Wei Chen mouth twitch. Was this guy praising him or insulting him?
The Lord of Death didn't let Wei Chen wait long before explaining.
"You are a genius for using a black hole as your Foundation Establishment comprehension. A black hole is the densest thing in the known universe, and nothing that doesn't violate the laws of physics can resist it, even by this world's standards. If you succeed in cultivating this path, your future prospects will be limitless."
Hearing this, Wei Chen let out a smug smile.
"But…"
Wei Chen's smile froze.
"By using a black hole as your core, even though it lets you bitch-slap anyone two or three realms higher than you, the energy required to advance is immense… and it will only get worse from here.
"The moment you reach Core Formation, the energy you'll need just to advance one stage will be enough to take an ordinary cultivator to Nascent Soul. And to break through to Nascent Soul yourself, you'll need energy equivalent to advancing all the way to the peak of Soul Transformation."
"And from what I can tell, your dantian has changed in nature, becoming black hole-like. Even if you wanted to destroy your dantian and start over, it's impossible. Nothing can damage your foundation. Anyone who tries might just end up being sucked dry instead," the Lord of Death explained.
"It's… it's that bad?" Wei Chen asked with a wry smile.
"Oh, it's not that bad. At least you're invincible even against opponents two realms above you. You can even go toe-to-toe with those three realms above you and still win.
"And with this foundation, no one's spiritual sense can detect your cultivation. Because of its black hole-like nature, your dantian will absorb spiritual probes and prevent any feedback from returning to the sender. As a result, unless they're at least five realms above you, no one can accurately gauge your cultivation."
"But the catch is…" The Lord of Death paused.
"You'll need tremendous energy to advance. As long as there's enough energy, you can cultivate quickly because my Samsara Sovereign's Scripture will help you, and coupled with your black hole core, you won't need to sit on your ass for hundreds of years like the others," the Lord of Death concluded.
"But where can I get all that energy? Even after nearly depleting the area around here, it's still not enough," said Wei Chen.
"That's the problem you need to solve, young man. You don't have any points to redeem cultivation resources from me yet, so don't even think about paying on credit. We're not a bank."
F*ck! This guy even shot down what I was about to ask him.
But… finding enough energy? Hmm… maybe that could work.
"Your honor, can I ask for a one-time-use simple artifact that can open a secret realm?" he asked.
"No, as I said, we're not a bank. You need to earn it," replied the Lord of Death.
Wei Chen let out a sigh. It seemed he needed to change his plan.
"Besides…" The Lord of Death continued, making Wei Chen's ears perk up.
"If you want to enter a secret realm, just touch the realm seal and use your Black Hole Core to drain the seal's spiritual qi. That will easily unseal the realm, and it will also help with your cultivation."
Hearing this, Wei Chen's eyes sparkled. That's right! Why didn't I think of that!?
"What do you want with the secret realm, though?" the Lord of Death asked curiously.
"It's a key for me to catch up with the trends of this world, so that I can help lighten your workload," Wei Chen said with his signature confident smile.
The sooner he started his work, the sooner he could earn points to redeem rewards from the Lord of Death. Especially, his black hole core needed a tremendous amount of energy before it could advance further.
The Lord of Death nodded, and they chatted for a while about the combat technique that had been bestowed upon him. Since this was one of his wishes, the combat technique had already been ingrained into Wei Chen's soul, so he didn't have to waste time training like other cultivators.
All he needed was to familiarize himself with the technique for a day or two before entering the secret realm, and then he would have complete mastery of it.
With this in mind, Wei Chen began to familiarize himself with the combat technique after gaining some useful insights from the Lord of Death.
— A Week later - Iron Sword Manor —
At the large courtyard of a modest yet imposing building of the Sword Manor that overlooked the training grounds, within the audience hall of the manor sat a man who appeared to be in his middle age.
His chiseled jaw, straight sword-like brows, and neatly trimmed beard and mustache made him look like a decent and reliable man. He was Jian Ganglie, the current sect leader of the Iron Sword Manor.
Lately, Jian Ganglie had been feeling uneasy. This unease stemmed from a report his disciples had brought him a week ago.
During a routine experience-gaining expedition, a group of disciples had stumbled upon a terrifying phenomenon: something that drained all spiritual qi within a ten-kilometer radius. It was so overwhelming that even spirit beasts had their qi sucked away.
It wasn't as if draining spiritual qi was unheard of; some demon sects practiced such techniques. But those methods always required direct contact with the prey, either by touching them or ensnaring them with some thread-like spiritual artifact before the draining could begin.
But this!?
This was different. This was a vortex that indiscriminately drew in spiritual qi from all beings in its range. What was even more concerning was that known draining techniques always came with severe drawbacks and could never achieve such large-scale effects.
That could only mean… this phenomenon was caused either by the birth of a powerful heaven-and-earth treasure or by someone wielding a heaven-defying technique.
From his disciples' report, it was clearly the latter.
And most importantly, the owner of that heaven-defying technique was in the Nascent Soul stage, and his foolish disciples had somehow managed to offend him!
The thought irritated Jian Ganglie to no end, making him feel as though he were sitting on a cushion of pins and needles, utterly uncomfortable.
He even had nightmares of his sect being annihilated!
One had to understand, even though Jian Ganglie himself was in the Nascent Soul stage, the difference in power between an average Nascent Soul cultivator and one from a prominent sect, or the one who possessed a heaven-defying technique, was like the difference between heaven and earth.
He couldn't fight against that mysterious guy at all!
While Jian Ganglie was lost in his thoughts, Liu Shanhong walked into the audience hall, bowed, and cupped his fists.
"Reporting to the sect leader: all 80 artifacts that the mysterious senior asked us to distribute have already been delivered to the various people and sects we are connected with.
Among those who received the artifacts, several factions related to auction houses and trading posts were included, as per his request."
"Good! With this, that mysterious man will have no reason to find fault with us." The sect leader nodded in satisfaction.
"Sect leader, there is one thing I don't understand," Liu Shanhong said.
"Go ahead. What is it that you don't understand?"
"Those artifacts, the Spirit Net Jade, as that mysterious senior called them, are very useful. They create a strange spiritual network that allows us to interact with all other users of the Spirit Net Jade, either by contacting them directly or by leaving questions for others willing to teach. It can even capture and display images alongside the questions.
In just this one week, the sects that own auction houses have become extremely excited about this artifact and are already asking us if we can produce more.
I mean… these artifacts are incredibly useful. Why wouldn't that senior want to monopolize them for himself?"
"There are several reasons that come to mind," the sect leader began. "First, this artifact is mainly used for communication and interaction. That mysterious expert seems to be a lone vagabond, so monopolizing it would do him no good.
Who would he contact if he kept them all to himself? By distributing them, he gains a way to connect with others.
From your report, he seemed like someone who had just escaped from prison. My guess is that he is some kind of old monster who was sealed in an ancient prison or formation and has only recently escaped. That would explain why he needs information and connections."
"But… if that's the case, why didn't he simply find someone and demand answers? If they refused, he could just beat them until they submitted. Why bother distributing such artifacts?" Liu Shanhong asked.
"This…"
The sect leader was stumped. What his disciple said made sense. Why indeed would such an expert go out of his way to distribute this artifact, especially when he didn't even ask for payment in spirit stones? He only requested that it be spread around.
As far as Jian Ganglie knew, those in the auction houses and prominent sects had already recognized the Spirit Net Jade as an invaluable tool for communication. It not only had a greater range than the commonly used communication jade on the market, but it also offered additional functions.
Right now, the auction houses that had managed to get their hands on the artifact were already raking in vast amounts of spirit stones by auctioning them off.
There was only one unsettling explanation that… perhaps these artifacts were cursed items or were somehow tied to the demonic path. Once distributed, they could potentially curse or siphon away the fortune of their users, sending all that luck back to the master who controlled them.
But… the artifacts had already been examined by elders from prominent sects, as well as specialists from auction houses. None of them had detected any demonic energy or malicious intent within the Spirit Net Jades.
That was why the sect leader, despite racking his brain, could no longer come up with any reasonable explanation. He was completely stumped.
At this time, a commotion broke out outside. Several disciples were shouting, interrupting the sect leader's thoughts.
Just as he was about to go outside and admonish them, one of the disciples rushed into the audience hall.
"Sect leader! There's a strange, large screen floating above our sect square!"