strictlysupreme #116 - Departure to Wangyun Mountain
#116 - Departure to Wangyun Mountain
“Roar!”
The process of shedding skin was both painful and refreshing.
Every inch of his body's skin was undergoing a transformation from old to new.
Each twist was accompanied by the vibration of blood energy on the surface of his demon body, just like waves crashing against reefs.
At the moment the shedding was complete, the rune imprinting was also finished.
As the old skin peeled away, strands of spiritual energy visible to the naked eye converged towards the snake's body, dyeing the surrounding air with a faint glow.
And then, in that instant.
“Hiss!”
A large patterned snake darted out from the huge snake slough.
Raising its head and hissing.
The flowers and plants seemed to be infected, immediately becoming vibrant and full of life.
It seemed the entire valley was cheering for this moment of success.
— Of course, this was Xu Chengxian's self-indulgent feeling.
In reality, he was the only one cheering.
… …
[Divine Power Combat Skill: (Divine Power: Devour and Refine, Bewitching Hiss, Size Transformation, Snake Slough (Combat Skill: Snake Bite, Snake Entanglement)]
Opening the data panel, he indeed saw a new entry in the Divine Power Combat Skill section: Snake Slough.
This was not just about being able to shed a layer of old skin.
The greatest benefit of this innate divine power was that he could use it to quickly heal any subtle hidden injuries during the shedding process.
Of course, the prerequisite was the consumption of a large amount of blood energy.
But was Xu Chengxian afraid of consuming blood energy?
For him, the thing he feared the least was this!
Snake Slough was a kind of rebirth!
However, he certainly couldn't do it now.
And also.
The cultivation of the Size Transformation divine power.
Completely mastered!
Successfully, exceeding expectations.
“It seems I was right.” Xu Chengxian coiled up, sensing the changes in his body.
The Size Transformation required imprinting countless runes on the demon body with blood energy.
These runes were interconnected and spread throughout.
To use it, he had to simultaneously infuse blood energy and stimulate it with the power of his divine sense.
And once activated, it only needed a bit of blood energy as a foundation; the rune array would use the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to maintain the seal on the snake's flesh and blood.
It was hard for him not to associate it with artifact refining.
If he treated the snake's body as the main spiritual material.
Tempering the body, imprinting runes, forming an array, wasn't that artifact refining?
Could his snake body withstand it?
Xu Chengxian felt he was fine.
Moreover, he had a divine soul power even stronger than his physical body as a safety net.
So he dared to imprint all the runes at the same time.
He didn't have to complete the runes little by little like other demons who cultivated Size Transformation techniques or divine powers.
Why was he confident that he could complete the imprinting of all the runes in a very short time?
One aspect was that he had tens of millions of units of blood energy at his disposal, enough to support this consumption.
Another aspect, and the most crucial point, was that through long-term sleep memories, he had an unparalleled understanding and familiarity with the runes.
Moreover, the solidified divine soul and vast divine sense allowed him to correct any possible errors in time.
The most feared thing when imprinting an array rune was the inability to complete it in one go.
Regardless of the reason, as long as there was a slight delay, omission, or deviation during the imprinting process of the spiritual pattern, the rune would dissipate.
He could only start over.
What was even more outrageous was that array runes were interconnected, and some runes were more crucial; if they disappeared, a surrounding area would also be unable to condense.
Even if it wasn't a crucial rune, it might not be able to exist independently.
Simply put, imprinting runes had to be advanced little by little.
Of course, innate divine powers from bloodlines, like Xu Chengxian's, were relatively easier to cultivate.
That's why Ling Xiao felt that his failure to master it in three months was a sign of some incompetence.
And now, he had spent a year just to shrink his body to…
Xu Chengxian looked at his current snake body.
He estimated that it still needed to be a little smaller.
“What did Ling Xiao say yesterday about how small I should become?” He raised his tail tip and scratched the top of his head.
And then he was stunned.
He hadn't been able to do this action for a long time.
It felt like a 500-pound fat man suddenly losing 200 pounds and touching his toes again.
It was quite magical.
Xu Chengxian swam to the huge snake slough, tapping it with his tail.
Under the infusion of scarlet blood energy, the newly shed translucent old skin flashed red and became a little over a foot long.
“Hehe!”
He couldn't help but feel proud, materializing a hand with blood energy to pick up the skin.
He couldn't wait to find Ling Xiao and the others to show off!
… …
“Within two zhang.” Ling Xiao said.
This was the size she had previously told Xu Chengxian he needed to transform his body into.
To show that she wasn't deliberately making things difficult, she added an explanation: “The royal city guards won't allow demons whose size exceeds two zhang to enter the city.”
“Understood.” Xu Chengxian nodded.
Two zhang was less than seven meters.
There was still about a month left.
Not a big problem.
So he raised his tail again and looked up at Ling Yunzi: “Yunzi, what do you think of this snake slough of mine? Not bad, right?”
“In this old one's opinion, it's more than not bad. No need for refining, you can use it directly.” Ling Yunzi said, his divine sense sweeping over the snake slough in front of him.
The snake skin shed at the moment the array runes of the Size Transformation were successfully imprinted could itself be considered a simple storage bag.
The arrays formed by those runes borrowed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to seal weight and size.
The internal space was there.
The things put inside would be sealed together.
And it could be large or small.
Moreover, this was the old skin shed from using divine power, so its quality was much better than normally shed skin.
Xu Chengxian was equivalent to having completed all the forging and basic array imprinting that needed to be done on the main spiritual material.
For him, he only needed simple forging.
Adding a few arrays such as shaping, capturing, and recognizing the master would suffice.
The refining that originally required two or three years now only needed a day.
Ling Yunzi, who had saved effort, didn't mind saying a few things that Xu Chengxian liked to hear.
“Haha! That's good!” Xu Chengxian was very happy.
He couldn't help but conjure two large blood energy hands, rubbing them together in the air.
To express his anticipation.
After sending off the snake slough, he ran to take a look at Ms. Bai Xiaocui, who was cultivating.
Then he went to Daidai's cave and, together with Dasheng, inspected the planted spiritual plants.
As his divine sense had detected, they were growing well.
Then, he returned to his long-lost cave and continued to sleep.
… …
A month later.
Xu Chengxian could not only shrink his body to within two zhang.
He could even become less than three feet in size and hang on Dasheng's neck.
That day, General Yu sent a message, asking Ling Xiao to go to his cave.
After Ling Xiao returned, she informed Ling Yunzi and Xu Chengxian.
“Depart in two days, to Wangyun Mountain.”