I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 342: Chapter 62: Body like unbreakable glaze, in the fire of 9 dragons a golden lotus is planted

He Yanghui and Qiu Yu had already left, and the turmoil in the Jiangjin Mountains three hundred miles away was gradually subsiding.

Yet Lan Ying and Lan Yingzhi’s hearts were tossing with shock and disbelief as they stared at Zhou Heng, dumbfounded, almost unable to believe what had just happened.

Zhou Heng, without disclosing his methods, simply stood in place unmoving and sent He Yanghui reeling with severe injuries into unconsciousness, even causing his Taoguang Sword to shatter, turning his decades of cultivation into nothing.

What kind of power was this, what kind of Taoist formulas?

It was incredibly powerful.

Zhou Heng was merely at the Secret Sixth Rank True Energy Realm, even if he was the reincarnation of a great power, even if he mastered many divine skills and marvelous techniques, he shouldn’t have been able to defeat a peak Grandmaster!

The gap between the ranks of the Middle Third Rank was immense.

Especially at the Sect Fifth Rank, once Dharma Phase was initiated, every movement contained the power of the rules of heaven and earth, which was many times more powerful than the pure elemental attacks at the Secret Sixth Rank.

This was almost a disparity in the very essence of life.

Since the ancient times, throughout the Middle Ancient period, there has hardly ever been reported a Martial Artist at the Secret Sixth Rank level defeating someone at the Sect Fifth Rank level.

Even if there were, they would be at the True Gang Realm, or they would have begun to manifest and refine their Dharma Phase, being just one step away from the Sect Fifth Rank.

And such individuals shone like a constellation of brilliant stars throughout history.

Like the Saint of Tao, Saint of Artifacts, Saint of Rites from the Middle Ancient times, the third generation head of the Pure Yang Palace who led them out of the Dark Era, and some of the Celestials from ancient myth.

What are young Celestials?

Those are the rare geniuses who attained the status of Celestial Man before the age of sixty, hailed as Exiled Immortals, supreme beings.

Each of them had the makings of a Saint!

Yet even these legendary figures were not as exaggerated as Zhou Heng; whose reincarnation could he possibly be?

Such talent was truly shocking to the world.

The making of a Saint!

Throughout history, many great beings reincarnated and merged with the populace, and even if they were fortunate enough to recover some of their might, it was still difficult to reach the peaks of their former lives.

A reincarnation of a great power like Zhou Heng was truly unheard of.

Too strong!

At this moment, Zhou Heng, who was considered to have the makings of a Saint, was frantically circulating the Longevity True Energy, nourishing his body, otherwise, he felt his body might collapse.

Should his physical body collapse, his Divine Soul, having not truly achieved the Dharma Phase, must self-destruct to die and be resurrected. Otherwise, it could only drift in the world as a lost wandering spirit, awaiting the moment of soul disintegration.

A thirty-fold increase in strength was too much to bear, even with the moderation of the eight gates of life and death, his current body could hardly endure it.

This was because he had the protection of the ninth layer of Golden Bell Body Protection; if it were an ordinary Secret Sixth Rank physique, enhancing it more than tenfold would likely cost them their life.

Fortunately, the Longevity True Energy also had the effect of nourishing the physical body, the Pure Yang Scripture could nurture the qi and blood, and the Sun Cave Sky provided an almost infinite source of pure elemental energy.

Thus, in just a few breaths, Zhou Heng regained some ability to move and at least appeared normal on the surface.

“Phew!”

Zhou Heng exhaled a turbid breath, his feet stepping onto the ascending clouds that pulled him into the sky, and he arrived in front of Lan Yingzhi and Lan Ying, “Senior predecessors, what has happened?”

These two were still in a state of extreme shock, and only after Zhou Heng’s reminder did they slowly come back to their senses, their gazes fixing on Zhou Heng, followed by a long silence, and then they said in unison:

“Sir truly is a divine being!”

At this moment, only such an exclamation could express the feelings of the two.

…

The matters of Jiangzhou’s mountains had come to an end, and the Lan Family’s secondary residence and the casting furnace had been taken back.

However, Zhou Heng did not rush to have Lan Ying and Lan Yingzhi craft the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover.

Instead, he first returned to Jiangzhou City with the two, temporarily staying in the Lan Family’s secondary residence, and tossed the Celestial Man divine artifact, the Shining Sun Divine Light Mirror, into the storage of his Cave Sky world.

He planned to summarize the gains from this battle and see whether he could further enhance his strength before cultivating the True Gang, in order to deal with all sorts of matters.

Although the best way to increase his strength was still to quickly cultivate the True Gang and advance further in the Secret Sixth Rank realm, this was not something that could be achieved overnight.

True Qi is the foundation of the True Gang, which is the result of True Qi being extremely condensed.

This is actually a slow grinding process, requiring the continuous improvement of the quality and quantity of True Qi until it reaches a critical point, where it naturally turns into the True Gang.

One must not be impatient.

Moreover, since the True Gang needs to be in harmony with the Martial Path’s inner view and willpower, and Zhou Heng follows the path that encompasses all things and accepts everything, the best way for him to break through to the True Gang Realm is to use one type of True Qi as the core, integrate various True Qis, cultivate them to the critical point together, and then simultaneously transform them into True Gang.

Although Zhou Heng is barely using the balanced and tranquil Longevity True Qi as the core to bridge and receive Pure Yang True Qi and Furious Thunder True Qi, achieving a temporary equilibrium, the Longevity Technique is after all just a Secret Sixth Rank inner strength technique, insufficient to support Zhou Heng’s future cultivation.

Therefore, Zhou Heng is currently faced with three issues.

One is a higher grade inner strength technique that can be used as the core; another is a higher grade inner strength technique that can be used to expand the types of True Qi; and the last is how many types of True Qi and to what extent must be cultivated to truly match the inner view.

These are all problems he needs to solve, and he can only rely on self-enlightenment.

Of course, if he ignores these issues and cultivates the True Gang with the current three types of True Qi, that would also be feasible, without any problems, but it would inevitably have an irreversible impact on Zhou Heng’s future cultivation.

All of these issues have led to Zhou Heng being unable to step into the True Gang Realm in the short term, and if he wants to enhance his strength, he can only start from other aspects.

But he is not in a hurry; after all, it has been less than three months since he stepped onto the Secret Sixth Rank.

It’s quite normal for a normal Secret Sixth Rank to stay in the True Qi Realm for ten to eight years.

In fact, Zhou Heng originally didn’t have any clear ideas about strengthening his power, except for replicating the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover.

However, after the battle with He Yanghui, he recognized the power of combining the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Technique with the Eight Gates of Life and Death, as well as the limitations of his own body’s strength, and he suddenly had an epiphany.

He may not be able to cultivate the True Gang for the time being, but he can strengthen his body.

The Golden Bell Cover has only reached the eighth layer, far from the perfection of the tenth layer, and upon reaching perfection in the Golden Bell Cover, he can cultivate the Absolute Fourth Rank Vajra Unbreakable Divine Technique.

As long as he could cultivate the first three layers of this divine skill, he would not only increase his strength thirtyfold without any issue, but it might even be stronger.

With this thought, a bold idea took root in his heart.

“What?!”

Lan Ying leapt up from her chair upon hearing Zhou Heng’s words, her aged skin quivering, a look of disbelief on her face, “Mr. Zhou, what did you just say? You want to use the flames from the casting furnace to refine your body?!”

Zhou Heng had come to discuss the particulars of refining the Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover and happened to make a request—that during the refinement of the Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover, he also wanted to enter the casting furnace and use its high-temperature flames to refine his body.

This request frightened Lan Ying considerably.

The casting furnace of the Lan Family had once forged pseudo divine weapons; its flames connected to the celestial fire above and drew on the earth’s flame below, converging into a true fire of heaven and earth, enormously powerful. Even at its lowest temperature, it could instantly incinerate a Secret Six Rank Martial Artist into flying ash.

Moreover, the process of refining the Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover was exceedingly intricate, requiring extremely high temperatures, enough to melt Fifth Rank spiritual materials.

Even if Zhou Heng’s strength was heaven-defying, with talent so outstanding it stunned past and present, and he could defeat peak Grandmasters, entering such a casting furnace for body refinement was still far too dangerous.

The method of refining the Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover was extremely profound, even exceeding all that Lan Ying had learned in her life, benefiting her greatly and advancing her own realm. To her, it was a favor as massive as the heavens.

Therefore, Lan Ying regarded Zhou Heng as a benefactor to the Lan Family and to herself, feeling immense gratitude toward him. She could not allow Zhou Heng’s life to be endangered.

“Senior need not worry, I’m not one to joke about my own life,” Zhou Heng said with a gentle shake of his head and a smile, “Since I’ve made such a request, naturally, I have my plans.”

“…” Lan Ying went silent upon hearing this, knowing she couldn’t dissuade Zhou Heng and thinking perhaps he truly had some means. In the end, she nodded and said, “Then, Mr. Zhou, please be extremely careful.”

“Thank you.” Zhou Heng bowed with a smile.

…

On the ninth day of the sixth month, at the Eight-sided Mountain casting furnace.

After several days of preparation, Lan Ying and Lan Yingzhi finally finished the preliminary work for forging the imitation Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover and could officially start the refinement process.

Billowing flames burned fiercely as if the world itself had turned fiery red—such was the scene outside the Eight-sided Mountain casting furnace.

The casting furnace was entirely red, shaped like a trapezoid, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, towering over a hundred zhang. Within the lower third of its height from the ground, it shimmered with bright and intricate patterns. These were the engraved forbidden arrays, also contributing to the power of the furnace.

A thousand years ago, it was Lan Ying who came here and personally constructed this casting furnace. Over the millennium, countless treasured weapons and magical artifacts had been forged, and after enduring an endless barrage of laws, the furnace itself had nearly reached the standards of a divine artifact.

Weapons and artifacts refined in this furnace were often of exceptional quality and surpassed their counterparts in power and utility, truly masterpieces among masterpieces.

Standing outside the furnace, besides Lan Ying and Lan Yingzhi, the two main casters, there were twelve Secret Six Rank innate experts, all holding various tools, ready to assist at any moment.

The imitation Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover, although only a Secret Six Rank magical artifact, had a production process so complex and difficult that it rivalled, if not surpassed, many Sect Fifth Rank artifacts.

The materials for forging the magical artifact had been prepared in advance, placed on the material racks above the casting furnace, awaiting Lan Ying to cast spells to initiate the furnace and ignite the true fire of heaven and earth, whereupon they would be poured in according to sequence and varying dosages.

Once all the preliminary steps were completed, the last and most crucial material, the “Imitation Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover Refinement Blueprint,” would be thrown into the furnace to finish the refinement.

Indeed, the blueprint of the imitation Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover was a material itself, and an exceedingly important one at that.

If this material were lacking, at most, an artifact resembling the Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover in appearance could be forged, utterly lacking its wondrous effects.

This meant that although this Nine Dragons Godly Fire Cover was merely an imitation, it was also unique.

When the sun reached midday, and the Yang Energy was at its strongest.

Lan Ying pinched her fingers, circulating Mana, and shouted, “The time has come, light the furnace!!”

Boom!

A tremendous rumbling sound erupted as the dormant casting furnace roared to life. The fiery red patterns on the outside erupted in dazzling light; the entire furnace seemed to ignite, becoming even more fiery red.

At the same time, a powerful force surged out from the opening above the forging furnace and shot straight into the skies. Almost immediately, the sky cracked open, and streaks of heavenly fire fell, each hitting precisely into the opening above the forge.

This was heavenly fire!

As the heavenly fire descended, the entire Eight-sided Mountain seemed ablaze, with the flames of the earth’s veins gathered and channeled into the furnace.

The fusion of heavenly fire and earth’s flames formed true fire of heaven and earth, igniting the forging furnace thoroughly.

The materials for forging the imitation of the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover began to be fed in. One by one, precious spiritual materials were thrown into the fiery flames, purified of impurities and preserving only their purest essence.

The forging had begun!

All were very excited, including Lan Yingzhi, except for Lan Ying.

For them, forging a complex and exquisite magic weapon like the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover was an extremely rare experience in their lives. They could learn a lot from it, improve their cultivation, and enhance their casting skills—the benefits were too many to count.

Only Lan Ying was extremely nervous, her spirit tense and focused, fully absorbed in operating the furnace, daring not a single mistake or oversight.

Because, before the furnace opened, Zhou Heng had sat inside, preparing to refine his body with true fire.

If anything went wrong, such a being with divine qualifications could be incinerated to ash.

However, Lan Ying also understood that this state of mind was exactly what a caster should have when refining, and it was also when one was most likely to produce fine and supreme quality.

The best time to forge magic weapons.

Whoosh whoosh!

The flames above the forging furnace roared into the sky, and all the materials had been poured in.

Lan Ying used Taoist formulas to guide the flames and control the temperature, while Lan Yingzhi made adjustments according to the forging plan, with the others working together to maintain the optimal state of the furnace.

Roar!

Suddenly, a dragon’s roar emanated from the furnace, and the flames that burst forth became more intense and bright, as if a fire dragon was being born within.

The Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover was about to be completed!

“Chart!”

With a shout from Lan Ying, a golden chart flew out from Lan Yingzhi’s hand and into the forging furnace.

Boom!

In an instant, the whole of Eight-sided Mountain seemed to tremble. The forge went suddenly silent, even the flames seemed to pause, and in the next moment, nine fire dragons flew out from the furnace and ignited the sky.

In that moment, it seemed as if the world turned a fiery red, and every creature within and surrounding Eight-sided Mountain stared in dumbfounded awe at the nine soaring fire dragons, their hearts shaking with amazement.

Then, amidst the nine fire dragons, golden lotuses bloomed, and a figure shrouded in golden light rose from within the furnace, slowly ascending to the central golden lotus among the nine dragons.

His body radiated a lustrous glow like colored glaze, exuding an indestructible charm akin to that of a vajra. Just by standing there, he made the nine fire dragons submit, with golden lotuses revolving around him.

It was Zhou Heng.

As the Nine Dragons Divine Fire Cover was forged, the Vajra Unbreakable Divine Technique was simultaneously mastered!