Chapter 129: Blade of Runes, Cutting Souls

The power of the Insightful Blade Art was average, but what truly caught people's attention was its profound and mysterious Insightful Eye.

As Chen Chu underwent the maximum enhancement of the art, his consciousness erupted in an instant. His entire being seemed to burst open, transforming into countless thoughts that scattered around and disappeared into the depths of nothingness.

Simultaneously, true power surged from Chen Chu's dantian, flowing along unfamiliar pathways. With each revolution, it grew denser, and his aura became sharper and more compelling.

Whenever the sea breeze approached within a meter around Chen Chu, it emitted a sound like a sizzle, torn apart by the sharp aura surrounding him.

Suddenly, the thoughts that had pervaded the surrounding abruptly retracted.

Boom!

A thunderous roar, as if the heavens and earth were being split apart, resounded deep within his mind, followed by the slow opening of a void in his consciousness.

Within this space, in addition to Chen Chu's majestic spiritual force, there was also a special power brought back from the void when the thoughts had been recalled.

Under its influence, his ethereal psychic power materialized, continuously condensing until it gradually formed into a blade-shaped rune. A flood of information rushed into Chen Chu's mind.

"The Blade of Void, a special rune condensed from the mind and spiritual force, possesses the ability to annihilate all mystic forces when activated."

“Cutting through the flesh with the blade, and slicing the soul with the mind?” Muttering softly to himself, Chen Chu slowly opened his eyes. His gaze was sharper than ever, and wherever it passed, the air seemed to emit faint tearing sounds.

He couldn’t help but marvel at the changes he could feel within himself. With the maximum enhancement of his saber art, he had just broken through to the late stage of the Third Heavenly Realm in a natural and unrestrained manner. His overall true power had doubled, becoming even more refined.

His meridians had also broken through and were now broader and tougher, able to withstand stronger bursts of true power.

Under the influence of the rune, his previously almost nonexistent psychic power was now even sharper, the greatest gain from this breakthrough. If anyone dared to launch a mental attack against him, with an activation of the Blade of Void rune, he would be able to instantly annihilate the invading force. While this still had limitations—if the enemy’s spiritual force was stronger than Chen Chu’s, they could instead shatter the rune—it was still a very useful ability.

Chen Chu's perception of the world had also become even sharper. He vaguely felt as if he had gained control over a sixth sense... one that was currently pinging.

Lost in thought, Chen Chu turned his head to the left, where several faint dots of light blinked, bursting towards him at a staggering speed and emanating a powerful and oppressive aura.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

In the blink of an eye, three figures appeared not far away, emitting red and blue flames and exuding the aura of the Sixth Heavenly Realm.

"The lightwave was detected in this area."

"Strange, no traces of mutated beasts. Could it be that it didn’t come ashore?"

"Is there anyone around who could have potentially seen it?" The three figures scanned their surroundings in a flash before turning their gaze towards Chen Chu.

Under the flickering flames, Chen Chu saw one of them clearly and was surprised. "Mr. Xiao?"

The burly Xiao Hai was also somewhat surprised, looking at Chen Chu on the distant rock in astonishment. "Young Chen, what are you doing here?"

As they spoke, two of the three figures traversed dozens of meters in a flash and landed beneath the rock. Seeing this, Chen Chu also leaped down from above.

Xiao Hai greeted him warmly. "Let me introduce you. These two are teachers from my school, Linchuan Martial Arts High."

"This is Chen Chu, the genius from Nantian who helped our new students quite a lot during the trial in Kyrola."

Chen Chu politely greeted them in turn. "Hello, teachers."

After hearing what Chen Chu had done, and witnessing his polite personality, the other two teachers’ eyes softened considerably. One of them smiled and said, "As expected from a genius of Nantian. To have reached the late stage of the Third Heavenly Realm at this age is truly admirable."

Chen Chu hadn’t had the opportunity to suppress his aura between breaking through and their arrival, so they all were able to immediately recognize his realm.

"Not at all, not at all. This level of cultivation is nothing compared to the three of you," Chen Chu modestly replied.

Xiao Hai then asked in confusion, "By the way, Young Chen, why are you here so late?"

The other two also looked puzzled. No ordinary person would be standing on the seaside rocks in the middle of the night.

Fortunately, Chen Chu had prepared for this question. "I'd been feeling a bit restless lately while stuck at the middle stage of the Third Heavenly Realm. I thought coming here to experience the boundless expanse of the ocean would ease my pent-up emotions.

“But I unexpectedly gained some insights while gazing at the sea and sky earlier this evening, so I started cultivating right here. I only just now managed to make my breakthrough."

"I see," the three exclaimed in admiration. They didn’t expect that someone could gain such crucial insights just by looking at the sea. Even with this being related to his being stuck at the peak of the middle stage, such talent was still astonishing.

Chen Chu pretended to be curious and asked, "Speaking of which, Mr. Xiao, why did you suddenly come here?"

"We received an alert from the school's security center, saying that they had detected the lightwave of a high-level mutated beast along this coastline, so we rushed to investigate."

The lightwave detector was a special device that combined energy and invisible light waves to detect energy fluctuations from individual beings around the city on a large scale. Compared to cultivators who could conceal their aura, mutated beasts constantly emitted powerful energy waves, often dozens or even hundreds of times stronger than cultivators of the same level, which made them easily recognizable.

While the river had helped to conceal it, the biggest reason the Armored Beast hadn’t been detected when swimming back to Wujiang to perform its third evolution was because it had been too weak at the time.

Chen Chu made a pondering expression and said, "So, does that mean the waves earlier were caused by a powerful mutated beast?"

"What? Young Chen, did you see that mutated beast?"

Chen Chu nodded. "Yes. It didn't come ashore, though, just raised some waves in the distance, probably because of this Blood Crystal I found on the beach."

As he spoke, Chen Chu spread out his palm, revealing the fist-sized blood-red stone with some mud on it.

"...You actually found a Blood Crystal. How lucky." Looking at the blood-red stone, Xiao Hai and the others could only envy him. Breaking through to the late stage of the Third Heavenly Realm and finding a high-level resource worth dozens of contribution points, just by walking on the beach? It was astounding.

Chen Chu modestly said, "I was also a bit surprised."

He had been thinking about how to explain the origin of the Blood Crystal when he returned home. After all, some things just couldn't be hidden from people with a keen eye once they were used. He hadn’t expected Xiao Hai and a couple other teachers to suddenly become witnesses like this, however.

At least he didn’t have to worry about them being tempted to try to take the crystal. At their Realm, several dozen contribution points weren’t enough to make much of a difference.

"Young Chen, it would be inconvenient for you to go back so late. Why don't you stay at the high school for the night?"

"Thank you, Mr. Xiao." Chen Chu didn't refuse.

After spending the night at the school, a shuttle sent him to the station the next morning, making him feel a little embarrassed by their politeness.

Back at Nantian, Chen Chu told Pang Long about what had happened last night.

"You broke through to the late stage of the Third Heavenly Realm and even picked up a Blood Crystal?" Looking at the crystal on the desk, Pang Long smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Such luck.

He then pondered. "Your breakthrough speed is faster than I imagined, but that's good. It means there's a higher chance of success when the batch comes down."

"What batch, sir?" Chen Chu paused.

Pang Long shook his head. "Nothing, just go about your business."

Although Chen Chu was puzzled, he still nodded and took the crystal, leaving directly for the logistics department.

"Hello, I found a Blood Crystal. Could I exchange it for some contribution points?" Chen Chu placed the crystal on the counter, and the staff member at the counter quickly took it.

Blood Crystals were useful for mutated beasts, but useless for humans. He hadn’t noticed any changes on the attribute page even with the crystal in his hand. Since he had no need for it, the next best option was to sell it to the school in exchange for some contribution points.

"This Blood Crystal is of very good quality. According to your permissions, the recycling price will be equivalent to 40 contribution points."

"40 points, really?" Chen Chu was somewhat surprised.

The staff nodded. "Yes, this crystal is of excellent quality and contains powerful fiery attributes, so its value is much higher than ordinary crystals."

Suddenly, Chen Chu felt a bit regretful. If he had known that these Blood Crystals were so valuable, he would have only given one to the Single-horned Orca.

With these 40 points, plus the 30 points for killing the Blood Emissary, he now had accumulated 70 contribution points, almost a quarter of his goal.

The regret lingered as Chen Chu went to the Internet cafe rooms on the thirty-third floor, closing the door behind him and entering his student ID.

"Identity verified..."

"Please relax, student. Beginning the transmission of the Hidden Divinity secret art..."

Waves of data images were transmitted into his mind through the special pupil memory beams.

The Sword Armored Fiery Beast had only stayed on the beach for a minute, and even then, it had still been keenly sensed by the lightwave detector. While Chen Chu had prepared for this, the swift reaction time had still taken him by surprise.

To avoid any accidents when the Fiery Beast returned for its fourth evolution, he needed to learn something that would help him conceal its aura.

As he continued to advance, it was becoming more and more necessary for himself, as well. The Weapon Refining Art would simply have to wait for after he broke through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm.

Even if the avatar couldn’t fully cultivate the art, it would still have at least some effect on it, similar to the Raging Elephant Stomp; better than nothing, at least.

"I didn't expect that spiritual force and vitality could be used like this." A long while after completing the transmission, Chen Chu switched off the computer.

He then closed his eyes slightly, as the information about the secret art circulated in his mind, immediately followed by his own thoughts.

Consume 20 attribute points to strengthen the Hidden Divinity secret art.

The remaining 32 attribute points on the attribute page changed to 12. At the same time, a majestic spiritual force was drawn out from his consciousness, merging with the vitality in his body and gradually forming a mark similar to a rune.

However, compared to the Elephant Fury and Blade of Void runes, this hidden rune was much simpler. Once the vitality within the rune was fully condensed, it merged into Chen Chu's chest and instantly spread out as an invisible wave, covering his entire body like a film.

Under this invisible cover, the oppressive feeling that had remained even after he had concealed his aura gradually disappeared from Chen Chu's body.

Chen Chu's eyes showed a look of surprise. "So, these arts aren’t actual arts, but runes that simulate certain abilities."

These secret arts condensed powerful spiritual will and vitality into runes, the effects of which were then fueled by vitality without needing to follow the meridians of the human body. So theoretically, even the Fiery Beast could cultivate this.

The thought excited Chen Chu. He didn’t leave the room yet, just sat on the chair, and focused his attention on the Fiery Beast in the sea.

Gurgle! Gurgle!

Two hundred meters deep in the sea, the Fiery Beast, lying on the coral reef, blew out a string of bubbles. Its eyes revealed a touch of human-like seriousness.

Then, a hint of joy slowly appeared. The progress was slow, but it truly was feasible...