Chapter Seventy-One: Lord Sheng Himself

Wang Li was not keen on dragging things out for too long; he wanted to enter the secret realm as quickly as possible, for the longer he delayed, the greater the chance the world’s will would sense him as an “anomaly.” Moreover, he was eager to test whether completing the second wave of tasks ahead of schedule would reveal that the Chosen, as Lord Sheng had claimed, was nothing more than a pre-set program.

Lord Sheng sneered at his concerns: “Who do you think you’re underestimating? My words are truth. That world’s will, which hasn’t even completed its evolution, is a fool—it can lay out plans, but lacks flexibility. Its strategies rely solely on the passage of time. Figuring out its intentions is child’s play.”

“You just don’t grasp its essence, which is why you’re worrying needlessly. Do you think I, Lord Sheng, would let you roam free without reason?”

After some reflection, Wang Li found Lord Sheng’s words convincing—it was he himself who had been too anxious. Calming his mind, Wang Li ordered that all task rewards and the resources gained from wiping out the beast hordes be distributed among the disciples, further strengthening their abilities. He no longer felt rushed to enter the secret realm to conclude all the outstanding tasks.

Besides, there were still many group tasks on the Chosen list that, although completed, had corresponding individual tasks yet unfinished outside the secret realm. It seemed a waste not to complete them, especially since their difficulty was not great. Wang Li also realized that many were not yet satisfied with their current gains and still eyed those unfinished tasks.

He couldn't be too domineering; he had to display the demeanor of a true senior cultivator. So, he allowed those disciples willing to take on tasks to do so, while he secluded himself to continue his cultivation.

Wang Li’s cultivation was different from others. Possessing the Innate Chaotic Body, he grew stronger simply by absorbing spiritual energy. The only limit on his power was the speed at which he could absorb and convert spiritual energy; at least before reaching the Earth Immortal stage, he need not worry about hitting any bottlenecks.

Even if a bottleneck did arise, with Lord Sheng around, such obstacles were nothing but illusions. Nevertheless, he was wary of encountering another situation like his Core Formation, so he cultivated with restraint.

Yet, no matter how restrained he was, his innate foundation and aptitude set him apart—his cultivation progressed far faster than anyone else’s. With the resources gifted by Flowing Light Immortal and the compensation from the City of Vengeance, he was surrounded by mountains of resources—slowing down simply wasn’t an option.

In just three months, he reached the peak of the Golden Core stage. Any further, and he’d break his core to form a Nascent Soul. He had no choice but to pause.

“Lord Sheng, I’m about to form my Nascent Soul. Should I upgrade my cultivation techniques?”

Currently, the three techniques Wang Li practiced were, at best, high-grade Yellow rank. Upon reaching the sixth level of Golden Core, he’d already felt that their efficiency in converting spiritual energy was lagging behind his needs. Without ample resources on hand, there was no way he could have reached the pinnacle of Golden Core in just three months. Thus, the idea of upgrading his techniques had taken root.

Of course, the best way for him to increase his spiritual energy was to add more attributes to his repertoire of techniques. If he wished, the techniques he’d traded for from disciples using the “Thunderous Righteousness” player could certainly fulfill his needs for synthesizing new ones. Yet he still hesitated.

Despite Lord Sheng’s repeated assurances that the Five Elements techniques would not conflict within his body, he remained uneasy.

Lord Sheng was not displeased by his hesitation or lack of trust; in fact, he seemed to relish Wang Li’s indecision. He advised, “Don’t be in a rush to form your Nascent Soul. First, upgrade your ‘Purple Qi Arrives—Advanced Version.’ You’ve got plenty of fire-attribute techniques now, and your cultivation has advanced—you’ll likely be able to synthesize a Profound-rank technique. As for lightning and spiritual techniques, there just aren’t enough samples to upgrade them. You might be able to improve their quality a bit, but not much more. Still, I suggest you practice the Five Elements techniques. The growth of the Innate Chaotic Body requires their support; sooner or later, you can’t avoid it.”

Wang Li instinctively ignored the latter half of Lord Sheng’s words and dug out over a dozen fire-attribute techniques and offensive arts to study.

After more than half a year of cultivation, Wang Li had realized that cultivation techniques were merely auxiliary tools for him. Their main purpose was to continuously strengthen his physical body; enhancing his realm was almost incidental. Thus, when it came time to synthesize new techniques, he chose them with a clear purpose in mind—to increase his offensive capabilities.

Through countless simulated battle scenarios, he had found himself sorely lacking in effective attack methods. Recent real combat had deepened his understanding of how vital such techniques were to his fighting power.

Since he was synthesizing techniques anyway, why not create one that included multiple offensive methods?

After two days of research, Wang Li began the synthesis, upgrading the “Purple Qi Arrives—Advanced Version.”

To increase the chance of successfully raising the technique’s rank, he decided to merge over a dozen different techniques at once.

The process, as always, required little of his own involvement. By morning, he had successfully obtained a Profound-rank, mid-grade fire-attribute technique called “Purple Qi Arrives—Second Enhanced Version.”

“Profound-rank, mid-grade? That’s quite a leap…” Wang Li recalled that in previous syntheses, merging several techniques would yield a technique just one rank higher. This time, however, it had leapt two ranks, which was unexpected.

“Could it be that the more techniques I use in synthesis, the higher the resulting technique’s grade?” Wang Li couldn’t help but wonder.

“You’re dreaming!” Lord Sheng immediately doused him with a bucket of cold water.

“Synthesizing techniques isn’t just about piling them together. It involves all kinds of complex recombinations of cultivation methods—it’s far more complicated than simple addition.”

“The only reason you can synthesize higher-rank techniques is because your own cultivation has reached the necessary level; only then does your innate talent come into play. Otherwise, wouldn’t you just throw all ten thousand techniques from the scripture pavilion together and get something beyond the Heaven rank?”

Since Wang Li didn’t fully understand his own innate abilities, he had no choice but to accept Lord Sheng’s explanation.

Still, he quietly tried synthesizing a new lightning-attribute technique—though nothing was truly ‘quiet’ where Lord Sheng was concerned.

He didn’t have any other spiritual techniques, but he did have one or two lightning-attribute ones. Among his many low-level techniques, he found a complete low-grade Yellow rank lightning technique and a partial mid-grade Yellow rank one. After completing the latter, he merged them with “Thunderous Righteousness.”

As Lord Sheng predicted, “Thunderous Righteousness” didn’t level up; it simply gained a new offensive spell called “Lightning Summoning Art.”

Unwilling to give up, he tried fusing the newly obtained “Purple Qi Arrives—Second Enhanced Version” with over a dozen fire techniques, hoping to elevate its rank further.

But it was all in vain. This time, the synthesis produced nothing new—not even an additional offensive spell. The only effect was the ability to unblock a minor meridian, which was negligible at best.

At this point, Wang Li no longer doubted Lord Sheng’s words, but a new thought occurred to him.

“Lord Sheng, what does your true form look like? I bet you must be some kind of transcendent… old master, right?”