Translator: CinderTL
Third Layer.
What does the third layer of the Heavenly Heart Eternal Method, with its "Tenacity" characteristic, signify?
Even if one fails to withstand the power of the law, their mind won't collapse. After a period of recuperation, they can try again!
In other words, once Li Chunjun reaches the third layer of the Heavenly Heart Eternal Method and comprehends 1,024 Spatial Mysteries, he is guaranteed to achieve Void Refining. The only difference is how many attempts it takes and how much time it will require.
"These Heart Demons are truly nourishing!" Li Chunjun exclaimed sincerely.
No wonder those Void Refining cultivators, despite knowing how cunning Heart Demons are and having witnessed repeated Heart Demon disasters caused by their loss of control, still secretly cultivate them.
The effect on Mind Power cultivation is simply too remarkable.
His gaze immediately shifted to the Primordial Spirit True Monarchs struggling against the Heart Demons.
"I'll help you."
With a flash, Li Chunjun appeared before the True Monarch enduring the most arduous resistance. "Cooperate with me to refine this Heart Demon."
Su Fang, Huang Tian, Zuo Cheng, Yu Jin, and the others, who had just finished their cultivation and were about to rescue another Primordial Spirit True Monarch, froze in surprise.
Immediately, Su Fang cautioned, "Sword Prodigy Li, be extremely careful! Heart Demons are cunning. Some even deliberately pretend to be refined by you to hide deep within your Mind Realm, waiting for a fatal strike. Never let your guard down!"
Yu Jin added, "From what I know, a True Monarch who has cultivated Mind Power usually takes ten days to half a month to refine a complete Heart Demon. Thoroughly checking and eradicating its influence can take one or two months. Sword Prodigy Li, it's best to proceed cautiously."
"I understand," Li Chunjun replied.
With that, his Divine Sense, imbued with Mind Power, quickly locked onto the Heart Demon within the Primordial Spirit True Monarch.
With the True Monarch's cooperation, Li Chunjun swiftly extracted the Heart Demon.
The Heavenly Heart Eternal Method spun once more, swiftly grinding it to dust.
With increasing proficiency and growing familiarity in handling Heart Demons, this time, the entire process took less than ten breaths. The complete Heart Demon was refined.
Li Chunjun turned his gaze back to the second Primordial Spirit True Monarch.
This scene seemed to finally terrify the fully formed Heart Demons.
They desperately tried to corrupt their hosts, whispering temptations to incite rebellion.
But Primordial Spirit True Monarchs were no pushovers. They stubbornly withstood the Mind Power's assault.
Heart Demons and Mind Power alike were heavily reliant on external hosts. Even fully formed Heart Demons were no exception.
Without a vessel to unleash their power, even the most formidable Heart Demon posed little threat. It was like a supercomputer with top-tier processing power—without a platform to utilize its capabilities, its raw power was useless.
As Li Chunjun plucked the Heart Demon from the second Primordial Spirit True Monarch and refined it, some Heart Demons even abandoned their hosts, swiftly infiltrating other life forms in an attempt to hide.
But this entire area was within Li Chunjun's Divine Sense.
By abandoning their hosts, these Heart Demons had merely walked into a trap.
Li Chunjun's Divine Sense, infused with Mind Power, swept them up and sealed them within his Mind Realm.
As Li Chunjun systematically eliminated the Heart Demons, Yu Jin and the others, now free, gathered their forces to maintain order. Simultaneously, they instructed the True Monarchs who had passed Li Chunjun's inspection to repair the Golden Crow Battleship.
But elsewhere...
They were clearly overwhelmed.
While Heart Demons struggled to corrupt Primordial Spirit True Monarchs, they could control Nascent Soul True Lords and Core Formation Cultivators with ease.
Li Chunjun didn't know how many of the thousand fully formed Heart Demons had awakened from their slumber, but those controlling Nascent Soul Cultivators could unleash combat prowess nearly on par with Nascent Soul "Prodigies" or even Heavenly Prodigies.
A few even reached Star Brilliance List levels of power.
However, that was their limit.
Compared to the true Peerless Prodigies on the Star Brilliance List, these Nascent Soul Cultivators from Blue Star fell short in every aspect—Mystical Powers, Mystic Treasures, and Secret Arts.
Even with the Mind Power only top-tier True Monarchs could wield, granted to them by the Heart Demons, they couldn't break through the shackles of their realm and achieve the level of Princess Qingxi or Li Hentian, who could unleash Late-stage Primordial Spirit or even Ninth Tribulation True Monarch-level combat prowess.
Several hours later.
Li Chunjun had already purged the Heart Demons from all thirteen Primordial Spirit True Monarchs.
After cleansing these Heart Demons, he felt a deep weariness in his own Mind Realm. After instructing Yu Jin and the others to remain vigilant, he retired to his cultivation chamber to rest.
Yet his feat of slaying nine fully formed Heart Demons and purging the Heart Demons of fourteen Primordial Spirit True Monarchs in just half a day left everyone—Su Fang, Huang Tian, Yu Jin, and the rest—in disbelief.
Only after Li Chunjun had left did the Nine Tribulation True Monarchs exchange glances.
"The intensity of his Mind Power... can't be anything less than the second level, right?" Zuo Cheng whispered.
"Don't doubt it. It's at least the second level," Su Fang said firmly.
He even hesitated slightly before uttering the words "second level": "Theoretically, even second-level Mind Power shouldn't be able to suppress and purge so many fully formed Heart Demons at once. After all, a fully formed Heart Demon is essentially equivalent to a first- or even third-level Mind Realm life form. However, considering these Heart Demons had just awakened from hibernation and hadn't yet reached their peak state, I believe Sword Prodigy Li's Mind Realm is at least the second level, rather than the third."
When Li Chunjun spoke, Huang Tian and Yu Jin's thoughts froze for a moment.
What did the third level of Mind Power mean?
It meant a thirty percent increase in the probability of achieving Void Refining!
Thirty percent!
What an astonishing success rate!
Among them, Yu Jin had the highest cultivation. After nearly a thousand years of arduous cultivation, he had comprehended 1,024 Void Mysteries, reaching the peak of Primordial Spirit cultivation.
Yet his understanding of Mind Power remained superficial, still struggling at the threshold of the first level.
This alone showed how difficult it was to even reach the first level!
And now, Li Chunjun...
"Even if he hasn't reached the third level yet, judging by his efficiency in refining these Heart Demons, he can't be far from it," Huang Tian whispered. "Especially since there seem to be quite a few Heart Demons in this star system... Once he captures and refines them all..."
The third level of Mind Power would no longer be a distant dream.
At that moment, Su Fang, Yu Jin, Zuo Cheng, and the others couldn't suppress the envy that surged in their eyes.
They had long known that with Li Chunjun's talent and potential, as long as he didn't meet an untimely end, he was destined to achieve Void Refining.
But...
Knowing something was one thing, but seeing concrete evidence of his future success was another matter entirely.
The mental impact of the two events was on completely different levels.
"Alright, these Heart Demons have been temporarily driven back, but many more have taken control of numerous Core Formation and Nascent Soul Realm puppets, lurking everywhere, waiting for their chance to strike. We must act swiftly to root them out!" Yu Jin declared gravely. "As Primordial Spirit True Monarchs, we can at least withstand their influence for a short time. Moreover, we're urgently cultivating a Supreme Yang cultivation technique to counter and weaken the Heart Demons. For now, the task of searching for them falls entirely on us. Once we've located them, we can leave it to Sword Prodigy Li to deal with them one by one."
The other True Monarchs nodded in agreement.
For now, all they could do was assist.
"Sword Prodigy Li seems to have a special connection to the Taixu Sword Sect on Blue Star..." Zuo Cheng reminded them.
"Then let's start with the Taixu Sword Sect," Yu Jin immediately agreed.
True Monarch Huang Tian suggested, "I propose we teleport the Golden Crow Battleship above the Taixu Sword Sect. That area will then serve as our Golden Crow Battleship's designated docking and repair zone."
"Agreed."
"That's only proper."
"Let's do it."
The other three True Monarchs readily assented.
Three days later, Li Chunjun completed adjusting his mental state.
Refining the Heart Demon also leaves one vulnerable to its Demonic Heart Force, increasing the Heart Demon's erosion of one's Mind Realm.
While Li Chunjun's Mind Realm was sufficiently "resilient" to resist such influence, completely eradicating it wasn't easy.
For example, he was still suppressing two fully formed Heart Demons that he hadn't refined yet.
On one hand, refining so many Heart Demons had already taken a toll on him, so he needed to slow down the process to avoid further contamination of his Mind Realm.
On the other hand...
"Just as I suspected. Twenty fully formed Heart Demons in total should advance my Heavenly Heart Eternal Method by about 9%. Furthermore..."
Li Chunjun momentarily shifted his focus to the Human Emperor Banner.
Compared to the Mind Realm improvement brought by the Heart Demons, the "experience" granted by these Advanced Intelligent Life forms was far more captivating.
"Killed a Level 27 creature! Experience +4153!"
"Killed a Level 27 creature! Experience +4281!"
"Killed a Level 27 creature! Experience +4195!"
[Life Level: 31 (99684/100000)]
Li Chunjun had noticed something peculiar when he first eliminated his first Heart Demon: the "experience" provided by these creatures seemed unusually high.
Now, after eliminating eighteen Heart Demons, his suspicion was confirmed.
The experience granted by Demonic Spirits was nearly 20% higher than that given by the Human Race!
This special racial bonus caught him off guard.
But it was clearly not a bad thing.
The extra experience boost would undoubtedly accelerate his Life Level advancement, leading to greater power.
This, in turn, would bring their goal of returning to Human Territory closer to fruition.
"Two more Heart Demons remain to be completely eradicated, but first, let's focus on leveling up."
Li Chunjun produced a Dragon Transformation Pill.
This potent pill could grant nearly 1000 experience points in cultivation without any pill resistance.
The remaining 316 experience points needed to advance Li Chunjun's Life Level to 32 were more than covered by the pill's effects.
"I wonder if leveling up will cleanse the pollution from refining the Heart Demon," he mused.
With this thought in mind, Li Chunjun placed the pill in his mouth.
But he didn't immediately refine it.
The necessary steps before leveling up were essential.
He focused on the Scarlet Sky Sword within him and the Shattered Flowing Gold he was attempting to refine with Creation Spirit Liquid. In the next moment, his entire Essence, Qi, and Spirit erupted in a violent, boiling inferno, as if transforming into terrifying magma that seeped into and melted the Scarlet Sky Sword and the Shattered Flowing Gold themselves.
During this refinement process, his own life force instinctively plummeted.
Fortunately, he was in the cultivation chamber, shielded from external detection. Otherwise, witnessing his current state would have felt like the sky was collapsing.
Some might even have fallen into despair and committed suicide.
Thankfully, this state lasted only a moment. A life force even more potent than before surged from Li Chunjun's body.
(End of the Chapter)
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