Chapter 460: Primordial Principle, Innate Slumber (II)

Due to their large number, the people were divided into groups. The North Lin faction went first, followed by the West Meng group and those from other countries. As the host, East Xia went last.

While waiting, Lin Xue glanced around. "That's strange. Where's Chen Chu?"

Xia Youhui pointed to a distant area. "I saw him with An Fuqing, Ji Wuji, and a few other geniuses who walked the path of kings. They all followed Heavenly King Youming to that building over there."

Many people nearby began to look envious.

In the past, saying that a genius had the potential of a king meant that the person had extraordinary talent and could even have a chance to break through to the king level, though ninety percent never did.

In the Federation, every generation produced a few prodigies with king potential, sometimes up to a dozen.

However, only two out of ten would actually manage to become kings. Every now and then, they would even fail to produce just a single one in an entire generation.

Nevertheless, after decades of accumulation, especially during the last ten years of explosive growth among cultivators, the number of human kings had still grown to dozens.

But Ji Wuji and the others were different from the geniuses of the past.

Having experienced the trials of the path of kings and comprehended the mysteries of the path of heavenly kings, they were almost guaranteed to reach the late or even peak stage of the Ninth Heavenly Realm.

At that point, harnessing the ten or more strands of origin they had gained would make their ascent to the throne almost certain—assuming they didn't meet an untimely demise along the way.

Standing nearby, Ji Changkong sighed with regret. "It's a shame no one finished the path of heavenly kings this time. Even Chen Chu only made it past five thousand meters. Is becoming a heavenly king really that difficult?"

Xia Youhui scoffed. "Of course it's hard! Just think about how many heavenly kings humanity has produced over the past few decades, and you'll get an idea of how tough it is."

They chatted for about an hour before a portion of those who had obtained an inheritance finished uploading their arts, basic runes, or the runes that they had comprehended on the path to divinity to the Federation.

With their task done, the geniuses from various nations left one after another.

At the edge of the base runway, rows of sleek, futuristic fighter jets and large aircraft lined up in preparation for takeoff.

"Calling Celestial Central Control Tower. Thunderbolt Number Five requesting permission to pass through the circular barrier."

"Acknowledged, Thunderbolt Number Five. Permission granted."

"Qiming Number One, requesting clearance to pass through the barrier and return."

The night sky slowly split open, and the jets vertically lifted off. At the same time, the large planes began to glide across the runway, their engines humming.

The aircraft streaked across the sky and passed through the rift in the barrier, signaling the conclusion of this expedition.

The geniuses from West Meng, North Lin, and other nations had appeared as if out of thin air upon arrival, and now they were leaving just as swiftly and cleanly.

Watching the planes disappear on the steps of the base, Xia Youhui sighed with emotion. "Feels like a long time has passed all at once."

"Not really. It's only been about ten days," Li Hao deeply replied.

"What are your next plans, Li Hao?"

"Go into seclusion, of course. The Heavenly Demonic Scripture I obtained fits me perfectly. Once I successfully cultivate it, I'll gain the special ability of the Demonic Spirit, which will make me stronger the more severe my injuries become.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Moreover, the Demonic Spirit Battle Body's strength increases significantly every time it's shattered and reformed."

Li Hao found no need to hide anything about his cultivation art. The Federation's core arsenal had already recorded it, after all.

Of course, like the Taixu Nether Light Scripture that Chen Chu had obtained, without the inheritance, cultivating the Heavenly Demonic Scripture would be extremely difficult.

The Federation's think tank would attempt to simplify and modify these arts. The think tank was made up of cultivators whose talent was average—people who had cultivated for two or three decades but only reached the Fourth or Fifth Heavenly Realm. Worse, they had little hope of advancing further.

Though they lacked cultivation talent, their understanding of cultivation and theoretical research had almost reached the level of master.

Their usual work involved using supercomputers to simulate and optimize various cultivation arts, which improved efficiency and reduced difficulty.

Many of the low-level cultivation arts popularized across various nations were simplified versions of the high-level arts that they had worked on.

Even some high-level arts would be adjusted for easier cultivation and greater power, similar to textbook editing—except they were editing true martial arts.

The highest official of the think tank was Heavenly King Zhenwu, who created the Body Refining Art that caused the explosion in the number of Federation cultivators over the past decade.

***

While Xia Youhui and the others entered seclusion at the base to cultivate...

Chen Chu absorbed all the information he could. He was in a pitch-black void, yet although it seemed to be complete nothingness, it had a sense of reality.

Slowly opening his eyes, he looked into the distance. A gray cloud mass, several hundred meters in diameter, was slowly rotating and exuding an aura of mystery.

He quickly identified it as the emperor's inheritance.

It contained the primodorial principle left behind by the ancient emperor named Heng.

In reality, there was no such thing as an emperor's inheritance. One couldn't become an emperor-level powerhouse simply by studying. Otherwise, ancient civilizations would've had more than seven emperors.

Whether it was the old or modern methods of cultivation, once a cultivator broke through to the higher realms, they began to perfect their path. Eventually, they would push it to the extreme, transcending into the laws and breaking through to the level of kings.

This applied to emperors as well. Each emperor's law was unique to them, and the path that extends to principle belonged to them alone.

The so-called primodorial principle in the form of a glowing mass was actually a blank law seed.

Once Chen Chu cultivated to the level of a heavenly king, he could use this blank law to nurture it into a principle that is unique to himself, allowing him to rapidly ascend into the ranks of the strongest.

The prerequisite for bearing this primordial principle was having a basic soul strength of thirty times the norm. That was why the requirements for the soul path were so high.

While this gain didn't seem overly dramatic or worthy of the emperor's inheritance, the truth was that the inheritance had begun when Chen Chu and the others first stepped onto the path to divinity.

In fact, the entire path to divinity was part of the emperor's inheritance.

Under normal circumstances, one just had to do a few steps to be able to essentially cultivate to the level of a heavenly king. They simply had to walk the path of kings and the path of heavenly kings that matched their attributes, obtain runes and origins, and comprehend a micro-world.

With a powerful soul and the primordial principle that met the requirements, once they broke through to the heavenly king level, they would quickly advance to the rank of the strongest.

At that point, whether or not they could step into the level of emperors depended on themselves.

"Who would have thought that the emperor's inheritance had already started?"

Chen Chu approached the gray cloud mass. His soul projection then appeared behind him once more.

Boom!

The moment Chen Chu's soul touched the primordial principle, the gray cloud trembled violently and suddenly expanded, engulfing him and forming a gigantic light mass with a diameter of several kilometers.

Inside, like a miniature universe, a gigantic figure could vaguely be seen slumbering. It exuded a terrifying aura, seemingly nurturing an innate deity.