Cultivation: Start From Simplifying Martial Arts Techniques

In this life-and-death duel, She Qianling was not surprised by any of the matchups. Even battles between peak fourth-tier fighters, with the Shadow Island’s combat reaching the brink of death, seemed normal to him.

Battles between fighters of the same tier, especially among the top-tier, were inherently brutal, dependent on who could grit their teeth and endure the longest.

However, Chen Fei, who was originally a mid-fourth-tier warrior, was an anomaly.

His strength was so overwhelming that he had no worthy opponents of his tier.

She Mingchuan also had dominance among fourth-tier late-stage fighters, but it was not as exaggerated as Chen Fei’s.

At one point, She Qianling even suspected that Chen Fei might be a powerful expert of the Emperor Realm who had shed his essence and disguised himself as a fourth-tier warrior to elevate his combat power to such an extent.

“She He, according to the previous plan, force him to use his strongest strike.”

She Qianling’s eyes flashed with cold light as he said, “As long as we kill him, we’ll win this life-and-death duel!”

“Understood!”

She He nodded and leaped onto the arena, his gaze locked on Chen Fei.

Chen Fei glanced at She He, then looked down at his Qianyuan Sword.

With the forging techniques of the mid-Sun Moon Realm, even slight adjustments to the Qianyuan Sword had significantly enhanced its power.

Originally, the Qianyuan Sword had reached the level of a high-grade spiritual treasure, but in reality, it had achieved this position solely through Chen Fei’s accumulation of various spiritual essences.

It was quite simple and rather crude.

Chen Fei did not require the sword to be exceptionally sharp—he only needed it to be powerful and solid. Thus, the sword had been forcefully upgraded.

However, continuing to upgrade the Qianyuan Sword in this manner was not impossible, but would require an astronomical amount of spiritual essence.

After the recent forging by Pang Changping, the Qianyuan Sword had been thoroughly adjusted, not only increasing its power but also leaving room for future upgrades.

If it weren’t for this life-and-death duel, where only treasures of one’s own tier could be carried, Pang Changping’s forging skills could easily elevate the Qianyuan Sword to the peak of spiritual treasure.

“She He of Shadow Island, please instruct me!” A faint green light emanated from She He.

“Chen Fei of the Boundless Sea, please instruct me!”

The Qianyuan Sword was angled towards the sky, and nine starlights flashed across Chen Fei’s body.

Within Chen Fei, there were already eight Divine Palaces. The three illusory Divine Palaces brought by the Nine Star Chain included one placed in the normal ninth Divine Palace’s position.

The other two illusory Divine Palaces floated around the nine Divine Palaces, acting like satellites.

The array patterns of the nine Divine Palaces were connected, placing Chen Fei at the peak of the Mountain Sea Realm, with two additional illusory Divine Palaces providing extra power.

This made him stronger than the peak of the Mountain Sea Realm, though not excessively so, as the two illusory Divine Palaces were not fully integrated.

They could provide power, but since they were not combined, there was a slight deficiency.

Chen Fei constantly circulated the Nine Heavens Stellar Technique, attempting to directly connect the two floating Divine Palaces, but after several attempts, only some of the array patterns were connected to the two palaces.

It was a general unification but still fell short compared to the connection with the nine Divine Palaces.

Nevertheless, Chen Fei’s aura was now extremely formidable, far surpassing that of previous peak fourth-tier fighters.

She He’s figure had already vanished, replaced by a vast, lush forest before Chen Fei.

This forest continued to absorb the world’s essence, expanding recklessly.

She He practiced wood-based techniques and had previously used the endless power of wood to strangle both the Boundless Sea and Black Divine’s forces to death.

The forest now revealed was somewhat akin to the phoenix’s Nirvana fire.

If the Bloodwing Divine Phoenix had faced She He instead of She Mingchuan, it might not have been defeated so quickly.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

Seeing that Chen Fei did not move, thick branches with diameters exceeding several dozen meters streaked through the air towards Chen Fei.

In an instant, Chen Fei’s front was covered by countless branches.

There were at least thousands of branches, each performing sword techniques.

Not only did each branch individually execute sword techniques, but the branches also formed smaller sword formations, which eventually combined into larger formations.

Layers upon layers, rings upon rings, this instantly amplified the power of the thousands of branches, causing the world’s essence within a radius of several dozen miles to surge in response to these formations.

With this single move, She He’s attack had already reached the level of a peak fourth-tier fighter. Ordinary fourth-tier late-stage fighters facing She He would be killed instantly upon contact, with only a chance to escape remaining.

Chen Fei’s eyelids flicked slightly, and with a subtle movement of his Qianyuan Sword, a sword scar several miles long appeared in the air.

“Boom!”

In the sky above, nine lightning pillars, nearly a mile in width, struck down and collided with the forest conjured by She He.

Trees shattered, and the high temperature of the lightning scorched them into nothingness. A faint scent of fresh grass lingered in the air.

This was a potent poison; even a typical fourth-tier warrior would be affected.

While it wouldn’t cause immediate death, it would create a barrier between mind and spirit, slowing down their techniques.

In battles between strong fighters, when their strength is comparable, the contest often comes down to details, just like the previous fourth-tier life- and-death duel.

Once poisoned and slowed down, the next moment could lead to death.

Chen Fei remained unaffected, his expression as calm as spring.

With so many layers of armor, if such minor poison could defeat him, his training would have been in vain.

The violent thunderous sound gradually dissipated, and more than half of She He’s conjured forest had vanished.

However, in the blink of an eye, the damaged parts of the forest had recovered by thirty percent. After another breath, recovery reached seventy percent, with She He continuously expanding the forest’s range.

Chen Fei’s gaze shifted slightly, and the entire world seemed to freeze.

Chen Fei observed the swirling essence of the world within the forest before him.

His previous strike had flattened nearly half of the forest, and the lightning pillars had burned the broken plants to ashes.

But despite the lightning’s ferocity, some essence of the world remained after the plants vanished. She He, using his control over this essence, had quickly restored the forest with even the slightest touch.

To some extent, She He’s technique resembled certain aspects of the Suppressing Dragon Elephant.

The Suppressing Dragon Elephant embeds all information into the deepest part of the blood, leaving an imprint that can rapidly restore itself when conditions allow.

While the Suppressing Dragon Elephant focuses on physical body refinement, She He treated the forest, his domain, as an extension of his own body in his practice.

By solidifying all information, he could copy and paste from it whenever needed. As long as the world’s essence was sufficient, it could be easily achieved.

As long as his body remained intact, the domain would not dissipate.

And as long as the body remained hidden within the domain without overturning the entire domain, it was impossible to truly harm his body.

This created a paradox but also demonstrated the true power of a master of the domain.

Facing She He’s method of combat inspired Chen Fei with many insights.

If Chen Fei had chosen a domain talent, like the Suppressing Dragon Elephant’s unique talent of confinement, a force field-based domain, it would alleviate some of the pressure when using the Dust Giant Body.

With such a domain, some of the pressure could be absorbed by the domain, reducing the burden on Chen Fei’s body.

However, this would result in a decrease in the potency of the Dust Giant Body’s attack and defense, though the pressure would be significantly less.

The attack and defense of the Dust Giant Body would decrease, but the pressure would be significantly reduced.

If Chen Fei had not encountered the Unblemished Divine Vision this time, he might have indeed chosen a domain talent.

While the effectiveness of the Dust Giant Body decreased, its sustainability improved considerably.

However, with the Unblemished Divine Vision, as long as Chen Fei’s energy, spirit, and soul could support him and maintain peak condition, deliberately lowering the Dust Giant Body’s effectiveness would seem somewhat self­limiting.

She He, concealed within the forest, watched Chen Fei from afar. He formed hand seals, and tens of thousands of branches soared into the sky, forming a sword formation that was hurled towards Chen Fei.

Compared to the previous attack, this was the pinnacle of She He’s strength.

Chen Fei looked up at the tens of thousands of intertwining branches, forming a sword edge that reached from heaven to earth, and shook his head slightly.

It was essentially the same technique as before, just with increased quantity, offering no new insights for Chen Fei.

An illusory sword shadow appeared above the Divine Palaces, and Chen Fei’s aura surged dramatically.

The Sword Dominates the Galaxy, integrated with nine talents, had reached its peak. The current Nine Heavens Stellar Technique could only accommodate nine talents to form a talent skill.

Attack increased by seventy percent, defense by ninety percent, attack speed and movement speed by fifty percent, and recovery by seventy percent.

Compared to Chen Fei’s mid-Mountain Sea Realm state, the Sword Dominates the Galaxy had undergone changes.

Although the Unblemished Divine Vision and the Heart of Sincerity were not offensive talents, the breaking of the barrier between mind and spirit still boosted attack by ten percent and defense by twenty percent.

Attack speed and movement speed increased by twenty percent, with recovery improving by forty percent.

Even Chen Fei, as the practitioner, found the effect of the Sword Dominates the Galaxy somewhat astounding.

At this level, continuing to significantly increase strength would be nearly impossible, as there were limits within the Mountain Sea Realm.

Both the upper limit of the realm and the potential for power enhancement through Mountain Sea Realm techniques and talents had a barrier.

Surpassing this barrier was almost impossible; forcing a breakthrough could lead to a bottomless abyss—or perhaps to a sea of stars.