Chen Guan entered the Blessed Land of Mount Pingdu once more. As the light and shadows shifted around him, he soon found himself appearing in a mountain valley.
"Could it be? Am I still on the July Fifteenth Island?" Chen Guan felt slightly surprised, as the environnt here looked extrely similar to that island.
He quickly realized this wasn't July Fifteenth Island. Though it was a remote mountainous area, he could still see many human cultivators traveling through the hills.
So cultivators ran on foot, leaping across rooftops and scaling walls with impressive lightness skills. Others rode mounts, mostly ghost-headed horses and ghost-headed oxen—the sa types commonly seen on July Fifteenth Island.
There were also other kinds of pet mounts that all looked rather eerie and unwholeso. Notably absent were any ghost-headed sheep or ghost-headed vultures.
Chen Guan understood he had finally arrived at the ordinary regions of the Blessed Land of Mount Pingdu. In many long-developed secret realms, it was normal to see dense populations of cultivators.
After the Ten Heavenly Kings reestablished the Ancestral Court, the population had exploded due to the resources available in these secret realms.
Before the Ancestral Emperor invaded the Sky Secret Realm, the population of the Divine Land had reached nearly one hundred billion. But after the great turmoil that followed, by the ti the Ten Heavenly Kings rebuilt the Ancestral Court, the population had plumted below ten billion—less than one in ten survived those dark, chaotic years.
Now the population had exceeded two hundred billion, though only a few billion actually resided permanently in the Divine Land. Most lived year-round in the secret realms, many of which had developed into gacities. Major factions all maintained their own cities within these realms.
After asking around, Chen Guan learned he was currently in the Ghost King Mountain Range, territory belonging to the "Samsara City" faction.
Samsara City belonged to the Shang Family, one of the Ten Great Families. The Shang Family's patriarch was none other than Heavenly King Shang of the Ten Heavenly Kings.
Since the Blessed Land of Mount Pingdu wasn't privately owned by any single family, all Ten Great Families maintained cities here, along with so smaller families.
Most explored areas of the Blessed Land were now claid territories with clearly demarcated borders between factions. The mystical spirits in each region might appear wild, but actually belonged to specific factions.
If Chen Guan wanted to hunt mystical spirits here, he'd need to either join a faction, pay an entry fee, or venture into unexplored regions. The unexplored areas were so dangerous that even advanced cultivators couldn't conquer them—going there now would be suicidal. That left joining a faction or paying the fee.
Chen Guan suddenly missed July Fifteenth Island, where he could hunt mystical spirits freely with so many high-quality targets. Finding another place like that wouldn't be easy.
At least areas with only level 1 or 2 mystical spirits hadn't been claid by major factions and remained free to access.
Seeing he was now safe from spirit attacks, Chen Guan found a secluded spot and quickly used the Gravedigger's Ghanta bracelet.
The ghanta bracelet shattered, releasing blood threads that burrowed into Chen Guan's arm like parasites, voraciously consuming his Primordial Energy and other unknown substances within his body.
Soon the threads turned pitch black, and Chen Guan's level began dropping continuously as his Primordial Energy diminished.
When he finally regressed to level 1, the now jet-black threads transford into dark smoke that dissipated into nothingness.
"My cultivation journey truly begins now," Chen Guan declared as he activated the First Secret Technique.
As the technique circulated, Primordial Energy from the surroundings ca swirling into Chen Guan's body like water draining from a toilet.
After just one complete circulation, Chen Guan's level actually rose to 2.
Both shocked and delighted, Chen Guan hadn't expected the First Secret Technique to enable level advancent simply by absorbing ambient Primordial Energy from the secret realm.
But this easy progression made him worry about potential low growth rates. After all, the Ancestral Emperor had created this technique rely to enable human cultivation—not necessarily to guarantee high growth potential.
If this technique's growth rate couldn't match top-tier secret techniques, Chen Guan would need to keep searching.
He imdiately checked his status to assess the technique's quality:
Cultivator: Level 2
Primordial Energy: 2
Innate Talent: Cheerleader's Soul (Peerless)
Peerless Record: The Limitless Extre
Secret Techniques: Naless Technique (Unknown), Stealth Kill Art (Unique), Longevity Art (Common)
Secret Skills: Blood Palm (Rare), Blood Sacrifice Demon Feeding Art (Peerless)
Treasures: Gravedigger Leather Boots (Common), Gravedigger Half-Armor (Rare)
Mystical Spirits: Warring States (Common), Evil Cute Rabbit (Peerless), Mutated Tomb Lord (Unique), Consort Ming (Peerless)
Chen Guan was dumbfounded. After reaching level 2, his Primordial Energy was only 2 points—just 1 point more than his level 1 baseline. This ant the First Secret Technique only provided a growth rate of 1.0 per level—worse than even Warring States, his dog.
"No way... A technique created by the Ancestral Emperor... can't possibly be this trash..." Chen Guan refused to believe it, yet the evidence was undeniable.
No matter how many tis he checked, the result remained the sa: level 2 with exactly 2 Primordial Energy—no decimal points, just a single point increase.
Chen Guan felt like his heart might explode from frustration. After all his efforts, he'd obtained a technique this worthless.
Now without any treasure to reset his cultivation, starting over would require purchasing expensive reset items—if they could even be found on the market.
"The First Secret Technique can't possibly be this bad. Did Consort Ming trick ? Give a fake technique?" Chen Guan considered, then dismissed the idea.
The massive to containing the technique couldn't have been fabricated by a mystical spirit—its cultural knowledge and concepts could only originate from human civilization.
Moreover, understanding the Hetu-Luoshu and the I Ching was necessary to extract the true technique from that text—knowledge beyond any mystical spirit's grasp.
Chen Guan believed the technique was genuine. But if real, why was its growth rate so abysmal?
"Could it be that while the First Secret Technique has extrely low growth rates, it possesses special effects?" Chen Guan stopped cultivating to test what unique capabilities the technique might offer.
Erging from seclusion, he headed toward an area haunted by wandering ghosts and lonely spirits—two types of common level 1-2 mystical spirits in the Blessed Land of Mount Pingdu. Their combat abilities were weak, limited to biting attacks, with slightly stronger variants possessing a Scream secret skill that slightly boosted their combat power while intimidating enemies—a minor support skill with limited effectiveness.
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