Da Xuan Martial Saint

Seven Profound Sect.

Mountain gate.

The clouds were hazy, and the green peaks stood tall, just as they had many years before, sitting there without any change. It seemed that for decades, even a hundred years, through the lifespan of an ordinary person, the Seven Profound Sect could still be the Seven Profound Sect.

But the Chen Mu of today was no longer the novice who had first entered the Sect. He was now keenly aware that, although the Seven Profound Sect remained a top-tier Great Sect in the state, still possessing the Blood Exchange Realm inheritance, it had long since past its prime and was slowly declining.

Walking along the spacious mountain path, he headed towards the inner mountain gate.

"Protector Chen."

The Sect Executive guarding the mountain gate recognized Chen Mu's figure as he passed by. Despite wearing a plain commoner's garb, not the Sect's uniform, he quickly bowed to Chen Mu and watched as he entered the mountain.

Standing not too far away, observing the mountain scenery, was Situ Shu, the Great Profound Peak's Right Protector. After a brief shift in his gaze, he also solemnly greeted Chen Mu from afar with a respectful bow.

Although Chen Mu was still the Protector of Spirit Profound Peak, everyone was clear that with his position third on the Wind Cloud List, his status was truly comparable to that of a Peak Master or an Elder, and taking over as the Spirit Profound Peak Master would pose no issue whatsoever.

Peak Master, Elder.

This was another status in the Seven Profound Sect that necessitated any Protector or Steward to proactively greet with a bow.

Even though Chen Mu was not yet a Peak Master or an Elder, even Situ Shu, a Great Profound Peak Protector, dared not neglect him despite being of a similar age to Chu Jingsui and much older than Chen Mu.

Just like this.

Situ Shu watched as Chen Mu walked away, exhaling softly before involuntarily shaking his head and showing a hint of emotion.

"Once you're out, Brother Chu, you have to send me another pot of good wine."

He vaguely remembered that a few years ago, when Chen Mu had entered the mountain gate, it was Qi Zhiyuan who had instructed him to welcome Chen Mu into the Sect. Instead, Chu Jingsui had intercepted him, and after some bribery had sent him on his way.

Originally, when Chen Mu was inducted into the Sect, aside from the Great Profound Peak, he was free to choose from any of the other six peaks. Chu Jingsui's interception led him straight into Spirit Profound Peak under Meng Danyun's lead, as there was some acquaintance with Chu Jingsui and sensing that Spirit Profound Peak was in decline, it felt like doing a favor.

Unexpectedly.

After Chen Mu joined and entered under Spirit Profound Peak, his rise was staggering—from breaking through the Qian Heaven Artistic Conception to challenging the Yunni Sky Steps, defeating Situ Shu, and even killing three Venerables of the Sky Demon Sect—all within a few years, a truly earth-shattering achievement!

Back then, when Chen Mu had just reached the Five Viscera Realm, he was considered to be a fairly outstanding True Disciple, but now, even Situ Shu had to proactively greet him with respect.

Even now.

It still felt a bit unbelievable, as surreal as life itself could get.

What's more frustrating for him was, if at that time he had received Chen Mu and been the one to show him around the Seven Profound and concluded the briefing, perhaps he could have developed a rapport with Chen Mu.

A figure at the level of a Peak Master or Elder, even a mere passing acquaintance, could prove highly useful. But now, he had absolutely no connections with Chen Mu, and finding such opportunities had become vastly more challenging.

...

Chen Mu continued along the familiar mountain path, which was just like before, until a giant stele with the embossed gilded characters for "Seven Profound Sect" appeared beside the path, an imposing presence unaltered by time, yet today's sentiments differed greatly from those of the past.

When he first entered the Sect, he had just reached the Five Viscera Realm. Looking up at this stele was like staring at a distant universe, unreachable and far beyond him.

But now.

Years later, he had broken through the Mysterious Pass, advanced to Marrow Cleansing, and become a Grandmaster!

Though his Martial Body was only initially formed and he still had a long way to go, compared to the highest Blood Exchange Realm, he was merely one Realm away. The inscription no longer seemed so impossibly lofty, but he could vaguely discern some of its mysteries and artistic conceptions, as if glimpsing the solitary figure who had once inscribed it.

Including the mountain path he tread, the compelling force of Earth's Veins beneath the mountains no longer evoked the same boundless, awesome sensation he had felt years ago.

Though, as he now stood in front of the Seven Profound Sect's Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation, amidst the overwhelming power of the Earth Veins, he felt he was not yet its match, but at least he possessed the qualifications for deeper insight.

"The third step of the Kun Earth Artistic Conception and this Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation…" Chen Mu whispered to himself. Stay tuned for updates on My Virtual Library Empire

After advancing to Grandmaster, indeed both his vision and level had become different. In the past, when he was in the Six Viscera Realm, he had passed through this mountain path and gate countless times, but it was not like this time, after he became a Grandmaster, the changes he experienced were significant.

It was as if he had transformed into a butterfly from a chrysalis, or a carp that had leaped over the Dragon Gate. Even if he was only a newborn dragon, he was still a dragon, transcending the mundane, and completely different from the past, many of which were forever elusive to those in the Six Viscera Realm.

One of them was the mystery of the 'third step' of Artistic Conception.

Although Chen Mu had heard about it countless times and seen much in various Martial Arts scriptures, this third step was indeed a brand new and mysterious height compared to the second step, or even compared to the domain.

Chen Mu knew very well that no matter how strong a domain was practiced, even if he perfected the Qiankun Domain in the future, it would not be able to permanently change the flow of heaven and earth in an area, even if it was just limited to a square inch of a mountain stele!

But the founder of the Seven Profound Sect had done it.

The overall environment of this mountain stele had twisted and changed the circulation of heaven and earth, like crafting a patch of 'arid' ground in a moist monsoon region, which wouldn't change over time and always maintained its 'dryness'.

"Nearly permanently rewriting the environment of heaven and earth, though only limited to a square inch of this stele, but such an act is indeed breathtaking. It truly requires penetrating and touching the very essence of heaven and earth to be achieved," Chen Mu exclaimed.

Being honest, talking about permanence might be a bit of an overstatement, as he could clearly discern that the environment around this mountain stele was slowly being assimilated by its surroundings, and in no more than a hundred years, it would return to normal, and at that time, the pressure and lingering Artistic Conception here would also completely disappear.

Nevertheless, to be able to maintain power for hundreds of years was still a method that astonished him as a Marrow Cleansing Grandmaster. Indeed, in the Blood Exchange Realm, not everyone could fully master the third step of the Artistic Conception.

As for now,

he admitted he was lagging in terms of Artistic Conception. Several years had passed since he had mastered the Qiankun Artistic Conception, and he hadn't yet perfected the Qiankun Domain, which was truly a bit unfair given his talent.

However, after all, Body Refining cultivation was much more important and occupied much more of his time. Otherwise, if he had given up Body Refining completely to delve into Artistic Conception, he would certainly also be standing at the level of the domain by now.

"The power of Earth's Veins is indeed vast and boundless, but such things are not completely manageable by human efforts, even the Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation can hardly unleash even a fraction of it; otherwise, even the Blood Exchange Realm would be negligible under such power," Chen Mu once again felt the Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation through the mountain stele.

This stele was actually one of the formation points.

When he was once in the Six Viscera Realm, he had only briefly felt the Earth's Power of the Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation a few times and then lost interest because it was not a power he could grasp at that time, and in front of it, he only felt like an ant.

Now, having become a Grandmaster and cultivated the Qiankun Martial Body, the feeling and perception were different. He could feel that the power of the Earth's Veins was still vast and boundless, beyond human capacity, hard to quantify, probably amounting to tens of thousands.

But,

at the same time, Chen Mu also clearly realized that such tremendous cosmic power could not be completely controlled by humans. Even the hundreds-year-old Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation couldn't do it, and managing to mobilize one-tenth or one-twentieth of its power would already be unbelievable.

Now speaking, this overwhelming power of the Earth's Veins, even if one-tenth or one-twentieth was still far above the Blood Exchange Realm, but the issue is that such mobilization is inevitably extremely rough and slow, hard to control, and could not be very refined. Even if they were ten times stronger than Blood Exchange Realm cultivators, they could still employ the tactic of leveraging small force against big force. As long as they didn't directly resist, they could always wrestle and entangle without being easily suppressed.

On the other hand, below Blood Exchange, such as the Marrow Cleansing Realm, because the gap was still a bit too large, and because they had not undergone Blood Exchange, reaching the real power that comes from their own, it would be difficult to resist against such tremendous Earth's Pulse.

Of course,

for him now, if he were located not inside the peak gate but dozens of miles outside the gate, he was also confident that he could escape the suppression of the Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation, after all, this non-human force, the further away one was, the harder it was to control.

This actually meant that now, Chen Mu actually already had the qualification to closely view mountain gates of great sects like the Seven Profound Sect. As long as he didn't rashly get too close and maintained a certain distance, the great sect's grand formation wouldn't pose much of a threat to him.

Doing so, however, still carried some risk, after all, for something like the Qiankun Lock Dragon Formation, the Earth's Pulse power it controlled was incredibly overwhelming. If it got locked, a slight misstep in movement could also lead to complete destruction, with only those at the Blood Exchange Realm able to truly handle it with ease.

"When the master encountered the ambush back then, it must have been a high-level expert of the Blood Exchange Realm disrupting the Earth's Pulse from dozens of miles away, directly clashing hard with the dormant power of Earth's Pulse, causing all formation points to endure the reverberant impacts..." Chen Mu took a glance at the mountain gate, murmuring to himself.

This kind of thing, with his current capabilities, he indeed couldn't easily accomplish. Although he could peek at the mountain gate from dozens of miles away, he couldn't disturb the Earth's Pulse from such a distance; that capability was nearly beyond the scope of martial arts, nearly akin to divine methods.

When he first learned of this incident, he was also shocked by the might of the Blood Exchange Realm, hardly understanding how it was done. Today, however, he roughly could comprehend a bit; it must have been controlling the third step of the Artistic Conception at the level of Blood Exchange that achieved attacking the Earth's Pulse from such a great distance.