Chapter 562: Vicious Secret Art, A Vanguard for the King (I)

Luo Chen's physique was the result of tempering his body with heavenly lightning. He hadn't always been this lean, and until now, he hadn't really thought too deeply about it. Fortunately, regaining what he had lost was not difficult. He only needed to increase his intake of spirit meals, especially meat.

The very day he mentioned it to Sima Huiniang, the Luo Tian Society members swung into action. By the next morning, they were already sourcing premium ingredients in large quantities on his behalf. They didn't even use their own spirit rice. Instead, they went straight to purchasing third-tier spirit rice cultivated by the renowned Five Elements Divine Sect.

Ten jin of that spirit rice cost a hundred spirit stones! Yet despite the cost, they didn't hold back, and each purchase started from a thousand jin at the very least. As for vegetables and fruits imbued with spirit energy, they were delivered by the basket-load, carted up to Tianlan Peak in a steady stream via storage pouches.

Most important of all was the meat! First-tier demonic beast meat did not warrant a glance. At the very least, it had to be second-tier. Sima Huiniang even turned to the black market in search of third-tier demonic beast flesh and blood, trying to get him the best of the best Even if the tier was too high for Bai Meiling to cook, Luo Chen was prepared to eat it raw if he had to.

On the other hand, his joint research with Wang Yuan had borne fruit. The foundational mechanics of Myriad Path Convergence had been largely deciphered. It wasn't anything too profound or cryptic. At its core, it was all about energy utilization. Whether it was the early stages like Tendon Transformation, Marrow Cleansing, Organ Refinement, and Qi Absorption, or the mid stages like Meridian Unblocking, Aperture Opening, Blood Replacement, and Bone Forging. All required tremendous resources.

Luckily, the Luo Tian Society had grown stable over the past few years. The society was finally capable of providing Luo Chen with a steady stream of spirit stones. On top of that, there were also the plentiful spoils he had reaped from the battlefield of Jilei Nine Mountains. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to sustain the sheer consumption required for Physique Refinement in such a short period of time.

Even with all that in place, another problem loomed. It was one that Luo Chen could no longer ignore. He lacked external force! Myriad Path Convergence had originally been developed to burn through the immense lightning power in Luo Chen's body. As a result, its very structure was created around channeling vast amounts of external energy. If Physique Refinement was likened to crafting a sword, then the body was the metal, the resources were the coal in the forge, and external energy was the hammer that struck the blank into shape. Without lightning, he had no hammer. No matter how rich the coal or how high-quality the steel, nothing could be crafted without a hammer.

𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Still, he understood that one couldn't grow fat from a single meal. For now, the priority was to thoroughly stabilize his physical foundation and master the techniques already at his disposal. As for what came after? He'd deal with that when the time came.

Luo Chen still planned to keep his focus on cultivation in the Dao of Immortality. The path of Physique Refinement was practically a dead end. He had no master to guide him and was left to grope his way forward alone. In contrast, his path in Qi Refinement was clearly paved, with visible milestones ahead. There was no reason to abandon what was near in pursuit of the distant, and his training in Sky Roc Transformation wasn't meant to replace his qi cultivation. It was merely to enhance it and to ensure he had the power needed to protect himself for now and walk his immortal path safely.

While Luo Chen focused on cultivating, visitors to his cave residence continued to arrive in a steady stream. After Wang Yuan, the next guest to appear was Chu Kui.

"You're really living the good life these days!" Chu Kui couldn't help but remark as he watched Luo Chen from afar. A trace of envy flickered in his eyes. Behind the faint shimmer of a concealment formation, Luo Chen was moving through a set of fist techniques with steady grace.

Luo Chen paid him no mind. He was fully immersed in the rhythmic flow of the Five Organs Nourishment Fist. Although he had already mastered the technique long ago, yet continued to practice it diligently. There was a reason for that—namely, that he needed to build up and nourish the five internal qi flows within his body.

Wang Yuan had once told him that his Sky Roc Transformation contained inherent flaws. To resolve this, Wang Yuan intended to merge it with his own Giant Spirit Transformation, and that demanded a powerful foundation in the five-organ qi to function. Thus, Luo Chen was laying the groundwork. Each breath and each strike was preparation for the new version of Sky Roc Transformation.

By the end of the set, a faint sheen of sweat glistened on Luo Chen's brow. Over the past few months, his gaunt frame had finally begun to improve. The figure that had been worn thin from lightning and overexertion had begun to recover. He wasn't bulky by any stretch, but he'd filled out just enough to no longer resemble a walking skeleton. In short, he was lean but muscular.

Though he still appeared slender at a glance, anyone who saw him without his robes would be struck by the dense and well-defined muscle packed beneath his skin. The strength hidden within his frame was nothing to scoff at; not even Wang Yuan dared underestimate it.

Luo Chen sat across from Chu Kui and took a sip of warm spirit wine. His expression relaxed, and he smiled. "Living the good life, am I? It's just finding joy in hardship, that's all. Tell me, how's your research on Beaded Curtain Lock?"

Beaded Curtain Lock was the Upper Path Core Formation art they had gotten from the Falling Cloud Sect. The moment the topic turned to this, Chu Kui's expression visibly hardened, and he said, "This art is far too vicious!"

Luo Chen blinked.

Hm? Vicious? Where did that assessment come from?

Seeing the confusion on Luo Chen's face, Chu Kui understood at once—Luo Chen hadn't yet taken a good look at Beaded Curtain Lock. Not that he blamed him; Luo Chen was only at the sixth stage of Foundation Establishment. There was still time before he would need it.

For Chu Kui, on the other hand, things were different. He had reached the ninth stage of Foundation Establishment, and the Golden Core Realm was just ahead. Ever since his return, he had practically forsaken sleep to pore over the four Core Formation secret arts. Of course, the one he focused on most was the Upper Path one.

Understanding that his friend was completely clueless, Chu Kui began to calmly explain things.

"According to the manual, once a cultivator steps into the Golden Core Realm, their divine soul and spirit power merge into one. At this point, their spirit consciousness fuses with their divine soul to form divine consciousness. Once this divine consciousness fuses back into the spirit power, it transforms into mana. It possesses extraordinary might!"

Luo Chen frowned slightly. "Wait... How does that transformation actually occur?"

Chu Kui answered patiently, breaking it down step by step, "The key lies in the Golden Core itself. It is the complete crystallization of one's spirit power. By tempering it with the divine soul, the cultivator forces a deep interaction between the two. That's what leads to the emergence of mana."

The explanation was clear, yet Luo Chen could only grasp part of it. There was no helping it; without having reached that realm, much of what was said remained strictly conceptual. It was easy enough to describe, but impossible to fully envision without firsthand experience. The best he could do was picture the Golden Core as a vast vessel. Inside it, divine soul and spirit power continuously intermingled, refining each other until a transformation occurred.

Chu Kui didn't press the matter, perhaps because even his own understanding was limited. He simply relayed the descriptions written in the manual, filtered through his own comprehension. He continued, "The cultivator who created this secret art had the insight to propose a revolutionary idea. A cultivator should first acquire the traits of a Golden Core, and only then proceed to form the core itself. If you could begin converting a portion of spirit power into mana beforehand, then the actual process of forming the Golden Core would be far smoother."

Luo Chen nodded slowly, deep in thought.

That... actually makes a great deal of sense. Rather than wait for a complete transformation all at once... Why not acquire the characteristics of an Adept ahead of time, then form the core around those traits? It would be far more efficient. And that mana...

Luo Chen took a sip of spirit wine, then said thoughtfully, "Is it about fusing divine soul into spirit power? But haven't many Initiates already tested that? It's nearly impossible to achieve on any meaningful scale. Even when it works, the effect fades quickly."

Chu Kui nodded. "Exactly. That's true for us. But in the hands of a true master, it can be done."

"Through Beaded Curtain Lock?" Luo Chen arched an eyebrow.

"Exactly that." A touch of reverence crept into Chu Kui's expression. "This is a method for splitting your divine soul, refining it into countless fine threads. These soul threads are then used to interlink droplets of liquefied spirit energy. When the spirit power is compressed to an extreme degree and purified into essence, every drop that's been linked becomes equivalent to a drop of true mana. Then, during Golden Core formation, you can use your primary divine soul to command the whole structure, draw in all those droplets, and fuse them into a single whole. At that moment, the Golden Core will take shape."

Crack!

The wine cup shattered in Luo Chen's hand. He had clenched just a little too hard. It was definitely a side effect of not yet fully mastering the overwhelming strength of his physique. Yet the broken cup spoke to more than carelessness. It revealed just how shaken he was by this concept.

To split the divine soul into threads and weave them together, to turn droplets of liquefied spirit power into pearls imbued with traces of mana... and then, with the divine soul serving as the control center, draw them all into a unified whole.... At that point, the path to the Golden Core would be within reach!

Chu Kui watched Luo Chen reeling from the revelation and gave a wry smile. "A grand vision, isn't it?"

"It truly is," Luo Chen said, swallowing hard. "Whoever came up with the concept must've been a genius. I can already picture the scene... Every drop of spirit liquid pulled in by a divine soul thread, culminating in the formation of a Golden Core...."

The name Beaded Curtain Lock truly carried vivid meaning. A divine soul threading spirit beads and locking them into a Golden Core in a single stroke!

"It's not just a concept. The method is detailed down to the last step. How to split the divine soul, how to link the strands, how to fuse them, everything. The Falling Cloud Sect didn't hold anything back. This is undeniably a complete Upper Path for Core Formation."