Having mastered the Ugly Disaster and received the magical charms from Principal Zhao Shouyi, Zhou Bai felt a great increase in his sense of security.

New novel chapt𝒆rs are published on ƒгeewebnovёl.com.

The assassination attempt by the Heavenly Demon also put more pressure on Zhou Bai. The situation was getting worse, and he needed even stronger power to cope.

With the steady income of Laziness points every day, Zhou Bai began to focus on his cultivation. Every night, he practiced the Twilight Taoist Skill and burned feces. During the day, under Christina’s supervision, he practiced swordsmanship. At the same time, he also strengthened his physical body.

Meanwhile, the Chengying Sword was personally repaired and enhanced by the master artisans of the Artifact Refining Institute.

Every day, Zhou Bai continued to learn 4 to 5 sets of swordsmanship, almost draining the teachers like Snake Elder.

After its repair, the Chengying Sword was continuously infused with various sword techniques and extraterrestrial powers, rapidly approaching the upper limit of Zhou Bai’s 3000-point Primordial Spirit force.

Zhou Bai’s physical body, through daily accumulation of training, was gradually becoming stronger, leveraging his excellent physical aptitude.

Half a month later,

In front of Zhou Bai, the crystal-clear Chengying Sword, twinkling with stars, rose and fell, its power occasionally cutting through the air with piercing screams.

Now, after numerous repairs by the masters of the Artifact Refining Institute, not only had its original damage been completely mended, but it had also been reinforced in multiple ways. Looking closely at the sword’s body, one could see many faint, densely packed runes.

This was the Chengying Sword, successively reinforced with 360 runes, forming a small strengthening Array, greatly bolstering its durability and even giving it some self-healing capability.

Besides, the sword techniques within the Chengying Sword had reached 118 sets, covering a wide variety of styles and almost integrating most types of swordsmanship, suitable for all kinds of situations.

At the same time, Zhou Bai could feel that a peerless sword technique was slowly fermenting inside it, but he still needed more—more sword techniques to feed into it.

Simultaneously, the extraterrestrial force within the Chengying Sword had reached a saturation point, and its power was now comparable to Zhou Bai’s 3000-point Primordial Spirit force.

Now, with the Chengying Sword in hand, Zhou Bai’s use of swordsmanship was nearly like having two of himself exerting force at once.

Furthermore, his Sword Intent had also improved somewhat. During combat, he could convert 300 points of Primordial Spirit force into Sword Intent to fight and switch back at any time.

However, compared to the 118 sets of sword techniques and the extraterrestrial force matching the 3000-point strength of the Primordial Spirit, the power of Sword Intent still seemed too weak, far from reaching a balanced state and thus incapable of perfectly executing the Galaxy Sword Song.

In addition to the advancement in swordsmanship, Zhou Bai’s physical strength, with each day of training and the added benefits of physical aptitude enhancements, was nearly equivalent to an ordinary person training for a month. His explosive power, endurance, agility, and flexibility all saw significant improvements.

Zhou Bai’s Laziness points also accumulated to eighteen thousand, which he carefully saved up, planning to use them later to learn the Tianhe Star Explosion sword technique.

But as the cultivation deepened, Zhou Bai began to feel his own potential limitations.

"The Primordial Spirit force cannot be improved, the degree of Tao assimilation cannot be improved, and I’ve almost collected all the sword moves of the Twilight Taoist Skill. More would just be similar techniques from the first or second realm. The extraterrestrial force has also reached the upper limit that the Primordial Spirit can control…"

"My strength has hit a bottleneck, and to continue making rapid improvements, I need to find the Original Tao Treasure 03."

Zhou Bai, stroking his chin, fell into deep thought.

At this moment, Qian Wangsun said, "Zhou Bai, let’s have a practice match. Us three against you alone."

Zhou Bai turned his head and saw that Qian Wangsun, Zuo Dao, and Lu Wanzhen were all looking at him.

Zhou Bai’s progress was incredibly rapid, and though Qian Wangsun and the others couldn’t match his pace, they too were considered geniuses among geniuses in the eyes of ordinary people.

After Qian Wangsun and Zuo Dao both entered the 2nd realm, Lu Wanzhen finally made her breakthrough, stepping into the 3rd realm of the Gong Tu path and choosing the Godspeed Diagram that specialized in enhancing movement speed, as she tried to master abilities like high-speed movement, stepping in the air, and Vacuum Slash.

Zhou Bai saw the battle intent on their faces and cracked a slight smile. The Chengying Sword in front of him flashed and vanished, already thrusting straight at Qian Wangsun.

The four immediately engaged in battle, and Zhou Bai, with a sword in hand and without using any special abilities, suppressed Qian Wangsun, Zuo Dao, and Lu Wanzhen almost completely with his terrifyingly powerful swordsmanship.

Especially since his swordsmanship’s innate, extraordinary power could rival the force of 3,000 points of Primordial Spirit energy, coupled with Zhou Bai’s own 3,000 points of Primordial Spirit energy, a single strike was almost impossible for the three of them to counter directly.

Zhou Bai thought to himself, ’With my current strength, I can triumph over those who have just entered the 4th realm if I’m holding the Chengying in a normal state. If I fight barehanded and with Laziness Acceleration, I can defeat most of the people in the 4th realm without much problem.

If I also consider using strategies like conserving strength, Laziness Healing, and thus wearing them down, I could even try to wear down someone who has just entered the 5th realm.’

That he possessed such combat prowess in the 2nd realm demonstrated the power of the Celestial Doom Diagram and the support cultivation system, but given the pressure from the Heavenly Demons, Zhou Bai still needed greater, more overwhelming power to do what he wanted in this grim era and to protect those he wished to protect.

...

That night, Zhou Bai went to the Sky Corridor as per their usual agreement and met with Lin Muqing.

Zhou Bai, "How have things been lately?"

Lin Muqing sighed, "You must have heard the news too. The situation in Donghua City has been terrible lately. The Night Army has been capturing Heavenly Demon spies everywhere, and the Heavenly Demon spies have been attacking cultivators all over the place. It’s almost like we’re in a battlefield."

Zhou Bai smiled and said, "Let’s talk about it on the notebook."

Lin Muqing rolled her eyes at him and said, "After partnering for so long, you still don’t trust me?"

Zhou Bai felt a twinge in his heart from Lin Muqing’s roll of the eyes and said with a grin, "Safety first, right? Who knows if one of us has been threatened or controlled."

Lin Muqing replied, "That makes sense." With that, she took out the notebook and handed it over to Zhou Bai, "Here you go."

Upon receiving the notebook, Zhou Bai immediately felt that the power within the gemstone was motionless, showing no intention of recharging.

He insisted on using the notebook for communication partly for safety reasons and partly to monitor the energy situation within the notebook.

’As expected, unlike the first hexagram, the energy consumption of the twelfth hexagram is very slow. It’s no problem to charge it once every month or two.’

’It seems like each hexagram’s energy consumption is different, which is likely related to their strength and the frequency of use.’

While Zhou Bai was thinking, Lin Muqing nudged his shoulder with hers and said, "Zhou Bai, what are you spacing out for?"

Zhou Bai wrote, "I’ve always found it strange. Under the Celestial Star Formation, once those Heavenly Demons reveal themselves, wouldn’t they be captured immediately? Even if they can attack some cultivators, what’s their purpose in doing this? Wouldn’t it be better for them to hide and wait for an opportunity? Do you know any information?"

--

Thank you to ’In Love with Fishing’s Kai Zi’ for the 20,000 reward, thank you to ’linzefei2006’ for the 20,000 reward, thank you to ’Stealing God’ for the 10,000 reward.