A World Worth Protecting

Alarm colored Liang Long’s face when he heard what Wang Baole had said. His mind became fully awake. He stopped breathing momentarily when he realized his mistake. He wanted to correct himself, but he had been completely played by Wang Baole. There was no way he could salvage the situation at this moment. As he panicked, Mie Liezi, who had been silent all the while, shook his head.

“Liang Long, do you know where you went wrong?”

“Your humble disciple…” Liang Long froze. Wang Baole’s pupils contracted, and he took a few steps towards Feng Qiuran. The expression on Feng Qiuran remained unchanged, save her eyes, which narrowed slightly as she looked at Mie Liezi.

“Your mistake was in insisting on reason. You needed to be right.” A tinge of disappointment flashed across Mie Liezi’s eyes. He turned and suddenly raised his right hand, making an unexpected grab for Wang Baole.

The color of the sky changed as winds lashed through the skies and clouds boiled and rumbled. The Sea of Fire around them erupted. An immense, indescribable force transformed into a tornado. It threatened to tear everything apart and came charging towards Wang Baole, intent on swallowing him whole.

A sudden impending danger descended upon Wang Baole. He was rendered immobile as if his cultivation was being overpowered. It seemed as if an invisible chasm separated him and Mie Liezi. In this world, Mie Liezi was akin to a god!

Fortunately, Mie Liezi wasn’t the only god here. There was Feng Qiuran as well!

Feng Qiuran lifted her right hand as soon as Mie Liezi struck. She pointed a finger at Mie Liezi, and ripples of water appeared beneath her feet instantly. They surged outwards and transformed into a vast ocean in the blink of an eye. Roaring waves surged in all directions, engaged in an invisible battle with Mie Liezi. A deafening thunder erupted.

Wang Baole’s body shuddered, and blood spilled from his lips. Liang Long experienced the same thing. He sensed blood flowing from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears as he swayed on his feet, ready to collapse to the ground anytime. Only Mie Liezi and Feng Qiuran remained standing. Their clothes weren’t even ruffled. The deserted island beneath their feet, on the other hand… Wang Baole watched in shock as mountain rocks turned to dust and the entire island was wiped off the face of the sword. It vanished completely. The Sea of Fire surged in and took its place. It was as if the island had never existed.

“Wang Baole, so what if you can reason your way out?” Mie Liezi stood in mid-air, his hands behind his back and his cold eyes sweeping across Wang Baole’s face.

“Remember, if you dare play any tricks on my disciple again, you’ll end up like this island!” Having said that, Mie Liezi nodded at Feng Qiuran, then turned and took the heavily injured and unconscious Liang Long away. They vanished without a trace.

Wang Baole fell silent, and Feng Qiuran shut her eyes. She slowly opened them again after a long moment. She seemed on the verge of saying something, but in the end, she said nothing. Exhaustion colored her eyes, and she seemed to be sighing. She turned and left.

Wang Baole remained the only person hovering in mid-air for a very long time. He stared at the direction that Mie Liezi and Feng Qiuran had left. After a while, he narrowed his eyes.

It’s better to rely on myself than on others. Elder Feng is too gentle. She might be the best partner for the Federation, but she’s not someone I can rely on personally…

In the end, I still have to rely on myself… The Soul Conduit realm. If he really dared try to kill me earlier, I would wing it and summon Little Missy, then fight my way to the sword body! Wang Baole shook his head, then took a deep breath. He turned and took a step forward. He didn’t head towards the Vast Expanse Dao Palace but instead raced towards Green Fire Island.

When Wang Baole returned to his own island, he sat down cross-legged in his cultivation and fell into a deep, long contemplation. The image of Mie Liezi’s final attack resurfaced in his mind. He had felt the weight of the entire heavens pressing down on him then. It intensified his desire to advance his own cultivation.

I have to reach the Nascent Soul realm as soon as possible! When that time comes, I should be able to exercise some control over the Dark Artifact! Having made up his mind, Wang Baole took out the jade slip documenting the Lightning Immortal Transformation and read up on the second level of the technique.

In the second level of the Lightning Immortal Transformation, he was to create a Lightning Avatar that would possess certain fighting abilities. He had to nurture and nourish this Lightning Avatar inside his own body. It would be able to unleash a power greater than his own.

However, he would also be adversely affected should this avatar be destroyed. There were pros and cons to the Lightning Avatar. Wang Baole’s core was different from that of others, though. He believed that the impact he would suffer if his Lightning Core were damaged would be significant but not overly so. It would be something that he could withstand and survive.

Having come to that conclusion, Wang Baole didn’t hesitate. He shut his eyes and began meditation, practicing the second level of the Lightning Immortal Transformation. He continued to ingest the pills that he had acquired in the coming days. As his cultivation progressed, his mid-stage Core Formation realm cultivation began to stabilize. He began to inch steadily towards the late-stage Core Formation realm.

Time passed slowly, and a month went by. Liang Long didn’t return to the island during this one month. Even though Mie Liezi had issued a warning to Wang Baole, Liang Long had clearly grown fearful of Wang Baole’s methods. He had instinctively chosen to avoid Wang Baole.

The strange and wondrous rope found its way back to Wang Baole one night…

There was also the matter of his donkey. Wang Baole didn’t know how long he would be training this time, so he released the donkey into the wild so that it could find its own source of food. After all, the donkey could transform into a perfected Core Formation realm python. It would be able to survive and defend itself as long as it didn’t incur the wrath of freakishly powerful entities.

The donkey was excited to be released by its master. It had thought it was going to starve to death. When it was released, it immediately dashed out. It took a chunk out of the mountain rocks and nibbled at the trees and the grass. In its hunger, it even took a gulp of the unpalatable molten lava.

Wang Baole ignored the donkey and continued his seclusion. As his cultivation progressed, bolts of lightning began to appear around his meditating body. They wandered all over his body and grew in number. A duplicate image of him gradually appeared and layered over his actual body.

It was as if he was slowly forming a duplicate of himself.

It was clear that time was needed in order for one to truly master the second level of the Lightning Immortal Transformation. He was only able to form the initial prototype of his avatar. As he continued his cultivation, he received good news from Yun Piaozi.

He had finally found a generous client for the fleet of Spirit Boats that Wang Baole had built. The client was willing to purchase the entire fleet. The price he gave was almost the same as the capital he had invested in building the boats—three hundred battle credits for each Spirit Boat!

Overjoyed, Wang Baole initiated negotiations with Yun Piaozi immediately. He retained a few boats but sold the rest. He earned more than sixteen thousand battle credits.

Wang Baole had read the high officials’ autobiographies diligently. He wasn’t going to keep all his profits to himself. Even if he wanted to do that, he wasn’t going to do so for something that many people knew about. He very generously sent three thousand credits to Yun Piaozi as a show of his appreciation. He also set aside two thousand battle credits and requested Yun Piaozi to pass that to his clan brother, as a token of his gratitude for his reminder that day.

Yun Piaozi was delighted when he received the credits. He grew increasingly certain that Wang Baole’s was a friendship that he could cultivate. His clan brother smiled when he received his credits as well. He still didn’t really like the cultivators from the Federation, but he felt differently towards Wang Baole now.

He has cultivation, tact, and brains… Wang Baole is not a simple character!

With the sudden increase in wealth, Wang Baole brimmed with satisfaction as he stared at the thirty-odd thousand battle credits he now had. He continued his seclusion happily. Besides practicing the second level of the Lightning Immortal Transformation, he also spent some time studying the Thearch Armor inheritance!

Wang Baole finally understood what the inheritance was after some studying. Simply put, it was the formation of another flesh and blood body outside his current physical body. It appeared similar to the Lightning Immortal Transformation and the Lightning Avatar, but they weren’t the same.

The Lightning Avatar was an illusion. Thearch Armor, on the other hand, was real!

The Lightning Avatar was meant to be released outside one’s body. Thearch Armor was meant to encase one’s true form, never to be separated.

This so-called physical form of the Thearch Armor was only a metaphor. In reality, he would be cultivating an armor made of flesh that would then encase his true physical form!

That was Thearch Armor.

The first step to mastering this inheritance was to form blood-colored meridians on his skin. They would cover his entire body, like vines, and form a basic structure!

To accomplish this would be to master the first level of Thearch Armor. Wang Baole tried to envision that in his mind. He could imagine how bizarre and frightening he would look once he managed to reach that stage!

The next step would be to form a skeletal structure outside his body. He had to cultivate bones that would fuse with his meridians. It would be like growing a skeleton on his actual body. His resilience would reach astonishing heights at that point!

Finally, when a full suit of flesh and blood armor formed on top of his true physical body, he would have truly mastered and reached the final level of this inheritance!

What truly shocked Wang Baole was the incremental effects it awarded!

The three levels disregard one’s cultivation completely. The increase in power is three, six, and nine times at each level respectively!