Chapter 563: What It Means to Court Death

Pei Mianman hurried over, a look of shock on her face at the scene before her. "Is this the Gluttonous Devourer Art?"

She knew that Zu An had acquired a secret manual back in the mystic realm, but she had never seen him use it. Now that he did, its power was astonishingly overbearing.

"Yes," Zu An nodded. A ball of flame ignited in his palm, as he intended to burn the Mosquito Daoist's remains, which looked rather unsettling.

Pei Mianman guessed his intention and quickly advised, "I think her remains could be useful. She absorbed Sang Qian's vital essence earlier and has a deep-seated grudge with the Sang family. If you hand over her remains to them, you'll surely gain their complete friendship. By then, they'll likely turn a blind eye to you 'stealing' their daughter-in-law."

Having fought alongside them previously, she had already discerned the relationship between him and Zheng Dan.

Zu An was speechless.

"What do you mean 'steal'? We're mutually attracted, alright?"

Pei Mianman covered her mouth with a smile. "Yes, yes, you and another man's widow are mutually attracted."

Zu An was again speechless.

Despite his silent complaints, he still stored the Mosquito Daoist's remains inside the Glazed Jewel.

"Oh, and by the way, it's best not to expose this cultivation method in front of others in the future," Pei Mianman cautioned. "Cultivators value the cultivation they've painstakingly achieved the most. The fact that you can so easily absorb others' cultivation would likely make you a public enemy, a great demon everyone wants to eliminate." She added that the Mosquito Daoist was infamous precisely because the thought of her ability to absorb vital essence made everyone uneasy.

Zu An nodded. "I know that."

He thought, *Even if I haven't eaten pork, I've seen a pig run.* In Wuxia stories, aren't those who master techniques like "Star Sucking Great Skill" or "North冥 Divine Art" always hunted down by the martial arts world?

Only then did Pei Mianman relax. "What cultivation realm are you at now? Why can't I perceive it clearly anymore?"

Zu An was startled and immediately began to inspect his inner self. The sight within momentarily stunned him.

A vast expanse of bright formation patterns dazzled his eyes.

One, two, three, four...

He had checked his cultivation not long ago, and it was at the fifth formation of the fifth rank. But now, all the formations of the fifth rank were lit up.

All the bones throughout his body had become as clear as jade. Though no one had told him, he knew in his heart that his bones had long transcended the realm of ordinary humans.

*Is this the complete mastery of bone refinement at the fifth rank for cultivators?* he wondered.

He noticed a new set of formation patterns appearing within his bones. According to the cultivation knowledge he learned at the academy, this indicated he was now cultivating his bone marrow.

He counted the patterns there; there were also nine, and all nine were illuminated!

Complete mastery of the sixth rank!

All his bone marrow exuded a vigorous vitality, seemingly endless.

Zu An was somewhat bewildered. Had he really directly broken through to the sixth rank?

He recalled that in Brightmoon City, someone of his age at the fifth rank was already considered a genius. Even those with excellent aptitudes, like Chu Chuyan and Pei Mianman, who underwent rigorous training from a young age and received unlimited family resources, had only just reached that level, which was already astonishing. So what did his own situation count as?

He remembered the common cultivation knowledge from the academy: a sixth-rank cultivator could form an elemental protective film around their body, making it almost impossible for lower-ranked cultivators to challenge them across ranks.

Originally, he hadn't awakened elemental abilities, so he couldn't deploy an elemental protective film. However, since he could now borrow Daji's flame ability, he could form a layer of flame defense around himself.

Feeling the protective film's resilience, he secretly rejoiced. If he hadn't, by some cheat-like means, obtained the Taia Sword and the Death-Bound Dagger, which could directly penetrate such defenses, he probably wouldn't have been able to break through the defenses of those masters he fought previously.

He mused, *In Wuxia, such weapons, the Taia Sword and the Death-Bound Dagger, would probably be called something that specifically shatters the protective qi of internal martial arts masters...*

He felt that the immense primal qi within him still had reserves. After tempering his bone marrow, it began to refine the blood throughout his body.

In his main blood vessels, nine faint formation patterns seemed to appear.

The vast primal qi absorbed into his body continued to light up three of these patterns before finally stopping.

When a cultivator reached the seventh rank, they could automatically regenerate blood at any time. Even severe injuries, as long as they weren't irreversible physical mutilations, could heal back to normal given enough time.

Zu An tested it and found that this regeneration speed was far inferior to that of the Primal Chaos Sutra, making it rather useless to him.

However, he knew that he had been spoiled by the Primal Chaos Sutra. For other cultivators, this regenerative ability was incredibly useful.

Against someone weaker, the damage they inflicted might not even keep up with his constant regeneration.

Against masters, injuries were common, so being able to heal himself was like having an extra life.

Zu An was a little dazed. Had he directly jumped two major ranks?

"Seventh rank?" Hearing his description, Pei Mianman couldn't help but laugh. "Throughout the world, seventh-rank cultivation is already enough to be a lord of a major city, let alone someone as young as you."

Which woman wouldn't want her lover to be a world-beating hero? The stronger he was, the happier she became.

"However..." she frowned slightly, circling Zu An and continuously scrutinizing him. "Why does your seventh-rank cultivation feel different from others'?"

Zu An paused. "How is it different?"

Pei Mianman pursed her lips. "I can't quite put my finger on it. I've met many seventh-rank cultivators, and I can generally sense their cultivation. By rights, with you only being at the third stage of the seventh rank, I should be able to sense yours too. Why can't I see through your cultivation now?"

Zu An didn't know what was going on. After all, he had cultivated for a relatively short time, so his knowledge in this area was certainly inferior to Pei Mianman's, who had trained in a prominent family since childhood.

"There's something even stranger," Pei Mianman continued. "The Mosquito Daoist was at least a Grandmaster. Why did absorbing all her cultivation only increase your rank by two?"

"Is increasing by two ranks considered little?" Zu An was taken aback. He knew that the amount of primal qi fruits required for each subsequent formation after the fifth rank was astronomical. Now at the seventh rank, the demand was astronomical of astronomical proportions. So, he was already pleasantly surprised to have improved so much.

"Of course it's little! The Mosquito Daoist was a Grandmaster, possibly even on the verge of reaching the Great Grandmaster realm. How impressive her cultivation was! For it to only increase your rank by two, was there too much loss during the absorption?" Pei Mianman's face showed confusion.

"Most likely," Zu An replied. Having studied some physics, he knew that most energy transformations resulted in waste. It was impossible to completely absorb all of the Mosquito Daoist's cultivation.

Pei Mianman stared at him for a moment. "There might be another possibility."

Zu An looked puzzled. She then continued, "Your third stage of the seventh rank might be different from that of normal cultivators, and probably far superior to other cultivators' third stage of the seventh rank. Whether fighting the 'Monk Who Wants More Money' or the Mosquito Daoist recently, your cultivation was clearly lower than mine, yet you posed the greatest threat to them. Moreover, throughout the entire process, you showed no signs of primal qi exhaustion. Therefore, your combat power definitely far exceeds your actual rank, which must be due to the miraculous properties of the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra."

"Primal qi exhaustion?" Zu An was surprised.

"Yes," Pei Mianman said with a strange expression. "Although eighth-rank cultivators can communicate with heaven and earth, it's only for a short duration and not sustainable. Only by reaching the Grandmaster realm can one communicate with heaven and earth at will, allowing primal qi to flow endlessly, eliminating worries about qi exhaustion during combat."

"For cultivators like us, no matter how powerful we are normally, once our primal qi is depleted, we essentially have no combat strength. But you, somehow, don't seem to have this problem at all, from start to finish. I've never seen you take any qi-replenishing medicine mid-fight."

Zu An finally understood. In essence, it was like regenerating mana, or recovering internal energy in a Wuxia world.

Yet, in his numerous bloody battles before, he never seemed to be bothered by primal qi exhaustion.

"Are you only realizing this problem now, you fool?" Mi Li's cold snort echoed in his mind.

Zu An was overjoyed. "Empress Sister, you're awake?"

"Hmph, with such a commotion from you and that dead mosquito mutually absorbing, how could I not wake up? Originally, your Gluttonous Devourer Art had never been used, so it might not have been able to out-absorb her. Luckily, you're a clever one," Mi Li said with much approval in her tone.

"Of course!" Zu An said, a little smug. "By the way, you just said I don't have issues with primal qi exhaustion?"

Mi Li replied, "There are two reasons. First, besides healing physical injuries, the Primal Chaos Sutra can also restore primal qi. Second, your Phoenix Nirvana Sutra has stored a vast amount of primal qi within your body, which is very difficult to deplete with your current consumption. Otherwise, why do you think the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra is so difficult to upgrade? Because each minor level requires countless times more primal qi than what an ordinary cultivator needs."

Zu An's heart stirred. He had previously used 700 primal qi fruits to raise Daji to the peak of the fourth rank. Yet, for him, 700 primal qi fruits were not even a fraction of what was needed for the later formations.

Mi Li then sighed. "Legend has it that cultivating the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra to its peak grants immortality. For tens of thousands of years, no matter how powerful cultivators became, they only extended their lifespans; true immortality was unheard of. That's why it's so difficult to cultivate the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra. Under normal circumstances, the massive amount of primal qi required later on makes it impossible to succeed."

"Yet, you, young man, possess various other fortuitous encounters that even I envy. You might actually succeed in cultivating it and achieving immortality in the end."

Zu An was somewhat puzzled. "Haven't you also lived for tens of thousands of years? Isn't that immortality?"

"Of course not," Mi Li replied. "My situation is different. Being sealed in the underground palace wasn't without its benefits; the flow of time within the seal was very slow. So, while from your perspective I've lived for tens of thousands of years, to me, I haven't actually experienced such a long period. In a way, it was like I just took a nap."

Zu An chuckled. "I thought you were a millennia-old hag, but it turns out your mental age is just a teenage girl. Come on, be a good girl and call me 'Big Brother' so I can hear it."

That's all for this chapter today. I need to take the next two days to carefully plan the storyline for the capital city.