While everyone was staring at the Cleansing Lake with doubts in their mind, Yang shi, who had impressed all of them with his previous incredible feats, suddenly plummeted from the sky as soon as he got out of everyone’s sight.
Peng!
Following which, pained moaning echoed. Slowly, the face of the majestic Yang shi slowly turned into Zhang Xuan’s face.
“Can’t you give me a hand instead of watching as I fall from the sky?”
Grabbing his spinning head, Zhang Xuan turned to glare at his clone in anger.
Naturally, he was the one feigning Yang shi whereas that ‘Zhang Xuan’ was his clone.
Back then, at the bottom of the Cleansing Lake, after absorbing everyone’s zhenqi and the earth flame, he managed to strengthen his physical body considerably, thus allowing his ten-meter-large soul to enter his body.
Only after this all was done did he realize that the Cleansing Lake was on the verge of explosion.
In order to preserve his life, he immediately checked on the situation with the Library of Heaven’s Path, and only then did he realize that he and his clone’s action of absorbing all of the spiritual energy from the Cleansing Lake had disturbed the balance among the three energies, thus causing such a huge commotion.
In an instant, he felt embarrassed.
The other party had kindly brought him over to cultivate, but he actually caused their lake to explode instead…
It was indeed wrong of him to do so.
But honestly speaking, he didn’t do it intentionally either!
All of this had to be blamed on… his clone! If not for that fellow absorbing the spiritual energy with all of his might, how could the balance have been disturbed?
But it was useless to be pointing fingers now. If he were to run out and explain the situation to Ye Wentian now, the other party would probably kill him with a single slap out of rage.
Left with no choice, he could only summon ‘Yang shi’ once more.
With this ‘expert’ appearing, he would be able to openly resolve this issue, as well as compensate the other party for the damage.
In order to make the entire matter more believable, he even instructed his clone to pass off as the unconscious him.
This way, he would be able to brush off everything when he returned. He could simply say that he didn’t know anything other than the fact that his teacher saved him.
Given that the others had witnessed the previous sight, they probably wouldn’t pursue the matter either.
And of course, the method of flight that Zhang Xuan used was the Red Dust Heaven Ascending Step. On the other hand, his clone was slightly different. As a God artifact, the Nine Skies Lotus Embryo possessed the innate ability of flight, and this ability was transferred to his clone.
With these two working with one another to put on the act, even Wei shi, a 5-star high-tier master teacher, failed to see through it.
Right after reaching this area, Zhang Xuan suddenly found his zhenqi being depleted. Due to the breakthrough his soul and physical body had just undergone, he wasn’t able to gauge his zhenqi accurately. As such, his vision just darkened all of the sudden, and he plummeted from the sky!
He thought that his clone would at least lend him a hand to help him land safely on the ground. Who knew that this fellow would simply watch idly as he crashed all the way down…
Zhang Xuan felt so angry that he could explode at any moment.
While he wasn’t severely injured due to his physical resilience and the low altitude of his flight, he thought that his clone should at least share some of his burdens.
What the heck was this?
Remember, as a clone, you should rush forward when you see that I’m in difficulty…
Just as Zhang Xuan was just about to give this fellow an ‘ideology lesson’ so that he would learn his priorities, the other party slowly closed his eyes… It looked as though he was saying that ‘it’s not my fault that you’re so dumb’.
“…”
Zhang Xuan spurted blood.
Just because I said you shouldn’t just ‘watch as I fall from the sky’, you closed your eyes… How in the world did I create a fool like you?
The clones of others were fierce and loyal. When they saw their main body in trouble, they would immediately rush forward to save him. And yet, this fellow actually simply watched as the main body fell to the ground… Just the thought of it left Zhang Xuan light-headed!
What a darned clone he had!
“Forget it, let me see how much stronger I have grown first!”
Since he couldn’t be bothered to lash out at this fellow, Zhang Xuan turned his attention to his growth instead.
Under the nourishment of the earth flame and spiritual lake, his physical body had grown by leaps and bounds. At this moment, every single cell of his felt strong and flexible, as though they had just gone through a metamorphosis.
Raising his arm, he sent a fist forward.
Hong long!
The might of his punch shot through the tree as though a fist-sized bullet, rattling the entire tree with its force.
“My physical body has grown this strong?”
Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
In the previous attack, he used neither his soul cultivation nor his zhenqi, just solely the strength of his physical body. He wanted to see how much power he could tap into. He didn’t expect the force of his punch to be able to create a gaping hole in a gigantic tree a dozen meters away.
Even a Transcendent Mortal 5-dan Consonant Spirit realm cultivator would find it hard to execute this kind of attack.
“Just my physical body itself wields a strength of 2,000,000 ding!”
Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
With this, he had confirmed the might his physical body wielded. It was actually on par with his zhenqi, reaching 2,000,000 ding.
In other words, without zhenqi or soul energy, just by the might of his flesh itself, he could destroy a Consonant Spirit realm primary stage cultivator.
Fearsome!
“What about my soul cultivation?”
After testing his physical body, Zhang Xuan raised his palm and drove his soul energy.
Hong long!
A small hill dozens of meters away was immediately reduced to dust.
“Even though the might is still capped at Consonant Spirit realm pinnacle – 3,200,000 ding – my stamina has improved. I’ll be able to sustain my soul energy longer in a fight…”
Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
Even though Zhang Xuan’s soul had grown to a height of ten meters, the might he could tap into didn’t increase. It was still at 3,200,000 ding.
What improved instead was his stamina.
Making an analogy, if an ordinary human were to harness all of their might, they might be able to lift an object of 100kg. However, that would be their limit, and they would need to rest for quite a while before they could do so once more.
3,200,000 ding referred to the maximum might one could harness in an attack. In other words, it was impossible for one to launch such an attack continuously without rest.
However, as Zhang Xuan’s soul reached a height of ten meters, the limits of his stamina were released. He was now able to launch attacks of 3,200,000 ding without tiring himself out.
This was an extremely fearsome ability. If he could sustain a might of 3,200,000 ding in every single attack, he could even kill a Cosmos Bridge realm primary stage cultivator.
“With 2,000,000 ding from my physical body, 2,000,000 ding from my zhenqi, and 3,200,000 ding from my soul cultivation, I can rival even a Transcendent Mortal 6-dan Cosmos Bridge realm pinnacle cultivator in a fight!”
Taking a deep breath, Zhang Xuan could feel overwhelming power flowing through his body, as though an undefeatable titan.
Despite being at Clarifying Turbidity realm pinnacle, he already harnessed a might superior to Cosmos Bridge pinnacle experts, who wielded a might of 6,400,000 ding. There was probably no one who wouldn’t feel excited at that thought.
“Come, let’s cross fists!”
Chuckling lightly, Zhang Xuan turned to his clone.
Due to the limits of his physical body, he was sent flying by the other party’s fist the previous time. However, with a breakthrough in all aspects, it would be difficult for the other party to do the same now!
Perhaps, he might even be able to teach the other party a lesson and let him know the difference between the main body and a clone!
“Un!” His clone nodded his head. Gathering might in his fist, he punched forward.
On the other hand, Zhang Xuan gathered the might from his body, soul, and zhenqi, and in an instant, his strength was brought to its peak.
With the current might he possessed, he felt that even a Transcendent Mortal 7-dan primary stage expert could be killed with a single punch.
Boom!
The two fists collided.
“You…”
A scream in agony echoed in the air. While his clone stood completely motionless on the spot, Zhang Xuan was sent flying backward. His body tore through a dozen huge trees over a distance of several hundred meters before finally coming to a stop. Blood spewed profusely from his mouth.
The heck!
Did you need to be so vicious?
He thought that with such a massive improvement, he would be able to easily teach the other party a lesson. Who knew that the gap between them only seemed to have widened…
He had used his full strength, but not only was the other party completely fine, he also nearly died from the encounter himself…
How could reality be so darned? Are you the clone or am I?
Struggling to his feet, Zhang Xuan glared at the other party.
“Your physical body is still too weak, so you aren’t able to bring out the full might of your soul!”
Just as Zhang Xuan was feeling displeased, his clone walked over with his hands behind his back, carrying an authoritative disposition. “If you wish to defeat me, you still need much more practice. But of course, if you acknowledge me as your teacher, I can teach you…”
“Scram!”
With a darkened face, Zhang Xuan put that fellow straight into his storage ring.
His clone actually tried to take him as a student? What was the world turning into?
If you’re that capable, why don’t you try ascending to the heavens?
“That fellow’s words might be infuriating, but he does make sense.”
After putting away the other party, Zhang Xuan frowned.
It was indeed true that his physical body wasn’t unable to bring out the full might of his soul cultivation.
While his physical body had made massive progress under the tempering of the earth flame and spiritual lake, the duration was too short. It was only sufficient for his massive soul to slip into his body.
It still wasn’t enough for his soul to fuse perfectly with his body and bring out the full extent of his strength.
“With a certain degree of incompatibility between my soul and physical body, I won’t have precise control over my strength…”
A powerful soul needs a powerful body to house it. Otherwise, it would be like an adult taking control over an infant’s body. No matter how powerful the adult was, it was impossible for him to bring out his full might through an infant’s body. In fact, the difference between the strength of the two might even cause the adult to be unable to control his own strength precisely as well.
This was exactly the situation that was happening with Zhang Xuan. Even though his soul had finally grown to be capable of housing his massive soul, it was still comparatively much weaker than it. As such, his control over his soul cultivation and physical body wasn’t as thorough as it used to be.
In a sense, it was similar to the situation when he first cultivated Heaven’s Path Golden Body in Master Lu Chen’s house.
Although he didn’t feel that he had used too much strength, he ended up sending Master Lu Chen flying with a touch.
Just that this time, the lack of control worked both ways. His strength could be either much stronger or weaker than the what he perceived himself.
“It seems like… I’ll have to train my physical body!”
Zhang Xuan massaged his glabella.
The momentary tempering just now was clearly insufficient. It seemed that he had to hurry up and raise the strength of his physical body. Otherwise, if he were to suddenly have a burst of strength and a moment of frailty now and then, others might just think that he was a lunatic.
“Or else, I could ask Emperor Ye Wentian for some cultivation techniques for training one’s physical body. As long as I can compile Heaven’s Path Golden Body 3-dan, my physical body should grow significantly stronger!”
As long as he had sufficient physical body cultivation techniques, his Library of Heaven’s Path would be able to form a Heaven’s Path Golden Body, and he would be able to improve swiftly.
“Where am I?”
Only after deciding on his next course of action was Zhang Xuan’s attention brought back to his surroundings. Taking a glance, he was stunned.
“This is… the Verdant Mountain?”
Back then, he was in a hurry to escape as soon as possible so he didn’t take note of it, but it seemed like he had traveled a long distance away from Huanyu Capital, reaching the depths of Verdant Mountain.
