They Call It Cultivation… I Call It Slow Death

Chapter 52: Chapter 52—Supreme Nine Yang

Chapter 52—Supreme Nine Yang

Lei Cheng glanced at Hua Mingyue and asked again, more carefully this time, "Do you have any uncorrupted Dao forging technique?"

Hua Mingyue raised her book and shook her head. "I only have the corrupted ones."

She paused, then narrowed her eyes at him.

"Can’t you create your own technique?"

Lei Cheng let out a slow breath. "I can create one. It would just be easier if I had an uncorrupted Dao technique as a starting point."

"So you want the easy route," she said, lowering her book.

He nodded. "Yes. Even then, I’d still need to experiment. My Blood Qi and theirs are different, after all. But if I had a complete, prepared path, it would save time."

Reinventing everything from nothing was possible. It was simply the least efficient path.

He thought about it for a moment, then asked the question that mattered. "Is lifespan consumption the only problem with using corrupted Dao?"

He paused, then continued with a deep breath. "If it were only lifespan, I’d manage by reaching a higher level faster than I spend it." As long as the cost could be measured, he believed it could eventually be overcome.

Hua Mingyue stood and stepped forward.

She snapped her fingers.

The world around the garden froze.

White energy spread outward.

"Illusion Intent," he muttered, instantly recognizing it, though not yet fully understanding its power, as her intent was far stronger than his.

Hua Mingyue nodded. "Yes."

Then she lifted one hand, and a bulky male cultivator in orange robes appeared before them as if summoned from nowhere. He looked ordinary except for the density of his build.

"Let me show you what corrupted Dao does," she said, placing her book into her storage ring.

Purple lightning flashed across the man’s body.

At first, the effect seemed simple: his hair turned gray strand by strand, wrinkles spread across his face, and his vitality visibly diminished.

"Lifespan reduction," Lei Cheng said at once, recognizing it.

The man stopped the lightning and used a recovery technique. Green light covered his body, and he returned to a youthful state—black hair, smooth skin, no visible wrinkles.

Then the bulky man repeated the process, fighting his opponent as he encountered it.

Lightning. Recovery. Lightning. Recovery. The process looked sustainable at first glance, which made the hidden danger even more terrifying.

After a few repetitions, Lei Cheng noticed something different.

The man’s right pinky finger had turned into lightning itself.

He recovered the gray hair and wrinkles on his skin, but the finger remained transformed.

"What’s going on?" Lei Cheng asked, frowning. "Is that elementalization?"

Hua Mingyue shook her head. "If it were true elementalization, it would benefit the cultivator. But this is corruption."

The illusion changed.

Now the man sat at a table full of food. He picked up a bowl, but when his pinky touched it, the bowl crumbled instantly to dust.

"He can’t control it anymore," Lei Cheng said quietly, drawing in a sharp breath. It wasn’t strength that frightened him. It was the complete loss of control. ’If it touched his loved ones?’ he was already imagining the consequences.

"Exactly. This is the second stage of Dao corruption: Elemental Distortion." Hua Mingyue’s voice grew serious.

Lei Cheng looked up sharply. "Will his entire body turn into lightning?"

"Yes. If he keeps using it, it will spread." Hua Mingyue sighed, nodding.

"Can’t he reverse it?"

"Sadly, no," Hua Mingyue said. "The world has not found a purification method yet."

The illusion shifted again.

This time, the cultivator stood in a forest. The sky flashed. Lightning gathered above him as it rained. The purple lightning in his body resonated with the lightning in the sky, drawing it down.

Lei Cheng felt the pressure from that lightning strike and stiffened.

"He’ll die," he hissed.

"Yes."

The lightning descended.

The man tried to run, but it was too late. His body was struck Boom! and he turned to ash, scattering in the wind.

Lei Cheng stared at the empty ground.

"Is that the end of the corruption?" he asked. "Once the body becomes lightning, that’s all?"

"No," Hua Mingyue replied. "There are also the third and fourth stages."

Lei Cheng became serious immediately.

"Don’t worry about those yet," she said. "Stage two is enough for now for you."

He nodded slowly. "So stage three can appear after the body becomes elemental? Or after part of it does?"

"It depends on the person. Sometimes it happens after a finger changes. Sometimes, after half the body. Sometimes, only after the entire body." She explained slowly.

Lei Cheng exhaled. "That’s dangerous."

"And there is a fourth stage," he asked. "Is that the end?"

"Yes," Hua Mingyue answered. "The fourth stage is the ultimate stage. There are no more stages after that."

Lei Cheng sat down and closed his eyes. She removed her illusion.

A heavy silence settled in the garden.

The guards and prisoners, who had not entered the illusion, looked at one another in confusion. They had frozen only because the entire courtyard had been held still by Hua Mingyue’s intent, and they had no idea what had just happened to make their young master so quiet.

"What corruption?" one of the guards muttered.

"Techniques...?"

"Dragon Phoenix forging technique..."

The whispers spread from what they could catch.

After a while, Lei Cheng opened his eyes again. He calmed himself, taking deep breaths.

’Dao is corrupted in this world,’ he thought. ’Then corruption must be purified.’ If corruption were the disease, then the technique he created would have to become its cure.

He lifted his head.

"Yang Dao," he murmured. "The purest Dao. Nine Yang—the ultimate Yang."

Hua Mingyue smiled slightly, as if she had already guessed his conclusion.

Lei Cheng walked over to her and took her hand briefly. "Do you have anything that can help me observe Nine Yang?"

She produced a crimson pill from her storage ring. Nine golden pattern lines flowed across it. The smell of fire spread across the garden.

"This is a Level Five Supreme Yang Purification Elixir."

Lei Cheng held it and muttered, "It’s hot." He almost threw it.

He sat cross-legged immediately. Hua Mingyue handed him a bottle of Level One Soul Boosting Elixir. There were nine patterns across it as well. It smelled like honey the moment he opened the jar.

He threw one elixir into his mouth and grinned. "Honey again."

"Instant Enlightenment," he muttered.

[ Ding! Your Supernatural Ability—Instant Enlightenment—has activated! ]

He focused on the burning crimson elixir in his palm.

[ Ding! You have comprehended the Dao of Nine Yang—Supreme Nine Yang Intent {1%} ]

’Yang is pure. It represents masculinity, light, the living world,’ Lei Cheng mused. ’Half of creation. And Yang grows stronger with each turn, until its ultimate form is Nine Yang.’

[ Ding! You have comprehended the Dao of Nine Yang—Supreme Nine Yang Intent {28%} ]

Under his enlightenment, each passing moment increased his intent.

[ Ding! You have comprehended the Dao of Nine Yang—Supreme Nine Yang Intent {44%} ]

He opened his eyes, rubbed his throbbing forehead, and stood up.

’Nine Yang is labeled as Supreme Nine Yang,’ he noted, seeing the glowing panel in his vision. ’As expected, even the heavens had acknowledged its power.’

"Here." He handed the purification elixir back to Hua Mingyue. "I comprehended the maximum it could teach me."

Hua Mingyue took it back with a smile. "Go ahead. Now create your technique."

Lei Cheng nodded, then ordered a maid to bring him a blank notebook and a pen. He injected the purple-gold flaming Blood Qi into the pen.

He swallowed another elixir, entered Instant Enlightenment again, and after a few moments, ended his enlightenment.

He began writing on the white pages.

"The sun is a form of Yang," he muttered. "To comprehend Nine Yang..."

After a few minutes of writing, he wrote, "The Supreme Nine Yang Body Tempering Technique, First Level."

His technique had to include a method of comprehending Nine Yang; after all, a cultivation technique had to include that, or how could a cultivator cultivate? Despite having already comprehended Nine Yang, Lei Cheng still wrote down the method, as he felt it might be useful for others in the future.

He grinned. "Level One skin and muscles tempering is done."

His eyes turned sharp. ’Now I just need to test whether Purple-gold Bizarre Blood Qi plus Nine Yang Intent can temper the skin and muscles properly.’

He called a prisoner forward—a young man, around his late twenties, trembling visibly.

"Show your arm."

The prisoner raised it, shaking.

Lei Cheng rolled up the sleeve, placed his palm against the skin, and pushed Purple-gold Blood Qi and Supreme Nine Yang Intent—white-gold-like energy—into the skin and muscles at the same time.

The prisoner yelped and instinctively tried to jerk his arm away. "It’s hot!"

Lei Cheng tightened his grip slightly, forcing the arm still.

Black smoke began to rise from the skin.