A World Worth Protecting

Wang Baole took a deep breath. When he had been in the Eye of Infinite Techniques, he had been focused on acquiring as many inheritances as possible. That was why he hadn’t spent too much time and energy studying the Thearch Armor inheritance. After a detailed analysis, he was blown away by how powerful it was.

I have more than a hundred other inheritances in my head. I have to find time to learn all of them. I might just become invincible after that! Wang Baole’s eyes shone brightly. He knew how unrealistic that was though. He thought about finding some way to document the inheritances he now had. That would be the wisest and most prudent option.

If Little Duanmu still doesn’t want to give his presidency up to me when I leave this place, I’ll just smack him with the inheritances I have! Wang Baole puffed up with pride from his accomplishments. The image of that filled him with anticipation and excitement.

He finally calmed himself down after some time. He took a deep breath and attempted to learn the Thearch Armor inheritance. It might have been fine if he hadn’t made an attempt to do so. He tried and was slightly surprised… to find how difficult this Thearch Armor inheritance was.

The first step was to form meridians outside of his body. The inheritance documented how to go about doing it. Despite that, regardless of how Wang Baole tried to follow what the inheritance said, he had no idea what he was doing and was unable to succeed.

Something’s not right… Wang Baole scratched his head. After some thought, he began to run through the steps in his head carefully and with full concentration. Time passed. Two weeks went by. However… Wang Baole still saw no progress with his Thearch Armor inheritance.

I’ve followed exactly as the inheritance instructed! Wang Baole was going mad. His understanding of the inheritance had deepened during the two weeks. He was confident that he hadn’t made any mistakes following the steps documented. However… his efforts were like a heavy stone sinking into the ocean. Nothing came out of it.

Seems like I’m missing a catalyst… A tired Wang Baole frowned. He couldn’t help but recall the powerful figure who passed down the inheritance. Wang Baole concluded that the powerful figure must have intended for this to happen. He intentionally didn’t provide Wang Baole with the catalyst required for learning this inheritance. That was why the Thearch Armor inheritance was so difficult to learn, and why he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Wang Baole started to sulk at that thought. It was as if a mountain filled with treasures stood before him, and he had no means to retrieve the treasure. He couldn’t take this lying down. He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. He tried to recall the contents of the inheritance and search for clues pointing to the catalyst, that might let him know what exactly it was.

Wang Baole continued his cultivation. Without any supervision, the donkey remained quiet and obedient for a while before it grew bolder. It attempted to dive into the Sea of Fire. It returned quickly, then realized that Wang Baole didn’t pay much attention to where it was going. Its eyes shone with excitement as it continued to dive into the Sea of Fire repeatedly.

It began to return later in the night. There was nothing interesting on the island. It wasn’t as fun as the Sea of Fire. It had plenty more to eat underwater, and when thirsty, it could drink molten lava.

The donkey gradually realized that Wang Baole really had no time to keep an eye on it, so it let itself go completely. It would spend two to three days in the Sea of Fire whenever it went out. Every time, it would return with a look of extreme satisfaction on its face.

However, it was still too young and inexperienced in its ways. It didn’t realize that Wang Baole had been keeping track of its trips and appearance when it returned from those trips. There had been no way he wouldn’t notice. The extreme satisfaction on the donkey’s face had been simply too obvious. In addition… this was clearly not the first time the donkey had gone out and done something sneaky behind Wang Baole’s back.

Did Scram manage to find a lover here, out of all places? Wang Baole grew curious as he trained. The donkey clearly had learned its lessons and grown smarter. It would check that Wang Baole was deep in cultivation before it snuck out secretly into the Sea of Fire.

Wang Baole might have been in the mood to follow the donkey secretly and find out what’s going on if his cultivation were progressing smoothly. However, he was currently being frustrated by the progress in his cultivation. He wasn’t in the mood to care too much about what the donkey was up to, even though he knew that it was indeed up to something.

His years of experience in cultivation told him though, that if he was unable to find a solution to his problem, he should try looking at it from another angle. This was especially true when it came to identifying catalysts for inheritances, which required one to be inspired. He shouldn’t fixate on the problem. After some thought, he decided to spend less time on the Thearch Armor inheritance. He set aside his energy to practice the second level of the Lightning Immortal Transformation.

The Lightning Immortal Transformation was comparably easier than the Thearch Armor inheritance. Wang Baole’s Lightning Avatar gradually formed. Wang Baole didn’t relax when it came to Dharmic Armaments either. He had enhanced his sword scabbard to a sixth-grade Numinous Treasure prior to his arrival at the Vast Expanse Dao Palace. It was only one step away from becoming a seventh-grade Dharmic Armament!

It was a huge step to take. One that was difficult and required plenty of materials, including Armament Sand. As long as he had sufficient battle credits, he would be able to resolve the latter challenge concerning the materials required. As for the level of difficulty involved in enhancing the scabbard… it would be challenging with Wang Baole’s current proficiency in Dharmic Armaments.

Perhaps by the time I can finally refine an eighth-grade Dharmic Armament, I’ll also be able to enhance my scabbard to a seventh-grade Dharmic Armament? Wang Baole thought about it, then calculated the battle credits he would need to purchase all the materials he required. He needed approximately fifty thousand credits. This might be a huge sum to other people, but it wasn’t a challenge to Wang Baole.

That’s alright. I’ll try and refine an eighth-grade Dharmic Armament first and use the experience to improve my proficiency in Dharmic Armaments! Wang Baole made up his mind then. He set aside time to refine an eighth-grade Dharmic Armament while practicing the Thearch Armor inheritance as well as the Lightning Immortal Transformation.

Prior to his arrival to the Vast Expanse Dao Palace, he had obtained huge quantities of gods. As long as he had sufficient materials, he could continue to refine Dharmic Armaments. He got out ten thousand battle credits and purchased vast quantities of materials. Then, he began to refine Dharmic Armaments.

As a result, Wang Baole’s current seclusion went on for quite some time. He was almost in seclusion for two months. The result of the seclusion… was that while he continued to face difficulty in practicing the Thearch Armor inheritance, he had grown familiar with the second level of the Lightning Immortal Transformation and was able to form an avatar that could be separated from his true physical form!

The avatar was formed from electricity and looked quite different from Wang Baole’s true physical appearance. However, it was able to unleash a third of Wang Baole’s battle capabilities. Wang Baole was more powerful than his peers at his current level of cultivation, so his avatar was capable of fighting it out with a regular early-stage Core Formation realm cultivator and winning most of the time.

According to what he had read of the Lightning Immortal Transformation, as long as he continued with his cultivation and the nurturing of his avatar, it would eventually be identical to him in terms of physical appearance and energy signature. It would have his full battle capabilities. An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to tell him and his avatar apart. It would be immensely powerful as well!

Wang Baole was slightly consoled by his progress with the Lightning Immortal Transformation. However, he still wasn’t very happy since his progress with the Thearch Armor inheritance was dismal. His attempt to refine an eighth-grade Dharmic Armament was also not showing much success. He hadn’t had a single successful attempt. All his attempts had failed at the final, critical step, leaving him with Dharmic Armaments that could only be used once.

Fortunately, Wang Baole had discovered the crux of his problem after his multiple attempts during seclusion. However, it wasn’t something he could resolve in the short term. He could only shake his head and postpone his attempts to refine an eighth-grade Dharmic Armament.

My thoughts will jumble up without my control when I reach the final step during the refinement. That’s clearly because my spiritual senses aren’t powerful enough. That results in instability when I try to infuse the artifact with the remnants of the god. That is why I am unable to succeed and can only create Dharmic Armaments that can only be used once.

I wonder how my elders in the Federation who managed to refine eighth-grade Dharmic Armaments manage to solve this problem? Wang Baole rubbed at his forehead. He believed there must be a way to resolve this problem. However, it was difficult for him to do so here. He left Green Fire Island and made a trip to the Vast Expanse Techniques Chamber. He wanted to find out if the Vast Expanse Dao Palace had any information regarding such matters.

There was information about this subject and many solutions. However, the solutions revolved around refining treasures and techniques that trained one’s spiritual senses. Each technique cost a ton, with the cheapest one requiring more than ten thousand credits.

Wang Baole was rendered speechless. He couldn’t bear to part with his credits.

I just don’t believe that I can’t arrive at a solution on my own! I’ve always relied on myself, my own wits and abilities. I’ll definitely find a solution! Wang Baole returned to Green Fire Island. He stood outside the cave abode and stared at the distant skies. He secretly came to a decision. He took a deep breath, then, with an extremely sincere voice, he called out gently in his mind.

“The beautiful and smart Little Missy, are you there?”

Wang Baole waited for a while, but there was no reply from Little Missy, so he blinked and tried again.

“The beautiful, smart, and incomparable Little Missy, are you there?”

There was still no response…

“The most beautiful in the entire galaxy, the prettiest in the entire universe, the one and only who surpasses all and shall never be surpassed, the one whose name shall live forever in song, the most beautiful, smartest, incomparable Little Missy—are you there?”

“Yup.” Little Missy coughed, then replied happily.