Eternal Reverence

Translator: jinzeffect

With the bone frame at the apex of 9-star, there were great changes.

Firstly, the cultivation speed was increased several times.

Secondly, the body constitution was enhanced fundamentally.

Thirdly, the perception received a great improvement.

In short, the bone frame had a direct impact on a person's potential.

Li Fuchen's potential was already heaven-defying. Now that his bone frame was at the apex of 9-star, it was the same as a tiger growing wings.

"I have over 300 peak-grade spirit stones remaining. It seems like I have to trade for more peak-grade spirit stones."

With an apex 9-star bone frame, Li Fuchen reckoned that he wouldn't have any bottleneck before reaching the mid levels of Soul Merge Realm. Since that was the case, Li Fuchen would increase his cultivation until he couldn't do so.

Li Fuchen traded all of his resources and received 13,000 peak-grade spirit stones.

Li Fuchen knew that he might be at a loss. If he was to sell these resources slowly, he could at least exchange an extra 1000 or 2000 peak-grade spirit stones. However, Li Fuchen didn't have the time to waste effort on such small things.

"I have underestimated him."

All of Li Fuchen's actions were in the eyes of the Black Sea Saint. Seeing Li Fuchen being able to casually trade away over 10,000 peak-grade spirit stones worth of resources, the Black Sea Saint knew he caught a big fish.

Apart from the Black Sea Saint, some other factions had also targeted Li Fuchen.

As an universe city, the Thousands Spirit City had a mix of good and bad. An easy mark like Li Fuchen wouldn't be missed out. After all, some of the factions had informants in various shops.

Li Fuchen had a vague feeling that he was being targeted too, but he didn't mind. The Thousands Spirit City forbade any killing and as long as Li Fuchen stayed inside, no one could do anything to him.

With 13,000 peak-grade spirit stones, Li Fuchen continued the cultivation.

2nd level of Soul Merge Realm… 3rd level of Soul Merge Realm… 4th level of Soul Merge Realm.

Using up 12,000 peak-grade spirit stones, Li Fuchen forcefully broke through to the 4th level of Soul Merge Realm.

At this moment, Li Fuchen didn't know what level his sword dao strength had reached. But he was certain that his sword dao strength surpassed his body refinement strength, and it was by a huge margin.

However, the 4th level of Soul Merge Realm was already the limit. In such a short period of time, Li Fuchen progressed from half-saint to 4th level of Soul Merge Realm, it was truly a huge leap. Even if Li Fuchen's spirit soul was heaven-defying, he felt like he couldn't control the massive increase in power.

Immediately after, having peak-grade spirit stones wouldn't be enough. He had to constantly temper his sword energy and set a very firm foundation, in order to continue increasing his cultivation level.

"I wonder about the level of my perception."

With the cultivation at 4th level of Soul Merge Realm and with an apex 9-star bone frame, if Li Fuchen didn't test it personally, he wouldn't know the increase of his perception. How would it compare with the perception after he consumed the Black Whirlpool Fruit?

Three days later, Li Fuchen opened his eyes and there was a dreadful sword intent that burst out.

In just three days, he had pushed all seven moves of the Skyline Sword Art to 1st rate apex state. Especially for the seventh move, Sky Phase Roaming Dragon Thrust, the power was now at an unimaginable state. The instantaneous destructive power was far beyond Sword Sea Horizon.

Of course, Sword Sea Horizon didn't seek instantaneous destructive power, it was a sword world. If the sword world's level was high enough, it would create a more comprehensive sword world. Even if the enemy was superior in strength, after getting trapped by the sword world, the enemy would still be extinguished by the sword world's power.

"My current perception is already superior to my perception when I used the Black Whirlpool Fruit. It also means that my perception has been increased by over ten times."

Li Fuchen believed that before progressing to a saint, his perception was already superior to any saint. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to push a sword art to 1st rate apex state. Normally, only a peak level saint could comprehend a 1st rate apex martial art. Furthermore, it would be after countless years of hard work. It also meant that Li Fuchen's perception was already at the level of a saint lord or heaven lord previously.

With the ten times increase in perception now, Li Fuchen's perception was at least the level of a heaven lord and might be more than a half-god.

Half a month later, Li Fuchen pushed both Primary Extreme Sword Art and Splendor Sword Art to 1st rate apex state.

Putting aside the Splendor Sword Art, the first move of the Primary Extreme Sword Art, Sword Sea Horizon was already a 1st rate apex sword move. With further enhancement, the sword world was now even more complete. But as compared to the second move, Sect Origin Sword, and the third move, Sword Qi Origin Return, the Sword Sea Horizon was far inferior.

(TL note: I don't remember when the author created the third move of the Primary Extreme Sword Art. If anyone remembers, please comment below)

"Within a short period of time, I can only push the sword arts to 1st rate apex state."

Li Fuchen wasn't going to spend more time studying sword arts.

A top rate apex sword art couldn't be reached so easily.

A saint lord's martial art would be top rate apex state. Moreover, saint lords spent innumerable years to reach top rate apex state for their martial arts. Taking everything into account, Li Fuchen was still far from reaching 100 years old.

Therefore, even with heaven-defying perception, it wasn't possible to surpass a saint lord's countless years of hard work within such a short period of time.

"My sword arts have been enhanced enough. Right now, I am just lacking a powerful sword."

The Autumn Rain Sword was only an unrated apex artifact sword and had a way to big gap from the sword art. Apart from being able to execute the sword arts, it wasn't able to boost the power.

According to Li Fuchen's knowledge, a regular saint lord would have top rate apex martial arts, 2nd rate apex cultivation techniques, and 1st rate apex weapons.

But a 1st rate apex weapon was too expensive. Li Fuchen rather save all those peak-grade spirit stones for future breakthroughs.

"Let me comprehend the sword pattern in the Joint-Heaven Sword first."

Comprehending sword patterns was much easier than comprehending sword arts. If the sealed sword pattern inside the Joint-Heaven Sword was just a top rate apex sword pattern, Li Fuchen there would be chances of comprehending it.

Just as Li Fuchen's expectation, his current perception was indeed enough for him to attempt to comprehend top rate apex sword patterns. Originally, he had already comprehended 40% of the sword pattern. Right now, it finally broke through and reached 50%.

Time passed by like flowing water and Li Fuchen's sword pattern proficiency was getting better.

60%, 70%, 75%…

Unknowingly, Li Fuchen had comprehended 90% of the sword pattern and was just 10% away from full comprehension.

91%, 92%, 93%…

But at 90%, the comprehension difficulty increased drastically. It seemed as though most of the quintessence of the top rate apex sword pattern was gathered in the last 10%. The initial 90% seemed to be the foundation.

Li Fuchen had been in the Thousands Spirit City for four months and more than half the time had been used to comprehend the sword pattern.

However, no matter how much diligence Li Fuchen used, the sword pattern comprehension was stuck at 95% and wouldn't make any more progress.

"Your sword pattern foundation is still rather poor. You need to study other sword patterns and cannot just study the Joint-Heaven Sword pattern." The Sword Spirit gave advice.

Li Fuchen nodded in response. It was true, apart from the Joint-Heaven Sword pattern, Li Fuchen didn't have experience with other sword patterns.

All daos would return to one, and the sword pattern would also return to the origin, but before reaching that level, he still had to study other sword patterns and comprehend by analogy. Perhaps, he might have some other gains.

***

Walking out of the inn, Li Fuchen arrived on the main street.

"Did you hear? A morning star-class auction is going to be hosted."

"Morning star-class auction? It has been a few centuries since such a huge auction was being hosted."

On the street, two other race saints were whispering to each other.

"This is a good chance." Hearing the conversation, Li Fuchen's eyes lit up.

He was thinking about how to sell the Bright Fruit and Shadow Fruit, and now the chance had arrived.

The Thousands Spirit City's auction had seven classes. Low-class, mid-class, high-class, peak-class, morning star-class, radiant moon-class, and glorious sun-class. A high-class auction would have a certain level of attraction to saints. A peak-class auction had the full attention of saints, while morning star-class auctions would attract saint lords.

As for radiant moon-class and glorious sun-class auctions, they might not be held in thousands or even tens of thousands of years. Each of those auctions would attract dictators and the entire star domain would be having a grand occasion.

The Bright Fruit and Shadow Fruit were worth at least 10,000 peak-grade spirit stones each. Li Fuchen didn't want to sell them off randomly. Putting them on auctions would certainly be the best choice.