[Great Secrecy Radiance Concentration] [Name]: Chen Heng. [Arts]: Qi Armor Technique (major mastery), Chen Clan Archery (major mastery), Little Scarlet Dragon Sword Manual (intermediate mastery), Golden Man Substitution (intermediate mastery), Blood Armor Technique (minor mastery), Green Satchel Medicine Manual (minor mastery), Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique (minor mastery), Aurora Great Escape (--). [Artifacts]: Thunderfire Thunderclap Bead (mid-grade talisman artifact), Green Bamboo Thorn (low-grade talisman artifact), One Qi Essence Jade (low-grade talisman artifact), Cloud-Piercing Flying Boat (low-grade talisman artifact), Heaven and Earth Bag (low-grade talisman artifact), Solid-Sinking Inkstone (low-grade talisman artifact), Dipper Talisman (secret treasure). [Cultivation]: third layer of Qi Refining (Primordial Beginning True Origin Scripture Expounded by the Divine House Pivot Splendor Dao Lord).
This time, several new lines had appeared in the Great Secrecy Golden Book.
Golden Man Substitution and the Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique were Dao arts Chen Heng had obtained from the Rong Clan's library, both ranked in the lower vehicle.
Of these, Golden Man Substitution was an art for transferring calamity-
One had to find a piece of pure gold, cast and carve it into one's own likeness, then drip essence blood onto its crown. After nourishing it with embryonic breath for three days, one could refine and condense it using the art's methods to obtain a small golden man capable of transferring calamity.
In a moment of peril, one could exchange places with the golden man and have it ward off a calamity.
But this was ultimately only a lower-vehicle Dao art. It could transfer calamity, not substitute for death. If an opponent's divine abilities surpassed one's own, and their strike exceeded the golden man's limits, one would still die all the same.
Moreover, only one such golden man could exist at a time, bound to one's mind and spirit. A new one could only be cast after the old one was destroyed.
Otherwise, Chen Heng would certainly have liked to make hundreds or thousands of golden men to attend him...
If that were truly possible, he could probably just barely withstand even a strike from a Purple Mansion Senior Adept.
The other art, the Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique, was the very Dao art Rong Jin had once used against him. As its name suggested, it could summon wind and mist.
This lower-vehicle Dao art had its interesting points, but the Qi Cultivation Art Rong Jin practiced was of far too low a grade, leaving both the quantity and attributes of his embryonic breath merely mediocre.
That was why Chen Heng had easily broken the art with a single strand of embryonic breath condensed within the wine, nearly killing him in the process.
Golden Man Substitution, the Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique...
These were all Chen Heng had gained from the Rong Clan's library.
Though the library held many books, including dozens of works akin to the "Long Spear, Great Phoenix, and Great Inversion Sexual Combat Method," these were merely mundane techniques for intercourse, not Dao arts.
Together with military treatises, medical texts, handwritten notes left by predecessors, and ink paintings, the collection seemed a dazzling array. In truth, however, only the two lower-vehicle Dao arts, Golden Man Substitution and the Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique, were useful to Chen Heng.
The rest offered little beyond broadening his horizons and helping him draw connections between related subjects.
As for the talisman artifact called the Solid-Sinking Inkstone, it had been one of Tong Jizhen's talisman treasures. Like the One Qi Essence Jade, it served a defensive purpose and was merely better than nothing.
Besides a hundred-odd talisman coins and some men's clothing, Tong Jizhen's Heaven and Earth Bag contained nothing else. This haul had yielded little profit.
Rong Tuo only let me enter the library because there were just two Dao arts in it. No matter how I searched, I couldn't find any more... But how could he know the wonders of my One True Dharma Realm? Here, whatever he concealed had nowhere to hide.
Chen Heng dispersed the current of air in his hand and chuckled inwardly.
During his time in the One True Dharma Realm, he had originally intended to comprehend Golden Man Substitution to the pinnacle of major mastery. Through a turn of circumstance, however, the first Dao art to reach major mastery had instead been the Qi Armor Technique.
And because casting the golden man required him to keep drawing his blood, he had also brought the Blood Armor Technique from the introductory stage to minor mastery along the way.
As for his newly acquired Golden Man Substitution and Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique, amid all this, one had only reached intermediate mastery and the other minor mastery.
He put these thoughts aside.
With a stir of Chen Heng's will,
a figure began to emerge faintly in the dark void, taking on Rong Xuantao's appearance.
"Of the Rong Clan's three Qi Refining cultivators, you look the roughest and most unrestrained, fellow Daoist. Yet underneath, you're a rare upright man. I certainly misjudged you."
Chen Heng looked at Rong Xuantao's mind image and smiled faintly.
Rong Tuo and Rong Jin, the crown prince of the Rong Kingdom, did indeed practice several Dao arts not held in the library. Without exception, however, they were dual-cultivation sexual combat arts that required the cooperation of female Daoists to harmonize yin and yang and gain entry into their practice.
In this world, only he could see the Golden Cicada's appearance, and only he could enter the One True Dharma Realm.
Quite apart from Chen Heng's lack of interest in such arts, even if he wanted to practice them, he could not accomplish it alone.
The elderly Rong Xuantao, on the other hand, had all the bearing of a stalwart warrior, yet actually practiced an illusion Dao art called Fish-Dragon Manifestation. It could throw people's minds into disarray, targeting their spiritual awareness.
That was a rare find.
Once the mind image had formed, he did not hesitate. He immediately gripped an iron ruler, light rising beneath his feet.
As Rong Xuantao charged toward him, Chen Heng simply tossed the Thunderfire Thunderclap Bead into the air. It rumbled, unleashing thunderous peals.
Several dozen breaths later, as Chen Heng slowly dispersed his Qi Armor Technique...
On the scorched, fractured ground, Rong Xuantao's broken body gradually faded, leaving only a gleaming origin spirit.
Chen Heng reached out and drew the origin spirit through the air. The moment he held it and sensed its contents, a helpless look appeared on his face.
"Liu Yuanlong's Eight Fierce Spear Method... A mundane martial art?"
The origin spirit drops were the most troublesome part of this place.
They were entirely random and disorderly. He could not specify what he wanted, nor was there any way to do so.
An origin spirit would select an art at random from everything the mind image had learned, whether Dao arts and divine abilities or martial arts and mundane skills.
"Again."
Chen Heng summoned Rong Xuantao's mind image once more. This time, he deployed the Green Bamboo Thorn, turning it into a streak of jade-green light that swept through the air like flame. Attacking without defending, he broke through Rong Xuantao's Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique with the Green Bamboo Thorn after several dozen exchanges.
With a single thrust, it pierced through the space between his brows, drawing a spray of blood.
"The Lesser Wind and Mist-Summoning Technique? I've already obtained that."
Holding the origin spirit again, Chen Heng briefly sensed its contents, then shook his head once more.
Cloud-Treading Leap.
Lesser Wish-Fulfilling Grappling Hand.
Plum Blossom Footwork.
Eighteen Breaker-of-Armies Halberd Forms.
Chen Heng no longer bothered keeping count of how many times he had killed Rong Xuantao. The man had followed the orthodox mundane path of entering the Dao through martial arts. Through a chance encounter, he had attained Embryonic Breathing, then later entered Qi Refining.
The learning he had accumulated over half his life was exceedingly varied, encompassing not only martial skills of the jianghu but also all manner of methods for marching and deploying troops, maintaining armies, and defending cities.
As a great hand condensed from embryonic breath slapped down, Rong Xuantao's back bent sharply despite the protection of his talisman artifact, and his body sank into the ground.
Chen Heng employed no other means. He simply directed the great hand of embryonic breath to strike down fiercely again, making the spiritual radiance of the Darksteel Small Shield above Rong Xuantao's head waver.
After several dozen such blows, the Darksteel Small Shield finally cracked, its spiritual radiance extinguished.
Deprived of his talisman artifact's protection, Rong Xuantao was reduced to mangled flesh and pulverized bone in an instant by a single slap from the great hand of embryonic breath.
Chen Heng picked up the fallen origin spirit and immersed his mind within it.
The somewhat careless expression on his face immediately vanished.
A faint smile also touched his lips.
"Fish-Dragon Manifestation. I've finally obtained it!"
He pressed the origin spirit straight into his body, and countless words poured into his consciousness, forming a set of essential instructions for the Dao art.
Before long, he composed his mind and began working through it step by step, following the guidance on the art's crucial points.
Time hurried past.
One day,
Chen Heng suddenly sensed something and withdrew from the One True Dharma Realm.
Sure enough, not long afterward,
a soft knocking sounded outside, followed by Rong Jin's voice:
"Sir, it is time."
Thanks to Tao Jize for the 2,000-point tip, to Yi Ye Yi Ye Yi Ye for the 101-point tip, and to OJLO for the 100-point tip.
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