Chapter 35: Wide Open Vista

Su Chen totally ignored the massive hand pressing down on him and focused all of his attention on controlling the flaming phoenix and maintaining its furious offensive.

The Harpy female knew the situation wasn’t good. A subtle light flickered across her eyes as she suddenly froze in place, standing motionless.

An instant later, the flaming phoenix’s blustering flames consumed the Harpy female’s figure, burning it to ashes.

Su Chen, however, didn’t care. He chuckled, “So that was indeed the real one.”

With his microscopic eye, he was able to see the situation extremely clearly.

Even though the female he was chasing after had come out of the mirror, it was the real body. The Harpy female Zhu Xianyao had caught was actually a fake. However, she had been backed into a corner by the Flaming Phoenix Theurgy Art and had been forced to activate her substitution technique, returning to her original body. As such, the Harpy female that had burned to a crisp was the fake that Zhu Xianyao had seized. Of course, this meant that the Harpy female was once again under Zhu Xianyao’s control.

The massive hand arrived at this point in time. Just as it was about to crush Su Chen like he was a fly, a large finger appeared on the other side, stabbing at the descending palm and stopping it in place.

The Zhu Clan’s Ancestor had actually made a move in this moment, blocking the opponent’s attack.

He even began to laugh madly, “Rong Guluo, do you really think you can turn back time now that things have reached this point? Regardless of whether this female Harpy manages to escape, the fact that the Rong Clan has betrayed the human race still exists. There’s no point in quibbling any longer. The only thing you can do now is run! If you continue to try and resist, the only possible outcome will be death.”

These words pierced right into the heart of the person who had ambushed Su Chen, and he sighed and withdrew his palm.

This sigh was a real sigh.

Since the Rong Clan’s Ancestor was planning on running, the Zhu Clan’s Ancestor had no plans to forcibly keep him here - after all, a Thought Manifestation Realm cultivator was still able to easily wipe out the entire Flat Sky City if they were backed into a corner.

He could escape, but the remaining Rong Clan juniors would need to remain.

This was the price that needed to be paid.

The battle was still raging on in the sky, but there was no longer any suspense. The Qian Clan’s realignment obviously spelled out the Rong Clan’s defeat, and the Zhu Clan’s Ancestor didn’t even need to get involved.

Even so, the Qian Clan’s three brothers were still incredibly apprehensive.

They not only needed to fear the presence of the Zhu Clan’s Ancestor, but they also needed to find a way to extricate themselves from this mess with the Rong Clan. Otherwise, the Liaoye imperial family would deal with them before the Zhu Clan even had a chance. They would need to bow their heads to the Zhu Clan without question and ask the Zhu Clan for their help. Of course, the necessary benefits had to be handed over as well.

The Qian Clan had come all this way, but instead of obtaining any profits, they would now need to pay a large sum of money over. They really were quite unlucky. However, the fact that they had managed to distance themselves from the crime of colluding with the Harpies was quite a big silver lining.

But none of this had anything to do with Su Chen anymore.

Within the Zhu Clan’s main hall, Zhu Yunyan gazed at Su Chen, full of smiles.

“Su Chen, this time everything is all thanks to you. I won’t waste your time; whatever you want, I will give as long as it is within my abilities to do so,” Zhu Yunyan said happily to Su Chen.

Su Chen replied, “I thank Matriarch for her generosity. If that’s the case, then I won’t stand on courtesy.”

“There’s no need to stand on courtesy.”

Su Chen nodded. “Fine. I want the Rong Clan’s six elders.”

What?

The members of the Zhu Clan present were all stunned. Only Zhu Xianyao wasn’t surprised and muttered, “As expected.”

To Su Chen, no spoils of battle were as valuable as these Spirit Burning Realm cultivators.

After the Light Shaking Realm came the Spirit Burning Realm. He would need to do some research first before finding a way to break through the restrictions. Some Spirit Burning Realm experimental subjects were absolutely necessary.

However, unlike Light Shaking Realm cultivators, it was almost impossible to capture a Spirit Burning Realm cultivator, so Su Chen had never found an appropriate target for his research. He had thought of using the Death’s Shadow a few times, giving the Death’s Shadow quite a bad scare. However, Su Chen had refrained in the end because Demonic Beasts were way too different from humans, and there was no point to really dissect him.

Now, however, it was impossible for Su Chen to willingly pass up on these six targets.

Su Chen didn’t know if he would ever find a way to obtain six Spirit Burning Realm captives in the future.

Zhu Yunyan was dumbfounded by Su Chen’s request. It took her some time to recover and say, “The Rong Clan committed a grievous crime by betraying the human race. They must be handed over to the imperial family.”

That was absolutely true. The Zhu Clan wasn’t being selfish; Spirit Burning Realm traitors were a huge problem, and there was no way the Zhu Clan would be allowed to deal with them personally.

Su Chen wasn’t surprised and nodded. “I know, but you don’t have to hand them over right away, right? The capital is a ways away from Flat Sky City, so it would take time for an envoy to reach them. As long as I can use them for this period of time, that is good enough for me.”

Zhu Yunyan understood what he meant. She frowned slightly and said, “If that’s the case, it should be fine. I can even try to buy more time for you. However, you cannot kill them.”

Su Chen chuckled. “Matriarch, please rest assured. Spirit Burning Realm experts are quite hard to kill. I promise that these people will be alive when the capital’s officials arrive.”

Of course, Su Chen wouldn’t promise what kind of condition they would be in.

In the following days, Su Chen began his research.

Because there wasn’t much time, Su Chen chose the simplest yet most effective method of research - he performed some basic experiments, then used the Origin Bone Scepter to make predictions. After reaching a conclusion, he would immediately proceed with the next step.

Any systematic research took lots of time, but the Origin Bone Scepter greatly decreased this necessary time.

With the Origin Bone Scepter, Su Chen was able to quickly find an answer for virtually every question.

Either the answer was yes or no.

The actual answer wasn’t that important. The most important fact was that Su Chen had managed to reach that answer in a much shorter period of time, allowing him to progress to the next step of his research much sooner than he would have been able to otherwise.

An experiment that might have taken weeks or even months to complete might be resolved by Su Chen in a matter of minutes. This rate of experimental efficiency was truly shocking. Of course, Su Chen was also pouring in an incredible amount of resources at the same time.

Even though the unchanging nature of Su Chen’s predictions decreased the cost of the necessary sacrifices greatly, repeating such predictions hundreds or even thousands of times would still result in a shocking amount of resources being expended.

In the blink of an eye, Su Chen had consumed countless resources, obtaining in exchange an incredible amount of information about the Spirit Burning Realm.

Su Chen also finally understood exactly why this realm was referred to as the Spirit Burning Realm.

The Spirit Burning Realm was an incredibly meaningful breakthrough to make on the path of cultivation. Before the appearance of the Shining Dragon Bloodline, the human race’s cultivation path ended at the Light Shaking Realm.

It was for this reason that there was a massive gap between the Light Shaking Realm and the Spirit Burning Realm.

This gap was due to a transition from visible manifestation to invisible manifestation. There was a transition from pursuing greater control of Origin Energy to a baptism and elevation of the ego.

The result of this shift in focus was a massive increase in the power of a person’s consciousness.

There were a total of eight Divine Palaces at the Spirit Burning Realm, known as the Abundant Revolution, Divine Pivot, Heaven Charging, Primary Guard, Vast Ocean, Intense Dawn, Misty Air, and Wisdom Palaces.

Every Divine Palace was formed from the coagulation of an Origin Qi Scholar’s will and consciousness, storing large quantities of intelligence and powerful Origin Skills within. The possessor of a Divine Palace could shake the earth with but a thought. Spirit Burning Realm cultivators were really quite powerful.

The implications of such a substantial transition were far-reaching.

Forming eight Divine Shrines and tempering one’s ego was no simple feat. The first barrier was an incredibly powerful consciousness.

Without enough consciousness energy, it was impossible to form eight Divine Palaces.

This was not difficult for Su Chen, obviously.

Without the support of any equipment, Su Chen’s consciousness power had reached a thousand two hundred units by relying on his microscopic eye and the True Spirit Scripture.

No one could compare with him in terms of consciousness power in the whole human race.

Most normal humans breaking into the Spirit Burning Realm possessed consciousnesses a few hundred units strong. After reaching the Spirit Burning Realm, their consciousness power would reach around five hundred, then eight hundred at the Thought Manifestation Realm and a thousand at the Ultimate Emperor Realm.

Purely in terms of consciousness power, Su Chen had already met the requirements for reaching the Ultimate Emperor Realm. The only thing he lacked was a corresponding way to utilize this power of his.

However, he had more than enough consciousness energy to spare for breaking into the Spirit Burning Realm and forming his Divine Palaces.

Su Chen discovered, to his great surprise, that the first big barrier between him and the Spirit Burning Realm was already taken care of.

Yes, possessing an incredibly powerful consciousness was the first barrier to breaking into the Spirit Burning Realm. The stronger a person’s consciousness was, the more likely they would successfully ascend.

To Su Chen, this big barrier was more like a highway.

Of course, only possessing a powerful consciousness was not enough. Next, he would need to concentrate his consciousness into forming Divine Shrines.

Of the eight Divine Shrines, the first to be formed was the Abundant Revolution Palace.

The Abundant Revolution Palace was primarily responsible for controlling Origin Energy.

Breaking into the Spirit Burning Realm not only required consciousness power but also an abundance of Origin Energy. In the end, Origin Energy still served as the foundation of this universe.

As such, the requirements on Origin Energy were also quite high.

Su Chen quickly discovered, however, that he had already reached the requirement.

Since he cultivated the Immaculate Cultivation Technique, his Origin Energy was already much denser than the average human’s - seven times denser, to be exact. Who would dare say that Su Chen was lacking in Origin Energy?

This seven-fold increase was more than enough to allow Su Chen to flood his opponents with Origin Energy. Otherwise, how could he possibly jump realms and fight Spirit Burning Realm cultivators?

After all, even an average Spirit Burning Realm cultivator was not easy to jump realms on.

Once the second condition was met, the next step was to actually carry out the formation of the Divine Palaces.

The third step required a person to form their palace by carrying out a unique sequence of actions. This sequence was not really a secret, and each major clan had their own set of methods. This step was really more question of skill; in other words, mastery and familiarity could serve as an appropriate substitute.

The final step was to excite one’s consciousness, ignite one’s spirit, and cast one’s Divine Palace. This allowed the Origin Qi Scholar to form defensive walls around their spirit and protect themselves from consciousness attacks, as well as unleash powerful consciousness Origin Skills. This last step was the most important and the most complicated, and was also where the name “Spirit Burning” came from.

However, this most crucial step was actually not too difficult either. As long as the cultivator had made adequate preparations and the circumstances were right, time would take care of the rest.

Su Chen discovered that breaking into the Spirit Burning Realm was much simpler than he had originally anticipated.

The situation had suddenly become so much more simple at this point in time, and the path forward for Su Chen had become a wide-open vista.