Chapter 433 - Heavenly Passage Pill

A few hours later, Long Chen was already in the imperial palace. Most of the imperial family had already fled, and the remaining few were people with no power. Long Chen was too lazy to deal with them. The two main clans had already pledged their loyalty to him, so they helped deal with the matters of the capital, and Long Chen did not intervene.

In order to please Long Chen, the Gongsun and Zhou patriarchs would surely do their best to manage the Imperial City properly. Long Chen was happy to have some free time while he waited for Zhao Qingyun to lead the Heavenly Demon Palace’s army over here.

Long Chen had once told Zhao Qingyun that his reward for providing so much help would be the whole Cangyang Kingdom. Now Long Chen had fulfilled this promise. The whole kingdom was in his hands, and he was going to give it all to his master, Zhao Qingyun. No one dared object to this.

Long Chen knew that while Zhao Qingyun loved living a life of independence free of responsibilities, it did not mean that he lacked the ambition to rule the Cangyang Kingdom. Defeating the imperial family had always been the goal of the Heavenly Demon Palace. Now that Zhao Qingyun had the kingdom in his hands, it proved that he was more capable than the previous Heavenly Demon Lords.

Waiting for Zhao Qingyun’s arrival, Long Chen pulled out the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit to inspect it. In the end, he confirmed that it was indeed what he thought it was.

Next, he had to inspect the things that the Sword Emperor had left behind. It was clear that the black-eyed Sword Emperor was his true body and was slightly stronger. That was why the most precious treasures were in the Universe Pouch that was with him.

To the Sword Emperor, taking these things with him was safer than storing them somewhere else.

The first things that caught Long Chen’s eye were the Heavenly Passage Pills. Based on his estimate, the average First Passage Stage cultivator owned twenty Heavenly Passage Pills or less, though the Sword Emperor owned almost a hundred. These were likely accumulated over many generations.

Cultivation at the Heavenly Passage Realm required large numbers of Heavenly Passage Pills in order to clear the cultivator’s meridian points and condense Qi. That was why Heavenly Passage Pills were seen as very important. If Long Chen did not have Heavenly Passage Pills, it would be impossible for him to advance to the Heavenly Passage Realm. The pills that he had would be able to last him until he reached the Second Passage Stage.

The points where the eighteen heavenly rivers connected were the nine meridian points. Six were spiritual meridian points, two were earthly meridian points, and one was a heavenly meridian point. These meridian points had to be cleared by breaking them with Qi, then the Heavenly Passage Pills helped solidify the meridian points in order for them to become Qi cores similar to a dantian.

The purpose of the four foundational realms was to allow the cultivator’s body to achieve its perfect state. There were rumors that when a cultivator opened the heavenly meridian point and reached the Ninth Passage Stage, their body was considered perfect. At that point, they would be able to fly in the sky and sink into the ground; they would be able to do anything they wanted.

Of course, sinking into the ground was impossible, but flying was definitely possible. The key achievement that determined whether a cultivator had completed the four foundational realms was whether they could fly.

Li Xuanji had flown easily in front of Long Chen, so it showed that she was at least above the Ninth Passage Stage. After learning about the Heavenly Passage Realm, he finally recognized just how powerful she was. Ling Xi’s background was as powerful as Li Xuanji’s, meaning that if Ling Xi’s family really made their way over, they would definitely exert a terrifying pressure on Long Chen.

Long Chen had worked hard to get his hands on the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit for her, and he would have to continue working hard to see her again. The next part of the journey was likely going to be a thousand times harder.

But he was not afraid.

He checked the Sword Emperor’s Universe Pouch again, and other than the Heavenly Passage Pills and some random objects, there were not many items that would be useful to Long Chen. Some items had probably perished along with the golden-eyed Sword Emperor. All Long Chen could say was that he had gotten lucky, because when he had to choose which Sword Emperor to annihilate, he had picked the correct one.

As he moved the items from the pouch, he saw a tattered book.

“What is this?” He picked up the book and brushed the dust off it. To his shock, he saw the title: Soul Splitting Technique.

“Soul Splitting Technique?” Ling Xi leaned over. She sensed that this unassuming technique was likely the reason why the Sword Emperor had two bodies.

“Ling Xi, you are very knowledgeable. Come take a look at this.” Long Chen placed the book in front of her and they started to study it.

After a while, Ling Xi said in shock, “How is that even possible?”

Long Chen didn’t understand the book, so he whispered, “What is this exactly?”

“This is just amazing. However, Brother Chen, there’s no need to get excited. There is a large flaw in this technique, and it should not be used. Let me explain it to you. This is a secret divine technique of an unknown tier. Based on the description, this is likely a failed product. The creator of this secret technique had a powerful imagination. This is actually related to the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit.”

“Tell me about that.” Long Chen listened intently. It was clear that the Soul Splitting Technique was related to the Sword Emperor having two bodies.

“A person has three souls and seven spirits.[1] The Soul Splitting Technique splits every soul and spirit into two halves. The strange thing is that each half can survive on its own, and the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit can be used to create a new body for that half of the soul. I’m guessing that this is the reason why the Sword Emperor had the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit ...

“The golden-eyed Sword Emperor was created with the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit. Had you fought him any later, the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit in your hand would likely have been used to form another Sword Emperor.”

Long Chen’s heartbeat quickened. Splitting a person into two and multiplying one person’s cultivation into two was indeed almost a violation of the laws of nature.

“If that is the case, couldn’t he have created countless clones if he had more Nine Heavens Immortal Fruits? If every clone was as strong as him, wouldn’t he be the strongest person in the world?” Long Chen said sourly.

“Of course not. The Soul Splitting Technique is a failed product,” Ling Xi answered, shaking her head.

“First of all, creating one clone resulted in a lot of damage to his soul, so although he had two bodies, his cultivation speed ended up becoming so slow that he would’ve likely never progressed further. Secondly, his two souls didn’t share a master-slave relationship, meaning they were two people with different thoughts. It was as if one person suddenly became two, and it was difficult to distinguish between the two. The fact that the two Sword Emperors decided to split the time that they spent outside evenly was an extremely favorable situation.”

After Ling Xi pointed out the flaws, Long Chen was no longer interested in the technique. From his perspective, not only was the Soul Splitting Technique useless, it would also bring him a lot of trouble. He could not imagine how terrifying it would be to have a copy of himself in this world ...

“Then I must dispose of this,” he said with resolution. That way, it would not hurt other people.

“Brother Chen, keep it for now. I’ll study it in the future, and maybe I will be able to improve it. Think about it. If you had a clone with equal strength and no thoughts, acting as only a loyal soldier, and this technique was harmless to your soul, wouldn’t it be a beautiful thing?” said Ling Xi.

“You’re right. Xiao Xi, you’re just too awesome. It’ll be difficult to part with you.” Long Chen recalled that now they had the Nine Heavens Immortal Fruit, it was likely that they would have to separate.

“Hmm?” Ling Xi froze. There was a look of worry in her eyes.

He had finished inspecting the Sword Emperor’s Universe Pouch. Soon after, someone came to report that the people of the Heavenly Demon Palace had arrived. Long Chen went up to the Jinluan Pavilion and saw Zhao Qingyun, the two Demon Elders, and also Murong Yu, whom he had not seen for a long time.

The people of the Heavenly Demon Palace were all familiar with Long Chen’s achievements by now. The Demon Elders and Murong Yu had been a little nervous on the way here as they were unsure of how Long Chen would act.

Previously, the First and Second Demon Elders had stopped Long Chen from leaving the Heavenly Demon Palace. It was only now that they finally realized just how ridiculous they had been. The Demon Emperor Sword had to be taken away by Long Chen in order for it to shine in the world!

Of course, the First Demon Elder was extremely impressed with Zhao Qingyun because he had gained the most out of all this. He had barely put in any effort to get to this point; all he had done was raise Long Chen for a while and provided some resources. In just a few months, his investment had paid off.

And his profit was the entire Cangyang Kingdom.

This had been the dream of the Heavenly Demon Palace disciples for generations, and also the dream of the Demon Elders. Today, in a very soap opera-like twist, Long Chen had helped them fulfill this dream. They had received news when Long Chen started battling the Sword Emperor and started rushing over. Along the way, they had been updated on the situation, and when they arrived, everything had been resolved.

They had no choice but to accept this reality.

The person with the brightest grin was Zhao Qingyun. The moment he saw Long Chen, he let out an unbridled laugh without caring for his appearance.

When the people of Heavenly Demon Palace arrived, Long Chen excused the rest of the people in Jinluan Pavilion and turned to Zhao Qingyun. “Greetings, Master!”

“Good! Good!” Zhao Qingyun said. It was clear that he was feeling emotional.

When he saw Long Chen’s strength skyrocket during his time at the Heavenly Demon Palace, Zhao Qingyun had already thought about a day like this. However, he had never expected this day to actually arrive.

1. in Taoism, humans have three souls (Hun) and seven spirits (Po). While this concept is common, the exact explanation of what these souls are called and what they do is very technical. Here’s a surface-level attempt at an explanation:

Three Hun (三魂):

Fetal Light (胎光): Also known as the “Yuan Shen,” it governs spirituality and represents wisdom. It can discern good from evil and understand all things.

Shi Ling (奭靈 or Shuang Ling 爽靈): Governs consciousness and represents the self. It enables thinking, feeling, and memory.

You Jing (幽精): Associated with the earth, it often drives human desires, including lust and sensuality. It can lead to darkness, confusion, and excessive sleep, depleting vital energy.

Seven Po (七魄):

Shi Gou (屍狗): Pertains to the corpse and governs physical movement.

Fu Shi (伏矢): Also related to consciousness, it facilitates thinking, feeling, and memory.

Que Yin (雀阴): Associated with the earth, it can lead to sensuality and darkness.

Tun Zei (吞贼): Governs consciousness and represents the self.

Fei Du (非毒): Pertains to the corpse and governs physical movement.

Chu Hui (除秽): Also related to consciousness, it facilitates thinking, feeling, and memory.

Chou Fei (臭肺): Associated with the earth, it can lead to sensuality and darkness. ☜