times after recovering.

True knowledge came from practice.

"There's one stream of pure light left."

While waiting to recover, Gu Jinlai's mind once again settled on the remaining stream of pure light.

"Using a stream of pure light merely to recall osmium-iridium alloy is too wasteful."

He soon thought of the Skygrass Pavilion and the battle with the Falling Star Guards not long before.

Especially the battle at the Skygrass Pavilion.

Spirit Refiners.

At this moment, even without armor, he would dare to charge head-on with his newly acquired Great Sun True Demon Body.

But before those Spirit Refining experts appeared, what had been the greatest problem he encountered!?

They had strength in numbers!

Dozens of Core Forming, Gang Condensing, and Qi Refining cultivators from the Skygrass Pavilion had charged forward together. Although he could kill a Core Forming cultivator in a few exchanges in single combat, he had still nearly been buried alive by their numerical advantage.

Not to mention him—even Spirit Refiners and Spirit Transformation cultivators were no exception.

Once trapped in a sea of people and unable to break out quickly, any giant or True Person had only one path left: death.

In this world, individual strength had yet to completely separate itself from collective strength.

The Falling Star Guards had records in their archives. Six years ago, a Star Envoy at the Spirit Refining realm who excelled in movement techniques had brought a thousand elite soldiers. He was responsible for entangling a Spirit Transformation cultivator and preventing it from breaking through, while the thousand elite soldiers wore down its true qi by throwing themselves forward one after another. In the end, they had forcibly exhausted that Spirit Transformation cultivator to death.

"Apart from those Primordial Spirit True Lords standing at the summit of the cultivation world, who can fly on swords and enter and leave the azure heavens, anyone can be surrounded and killed through human-wave tactics."

Even if someone secretly stole and destroyed a Primordial Spirit True Lord's flying sword in advance, their fate would not be much better than that of a great Spirit Transformation Adept.

"Personal strength is a deterrent, and possessing a massive army is also a deterrent."

Gu Jinlai thought of his greatest rival, Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao had the Lin Clan behind him, occupied a city in Lin Feng, and had trained two thousand elite soldiers and four thousand troops.

These were private troops that belonged entirely to him and the Lin Clan.

If Lin Xiao led six thousand troops to attack, what could he rely on to resist them?

Human stamina had its limits.

Even killing six thousand pigs would take a long time, let alone six thousand people.

"Terrifying."

If he were truly trapped in the encirclement of six thousand troops, his sword would be hacked until it curled...

Then he would end up like everyone else.

Dead.

Exhausted to death.

Gu Jinlai felt the pressure from the bottom of his heart.

"I have to find a way to solve this."

Under the pressure of crisis, his thoughts spun rapidly.

Placed in ancient Blue Star, elite troops were equivalent to the cavalry of various nations.

When cavalry charged, nothing could stand before them.

How had Blue Star brought the age of cavalry to an end?

"With machine guns!"

Gu Jinlai said.

Maxim heavy machine guns that could fire several hundred bullets per minute.

Several dozen heavy machine guns could rout two thousand elite soldiers.

If one occupied advantageous terrain and defended a city or bunker, a dozen—or even a few—would be enough.

"Unfortunately, I don't know how to build such a machine gun."

Gu Jinlai shook his head.

He only regretted that he had not studied enough back then.

If he had read more books in his youth, listened attentively in class, and known how to make smokeless powder, how to make bullets, and how to make machine guns, then he wouldn't...

"Wait."

At this moment, he seemed to have suddenly thought of something. "I really don't know how to build a Maxim heavy machine gun, but when our country's first Type 055 destroyer came out, I seem to have once done a round of popular science on the H/PJ-11 1130 close-in weapon system?"