Chapter 27: Extreme Cultivation
In a room filled with piles of notes, rotten planks, and scattered paper fragments, Su Xiao sat on a wooden carving shaped from tree roots. The carving was covered in inscriptions, but due to insect damage and wind-rain erosion, the text on it was already very blurred.
Everything in this room was related to blade techniques, sword techniques, potion concoction, and Eternal Force.
With Su Xiao’s current influence, finding these things was easy. He only needed to give orders to Wufu, Zuo Si, and others; they would have their subordinates search for them. After hearing about this, the Minister of Finance also sent many items, most reportedly from the Imperial Treasury.
“Can blade techniques really be cultivated like this?”
Su Xiao muttered, looking at a metal leaf fragment in his hand with amazement. This was left behind by a blade technique powerhouse. The other party was a Transcendent, and a long blade was their main weapon.
The Black King World was a mid-to-high martial world, and its technique level was not low. This was evident from Prisoner Hela’s “Unarmed Combat Grandmaster Lv.29.”
It was worth noting that the other party was no longer as clear-minded as before their death, so the level of the “Unarmed Combat Grandmaster” ability would also be reduced. Yet even so, they still possessed an Unarmed Combat Grandmaster ability at Lv.29.
Before the Black King appeared, the law of the jungle prevailed in the Black King World. This continent was controlled by powerful individuals who called themselves Secret Art Masters, now known as Transcendents.
As for those with advanced techniques, they were revered as Extreme Cultivators, using methods that surpassed their own limits to forge transcendent skills.
Powerful Secret Art Masters emerged generation after generation; they were the overlords of this continent. As for the Extreme Cultivators, they had no interest in ruling. Instead, they focused on breaking through their own limits, using mortal bodies to rival certain powerful existences—the so-called “Gods” that stood high above this world.
In reality, these so-called Gods were Secret Art Masters who had reached their limits. They had completely assimilated with Eternal Force, lost most of their personality, and existed in alternate spaces.
Secret Art Masters and Gods formed the ruling class of this continent. Secret Art Masters had to obey the Gods, while Extreme Cultivators traveled across the continent. They respected powerful Gods but did not worship them.
As for the commoners, this continent once had up to 27 orthodox sects. In the end, anyone who did not believe in the Gods was considered a sinner—a bloody, fanatical, yet twisted prosperity.
One day, a child openly challenged the sects. Though young, he argued that worshipping the Gods in this way was wrong. People should not be born destined to be slaves. This world needed to be managed by capable ordinary people. Secret Art Masters could be respected, but they could not act recklessly. The same applied to the Gods. Only Extreme Cultivators counted as true powerhouses—they pursued their own strength without oppressing the living space of ordinary people.
No one should be born to suffer oppression. No one should be born as a sacrifice. Beautiful women should freely choose their spouses, not be selected like dolls by Secret Art Masters.
Once these words were spoken, the local sect was furious and decided to execute the child. However, an Extreme Cultivator rescued the child. This child was named Adegesh.
Twenty years later, Adegesh returned from the sea, accompanied by only three Extreme Cultivators.
Within just over a decade, he conquered this continent. All the Gods were slaughtered and trampled by his army. The once-high-and-mighty Secret Art Masters could only kneel beneath the throne. The deep-rooted beliefs of ordinary people were shattered.
This former child was later called the Black King by later generations. He was the king that humanity would follow to the death, the tyrant in the eyes of border alien races, and the world-destroyer in the eyes of the sea races.
It could be said that the Black King ended the law of the jungle on this continent, bringing its civilization to its historical peak.
But there were downsides. After peace, Secret Art Masters, i.e., Transcendents, were no longer urgently needed, and their status plummeted. This was especially true for Extreme Cultivators. By the Dark Era 1350, they had almost faded from people’s sight.
Even so, this continent still retained many records of Extreme Cultivators’ secret techniques. What Su Xiao had gathered were precisely these things.
The era of the Gods lasted several thousand years. That was the most glorious age of Eternal Force, with far greater development in techniques than the present.
What Su Xiao collected could not directly raise his blade technique level, but it could broaden his horizons and aid in the development of his blade techniques.
Unconsciously, Su Xiao became immersed in this knowledge. Extreme Cultivators were crazy—not in terms of personality, but in their pursuits.
Some Extreme Cultivators, to temper themselves, would even extract the Eternal Force from their bodies, then attempt to traverse the entire continent with their broken bodies, without sleep, rest, food, or necessary water intake.
They aimed to let Eternal Force return to their bodies, not through active absorption, but through physical training, making Eternal Force a part of their bodies, like blood.
As long as an Extreme Cultivator succeeded, Secret Art Masters would have to avoid them. Even the former “Gods” dared not provoke these people easily. Their combat power was astonishingly formidable.
This knowledge attracted Su Xiao, especially the techniques recorded by those Extreme Cultivators.
Unknowingly, two days passed. During this time, Su Xiao completely ignored whether the Violator had appeared. Compared to this knowledge, the Violator could go to hell.
[Tip: Blade Grandmaster has been upgraded to Lv.26.]
Su Xiao was examining a stone slab and completely missed the notification from Reincarnation Paradise. When he came to his senses, he was visibly surprised.
Since his blade technique had been upgraded to Grandmaster level, he had never improved it through his own efforts. This was because each mission had limited time. Blade technique was a matter of insight and gradual accumulation. Without special environmental help, it would take years or even decades to raise Blade Grandmaster by one level.
As for blade technique improved through Reincarnation Paradise, as long as it was tempered through high-intensity combat, the effect was better than improvement through time.
Each had its strengths. The former excelled in combat, the latter in cultivation, and the latter completely outclassed the former in teaching disciples. This was the difference between the practical school and the academic school.
Su Xiao had no hobby of teaching disciples, so Reincarnation Paradise’s improvement method suited him better. But this time, he had actually raised Blade Grandmaster by two consecutive levels through his own efforts.
Su Xiao put down the palm-sized stone slab, placed the sheathed Dragon-Slaying Flash flat on his thighs, and attempted to enter meditation.
After a moment, Su Xiao opened his eyes and concluded that he would never develop toward the “cultivation” school of blade techniques. That style was more suitable for kind-faced old men.
“Being able to kill enemies is enough.”
Su Xiao gripped the sheath of Dragon-Slaying Flash. Blood Qi clung to the blade. He had killed countless enemies with Dragon-Slaying Flash. Dragon-Slaying Flash could not be called a demonic blade, because demonic blades were mere little brothers compared to it. This was already a demon blade that housed the Blade Demon Spirit.