Chapter 242 - Self-Created Technique! Ripples of Light (III)
At the same time, he concentrated on sensing the link between Haoyue and himself. That, was the most crucial. Only if the blood contract was not inhibited could he keep exploring without worrying about anything.
Based on Long Haochen’s estimate, he had already covered over 2,000 meters in the past two hours. Arriving at a completely different altitude from the height of the mountain from before, he could finally be considered to be thoroughly underground. And he discovered that the more he advanced downwards, the wider the crevice would become. On this aspect, this dark cave was just like a bottomless pit.
The hissing sounds were clearly becoming stronger and stronger, and likewise its intensity.
Because of his comprehension of the mysteries of the Ripples of Light, Long Haochen discovered upon careful observation that the sound waves’ vibration would also speed up as the violent hissing sounds gained in power,. Attempting to raise the frequency of the vibration of his own Holy Mantle’s spiritual energy, he immediately felt that not only would his spiritual energy’s consumption increase substantially, but also, increasing the frequency would become harder and harder as it raised. This was due to his cultivation being insufficient.
Even if Long Haochen didn’t test it, he was certain that the faster the frequency became, the stronger the offensive power of the Ripples of Light would be. That was to say that this ability would strengthen along with his own cultivation.
He was currently very satisfied: during this trip inside of the demon territory, the squad already gained quite a lot. Even if they didn’t manage to complete the mission in the end, there wouldn’t be any loss from the attempt. In case he discovered a danger the two Demon Hunt Squads would be unable to contend against, they would just withdraw and that would be it. Safety was their top priority! Furthermore, as long as he could save an image on their gem, it would serve as proof in convincing his teammates of the danger.
As he tried to deepen his understanding of the Ripples of Light further, Long Haochen resisted the threat brought by these hissing sounds. His own spiritual energy nearly depleted by a half, he was completely certain that arriving at his current point would be impossible without a cultivation level at the fifth step or higher, much less to keep advancing. At best, someone with a cultivation at the sixth step would be able to block the aerial danger by relying on his own spiritual energy, and decrease the falling speed by a great extent. At the same time, the opening of the spiritual orifices at the sixth step would make it a lot easier to recover his spiritual energy.
The hissing sounds rang once again, and Long Haochen confirmed his own safety by sending Haoyue a message. Acting cautiously, he sat down, putting great efforts into recovering his spiritual energy in this place that was almost devoid of light essence.
In this dangerous cave of an unknown degree of danger, it was naturally better to be more careful. Long Haochen also discovered that precisely because of the surrounding light essence was thin, the Saint Spiritual Stove inside of him was revolving at a much slower speed, as if trying to adapt to this environment…
In Long Haochen’s capacity as the Scion of Light, as long as light essence was present in the external world, no matter how he cultivated, the light essence would still remain inexhaustible. This time was the first time he ever cultivated in a place so poor in light essence, and yet, his body’s spiritual energy was still continuously spinning, with the Saint Spiritual Stove as its center. If Long Haochen’s cultivation level was sufficient, this process would gradually give him comprehension of the subtle mysteries of the spiritual cavities, but unfortunately, his current cultivation was clearly far from enough. However, an indistinct change was produced in his Saint Spiritual Stove’s rotations and it came a step closer to acquiring a new ability.
Spiritual energy passed through it, just as if entering a physical entity, flowing through it as it grew larger. This was the only method Long Haochen currently had to replenish his spiritual energy.
Unable to absorb any light essence from the external world, Yating’s current use was to help Long Haochen by accurately controlling the rotations of the light essence inside of his body. With her presence, Long Haochen didn’t have to worry about losing control as he only needed a thought to attain an exquisite control. Gradually, Long Haochen entered a state of meditation despite the kind of place he was in. The fact that he managed to stay focused enough to accomplish this without distraction showed how pure his heart was.
The original Saint Spiritual Stove was just like a vessel, discreetly helping Long Haochen produce liquid spiritual energy, but now, it performed an uninterrupted role of operator, switching from its previous role as the vessel to gain a more crucial one. From its previous state as merely a small three-legged cauldron that just helped him in gaining knowledge of the spiritual energy, it started to take on an essential role.
The liquid spiritual energy pulled in by this spiritual stove revolved around it, gradually shrinking in size until attaining a liquid state and even giving Long Haochen a palpating feeling.
Long Haochen was currently doing his utmost to stay in a steady state of mind while concentrating his thoughts on the Saint Spiritual Stove and sensing the Saint Spiritual Stove in his state of meditation in this peculiar place, in which he was unable to absorb light essence.
This was clearly a very intelligent method, reproducing the process of the time when the Saint Spiritual Stove had produced liquid spiritual energy in him for the first time.
With his powerful mental capacity, he was able to sense the majority of the changes within his Saint Spiritual Stove, and discovered that the liquid spiritual energy in it was unexpectedly being compressed.
Simply said, it was as if each drip of the liquid spiritual energy in the spiritual stove was forcibly split into two before slowly expanding by absorbing the energy coming from the outside world. Although Long Haochen was only recovering his body’s spiritual energy, it was still by the same process of absorbing the external light essence as usual, so where could the current changes on the Saint Spiritual Stove come from? For what reason could it make new advances in handling the light essence?
Some chances were only meant to be found by those who could perceive it, and being such a person, Long Haochen quickly started solving this mystery. This peculiar state his spiritual energy was in was unexpectedly came from the other types of energies present in this dark cavern.
_This… This is…_
Long Haochen felt his heart tremble violently as some words his father told him instantly came to mind.
“To any vocation starting from the fifth step onwards, each step will represent an immense watershed. The difference between the fourth step and the fifth step is the liquid spiritual energy, whereas the difference from the fifth step and the sixth step lies in the spiritual cavities. Only when someone forms their spiritual cavities can he be called a real powerhouse. That’s because the spiritual cavities will raise his fighting and surviving capability more than ever before.”
To Long Haochen, the two people who influenced him the most starting from the moment he started cultivating were Long Xingyu and Ye Hua. Before reaching the fifth step, if we put the fact Long Xingyu gave him a Saint Spiritual Stove aside, Ye Hua had been in fact more helpful to Long Haochen than his own father.
Because of his lack of innate talent, Ye Hua put all of his efforts into researching the lower levels of cultivation, giving Long Haochen a more optimal path to follow. This was the reason why Long Haochen managed to progress so quickly and gain an understanding of lower ranked techniques as well as the strategic aspects of the battlefield that far exceeded the norm. However, in the end, Ye Hua’s research was limited: he was, after all, limited by his rank of Earth Knight. Only after being shared Long Haochen’s innate talent did he manage to break through to the level of a Radiant Knight. How could he compare to a Divine Knight such as Long Xingyu on this aspect?
What Long Xingyu passed on Long Haochen was his former experience. It wasn’t as detailed as Ye Hua’s lessons, but it gave Long Haochen an overall guideline of the cultivation from the lower to the higher steps.
“Spiritual cavities have two uses. The first one is to reinforce the speed of recovery of the spiritual energy. As long as you have them, you won’t need to meditate painstakingly. Even simply breathing will gradually restore the spiritual energy in your body. The major reason why powerhouses can last so long in the battlefield is precisely the essential utility of these spiritual cavities. However, you shouldn’t neglect the other use they have, which is the ability of transforming any type of energies, situated in any kind of environment, into the same energy you use. These two uses will enable any combatant to maintain his fighting strength in whichever type of environment they are in while greatly increasing their survivability on the battlefield.”
Long Xingyu’s words were something Long Haochen remembered perfectly.
And the current situation was just as he was told: in such a dark place, the Saint Spiritual Stove had surprisingly temporarily acquired the second utility of the spiritual cavities. Although this second ability was quite inferior to the first one, it was what Long Haochen needed the most in the current situation.
Long Haochen concentrated his attention completely on gradually recovering his spiritual energy. This situation was rare to come by: he clearly understood that the difficulty of condensing spiritual cavities far surpassed the difficulty of reaching the level of producing liquid spiritual energy. It was very fortunate that the Saint Spiritual Stove gave him this chance, helping him deepen his comprehension at such a time. In the near future when he really have to condense his spiritual cavities, the time he will need to break through the bottleneck will be greatly reduced. Furthermore, the current changes in the Saint Spiritual Stove seemed like the start of its second evolution.
Fundamental changes were often bound to happen in succession, and Long Haochen had another reason to remain fully concentrated. It was the fact that the current state the Saint Spiritual Stove was beneficial to both Blue Rain, Hibiscus of Light and the Light Elemental Fairy Yating.
In one’s lifetime, this sort of occasion was truly hard to come by, rare to the extent that Long Haochen sat there for two whole hours.
Experiencing the series of hissing sounds consecutively before restoring his spiritual energy, he didn’t need to provide more spiritual energy to his Holy Mantle and stayed in a focused meditative state. At the time the Saint Spiritual Stove managed to revolve without constraints, he finally awoke from this state.
Standing up with reluctance, Long Haochen immediately passed a message of his safety to Haoyue. If he was alone, he would even be willing to stay seated a lot longer, using various methods to consume his spiritual energy. To anyone else, such a rare chance in cultivation would truly be something that takes courage to abandon, but to Long Haochen, that would be out of the question as he still had his teammates waiting for him outside. The demon territory was far from safe, so he couldn’t stay there for too long.
The first day Ye Hua passed his knowledge as a Guardian Knight onto him, he stressed these words to him, “Responsibility is the eleventh standard for a Guardian Knight.”