Great Vajra Divine Strength (Please Follow)

Jade Island, Red-Scale Fishery.

Even if he'd decided to use the Great Sun Violet Qi to swindle people, it wasn't something that could be done overnight.

The fishery still needed regular patrols.

Fang Qing sat cross-legged within his cave mansion, silently considering his plans and reviewing his means of facing enemies.

"Firecloud Talismans, Golden Blade Talismans... if the seawater within the Sea-Transforming Pearl were refined into special spirit water or poisonous water... my methods against enemies could be strengthened further."

"Beyond that, there are the arts I've cultivated myself, my First-Order Mid Grade Body Refinement at perfection, and the spiritual sense secret art of the Demon-Subduing Vajra Pestle."

This spiritual sense secret art had evolved from the Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art. After Fang Qing cultivated spiritual sense, he'd discovered it had another marvelous use.

"Mm... among my current means of combat, this divine art is still the one that can be improved. If I can break through to First-Order High Grade Body Refinement, then with the two stacked together, I could probably fight a Qi Refining Ninth Layer cultivator, or even one at Qi Refining Great Perfection!"

"And the Sea-Transforming Pearl still has quite a bit of potential to be unearthed..."

As he pondered, Fang Qing's expression shifted. He walked outside the cave mansion and saw a bright-yellow sound-transmission talisman.

He caught it in his hand, listened for a few moments, then summoned the Green Leaf Boat. Turning into a streak of green light like a gust of clear wind, he arrived above the fishery.

"Senior Brother Fang..."

Li Yusu, his arm severed, had come to take over the shift. Unconcealable exhaustion filled his expression.

After all, he was seriously injured, his vitality hadn't yet recovered, and he still had to run about and toil.

"Junior Brother Li, how is your recovery? I've recently refined several Blood-Qi Great Pills..."

Fang Qing had specially refined these because he expected a great battle to arrive and knew the market for healing pills would soar.

"Thank you, Senior Brother..."

Li Yusu responded as usual, his heart as dead ash, as though he'd lost all interest in everything.

"Ah... what a pity about Zha Zhu."

Fang Qing sighed, finally seeing a faint ripple pass through Li Yusu's eyes.

"The three of us were cultivation seedlings from the same town, after all... Seeing you like this makes me grieve as well..."

That was naturally a lie. Fang Qing wanted to investigate Hua Lian while keeping himself hidden, and this fool happened to be useful.

"Do I still have a future?"

Li Yusu gave a miserable smile. "I've lost an arm. My fleshly body is incomplete, and the physical trial during Foundation Establishment will be all the more difficult... Master said that in my condition, only a Second-Order Flesh-Regenerating Bone-Replenishing Pill can save me. Such pills are rare. Even if he could produce one, he wouldn't give it to me... After all, I caused Senior Sister Zha Zhu's death, didn't I?"

"A Second-Order pill?"

Fang Qing was somewhat startled, then said, "No matter what, now that you know the path, there's always a way... I have some healing pills here. Take them and sell them for me; I can give you a ten-percent commission... Accumulate contribution points slowly and see whether you can exchange for one within the sect."

It was wartime now. To encourage the disciples, the sect had added many good items to the contribution list.

Second-Order pills, especially healing pills, were naturally among them.

At last, a trace of light appeared in Li Yusu's eyes. "Thank you, Senior Brother... I've done many wrong things before. I'm truly ashamed."

"No need for that. Just keep an eye out for methods to refine spirit water or poisonous water for me. I have use for them as well..."

Seeing Li Yusu agree, Fang Qing gave him a few more instructions.

He could do such things himself, but with daily patrol duties, they would take too much time. It was better to outsource them.

Besides... although the Red-Scale Fishery wasn't far from the mountain gate, leaving the formation to trade still carried a certain degree of risk.

Fang Qing chose to let Li Yusu take that risk!

Several months later.

Within Zeng Shu's Cave Mansion.

Fang Qing, Li Yusu, and several senior brothers and junior brothers guarding the place sat on prayer mats, exchanging cultivation insights and intelligence from the battlefield.

"This time... the sect and the Zhong Family fought a great battle in the Kui Ri Sea Region. They say spirit ships covered the skies like clouds and cultivators fell like rain... With the protection of large-scale battle formations, not many spirit ships sank, but small-scale battles around the battlefield never stopped. Quite a few of our fellow sect brothers and sisters have already fallen..."

A young cultivator said with a somewhat pale face, "The Zhong Family has issued recruitment notices on the black market, drawing large numbers of rogue cultivators to assault the sect's resource sites, mixed in with several elite squads from their main family... They don't care if rogue cultivators die, but every member of those elite squads is at Late Qi Refinement and skilled in combat. They've already breached several spirit herb gardens and fisheries..."

"Ah... in a great war, people like us are merely ants."

Zeng Shu sighed as well.

"The key question is... what exactly started this war?"

Fang Qing was rather curious.

"Only Foundation Establishment cultivators likely know such matters of the sect..." Zeng Shu shook his head with a bitter smile. "The Zhong Family claims publicly that they're avenging their in-laws... but how many years has it been since the Wu Family of White Profound Island was destroyed? Seeking revenge only now is clearly a pretext. Could they have gained powerful support? And though the Heavenly Heart Chain Islands claim on the surface that they'll aid neither side, in truth they simply help whichever of our two families is weaker... Since the Zhong Family dared begin this war, could they have received some secret promise from the Heavenly Heart Chain Islands? Or... though the Lesser Vast Sea Cultivation Realm has always been closed off, there are still cultivators from beyond it..."

"This matter... cannot be ignored."

Li Yusu's complexion had improved somewhat. After thinking for a moment, he said, "When I traveled back and forth to the sect, I heard the Zhong Family produced an extraordinary genius, one with an ice-type variant spirit root... This time, he has killed many disciples of our sect. Perhaps the Zhong Family believes our sect would certainly suppress their genius, so they simply struck first?"

"An ice-type variant spirit root?"

All the disciples were somewhat shocked upon hearing that.

The human body contained all five elements, yet spirit roots came in more than five varieties and had other transformations as well.

For example, an Ice Spirit Root was a mutation born from metal and water. Such variant aptitude was tremendously extraordinary, far beyond high-grade aptitude. Though it wasn't as heaven-defying as heavenly-grade aptitude, which had no bottlenecks before Core Formation, its cultivation speed was absolutely not slow.

If the Zhong Family had such a qilin child and he encountered further opportunities, then perhaps a hundred years from now, they would gain another Core Formation ancestor!

If the Azure Sea Sect knew of this, it would definitely take action.

The Zhong Family striking first was understandable as well.

"Right, what is the name of that variant Ice Spirit Root?" Fang Qing asked curiously.

"Zhong Lingxiu... They say his ice arts have reached a miraculous level, and he's already killed three True Disciples of our sect at Qi Refining Great Perfection..."

Li Yusu let out a long breath. Perhaps feeling this was too damaging to their own morale, he hurriedly added, "Our sect has also produced quite a few outstanding figures on the battlefield, such as Cui Zhe the Death-Seeking Sword, Fairy Lingbo, Five Dragons Child, and the like..."

"Zhong Lingxiu?"

Fang Qing nodded inwardly. He ignored Five Dragons Child, an obviously filler title Li Yusu had only mentioned after glancing at him, but he was quite interested in Cui Zhe. A sword cultivator who could earn himself a title was indeed no ordinary person.

But compared with Li Rulong, he would probably be fated to die beneath two or three sword strikes...

The truly formidable one was still Zhong Lingxiu!

He was a peerless genius almost guaranteed to reach Foundation Establishment Perfection, with hopes of Core Formation!

"No matter how formidable he is, he's still only at Qi Refinement... If I made a move, could I kill him? Wait... why am I thinking about something so dangerous? Even if I truly could do it, I'd become a thorn in the Zhong Family's side from then on. Nor could I remain low-key within the Azure Sea Sect. There would be almost nothing but drawbacks."

After the gathering dispersed, Fang Qing returned to his cave mansion. Sitting in the half-lotus posture, he visualized the Horse-Head Vajra and formed the Wish-Fulfilling Seal.

Crash!

His blood-qi circulated within his body. With the aid of spiritual sense, it illuminated every minute part of him, repairing each tiny flaw and injury, gradually reaching the realm of the Leakless Golden Body.

At last!

Fang Qing exhaled a long breath and felt the extraordinary blood-qi power within his body condense. It circulated along his chakras before finally flowing into his Consciousness Sea and becoming a Seed Syllable.

This Seed Syllable resembled both dragon and insect, carrying a sense of distortion.

Yet with a single glance, one immediately understood its meaning: Great Vajra Divine Strength!

"My Body Refinement... has finally broken through to First-Order High Grade!"

Fang Qing's eyes stirred, his expression exhilarated. "And... this Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art has produced another divine wonder. I can now unleash Great Vajra Divine Strength!"

After a slight test, he understood that his foundation was still shallow. He could only use Great Vajra Divine Strength once, after which he would need to continue cultivating bitterly and nourishing the Seed Syllable.

But the boost to his combat power was no trifling matter.

"While activating Great Vajra Divine Strength, it can enhance my body-refinement arts across the board and grant tremendous strength... Saying it can make me immune to artifact attacks would be somewhat exaggerated, but it will be enough to shatter the defenses of high-grade artifacts and give my enemies a great surprise. This is... nearly the might of Quasi-Second-Order Body Refinement?"

"As expected, the cultivation methods of the Land of Ancient Shu are exquisite, far surpassing those of this realm..."

"Unfortunately, my Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art only contains the first stage, the Fierce Donkey Demon Sequence. Once I perfect it, I'll likely have to search the Secret Treasury Domain for the cultivation method of the next stage, the Mule-Faced Vajra Prajna Sequence..."

Fang Qing had now cultivated this first stage to roughly the major accomplishment realm. He wasn't far from perfection.

After that, he would lack the cultivation method, with no road ahead.

Still, he was already extremely satisfied.

The performance of this body-refinement cultivation method alone was scarcely inferior to the Azure Sea Sect's Blackwater Dharma Body, not to mention its enhancement of the spiritual level. It had helped him cultivate spiritual sense—he had made an absolute killing.

Just as Fang Qing pondered, a shrill sound-transmission talisman suddenly flew into the cave mansion.

"What?"

His expression changed drastically. He put all his belongings into his storage bag, mounted the Green Leaf Boat, and shot into the sky.

Whoosh, whoosh!

The cold wind cut to the bone.

Hailstones crashed down one after another, freezing a layer of solid ice across the lake's surface.

Focusing his gaze, he saw more than a dozen white-robed cultivators had already charged into the formation surrounding Red-Scale Lake!

"Not good, Zhong Family cultivators!"

Fang Qing recognized them at once. These were direct-line cultivators of the Zhong Family, not those rogue cultivator cannon fodder!

"That can't be right..."

While Zeng Shu and the others shouted and battled, Fang Qing was deeply puzzled. "I cast a divination every day. Today was supposed to be minor fortune..."

"Could my divination have been obscured? No... divination isn't omnipotent."

"Or perhaps... because I can escape safely from this attack with my strength, it counts as 'minor fortune'?"

Fang Qing immediately understood that he couldn't completely trust Plum Blossom Divination, or it would simply get him killed!