Chapter 224: 224 - New techniques

The Nine Peaks Basin was generally a lush, green place.

There were deserts and large freezing plains, but these were rare.

Pale or yellowish spots on a continent of green.

So it was easy to notice the arrival in the dead lands.

The green grass turned into a dry brown carpet that gradually darkened to black, as did the withered and broken trees that surrounded it.

Everything there exuded a sickly poisonous Qi, incapable of harming a high-level cultivator, but strong enough to kill a mortal in a few hours, even though the poison was over twenty thousand years old and now carried only a fraction of the power it once had.

Qingyi walked alone through these dark lands.

His face had changed, as had his voice, taking on the face of an ordinary middle-aged man, with a hoarse, deep tone.

To avoid suspicion, the group had split up, taking separate and isolated routes towards the dead lands.

Qingyi took the northern route, passing a small border fort before finally entering the corrupted territory.

He had to admit that it was a strange place.

The air was hard to breathe and the few animals he encountered were bizarre and extremely powerful mutations.

He was about to call Khaedryss to get to the demon cult as quickly as possible, but stopped at the last moment.

An explosion echoed on the horizon, followed by a bestial roar and a powerful reddish-black demonic Qi spreading across the sky.

Without hesitation, Qingyi gave a gentle push and his body rose into the sky, climbing a few hundred meters until he came into view of a forgotten valley.

There, two powerful beasts were fighting desperately: a corrupted fire lizard and a demonic snake.

Their huge bodies were pressed against each other, each stretching for dozens of meters, exuding a powerful Nascent Soul Realm Qi.

Qingyi thought about ignoring it, but after thinking for a moment, he realized that it was a good time to test his new spiritual roots.

Opening the system store, he searched for combat techniques for each of them, choosing a defensive technique for his ice Qi and an offensive technique for his fire Qi.

[Item: Eternal Wall of the Icy Lord.

Description: Forms an ice barrier in any shape desired by the user. It can be formed over the feet of enemies to hold them in place.

Rank: Legendary

Price: 150,000 lust points]

[Item: Art of the nine spears of celestial fire.

Description: A technique focused on forming spears of fire, each spear carrying twice the power and twice the cost of the previous spear.

Grade: Mortal

Price: 400,000 lust points]

With a heavy heart, Qingyi paid the five hundred and fifty thousand lust points.

An intense pain ran through his head as the information about the techniques invaded his mind.

It was painful, but it was worth it.

He was already able to make walls of ice with his Qi alone, but these walls were of no use in a real battle, with no strength or foundation.

The same went for spears of fire - Qi channeled without technique or artifacts was often useless when dealing with cultivators above the golden core realm.

With a soft grunt, he stretched out his right hand.

A huge spear of flame formed in his palm, the fire consuming the air and heating everything around.

Twisting his body in the air, Qingyi threw the first spear, a shockwave exploding as it broke through the sound barrier.

Sensing the danger, the two beasts immediately stopped fighting, looking up.

The giant fire lizard retreated briefly while the demonic serpent roared towards the spear, a barrier of demonic Qi forming around it.

A loud bang echoed as the ethereal spear shattered against the demonic barrier in a fiery explosion, barely making it tremble.

Despite this, Qingyi was not discouraged.

Another spear formed in his hands, this one even more powerful than the last, sucking in his Qi voraciously.

His eyes shone as he threw it towards the snake.

The speed of the spear increased even more, this time powerful enough to cause small cracks in the creature’s barrier.

"Power is good..." Qingyi muttered as he summoned a third spear.

He hadn’t even used his lineage projection, but he could already break through the defenses of an Enlightened Soul Realm beast. "But the cost not so much." He gritted his teeth.

It was much more expensive than the Storm Monarch’s sword art and, honestly, it was only useful against large, slow beasts, not very effective against human cultivators, not without him using his draconic eyes to calculate the trajectory and the eternal wall of the icy lord to imprison them in place.

Still, he was satisfied.

Without further hesitation, he threw the third spear.

A sea of flames engulfed everything in front of him as it landed under the serpent’s barrier, which finally shattered completely.

Qingyi drew his heaven-defying thunder sword and activated the lightning steps.

His body disappeared into the cloud of dust as he used the first and second forms of the Storm Monarch’s sword art in quick succession, focusing everything on the demonic beast’s neck.

The third form finally broke through its scales, decapitating it.

He barely had time to let out a sigh of relief when he was forced to use the ice wall, forming a defensive barrier around him and protecting himself from a powerful fireball.

The attack came from the fire lizard, which was watching him with interest.

Qingyi thought about dealing with it himself, but in the end just shook his head.

He had already tested his power, Khaedryss could handle it.

Waving in the air, the huge black dragon appeared, almost twice the size of the flame lizard.

The beast barely had time to scream as Khaedryss sank her razor-sharp teeth into its throat, delighting in the creature’s Qi-rich blood.

Qingyi just watched as the dragon devoured its still-living prey, smiling softly as he felt Khaedryss’ power increase.

She was no longer so far from the power of a beast in the Rebirth realm.

After she had devoured both beasts, Qingyi climbed onto her back and they took off towards the horizon.