"Lei Zhan won!"
Immortal Juhua turned to look at the Yellow-Haired Great Bear with ease, feeling triumphant at last.
"He did win." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear nodded. "But if you're gloating at me, you're a bit too early."
"Your disciple... if he can't obtain the divine ability my master left behind in the Divine Ability Hall, he still won't have a chance to become the true master of this Immortal Mansion."
After all, only a cultivator who learned the divine ability Star-Plucking Hand and safely survived the tribulation to become a Celestial God could be considered Daoist Sanshou's personal disciple!
"Hmph." Immortal Juhua said, "My disciple is such a monster. Of course he'll obtain the strongest divine ability in the Divine Ability Hall!"
As Juhua spoke, the image of the handsome young man was reflected in his eyes.
"Senior." Lei Zhan smiled faintly. "You've lost!"
As the Water-Fire Grinding Disc continued to grind and annihilate him, another 128 Rahula Divine Needles joined Lei Zhan's frenzied close-quarters assault.
The Bald Elder struggled to defend himself, but his entire body began to tremble violently. In an instant, it turned translucent.
"This Water-Fire Grinding Disc of yours..." The Bald Elder seemed to be smiling, not at all concerned about the small victory or defeat before him.
"This time, you win." As he spoke, the Bald Elder's body beneath the Water-Fire Grinding Disc instantly crumbled, then vanished into nothingness.
"Whew." Lei Zhan felt a weight lift from his heart.
"If I hadn't suddenly reached enlightenment just now and comprehended a secret art like the Water-Fire Grinding Disc, I don't know how much effort it would've taken to completely grind away the divine power of that Void Return Divine Demon."
"Even so, I used up more than half my Crimson Bright Divine Power." Lei Zhan sensed the divine power circulating through his body and mused, "I also have this Black Bead to thank for what happened."
"Still, this enlightenment was somewhat different from the one five years ago." Lei Zhan pondered. With a thought, his Divine Sense immediately "looked" toward his Purple Mansion dantian.
Within the void of his Purple Mansion dantian, a Black Bead floated at the center. The specks of starlight within it seemed to have disappeared without a trace, and the entire bead had visibly dimmed.
"This time, I truly reached the Dao." Lei Zhan understood.
He had occasionally entered a state of sudden insight through his own comprehension of the world, so he wasn't unfamiliar with it.
The insight he'd gained while cultivating Three Heads and Six Arms five years ago had only been similar.
Though such an experience was just as coveted by cultivators, it still fell short of truly reaching the Dao.
"Five years... is five years one cycle?"
"Five years ago, with the bead's help, I first reached the Dao in the Star Hall, achieving far more than the sum of its parts. Right after that, I fell into something like a sudden insight, which let me comprehend Three Heads and Six Arms in an extremely short time."
"This time, I reached sudden insight directly. The only difference is that the starlight the bead accumulated over five years was used up all at once..."
Thoughts flashed through Lei Zhan's mind, and he gradually pieced things together.
"Next time, I'll try using it in a different way." Lei Zhan shook his head with a rueful smile.
If he wanted to test his theory, he could only wait for the Black Bead to recover on its own. That meant waiting another five years.
Lei Zhan stopped thinking about it. With a thought, he withdrew the Three Heads and Six Arms form of Law of Heaven and Earth, along with the three Cold Shadow Divine Spears in his hands.
Whoosh~~~
Suddenly, Lei Zhan vanished from the space.
The space shifted.
When Lei Zhan opened his eyes again, he found himself in the main hall of the Water Mansion.
"Lei Zhan, that grinding-disc secret art of yours is quite good. Very good!" Immortal Juhua looked at Lei Zhan, saying "very good" twice, his face beaming.
"Master. Senior Big Bear." Lei Zhan smiled faintly. "I happened to reach sudden insight. Otherwise, who knows how long it would've taken me to comprehend this secret art."
"Hahaha!" Immortal Juhua laughed and asked curiously, "Your Qi Refining Path cultivation has long been stuck at the bottleneck of the Xiantian perfection stage. You still haven't broken through. Are you short on Essence Liquid?"
Though Immortal Juhua was teaching a disciple for the first time, he'd only planned to bestow a few cultivation methods and secret arts, along with some of the Essence Liquid necessary for cultivation.
When the disciple graduated, a few treasures for protecting his life would be enough.
The main thing was to make his disciple understand that if he wanted Essence Liquid, magic treasures, or other treasures, he had to fight for them himself.
"With the thousand catties of Essence Liquid you gave me, along with the world's elemental energy I've accumulated through cultivating my Qi Refining techniques, I've gathered more than enough over the past five years to break through to the Purple Mansion level. All I'm missing is a top-grade Human-Grade Magic Treasure," Lei Zhan replied respectfully.
"The Hall of Treasures has many magic treasures, and every one of them is top quality. So I plan to break through to the Purple Mansion stage of the Qi Refining Path after I exchange for one."
Over the past five years, Lei Zhan had advanced his God-Devil Body Refining from the early Purple Mansion stage to the late stage. His Qi Refining cultivation hadn't been standing still.
The Water Mansion was an Xiantian Spirit Treasure, and its grand formation naturally drew in vast amounts of the world's spiritual energy. As a result, the spiritual energy in every hall of the Water Mansion far surpassed that of the outside world.
Over the years, Lei Zhan had accumulated a great deal of elemental energy while cultivating the Nine Directions Fragment, and he'd also refined large quantities of Essence Liquid. His reserves were already sufficient.
All he was waiting for was a top-grade Human-Grade Magic Treasure.
I have memories of my past life, and I know what the best looks like. I can cultivate the finest techniques and lay the strongest foundation. So naturally, I have to reach the most perfect result! Lei Zhan thought.
He had ambition, and the seed of it had been planted five years ago. By now, it had already taken root and sprouted.
The reason he hadn't exchanged for a magic treasure to break through in the Hall of Treasures earlier was that he'd been waiting.
Lei Zhan knew the rules of the Hall of Treasures. The magic treasures and other treasures the Yellow-Haired Great Bear had first brought out were only an insignificant portion of the countless Human-Grade treasures stored there.
But if he waited until he passed the first floor of the War God Hall, or even the second, then the farther he went, the more valuable the treasures the Yellow-Haired Great Bear would bring out.
The Nine Directions Fragment cultivation method had stated that the more top-notch the magic treasure melted down during a breakthrough, the stronger the foundation it would build.
The most obvious difference was that breaking through by refining a top-grade magic treasure of the same rank would produce elemental energy at least twenty percent purer than refining a high-grade one! The better the magic treasure, the better the result.
So choosing a magic treasure was crucial for Lei Zhan.
But he'd already planned which magic treasure to exchange for in the Hall of Treasures and refine into his Purple Mansion.
"Hmm. You plan to break through using a magic treasure from the Hall of Treasures?" Immortal Juhua was a little surprised. He had given Lei Zhan the Nine Directions Fragment cultivation method.
Naturally, Immortal Juhua knew the method inside and out.
It seems my disciple... has a mind of his own.
"Yes." Lei Zhan nodded, then turned to look at the Yellow-Haired Great Bear standing beside Immortal Juhua.
"Senior Big Bear, please take me to the Hall of Treasures to exchange for a treasure."
"Mm." The Yellow-Haired Great Bear replied blandly.
In a quiet room, Lei Zhan sat cross-legged, his palm facing upward. A palm-sized flying sword rested in his hand.
"This Nirvana Demon-Slaughtering Sword... is really powerful." Lei Zhan lowered his gaze to the flying sword in his hand, a hint of admiration in his eyes.
The magic treasure in his hand was the one he'd exchanged for in the Hall of Treasures after passing the second floor of the War God Hall.
It was a flying sword about the size of his palm, faintly translucent. A faint streak of blood marked its black, translucent blade.
"If I didn't have the Water Mansion backing me, searching for all these top-grade magic treasures myself would've cost me no end of effort and treasure." Lei Zhan turned the flying sword over in his hand, filled with anticipation for his imminent breakthrough to the Purple Mansion stage.
Magic treasures were easy to come by, but top-grade ones were exceedingly rare.
And the magic treasure called the Nirvana Demon-Slaughtering Sword was one of the finest among Human-Grade top-grade magic treasures.
"This magic treasure, the Nirvana Demon-Slaughtering Sword, was originally an Earth-Grade upper-grade magic treasure. It was reduced to the Human-Grade top-grade level after suffering heavy damage. After enough slaughter, it can gradually raise its own grade and recover to the Earth-Grade upper-grade level."
Lei Zhan recalled what the Treasure Catalog said and nodded. "There aren't many treasures in the Hall of Treasures that can rival this flying sword... and this one is the best fit for me."
He'd decided to exchange for this magic treasure long ago, when his Qi Refining cultivation reached Xiantian perfection.
The Nirvana Demon-Slaughtering Sword had once been an Earth-Grade upper-grade magic treasure, but its current Human-Grade rank meant it was still within the range he could refine.
Wouldn't that make it the very best of Human-Grade magic treasures?