Cultivate!
Cultivate!
Cultivate!
Important things must be said three times.
In the mountains, the days pass without notice; in cultivation, years flow like water.
While Lu Ye was focused on cultivation, the Second Heaven had erupted into a storm of activity.
A green-robed sword cultivator emerged, specializing in stealing sacred weapons from other sword sects.
A red-robed woman appeared, challenging all corners of the realm. With fists encircled by glowing imprints, she beat down every so-called prodigy until they were miserable and wailing.
Then came a yellow-robed woman—
Her specialty? Teaching an unmatched divine technique.
Yes...
That divine technique was none other than the infamous Heavenly Silkworm Ninefold Transformation (天蚕九变).
If you had a Dao-Treasure, you could learn up to Sevenfold.
If you had a Supreme-Treasure, you’d get Fivefold.
If you only had a Spirit-Treasure, you could still get Threefold.
But—you had to swear an unbreakable life-and-death oath to never pass the technique on to anyone else.
Who was this person?
It was obvious.
Shangguan Huanling.
When Yue Hongling and Bai Qiulan heard about it, they were stunned.
Wait... what the hell kind of situation was this???
Normally, explosive-type secret arts were kept to oneself—the fewer people who knew, the better. Ideally, only you knew.
That way, when you suddenly ramped up your power mid-fight, your opponent would be completely stunned.
“What the hell? She's got cheats!”
But now?
Shangguan Huanling had gone and handed this explosive-type secret technique out to the whole damn world.
Once it went public, the entire cultivation world immediately spiraled into a state of internal arms-racing.
Two people fight. They're about equal. Then whoosh—one of them jumps up several minor realms mid-combat. What could the other do?
They didn’t know the technique.
So they lost.
Two others fight. One of them suddenly surges in strength mid-duel—what then?
Same result.
They lost.
And in cultivation, losing meant dying.
Shangguan Huanling didn’t care who showed up—as long as they brought her treasures, whether they were good or evil, she taught them all.
The richer you were, the more stages she’d teach you.
Under this operation, Heavenly Silkworm Transformations Three, Five, and Sevenfold rapidly swept through the Second Heaven.
You don’t want to learn it?
Well then—you’d better be prepared to get stomped, because everyone else is learning it.
When everyone else can jump power levels mid-fight, and you can’t?
You're finished.
Thus, a mad rush to learn the Heavenly Silkworm Transformations began.
Countless people hunted down Shangguan Huanling, begging her to teach it. She had everyone swear an oath first.
Even the oath templates were identical.
The only thing that changed was the name.
Naturally, this scheme didn’t come from Shangguan Huanling herself—it was taught to her by Chu Ling.
Chu Ling, having been relentlessly pillaging other people’s sword techniques, had recently been badly wounded and used a message stone to contact Shangguan Huanling.
Only then did Chu Ling realize that even though Shangguan Huanling was a bit... simple—when no one was manipulating her, she was actually the only person Chu Ling truly trusted.
Shangguan Huanling had been utterly bored.
She had decided to walk the same path Lu Ye had walked.
But then... Lu Ye stopped walking that path.
Shangguan Huanling was instantly dumbfounded. Left with no other choice, she began cultivating on her own.
And... how should one describe her cultivation speed?
It's hard to put into words.
Shangguan Huanling was devastated. At the rate she was going, by the time she barely reached Heavenly God Realm and passed her tribulation to ascend to the Third Heaven...
Lu Ye would probably have returned to the Heavenly Sovereign Realm already.
But she had no idea what else to do.
She was flat broke, had no means of making money, and had no treasures to devour.
Then—Chu Ling’s distress call came.
Good sisters always help each other!
Shangguan Huanling used Demonic Blood Escape Art, which howled like a beast when activated. All of her hard-earned cultivation was consumed in one shot just to save Chu Ling.
She did manage to save Chu Ling.
And then—Shangguan Huanling cried on the spot.
All that cultivation? Wasted.
So what had she been cultivating for all this time?
Chu Ling was genuinely moved by her act of life-saving loyalty. She handed over all the treasures she’d stolen to Shangguan Huanling.
Shangguan Huanling immediately lit up with joy—
Then fell into deep worry again.
“Chu-jiejie, I can’t take this,” Shangguan Huanling sighed.
“Why not? Your [Origin-Swallowing Heaven Scripture] is literally made for devouring treasures. If you don’t devour spirit-treasures and just sit around meditating, when the hell will you ever break through?” Chu Ling argued.
Shangguan Huanling just shook her head, not saying a word.
But Chu Ling understood.
She could give her spirit-treasures this time.
But what about next time?
She wasn’t like their Gongzi. She couldn’t even «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» support herself anymore—how could she support someone like Shangguan Huanling?
Everyone in the cultivation world was already pushing themselves to their absolute limits just to survive. Who had the strength left to drag another person along?
At that thought, Chu Ling’s chest ached like it had been stabbed full of tiny needles.
She couldn’t even drag one person.
In their past life, Gongzi had dragged eight women with him.
All the way to Emperor-level cultivation.
How hard must that have been?
Right now, Yue Hongling was dragging Bai Qiulan along. Although Yue Hongling could purify Bai Qiulan’s Taiyin Poison to rapidly increase her strength...
The way Yue Hongling was recklessly throwing herself into battle to collect resources—
It was clearly causing cracks in her Dao of Fearlessness.
For her, this was definitely a calamity.
“If you want to cultivate that technique, you must devour treasures. Otherwise, you might as well change to another one. But with your qualifications... uh, just think about how you can earn money to buy spirit-treasures, alright?”
Shangguan Huanling heard Chu Ling’s words and hesitantly pointed at herself.
“Me? Earn money?”
Chu Ling: “...”
“What do you even know how to do?”
Shangguan Huanling... what did she know?
She knew how to bully Lu Ye, using her own “unique and refined methods” to really bully him—but that kind of thing obviously couldn’t be used on anyone else!
“I only know how to use [Origin-Swallowing Heaven Scripture], [Heavenly Silkworm Ninefold Transformation], and [Demonic Blood Escape Art].”
Chu Ling sighed.
Yeah. That really wasn’t much.
Gongzi was absurdly powerful. He had somehow dragged even this absolute flower vase of a woman all the way up to the Emperor Realm, using his own hands.
Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in Chu Ling’s head.
“You could teach people the Heavenly Silkworm Ninefold Transformation!”
“[Origin-Swallowing Heaven Scripture] is absolutely unteachable. [Demonic Blood Escape Art] is even worse—if you pass that on, people will definitely target you, and you won’t even be able to run.”
“So this is your only option—teach others the Silkworm Transformations.”
The more Chu Ling spoke, the brighter her eyes became.
Shangguan Huanling looked at the excited Chu Ling and blinked in confusion. “But... why can’t I teach people [Origin-Swallowing Heaven Scripture]?”
Chu Ling gave her a flat look.
“You don’t need to know why. Just know that you absolutely must not.”
What was she supposed to say?
That the damn thing only refines true essence but doesn't improve your Dao?
That 99.999% of people who trained it would have their Daos dissolve entirely?
Thus, the Heavenly Silkworm Ninefold Transformation entered the Second Heaven...
And the entire world got sucked into an inescapable arms race.
Before, no one knew any explosive secret techniques. After Shangguan Huanling pulled this stunt, now everyone was required to.
Just like that, every cultivator’s monthly budget suddenly had a new expense—and they were all miserable.
