So Qin Tian urgently needed to shore up his weaknesses in every respect.
Yet the flawless mortal body he had originally envisioned could not be developed without reaching the realm of a Great Emperor, and he currently had nothing like undying divine phoenix blood either.
Although his luck was good, how could he stake something that concerned his future path of cultivation on luck?
Thus, he could only take the route of the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art.
A special physique could neatly make up for all those shortcomings, laying a solid foundation for Qin Tian to enter the divine forbidden domain.
He left the ancient cave and wandered across the Northern Region.
Qin Tian wore a wistful expression. "Yaoguang Holy Land isn't very enthusiastic about hunting me down anymore."
He had been out for so long, yet he had hardly seen anyone searching for him.
"This won't do."
"They've stopped looking after just two years?"
Qin Tian was thoroughly unimpressed. "No perseverance at all."
What Qin Tian did not know was that Yaoguang Holy Land had never abandoned its pursuit of him over these years, intent on washing away its humiliation.
Unfortunately, in attempting to divine Qin Tian's location, four Heavenly Diviners alone had been struck dead by lightning, and those in Central Province had immediately blacklisted Yaoguang Holy Land.
Under those circumstances, who would dare keep searching?
Qin Tian pondered aloud. "Should I go to Yaoguang Holy Land's Source shop and pull off another job?"
"Yaoguang Holy Land doesn't just have Yaoguang."
The corners of Qin Tian's mouth rose as a plan took shape. "How can we leave the Yaoguang lineage to do all the hard work by itself?"
Qin Tian rubbed his chin, his eyes lighting up ever more brilliantly. "The Heaven-Swallowing lineage needs to come out and contribute too!"
"A holy land should stand united."
"They can't just eat without doing any work!"
"Let's take a gamble!" Qin Tian raised his hand, and the lid of the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar floated above his palm. Dark and shadowy, it let fall countless strands, each capable of crushing mountains, while resembling a black hole that devoured every Dao and principle in the world.
"If I win, I'll obtain the Ruthless Inheritance and forge the foundation for my future path of invincibility. If I lose, at worst I'll find somewhere to hide for three to five years."
Qin Tian desperately wanted a special physique. All this time, his mortal body had kept his combat strength from rising any further.
Even after completing his breakthrough, he had only barely managed to rival a divine body.
But if he possessed a special physique, then with the breakthrough Qin Tian had achieved...
With the fruits of the Open Gate Method and the human body Dao domain layered upon a special physique, he might not reach the eight forbidden domain outright, but he would come close.
After all, a transformation capable of producing a qualitative change even in a mortal body would only be more terrifying when applied to a special physique.
This was not addition, but multiplication. The multiplier was already fixed; the larger the multiplicand, the greater the final result.
His second reason was his Temporal-Spatial Eyes.
Those divine eyes of his were extraordinary in essence.
But their origin essence was far too thin, allowing only a few uses.
If they could receive the support of a special physique's origin essence, perhaps his Temporal-Spatial Eyes would undergo a further elevation as well.
After all, the eyes were part of the body, and the origin essence of a special physique could also be used by his Temporal-Spatial Eyes.
Few beings in the world possessed the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art.
If he merely wanted to obtain the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art, he could go to Star Peak. It would be safe and convenient.
But Hua Yunfei was a pawn of the Ruthless Lineage, and there was no guarantee that the cultivation art he had learned contained no hidden safeguards left by the Ruthless Lineage.
Besides, learning only the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art would not do.
It would be countered by the Indestructible Heavenly Art in the future, so he had to obtain both the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art and the Indestructible Heavenly Art.
And only the Ruthless Lineage possessed both supreme immortal scriptures.
He had already provoked Yaoguang Holy Land once anyway. He was not afraid to do it again.
Even if he did not cultivate the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art, it would certainly help point out his path ahead. After all, the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art was not merely a cultivation art about devouring.
It was also an encyclopedia explaining all manner of physiques, including how to absorb an enemy's vital essence, energy, and spirit, fuse the origin essences of special physiques, and resolve conflicts between origin essences. It could be called a heavenly scripture of the path of physiques.
It expounded the path of physique origin essences in exhaustive detail.
Qin Tian's imagination ran wild. "Besides, I have an idea. I wonder whether I can make it work."
"The demonic nature of the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art comes from the lingering wills within the origin essences of those ten thousand kinds of physiques."
Everything that existed left traces. Even though the Ruthless Great Emperor had done her utmost to dissolve them, the devoured physiques still retained their original owners' imprints, and these were the source of that demonic nature.
Conflicts between ten thousand kinds of physiques, the lingering spiritual wills within ten thousand origin essences, clashes between different Dao arts, and collisions between opposing Daos and principles such as water and fire, Yin-Yang, and good and evil.
All of these became shackles, ultimately forming a Demon Embryo that trapped the cultivator of the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art.
This was what had happened to the Yaoguang Holy Son later on. Having devoured too many origin essences, he had become entirely bound by the Demon Embryo, and only with Ye Fan's help had he barely managed to break it.
Qin Tian's imagination soared. "What if... instead of taking the route of uniting ten thousand physiques, I used the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art to devour only two?"
"With only two people's lingering wills and the conflict between two different origin essences, would the Demon Embryo still form?"
Qin Tian recalled the original story. The birth of the two supreme physiques required only two kinds of physique each. "If I devour a solar sacred body and a lunar sacred body, could I directly create a chaos body?"
"Or if I devour only a desolate ancient sacred body and an innate Dao embryo, could I create an innate sacred body Dao Platform?"
Qin Tian said softly, "I'm very curious!"
"I must obtain the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Art!"
The Five Qis circulated through Qin Tian's body as he changed his appearance, becoming an unremarkable fat man with a ruddy complexion. Riding a streak of rainbow light, he bounced his backside and soared into the clouds.
"This Daoist master is coming!"
The fat Daoist Qin Tian had transformed into smiled brilliantly, revealing a mouthful of snow-white teeth.
His imitation was nine-tenths accurate.
Qin Tian soon found one of Yaoguang Holy Land's mines.
Across the vast, open land stood one Source Mine after another. Profound Dao patterns had been laid throughout the region, gathering the power of the mountains, rivers, and earth to protect Yaoguang Holy Land's Source Area, enclosing everything within.
Inside the Source Mine, low stone houses stood everywhere amid reddish-brown earth and rock. Mining areas stretched across the ground, devoid of life or vitality.
In the distance, the Source miners worked mechanically with expressionless faces, entering and leaving the shafts as they hauled out loads of earth and rock.
At this sight, Qin Tian's heart sank, as though he were seeing his former self.
The difference, however, was that he had never abandoned hope, while the Mine Slaves before him had grown almost numb through their day-after-day toil.
"Kill!"
Suddenly, a thunderous cry rang out beside his ears, shaking the sky.
The sounds of armored cavalry charging across frozen rivers resounded like mighty drums beating upon the earth, revealing a corner of the Northern Region's blood-soaked reality.
There were only seventy or eighty attackers, each mounted on a savage beast clad in formidable scales. Their beasts' roars carried for dozens of miles, and killing intent surged into the sky.
Seventy or eighty savage beasts roared, their iron hooves trampling the heavens as they all charged inside.
Leading them was a young man in his early twenties, wearing iron armor and riding a savage beast.
Eighteen great banners were planted behind his back, snapping in the wind as though they could shatter heaven and earth. Each was crimson as blood, with baleful qi soaring skyward, as if it had drunk the blood of countless living beings.
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