Book 7, Chapter 9: Pursuit

Book 7, Chapter 9: Pursuit

The Shining Dragon revealed a shockingly powerful aura as it roared fiercely and coiled up imposingly in the sky.

At the same time, Su Chen’s box responded by emitting a brilliant color, and it actually seemed to push back against the Shining Dragon’s aura.

This scene completely stunned Li Chongshan and the others. Su Chen’s eyes, however, glimmered in anticipation.

He suddenly stowed the box away, completely snuffing its light out all at once. The Shining Dragon, with its opponent having suddenly left, roared as it circled the sky one last time before leaving.

“Whew!”

The Gu Clan ancestor’s aura had obviously sharply declined as a result of his sudden exertion.

Even though he had lived for a long time, his spirit had never waned. Now, however, he seemed to have aged a few hundred years in just a couple seconds, assuming the form of an old man.

Gu Huiming let out a long sigh as he said, “I never expected that the Clearheart Tranquility I maintained for my whole life would be shattered like this.”

“Ancestor!” Gu Xinrong and the other Gu clan members all rushed over to support Gu Huimin.

Only they knew that Gu Huiming’s long lifespan was due to not only his Shining Dragon Bloodline, but also the fact that he cultivated the Clearheart Tranquility Art.

No one had expected his cultivation art to be suddenly broken like this. Suddenly, a large chunk had been gouged out of Gu Huiming’s lifespan.

When the Gu Clan’s members realized this, they all turned around and glared at Su Chen, disregarding the fact that he was the Boundless Sect’s Sect Master.

Gu Huiming, however, nonchalantly waved his hand. “Forget it — this must be fate. Living this long is tiresome in its own right anyways. At least I can live out the rest of my days in a carefree manner now.”

As he spoke, he stood up once again. His spirit began to rise as his body suddenly became youthful again.

This time, however, everyone knew that he was merely putting up a facade.

Su Chen bluntly asked, “Ancestor, how much longer do you have?”

Gu Huiming chuckled wryly. “It’s hard to say. I should be able to last for at least three to five more months, though. I can promise you that I will not die before your fight with Eternal Night. I still need to watch you single-handedly exterminate the Harpies.”

Su Chen silently nodded.

“Let’s not talk about that right now. Do you know what that was?” Gu Huiming was obviously much more garrulous now that his Clearheart Tranquility cultivation art had been broken, and his aura was also beginning to rise.

“A divine script formed from divine power,” Su Chen replied.

“Indeed.” Gu Huiming didn’t seem surprised by Su Chen’s answer at all. “Where did you get it?”

Su Chen then described what had taken place near the stone throne, as well as the Flying Moon Emperor’s intention.

“So you’re saying that the Flying Moon Emperor got his power from the Moon God? And that the two hundred thousand subordinates he gifted to us were actually sacrifices to the Moon God? And the divine script that you now possess was formed from those sacrifices?” Everyone was bemused when they heard this explanation.

None of them could have ever imagined that there existed an additional kind of energy beyond Origin Energy.

“So what are the differences between divine power and Origin Energy?” Gu Qingluo asked the question on everyone’s mind. “Is it more powerful, or……?”

Su Chen shook his head. “If this was just about strength and power, the difference would be negligible. After all, a lack in strength can be compensated for with quantity. Origin Beasts and Vicious Beasts both use Origin Energy, but the gap between the two is immeasurable. Divine power is unique in that it is related to Method Power.”

Su Chen had only been able to sense the divine power after comprehending Vitality Method Power. Obviously, this divine power was somehow linked to the intrinsic essence of life in addition to Vitality Method Power.

But this was something that Su Chen had only realized later.

As for how he could prove his conjecture, that was easy.

Su Chen glanced around him, picked out a nearby rock, and then quickly carved it into the shape of a statue. Then, he placed his hand on the statue and activated his God-Sealing Method Power.

The statue creaked as it came to life.

Su Chen’s Method Power could confer consciousness onto inanimate objects. Everyone was already aware of this.

But then, Su Chen opened the box in his hands, deftly extracted a single character, slapped it onto the statue, and then closed the box, all in a single moment. The statue suddenly started trembling violently before it tilted its head back and let out a fierce roar. Its aura surged upwards rapidly.

But Su Chen wasn’t done yet.

Next, Su Chen slashed at the air, opening a fissure to the void, and then fearlessly put his hand inside. Everyone was stunned when they saw this — Su Chen’s mastery of spatial Method Power had reached the point where he could open rifts as he pleased, which meant that he no longer needed Origin Rings to store his items.

Su Chen’s hand reappeared with a chunk of something in it.

Refined Stargod Metal!

The most precious metal on this continent! Unfortunately, it was so powerful that nobody knew of a way to properly use it.

Today, however, Su Chen revealed that he had finally discovered how to use it.

Su Chen withdrew yet another character of divine power and infused it into the chunk of Refined Stargod Metal, causing it to glow faintly. He then swiped his hand across the surface of the metal. Gold flakes flew off and filled the air, as if Su Chen had blown off a layer of fine dust from the chunk of metal.

The golden dust landed on the statue. Surprisingly, this caused the statue’s aura to decline. Soon after, the statue returned to its initial dormant state. The only noticeable difference was that it had become a bit larger and heavier.

Li Wuyi’s eyes lit up.

His Dream Beauty bloodline enhanced his perceptive abilities, which gave him the confidence to say, “This puppet seems to be a Titan-Class puppet.”

Titan-Class?

Everyone was stunned.

The human race possessed a total of four Titan-Class puppets, and they were both constructed from incredibly rare materials. They had to be powered by the Sark’s Nuclei left behind by the Arcanists and were each extremely complex automatons. This was why Su Chen had only ever constructed four of them.

Now, however, he had seemingly created a Titan-Class puppet out of thin air in a matter of moments. Was this some kind of joke?

“We’ll know for sure after we test it ourselves!” Chu Yuan said as he jabbed out at the statue with his finger.

The statue made no attempt to dodge, and it simply endured the finger strike before countering with a fist of its own.

Chu Yuan felt an immense pressure from this seemingly ordinary punch as it flew towards him. He gritted his teeth and responded with a punch of his own.

Their simple exchange of blows sent frighteningly powerful shockwaves rippling in all directions.

Boom!

A violent storm of energy erupted everywhere.

There was even a newly formed crater at the point of impact.

Thankfully, everyone watching possessed the strength of an Ultimate Emperor Realm, even Gu Qingluo, which allowed them to endure the storm of energy unscathed.

The statue then fell motionless once again, but Chu Yuan had disappeared.

A moment later, Chu Yuan whizzed back over, his face slightly red — no matter how fast he was, he could not conceal the fact that a puppet had just sent him flying.

“That thing is definitely strong enough, but it seems a little dumb. If I actually fought against it, I would definitely win,” Chu Yuan said as he attempted to regain some of his pride.

Su Chen chuckled as he shot him down. “That’s because it was just born. It hasn’t had any time to learn yet.”

“Learn? That thing can learn?” Everyone was stunned.

“Naturally,” Su Chen replied. “I gave it consciousness, the divine power gave it incredible strength, and the Refined Stargod Metal gave it an incredibly tough body. With these three factors combined, it has resulted in this puppet. That’s why it can learn fighting techniques and cultivate Origin Skills. Right now, it’s like an Ultimate Emperor child, and it needs some guidance before it will fully mature.”

Su Chen glanced at the statue, which was now kneeling by his side.

Obviously, by giving it consciousness, Su Chen had undisputedly become its sole master.

“Divine power...... So this is divine power!” Gu Huiming muttered in shock. “It really is as astoundingly powerful as Method Power.”

“If that’s the case, then it must be true that gods once existed on the Primordial Continent,” Li Chongshan said.

If divine power could control Method Power, then the two were definitely intrinsically linked. In other words, these banished gods were definitely not outsiders. They had almost certainly been born here. However, they had been forced to leave at a certain point in time for some unknown reason.

The Origin Energy was thinning, the gods had left, the Origin Beasts had fallen into a deep slumber, and divine power was starting to fade.

There was definitely something tying all these things together.

All kinds of wild conjectures and possibilities came to mind. In fact, it wouldn’t even be that surprising if there had been an earth-shattering fight that accidentally destroyed some ancient seal.

Even so, there were still a few other mysteries about the gods that remained unresolved.

Namely, what exactly were the gods doing behind the scenes, and what was the Eternal Treaty?

It was possible to guess at the answers, but no real answer would be found until their journey reached the very end.

The others seemed far more interested in the benefits they could reap from Su Chen’s new discovery.

“How many more Titan-Class puppets can you make through this method?” Gu Xinrong asked.

Su Chen replied, “This puppet was made with a combination of methods, including divine power, Method Power, and Refined Stargod Metal. Mobilizing Method Power is no problem for me, and not much Refined Stargod Metal is needed either. The main issue is divine power. The total amount of divine script that I possess is limited, and every Titan-Class puppet I create will consume two characters. I have a total of 102 remaining, which is enough for fifty-one Titan-Class puppets at most. If I take some for my own research, then I won’t even have enough for fifty.”

When they heard that Su Chen would be able to easily create close to fifty Titan-Class puppets, everyone couldn’t help themselves from hissing in disbelief.

These puppets were of the Titan class! Each and every one of them was as strong as an Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivator.

What would fifty Titan-Class puppets even look like?

Some of them even thought to themselves, You’re already invincible. What’s the point in becoming even stronger?

Others, however, were unhappy with Su Chen’s decision.

Gu Xinrong said with obvious dissatisfaction, “You would use these for research? What a waste.”

Obviously, she thought that all of these characters would be better used to create Titan-Class puppets.

Su Chen smiled slightly. “You don’t understand the beauty of research at all.”

Gu Xinrong glared at him, about to explode with rage. But then, she suddenly remembered that he was already her superior, someone who could create fifty puppets just as strong as her with a simple gesture, and her anger quickly subsided.

Gu Qingluo asked, “So you formed these divine characters yourself? Does that mean that you’ll be able to form more in the future?”

That question hit at the crux of the issue.

Su Chen thought for a moment, and then nodded slightly.

When they saw him nod, everyone grew extremely excited. Only the emperors of the various countries felt a sense of despair creep up within their hearts — their last shred of hope had just disappeared.

The Boundless Sect was already terrifying enough, but Su Chen was developing at an even more terrifying rate. His strength had already reaching an indomitable level.

But Su Chen went on to say, “However, creating more divine script requires an equivalent sacrifice of lifeforms. These hundred or so characters were only formed from the sacrifice of two hundred thousand subordinates of the Flying Moon Emperor.”

Gu Qingluo chuckled. “We’re killing a sea of Demonic Beasts anyways, aren’t we?”

“That’s right,” Su Chen replied.

Jiang Jusheng could no longer hold it in. “How many more Titan-Class Puppets is the Boundless Sect planning on creating? Are the ones you already have not enough?”

“Enough? How could they possibly be enough?” Su Chen calmly replied, “It might perhaps be enough to deal with you lot, but they are far too few in number if I want to take on the Desolate Beasts, Origin Beasts, or even the gods.”

Everyone was stunned by his ambition.

They didn’t know when Su Chen’s goal had changed, but he was no longer looking at dominating the entire continent.

Now that he had reached a higher plane of existence, it was only natural that his goals would ascend as well.