Immortal and Martial Dual Cultivation

Outside the Smiling Daughter Pavilion:

Ling Yu carried the beggar as he walked, looking dispirited. He looked like he had lost his soul, appearing like a walking corpse.

The beggar thoughtlessly fell asleep again, snoring on Ling Yu’s back; his snores were startlingly loud.

Xiao Chen walked with Su Ye. When he glanced at her expression, it did not seem much better than Ling Yu’s.

Su Ye showed a complicated expression. Her eyes remained bloodshot, inspiring pity.

“Thank you for earlier,” she murmured. She was referring to Xiao Chen’s helping her and slapping the veiled woman.

Xiao Chen said calmly, “It’s nothing much, just a minor matter.”

Su Ye smiled bitterly. “A minor matter? To me, it is not a minor matter. I have long wanted to give that bitch a slap. However, I could not do it. Sometimes, I envy you. You were willing to offend the top ten merchant associations for Wu Meng. Despite being in a desperate situation, you refused to bow, even flipping the entire Smiling Daughter Pavilion upside-down. You seem to fear nothing as long as you do not go against your conscience…”

Xiao Chen did not say anything. He knew that he only needed to listen at this time. He did not need to interrupt or say anything.

“You have always wanted to know what my connection to the Su Clan, the Sword God’s Noble Clan, is, right? That bitch is right. I am an abandoned daughter of the Su Clan’s current Clan Head. Back then, my mother made a bad judgment and married that ingrate. He is even worse than a beast. After he became the Clan Head, he immediately divorced my mother. On that day, I nearly cried until I became blind. My mother hugged me and kept consoling me, saying, ‘Little Yeye, don’t cry. Mother will bring you home…

“However, when we arrived at the Smiling Daughter Pavilion, we met this little bitch. She was an adoptive daughter that my mother had taken in. However, instead of taking my mother in, she even humiliated my mother. At that time, I finally got to see what it meant by ‘the hearts of men are vicious. My mother treated her very well, even handing the Smiling Daughter Pavilion over to her to manage. However, she repaid good with evil, working together with that Su Clan beast to bully my mother. I felt distraught.”

“I miss my mother very much. I recall that she frequently brought me to the Smiling Daughter Pavilion to watch the performances when I was young. She tried to give me everything I wanted. However, I did not know that she was already suffering terribly in the Su Clan’s residence. She even said that she would teach me the zither and the sword when I grew older…”

Su Ye’s voice choked up. Her eyes turned red from sorrow, but no tears flowed out.

Tears endlessly welled up in her eyes, but they never flowed out.

Ling Yu, who was in front, turned around on noticing this scene but did not know what to do.

“What are you looking at? You are a coward, extraordinarily stupid. Is looking all you know? Why did you not bring her out? Did you not see that she was in great pain?”

Su Ye glared at Ling Yu, berating him in disappointment.

Ling Yu’s face trembled. Then, he suddenly howled in pain, “I want to as well. However, how am I to do that? How do I bring her away? My cultivation is not as high as Martial Uncle’s. I do not have a large faction behind me as you do. I am just an insignificant person. Without Martial Uncle taking care of me, I cannot even enter the Smiling Daughter Pavilion. How can I not know? However, what can I do? I’m in even more pain than her. Regardless, I’m just an insignificant person. What can I use to go against the Smiling Daughter Pavilion? What can I use to compete with the First Prince?”

After Ling Yu finished, he started crying hoarsely.

Who could not understand this principle?

Was Ling Yu genuinely stupid? No, he was not. However, what use was that? As he said, he was only an insignificant person. Even without the First Prince, anyone in Yan City could trample him to death.

Ling Yu had grand ambitions and felt hot-blooded. However, what use were those in reality?

Xiao Chen immediately felt an impulse—an impulse that he could not control. After he thought about it, it became like a great fire, blazing stronger with the wind, inextinguishable.

“Ling Yu, Martial Uncle has a question for you. Do you want to marry her? I don’t even need you to speak. Just look at me.”

Xiao Chen’s calm face did not show much emotion. However, despite his eyes reflecting the cold moonlight, they appeared like blazing flames as he stared at Ling Yu.

The instant Ling Yu looked up, he met this gaze. His heart immediately skipped a beat. He wanted to say many things. He wanted to say that his martial uncle had been very good to him, that Xiao Chen had already helped him a lot. He did not want to make things difficult for his martial uncle.

However, before Ling Yu could say anything, Xiao Chen said, “Good. I know your answer. Don’t say anything else. Go back and rest well tonight. For now, don’t run about. Just stay in the Misty Rain Pavilion and help Pavilion Master Su out.”

“I…”

Before Ling Yu could refuse, Xiao Chen turned around and led the group away.

After leaving the Smiling Daughter Pavilion late at night, the group felt somewhat dispirited.

Everyone spent the night in silence. Xiao Chen split half of the fifty tons of Origin Liquid with Wu Meng and the rest, keeping twenty-five tons of Origin Liquid for himself.

After that, Xiao Chen entered closed-door cultivation for three days, absorbing all twenty-five tons of Origin Liquid with his Demonic Cloud Heaven Swallowing Art and Ten Thousand Dragons Art.

It would just be a pipe dream for others if they wanted to absorb and refine twenty-five tons of Origin Liquid within three days. No one would even dare to imagine this, as the amount was too vast.

However, it was not difficult for Xiao Chen, who dual cultivated the Demonic Dao and Righteous Dao and grasped two powerful, inherited Cultivation Techniques.

Be it the Demonic Cloud Heaven Swallowing Art or the Ten Thousand Dragons Art, they both required an astronomical amount of Origin Liquid.

After the Demonic Cloud Heaven Swallowing Art altered Xiao Chen’s body, his body became extraordinary, requiring several times more—even several dozen times more—Origin Liquid than others.

Despite Xiao Chen absorbing and refining twenty-five tons of Origin Liquid, his cultivation did not improve significantly.

His Divine Energy cultivation remained at one Divine Vein. However, he was not in a rush.

Xiao Chen focused on refining the Soul Energy of the three Divine Vein rings. As long as he fully refined the True God’s Soul Energy left by the ancient Demonic Sovereign, his Divine Energy would naturally improve when all the conditions were right. The more Xiao Chen accumulated now, the more horrifying the eruption later.

However, Xiao Chen reached a bottleneck with the Ten Thousand Dragons Art.

Right now, he could materialize the Ten Thousand Dragons Picture with the Azure Dragon in the center with a casual strike. The Azure Dragon was now even more eye-catching.

The Azure Dragon image was significantly more realistic; when one looked carefully, it seemed like the Azure Dragon could walk out of the picture.

The image of the current Azure Dragon showed some minor changes. From the initial three claws, it now had four claws on each leg.

[TL Note: When Chinese dragons are used in symbolism, the number of claws on each leg indicates their status, ranging from two to five claws. Five-clawed dragons were reserved for the emperor and those the emperor permitted. Four-clawed dragons were for royalty or high-ranking nobles. Commoners were forbidden from using dragons as motifs or symbols. While I do not know whether the number of claws affects the dragon’s strength, it definitely is an indicator of status.]

Xiao Chen could clearly feel the Ten Thousand Dragons Art continuously digging out the potential of his bloodline.

The bottleneck was because he needed the succeeding Cultivation Technique.

Xiao Chen had to return to the Azure Dragons’ old lands and test himself in the inheritance hall to get the next layer of the Ten Thousand Dragons Art.

As the Ten Thousand Dragons Art evolved, it would eventually become the long-lost Ancestor Dragon Art.

However, the dragon spirit said that no one in the Martial Epoch had managed to cultivate the Ancestor Dragon Art yet.

Xiao Chen did not know how strong he was now.

Since coming to Yan City, he had not fought wholeheartedly.

He estimated that a regular 4-Vein Sovereign Emperor could not match him if he brought out all his trump cards.

However, it would be somewhat difficult for him to kill a 4-Vein Sovereign Emperor.

It would take at least a 5-Vein Sovereign Emperor to suppress Xiao Chen. Furthermore, that Sovereign Emperor would need a Medial Grade Soul Tool and a Cultivation Technique for Sovereign Emperors to do so.

Otherwise, Xiao Chen could easily leave whenever he wanted.

As for 6-Vein Sovereign Emperors, Xiao Chen did not dare to test that out. His odds of victory were slim since 6-Vein Sovereign Emperors had reached the summit of Great Perfection Sovereign Emperor. One step further, and they would be Peak Sovereign Emperors.

Before refining the Soul Energy from the three Divine Vein rings, he had best not fight against a 6-Vein Sovereign Emperor. The situation could easily go out of control.

As for fighting a Peak Sovereign Emperor, Xiao Chen did not even dare to imagine it. Right now, he was not a match for one.

If he ran into a Peak Sovereign Emperor, he would definitely die. His odds of victory were zero.

Even if he brought out all his trump cards, he could only severely injure the other party at best, unable to deal any significant damage.

“I need an ultimate move that can protect my life.”

Xiao Chen pondered his options. Be it the Dharmic World, the Taiji Yinyang Flame Diagram, the Fiendish Saber inheritance, the Mahāmāyā Abstinence Violation Saber Technique, the Firmament’s Rage, or the Supreme Dragon Fist, none of them could allow him to contend with a Peak Sovereign Emperor despite their horrifying offensive power, which made him unrivaled within the same cultivation realm.

Others would definitely feel shocked if they knew Xiao Chen’s thoughts.

To them, Xiao Chen’s powerful techniques were all ultimate moves. With these techniques, Great Perfection Sovereign Emperors would not dare to be arrogant with Xiao Chen.

However, Xiao Chen set his sights very high. Despite being a Small Perfection Sovereign Emperor, he wanted to deal with Peak Sovereign Emperors.

I need an ultimate move so that I can hold the initiative.