Perfection of Awareness

The ox demon had been slain, and the thousand-plus demons were too frightened to charge.

At last, a brawny Thunder Patterned Leopard let out a roar. "There are few humans! Surround and kill them!"

As the roar fell, the Thunder Patterned Leopard took the lead in charging at Ding Chen and the others.

Chen Xian was too strong, so they avoided him and charged straight at the others.

In the blink of an eye, over a thousand demons clashed with Ding Chen and the others. Chen Xian kicked the ox demon corpse impaled on the spear flying and charged into the demon horde, sending blood spraying at once.

In less than the time it took to brew a cup of tea, only a dozen or so had been injured.

Yet Chen Xian and the others had slaughtered nearly three hundred of the thousand-plus demons, and the demon horde retreated fearfully.

They possessed intelligence and naturally saw that Chen Xian was the strongest among them. He alone could kill more than a hundred of their kind, while Ding Chen and the others could not. If not for Chen Xian, they could have trapped Ding Chen and the others to death.

"Retreat, retreat now!"

A demon roared, and the demon horde swiftly withdrew deeper into Blood River Forest.

Chen Xian led his men in pursuit, and another hundred or so demons died beneath their spears.

When they reached the edge of the Blood River, Chen Xian stopped.

Ding Chen and the others also reined in their horses. They stared at the surging bloody waters of the Blood River, frowned in thought for a moment, then turned back.

Walking at the rear, Chen Xian glanced at the panel:

Experience: 51086 points

This felt amazing!

He had killed more than three hundred demons by himself. Aside from the ox demon, which had been a greater demon worth more than 300 Experience Points, the rest had been lesser demons and monster spirits.

Monster spirits were worth fewer than 100 Experience Points, while lesser demons were worth between 100 and 300.

The Experience Points he needed to raise his cultivation realm now were far too numerous. If he did not desperately slaughter demons for Experience Points and relied solely on cultivation, he would not reach the Soaring Realm even in ten years.

From what he currently knew of cultivation realms, Body Refinement was a threshold for ordinary people, followed by the Jade Sea Realm. The third threshold was the Soaring Realm.

For a Body Refinement martial artist, reaching the Jade Sea Realm was no easy matter. After breaking through the Jade Sea Realm, achieving Foundation Establishment and reaching the Soaring Realm was even harder.

That could also be seen from the Experience Points required for him to advance his realm.

The farther he progressed, the more Experience Points he needed.

When they returned to the site of the battle, Ding Chen, Wang Yan, and Qin Fei asked about the wounded.

As the Chief Medic, Chen Xian also checked on the wounded under his command. Of the six men, three were seriously injured, while the other three had light injuries and could still mount up and fight.

North of Blood River Forest, Chen Quanwu frowned. He had heard waves of fighting erupt from the forest just now, yet the sounds had ended in no time.

"Are they all dead?" Chen Quanwu frowned.

He did not care much whether a group of Cook Soldiers lived or died. The key was that they had failed to lure the demons out of Blood River Forest.

"Useless trash!" Chen Quanwu snorted coldly and had a lieutenant under his command send men west to investigate.

When the messenger reached the west side, he saw Ding Chen leading the wounded out of the forest and could not help showing surprise.

"Where is the Demon Army?" The messenger rode over, shot Ding Chen a glance, and demanded.

After settling the wounded, Ding Chen looked at the messenger. "Go tell the Commandant that the demons are very clever. When they saw us fleeing, they stopped pursuing us. They clearly knew there was an ambush."

Hearing that, the messenger glanced at the dozen-plus wounded men, then turned and left with doubt in his heart.

"Still sixty or seventy men?"

After hearing the report, Chen Quanwu's face darkened. He had thought Ding Chen and the others had all been wiped out, yet sixty or seventy people were still alive.

The messenger had seen seventy-three people, because Chen Xian was still in the forest with twenty-six others.

"Order them to continue luring the demons, still toward Black Abyss."

"Yes, Commandant!"

The messenger charged west again and delivered the order to Ding Chen.

Ding Chen agreed aloud, led his men into the forest to put on an act, and brought them back out after the messenger left.

Within the forest.

Chen Xian was with Xue Qishan, Cao Fang, and the other twenty-six men. They stood in a line not far behind him, waiting for the Demon Army to attack again.

After a thousand months of day-and-night tempering, your Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art had reached Minor Accomplishment.

After eight thousand months of day-and-night arduous training, your Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art had reached Major Accomplishment. Spiritual sense had permeated your body, and you had reached Awareness Minor Accomplishment.

Realm: Awareness Minor Accomplishment

Experience: 40086 points

Lifespan: three hundred and thirty years

Buzz!

In an instant, Chen Xian's body trembled. Then his brow began to itch unbearably. With his eyes closed, he could see a golden eye slowly taking shape within the golden vortex deep between his brows.

The golden eye was condensed from golden spiritual sense power. Though it was only an embryonic form, Chen Xian discovered in amazement that threads of golden light shot out from it. Once they emerged from between his brows, it was as if eyes had grown all around his head, allowing him to see the scenery around him clearly.

The range was limited, however. Within three meters, he could see clearly; any farther, the Spiritual Sense Eye's vision became blurry.

"This should be observing the outer scene!" Chen Xian muttered excitedly to himself.

Observing the inner scene meant seeing oneself, while observing the outer scene meant perceiving movements outside one's body.

This phenomenon was also incredibly wondrous. It was equivalent to growing eyes in the back of one's head. Even if obstacles blocked his sight, it would not matter. So long as the Spiritual Sense Eye's range was large enough, every scene could enter his vision with perfect clarity.

Next, Chen Xian continued upgrading.

As his Experience Points steadily decreased, the eye outlined by golden spiritual sense power within the golden vortex between his brows became clearer and clearer. With his eyes closed, his Spiritual Sense Eye could see thirty meters away.

When 20,000 Experience Points had been consumed—equivalent to twenty thousand months of tempering—Chen Xian finally raised the Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art to the perfected realm.

His own realm had also reached Awareness Major Accomplishment.

Realm: Awareness Major Accomplishment

Experience: 20086 points

Lifespan: three hundred and forty years

Chen Xian's gaze lingered on his lifespan. He discovered that lifespan increased very slowly in the Awareness Realm, but his own strength was growing. His physical force had reached the strength of thirty ding, and the amount of Origin Qi in his Jade Sea had also reached thirty cubic measures.

The increase was not particularly great. The main change was in the Spiritual Sense Eye: even with his eyes closed, he could see thirty meters away.

Putting away the panel, Chen Xian's thoughts stirred. The Spiritual Sense Eye condensed within the golden vortex, and rays of golden thread-like light shone through his body, extending thirty meters outward.

It was not a great distance, but with his eyes open, there were no blind spots within thirty meters around him.

Whether against demons or humans, no matter from which angle an opponent attacked, so long as the Spiritual Sense Eye could keep up with the opponent's speed, he could detect them in advance.

While the Demon Army had yet to arrive, Chen Xian continued upgrading.

Another 20,000 Experience Points were consumed.

The Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art remained at the perfected realm.

But his realm advanced to Perfection of Awareness, and the Spiritual Sense Eye could observe within a hundred-meter range.

Chen Xian used all of his remaining 86 Experience Points to upgrade the cultivation art. The cultivation art realm did not change, his cultivation realm did not change, and the Spiritual Sense Eye's viewing range did not change either.

In other words, at Perfection of Awareness, the Spiritual Sense Eye's range for observing the outer scene was within one hundred meters.

Only when his cultivation realm advanced to the Dao Foundation Realm would the range for observing the outer scene expand.

After Chen Xian understood this, he no longer cared. His gaze fell upon his lifespan: three hundred and fifty years.

Barring any accidents, he could live to be three hundred and fifty years old. Just thinking about it felt unbelievable.

"The demons are here!"

As he was thinking, Chen Xian slowly raised his head and fixed a cold gaze ahead.