Villain Cultivator

Chapter 520 – Element Grades

Miaomiao loved being a hippy. He loved going against the world's common sense.

Xu Chu had warned him that consuming souls might harm his growth potential. However, Miaomiao recently discovered so many loopholes in her words.

First, the backlash was originated from the negative karma, created by the haunting spirits and the will of the devoured soul. They would linger inside the person until it destroyed the law breaker.

However, Diaochan's existence changed everything. As a former necromancer, she could easily tame these haunting spirits or even destroy them with her special power. She could even directly consume the spirits to get stronger since she was also a spirit.

Karma Tribulation never fell on a fellow spirit, who consumed other spirits! Even Kang Dongfang was aware of such a bug in the Heavenly Dao System and Samsara's Laws.

Moreover, Samsara was already dead. No one would govern the Heavenly Laws, set by Samsara. It would soon dissipate, and everyone wouldn't be punished by this profound Law.

The second loophole was the nature of negative karma, created by the taboo act. When someone ate a soul, they might be infected with Karma Centipedes.

From Lilith's earlier lecture before they had descended to the Golden Heavenly Goose Planet, centipede eggs that came along with a single negative karma strand would only hatch when the cultivator start cultivating Soul Essence. The grown centipedes would secretly leech the Soul Essence of the cultivator, causing the victim to be unable to collect enough essence to get stronger.

But with the Evil Eyes and the knowledge of Lilith, Miaomiao now knew how to turn the table by consuming these eggs as food. The more they entered his body, the more Soul Essence that Miaomiao could extract!

And lastly, it related to Xu Chu's limited knowledge of the subject. Although she was a powerful deity, she wasn't a omnipotent, and she couldn't learn all profound Dao of the universe, such as Negative Karma. Lilith, who was her foster mother, had more experience in the field than the ancient succubus.

This was the perk of having a high-tier mentor. Having no mentor, a cultivator's progress would be at a slow pace, and his knowledge would be limited. Having a mentor accelerated the disciple's cultivation progress a bit. But when the mentor was so OP that she could potentially be a secret boss of a novel story, the disciple's status would also elevate to that of a mini-boss, and they would have more experience in various fields, including unique cultivation methods.

Thus, riding the tailcoat of Lilith benefited Miaomiao. It broadened his horizons and enabled Miaomiao to take various shortcuts to get stronger.

Now, he wasn't afraid of consuming souls.

Meanwhile, Xu Chu, who had been eavesdropping on the lecture through Miaomiao's five sense, also had enlightenment. She no longer viewed soul-devouring act as a bad thing anymore.

Now, Xu Chu was enthusiastic in grabbing a few bites on the intruding souls.

When the soul of a storm dragon entered Miaomiao's dantian, Xu Chu and Diaochan smiled.

"Food is here."

"Did someone say FOOD, Munya?!"

Even Meowmeow rushed out from the Life Essence Sea like a hungry house cat, who had heard the noise of a snack package. In this case, Meowmeow's keyword was FOOD.

Diaochan, Xu Chu, and Meowmeow surrounded the dragon's soul as if they were fighting a raid boss. Flame of passion and greed was clearly visible in their eyes.

The dragon's soul was offended that the group took him too lightly. He bellowed.

"How dare you take me, the Heavenly Storm Dragon, for food?! Let me demonstrate the consequence of this insolence!"

The dragon revealed its aura and the domain of Storm Providence, which was the form of a mid-tier element power of a lesser deity.

The Elemental Power was graded by the following levels;

Element Qi

Element Essence

Element Providence

Element Law

Element Sovereign

Element Qi was a common power of cultivators who had reached the 5th-stage or higher. As for Element Essence, some of the 9th-stage cultivators could start comprehending them, but it was commonly used by immortals.

Element Providence was different. Even though it was a mid-tier elemental power, not all top immortals could use them. Even low-grade deities might not even be able to acquire them for the rest of their lives.

Only those with a high aptitude or was born with exceptional connate providence could have a chance to upgrade their elemental power to such a level.

However, dragons were ancient beings who were born with top-tier talent in cultivating elemental power. Cernun, Venti, Nero, Clem, and this Storm Dragon, Aster, could easily and naturally reach this level just by growing up and reaching adulthood.

Xu Chu's face changed and gritted her teeth. Unfortunately, she was inside Miaomiao's dantian space, and she couldn't muster her Elemental Providence, which was her original power when she was a deity.

As Miaomiao couldn't supply her with such power, she was at a disadvantage.

The sky in the dantian world was cracked, and the dimension was at the risk of being shattered. The overwhelming power of Elemental Providence was too much for Miaomiao to handle.

But a split second later, the black and white cloud above the Plot Armor Plundering Dao Pillar scattered, rushing to the cracks in the sky. It automatically mended and repaired the damage while it reinforced the dantian space, adapting to the change.

Yin and Yang Cloud coated the sky ceiling with their absolute luck energy. Then, a miraculous plot armor event happened.

Ding

<Your dantian has evolved to adapt to the extreme environment.>

<Your dantian capacity has expanded.>

<Your resistance against excess power inside your dantian has increased.>

<From now on, excess energy in your dantian will be automatically ejected from your body to stabilize the space and protect your life.>

Miaomiao's consciousness in the space stared at the system notifications and smirked. His protagonist's luck kept showering him with endless upgrades, level-ups, and fortuitous encounters.

Even if he were to stay at home and do nothing, someone would have still thrown a precious godly treasure or cultivation manual into his house.

Miaomiao stood up and pointed his finger at the Unholy Karma Continent.

"Sure, Mr. Dragon. Allow me to show you why we're that confident."

RUMBLE

Suddenly the Unholy Karma Continent erupted. A million giant snakes shot up from the continent and rushed to the Storm Dragon.

The green dragon widened his eyes in shock. He opened his mouth and unleashed his dragon breath toward the army of monsters.

A massive tornado manifested. Its diameter was at least 100 kilometers, and the wind was filled with high-voltage electricity.

Anything that entered the storm would be sliced to a million pieces by the wind power while the lightning inside the tornado would fry the sliced meat!

However, that only applied to physical bodies or soul cores.

The giant snakes ignored the tornado and phased through it. Each of them reached Aster and bit the latter's body.

"WHAT?!"

Aster was in shock. He tried to resist against the snakes, but his claws, tail, and fangs couldn't harm them.

They were like ethereal beings, which couldn't be touched. Yet, they could harm him!

"Don't steal my food, Munya!"

Meowmeow was enraged. He transformed into a giant catopus and opened his mouth. Then, he chomped one of Aster's hind legs.

Unfortunately, Aster's soul was too durable. Meowmeow couldn't tear apart his soul flesh.

Xu Chu looked at the snakes and activated her evil eyes to inspect them.

"Oh? So that's how it works. I guess I have to learn from you now, Miaomiao."

Xu Chu touched her belly and withdrew a strand of negative karma that she had cultivated. Then, she pointed at the dragon.

The strand of karma transformed into a million small snakes. They turned around and swarmed Aster as if they were hungry parasites.

Miaomiao looked at her, paying attention to her skills since he also needed to master the technique. Also, he remembered something, "Have you taken care of the Karma Centipedes yet?"

"I saw what you did from here. I already crushed all of them."

"Oh, good. I thought you forgot to take care of that."

"I'm a fast learner. I'm not always lazy you know."

BOOM

While they were chatting, Aster's soul was exploded from the inside, and his soul fragments scattered throughout the dantian space.

Diaochan and Meowmeow competed and seized as many pieces of soul fragments as possible. Both of them grabbed the smallest piece and put it in their mouth.

Xu Chu and Miaomiao shook their heads. They, too, picked a piece of the dragon's soul and ate it.

Leftover pieces also fell on the dryad farms. Eurobeat and the warrior dryads collected them and transported every piece to the farm warehouse.

As for the snakes, they didn't eat the soul. They simply went back to the continent while Xu Chu's snakes returned into Xu Chu's body.

…

"BUUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEERRRRB."

Miaomiao in real life opened his mouth and let out the gas. He was so full to the point that his belly was bloated.

Excess Storm Providence energy that Miaomiao couldn't digest exited through his mouth. From the onlooker's perspective, Miaomiao had just breathed out green gas with electricity sparks.

"Know some manner, brat," Lilith covered her nose. The rotten gas made her nauseous. 

"Can't help it. I just ate a dragon's soul and weird element power. I need to let some out, or my belly will explode."

Once the stomach was filled, the eyelids became heavy. Miaomiao yawned and closed his eyes, "I'mma sleep for a bit. I'm so tired today."

"…"

Lilith and Karen stared at Miaomiao as if they were seeing a weirdo.

This guy had the nerve to fall asleep here?

Lilith facepalmed while Karen sneered. As for Miaomiao's subscribers in the room, they giggled and laughed among themselves.

Ding

<Many immortals find your manner and socializing skills hilarious.>

<An anonymous immortal has donated 10 1st-grade soul stones.>

…

"Winner, Zhou Gongjin from Aves Continent!"

Miaomiao didn't realize that he had slept through several matches, including Zhou Gongjin and Guan Yunchang's match.

Guan Yunchang, whom Miaomiao had failed to kill every time, yielded to Zhou Gongjin after five moves.

Zhou Gongjin stood before Guan Yunchang, who had knelt in shock and exhaustion. The latter stared at his opponent, who had summoned ten immortal giant centipedes behind him.

One of them was a winged tiger, but its color was jade white. Moreover, it transformed into a woman's spirit and hugged Zhou Gongjin from behind.

The spirit had two feather wings and cat ears, which was an odd combination. However, her pretty face and figure didn't lose to Miaomiao's wives.

The karmic spirit was the Primordial Qiongqi, who had given Zhou Gongjin power.

Guan Yunchang glared at Zhou Gongjin, thinking that the latter was Miaomiao's henchman, "Kill me! I refuse to be humiliated!"

However, Zhou Gongjin had the other idea. He extended his hand to Guan Yunchang.

"Per the rules, your life is mine. From now on, you work for me."

Guan Yunchang stared at Zhou Gongjin in confusion.

He and Miaomiao had a deep grudge. It wouldn't be strange for Miaomiao to order his subordinates to kill him. Yet, Zhou Gongjin wanted him to join the faction.

Why would Zhou Gongjin want his service? Was this some kind of a joke?

"Don't you work for Mao Miaomiao? Doesn't he want to kill me?"

"Mao Miaomiao and I are indeed from the same sect. However, it doesn't mean that I actually need to do everything for his sake. He's just a sect master, and I happen to be a member of the Sun Clan, which was a subsidiary clan of the Mao Clan. Even so, my allegiance and loyalty belong to Sun Bofu, not Mao Miaomiao."

"Ohoh?"

Guan Yunchang smiled. Instead of grabbing Zhou Gongjin's hand, he cupped his fist.

"From now on, I pledge my allegiance to you, my lord."

"Good. Now, return to your brothers and pretend to work for Liu Xuande. Once I give you the order, you must follow my instruction without fail. Understood?"

"Understood."

…

"Ah, I had a good sleep."

Miaomiao yawned. He had returned to the Isolation Training Space and attempted to summon his wives to catch up with the recent news.

Unfortunately, he could only summon Kang Yan, Fang Meirong, and Liu Guang. As for the rest of the women, such as Hopea, Wei Yuan, and others, they were out of range.

As for Ma Xingjuan, she asked to leave early as she had a match later on. Miaomiao only briefly talked to her and let her leave the space.

He had learned so many things about the recent changes, and it astonished him, especially Liu Guang's situation. There were still many things that he had to discuss with her regarding the politics behind the scene and what she had been doing so far. But first, Miaomiao needed to meet Liu Che and vouch for her status as the current Empress of Aves Continent.

With Liu Che's help and cooperation, Liu Guang and Miaomiao could use them as a buffer against other Great Clans and Immortal Clans behind them.

Also, Miaomiao was satisfied that Lilith didn't harm his wives. Everyone was safe.

But for now, Miaomiao needed to be prepared. Ma Xingjuan and Kang Yan told him about the update of the tournament.

After the fourth round of the Holy Land Tournament, there would be another short break for them. However, during the break, the Clan Lord Tournament's first round would begin.

It was Miaomiao's time to join the tournament even though he didn't want to jump into the fray.

As soon as Miaomiao opened his eyes, Lilith glanced at him.

"About time you wake up. The fourth round is over, and you'll be fighting tomorrow morning. I already drew the lottery for you."

Lilith gave Miaomiao a brochure. It contained the tournament bracket.

Miaomiao found his name in the middle of the pack. He had to fight in the 16th match of tomorrow.

And his opponent was none other than Liu Che, whom Miaomiao was supposed to meet and negotiate for a truce.