Escape Arts and Divine Powers

The artifacts Red Cloud forged were nothing else but common kitchen utensils from later generations—woks, spatulas, knives, cutting boards, bowls, basins, chopsticks, spoons, and the like.

After forging these artifacts, Red Cloud began carving up the Fierce Beast meat. Stir-frying, pan-frying, flash-frying, steaming, boiling, stewing, deep-frying, roasting, braising—he brought all eighteen forms of culinary skill into play.

As for the spices required for cooking, Red Cloud had previously gathered some Yaozhi Spirit Herbs, selecting immortal herbs similar to cumin, chili peppers, and star anise to serve as seasonings.

Perhaps the ones Red Cloud had chosen were precisely those that would later degenerate into spices such as cumin and chili peppers.

Before long, a fragrance utterly different from barbecue spread through the air, so delicious it seemed to seep into his bones.

Red Cloud eagerly began eating. He had not tasted a single bite of fine food for countless years, and only after sampling all eighteen forms of culinary skill did a trace of satisfaction appear on his face.

Red Cloud devoured every last bit of the Fierce Beast, which stood dozens of zhang tall, and his powerful refining ability refined it along with the meat.

The spiritual energy within the Fierce Beast's flesh was of exceptional quality, no worse than Innate Spiritual Energy, and it was even easier to refine.

After that, Red Cloud continued exploring ahead.

Whenever he encountered rare medicinal herbs, refined gold, or spiritual materials during his exploration, he collected them as well. They could be used for alchemy or artifact forging later.

Red Cloud occasionally encountered cultivators of the myriad races, but he did not fight them. Instead, he took the initiative to avoid them.

However, if there was no way to avoid them and others deliberately picked a fight, Red Cloud did not mind having some poultry, wild game, or seafood.

In the course of battling the myriad races, Red Cloud also tested the divine powers and spells deduced by the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune, gradually perfecting his Heavenly Spirits and Earthly Fiends Divine Arts.

The Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune was somewhat like AI from his previous life. It needed extensive training before it could continuously upgrade.

Though it was tedious and troublesome, he could only put in the hard work to train it and strengthen the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune's capabilities.

Whenever Red Cloud had certain ideas about the Literary Dao or laws, he also used the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune to deduce them.

The Primordial World kept no calendar; in the blink of an eye, seas had turned to mulberry fields.

The years flowed on, without beginning or end. Time was like sand, while sun and moon slipped away in vain.

Day after day passed. Red Cloud flew tens of millions of li and took in every kind of strange scenery and landform.

During his exploration, Red Cloud felt that his escape arts were somewhat slow. There was nothing he could do about it; after all, the Primordial World's space was far too stable.

According to the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune's calculations, long-distance jumps required at least the cultivation of a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, or mastery of Body-Flight Concealment among the Heavenly Dipper Divine Powers.

Body-Flight Concealment: One could hide within Heaven and Earth, roam the Four Seas, remain unknowable, untraceable, and unobservable; existing within the world, yet unseen by the world.

Body-Flight Concealment was a supreme space-type divine power. One had to comprehend Space Law before one could understand it. Once one mastered Body-Flight Concealment, speed itself ceased to have any meaning.

Aside from that, in terms of divine power speed alone, the Three-Legged Golden Crow Clan's Rainbow Transformation ranked first.

Golden Crow Rainbow Transformation—one escape covered one hundred and twenty thousand li.

The circumference of Earth in his previous life had only been forty thousand kilometers. One Golden Crow Rainbow Transformation covered one and a half laps around it.

An escape was not a unit of time. For example, some people needed several seconds for one escape, while others could make dozens of escapes in a single second.

Ranked second was the Somersault Cloud, the divine power Bodhi Patriarch had taught Sun Wukong during the Journey to the West.

One somersault could carry one a hundred and eight thousand li.

Ranked third were Kunpeng and the Golden-Winged Great Peng's Great Peng Spreading Its Wings. With one beat of its wings, it could fly ninety thousand li.

In Journey to the West, the Golden-Winged Great Peng flapped its wings twice and caught up to Sun Wukong, who was turning somersaults.

Ranked fourth was Ancestor Red Cloud's Cloud Transformation. When Purple Cloud Palace held its first lecture and the Holy Positions were contested, Ancestor Red Cloud's speed had been second only to Kunpeng's.

Ranked fifth was Earth-Vaulting Golden Light. It could travel several thousand li a day. It sounded fast, but in truth, it was not.

After that came divine powers such as Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving, Object-Riding Flight, and Shrinking Earth to an Inch. Their speed was merely so-so, and many divine powers were not renowned for speed at all.

For instance, Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving among the Heavenly Dipper Divine Powers sounded like a speed-type divine power, but it was actually an art of becoming immortal. If a mortal could comprehend Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving, they could become immortal where they stood and ascend to the upper realm.

Golden Crow Rainbow Transformation and Great Peng Spreading Its Wings were both innate divine powers. Other people and races could not learn them.

Nezha's Wind-Fire Wheels, meanwhile, were a magical treasure. They looked extremely fast, but that was mainly because of the treasure's power.

Only the Somersault Cloud and Earth-Vaulting Golden Light were widely applicable, and they were also the techniques most immortals and gods could learn.

But the Dharma was not lightly transmitted. Most immortals and gods could not cultivate them at all, and how many could become disciples of a Sage?

Thus, most immortals and gods still cultivated divine powers such as Cloud-Riding and Mist-Driving, Object-Riding Flight, Shrinking Earth to an Inch, or the Five-Element Escape Arts. Their speed was only so-so.

For this reason, many immortals and gods liked to subdue mounts. Certain unusual beasts and divine beasts were exceptionally gifted, extraordinarily swift, and looked quite imposing besides.

Red Cloud, meanwhile, cultivated the Great Five-Element Escape among the Heavenly Dipper Divine Powers, allowing him to move by escaping into the Five Elements.

Red Cloud placed tremendous importance on his own speed. If he was fast enough, whether or not he could defeat others was one thing—but at least if he could not defeat them, he would have the ability to escape.

That was the finest use of speed-type divine powers.

Yet such a powerful divine power could not be created in a short time. Red Cloud could only perfect it through use.

One day, Red Cloud rode the clouds across the heavens when he suddenly stopped, his gaze falling upon the vast earth below.

A strange sensation had just arisen in Red Cloud's heart, as though something beneath him was drawing him in.

"Could it be a spiritual treasure destined for me?"

Thinking this, Red Cloud descended to the ground. A cool breath began washing over him head-on.

Following the breath, Red Cloud found a cold pool exuding icy mist, faint cold radiance shining from within it.

Chill mist drifted over the pool, waves of freezing air mixed with a faint exotic fragrance rushing toward him.

Red Cloud used his Primordial Spirit to sense the thing drawing him here and discovered that the feeling of attraction came from beneath the cold pool.

Having confirmed the direction, Red Cloud directly escaped into the cold pool, silently invoking Water Entry among the Earthly Fiend Divine Powers.

The icy pool water was kept outside Red Cloud's body.

The cold pool was extremely deep. As Red Cloud swam downward, his vision gradually dimmed, and the chill grew ever heavier.

He did not know how deeply he had dived, but the cold air within the pool had already made even Red Cloud feel chilled.

Yet Red Cloud was not afraid. Instead, he frantically circulated his cultivation technique, devouring the surrounding spiritual energy and converting it into magical power.

In such an environment, Red Cloud discovered that his cultivation speed was faster than outside. The concentration of Innate Spiritual Energy here was beyond comparison with other places.

While cultivating in the cold pool, Red Cloud did not forget to search for the thing that had drawn him here.

Yet for some reason, once he sank into the cold pool, that strange sensation vanished instead.

Red Cloud was not anxious about it. If fate existed between them, they would meet eventually. He might as well use this chance to cultivate properly.

After an unknown amount of time, an aura suddenly erupted from Red Cloud's body. His cultivation finally broke through a minor realm, rising from the Mid-Stage Golden Immortal to the Late-Stage Golden Immortal.

After Red Cloud's years of devouring, the Innate Spiritual Energy within the cold pool had also become much thinner.

Soon, that strange sensation appeared again. Red Cloud followed it and flew over, where a massive piece of dark-blue cold jade appeared before his eyes.

A jade tree grew atop the cold jade, radiating chill. It was likely the source of the cold pool's biting frost, though Red Cloud had no idea what kind of spiritual root this tree was.