Food System in Cultivation World-Chapter 376 - 363: Within an Inch, Boundless Universe
Chen Xu stepped out of the mountain cave, pursuing his two senior brothers.
At first, he moved extremely cautiously. If it weren’t for those two senior brothers investigating the anomalies in the mountains while walking, Chen Xu might not have even been able to keep up with them.
Chen Xu was suppressed by the supernatural forces of this place, and now his speed was roughly equivalent to that of a nimble young mortal.
However, some of his talents remained, such as: I can see food entries.
This caused Chen Xu, upon entering the mountains, to suddenly discover countless entries all over the place.
But that wasn’t the biggest surprise.
The real surprise was that, during a chance encounter, Chen Xu discovered that the two senior brothers in this mountain forest couldn’t see the cave with the murals, nor could they see Chen Xu!
Yes, they couldn’t see Chen Xu.
This was neither a surprise nor a shock.
At the time, Chen Xu was contemplating the forces of this world as he walked.
He discovered that to lessen the pressure of this world on him, on one hand, the power of the Sea of Literature needed to increase, and Literary Qi needed to grow more. On the other hand, he needed a deeper understanding of this world’s forces.
Put simply, it was about mutual familiarity.
Chen Xu was an "outsider." He had plunged into this unfamiliar world, and naturally, the world saw him as an external entity.
He was a living being, unlike a Daoist Puppet.
Additionally, he came from "two dimensions" into "three dimensions," so during this process of familiarizing with the world, Chen Xu was essentially undergoing a kind of "dimensional ascension" cultivation!
Every time the True Yuan circulated, resisting pressure from all directions, Chen Xu could feel a peculiar transformation happening within his physical body and bones.
Although this transformation was very slow, it was indeed happening.
Even after walking for some time, the Food Cauldron Celestial Book suddenly issued a prompt:
[In the span of an inch, the vastness of the world, you have come from the Void Realm to the Xuantian Star Realm, achieving a significant breakthrough in life.
You have initially mastered the path of enhancing the essence of life, gaining a fourth attribute in addition to the Tri-Attribute.]
[Life Soul +1]
Life Soul +1!
At that instant, Chen Xu suddenly felt an extremely subtle transformation from head to toe, from soul to body.
If the pressure this world exerted on Chen Xu was likened to 100.
Previously, in the mountain cave, he increased his Literary Qi significantly through enlightenment, reducing the pressure by about 2.
Then this [Life Soul +1] reduced the pressure by about 3.
Don’t underestimate the increase by just one point; even just this one point allowed Chen Xu to mobilize more True Yuan.
Most importantly, Chen Xu suddenly found that his vision seemed clearer, and his breathing smoother.
Looking at this world again, it seemed like an invisible barrier was missing.
He was like a fish out of water, suddenly returned to the water!
The benefits brought by [Life Soul +1] were evidently more fundamental.
As for what Life Soul is?
The Food Cauldron Celestial Book explained:
[Life Soul, the fourth attribute beyond the Tri-Attribute, is the beginning of transcendence, the source of mystery, existing outside the Five Elements, independent of the world.
Accumulate Life Soul, and over the ages, when an attribute exceeds 1000, there is a certain chance of establishing an immortal foundation.]
Thus, Chen Xu’s current attributes became:
[Essence: 637]
[Divine Soul: 631]
[Qi Blood: 631]
[Life Soul: 1]
Chen Xu’s Life Soul had only 1 point!
That is to say, before this [Life Soul +1], he didn’t even have 1 point of Life Soul.
The value of Life Soul is evident.
Chen Xu was both surprised and delighted, feeling as if he had uncovered a treasure once again.
But it was this momentary emotional fluctuation that caused the constant pressure from all around to surge like waves, and Chen Xu exclaimed in his heart "Not good."
His steps were now uncontrollably unsteady, causing him to stumble and crash into a large tree beside him.
With a rustling sound, the tree’s branches and leaves shook.
In front, the two senior brothers searching around the forest turned their heads in unison.
The junior brother said puzzledly: "Strange, I heard something just now."
"What could it be? This spiritual vein is abandoned, its Spiritual Qi is chaotic; it’s a secluded place where even demons are unwilling to come. Junior brother, you’d better not be suspicious for no reason.
If we waste any more time, we really might starve to death in these mountains."
The senior brother sighed and emphasized again the possibility of starving to death. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
Then, both of them again completely ignored Chen Xu, who had crashed next to the tree, as if they saw nothing.
Chen Xu had initially hidden behind the tree, but now he stood openly in front of the two senior brothers.
Yet those two, in fact, couldn’t see him at all!
Afterward, Chen Xu tested several times.
He simply stopped hiding, walking directly in front of the two senior brothers, silently, and stood in their path, holding a Wu Hook.
The Wu Hook shone with frost, reflecting the sunlight into a chilling gleam.
Truly, it seemed filled with murderous intent.
Yet the two senior brothers continued walking forward without any guard, even as Chen Xu’s blade approached, they remained unresponsive.
At this point, Chen Xu was truly certain that these two indeed couldn’t see him!
This seemed like good news, potentially providing Chen Xu with many conveniences in this world.
But in the long run, this might not be good news at all.
After all, Chen Xu "ascended" here, not to truly become a vanished transparent person.
He can be "transparent," but it must be on his own terms, controlled. Not like now, without discernible reason, he just became "transparent" to this world.
Chen Xu wondered if this was still related to the properties of the person in his painting?
If so, to unlock this, doesn’t he need to truly integrate into this world so that the world no longer rejects him? Only then can he become "visible" in this world?
This hypothesis is very possible but still needs further verification.
What Chen Xu didn’t know was that all of this was actually related to Mr. Zhou, far in Jichuan County.
In front of the Water Mirror, Mr. Zhou had said he would further help Chen Xu, and this was Mr. Zhou’s assistance.
When an outsider first enters a world, under what circumstances is it safest?
Naturally, being transparent before integration is the safest!
Thus, Chen Xu could, in an almost invisible state, first carefully observe this world.
He saw that the mountains and forests were dense and flourishing before him.
As he traveled, he only saw layers of trees, and in such an environment, it was actually quite difficult for a person to observe the entire landscape of the mountains—
As the saying goes, one cannot see the true face of Mount Lu just because they are in the midst of the mountain.
This was exactly what Chen Xu was seeing at that moment.
He followed the two brothers along their journey, and through their conversations, he gradually learned some scattered basic information.
For instance: In this world, the power of sects is greater than everything.
In other words, this is a world dominated by sects.
The grandeur of sects can sometimes directly control a territory of hundreds of thousands or even a million miles.
Regarding the sect-dominated world, Chen Xu had actually seen related information on the murals of Ancestor Xinghui, but the enormity of the sects still somewhat exceeded his imagination.
A land of millions of miles, what kind of concept is that?
For example, the Xuanxiao Sword Sect has a jurisdiction with a one-direction distance reaching 1.3 million miles.
Roughly calculated, it is almost two-thirds the size of Earth.
And the Xuanxiao Sword Sect is merely one of the thirteen major first-grade superior sects in the world.
It is said that beyond the thirteen superior sects, there exist extraterritorial super sects—
Of course, this is just a legend.
Whether the super sects truly exist, these two down-and-out brothers evidently did not know.
They were merely chatting casually, revealing information through bits and pieces, and much of it was very disorganized.
Additionally, Chen Xu also learned that the world’s sects are divided into nine grades.
There are only thirteen first-grade superior sects, while the lower ninth-grade minor sects, such as the Qingyang Sect where these two brothers are, are as numerous as stars in the sky, countless as the sands of the Ganges.
Basically, all sects below sixth grade must rely on larger sects to survive.
As for the specifics of how they coexist, the two brothers did not say, and naturally, Chen Xu did not know either.
The senior brother occasionally cursed angrily, "The Four Elephants Alliance has done us harm! Junior brother, if we can find a treasure in the mountains this time and succeed in our cultivation, we must return to the sect and challenge the Four Elephants Alliance for a sect merge."
The junior brother suddenly pointed forward in surprise, "Senior brother, it’s a wild boar, quickly chase it!"
Indeed, the forest was getting denser, and up ahead in the woods, a massive creature appeared.
That thing was nearly a zhang in length, crashing through the woods with a rumble, causing the surrounding trees to collapse, and in an instant, it had smashed the forest into a bare expanse.
The great commotion startled the birds and beasts in the forest into fleeing.
The senior brother sprinted forward like an arrow, drew the long sword from his waist, and thrust it straight towards the left eye of the wild boar.
Chen Xu silently followed along, witnessing a battle between cultivators of this world and a wild boar.
The wild boar had abundant Qi Blood and a robust physique, considered one of the more formidable beasts amongst wild animals.
But this wild boar had no demonic aura, and clearly knew no magic.
Thus, in essence, it was merely an ordinary beast.
What surprised Chen Xu was that the cultivator brothers did not use any celestial magic but instead wielded their swords to fight the boar in melee combat.
True Qi surged within them as they leaped and dashed, their swords gleaming brightly.
Evaluating their combat strength, Chen Xu felt that the two of them... were not even a match for Master Wu from the Great Li Kingdom?
This made Chen Xu’s previous vigilance against them seem somewhat absurd.
However, as Chen Xu himself was currently suppressed by the world, causing his combat strength to be greatly reduced, being cautious was not unwarranted.
Carefully observing the two in battle, he found they resembled sword-wielding martial artists more than cultivators.
He wondered whether the seventh or eighth layer of Qi cultivation in this world was inherently weak, or if it was just these two who happened to be weak?
Chen Xu guessed it was the latter.
Finally, after swinging their swords and leaping, amidst the wild boar’s prolonged wail, the junior brother thrust a sword through the ruptured throat of the wild boar, the long sword piercing its brain, transfixing its head.
The wild boar finally collapsed, and at that moment, the senior brother’s sword suddenly pierced through the junior brother’s back.
The junior brother’s throat emitted a sound of disbelief as he turned his head in shock and anger to glare at the senior brother.
The senior brother, unashamed, sneered angrily, "Ding Chuan, you scoundrel, don’t think I don’t know, it was you’ve instigated the master to sign a pact with the Four Elephants Alliance, dooming the master!
You deceived me into coming here, you must have intended to harm me too.
What ’Jizhou Celestial Adventures’, it’s all lies! Ancestor Xinghui’s whereabouts in his later years are unknown, how could he have left a relic here?
If there really were a treasure, could it even be obtained by the likes of us?"
Tch!
The senior brother spoke rapidly, as if venting his anger or perhaps hiding his guilt.
As he spoke, he repeatedly pulled out and thrust the sword, the junior brother critically injured, ultimately powerless to resist, could only point behind the senior brother, and with difficulty, croaked out, "You, behind, behind..."
Before he could finish, he fell backward, lifeless.
So what was behind the senior brother?
The senior brother resisted the urge to turn around, but his heart raced, fearing to look.
