Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

Chapter 1989 (Raw 2086): Closed-Door Cultivation for Four Months

Xiao Chen left the Third Palace Master’s secret realm with a smile.

That secret realm was truly a massive treasure trove. The Heavenly Dragon Palace’s accumulations were quite sizable.

Unfortunately, Xiao Chen obtained only one Nine Heavens Profound Ice Fruit.

If the Third Palace Master knew what Xiao Chen thought, he would definitely lecture Xiao Chen.

When Xiao Chen returned to Cold Moon Cave, he made preparations to enter closed-door cultivation. Right now, he did not lack resources, comprehensions, or accumulations.

He needed to enter closed-door cultivation to consolidate everything, turning all these into practical combat prowess, to prepare for the competition between the seven outer palaces.

He wanted not only to enter Ancestor Dragon City but also to do so with the best ranking in the selection.

Xiao Chen started from his Holy Venerate Will. The Second Palace Master said that the method was applicable in every way; hence, he did not teach Xiao Chen how to use his Holy Venerate Will offensively.

Since the principle was the same, there should not be a significant hurdle when switching between defense and offense.

Since Xiao Chen could bring the light of the sun and the moon into his body for defense, he definitely could use the blazing sun and the bright moon to launch attacks.

For example, he could crash the blazing sun or the bright moon into the ground and create Soul Energy shock waves.

Or perhaps, he could merge the sun and the moon and directly make them explode.

The various methods used the same technique as bringing the light of the sun and the moon into the body, so the concept was not too difficult to grasp.

Xiao Chen tried working on this. After spending half a month, he finally could switch the Sun and Moon Shining Together mysterious phenomenon between offense and defense smoothly and easily, manipulating it as he pleased.

At the same time, he grew even more interested in the Second Palace Master’s method for guiding another’s Soul Energy.

Xiao Chen did his best to recall how it felt when the Second Palace Master placed a finger on his forehead to control his Soul Energy.

Right now, Xiao Chen’s Soul Energy was much higher than his cultivation.

His cultivation was only at the early-stage Holy Light Stage. However, his Soul Energy already reached the level of a Peak Holy Venerate’s, due to the divine characters.

He could directly bring out the Sun and Moon Shining Together mysterious phenomenon. He could use this to catch his opponent off guard and render him helpless to retaliate.

Putting aside his will of soul for now, Xiao Chen switched to Firmament’s Rage.

The First Palace Master’s Firmament’s Rage was a great eye-opener for Xiao Chen. He recalled it as though it had just happened.

Although Xiao Chen could accomplish that, his execution was not very smooth, and the success rate was not high.

Raging without showing it, only showing the might. Aside from varying the technique, there was also a change in mentality.

This was not something that one could succeed in with just a few days of practice. It required long-term tempering of oneself.

Xiao Chen trained in this for half a month. When he felt that there was no more scope for noticeable improvement, he stopped and switched to the most essential thing: tempering his physical body, cultivating the Divine Dragon Body Tempering Art.

It would be too unbecoming if Xiao Chen did not make a breakthrough with the resources that the Third Palace Master provided.

The days passed one by one. In the blink of an eye, Xiao Chen had already been in closed-door cultivation for four months.

The white-clad youth underwent dry cultivation in Cold Moon Cave. Sometimes he frowned, sometimes he felt confused, and sometimes he had doubts. Occasionally, he would ease his frown and smile sincerely; that was from happiness, due to solving a difficult problem.

This was how the path of cultivation had always been; there was no shortcut. The ones who walked the road of success and stood at the peak were always the people who understood how to persevere and endure. No one could improve casually and easily.

“Explode!”

In the cultivation room for practical combat in Cold Moon Cave, Xiao Chen did his best to throw a punch.

The Dragon Pattern Cauldron standing in front of Xiao Chen rang out one hundred times. The sound was ear-splitting, like thunder and dragon roars, echoing endlessly.

One hundred Cauldron Force!

After four months of bitter cultivation and using a vast number of resources, Xiao Chen’s Vital Qi finally reached a horrifying one hundred Cauldron Force.

“Divine Dragon War Body!” Xiao Chen shouted again. His physical body swelled up, bringing him to two meters tall and looking like a tiny giant.

Muscles bulged all over his body, full of explosive power. The Divine Dragon Might lingered without scattering, feeling corporeal as it swam about his body and turned into azure-colored Dragon Qi.

Xiao Chen’s eyes filled with a suppressive light. Even if he faced a Sovereign Personage, he would not shrink back in fear.

Back in the ancient city, he could only barely fight an Initial Perfection Sovereign Personage, nothing more.

Now that he had strengthened his various aspects and foundations, he could hold his own against a Sovereign Personage; even winning might be possible.

Furthermore, this would be without using any trump cards, like his Soul Tools or the Demonic Cloud Heaven Swallowing Art.

Xiao Chen gently snapped his fingers, and many combat puppets appeared in the cultivation room.

He had asked the Blood Dragon Guards’ Vice Hall Master Li for these combat puppets. The Blood Dragon Guards usually used them to train in practical combat.

Each of these combat puppets was as strong as an early-stage Holy Venerate. Compared to real cultivators, they lacked some variation and intelligence.

However, they all had the attacks and defense of a Holy Venerate.

“Firmament’s Rage!”

Xiao Chen extended his hand and swiped with his fingers bent, turning a palm into a claw. Then, he pressed his hand on the head of a combat puppet.

Boundless saber Qi and thousands of lightning bolts instantly encased this combat puppet.

With a thought, a crunch came from the combat puppet. The saber Qi cut the combat puppet into thousands of pieces flickering with crackling electricity.

“Bang!”

Then, Xiao Chen threw another palm strike, using Firmament’s Rage again. However, this time, he did not turn the palm strike into a claw attack. He just thrust his palm out. Electricity mixed with his saber intent, turning into a storm of electric saber Qi that surged out with a howl.

This knocked the ten-odd combat puppets in front of him into the air, their bodies riddled with thousands of holes.

“Pa!”

This time, Xiao Chen smashed his palm down. When the palm landed, a huge palm imprint appeared in the ground. All the damaged combat puppets immediately shattered, utterly destroyed.

After that, a sense of danger came from behind. Xiao Chen turned into a lightning bolt to dodge.

One final combat puppet had survived. This combat puppet was stronger than the others, at the level of a Peak Holy Venerate.

This combat puppet immediately chased after Xiao Chen, punching at him just as he landed.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Xiao Chen exchanged three punches with this combat puppet before moving ten steps back, his momentum forcefully interrupted.

The Veritable Essence Energy of a Peak Holy Venerate was extremely strong. Right now, Xiao Chen was a middle-stage Holy Venerate, and his Veritable Essence Energy was still somewhat inferior.

Blood Dragon Chop!

The combat puppet pressed on after seizing the momentum. A scarlet flame burned on its entire body. A blood dragon wound around its arm as it lashed out with a powerful knifehand.

“Firmament’s Rage!”

Xiao Chen executed Firmament’s Rage again, but this time, he turned the palm into a fist. As he clenched his fist tightly, he infused the Thunder Dao, the Saber Dao, and the mysteries of a Great Desolate Eon Ancestor Dragon into the fist.

“Boom!”

The two attacks met. This time, Xiao Chen knocked back the combat puppet without even moving a step.

A terrifying might and pressure erupted from Xiao Chen’s body. Without showing rage, he showed might, shaking the sky with one punch.

“Divine Dragon War Body!”

Xiao Chen’s body swelled up again, and his Vital Qi surged. With a war cry, he charged over.

He threw ten punches, each punch erupting with one hundred Cauldron Force. After ten punches, the combat puppet’s arm directly exploded.

Faint cracks appeared on half of the combat puppet’s body.

Xiao Chen raised his leg and hammered a kick on the Peak Holy Venerate combat puppet, causing it to explode. Its core crystal rolled away on the ground.

Xiao Chen stretched his body, feeling relaxed. However, he felt dissatisfied with this fight.

After all, these were just combat puppets. They were far inferior to real cultivators.

One could use these combat puppets only to familiarize oneself with Movement Techniques and Martial Techniques when training. They could not be used to evaluate one’s strength.

If one took a cultivator to be the same as a combat puppet in real combat, one would not even know how one died.

----

Four months quickly passed. The day of the competition between the seven outer palaces drew closer.

Xiao Chen did not really feel anything about that. After four months of closed-door cultivation, his initially restless heart had quieted down.

This was especially so when practicing Firmament’s Rage. As he altered his emotions to rage yet not rage, his mental state improved significantly.

Xiao Chen picked up the combat puppets’ core crystals on the ground. At the same time, he thought about how to use the remaining time.

There were still two months. Even if he had a fortuitous encounter, he might not be able to digest it.

Xiao Chen wondered if he should go to the Blue Dragon Palace, the Red Dragon Palace, and the Golden Dragon Palace to seek out Murong Yan and the others. At the same time, he could check out the strength of the experts from the other outer palaces.

After some thought, he gave up on this idea. The other outer palaces were biased against mixed-blood dragons.

If Xiao Chen went over, he could not guarantee he could avoid similar trouble to what happened in the White Dragon Palace previously.

“Heaven-class core disciples, quickly gather at the Profound Dragon Platform on the Heavenly Dragon Palace’s main peak!”

Just at this moment, a message rang out from Xiao Chen’s identity token in the voice of Elder Tian Yun.

Why are the heaven-class core disciples being called over at this time?

The Heavenly Dragon Palace has only four heaven-class core disciples. Is there a need to gather all of us?

Xiao Chen could not figure it out. Furthermore, he did not like Elder Tian Yun.

However, Xiao Chen’s thoughts were wrong.

There were more than four heaven-class core disciples in the Heavenly Dragon Palace. It was just that all the heaven-class core disciples that could climb to the top of the Heavenly Dragon statue had gone out on experiential training.

The three people left behind were the weakest of them all, unable to climb to the top of the Heavenly Dragon.

There were important things to discuss at this assembly.

Xiao Chen collected all the core crystals on the ground and prepared to meet the Blood Dragon Guards’ Vice Hall Master Li.

These two’s tempers matched each other. Xiao Chen was also very interested in hearing about the Blood Dragon Guards.

“Senior Brother Xiao, this junior brother was just about to seek you out. Unexpectedly, Senior Brother came out before I could,” an outer palace disciple said respectfully after stopping Xiao Chen when Xiao Chen just stepped out of Cold Moon Cave.

“What’s the matter?”

“Elder Tian Yun feared that Senior Brother would not receive the message to gather at the Profound Dragon Platform, so he sent this disciple to come and inform you.”

It looks like I have no choice but to go.