Chapter 151: In Chaotic Times, Strength Reigns Supreme

Shen Changqing, having changed into a fresh set of clothes, stood tall.

He was back!

After following the Black Tiger Army into the city, he hadn’t lingered long, heading straight back to the capital from Dahuang Prefecture.

His breakthrough to the Grandmaster realm meant that even without the aid of a fast horse, Shen Changqing’s traveling speed was more than doubled compared to before.

Thus,

it only took him a few days to return to the capital.

Gazing at the Demon Suppression Division’s gate, that faint but familiar feeling welled up within Shen Changqing’s heart once more.

Without much hesitation,

he strode through the Demon Suppression Division’s gate.

From his departure until now, it had only been about a month, all told, so the Demon Suppression Division hadn’t undergone any major changes.

After a quick orientation, Shen Changqing returned to his own courtyard.

He opened the door.

Everything was as it had been.

Upon returning to his bedroom, however, a wave of moldy air assaulted his senses. He channeled his true Qi, bundling up the musty odor and casting it out entirely.

After some cleaning, the room regained its former state.

On the table,

large quantities of pills were arranged neatly.

Due to the inconvenience of carrying them, Shen Changqing hadn’t brought the pills he’d purchased at the Treasure Pavilion last time to Dahuang Prefecture.

"I’ll rest for today and get promoted tomorrow."

Having traveled without pause, Shen Changqing felt somewhat fatigued.

What he needed to do now was restore his body’s energy, before ascending to the next rank.

Breaking through to the Grandmaster Realm,

to be honest, Shen Changqing was already qualified to become an Earth-Rank Demon Slayer.

However,

rank promotion required not only sufficient strength but also the completion of the corresponding assessment mission.

But—

Shen Changqing took out the Clear Spirit Jade Pendant from his embrace. The jade’s original color was long gone, now a dark, inky black.

The number of demons and evil beings he had slain in Jincheng wasn’t large, but each one possessed considerable power, especially the Red Clothes from the Eternal Life Alliance, who was nearly a Grandmaster Realm expert.

"For a Yellow-Rank to be promoted to a Black-Rank Demon Slayer, the Barbarian Priest I killed is enough to deplete the Jade Pendant, and for the remaining promotion from Black-Rank to Earth-Rank, slaying a demon who was nearly a Grandmaster should also suffice.

It’s just that using them for promotion is somewhat of a loss of merit points, but it’s a trivial matter."

Shen Changqing mused.

Currently, merit points didn’t seem particularly useful to him.

At least,

none of the items available for exchange by a Yellow-Rank Demon Slayer were beneficial to him.

Moreover, and more importantly,

Shen Changqing’s improvement came from slaying demons.

As long as he killed demons and received slaughter points, his strength would increase step by step. He didn’t need much else.

In the past,

he wouldn’t arbitrarily increase his rank, as that would increase the difficulty of the missions he received, and the danger would increase as well.

However, the battle in Dahuang Prefecture gave Shen Changqing considerable confidence.

With his current strength,

he wouldn’t be considered weak even among Earth-Rank Demon Slayers.

Promotion was fine. Nothing major would happen.

On the contrary,

the more powerful the demons, the more slaughter points they would provide.

Not to mention anything else,

right now, each upgrade required at least sixteen slaughter points, and that number would increase exponentially in the future.

Ordinary Nether Rank monsters didn’t provide enough slaughter points even for a single-layer upgrade of an existing martial art.

In other words,

only demons and evil beings at the Innate Realm could provide enough slaughter points to upgrade a martial art by one layer.

More importantly,

after a martial art broke through its limit, each layer’s increase was actually quite small.

For example, the increase from the fifteenth to the seventeenth layer of the Invincible Golden Body was only roughly equivalent to the increase from the thirteenth to the fourteenth layer.

From this, it could be seen that although the martial arts currently didn’t seem to require many slaughter points, in fact, due to the weakening of the augmentation, the number of slaughter points consumed to truly increase one’s strength was already quite substantial.

Furthermore,

demons existed throughout Great Qin, not fixed in one place. If he only slayed Nether Rank monsters, Shen Changqing felt he would waste most of his time just traveling.

In that case,

the gains wouldn’t be proportional to the effort.

Only by increasing his rank and slaying more powerful demons could he increase his gains in a short amount of time.

"In chaotic times, strength is paramount!"

Shen Changqing’s eyes were deep.

The more he fought, the more he understood the importance of strength.

When facing a desperate situation, neither vast wealth nor overwhelming power would be of any use.

Only strength

could allow him to forge a path to survival.

Especially now.

The Barbarians’ unprovoked attack on Dahuang Prefecture made Shen Changqing instinctively realize the complexity of the situation, combined with the current situation of Great Qin, the intensification of the world’s turmoil was no joke.

Calming his mind,

Shen Changqing began to meditate and recuperate.

The night passed quietly.

When dawn broke, he got out of bed and came outside to the courtyard.

The morning mist, combined with the dim sky, made the surrounding visibility slightly blurred.

Shen Changqing faced east, secretly channeling the Heavenly Martial Gang Qi. A wisp of purple Qi floated over and, as he opened his mouth to inhale, entered his belly.

"I can only absorb one wisp of purple Qi each day. If I could constantly absorb purple Qi for cultivation, my true Qi’s intensity would definitely increase significantly."

Heaven and earth purple Qi.

It truly lived up to its reputation as the most wondrous creation.

Shen Changqing still didn’t understand where that wisp of purple Qi came from. Perhaps it came from the space between heaven and earth, or perhaps it came from the Golden Crow illuminating the earth.

Anyway,

whenever the sun rose, purple Qi would be born from the space between heaven and earth.

But the purple Qi appeared quickly and disappeared quickly.

The whole process was only momentary.

This resulted in any cultivator wanting to absorb purple Qi for cultivation only being able to capture a wisp. By the time they wanted to capture the second wisp, the purple Qi had already disappeared.

After swallowing a wisp of purple Qi,

Shen Changqing used his true Qi to digest it for a while, then began cultivating martial arts in the courtyard.

The Hundred Battle Saber Technique in his status panel, to some extent, had already surpassed the limitations of the panel.

However,

although only the True Intent existed in the status panel, the moves were completely engraved in Shen Changqing’s mind. For him now, he no longer needed to painstakingly cultivate the Hundred Battle Saber Technique. He only needed to constantly comprehend its True Intent.

The True Intent of the Hundred Battle Saber Technique was primarily focused on battle. As for future upgrades, he currently had no major ideas.

But just from the Hundred Battle Saber Technique’s advancement difficulty, he could understand just how difficult it would be to upgrade the Hundred Battle True Intent in the future.

Not counting the Hundred Battle Saber Technique, although the Iron Sand Palm hadn’t comprehended the Martial Arts True Intent, it had also reached the Perfected state. Among the remaining martial arts, the only one that truly needed painstaking cultivation was the Celestial Luo Stepping Gait.

As for the others,

they were no different from fusion materials and weren’t worth investing too much time in.

The Celestial Luo Stepping Gait had only comprehended the fifth layer so far, but in the previous battle amidst ten thousand soldiers, Shen Changqing had gained a different kind of understanding.

Now,

he was trying to transform that understanding into real strength.

In the courtyard,

one could see a figure in a green shirt constantly shifting and moving, pulling out layers upon layers of phantoms, making one’s head spin.

The Celestial Luo Stepping Gait

was a mysterious footwork that combined the eight trigrams with the mysteries of the Dipper Constellation.

After a long time,

all the phantoms overlapped, then Shen Changqing’s original figure appeared.

"Huff!"

He exhaled lightly, a faint smile on his face.

"With a little more time to digest it, the Celestial Luo Stepping Gait can break through to the sixth layer. It is said that when each martial art reaches a profound realm, one can comprehend the Martial Arts True Intent.

In other words, it’s very possible that a martial artist can comprehend more than just one Martial Arts True Intent—"

Looking at the martial arts on the status panel, Shen Changqing raised an eyebrow slightly.

This was just his conjecture. There was no substantial evidence.

Even if a person could really comprehend multiple Martial Arts True Intents, it definitely wouldn’t be an easy task.

One had to know that

not all martial arts could be upgraded with slaughter points. If it hadn’t been for the battle amid ten thousand soldiers, it would have been difficult to comprehend the Hundred Battle True Intent this time. Comprehending the Martial Arts True Intent for other martial arts was just as difficult.

A person’s energy

was ultimately limited.

In particular, comprehending the Martial Arts True Intent didn’t mean that one had truly reached the end of that martial art. On the contrary, it was just the beginning of the Martial Arts True Intent.

"I have to ask someone about the Grandmaster or go to the Scripture Repository to check."

Shen Changqing looked up at the sky. The sun was already high in the sky, almost noon.

He returned to his room, swallowed a few Satiety Pills to fill his stomach, then went out and walked towards the Warden’s courtyard.

Regardless of whether he had broken through to the Grandmaster or not,

he was still a member of the Yellow Division Demon Slaying Courtyard and was just a small Yellow-Rank Demon Slayer.

Now that he was back,

he naturally had to report to Jiang Zuo.

Knock knock.

He knocked on the familiar courtyard door.

Before long, the courtyard door was opened, and Jiang Zuo appeared there.

Looking at the person in front of him,

the Warden of the Yellow Division Demon Slaying Courtyard also visibly contracted his pupils, then stepped aside.

"You’re here. Come in and talk!"

"Thank you, Warden Jiang."

Shen Changqing nodded, stepping inside.

Then,

Jiang Zuo closed the courtyard door, and the two headed towards the pavilion.

In the pavilion, a pot of hot tea was already brewed, as if the host hadn’t had time to drink it.

"You’ve come at the right time. I just exchanged some spiritual tea from the Demon Suppression Division. Martial artists can improve their cultivation by drinking spiritual tea. You can try it and see how it works."

After Jiang Zuo sat down, he had a smile on his face. He took out two cups and poured the hot tea into them.

Instantly,

a rich fragrance spread out, making one feel refreshed just by smelling it.

Shen Changqing wasn’t polite and sat down directly opposite Jiang Zuo.

"Then I won’t stand on ceremony!"

End of Chapter