One more catty, one more attribute point

Su Heng had heard from many people that before the establishment of the Great Unified Dynasty, humans on this land had gone through a fairly dark time. Humans were kept like livestock by powerful demons and barely survived under the protection of divine beasts, gradually passing down civilization.

But why would these divine beasts, born with incredible abilities, protect humans?

And how did martial arts develop during those dark years?

If an anomaly was detected,

then there must be some secrets unknown to others within this matter.

However, at the moment, Su Heng was merely curious, and the true nature of past events had little impact on the current situation. What was urgent was to find ways to enhance his strength as soon as possible, to cover any deficiencies. This would be crucial in facing the challenges brought by the Mythical Battlefield.

"Ah!" Su Heng took a deep breath as his thoughts gradually calmed down.

He glanced at a collapsed, broken statue in front of him, recalling the records provided by Ke Yulan. This ancient Buddha named Bodoro was a Cultivator from three thousand years ago. That meant during that era, people had already reached the lifelong realm of an Earth Immortal.

Where did their Cultivation Techniques come from?

Unable to figure it out, he simply stopped thinking about it.

"Let's go, to the next location," Su Heng said to Ke Yulan.

"Okay," Ke Yulan nodded and continued to lead the way silently. This time the distance was a bit farther, but still within the boundaries of Jiangbei State. With their speed in the Heavenly Deceit Realm, it didn't take much time.

Jiangbei State was larger in area than Jiang State, yet the population was about the same, with seven counties in total.

The second Buddha statue was located to the southwest of Chi Jin County, on an unremarkable barren mountain where there was a cave, secluded. The environment inside the cave was spacious, over thirty meters high, large enough to fit an entire earthen building.

And many clusters of crystals grew on the surrounding walls.

A dim green light emanated from the crystals, rippling like water waves over the faces of Su Heng and Ke Yulan.

In the depths of the cave,

a huge Buddha statue occupied the entire wall.

This statue depicted a compassionate Bodhisattva, holding a treasure vase in its left hand with three willow branches inside, while the right hand formed the Three Realms Seal. Clothed in precious Buddha robes, the Bodhisattva sat cross-legged on a lotus pedestal. The clusters of crystals emitted a light that cast a misty green Buddha light on the statue, filling the air with a harmonious and peaceful essence.

"This is the Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Radiance Tathagata," Su Heng paused briefly in his gaze upon the statue, a thoughtful look crossing his face, "I remember when Xie Xianyu wanted to kill me, it was the Divine Skills of this Tathagata that caused me a lot of trouble, leaving a deep impression."

"Yes," Ke Yulan bowed her head deeply beside Su Heng, sweat beading on her forehead.

Times had changed, and she feared that Su Heng would bring up past matters to settle accounts using this as an excuse. The disparity was too great; now she and even the entire Demonic Phantom Sect were entirely at the mercy of Su Heng's thoughts, with no room for resistance whatsoever.

Fortunately, Su Heng did not delve deeper into the matter.

His gaze slightly hardened, and then he opened the attribute panel.

At present, Su Heng stood nearly nine meters tall at his normal state, and his weight had reached an astonishing forty-five tons. During his time at the Dharma King Temple, before leaving, Su Heng slaughtered a massive number of Deceit Beasts. After over a month of digestion and absorption, he gained over thirty thousand attribute points.

Those attribute points now lay quietly on Su Heng's panel, ready to be used at any time.

He had been planning this experiment for a long time.

Without any hesitation,

Over ten thousand attribute points were added to the "Heavenly Demon Transformation Technique," elevating this Secret Technique from beginner to completion.

He first felt a slight twitching in the veins throughout his body, then his brain went blank, a mild dizziness encroaching on his consciousness.

Once he quickly recovered, Su Heng opened his eyes again.

He found that all the objects in front of him were enveloped in a misty gray light.

Looking around, he saw a faint pink light emanating from Ke Yulan. When Su Heng looked down, he found himself also shimmering in a layer of flame-like vibrant light, but the color was deep red. Feeling the significance, Su Heng understood that the intensity of the light represented the gap in the Spiritual Field.

As for what spiritual power truly signified,

If it were explained using the scientific terms from his previous life, human spirit merely involved the electrical signals of neural activity and the chemical transmission between neurons. But in the mystical world of the Great Zhou Dynasty where Martial Artists sought the divine, the underlying principles were evidently much more complex.

From Demonic Form to Demon Embryo, and now to developing the Spiritual Domain in Heavenly Deceit,

Flesh, muscles, and viscera. The previous six stages were all for developing the brain area.

The same principle applies: flesh, vigor, and spirit are all closely related and never exist in isolation. Normally, stronger people inherently possess sharper spiritual powers, and the aura they radiate is also stronger.

Su Heng's eyes returned to the Buddha statue in front of him.

As expected,

The Buddha statue was also shimmering with a layer of red light, similar in color to that on Su Heng.

However, because there was no flesh, the spiritual field on the Buddha statue existed isolatedly, preserved by a secret technique, and thus could be absorbed by the Heavenly Demon Transformation Technique.

Su Heng immediately began to try, focusing his attention on the Buddha statue, activating the Heavenly Demon Transformation Technique, and then a strand of cool breath, following the connection of the spirit, merged into his consciousness.

"The most crucial step, no problem," Su Heng breathed a sigh of relief, then thought, "But the absorption rate is still too slow, I estimate it would take about seven to eight days to completely absorb the power from a statue."

Su Heng obviously didn't have so much time to waste on this.

He guessed that the slow absorption was still related to the weakness of his spiritual field. After some contemplation, Su Heng reopened the attribute panel. He allocated all the remaining attribute points to the "Tathagata Hidden Scripture." In just a few breaths' time, this secret technique from the Dharma King Temple was cultivated by Su Heng to perfection.

In the past few thousand years, from the birth to the extinction of the Dharma King Temple, there were very few who could cultivate it to this stage.

Meanwhile, next to Su Heng,

Sect Leader Ke Yulan of the Devil Elephant Sect could clearly feel a profound change in Su Heng's demeanor.

It was as if there was a kind of glow emanating from him.

Especially when those calm, pitch-black eyes looked at her, Ke Yulan felt as if she was immersed in a hot spring, extremely comfortable. She almost couldn't help but kneel on the ground, kiss his toes, and offer everything from her body to her soul, completely and wholeheartedly to him.

In Su Heng's view, the change brought about by cultivating the Tathagata Hidden Scripture to the seventh stage was astonishing.

Previously at the sixth stage, in the realm of "intention,"

Su Heng could read others' memories through eye contact and during battle, he could increase his own cognitive response speed. But now, having reached the seventh stage, the legendary realm of "momentariness," Ke Yulan's consciousness appeared in his eyes like an unguarded book.

He not only could flip through it at will, but even modify memories and distort thoughts, playing with it however he liked without consequence.

It was then that he suddenly realized.

No wonder some Buddhist practices traditionally included converting demons; the roots lay here.

For a powerful being, having one's thoughts twisted to serve one's enemies was the ultimate insult, even immediate death would be much preferable to such a fate.

Of course, the fact that Su Heng could so easily pry into Ke Yulan's thoughts was not only due to the profoundness of the Tathagata Hidden Scripture and his strong spiritual field but also because Ke Yulan harbored fear towards him. After all, Ke Yulan was among the best in Heavenly Deceit. If they were truly in a hostile state, it wouldn't be so easy for Su Heng to manipulate her consciousness.

"Tathagata Hidden Scripture changes consciousness, Seed of Destruction changes life forms, tsk tsk…" Su Heng mused internally.

It was only because his moral bottom line was high and he had little interest in exploiting the weak.

Otherwise,

he would truly be an indescribable evil deity.

Su Heng didn't do anything to Ke Yulan, just restrained and withdrew the naturally spreading spiritual field.

Almost at the same time, Ke Yulan noticed that the glow emanating from Su Heng had disappeared. She suddenly came to her senses and recalled the various thoughts that had flashed through her mind just moments ago, a flush of red spreading from her ears to her pale neck.

She felt both embarrassed and scared.

Since beginning her cultivation, this was the first time she had felt so bewildered.

As for Su Heng, Ke Yulan was nothing more than a tool. As long as the tool was handy, what it thought hardly mattered to him. The disparity was too great, even if Ke Yulan harbored thoughts of betrayal, she could not harm him in any way.

He again activated the Heavenly Demon Transformation Technique, drawing spiritual power from the statue.

This time, the speed was much faster; in less than an hour, the spiritual power in the statue was completely drained by Su Heng.

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A crisp sound echoed.

Accompanied by a slight tremor of the cave, large cracks spread across the statue.

The statue completely disintegrated, its magic lost. A faint sigh echoed in the void, seemingly from the being who left behind the legacy years ago. He was aware that someone had removed an "anchor" he had left in earlier years but said nothing, simply abandoning it.

"For safety's sake, some powerful cultivators leave multiple statues as anchors in the mortal world before their journey to the Realm of Immortality," Ke Yulan quietly added from the side.

"I see," Su Heng nodded.

Creating a statue involves splitting off part of one's spiritual field.

Those who could leave behind multiple statues were undoubtedly rich in heritage and top figures within their realms.

Su Heng exercised the authority of the Seed of Destruction, refining and devouring this part of the spiritual power of the Medicine Master Lapis Lazuli Light Tathagata. His mind stirred and he opened the attribute panel to see that the displayed content had changed. On one hand, there was an increase in the extent of brain development, while on the other, a new state was added—

[Heavenly Demon State (to be unlocked): Current progress 2.3%]