Chapter 254: Liu Wen’s Memories
Tang Yin placed his hand on Liu Wen’s skull, swiftly employing Soul Plunder. He saw Liu Wen’s entire life.
Liu Wen was a tyrant. He considered everything to be beneath him, and that everything only existed for the sole purpose of serving him. He even regarded the Divine Sword Palace as nothing but a mere stepping-stone for his eventual rise to power.
It was not a stretch to deem Liu Wen the most arrogant and conceited person Tang Yin had ever met.
Liu Wen was also quite young. He was a prodigy whose cultivation practically skyrocketed from the Spirit Channelling Realm to the Spirit Ascension Realm in a century. Naturally, all of the credit belonged to the Profound Nine Sword Physique.
By utilizing Soul Plunder on Liu Wen, Tang Yin obtained 10 years of lifespan.
Although it did not sound like much, the average amount of lifespan Tang Yin obtained from a Spirit Ascension Realm cultivator was around a year.
Putting all of this aside, Tang Yin devoured Liu Wen’s soul, Soul Sea and Martial Spirit.
He did not feel any different. Devouring Liu Wen’s soul, Soul Sea and Martial Spirit were the same as devouring any Mid-stage Spirit Ascension Realm cultivator’s soul, Soul Sea and Martial Spirit.
Tang Yin let out a sigh, it seemed that a Cultivation Physique did not provide anything to the soul unless it was a soul-type Cultivation Physique.
Before devouring Liu Wen’s body, Tang Yin took his storage ring. There was a specific item within the storage ring which would aid him in the foreseeable future.
Tang Yin transferred everything to his own storage ring first, then he singled out a metallic token.
The metallic token was blue with a sword carving at its centre. A sharp aura which threatened to slice through the heavens radiated from it.
This metallic blue sword token was personally gifted to Liu Wen by the Palace Master of the Divine Sword Palace. It contained a one-time use strike which was equivalent to the full-powered attack of a Peak-stage Principle Comprehension Realm.
The Palace Master intended to groom Liu Wen into becoming the next generation’s Palace Master of the Divine Sword Palace. He naturally had to offer him some sort of protection item, otherwise, any of their enemies could easily assassinate Liu Wen.
The only flaw was that Liu Wen had to personally crush the protection item in order to awaken the dormant attack within.
Tang Yin had basically prevented Liu Wen from utilizing the protection item by trapping him inside the Sun-Moon Great Illusion Art without any chance to resist.
He did not provide any chance for Liu Wen to even think about utilizing the protection item gifted to him by the Palace Master of the Divine Sword Palace. Not to mention, the arrogant Liu Wen intended to ’deal’ with the Early-stage Spirit Ascension Realm Tang Yin easily without any problems.
Tang Yin placed the metallic blue sword token into his storage ring. It would fundamentally save his life tomorrow.
Tang Yin then looked at Liu Wen’s corpse with expectation. What was it like to Devour a Cultivation Physique? He was about to find out!
Tang Yin swiftly utilized the Heaven Devouring Abyss to Devour Liu Wen’s Profound Nine Sword Physique. He made sure to Devour every single piece of flesh and drop of blood, skipping nothing.
Everything proceeded normally, even as Tang Yin’s Heaven Devouring Abyss Physique was rapidly strengthened, he felt nothing abnormal.
After the complete procedure of devouring Liu Wen’s Profound Nine Sword Physique was completed, Tang Yin felt absolutely nothing. It was essentially the exact same as devouring the corpse of a normal Mid-stage Spirit Ascension Realm cultivator.
Tang Yin inspected every inch of his body, he found nothing special.
However, scepticism appeared in his eyes the next second.
The Heaven Devouring Abyss had changed! It was now darker and even more opaque compared to before. The quantity of red and black lightning crackling within it had increased, and the aura emanating from all of the bolts of lightning was extremely dangerous and destructive.
However, Tang Yin felt goodwill and affection from them. ’I couldn’t feel these emotions and intent from the Heaven Devouring Abyss before. Is it really a living being?’.
Other than these changes, what made Tang Yin believe that the Heaven Devouring Abyss Martial Spirit was a living being was the vague perception he felt from its depths.
At the depths and core of the black vortex crackling with red and black lightning which represented the Heaven Devouring Abyss, Tang Yin could vaguely sense a pair of eyes watching him.
It was as if there was a living being inside the vortex which he could not see or detect. Only his instincts were screaming at him that he was being watched from the direction of the Heaven Devouring Abyss.
"Heaven Devouring Abyss, who are you?" Tang Yin asked, he stared into the depths of the Heaven Devouring Abyss with steely eyes and focus.
Silence.
He received no answer or anything of the sort. The Heaven Devouring Abyss inside his body continued to swirl in a stationary position as it had always been.
Tang Yin let out a sigh. If the Heaven Devouring Abyss was a living being, then it either did not want to respond to him or did not have the ability to do so.
He then started to speculate as to why the Heaven Devouring Abyss had undergone these changes.
’Is there perhaps a special type of energy or attribute inside Cultivation Physiques? Perhaps this special energy or attribute is what allows Cultivation Physiques to be what they are, in a sense, its essence.’ Tang Yin contemplated.
’If I Devour more Cultivation Physiques, the Heaven Devouring Abyss should be able to evolve further, right?’ Tang Yin sighed once again. If only the Heaven Devouring Abyss could communicate, things would be much simpler.
Tang Yin had gotten everything a normal Mid-stage Spirit Ascension Realm corpse had to offer. Everything special about the Profound Nine Sword Physique had been taken by the Heaven Devouring Abyss.
Tang Yin did not feel bad about this, the Heaven Devouring Abyss had essentially provided him with whatever strength and power he possessed today.
If he had a choice, he would offer up everything from the Profound Nine Sword Physique to the Heaven Devouring Abyss anyway.
Tang Yin slowly went through Liu Wen’s memory. It was quite rich, it contained all sorts of sword techniques, high tier Martial Skills and multiple efficient Training Manuals.
His memories also contained training and teachings of powerful Divine Sword Palace Elders and even the Palace Master himself. Unfortunately, most of it was about swords and the lot.
Fortunately, there were a few lessons regarding Principle Step cultivators and Principles, this was what interested Tang Yin. Although there was an enormous amount of teachings regarding Principles inside Tian Huang’s jade token, there were no examples.
Inside Liu Wen’s memories, there were numerous demonstrations and examples from the Palace Master himself.
In one of the memories, Tang Yin saw the Palace Master of the Divine Sword Palace slice apart a mountain with just the intention inside his mind.
He had just stood there and thought about the mountain being sliced apart, the Sword Principles heard his intentions and carried out his thoughts. The Palace Master did not move at all.
In another one of Liu Wen’s memories, the Palace Master of the Divine Sword Palace had sliced a Peak-tier Rank 6 Demonic Beast into millions of pieces with just a swing of his sword.
Just these examples and demonstrations allowed Tang Yin to comprehend the difference between a cultivator who could wield Principles and a cultivator who could not. It was akin to Heaven and Earth.
The Principles of the world were the laws of the world. It was essentially the laws which governed numerous aspects of the world.
A cultivator comprehended these laws which cultivators called Principles in the Principle Comprehension Realm. Once a cultivator grasped how to use these Principles, they could advance to the Principle Manipulation Realm.
Once a cultivator mastered their specific Principle completely, they would be able to create their own Domain. A cultivator’s ’law’ would govern everything inside the so-called Domain to work according to the cultivator’s will.
There was no restriction to how many Principles a cultivator wanted to comprehend and manipulate. However, if one wanted to comprehend all of them, it would take far too much time. The power of a person was limited, it would take far too much time to grasp everything.
There were also numerous types of Principles. They were split into 4 categories: Elemental, Special, Ethereal and Unique.
The Elemental Principles were the easiest to understand and comprehend. The Elemental Principles consisted of Principles such as Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, Wood, Ice, Lightning etc.
Most cultivators usually focused on comprehending these Principles as it was the easiest way to advance inside the Principle Step.
The Special type of Principles were Principles that were not related to elementals or anything else. But they existed.
Special Principles were not worldly Principles which represented a force of nature like Elemental Principles. Instead, they represented the force of the world and humans. Principles such as Space, Time, Gravity, Slaughter, Restriction, etc.
An example of a Special Principle would be the Sword Principle which the Palace Master of the Divine Sword Palace had comprehended and manipulated to his will.
Special Principles, in most cases, were more powerful than Elemental Principles.
Ethereal Principles were much more complex and abstract than Elemental and Special Principles. They could even be considered concepts.
Ethereal Principles were fundamentally the invisible internal mechanisms of the world and nature. Some examples of Ethereal Principles are Divinity, Soul, Life, Death, Karma, Reincarnation, etc.
They were much harder to grasp and comprehend. It required geniuses who understood how the world functioned and even further comprehension of the universe. It was an extremely complicated path to tread.
Finally, Unique Principles were the cream of the crop. They were even more difficult to comprehend and create. One had to literally create a new law of the world.
However, the benefits were also plentiful. A cultivator with a Unique Principle faced no difficulty or obstacles in reaching the Law Creation Realm.
Even prodigies and heavenly geniuses would find it challenging to create a Principle unique only to themselves. There had only been a few monstrous individuals in the history of the True Martial World who had created their own Unique Principle before reaching the Law Creation Realm.
